Yes, they said the same thing about black men before they took up arms and won the Civil War for the Union. They said the same about black men before they took up arms in WWI and WW2 and help defeat fascism . They said the same thing about them before the Civil Rights era, when they bent the moral arch of universe towards justice. They said the same about black men now, before we held a president responsible, prosecuted dirty cops and lost our seats to protect the communities that we love from gun violence.