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Prager 5 Minute Videos

What I Can Teach You About Racism

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Renowned political science professor Carol Swain started out life with every possible disadvantage. She ended up teaching at two of the most prestigious universities in the country. How did she do it? She shares her story and her wisdom in this inspiring video.

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Script:

Let me tell you how my story ends:

I become a tenured, award-winning professor of political science at an Ivy League university and then at one of the leading universities in the South.

Now let me tell you how my story begins:

I grow up in rural Virginia literally dirt poor. I drop out of school in the eighth grade and have three children by the time I’m 20.

I consider myself to be a reasonably modest person, but even I have to admit that’s quite a journey.

How did I do it?

I worked hard. Not crazy, 24/7 hard. Just hard.

I made good decisions. Not brilliant, three-dimensional chess decisions. Just good ones.

I met people along the way who helped me and sincerely wanted to see me succeed, not because they had something to gain, but because they were decent people. Almost all of these individuals, by the way, were white.

But mostly, I think I was blessed in one crucial way.

I was born in America, a true land of opportunity for anyone of any color or background. In this country, where you start your life does not determine where you end up.

That works in both directions, by the way. You can start out with every advantage and waste them all. Or start out with nothing and become a success.

It all depends on you. Your attitude is far more important than your race, gender, or social class in determining what you will accomplish in life.

When I hear young blacks, or anyone for that matter, talk about systemic racism, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.  I want to laugh because it’s such nonsense. I want to cry because I know it’s pushing untold numbers of young blacks into a dead end of self-pity and despair.  Instead of seizing the amazing opportunities America offers them, they seize an excuse to explain why they’re not succeeding.

I was born into a world where systemic racism was real — no fooling, outright bigotry, back-of-the-bus real. But here’s what you need to know: yes, that racism shaped the black experience, but even then it did not define it.

Change was in the air.

Call it systemic reform.

The modern civil rights movement was in its infancy, and the leaders who fought for equal rights for blacks were men and women of all races.

They believed in America and were determined to see it live up to its highest ideals — ideals manifest in the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution.

Did I know growing up that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves? I don’t think I ever thought about it. If I did, I’d like to think that I would have had enough common sense to know that we can’t judge men who lived 250 years ago by the moral standards of our own day.

But I know that Jefferson wrote the words in the Declaration of Independence that made slavery ultimately impossible; that all men are created equal. And, I know that Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Adams, and the rest of the Founders risked everything to make my world, my America, possible.

How could I not be grateful for that and for the sacrifices so many others have made to preserve it?

The truth is, I cannot remember a time when I did not love America and feel pride in the belief that I live in the greatest country in the world.

I knew if I diligently pursued my ambitions, I could leave the poverty of my early years, with all its abuse and depression, behind me.

I was fortunate in another way. I was spared the life-sapping, negative messages about America that are crippling a generation of young people.

These ideas are poison:

White privilege.

Whiteness as a form of property.

Unconscious racism.

Reparations.

Microaggressions. 

Police have it out for blacks. 

That the United States was created to protect and promote slavery. 

These are the ideas young people are told they must accept. 

For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/what-i-can-teach-you-about-racism

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Tags attitudeBlack Americansblack communityblack experiencecarol swaincivil rights movementcommon senseeconomic mobilityEqual RightsFounding fathershard workinstitutional racismland of opportunitylife lessonsmicroaggressionsminoritiesoppressionpatriotismpersonal responsibilityprager universitypragerupresentismrace in americaSuccesssystemic racismsystemic reformunconscious racismvictim mentalityvictor mentalitywhite privilege
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45 Comments

  1. Dear SJW’s: I know you’re obsessed with elevating more voices of “women of color”. Tell me; would you dare elevate this woman’s voice and her message? Lord bless you Mrs. Swain. ❤️

  5. Thank you so much Prof Swain for sharing your very real story. You are a role model to all young people in America and I hope you'll keep educating them. They need you more now than ever.

