Opinion: Dear Black People, Move to New Hampshire

For as long as I’ve been paying attention, discrimination has been a hot topic in the United States.

This makes sense, when you consider the sheer volume of different races, cultures, ethnicities, religions, and languages all in one place. The legacy of slavery is certainly a major factor as well, as is the institutionalization of discrimination – Apartheid governments in the South, and many racist laws in the North.

Any time you mix lots of different people together, there will be some trouble.

This true of whites and non-whites alike.

Take a look at India. You or I couldn’t tell a Pakistani from a pack of cigarettes, but you can bet a few zillion rupees that people from northern India see a difference. They have been killing each other for decades.

Even worse, the Indian and Pakistani governments have atomic weapons. A big enough row over Kashmir could lead to nuclear holocaust.

Then there are the riots between Hindus and Muslims. Strip them naked; we see two people who look exactly alike and smell of damn good food. They hate each other.

In Northern Ireland they’re all as pasty white as New England snow, but still manage to fight a lot. A British sociologist, Frank Burton, concluded in the 1970s that Protestants and Catholics were able to identify each other on sight. That’s truly amazing.

Discrimination also happens between blacks. Darker-skinned blacks sometimes refer to lighter-skinned blacks as “yellow.” It’s not a compliment.

Humans discriminate by nature. Asking us to not see differences is absurd.

I don’t say this to excuse anyone’s bad behavior, but it can help to explain some things.

When I lived in England, a lot of people would ask me, “Why is there such a race problem in America?”

Part of this, I believe, was genuine concern. They watched TV and read the newspaper. The LA riots had only just taken place a few years before.

Another part, I suspect, was smugness, based on the assumption that (a) America is an awful place, and (b) that England is a racial paradise.

Neither is true, of course.

When news broke that the KKK – yes, the KKK – had been maintaining an office in Birmingham for five years, England’s ever-so-pious were shocked to their very core. It’s easy to say “We don’t have a race problem” when 90-plus percent of the population is of one race.

When the European Union eased travel and work restrictions between member countries, and more and more non-whites (and, worse, non-British) folks began moving to the United Kingdom, there were more and more reports of racial and ethnic tension. I’ll never forget when, a few years ago, a member of my wife’s family – who so prides himself on his “progressive” views – complained about “all the Poles taking jobs from English people.”

Tolerance has its limits, I suppose – even among the supposedly tolerant.

In New Hampshire, 90-plus percent of the population is white. Do we have a race problem? Don’t ask me. I’m one of the 90-plus percent.

I can say unequivocally that I have no grudge, anger, hatred, or feelings of superiority toward anyone, of any class, creed, religion, or ethnicity. I share Ayn Rand’s view on the subject of racism, that it is “the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.” And I hate collectivism.

As in England, my assumption is that if a lot of non-whites started moving to New Hampshire, there would be an increase in racial and ethnic tension. How much? That’s hard to say.

The crime rate in New Hampshire is ridiculously low, among the lowest in the country. People here are pretty peaceful. But it stands to reason there will be some knuckleheads who don’t like newcomers – especially when the newcomers stand out.

Screw ‘em. There are plenty of reasons why you should move to New Hampshire.

First of all, the people are wonderful, and as I mentioned above the crime rate is extremely low. The state motto, ”Live Free or Die,” is reflected in the general attitude and climate of freedom and opportunity that exists.

The economy is doing well. Unemployment is below the national average. I’ve heard it’s hard to start a business, but easier than just about everywhere else. Sometimes we have to take what we can get.

In New Hampshire, you don’t have to pay state income tax – which means that, after the leeches in DC take their cut, you get to keep every penny you’ve earned. With no broad-based sales tax, your groceries, clothes, cars, phones, computers, music, haircuts, school supplies, makeup – virtually everything you purchase is tax-free (there is a 9 percent ”rooms and meals tax,” a so-called “tourist tax”). The state runs the liquor stores, but boasts on its billboards that those are tax-free too.

Property taxes are quite high, but deductible from your federal income tax. Trust me, it helps!

The Mercatus Center, based at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, found New Hampshire to be in the Top 5 of its “Freedom in the Fifty States” index.

This study didn’t just gauge economic freedom; personal freedom was measured as well.

That should be particularly inviting to black people. Why?

The number of black people incarcerated in this country is shameful. Perhaps the single biggest contributor is the War on Drugs. Police use drug laws to stop, search, harass, arrest, and ultimately imprison poor people and those from minority communities and neighborhoods, and at an alarming rate. The Drug War has been called ”the new Jim Crow.” While our “progressive” governor has yet to get onboard, the vast majority of people living in New Hampshire want marijuana legalized, or at least decriminalized. It’s only a matter of time.

Elsewhere, cops act like thugs (yes, even to white people), but in New Hampshire they’re far more likely to be respectful and friendly...maybe even helpful! Everywhere I’ve ever lived in this country – Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Virginia – I’ve been of the opinion that 99 percent of police make the other 1 percent look bad. I’ll not go so far as to say that those numbers are flipped in New Hampshire, but they are more in favor of the citizen.

There are fewer laws for cops to enforce, and it’s harder for them to enforce the laws we do have. Just last year, an attempt to give license plate scanners to police went down in flames.

How many black motorists are stopped for not wearing a seat belt? None in New Hampshire. It’s the only state that has remained pro-choice on the issue.

Nor is car insurance mandatory. That’s right! You don’t have to have car insurance. If stopped by the police, they’ll only ask for your vehicle registration and operator license. Nobody is going to jail or getting a ticket just because he can’t afford car insurance but still has to drive to work. Like the seat belt law, this is unique to our state.

Ride a motorcycle, but don’t want to wear a helmet? You don’t have to.

Want to homeschool your children? Easy.

Like good beer? Breweries are opening left and right. Want to brew your own, and sell it? Our “nano-brewery” law makes that extremely easy.

A recent Pew Research survey found that, by a 54 to 41 percent margin, “Black Americans view gun ownership as being more likely to protect people’s lives than cause harm.”

In the “Live Free or Die State,” approximately one third of the population are gun owners, and obtaining a license to carry a concealed handgun for your own protection is so easy the application process may as well not even exist. Carrying a handgun openly is also legal, no license required. Let the racists come. You’ll have the means to protect yourself.

These are among the “101 Reasons to Move to New Hampshire.”

Despite their many flaws, the Framers of the US Constitution – which brought into existence our federal system of government – are responsible for creating what is today the largest free-movement zone in the world. Not since the height of the Roman Empire has there been so large an area of the planet where people could move about freely, from one place to the next, and pursue happiness. When I was a kid, it was common to hear white racists say, “If blacks don’t like it here, they should go back to Africa.”

You can also move to New Hampshire.