‘Structural Inequality,’ ‘Barriers’ to Equality, and the (Un)teachable Moment
First, it’s worth noting that the traditional model of equality still holds such sway in the hearts and minds of most people that it remains necessary for those who reject it to talk in terms of “barriers” even when they are hard to discern or define. Thus the president’s speech mentioned “barriers” to equality nine times, stressing that “too many barriers still remain.”
The president recognized that “the barriers of our time” are “very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations.” He knows, that is, “that prejudice and discrimination are not … the steepest barriers to opportunity today.”
What then are the “steepest barriers”? You guessed it:
The most difficult barriers include structural inequalities that our nation’s legacy of discrimination has left behind; inequalities still plaguing too many communities and too often the object of national neglect.
The “structural inequalities” specifically mentioned by the president were
• an unemployment gap;
• a health and health insurance gap;
• a prison incarceration gap;
• an HIV/AIDS gap.
He could, of course, have listed more “structural inequalities,” such as various academic achievement gaps (reading and math scores, SAT scores, high school and college graduation rates, etc.), but his list is sufficient to confirm that “civil rights” today has nothing to do with eliminating discriminatory “barriers” that treat people differently because of their race.
If they reflect discrimination, it is discrimination without any discriminators.
One does not have to deconstruct the president’s speech — one has only to read it — to see that he believes the “steepest barriers” holding down blacks are nothing less than the very nature and performance of modern American capitalism itself. The current downturn, in his view, did not result from correctable flaws in the system but from the system itself, a system “built on sand,” a system not in need of reform but of transformation. As he said:
Our task of reducing these structural inequalities has been made more difficult by the state, and structure, of the broader economy; an economy fueled by a cycle of boom and bust; an economy built not on a rock, but sand.
To Obama and the structural inegalitarians, neither “civil rights” nor racism no longer has anything to do with discrimination, understood as treating people differently because of their race. As Kelefa Sanneth argued in the August 10 New Yorker:
[Racism] should not be thought of as a personal failing; it’s a social system, with a specific history. Discrimination against whites, however unfair, isn’t part of that system, and therefore is not analogous to discrimination against blacks.
As Lani Guinier put it in the article linked above regarding the Gates affair, the Gates affair teaches us that:
Race and racism are today more like passive smoke. We all inhale the toxic fumes even if we are not the one lighting up the cigarette. And if we take the time to lift the curtain that post-racialists insist on pulling over our eyes, we might begin to realize that a porch encounter ostensibly about racial profiling is nevertheless a sign of larger and more systemwide injustices.
What passes for “civil rights” today, then, sees itself confronting pervasive discrimination with no discriminators, systemic racism with no racists.
Whatever the president and Ms. Guinier are smoking, it it clear that in their view “structural inequalities” will never be reduced, the playing field will never be level, until our capitalist economy, built as it is “not on a rock, but sand,” has been replaced with one more to their liking.
Some wags used to joke (it was a joke, wasn’t it?) that nuclear war should be outlawed as discriminatory because it would have a disparate impact on women and children. I don’t think Barack Obama is joking when he argues, as he did to the NAACP, that capitalism must be fundamentally transformed because it’s bad for blacks (and, oh yes, for everybody else, too).
I think Holder’s idea of talking about race is for people like Jeremiah Wright to harangue the masses about the evil doings of the white man. And we can’t ever get enough of that.
PAYBACK
We voted for change. We bought the hope.
But we got so much change, we can hardly
cope.
Now he’s spreading the wealth around,
With fewer and fewer jobs to be found.
And it does no good to plead
Cause it’s the toll for “white folks’ greed.”
My first response to this article is fatigue–all we talk about, all we have talked about for two years is race. Perhaps we’ll know we’ve made progress when it is not brought up every day, all day, by those who benefit from its mention.
Using their (Obama and Guinier) definition of “structural inequalities”, how are these going to be overcome? By taking from those who “have” or by improving the opportunities for those who do not yet have?
Racial equality will have arrived when we get back to concentrating on our individuality and not our “collective” identity! The American Dream has always been that ANYONE who WORKS hard can achieve.
“Racial equality will have arrived when the races are equal or proportional in everything measurable.” Surely you jest! Entire races will no more measure equally in anything than individuals will measure equally in anything.
Ora et Labora
Its this stupid PC MC moral equivalence and ‘Affirmative action’ which continually skews the figures and slopes the playing field to the benefit of one group and one group ONLY the Blacks. There will never be racial equality until everyone is promoted and given jobs and College places on merit ALONE and the RACISM of Affirmative Action is consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs.
I remember when the City University of New York, in the 1960′s, implemented a grand experiment to remedy structural inequalities in the public education system: Open Enrollment. That is, no entrance requirements. Anybody making it through four years of high school, regardless of their performance, was automatically eligible for college admission. And wonder of wonders, after four years, New York’s university system began turning illiterates with college degerees. Who were unemployable. The next time you visit with your neurosurgeon, inquire whether he/she was a product of an affirmative action program.
What America doesn’t talk about is the inherit unfairness of Affirmative Action. When the playing field is artificially leveled by weighting test scores based on race, (the white professional firefighter must score 100% to have a chance at promotion, the black man merely has to show up somewhere on the list. And if no blacks show up, throw out the test scores and promote no one) obviously the test was racist. When this happens America loses another part of the dream. When hard work and merit take a back seat to skin color, we all lose a bit more of our freedoms.
This latest incident, “GatesGate”, has shown us more than we wanted to know about the CinC. He says he believes firmly in the equality of outcome and he is perfectly willing to rig the game to get the results he wants.
What does this say about the good old USA?
Eric Holder The Coward will not talk about black racism. I, for one, am fed up with affirmative action racism and the race card. Enough with the race hustle. No more free ride, free pass, etc. I’m waiting for the NAACP to honor all those white men in Congress who voted for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
The horrible 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Griggs vs. Duke Power may have been the defining moment. We can forevermore debate the good intentions of these judges. On a practical level, however, they forced companies to abandon testing—and instead opt for credentials. This alone may be responsible for a 25% increase in the size of our colleges. Many of these students did not possess the I.Q. necessary to do the assigned work. Grade inflation therefore quickly became the norm. A liberal arts degree has now become something of a joke. Employers are increasingly interested only in the graduate’s hard science grades. The irony is that Griggs vs. Duke Power has made life more difficult for ambitious minorities. They have more obstacles in their way than before.
This is one of the best essays on racism in the US that I have read in years. However, it seems to me that the author pulled his punches on page two. Consider this quotation of Kelefa Sanneth:
“[Racism] should not be thought of as a personal failing; it’s a social system, with a specific history. Discrimination against whites, however unfair, isn’t part of that system, and therefore is not analogous to discrimination against blacks.”
The first clause of the first sentence rejects the old view of racism, namely, that it is based on personal immorality. The second clause introduces the new view of racism, which holds that it is a structural part of our social system, but then rejects that very view by asserting that racism has a specific history.
If racism has a specific history then racism cannot be structural only. If racism is structural only then it cannot have a specific history. To believe anything else is to embrace total gobbledy-gook. For example, I can imagine some confused person explaining that racism is structural rather than historical but that the structure has a specific history. Do I really need to point out that, in this imagined explanation, the words ‘historical’ and ‘history’ have no common meaning whatsoever.
What you find in Sanneth’s writing is typical of a higher educational system that requires on average about ten years of work from each person who successfully completes a dissertation. Don’t ask about the unsuccessful.
Why is it so hard for nice white people to see the virulent racism that is the hallmark of black society, top to bottom?
how will we know if and when racial equality ever arrives?
