I don’t like those people
They shouldn’t be allowed in OUR neighborhood.
Someone should make a law.
They are a bad influence on our children
They’re not like us

Democrats used Jim Crow laws and intimidation to impose segregation effectively 100 years ago. Apparently nothing has changed.

For those two young to know anyone who was really impacted by Jim Crow, I am going to share with you a dirty little secret, one that the progressive revisionist history doesn’t tell you. Colored didn’t mean black. Jews, East Europeans, Italians, Spanish, Greek, latin American any just about anyone other than the few elite were disqualified by the “white only” sign.

Jim Crow started out as a way to keep slavery benefits without slavery but it quickly evolved to deal with the immigrant migrations of the early 20th century. Jim Crow wasn’t really about color, it was about using government to benefit the elite and select cronies.

My family, living in a poor neighborhood in the tide water region of Virginia with immigrant Jews, Germans and poles where victims of the 1918 race riots. My mother was chased from her home and witnessed people being shot. She was seven. No one would mistake me for colored. Riots then were not about color but about maintaining control over jobs. Working people were afraid of the competition posed by immigrants. In other places Unions formed and maintained strict control over who got opportunity and who didn’t. But in the south Jim Crow served that purpose.

Later in life, my family generally not racists (with a few exceptions) complied with segregation. One could not get caught “sympathizing” with the plight of the oppressed. The poor person behind the counter who refused to serve those black folks wasn’t a racist, they were just a poor person trying to keep a job.
- You boss could get in a lot of trouble for serving the wrong folks. If the boss was a business owner he could be banned from his church, find his business license revoked. see his kids suddenly do poorly in school. Or be expelled for attitude problems. So the boss didn’t impose those racist regulations because he was a racist. But because if he didn’t the people in power would take away everything he worked for, and ruin his family. So he pushed these rules down, whether he embraced them or not, because failure to “tow the line” made you a sympathizer. And the people in power didn’t tolerate “sympahthizers”.

Prejudice was not outlawed. Government sponsored prejudice is what the law changed. Institutional prejudice is what the law changed. You cannot refuse to serve someone because of his or her beliefs. But you do not have to believe they are right.

Since Obama has taken over the White House, I have heard statements that have been illegal since 1973. Obama’s attacks on the bankers were straight out of Jim Crow intimidation tactics. Totalitarianism is still very difficult to achieve in this country. But Jim Crow style segregation, intimidation and the carrot and stick reward that makes “demographic groups” comply at the expense of others is well within the power of progressives to impose.

Crony capitalism, subjective law enforcement, government criticism and the force of bureaucratic agencies are all tools used by Jim Crow democrats. Jim Kenney of the Philadelphia City councel is a perfect example. He plans to introduce legislation condemning because he doesn’t like what those people believe, speaking of Dan Cathy.

Now you know anyone that wants to keep their job will not issue them a business license. Any inspector that wants to keep their job will make staying in business difficult for them.

They aren’t welcome in this neighborhood.

I remember when government imposed segregation based on prejudice was against the law. How soon we forget.