When I was young, I was brought up to regard Europe’s colonial powers as evil incarnate. We were taught that England, France, Holland, Germany and Spain, brutalized the people of Africa and Haiti, all for the sake of diamonds and other precious commodities.

Time passed, as it will, and the European oppressors were banished. The nations became self-governing and, in many cases, went so far as to change their names in an effort to put the past behind them. Predictably, just about everything got worse. Nearly without exception, the black leaders who filled the power vacuum were far more savage than the colonial governors had been.

While liberals everywhere celebrated the change, the fact is that the last 60 or 70 years have been an endless bloodbath for Africa. It’s been one endless cycle of genocide, rape, drought, pillage and starvation.

The United Nations, a string of American presidents, various charities and a swarm of white celebrities, including Angelina Jolie, Bono and George Clooney, have raised trillions of dollars while piling up a lifetime supply of self-bestowed brownie points. Closer to home, we have the same cycle repeated in Haiti, as well as in Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.

Nothing ever changes for the better, but only becomes more desperate and more costly. The main difference between, say, Somalia and Detroit is that the black population in Detroit gets a few more goodies because the Democrats still need their votes every couple of years.

The major distinction between Idi Amin and the members of the Black Congressional Caucus is that Idi was, literally and not just metaphorically, a cannibal.

None of this should be taken as a blanket indictment of the black race. People aren’t always responsible for their political leaders, as we American conservatives can readily testify. There are a great many black individuals whose decency, courage and accomplishments, cannot and should not be overlooked. Although when their names are Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Star Parker, Tim Scott, Condoleezza Rice or Allen West, they’re exactly the ones that liberals cynically belittle as “inauthentic,” as Uncle Toms and Oreos.

Liberals prefer to hold up the likes of Jesse Jackson, Charles Rangel, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters and Cynthia McKinney, as sterling examples of the black race.

While it’s true that no group of Americans was ever as ill-treated for as many years as blacks, it’s also true that over the past five decades, in the wake of the Civil Rights Act, no group has rioted more or pursued an education less than blacks. The only areas in which they have consistently been overachievers are crime, basketball and siring babies out of wedlock.

To those aware of human nature, it comes as no surprise that no other group, including illegal aliens, has received as much from the public trough as blacks. So it is that ingratitude can be added to their sins.

Nobody can honestly deny that the institution of slavery was an abomination because it turned human beings into beasts of burden. But in the long run, the price of bringing all those poor souls here in chains is that millions of other Americans have become slaves to their descendants.

In a way, that could be viewed as poetic justice, except that those now paying the price were never slave owners and those being rewarded never had to pick or tote a bale of cotton.