That really is beside the point, because even if it does, or already has, arrived, it does not matter one bit if the side claiming racial inequality and harboring grievances refuses to concede that we have equality.
It ain’t over until the race hustlers say it is.
Politicians want groups they can manipulate for political power. Personal responsibility is anathema to them because it undercuts their political power. Personal responsibility puts the onus on the individual and not on the collective group. It is much easier to blame anything one wants on an amorphous group because details would be required to attack individuals. That would be very messy.
I am like LeighB: fatigued over this issue. Racism is a by-product of leftist propaganda. Sure in the times of Jim Crow and before 1964 there was structural racism, but that has largely disappeared. Today the white progressives inform blacks of what is racist and what is not. To wit:
If white progressives did not control racism then they would never be able to continue their hold on MSM-reporters, editors and publishers, WH press corps, nightly news anchors, college administrators and professors, Wall Street CEOs, 527groups, trial lawyers and Hollyweird. All these professions are dominated by white progressives, and blacks never complain about the lack of blacks or perceived racism in these areas. Why not???
White progressives gave blacks the Cong. Black Caucus, Black Ch. of Commerce, BET, Affirmative Action, and pro sports dominated by blacks to keep blacks quiet about the white progressive dominated professions. How come you never hear Brant Gumball wail about the lack of blacks in X Games or Winter Games, but he cries foul about the lack of blacks in NASCAR or black coaches in the NFL and colleges.
White progressives gave blacks welfare, Obama, Holder and the re-ordering of America. So the quid pro quo is a done deal.
This nation has turned itself inside out in order to see equality in the races. But racial equality is not the same as equal of outcomes, which the white progressives (give lip service to) and blacks want. And they care not how it is achieved. As long as the white progressive finds him or herself in the elite-above the fray racism(?) will continue to plague America-it is in their best interests.
Professional black people (as in being black is their profession) turned themselves into a bad joke some time ago. It’s only the media buffoons that lap up their nonsense anymore.
This Obama/Gates affair has been a pretty impotent display of victimhood wielded as a weapon. It’s pathetic and does disservice to an entire race of people.
If all that I knew about “racism” was from what I saw on the media and on the streets, then I would know that “racism” does not exist on the television shows, in the sports arena,in the police departments, or most any where in public. What I would also witness is that “racism” exists in the university lecturn, political pontifications, and in the news broadcasts.Could the last vestiges of “racism” be a manufactured crisis?
My first response to this article is fatigue–all we talk about, all we have talked about for two years is race. Perhaps we’ll know we’ve made progress when it is not brought up every day, all day, by those who benefit from its mention.
A big second to that. I’m not sure it’s “benefit” so much as, like Obama, dwelling on “inequities” and unfairness, intentionally maintaining a chip on the shoulder as a function of his own personal weakness.
Gates & Holder seem cut from a similar cloth, endlessly preachy about “race” in order to obscure the fact that they, personally, are rather small individuals without much going on upstairs.
The next time you visit with your neurosurgeon, inquire whether he/she was a product of an affirmative action program.
Barack Obama & Sonia Sotomayor certainly are. Sonia had poor SAT scores, which she blithely, attributed to racial bias built into those tests. She got into the prestigious schools regardless, but, as a function of her bias, it seems logical she would come down as she did in the Ricci case. Rarely mentioned is that the New Haven firefighter test was specifically designed for things that, you know, pertain to firefighting and the company that wrote the test went out of its way to avoid any hint of anything that could be construed as bias.
The current level of yakking about race, sex, gender et al. and etc. is higher and meaner and dumber than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.
It’s a tool of the crowd running DC at the moment, just as it’s a personal tool of Barack Obama.
a chimp shot dead by white cops in a cartoon about the stimulus bill
Poastcards of watermelons on the White House lawn
e-mails from Cambrdige cop about Gates the banana-eating jungle monkey
Brack the Magic Negro . . . the halfrican – Rush
“Obama has a deep-seated hatred for white people” – Beck
Michelle the Baby Mama – Malkin
Come on, folks. It’s out there. And until you stop that kind of crap, you own it. Simple. Don’t want to be called racists? Don’t say racist things.
I came accross this thoughtful piece today that has relevance to this discussion:
“My Main Weblog
August 04, 2009
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Something To Consider
Something To Consider: I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I’m not a conservative, mostly because I’ve been thinking so much about slavery and Reconstruction. It seems, to my mind, to be an authentic conservative in the 1850s is to perhaps recognize slavery as evil, but oppose doing anything about it that might upset the planters. It seems, to my mind, to be an authentic conservative in the 1960s would be to recognize that segregation was also evil, but resolve to nothing about it which might upset its supporters.
This is not a view to be dismissed out of hand–more people died at Antietam that on any other day in American military history. I think about the terror that fell upon black communities in the South, after the Civil War, and I wonder whether it could have all been averted by a more a gradualist approach. Sadly, I don’t think so. And yet you see Lincoln (a conservative at heart, no?), a reluctant reformer, doing whatever he can to avoid war, to avoid making the war about slavery (initially), trying to save the Union at all cost.
He isn’t wrong. But if you are the slave, that essentially conservative approach will always privilege your master over you. Conservatism, with its belief in institutions, traditions, and the past, will seemingly always privilege (perhaps inadvertently) the powerful over the powerless. Institutions, traditions and the past belong to those with power. Privileging them, privileges their agents.
Two quotes made me think about this today. Here’s David Brooks:
Sonia Sotomayor had bad timing. If she’d entered college in the late-1950s or early-1960s, she would have been surrounded by an ethos that encouraged smart young ethnic kids to assimilate. If she’d entered Princeton and Yale in the 1980s, her ethnicity and gender would have been mildly interesting traits among the many she might possibly possess.
But she happened to attend Princeton and then Yale Law School in the 1970s. These were the days when what we now call multiculturalism was just coming into its own. These were the days when the whole race, class and gender academic-industrial complex seemed fresh, exciting and just.
Here’s Andrew:
It isn’t the judicial rulings that trouble me so much as her non-judicial opinions and mindset. The constant, oppressive consciousness of her identity – racial and gender – and the harping on it so aggressively so often does strike me as a classic mode of victimology deeply entrenched in her generation. I don’t think it’s disqualifying and I don’t see any crude racialism in her rulings, but I do think it shows that for Obama, this kind of racial/ethnic view of the world is so endemic it’s invisible to him. And it’s off-message for his candidacy and life.
Both of these quotes extend a tremendous amount of charity to the agents of power. Brooks assumes that these agents at Princeton and Yale, in the 50s and 60s, would have welcomed the Puerto-Rican Sotomayor with open arms. He presumes that they would have wanted her to be one of them. Andrew presumes that that identity politics, what he calls “a classic mode of victimology,” with its “racial/ethnic view” of the world, and its focus on gender, is particular only to Sotomayor and her ilk.
A critique of liberal identity politics is not wrong on its face, but it almost always is unconcerned with the identity politics of power. Thus Sotomayor’s focus on her identity as a “wise Latina” pose is seen as the disturbing result of multiculturalism run amok, not having been raised in a country where the tangible mechanisms of white supremacy were in full effect.
It isn’t, for instance, the fact that Sotomayor was raised in an era where government-backed redlining was still legal, it’s the fact that some students at Yale demanded a Chicano history course that’s the issue. Likewise, it isn’t the oppressive identity politics practiced by conservatives for the past 30 years that’s disturbing, but Sotomayor’s response to it. To be a true conservative is to be more disturbed by victimology, than actual victimizing. It is to claim to abhor evil–but to abhor the response to evil even more. It’s like in the NFL–it’s the second who throws the punch who draws the flag.
