now as for the fiftieth a anniversary of the
I have a dream speech in the civil rights more march on Washington
this week republicans that I have have been out in full force
talking about now Martin Luther King
hey you know he he believed in the right wing ideas a personal responsibility he
would've been disgusted by the civil rights leaders now
my favorite is when they say like of man if he knew jesse jackson
you would like a bit of she is I think he did know jesse jackson
jesse jackson was whatevers better friends at least within the movement
so loops okay now
how will you get to the issue personal responsibility though
got under said cut itself so good and Timmy
like how do you are you with I don't want to argue that I agree with that
like should be a personal responsibility
everybody of course of course you should write
now the ball is uses all the time but they don't quite mean
what you think they mean now for some you call for Mitt Romney who've course
famously said this during the campaign won a per diem about this is part of a
47 percent quote
and people who live off the government and he said to his rich total friends
quote other convince them referring to a 47 percent he says are
is living off the government they should take responsible responsibility
and care for their lives. in other words there bombs they're living of us
if only they would take personal responsibility thing would be fine
now to a Joe Walsh a former congressman from Illinois Tea Party I was one the
most radical guys in congress
and lost his reelection effort and he now does
a radio show so he decided that he was gonna use the fiftieth anniversary to
hit this personal responsibility theme again
and do it in his usual noxious weighty me ways he
made along with on his website above all the different ways that
of new dream that he has for african-american people
all great I you black folks in this country couldn't wait to hear what Joe
Walsh thinks
they should do and now here's the last three the ad on this list
said I have a dream that today's black leadership
would quit blaming racism and the system for what ails black america
that is very standard bill rise been saying for a long time
just get over it okay if somebody
shoot you because you have to be getting out your car in your own driveway
because if your AC get all over it somebody throws a bleach Bali whatever
it might be hundreds of thousand different
examples who cares just get over it stop
basically saying it's the victim's fault for not getting over their tax
against that right and by the way
my favorite example that is the resume one
where same exact resume work forward
but and after America's founding members a white sounding name
%uh though why sounding name gets called back Santa
50 percent higher rate well he can't get a job because
they think your name sounds black it's hard to get over it cuz you didn't get
the job
I mean I wanted you personal responsibility I want to take action
I got a good resume you got a call back when it's a white guys name
on that same resume now I don't have that chance that opportunity
how can I exercise a personal responsibility but that's not what they
want you to do they want you to ignore the problem now
awash continues I have a dream the black america will take responsibility
for approving their own lives K
so here we go you know the person responsibility member get that no one
second finally of course he's got to get over the top and he says
I have a dream that one day black america will cease their dependency on
the government plantation
which is enslaved them to the lives of poverty instead
depend on themselves their families
their churches and their communities now the plantation talk supports obnoxious
but the latter half of that is what a lot aka service cling to
I'm at if they just depend on themselves well I had professor
Jody armour and here's a pressured you at USC law school
and I just talk to me yesterday really interesting interview again about this
fiftieth anniversary love a march on Washington
and he did three-point about this whole mythology a personal responsibility
that I wanted to share with you guys let's watch personal responsibility
is the Shibboleth of the right you know it is their main cultural that they look
to bludgeon people with alright
you don't go down that road you recognize that social factors
your proof mister president you impeach the logical
of the Father needing to be in the home cuz you're the president you not
affected states without a father in the home
what you have material support you have people cared about you with resources
who could help you along and you took advantage so recognizable external
factors those macro-level factors
that's where the real issue we have not be the internal deficiency factors
so this to really interesting points there for see-sawed about the president
because he's read the president does it as well President Obama
as you know press arms in explaining the second will often
goin' and give speeches worry says look black folks you take personal
responsibility
and in the whole thing about family values et cetera and you have the father
in the home but
if you wanted to you could actually take all other that right-wing paradigm and
say why I didn't have a father in the home
but I did have material support I my grandparents help
I want to you know the best school in honolulu and I would always go to school
I look for server with harbor to but he he did not come from a
privileged upbringing at all his father was set up as explain the interview
got 22 to 55 years for marijuana
it five years later who became ill lawyer
inside of prison approve that he was innocent okay
out but certainly professor Robert income from privileged background
but he saying look what helped me was I got an opportunity
through a government program that found kids like me
give me a chance so to say that the government has a plantation
is an excuse for not doing anything now you can argue to some government
programs
are not as efficient don't help as much in fact the money me counterproductive
as a perfectly legitimate argument but to say that the government should do
anything that we collectively together shouldn't do anything
and it when we see poor people we should just their bootstraps at a book to your
cell
take personal responsibility that defies logic
it defies the reality would is in america it doesn't mean
that once you provide that bridge if opportunity
did that people don't need to take personal responsibility of course they
do
but if they don't have the bridge if they go to take personal responsibility
how do they do it overlook I know this perfect
because my own personal experience my dad
was all former in southeastern Turkey he took that tunnel personal responsibility
anyone up living the American dream but he couldn't have done it
if he didn't get a free education and back then in Turkey if you scored a top
50 percent on the national test
when you go to college you would get a free education he had no money
if he hadn't gotten that bridge opportunity
right now he would have been all former and I would've been all former near the
Syrian border
its one thing to say just personal responsibility but that's obvious
it's another thing to use it as an excuse to not do anything cuz the
reality is your greedy
you don't wanna help anybody else and all you want to do is blame the victims
now again Press Press armor points out the president
is also guilty of this in his own speeches as well
he explains that you and the president himself whenever he talked the more how
for anybody else even a day
he wagged his finger self righteously and allow to lower-class blacks in Feb
fathers need to be in the home work he didn't have a father in the home and it
didn't hurt him
he's the president of the united states what have to be in the home
if economic support like you would get from his grandparents going to the best
school in honolulu
and then the Columbia and into Harvard then you don't happen if they really
have a father in the home you just have to help
the support and so he called he what but he makes the noises
that the far-right want to hear you are you thinking just going to stop to the
box crew
but I think he actually believes that so in other good point they look this is
not just a matter of
rove race this is true love african-americans who have internalize
this some of them have
a professor methinks is middle-class and upper-class why's that often turn their
backs
and say well hey listen man I made it out well it brings your personal
response or to make it out on your own
know it's all of our responsibility to help one another as decent human beings
it doesn't mean that every government program is right and it doesn't mean
little you're supposed to just you know in the right-wing mythologies give your
money to people
it means you build a bridge so they've got a fighting chance