Oh Pat Buchanan, how are you possibly still employed at MSNBC?
During a radio appearance promoting his book, MSNBC analyst Pat Buchanan argued that blacks and whites were more unified during the 1950s than they are today. Buchanan argued that “what we had then, which was a sense of cultural and social one-ness, we were a people, that I think that is what’s being lost.” Buchanan added that while blacks considered themselves Americans first and foremost during the era of segregation, today they’re using “hyphenated terms” like “African-American” to describe themselves.
Buchanan’s remark came yesterday on the radio program of Mark Davis. Davis asked Buchanan to expand on his theory that, in Davis’ words, “black Americans of 1960 were more woven into the fabric of the America of that time than many of today’s black Americans are woven into the America of this time.”
Buchanan replied that during the 1950s, blacks and whites “all had a common religion, we all worshiped the same God, we all went to schools where American literature was taught, the English language was our language, we all rooted for the same teams, we read the same newspapers, we listened to the same music. We were a people then. We were all Americans. Now I’m not saying segregation was good. But what I was saying, that did not prevent us from being one people.”
Because really, any argument that goes “back when they knew their place” and “they think they’re black first and American second” couldn’t possibly be complete and utter bullshit designed to ruin the “social one-ness” that Buchanan purports to advocate, right?
It’s one thing to have an analyst or pundit say something controversial once in a while, but it’s another thing entirely to have this grandiose pile of fecal matter write a book about the end of White America (actually, isn’t this like his third or fourth book on that subject?) and say “You know, there were some definite benefits to racial segregation, find out in my new book!”
Buchanan really seems to think an era where folks who looked like me were terrified of promoting their own culture or history in order to fit in was a win-win for everyone involved. On the other hand, the modern GOP seems to like that particular idea in general, so it’s really not just Buchanan’s problem either. This particular culture battle is a war story as old as society, the lyrics may change but the tune stays the same.