Perhaps millions of words have been written about the Left’s attempts to keep black Americans chained to dependency on a welfare state. The Czar need not go into this here. If the reader is unfamiliar with the idea, we can perhaps conclude this is the first blog you have ever read.

Yet for millions of black Americans, the idea that the Left traps them into years of borderline poverty, underserving their underdeveloped neighborhoods, for the purpose of getting votes in exchange for welfare tricks, sounds itself like racist crap. Throw away terms like Right and Left, Convervative and Liberal, GOP and Democrat: the reality is that for a black American, you cannot break the cycle of poverty without a handout from the government due to centuries of slavery, oppression, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and latent racism.

Certainly, community “leaders” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (whom the Czar believes distrust each other deep down) thump their ad hoc podia at every opportunity with a similar message. In America, only social justice in monetary form can begin to compensate for these indignities. Jackson has urged a secondary stimulus package with all sorts of payments to minorities, touting the same notion that as bad as welfare is, it is better than the obvious alternative.

But there was no welfare for these folks. No government handouts, no ACORN, no Operation PUSH. All they had were themselves, their guts, and their brains.Or is it? Many people have advocated that poverty and even violent crime can be dramatically reduced within five years by gradually shutting down the existing welfare system. But that is just crazy talk, no? What would happen to the recipients? No one knows for sure!

Actually, there is historical precedent.

Picture a group of minorities—many recent immigrants—forced to live in inner city ghettoes. Employment opportunities are slim, and there is a combination of overt racism and subtle discrimination to keep them out of the better neighborhoods, force their businesses to fail, and under-educate them because they just are not economically a good investment. Code words, often with government approval, are used to discriminate against them even finding work. When they do find work, they are either underpaid, forced to take unpleasant gigs, or are placed in municipal or public programs.

This is clearly something that Jackson and Sharpton would recognize. A speech, a demonstration, a boycott might even be in order. But there was no welfare for these folks. No government handouts, no ACORN, no Operation PUSH. All they had were themselves, their guts, and their brains.

Then, in a couple generations, things change. They become economically prosperous. They become bankers, mayors, police and fire chiefs, business owners, and more. They become so perfectly integrated into society that today’s kids are stunned to learn that there was even a question about this.

This is the story of the Irish in America. In the late 19th Century and even into the early 20th Century, the Irish occupied a lower rung on the economic ladder than blacks did. In New York City, Chicago, Detroit, or Philadelphia, no business owner in his right mind would put a help wanted sign in his window refusing to hire blacks. But he would readily write the code word NINA onto the sign, or even just spell it out: No Irish need apply. Blacks could more or less walk Northern industrial streets with some sense of safety, knowing that they were just as safe as a white person; if a crime occurred, a police officer would responds and intervene. An Irish American had no such luxury. Not only would he be risking his own life, but the mob openly attacking him would likely be composed of police officers.

Blacks and Whites today can read this post and shake their heads, assuming this is some alternative universe speculation. But it really was this way. And Blacks in particular can read more about anti-Irish brutality and sympathetically conclude that it was as bad as anything their grandparents and great-grandparents saw in the South at the same time.

But the difference is that the Irish did not demand social justice or boycotts or seek affirmative action: they rolled up their sleeves, educated their generations, and survived the indignities. And they completely erased the hatred and inhumane treatment to become a vital part of the American economic engine. They went from the bottom to the top in less than a few generations.

And there are millions of black Americans who have done exactly the same thing in only one generation. They got themselves out of the welfare system and turned their back on people like Jackson and Sharpton. They stopped playing the race card. They realized that true social justice means paying it back, not looking to get whatever one can.

Welfare truly is the worst form of racism.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.