The name “entitlements” always troubles me. I reject the notion that someone is “entitled” to the fruits of another’s labor.

When those of us on the right argue that welfare, food stamps, unemployment, and/or disability should be reduced in any way, let alone eradicated, we’re often branded as racists. The argument being that reducing these programs would unfairly hurt minorities because statistics show that minorities disproportionately make up those who utilize these programs.

So first, let’s talk about what it means to be a racist. It generally means that you hold someone in a different regard because of their skin color or ethnicity, and it’s generally used in the context of disrespect, but not always. On occasion, it is intended as a positive force.

For instance, the NAACP, a group with a noble mission, is still a racist organization. But it’s mission is to help “colored” (the C in NAACP) people, and it limits its assistance to only that group, discriminating against all others. It makes no effort to harm people outside their race, which distinguishes it from negatively racist hate-based groups such as the KKK or the Black Panthers.

That being said, I generally think racism on all fronts should not exist in a properly moral society. I would prefer these organizations favor groups like the financially underprivileged and leave race out of it. In 1909, when the NAACP launched their efforts, race issues were very different from today. Legislative racism was prevalent and allowed, and private racism wasn’t relegated to the very ignorant few as it is in the modern era.

But back to government programs. While I understand the numbers indicate that this would affect minorities at a greater level, I find the notion insulting that most on the right are attacking government handouts from a racist point of view. We are attacking these programs from a work-ethics and/or morality point of view.

We generally believe that people can and should earn their own way, regardless of their ethnicity, and should not expect society to finance their life. I’ve not seen anyone outside groups like the KKK argue to end entitlements for people of color only, so the argument it is racist is not buoyed by any real evidence.

If someone needs help, they should ask for it from their family or community, but they have no right to expect government to extort other American wage-earners at the point of an IRS agent’s gun. “We the people” should have the right to choose who gets our hard-earned money and how much of it.

People who use these programs are mostly capable of taking care of themselves—very few are severely disabled to a point where they can do nothing to earn a wage. While some are purely lazy, many who used to work but suffered an injury preventing them from doing their chosen profession just need to reeducate or retrain themselves in a new field. But why would they as long as government will give them free money? While I admit that it can be scary or difficult to make such a change, YOU are your own responsibility; if society didn’t harm you, then society does not owe you.

Many contend there’s no jobs to be had. Yet I’ve never seen a local newspaper want-ad with the header, “Sorry, no jobs this week.” The problem is that many simply refuse to take a job they don’t want or that they feel is beneath them. That’s a choice they should be allowed to make, but I don’t feel I should be expected to bankroll it.

They argue that most of the wages are too low, but the problem is just as easily due to costs of goods and services being too high from taxes needed to pay for these programs and other government waste.

But there’s another issue that I believe is very racist, and it’s not what’s perpetuated by us on the right. The left arguing that minorities need these programs. It essentially insinuates that minorities are inferior, less capable of fending for themselves, or that they’re uncompetitive in the job marketplace.

The only other theory is to argue that minorities are being held back by Caucasians, but this would mean that whites have secret “white-people” meetings where we conspire to halt the advancement of others, which of course is ludicrous and unequivocally racist in its own right.

Sadly, many have been conditioned by some unscrupulous community leaders to believe that the color of their skin hinders their advancement instead of instilling in them that they can succeed with hard work, a good attitude, intellect, and selfless dedication. We have plenty of minority successes in this country as a counter-argument to the idea that race is a road-block to success.

Democrats founded the KKK, and they were also the ones to fight vehemently against abolishing slavery—far too few even know this. Their hateful racism has merely been replaced with compassionate racism, but it’s still racism and it’s still wrong.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. He never argued they should get special treatment because of it. It’s one of the most elegant statements ever given regarding racism. He didn’t want a divided black vs. white nation, he wanted a united one of mutual respect where race didn’t matter.

Skin color is no different from hair color or eye color. These traits are  genetic variances within our species (homo-sapiens), brought on by geographically varied ancestries and natural selection. As such, they should be treated as descriptors or indications of heritage, not predeterminers of one’s intellect or ability.

Racism is slowly being eradicated as advancements in knowledge of biology grow, specifically DNA research, which disprove the idea that minorities are somehow a sub-species, a theory widely held not much more than a century ago.

But also, racism ends as heritages intermingle and produce mixed offspring. Barack Obama and Tiger Woods are but two shining examples of mixed-ethnicity people who’ve went on to achieve greatness, and this group is growing rapidly.

I have little doubt that “pure-breeds” as some might call them are a dying breed, and I think this is not only a good thing, but part of our evolutionary process as natural selection chooses the best traits from all races to effectively build a better man.

As our ability to travel to faraway lands becomes easier, facilitating cultural intermingling, I suspect we will evolve into one big race somewhere in between in the centuries to come—a beautiful concept in my opinion.

So how do we end racism? It will die a slow quiet death with education and evolution all on its own, the evidence clearly indicates as much. Race-baiters with megaphones calling other people racists only foster bigotry by dividing us on the issue of race, accomplishing the opposite of the cause they profess to fight for. We are not the racists—they are.