Still thinking this through. More later.
Definition of Irony: A bunch of right-wing whites belonging to a political party that is devoid of minorities claim that we need to stop focusing on race, while simultaneously posting race-focused comments in response to a race-focused article, written by a white conservative, that claims that the president is a racist.
…that claims that the president is a racist.
The current President of the United States is a racialist,
Noun: One who excessively dwells on differences in skin pigmentation in order to fuel a personal sense of self-importance and conceal the fact that he is an empty suit
(ok, I made that up, but you can hope or chope (change + hope) it makes it into Websters)
GrahamL: But at least we have something intelligent to offer in the discussion. Let me ask you: How come racism is never brought up regarding the dominance of white progressives in the MSM? College professors? XGames? Certainly there is a paucity of blacks in these areas? Yet the media and black race hustlers are silent? Why is that?
So Mr. Irony until you go to DemUnderground or Kos for your answers, please, try to stay away from adult discussions. See its easy for white progressives to act egalitarian, because they are not directly involved in race. You can stay above the fray.
Now and then: please cite your references where you got this information(?). Then tell us about the hate shown to Off. Lashley by your side… You can hide your head in the sand or if you are paid by the left deny Obama’s actions and deeds and words, but we do see him for what he is. Funny neither of you disagreed with the author.
‘…“the Cambridge porch encounter cries out for more than a simple politically opportune snapshot.” All we got, however, was a politically inopportune snapshot of the president turning his back and striding away from both Crowley and Gates.’
Well, that’s all YOU got, John. But nice try at (mis)interpreting the photo. I especially like the “turning his back” part. I guess Obama should have walked backwards to the Rose Garden. Or allowed his guests to go first. I remember an historical incident when newly sworn-in Harry Truman opened a door for Eleanor Roosevelt. She stopped and reminded him that the president always goes first. “I forgot,” Truman said. “You must never forget,” said Mrs. R.
20 Graham L . . . I think you pretty much covered it. Well done. Of course, we’ll hear the “but wait a minute, I know a lot of black people.”
Then again . . .
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&um=1&q=white%20only%20republican%20convention&ndsp=20&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv&start=0#
22 blotto . . . If you’ve been paying attention at all you know where all of these things came from. If not, then do your own Google. I don’t take assignments from right wing puppets. Suffice it to say that the cop who repeatedly called Gates a “banana-eating jungle monkey” followed up with “I am not a racist.” Gee, is that credible? I don’t think so. And that’s the problem conservatives and the GOP have with race, you’re just not credible.
Zzzzzzzzzzz.
###########
Don’t forget the “inequality” of black on black crime, drug addiction and fatherless black children.
ALL whitey’s fault of course.
Just a reminder: the purpose of a troll is to distract the discussion. This article makes some important and under appreciated points. Leave the bait.
now and then:So you cannot find the comments. Offier Lashley (http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/07/cambridge-police-officers-support-sgt-crowley/)is a black PO and supported Crowley and was given the royal going over by your side. What have you to say about that? Typical of you side is to take one instance and conflate the issue.
And progressives like you are credible on race? How is that? Please explain? By the way, neither you nor Graham answered my questions or opined in opposition to the author. Why is that?
GrahamL and Now and Then,
Why all the racial hatred toward conservatives/republicans? Granted, there are not many minorities in the republican party. I’m not going to try to drop names of minority republicans because if it’s a numbers game then you are absolutely right. However, for conservatives it’s not about race, its about issues. It was the republicans who supported civil rights based on the ideals of fairness and equality. On the other hand, for the democrats IT IS ABOUT RACE. It’s the dems who are the race baiters, the apologist, and the name callers. So what party is the racist party?
” I especially like the “turning his back” part. I guess Obama should have walked backwards to the Rose Garden.”
Or perhaps helped his disabled guest down the steps, as G W Bush did with Senator Byrd.
This ‘equality in ALL things’ crap reminds me of those lame libtard teachers who believe in giving ALL children a ‘prize’ after a *cough-cough* “competition”. Unfortunately, it makes the ‘prize’ worthless and the desire to ‘compete’ pointless.
PAfreakin’thetic.
30. Anonymous:
“Or perhaps helped his disabled guest down the steps, as G W Bush did with Senator Byrd.”
Speaking of which, Anon…
Did you notice in that photo that it was Crowley helping Gates [who was using a cane] down the steps?
…black PO and supported Crowley and was given the royal going over by your side.
There is no greater contempt from racialists than that hurled at people of coloUr who don’t toe the (“we’re perpetually persecuted in racist America”) party line.
Vicious hatred and contempt is hurled towards the Clarence Thomases of the planet as ‘betrayers’ to their race.
They, aka the race industry, attempted to recruit Tiger Woods for the agenda, told him it was incumbent upon him to become a spokesman for “race in America”. Tiger wisely declined.
32. Delia:
“Did you notice in that photo that it was Crowley helping Gates [who was using a cane] down the steps?”
Did you notice it was Crowley who arrested Gates in his own home?
34. Now and Then:
32. Delia:
“Did you notice in that photo that it was Crowley helping Gates [who was using a cane] down the steps?”
Did you notice it was Crowley who arrested Gates in his own home?
Obama was trying to get to a telepromter …
http://www.pbase.com/opinion/maniacal you may enjoy this site
34. Now and Then:
32. Delia:
“Did you notice in that photo that it was Crowley helping Gates [who was using a cane] down the steps?”
Did you notice it was Crowley who arrested Gates in his own home?
NOW AND THEN …
…Gates was arested because he is a racist who would not stop disturbing the peace even after the sargent gave him oportunities. …maybe you will be happy when the new black panthers or acorn are policing the streets.
good luck with that
35. homero,
AWESOME!
DAYUM! I need to get that t-shirt that says:
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have” -Thomas Jefferson
Actually, that quote should be a bumper sticker, coffee mug, welcome mat, house-sign, skywrite message, commercial break, tattoo, neon sign etc. etc.
We know “Now and Then”, the officer is white, he is guilty.
Despite the fact that anyone, anglo, black, asian etc would have been asked to show ID in such a situation.
This is just the same as people claiming the lady that called in the possible burglary was racist. Until it was found out she didn’t mention to the 911 operator and didn’t even know the people were black. It’s a bitch when preconceived notions go up in smoke.
Shorter conservatives:
“We don’t see race and racism doesn’t exist anymore, except among the shiftless blacks and illegal Hispanics.”
The most racist place on Earth is sub Saharan Africa.
When did leftists start caring about private property?
/Yeah, I know I just violated my own admonition. Sue me.
John:
“how will we know if and when racial equality ever arrives?”
I appreciate your attempt to rationalize racism and Obama’s approach to race. One observation to add is that Obama is not rational when it comes to racism. Obama intuitively knows that to quantify and qualify racism is to eventually lose control of the politics of racism. The principle of “systemic racism” is enabled by individuals who repeatedly amplify racial events to create the perception of systemic racism. These people are missionaries, because their approach is similar to the way that religious missionaries have tried to amplify historical conflicts with their rhetoric to gain followers by appealing to emotions, not logic.
Society has often excused divisive racial missionaries when they are politicians. Therefore race is a political issue. When will racial equality arrive? Possibly when politicians no longer see value in making it an issue… so likely never. What should we do about it? Understand that racism, ignorance, and sin exists, but we can never treat the ultimate utopian result of racial equality as an end that justifies the means. So no affirmative action, and no structural “reparations”. That would be the honest approach.
