Ben Stein apparently thinks that if he were a “colored” person 60 years ago, he would want to “kill himself.” But don’t worry, folks! If he were a Black person today, he would be thrilled by the way the “whole system is now set up so I as a Black American can have every chance at a good life.” How’s that for progress!
I was a child growing up in Maryland and spending a lot of time in Washington DC, I would drive by the neighborhoods, with my parents driving the car, where predominantly black people, almost all black people, lived. And they looked so raggedy and sad, and their neighborhoods were so rundown and miserable. I just thought, “Wow, what a horrible way for these poor, honest, decent citizens to live.” If I woke up in the morning, and I were what we we called them then, a colored person, a black version as we call them now, I’d want to kill myself. That was, let’s say 60 years ago. And now ladies and gentlemen, if I woke up and were a black version, I would think I have every opportunity to go to a really good school, I have every opportunity to live in a really neighborhood, every opportunity to get a really good job. The whole system is now set up so I as a Black American can have every chance at a good life. And that is incredible. Unbelievable progress which is never discussed in the media. And it is a tremendous miracle of human beings.
Stein is a sad reminder that there are still plenty of people in this country who think that racism is a thing of the past, or that it’s not really that big of a deal, or that Black people should just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” if they want to succeed. And they’re more than happy to spout off about it in public, because the MAGA party has opened the Overton Window to this kind of willfully ignorant rhetoric.