  8. Of course there's racism or there wouldn't be a question about race when you fill out any application. Businesses employ a lot of racist and they want to be prejudiced on who they hire that is their race against your race. That's what the question is for their own indulgence in evil capitalist greed. They don't even know they're brainwashed from reason, hope, goodness and abundance in society. America actually produced a psychotic narcissistic manhood that's dangerous to everybody. Bullying, destruction, lies, power, and death. Evil personified but unknown by average people because they've been brainwashed by evil misinformation from Trump Republicans, and Fox News of lies. Everybody who believed Trump or Fox News is going to have to get psychotherapy so they can live happily in reality, truth and goodness.

  13. Not one of the people entertained by this paid prager bs will read the actual context of her book. Liber meaning free al.. find it yourself for context. literally implies in the context of her book terms of race so if Jefferson and the “ all men” bs stated here leaves out that term omitted 2/3 humans .. and. As indicated women. “Young black folks”. Any “young” black person knows our sentiments come from our elders. They also understand our history and to people who identify as white notice one thing this bs half truth “university “ does is exactly the aforementioned.. I assure you to anyone identifying as white they will never give an in depth and accurate presentation about bacons rebellion.. nor will they tell you the ideology of “white” has nothing to do with skin color. In fact the dark skin face they present here can identify as white. Education is so 2nd rate in America people don’t even understand the census an ms racial class . If the supremacy system was some myth as implied why did it take prager for you to take this bs into account when her book was not of your interest till now at best. She writes about white nationalism (and anyone with a small grip on history knows hitler was a nationalist) of which the phrase implies a system of whiteness. The Republican Party is the white nationalist party .. a majority party that inflicts its white nationalist ideology on “nonwhites” which on itself again implies a system designed to cater to.. a nation ruled by white people. If white supremacy didn’t exist the term white wouldn’t either. She is fooling white people not me. Now how does it make you feel to have a black woman tell you what whiteness is.. lol guess she is what white will become..!lol I see what she is doing prager .. better pay attention.. you aren’t reaching the right people. You are convincing white people it’s ok if your skin tone doesn’t exist in the near future.. you will all look a lighter shade or a one drop black person https://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_White_Nationalism_in_America.html?id=HB1wyFPRGm4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

  19. Poverty in the US is a ruthless cycle. Poverty leads to more poverty. I’d love for these stories to be widespread throughout the country, but this experience just isn’t common, no matter how hard you work.

  21. When you hear people talk about systemic racism you don’t know rather to laugh or cry .Maybe because it is real thing. This idea that racism in not a thing anymore is not true . This woman has no idea what happened back in the 60s . Because if she did she would not be telling all these people lies .

  28. Does everyone meet ppl along the way that sincerely want to help them succeed? Its always annoy how dumb ppl who have blessed circumstances tend to think that their good fortune is the norm….rather than a rarity. Candace owens is another person who believes this foolishness and doesnt seem to understand that the victim mentality exist because for alot of ppl, it is the truth of their life story. The victimhood mentality is toxic,but it doesnt take away from reality of racism.

  35. I'd like to think that Oprah, Tyler Perry, Michael Jordan, Shaq, Dr. Dre, Sean Combs, Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Lil John, Dave Chappelle, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Kanye West, Magic Johnson, Tiger Woods, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J, Robert F. Smith, and so many more black Americans would agree with this video. But if they want to make black people feel that they can't do anything, have no chances or opportunities. I guess either they must've gotten lucky, or the powers that be hand-picked a few handful of black people to give money to so they could be rich and lead that false narrative, OR… all of these black people have something in common: they worked hard, they may or may not have come from a background that was less fortunate, but ALL worked their way up and then I'm not sure what they're all doing considering just these few names alone, not to mention all the black basketball millionaires, politicians, or other celebrities, but every name I listed combined is worth well over $5 billion. Systematic racism at its finest. Keep playing into that far Left Democratic and Liberal narrative.

  40. This is powerful, but I know that anyone even slightly further to the left than me will flat out refuse to watch it simply because it was released by Prager U. And I say this not just because the far left insists on living in an echo chamber, but because I almost never watch Prager U videos because I disagree with most of what's posted.