If, as you state, Obama believes racism and discrimination are inherent to our social and economic structure, than is it any wonder he wants to tranform our country. Thus, looking at them in this context, Obama’s policy and legislative initiatives make sense. He hopes to change this country. But his definition of change is not to fix, it is to destroy (a.k.a. transform). Why would such a “racist” nation deserve any other fate?
Blarty Blarcklebart (great name), we do see race, it is shoved down our throats every day. And please tell me how one can be illegally hispanic?
I see Blotto is living up to his name with this inane comment” How come racism is never brought up regarding the dominance of white progressives in the MSM? College professors? XGames? Certainly there is a paucity of blacks in these areas? Yet the media and black race hustlers are silent? Why is that? “
34. Now and Then wrote:
Did you notice it was Crowley who arrested Gates in his own home?
Peter writes: Did you notice it was Gates who committed a crime by disturbing the peace in front of multiple witnesses and stooped so low as to start insulting the mother of the police officer who responded to a possible breaking and entering call and only wanted to ascertain the facts of the situation?
36. Anonymous:“…Gates was arested because he is a racist who would not stop disturbing the peace even after the sargent gave him oportunities. …maybe you will be happy when the new black panthers or acorn are policing the streets.”
So…
Black man raising his voice at cop who arrested him on his own property after he shows cop his ID = racist + disturbing the peace.
Angry whites hijacking peaceful democratic town hall meeting discussions in order to scream over everyone and intimidate citizens = patriotic + practicing free speech.
FAIL.
46. Graham L.,
Angry, upset AMERICANS voicing their opinions at a Town Hall meeting: AMEN
Black-Panther-Acorn-Thugs intimidating voters: Effed UP!
Fastest ways to screw up your life:
get pregnant while still in school.
Start using drugs at an early age.
stop going to school.
Get arrested and convicted for a class a felony.
dont listen to your parents or teachers.
dont try to better yourself.
Join a gang.
Stupidity knows no race, gender or religion.
If you cant make it here in the US, you have only yourself to blame. Please leave the rest of us out of it.
Lemme get this straight:
1) two men are seen apparently forcing the door of a private home open in an area that has had a number of break-ins.
2) a cop responds and one man answers the door
3) when asked to show ID, he shows a card with his name, put no picture or address.
4) to ensure that he is not being held under duress (remember the other man?), he is asked to step outside and becomes abusive
5) despite being asked a number of times to calm down, he throws out the race grenade and becomes even more abusive.
6) after making a scene in public, he is restrained and charged with disturbing the peace.
7) cops of different ethnic groups witness this
For a guy who is supposedly oppressed by white society, he lives in a great neighborhood, has a tenured job at a mostly white university and probably earns more than the average person of any ethnicity.
As I see it the only time a cop “acted stupidly” in this whole scenario was accepting a beer invite from the unapologetic president & the race baiting prof.
When did leftists start caring about private property?
/Yeah, I know I just violated my own admonition. Sue me.
That’s pretty funny, Calvin.
Reminded me of when Billy Ayers was (last year) confronted by the foxnews producer outside his home & yelled at them “you’re on private property !” He then called the Chicago police to come and protect him.
That’s the same same guy whose lifetime mission is the destruction of notions like capitalism & private ownership of real property…the same guy who used to think it his mission on Earth to kill the dirty pigs propping up the nasty bourgeoisie and who promoted the bombing of police stations.
The answer to your question is they “care” (about anything besides their own self-aggrandizing preachiness) when it becomes personal, demonstrating that such individuals are, at base, merely hypocrites & wusses.
And could not and would not protect you against anything real, like radical Islamists who dearly want to slit your throat, their buddies in spirit who hate America in equal measure.
In the same vein of hypocrisy, no Congresscritter or member of Barack Obama’s personal entourage/family will ever be subject to “rationing” of health care or restrictions on availability as a function of age & health. While our phonily frugal House under “we’re destroying the planet” Nancy Pelosi that wants to impose cap and trade on you just approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress.
The elaborate Barackmobile this President travels around in gets less than 8 miles to the gallon.
Talk about “structural inequality”
One does not have to deconstruct the president’s speech — one has only to read it — to see that he believes the “steepest barriers” holding down blacks are nothing less than the very nature and performance of modern American capitalism itself. The current downturn, in his view, did not result from correctable flaws in the system but from the system itself, a system “built on sand,” a system not in need of reform but of transformation.
Straight out of Bill Ayers’ playbook, the one he pretends to endorse when he’s not calling the cops to get the foxnews producer off his lawn.
Delia:
There is a difference between disrupting a meeting to prevent any discussion and making a point or argument. The latter is a Leninist tactic and the latter a democratic tactic. It is interesting that the wingnuts advocate a Leninist tactic. Not that you or the wingnuts would understand the difference
Delia,
I have to take issue with you. It seems you are on the wrong side of every issue.
First, the Black Panthers in Philadelphia.
This is a prime example of what the first truly great President in American history, Barack Obama, calls structural inequality.
The majority of polling places are in “white areas.” Thus, blacks inherently feel intimidated to go there. The gentlemen in fatigues were simply there to reassure black voters that they could carry out their constitutional right without fear of any form of reprisal. In case you don’t remember, in the south, my kind used to be hanged for trying to vote. One of them being my great grandfather. So perhaps I have a perspective on the Philadelphia incident that white girls lack.
Second, about Henry Gates.
While I’ll grant you the fact that the good Professor should not have raised his voice, by the same token I’d expect you to grant me the concession that historically blacks have been beaten by cops, railroaded by them, accosted by them for simply walking down a white street, ridiculed by them for being poor. And cursed by them. Plus, a cop, Mark Furman, who first lied and then admitted he casually uses the “N” word is paraded out by Fox news as the police authority whenever there’s a crime story. Henry Gates goes from seeing an admitted racist on Fox news to seeing a white cop walking up his driveway.
Delia, my dear, can you put two and two together? I can. Incidentally, my mother used to date a white cop who many times confirmed my bigoted notions.
Lastly, Delia, my writing to you is what the great one, President Barack Obama calls a preaching moment. I do declare, how would you feel if your kind was denied mortgages just because of their skin color and racist joblessness. How would you feel if your brother was one doing hard time among mostly black prisoners for simply being present during an armed robbery; having no weapon of any kind and not threatening anyone, simply being a lookout. What amounted to a victimless crime turned into a ten to twenty year sentence.
Delia, I have only one more sentence for you. Until you walk in someone else’s shoes, it’s best not to comment about which you obviously have no personal knowledge.
Good day,
Lauie
Delia,
I have to take issue with you. It seems you are on the wrong side of every issue.
First, the Black Panthers in Philadelphia.
This is a prime example of what the first truly great President in American history, Barack Obama, calls structural inequality.
The majority of polling places are in “white areas.” This blacks inherently feel intimidated to vote there. The gentlemen in fatigues were simply there to reassure black voters that they could carry out their constitutional right without fear of any form of reprisal. In case you don’t remember, in the south, my kind used to be hanged for trying to vote. One of them being my great grandfather. So perhaps I have a perspective on the Philadelphia incident that white girls don’t.
Second, about Henry Gates. While I’ll grant yo the fact that the good Professor should not have raised his voice, by the same token I’d expect you to grant me the concession that historically blacks have been beaten by cops, railroaded by them, accosted by them for simply walking down a white street, ridiculed by them for being poor. And cursed by them.
Delia,
I have to take issue with you. It seems you are on the wrong side of every issue.
First, the Black Panthers in Philadelphia.
This is a prime example of what the first truly great President in American history, Barack Obama, calls structural inequality.
The majority of polling places are in “white areas.” This blacks inherently feel intimidated to vote there. The gentlemen in fatigues were simply there to reassure black voters that they could carry out their constitutional right without fear of any form of reprisal. In case you don’t remember, in the south, my kind used to be hanged for trying to vote. One of them being my great grandfather. So perhaps I have a perspective on the Philadelphia incident that white girls don’t.
Second, about Henry Gates. While I’ll grant yo the fact that the good Professor should not have raised his voice, by the same token I’d expect you to grant me the concession that historically blacks have been beaten by cops, railroaded by them, accosted by them for simply walking down a white street, ridiculed by them for being poor. And cursed by them.
Sorry for the repeat. It was my fault not he computers.
52. Laurie Thompson wrote:
The majority of polling places are in “white areas.” Thus, blacks inherently feel intimidated to go there.
Peter writes: Really? So having a bunch of Black Panther thugs waving nightsticks and threatening both white AND black voters (and keep in mind, where this occurred was a heavily BLACK voting district) is going to HELP?
Graham L attempts to teach us all about irony…claiming that the party of “Right-wing whites, devoid of minorities telling us to stop focusing on race”… etc, is complete falsehood. I listened to professor Gates talk on Tom Joyner’s radio program this week, and the real irony is that Gates chose to use the wrong white police officer to make his claims of racism and profiling to be even remotely believable. I would contend that neither Joyner nor Obama himself think he is truthful. Now that’s irony.
Laurie Thompson,
As long as you continue to view yourself as a victim, you will be a victim.
There are plenty of opportunities for all in the America of today. Trying to redress ills perpetrated by persons now dead by passing discriminatory legislation is not going to do anyone any good, least of all the decendents of the victims of slavery and Jim Crow who have now become victims (read slaves) of “Big Brother”.
The black family survived slavery, Jim Crow and widespread racial inequality, but two generations of affirmative action and the Great Society have come pretty close to destroying it. That’s the real tragedy in all of this.
^^^^
Great comment. Of course, to many liberals, being a hypocrite is a form of consistency, so they’re just staying true to form.
My last comment was directed at tanstaafl#50
Since we are back to the Gates incident, does anyone have any insight on this? The house where this happened is rented by Gates, correct? Was part of the reason to confirm (and reconfirm) identity because the homeowner’s name did not match that on the first piece of ID furnished by Professor Gates? I suspect this happens often, when the owner and occupant are not the same, I don’t know enough about police procedures to know whether this is an aggravating factor. I know someone on the thread will know–thanks.
There will always be bigots but as a whole, white society has erased its racism. This is not true for minorities in society and it isn’t that minorities are inherently racist, it is because it is taught to them (those that are racist) by those members of their race that have made careers on selling the tale of white elitism. They spread it to the poor and disenfranchised and it is like a disease, it festers and spreads through all of the races.
It is important to pay attention to the President’s words about blacks in prison. “There is a disproportionate number of blacks in prison” Disproportionate. The left really likes that word. Most especially when they can apply it to something to which it does not apply. This myth of proportions is applied by Obama and he is not saying a larger percentage of black criminals go to prison compared to white criminals or in the application to numbers holding office, etc. etc. This is the lie. They don’t care that those in prison are criminals, they just care that there are more blacks than whites there. They don’t care if people are actually qualified to do a job, they just want the numbers to be equal. This is the lie and this is why we have institutional racism in the form of Affirmative Action.
So, instead of taking social initiatives and helping minorities to break out of their self destructive cycle, taking education seriously, reinventing their own social behavior away from gang life, thuggery and government dependence (you know, like the schtik Obama was selling about personal responsibility?), they tell us how far we still need to go and perpetuate the myth of racist white America. No, instead we forced inequality to achieve equality?
Affirmative Action is not only institutional racism, it also serves to create animosity between races and undermines our productivity as a nation because businesses cannot hire all of the qualified personnel that they need when they are forced to meet race quotas. When a man is denied a job because a less qualified individual is hired to meet race quotes, will he resent the employer, or will he resent that minority for taking a job from him because of a government mandated handout? Think about it. If we reversed this so that AA benefited whites and said Barack Obama and Joe the Plumber are competing for a job at a lucrative law firm. Which do you think will be more incensed over not getting the job?
It’s all part of the socialist dogma, not equal opportunity, equal outcomes and redistribution of wealth. There will always be slums, but the task at hand is eliminating the victim mentality and the criminal undercurrent that pushes inner city and minority youths from the path to success. Those forces I think are the key to why so many struggle in addition to poor parenting which, sadly, many of our nation’s children suffer from.
I contend that “stuctural inequality” model of bean counting is killing the environment. Think about all the wasted energy checking and rechecking the proportions of, as the author said, any and everything measurable. Not to mention the more obvious inefficiencies resulting from not hiring the most qualified individual or company available for the task. As you know, tasks do require energy. But since hiring based on merit is such an outlandish proposition in this country, perhaps a giant government beurocracy should be created to perform daily tallies on the racial makeup of every place of work. No amount of someone else’s money is too large to ensure that each and every organization comprises of the following:
White alone: 74%
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, of any race: 14.8%
Black or African American alone: 13.4%
Some other race alone: 6.5%
Asian alone: 4.4%
Two or more races: 2.0%
Native Americans in the United States or Alaska Native alone: 0.68%
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander alone: 0.14%
Of course, these numbers will also need to be checked on a daily basis to ensure 100% fairness. I hereby nominate Professor Gates as the much needed Structural Equality Czar.
Wrong on every ‘side’ of the issue? I don’t sphinct so, homey.
Your mother dated a white cop and ‘confirmed’ something you believe and therefore that paints all cops with that single but very broad brush?
That’s like me saying my mom dated a black dude and confirmed every racial stereotype.
Idiotic.
-And, people speaking UP at a TOWN meeting is hardly something ‘new’. Uh…it IS called a ‘TOWN’ meeting right? Not a ‘only people who agree with the speakers’ meeting?
-And, Black Acorn THUGS at a polling place ANYWHERE is BAD v00j00 and considering the asshats got ‘off’ for it doesn’t bode well for future elections.
The ‘comparison’ being that unarmed people standing up against the mindless 0bot speakers for 0bamacare in a TOWN MEETING is their right as Americans whereas trying to intimidate voters with armed thugs is ANTI-American to the umpteenth degree.
Have you walked a mile in MY shoes? How the F*CK do you know what I’ve lived through in my lifetime.
STFU!
Just a few thoughts. Was it assumed that Sgt Crowley was a beer drinker and not into Chateau Lafitte? Who assumed it, it if was an assumption. Who were the persons at the great “teachable moment” dressed with respect for the office? How do you teach a moment? Look it up (teachable). Another giant pearl from the Harvard hack. Constant damage control and now they need spies!! God help us.
P.S. Google ‘Obama Forum’ and get a good gander at what racist black people say. Blacks don’t want ‘equality’…they just want to be the racists now.
Race? Race? When is this ridiculous BS going to stop? 150 years ago 500,000 white men died to free black slaves who had been sold by other blacks to white settlers. 54 years ago the great Rosa Parks kicked off the slow-rolling unstoppable and long overdue freight train of the civil rights movement. Last year America elected a black president.
Keep playing for your own racial team if you want to. Just remember to get a job and pay taxes while you are at it.
I was born in the 70s and I had nothing to do with anything bad that this country has ever done (except I have voted for a few democrats, which I now consider to be bad). I grew up with a single parent in a tough neighborhood. I work hard, I follow the law, I don’t expect anything to be handed to me.
What I do expect is for all the shiftless, money-grubbing, lazy people out there who want something for nothing (for themselves, or on behalf of others) to keep their hands out of my wallet to pay for what they won’t work for, or get the job that they didn’t earn. That’s not hate, son. That’s love. Tough love. This country has done far too much for far too many people for far too long, and it doesn’t owe anybody anything.
“Structural inequalities” – sounds like the NBA to me…
Just a few thoughts. Who assumed Sgt. Crowley was a beer drinker and not familiar with a good Pinot? Who was dressed with dignity befitting the White House? Who was it helping the somewhat hobbled Mr. Gates? Why was Mortimer Biden there? How do you teach a moment? Look up teachable. Another titanic pearl from the First Ego/chump. God help us.
Blacks don’t want ‘equality’…they just want to be the racists now.
I’m getting that vibe, based on the way too prevalent “you can kiss my black ass” attitude increasingly in evidence and situations like the Black Panther thugs* outside the polling place in Pennsylvania.
*reportedly, those guys were found guilty of voter intimidation, some infraction relative to what can’t happen at a polling place, maybe the billy club, and Obama’s justice department, under Eric Holder, dismissed the charges against them.
JWright, Farrakhan, the whole trumped up Black Liberation Theology movement, there is no way to describe such race hustlers except as anti-whitey racists in the extreme.
Isn’t that what the troofers think brought the twin towers down?
Now and Then (18):
Very funny, considering that few of these things have to do with racism.
The cartoon of the chip? That was refering to the pet chimp which had attacked a woman the previous week. Race had nothing to do with it.
As for Rush and “Barack the Magic Negro” – you obviously have never listened to Rush’s show. He was commenting on the Democratic Party’s treatment of Obama – remember the “clean, articulate” comment, and who made it originally? I also believe that he was quoting a black reporter.
As for the comments about Michelle, what’s false about Beck’s comment? I’d like to see the context for Ms Malkin’s, but I can be pretty sure it’s not racist (albeit she doesn’t like Mrs Obama).
I have discussed Commenter 52’s amazing “structural inequality” defense of voter intimidation here.
I’ve worked with many people of many ethnicities, and have come to the sad conclusion that we’ll have true racial equality in this country when the “blacks” can let go of their hatred and self-pity and grasp it.
For the record, let’s define “black” as African American, with slave heritage (as opposed to a recent immigrant), who possesses the attitude that he/she is oppressed and owed something by the “white” majority. I include the latter because of the massive number of comments that capable African Americans such as Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, or Condaleza Rice are not “truly black”.
Defining “white” is a bit of a puzzle, because it seems to have nothing to do with actual skin color or ethnicity. It may or may not include Asians, Indians (from India – who may actually be blacker than most blacks), and Africans depending on the context. Let’s just say that “white” is defined as “not black” and leave it at that.
“Blacks” ghettoize themselves. Many inner city blacks seem to live within a radius of a few city blocks their entire lives, never seeing anything outside of their immediate neighborhood; they make no attempt to learn about or understand the outside world; and they drag down anyone from their group who does try to break out.
I have a friend who was a grade school teacher in inner-city Baltimore. She finally gave up in disgust and fear, after being threatened one too many times, and now sells real-estate. Most of her students were black. 1/3 of her students were truly interested in learning; 1/3 didn’t care one way or another. Unfortunately, the remaining 1/3 actively fought her and made life miserable for the rest of the students. They trashed the classroom, threatened the other students (accusing those of studying of “acting white”) and disrupted the classes. She quit when she was threatened with bodily harm.
“Blacks” also believe it beneath them to work on subjects that seem “white”. Sports are acceptable, as are sales jobs and (perhaps) the military. Engineering and the sciences are not. I work for a company that provides engineering support for the government. Every so often we get enquiries from the EEOC as to why we don’t have any black engineers. The answer is simple: there aren’t any. The IEEE did a recent study that backs this up: most blacks that start out as engineering students transfer to marketing. Not for lack of grades, but simply because of lack of interest. Any reasonably competent black engineer (much less a black female engineer) could pretty much write his own ticket.
I don’t know what the final answer is, but I’m pretty sure that it lies in the black community itself. I really can’t think of anything more that can be done by anybody external to the black community, except perhaps to fix the penalties that wellfare has laid on fatherhood.
Obama ain’t delivering to the “gimmes” as fast as he
should have. Ergo, he has a BIG problem. Watch this
internecine battle play out. The Repub targets will
recede beyond the horizon as this “great orator”
bumbles, fumbles, and stumbles down the road of
ultimate “reparations”. He’ll suffer the thousand
cuts from his own base before he can ruin America.
Patience, world changers, patience.
Though Obama was a disastrous pick for POTUS it DOES demonstrate that white America is no longer institutionally racist. The fact that 90% of blacks voted for Obama BECAUSE HE WAS BLACK shows that racism is rampant, accepted, and expected in the black community. When blacks let go of the hatred, bitterness, and anger that characterizes their interaction with the rest of America, THEN racism will have ended once and for all.
Jed @ 16:
Not manufactured in the sense I think you mean but self-perpetuating. By their definition the system is racist just by existing because it was invented by those who “may” have been racist. Racism under this definition can never be solved until all men/women have equality of outcome. Not opportunity. It is the ultimate ponzi scheme. See Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”
in reference to the handicapper-general of the stories of a mythical US.
Delia @ 64:
The Obama Forum – It has to be a joke right? Right? RIGHT?
Welcome to the Official Grassroots Forum For Supporters Of President Barack Obama – ( NO WHITES ALLOWED )
Wow! What a fever swamp that place is. They aren’t serious are they? Scary, scary place that.
Okay, I clicked around in there and it seems to be a place of very sick kids.
Having taught in a mostly black inner-city school, I can appreciate Paul from A’s friend’s situation. In general, I did find that I had to adjust my teaching style more with black boys, than white boys. For some reason, girls were not as polarized by race. Black boys responded better when you spoke to them “man to man” in disciplinary matters, whereas white boys might respond to traditional teacher/student models. Black boys wanted to be respected, you had to earn respect from them. That’s a hard lesson I learned. I guess the white boys seemed to respond to the establishment’s policies of reward and discipline, whereas black boys functioned on an individual, perhaps more personal level. They behaved and learned if they respected you, they didn’t give a crap about school rules. But with respect usually came loyalty, and loyalty was in short supply among the white boys. Why, I don’t know. Forgive me, if I sound racist and sexist, but those are my observations.
I think Obama’s views are those of the Leftist-leaning academia. The problem, as they see it, is that American values, policies and objectivity is always seen through the lens of white maleness. I think that’s why the Left was outraged that Sotomayor was called a racist for her “wise Latina” statement. The argument being that white dudes are intolerant of an alternative point of view. I watched the State of the Black Union when they had it in DC. They had people talking about the traditional patriarchy denying the cultural heritage of non-whites who had matriarchal systems, ie that is was perfectly acceptable and normal for there to be all these black single moms on welfare. It was the white male perspective that told them it was wrong to live off the gov’t and perpetuate fatherless children.
I guess stressing the multi-culturalistic view feels more inclusive and appeals to the post-modernists anxious to deconstruct everything like a toddler with a stack of blocks. Perhaps the end-game is a nihilistic free-for-all.
But take places like the cities along the Mississippi River, which I affectionately call “the rear end of America” – it gets worse the further south you go. When cities like St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans began declining as the River no longer was a dominate transport route for commerce, wealthy whites moved away, and blacks lost jobs. City leaders didn’t invest in the community in equal measure. Then when crime started to rise, whites blamed blacks for the cities going to pot. Now those areas are known more for the contributions of blacks than whites, music mostly, and cuisine. N O’s diverse ancestry’s an exception.
I guess I’m saying that though I don’t agree with their point of view, I understand it. I don’t know how to fix it. I know we’re inclined to say, “Get off up your butt, and get to work,” yet if they’re being told that its not their fault, it’s that they are being forced to live by white male values, then what is there to do? Obama feels charged with overturning the dominant male white perspective. Are our “values” informed by an inherent sense of right and wrong, or are they corrupted by a dominant view? A view that’s informed most aspects of western civilization? Don’t know. My question is, what comes after nihilism? But should you even characterize it as such, since a white dude came up with the term?
“…our capitalist economy, built as it is ‘not on a rock, but sand,’ has been replaced with one more to their liking.”
Dare I ask what kind of economy Dr. Chicago wants to replace ours with?
Communism would seem to be the ultimate “field leveler.”
You can’t ask this guy too many questions–unless you are the national, left-wing media, of course.
#51
You are blind. Or stupid. Or both. That is nothing – NOTHING – but pure, unadulterated projection. Here’s just one example:
http://www.freedomszone.com/archives/2006/10/academic_free_speech_in_free_f.php
There is no shortage of such examples. But people telling their “public servants” to READ THE DAMN BILLS THEY ENACT is a Stalinist tactic? Resume commenting once you get out of high school.
“There is a difference between disrupting a meeting to prevent any discussion and making a point or argument.” Yes, there is, and you have no idea what the difference is.
Graham L. (20):
Upon what do you base this presumption? The last time I checked nobody on this blog had any idicator as to what their race was, unless they specifically mentioned it.
People who mention instances of racism (the racist cop e-mail in Boston, for example) are missing the point here: there really are people (and believe me, they are the ones holding the various teacher/trainer positions who make presentations to teachers like me all the time in our school district) who actually believe that ANY INSTANCE of disparity between the races is IPSO FACTO proof of racial discrimination–or structural racism, to use the fancier term.
For a thought experiment, try thinking of any instance where there are different numbers of men and women, boys and girls engaged in some kind of activity–is a disparity proof of discrimination? There are those who think so! It’s called Title 9, right?–and is the reason why some colleges have eliminated men’s athletic programs to reduce the disparity between the number of male students who want to play sports and the number of females who do. Because, IPSO FACTO, if a smaller percentage of female students at a college want to spend their time running around in athletic activities than the percentage of males so inclined, somehow there’s been discrimination. Go figure.
Will the world be a better place if someone in charge makes sure that more boys play the flute and more girls play the tuba? Do we need to have equal numbers of boys and girls in those activities?
Or, suppose we go back to race, and look at something important–like access to Advanced Placement courses in high school? What does it say about a school culture (or the community the school belongs to), when far more Asian and white students take the AP courses at the local high school than African American students? How do you get the African American (or can I say, “black”?) students into those courses–do you just sign them up? Do you give extra coaching to anyone who’ll show up for it? Do you create sequences of pre-AP courses that belatedly provide the rigor that’s needed, as background to those courses? It’s a lot of work to take such courses (my older child took 8 of them in her career, and I saw the hours she put into them. But then, she’d been putting hours into her schoolwork, in terms of reading books and so forth, for years by then); it’s not just a ‘credential’ that the system hands you for showing up.
You have to be pretty dedicated, in your own mind, to your academic career to want to put yourself in for the hard work of AP courses. Yes, there needs to be a lot of soul-searching about why there aren’t more kids from underprivileged backgrounds doing so. But the first answer shouldn’t be that racist teachers are obviously keeping them out!
KCL (76):
Good post. Two comments:
I think that this is more a result of the missing-fathers. The “whites” are taught that you automatically give respect to a superior by virtue of their position (until they lose it) and you certainly do not have the liberty to disrupt the learning of others. This is necessary in any practical society since teachers and other people don’t have an extended period of time to earn respect. At the very least one should give the teacher the benefit of the doubt. I certainly know that my father would have come down hard on me if I had disrupted a classroom simply because I didn’t respect the teacher!
It’s also hard to talk “man on man” when the teacher is a woman.
Human nature isn’t race-sensitive, it’s pretty well universal. Just because a “white dude” came up with a term doesn’t mean that it doesn’t apply to others as well. In fact, your statement is extremely racist: it implies that white sociologists and philosophers see only their own culture and race and ignore all others.
It also implies that each race/culture must be met solely on its own terms, that there is no common ground. There is also, by this argument, no way that we as a country can have a “common culture” encompassing both blacks and whites (and latinos, asians, etc, etc). This is unfortunate since any society and/or country that does not have a common culture will disintegrate and die in short order.
First of all, we need to stop telling them that it’s “white male values.” It’s not – it’s traditional American values. These values have been proven over centuries by many cultures and are not unique to “white males”. Quite frankly, it seems to me that the only two options are switch or die.
As you yourself said:
Why should a city necessarily disintegrate just because the “wealthy whites” move away? Are you saying that only the “wealthy whites” can hold a society together? Most of those “City leaders” were black, why didn’t they invest in their communities?
If you looked carefully at the occurances during and following Hurricane Katrina you will realize that the Federal government was not to blame for what happened. FEMA’s rule has always been that it would take them 3 to 5 days to show up; the primary responsibility has always lain with the city and state governments to provide first response. Unfortunately it was clear – as exemplified by the unused school buses in New Orleans – that the city of New Orleans and the state of Lousinana were not prepared or ready to perform their duties. [In contrast, look at Mississippi - which was hit just as hard, yet recovered very rapidly. The local authorities were on the ball there]
Suzanne,
One of the best posts I’ve ever read anywhere. Well done. Which proves I can appreciate well honed thoughts and logic, even if I don’t agree with every single concept.
Now back to Delia.
Now please try not be get so uppity with me, and don’t be so insulting. That homey reference struck a painful chord. Like my Uncle used to say, “Denigrating one simple, trying-to-live-a normal-wholesome-life black girl denigrates us all.” My Uncle Otis is so full of good cheer and wisdom. And mom hears he’ll be eligible for parole in six short years.
Regardless, Delia, I hope you’ve gotten up on the right side of the bed today. Gosh, you said some vulgar things to me, and all I was doing was trying to relate were some life experiences.
Permit me to first go back over the great ones, President Obama’s teaching moment with the highly esteemed and respected in teaching circles all around, Henry Gates and that scary looking white Officer Krupke, I mean Crowley.
Our handsome President Obama (how I love to say President Obama the way it just rolls off the tongue) was simply trying to say that police have inculcated racism into their very protocols. It’s what one might call institutional racism.
A black man at night has been negatively reinforced (Pavlovian style) to fear the worst when a gun toting, uninformed, uniformed flash-lighted, badge flashing white cop comes screeching to a halt in front of his house.
The Cambridge officer, obviously of meager intelligence when compared to our President or the good professor, upon sitting down to lunch with Henry Gates and the President should have been quick to profusely apologize and acknowledge his lack of racial sensitivity. Maybe someday Crowley will. Hope is alive is my heart.
Now on to a new subject.
When Democratic leaders go to a town meeting to explain Obama’s wonderful health care program, they deserve respect and rapt attention, not disruptive, overt disagreements (by implication) with the all knowing, all caring Obama created health care plan to insure the 44 million facing every new day without medical insurance.
It’s apparent to the great one, President Obama, that white people have to be re-educated to understand that disagreement is not acceptable.
We won. You lost. Our healthcare plan, which, of course will replace all present private plans has been designed by highly intelligent mostly black legislators to bring a quality of medical care to all Americans, not just the lucky whites with with jobs and employers.
So this teaching lesson is this.
When attending a meeting where black Democratic leaders are present, you have a duty to listen politely like children listen politely to their parents and teachers.
Your black brethren are trying to lead you away from the sins of white private enterprise into a promised land where the Barack led state takes care of, if not all, then most of your needs.
White people must start thinking of President Obama as not just their leader, but as a father figure. He is all knowing and brings with him a kind of wisdom not seen in the white community since Abraham Lincoln.
I hope this helps you to understand why blatant disagreement and vocal criticism not only is counter productive, but un-American in the new Barackian America.
To white people, this all must be new and scary. Think of it like a pair of new shoes. Kind of uncomfortable at first, but soon, after breaking them in, you’ll be happy to walk forward with Professor Gates and the rest of us. United in thought. Devoted to a new belief system.
As one.
Despite the optimism of many conservatives, there are still unhealed racial wounds in this country which are the legacy of the 89 years of legalized slavery in the United States and 100 years of Jim Crow politics (the latter courtesy of our Democrat party). I firmly believe that the most fair and “American” way to get past this sad legacy is to pay reparations at a fixed rate (say $1 million per individual) to every American citizen of sub-Saharan African decsent
born in the United States prior to January 20, 1965. I can’t think of little possible reasoning to justify any payouts to individuals born AFTER the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, and ABSOLUTELY NO justification for any repartions to be paid to those born after the legalized practice of affirmative action came to full fruition in the late 1970s. However, America does have a debt to pay to those who personally experienced our era of government-sanctioned racism…much as our Japanese-Americans deserved reparations for their persecution under the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration (another legacy of shame for the Democrat Party). A payout sum ($1 million at the current inflation rate) would allow each recipient to purchase a quality home in virtually ANY neighborhood in the U.S. and/or have enough seed money to start a sucessful small business or send several children to first-rate universities (or undertake other activites that will enhance their fiscal security and quality of life). Besides the historically-based need for fairness and long-delayed justice that these reparations will address, there is one more advantage to this iniaitive for non-African Americans: It greatly devalues the ‘race card’ defense in this country. When a Black American claims racism as the cause of their personal shortcomings after reparations have been enacted, White Americans can simply ask, “Did you cash the check?” If the answer is affirmative, White Americans will then be completely justified in replying:
“Then why don’t you just STFU?”
No. The American people lost. BIG TIME.
“Your black brethren are trying to lead you away from the sins of white private enterprise into a promised land where the Barack led state takes care of, if not all, then most of your needs.”
OMG! You didn’t just drink the Kool-Aid…you FELL in the whole damned VAT!
You’ve GOT TO BE JOKING.
LMAO!
83. 12-String Infidel,
Not a bad idea but with fugly Barry’s plans for ‘redistribution of wealth’ along with all of his tax-spend-tax-spend-spend-spend-punish-tax-spend-punish plans, well, a million 0bama-bux ain’t gonna go too far. Better make that more like 10 million 0bama bux for people born before 1965. ;p
Interesting article:
WHEN EUROPEANS WERE SLAVES: RESEARCH SUGGESTS WHITE SLAVERY WAS MUCH MORE COMMON THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED
Paul – Thanks for the thoughtful response. For the record, I’m a white woman, hence the “man to man” in quotes. I was speaking of talking to them in a context of mutual respect, not being scolded by the teacher. And yes, it was very frustrating that students didn’t presume respectfulness toward an authority figure. I do think the lack of strong adults in their lives is part of the reason certain kids responded they way they did. However, many of them have adults in their lives, but they are abusive or lack the information or motivation to get these kids on track. That’s not the gov’t's fault or responsibility, but the situation is what it is. I think it would be helpful to discuss ways to encourage these kids. I too got frustrated with the system and the hopelessness. I left to become a stay at home mom, but there’s not a day a don’t think about my students.
I don’t know if that is fair to compare Katrina-era N O with the economic decline of the southern Miss. River region. I agree that the lion’s share of the blame lays squarely on the shoulders of the Blago and Nagen administrations. No Doubt. I think the blame directed at the Bush admin. over Katrina is very unfair. But the distinction between Miss and NO is that the homes and people hardest hit, shouldn’t have lived there in the first place. Heck, the entire city is in a bowl, but the poorest communities who were mostly black were nearest levies/lowest ground.
But blacks had very little power, wealth or influence when commerce slowed. I don’t know if historians can point to a direct timeline, maybe beginning after the Civil War. I think even Mark Twain referenced the Miss River’s decline. Blacks were very poor and still disenfranchised when they began to migrate North to work in factories after WWI. That, combined with segregation laws like Jim Crow, forced blacks into a second-class status. In that context, then I would have to say that the whites that remained in these cities dictated how money and resources were distributed. I guess I should have qualified “city leaders” as elected officials. I look at the story of Medgar Evers as a an example of the that region’s injustice and discrimination toward black people. He was a WW II US Army Veteran who fought for the civil rights of blacks in Mississippi, and he was murdered for it. I remember discovering his grave wandering over to Arlington Nat’l Cemetery after seeing The Silent Drill Platoon at the Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima). It saddened me that only yards from each other there was a beautiful memorial honoring the sacrifices of Marines who died defending our freedoms oversees and the gravesite of a man who died fighting for the civil rights of our own citizens. I just don’t know how to reconcile those two.
Racial Equality will only be achieved when all people stop seeing color.
Having Crowley and Gates over to the White House reminds me of Carter having Arafat and Rabin hang out for peace talks. Only this meeting is on a scale that Obama and Biden can handle within their collective expertise.
From the photos I’ve seen of Crowley and Gates leaving this public display of male affection, Crowley remained the consumate educated, professional gentleman he truly is. He is an exemplary model for the police department he works for, and white men as a whole.
And this demonstrates how small Obama and Biden really are.
Obama’s views are consistent with his belief in cultural Marxism. He follows the muse of Herbert Marcuse. It is an evil muse. More needs to be revealed about that muse to the American people so that they can begin to understand the man that claims to be the President of the United States while embracing the mantra “God Damn America.”
P.S. Laurie Thompson, you are a brat! You totally snookered me with your satire and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. *pinch*
Thanks for the laughs. I owe you one. ;p
#2. Neil, well done. May I have another?
I think this is time to paraphrase vivo: “we’re all racists”. And yes that means you – particularly you, “The Shadow”: Except that this doesn’t fit the meme so comfortably, I suppose.
Obama and Professor Gates have discovered “structural inequality”: brings to mind Ecclesiastes – I wonder how many homilies Pastor Wright devoted to this part of Scripture in Trinity United?
I am sorry folks but you are reading this all wrong. The guys had several brews in the White House in private and the photo shows them on their way to the back yard for the photo op at the picnic table. Obama felt nature’s call and was making a run to the White House Outhouse. Gates was feeling his alcohol and Crowley was helping a drinking buddy down the stairs. A common experience when one of the guys doesn’t hold his liquor that well.
The White House Outhouse is from the Jacksonian Inauguration, Andrew not Michael, apparently Andrew’s mountain buddies were becoming rowdy and the White House staff was afraid the White House was going to be damaged or burned down, so they moved the two whiskey barrels, that were there for the celebration, out on the back lawn and hastily constructed a two seater out house to handle the traffic. The mountain men followed the whiskey barrels out of the White House onto the lawn and the staff locked the doors.
The two seater White Outhouse has been a tradition ever since that day. Now I am not one to make comments, and for those of you who have never used a two seater, it is physically impossible for Michelle to use both seats of a two seater at the same time. If she feels nature’s call while working in the garden she will have to make do with just one seat.