The iconic star of 1990s sitcom perfection, Kelsey Grammer of ‘Frasier’ fame, showed up on a Piers Morgan broadcast with a bone to pick regarding the incessant demands of certain communities who feel owed for past wrongs by modern Americans with absolutely nothing to do with historical plights.
For context, contemporary Democrats largely align on the notion of America paying a lucrative cash settlement to the black community because of the country’s past affiliation with slavery. The logic on their part is that slavery put black Americans behind and despite abolition taking place nearly 200 years ago, they have still not caught up due to its lasting effects of racism.
The timing of Grammer’s appearance coincided with a Jamaican delegation traveling to England to petition King Charles for reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Of course, intentionally ignored in the discourse is the fact that nearly every society viewed slavery as a normal part of life, and as it relates to the slave trade out of Africa, those peoples were already engaged in enslaving one another and actively captured one another to sell to both Europeans and Arab Muslims.
“We all have a barbarous history. I mean, we all point to savage behavior that basically founded every country on the planet. I mean, every race has been abused by the other in different contexts. So that’s it’s just in our nature to assume that we should be apologetic about it because actually we are still a kind of a Christian nation, at least or a Judeo-Christian nation, where feeling guilty about ourselves and about our success is a kind of natural impulse,” he said, launching into his evisceration of the topic.
“We want to be virtuous and kind and decent and be seen that way. And as long as somebody tells us that they were not that, it disturbs us when we want to answer it, but I think that’s where we get into trouble with this idea that you have to apologize for who you are. I don’t have to apologize for my parents. I don’t have to apologize for my grandparents. My grandparents were extraordinary people. They survived the depression. They fought World War II. My grandfather was away from home for 28 months in the South Pacific,” he said of earlier generations.
“This is not a man who has to apologize for who he is. He stood up for this country, and he did even against his will. At one point, he thought we were manipulated into this war. He didn’t. He didn’t care for how we got into the war. He knew that his best friend was shipped to the South Pacific before Pearl Harbor, and was killed in a torpedoing, but that happened deliberately. But he still served. He still served because he understood that this country was the best shot we have. We may fall short sometimes, but we aim high,” he continued.
“And in terms of reparations and those kind of words like we’re just going to throw more money and more money and more money at the fact that yeah there was a dark chapter in our past, but we fought a war over it. That did happen. Do the people who have ancestors who were killed in the Civil War owe reparations? Do the Italians who came after the Civil War owe money for the institution of slavery beforehand? Do the Irish who came over through Ellis Island and such? Do they owe money? I don’t know. I think it’s a, I think it’s just a dodge<’ he went on.
Basically, it’s like, for instance, we just celebrated the I Have a Dream speech, and there were several speakers, and I kept thinking, “Oh, it’s been replaced with ‘I have a scheme’ speech. So, you know, we don’t really have particulars, but we do have all sorts of blame and rage and disappointment in our country. But we’re doing the best we can, and I think actually sometimes we’re doing better than most people thought we could,” he finished.
Featured image: Exchanges Photos, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons