We Have Race on the Brain
6. Politics of Race. Let’s face it—racial politics are primarily a liberal-Democratic domain. A politician or jurist such as Harry Reid, Judith Ginsburg, (on abortion) or Joe Biden gets a pass on insensitive language that an entertainer and commentator like Rush Limbaugh does not. I think the unspoken rule is something like, “I am so clearly progressive that any uncouth slip must be a slip,” versus “He is so clearly not progressive, that any uncouth slip is a window into his flawed soul.” (Note again, that had a white jurist, Sotomayor-like, said “As a wise white man” he would have been disqualified from the Supreme Court, or had he prefaced a speech [30 plus times in a few minutes] with “I am a white guy,” “as a white man,” “we whites,” “I am white,” “I don’t forget that I am white,” we would have nominated him for Klan service rather than the Supreme Court.) (Yes, I know the postmodern apologies about “power imbalance” and “historical contexts,” but this is 2010, not 1965.)
Note too, how liberals are vicious to conservative minorities without worry over sounding racist. Clarence Thomas and Alberto Gonzales learned that. Gonzales was ridiculed by liberals as an affirmative action disaster in a way the far more inept Eric Holder is not. Indeed, the only politically-correct criticism of affirmative action seems to be in the context of a liberal’s efforts to deprecate a conservative Hispanic or black. Only then does “he didn’t earn it” seem to be legitimate discourse.
7. Politically-incorrect realities. When Obama foolishly entered the Skip Gates mess, he was shocked by the public ire. His own sermons on diversity and stereotyping got as much traction as his “clingers” speech or Holder’s “cowards” outburst. Why? Because a majority of Americans of all races feel that if the police do pull over African-Americans more than others it might just be due to statistically higher incidents of criminality, human nature being what it is.
In other words, almost everyone in some sense profiles privately, as I think Jesse Jackson once pointed out. When one walks to the car at night in LA, one takes precautions if the person behind you is black, male, and young, and not so much if Asian, female, and old. Age is a criterion, race another, gender yet another — as well as a general knowledge of average US crime statistics . That tragically is just the way it is.
When Joe Biden and Harry Reid gave their white-guy takes on Obama that he was “clean” and did not have a “negro” accent, I think they were trying to say that to the degree Obama sounded white and acted white, he reassured centrist voters. Everyone expressed ritual shock, and then quietly dropped it.
As liberals, they were exempt from the reaction that a Limbaugh encountered when his similar statements earned him censure from various sporting interests; but, in fact, they were simply echoing many in the black community who complain that those like Obama (who are not celebrities) are “sell-outs” who have to use special accentuation and strained parlance when speaking to black audiences that they are either unaccustomed to or never use elsewhere. (Note CNN Roland Martin’s advice to Obama to go “gangsta” on the opposition — a racialism that would have earned an Imus-like penalty for a non-black commentator.)
How odd that one reverts to the culture and parlance of the inner city to establish fides (like ritual attendance at the pulpit of the unhinged racist Wright), while rejecting those very ideas and values to “make it” in America. Close examination of that mindset will show how condescending, paternalistic and careerist it really is. (Why does not Obama speak in his normal tone when addressing black audiences, in the manner that won him advancement rather than use the parlance that is a hindrance to mainstream success?)
(Hillary, remember, at times changed her cadences and life experiences both to black audiences and to what she thought, as a remote Wellesley graduate, the poor white underclass would like to hear (cf. Obama’s blast that she acted as if she were Annie Oakley).
So where are we? In one sense very far. The United States is a vast multiracial society that, despite multiculturalism, embraces one official language and still shares a common culture. Among the middle classes, race doesn’t matter all that much, and the society is not plagued by endemic racial and religious violence we typically see abroad.
But among the elite, where the lucrative jobs, prestige, and big money are — sports, entertainment, law, academia, medicine, high-power finance, big government and politics — our elites con each other. They often strain to find some sort of ethnic or racial or gender edge over the competition. Most Americans assume racial affinities and go about their business; elite utopians demand there be none — and then prove themselves far more racialist.
If white, the careerist elite professes to be liberal and a diversity proponent while himself conning to rely on his money, background and contacts to nullify the new diversity prejudice. Usually at universities, the white guy top administrator would surround himself with diversity appointments and talk down about the faculty’s lack of diversity. Most ignored the bottled piety and assumed the careerist dinosaur just wanted to survive. The white-guy leftist on television will talk ad nauseam about diversity on the assumption that such preemption shields him from the sort of diversity affirmative action salvo that might knock out his own job.
One of the reasons I liked farming (six contiguous neighbors — two Armenians, one Japanese, one Punjabi, one Mexican, one German) was that action not pretense mattered. And stereotypes were OK, if instantly backed by empirical evidence and if not pressed too far.
In contrast, one reason I disliked academia was that in such a dry, bored self-created landscape, pretense trumped action, and one’s tribe, not one’s essence, was the key to career advancement. I never heard a Mexican neighbor say he was Mexican or an Armenian vineyard grower talk of his vaunted heritage or the German claim privilege — they all succeeded or failed on their own ability, or lack of, to grow food at a profit.
In academic lala land, scholarship and teaching too often came second, bumper-sticker identification first — another sign that with supposed intellectual progress, so often comes moral regress.
There is one other factor which VDH does not mention, and which I believe is far more important.
Because of sloppy semantics and an inability to think logically, progressives have conflated culture with race. Instead, there is a hierarchy of superior/inferior cultures, within any of which can be raised tabula rasa anyone of any genetic makeup. A culture is far more important with respect to outcomes than any secondary variability due to heredity.
A prime example is the self-destructive hip-hop, gangsta subculture foisted off on blacks by progressives (more subtle variations include Eubonics). Any black person who doesn’t buy into this dismal nonsense is reviled as “inauthentic”, an “oreo”, or worse. Rejecting this one subculture could advance the majority of blacks by light-years.
Assuming that there is still a chance to take back this country, Conservatives can gainfully employ this distinction to argue for the supremacy of classically liberal Western culture, to the exclusion of all others. Without this approach or some related plan of attack against multiculturalism and PC thought control, our society will continue to rattle itself apart on the road to national suicide.
“In academia lala land, scholarship and teaching too often came second, bumper-sticker identification first…”
The academic standards have been lowered significantly in the softer sciences since the mid 1960s. And this is of utmost importance: white students have also benefited from participating in the scam job! The affirmative polices that encouraged awarding inflated grades to black students and other politically protected minorities soon became the reality for mostly everybody by no later than 1975. Think about that for a minute. You are now a middle aged individual of fifty-three if you entered college at the age of eighteen in that particular year. The situation has only gotten worse since then. There are far too many people who are invested, directly or indirectly, in the racial spoils game. They do not have the slightest motivation to put an end to this nonsense.
Can you believe we are still talking about race? The USA elected a man with African DNA. We are an enlightened country and electing Pres Obama proves it. Now, quit race baiting all you baiters out there and get on with living. Be a good neighbor and don’t let media decide who you will be, who you will like or dislike, who you will agree with or who you will scorn. This is how Americans live in the daily pots and pans of living. We likely take each event as it happens and respond to people and situations as decent citizens without referring to our DNA first. We just do. Most people try to be good and don’t first wonder if they should refer to some weird set of racist rules. They just do – and it is usually trying to do good. I bet like VDH says, they just use their best abilities to produce the best life possible. And they do this without some knee jerk reference first to their prejudices.
English may be the official language, but even in Nebraska we’ve become a de facto two language country.
While there’s only one Spanish language radio station in Omaha, I understand there are twenty-one in LA.
We are completely Balkanized and it will undermine this country.
VDH: Ahem, bro!
I’ve offered wondered about my Great Grandfather, whose family apparently migrated from Russia to Sweden way back when. There’s a rumor his family was Jewish and also a rumor that he was an illegitimate son of a Swedish noble, or was it a Russian Duke. Of course, the records haven’t been found and it’s also a big pile of “who cares” in so many ways.
There’s great diversity in every-one’s family and in our every day lives. Yet, what defines us are several scrapes of paper, parchment, and not our family genealogy. So, I’m pure American and maybe even pure Yankee but that last might be questionable. Don’t know what that means to me now, still that might be important down the street.
It would be so much better if this phony race crap were thrown over the side even if some of the race hustlers loss their street creds; that would make my day.
If McCain had won, I don’t think we’d be discussing this.
As racist accusations grind on, I’m concerned about a backlash.
Racial relations seemed so good there for a while. Then we learned about First Trinity and then Michelle Obama said, ‘For the first time…’, and ‘…downright mean…’ so maybe improvements in racial relations were just in my imagination.
I wonder what percentage of blacks today think they’re victims. Shut out. Perpetually excluded. After all the conscious effort to include, to favor and to offer a hand up.
As a part-time substitute teacher in CA I see lots of High School students, and have been appalled by the degree of “casual racism” in their language, and their behavior. I hear “He’s Asian, he’s the smart one.” or “I don’t understand this, I”m Mexican.” The stereotypes the kids live with are rigid and uniformly held. The idea that people should be judged based not on their race but on their character is pretty much lost on the students I listen to day after day. They all know exceptions to the stereotypes (the smart Hispanic, the dumb Asian) but this knowledge seems to have little impact on how they think about the people around them.
Dr. Hanson:
With all due respect, I think you need to take a second look at this sentence:
(First sentence, second paragraph under point 7.)
I think you meant “in” instead of “is”.
Doc, you need to ride SF MUNI and all your questions will be answered.
From Austin Powers Goldmember Movie: Nigel Powers says, “All right Goldmember. Don’t play the laughing boy. There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures and the Dutch!”
Professor Hanson, the best remedy for Race-on-the-Brain is joking about it.
Remember how Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra would dig into Sammy Davis Jr., and back and forth? They loved each other! Their jokes and their love broke race barriers.
Today’s Multi-Culti insanity is just that: Pure, anti-reason insanity.
Keith O. on MSNBC has been obsessed with the lack of People-of-Color attending the Tea Parties.
He keeps asking, “Where are they?”
And in doing so he shows his ignorance and the falacy of his logic.
Failure of someone to accept an invitation does not equal exclusion.
Yet, in Keith’s world, if there aren’t enough minorities to go around, then there must be someone keeping them out. The very notion that they may have chosen not to participate is beyond his conprehension.
Mind you his Facts are wrong too, and there are plenty of voices from the “Minority Community” at the tea parties. (Some of them Speak at the Podium, Some of them get beaten up by the SEIU, and some of them have their photo cropped to avoid having the country know that the person toting the guns was black.)
But again, the fact that a minority chooses not to participate does not necessarily stem from an invitation not sent.
I’ve given up looking for sanity from the left. There is none!
jd
3. Baffy:
Can you believe we are still talking about race? The USA elected a man with African DNA.
Oh yes, I can. On lefty websites they’re assuring me it’s worse than ever now, because the eevull white people realize they have to keep it sly, harder to detect — but lethal as ever! You’ll be hearing about “microaggression” and other “subtle” forms of racism.
8. ConservativeWanderer:
Don’t bother. This site has tons of typos, and Dr. Hanson is the king.
We have institutionalized discrimination against white working and middle class Americans. This is a national disgrace. It exists in academia, corporate America and our government and nobody gives a damn.
It has been getting even worse under the Obama’s. Erc Holder thinks that whites should cower in fear of even mentioning this tragedy but then again these immoral, lawless bigots think that our Constitution is “fundamentally flawed”. I guess that includes the 14th amendment.
What would “Reverend” Al, and the double J, Jackson do for a living if they didn’t perpetuate and give life to an issue that is history!?
Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas … I don’t know about anyone else, but they and so many others just simply strike me as solid citizens and exceptional people.
Michael Jordan – Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant alongside Phil Jackson, Drew Brees hands off to Reggie Bush … who is talking about anything other than “what a rivalry”, “great combination”, “those two are a force”?
The multi culti crap in Canada that we have inflicted upon our citizenry has our immigration policy makers rejecting valid applications and processing refugee claims to the extent that the former need not apply, to the countries’ loss.
And all religious satire and depictions in the media are acceptable, except for Muslim cartoons to which an editor, Ezra Levant of Alberta is currently in the midst of fighting a “human rights” board objection.
Tolerance and worldliness are two ideals that cannot be legislated, and are valid and beneficial ways of being to strive towards. To institute these into law and political spheres is bizarre and misguided. To be mindful of them to guide one’s choices and perspectives, is valid.
Divide and rule. Be it through race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, class warfare or socio-economic standings.
Frame the terms and play one group off the other. One of the oldest political tactics in recorded history.
Divide and conquer or divide and rule. It comes down to the same thing. The goal of the liberal/progressive/pc crowd is to rule. If dividing us by race/culture/gender will promote that goal or be seen to do so, they are all for it.
corn head. completely balkanized in Nebraska. the end of the world as we know it. you should try to read some of the things the tribal leaders wrote in the 1800′s. you would be surprised to know that some of your demographics in the Hispanic world are already bilingual, native language and Spanish. the essence of life is to adapt or get left behind. when i was growing up, the music CD’s where made of black vinyl.
“But among the elite, where the lucrative jobs, prestige, and big money are — sports, entertainment, law, academia, medicine, high-power finance, big government and politics — our elites con each other. ”
Did you seriously just lump academia in with finance and politics in terms of lucrative jobs and big money? Maybe in the California system, or if one teaches something esoteric and like greek history. But for the rest of us, teaching subjects like science, I can only wish.
Race matters to people who want it to matter. It does not matter to people who do not care about it. That should be the test. If race matters to someone then that person, for one reason or another, still has unresolved issues. It will never change unless the Supreme Court reverses decades of stupidity and gets rid of the protected classes that is the law of the land. I am all for giving anyone who comes from an economically disadvantaged background a little more help than those that do not, that is a better way to address problems. The law of the land says that Race still matters and until that is addressed it always will.
Race is used by progressives as a tool much like PC to quiet and subdue Americans. They-the elite progressives-never look at themselves when it comes to diversity.
For example, I’d like to know the racial makeup of Sens. Durbin, Kerry, Babs, and others are. Same for the progessives in Congress. I’d like to know how many blacks work with MM, Kos, HuffPo, CAP and other progressive 527s?
I’d like to see calls for more black nightly news anchors of the big three stations. How about more black WH reporters. How many blacks are college/university presidents? Not many. I’d like to see college presidents fire half their white liberal professors all in the name of diversity. See how quickly all those ardent supporters would change. They could care less about diversity-it is only sloganeering and a pass into the elite crowd to support such an idiotic thing.
Oh and if diversity is SO important in education then how come historically black college get a pass? Aren’t their students being cheated of a full education? As much as I hate Bryant Gumble, he’s right about the Winter Olympics and X games–all white.
How come the NFL and NBA are so overwhelmingly black? No calls for diversity there, why?
Affirmative action and race baiting are just tools for the left to get and hold on to voting blocks.
You can thank the Frankfurt School of Marxism for the current state of America’s race relations. When the working class rejected their ideas about a proletarian revolution, the Marxists set out to re-establish their movement based on a new coalition of the so-called powerless and disenfranchised: blacks, gays, women, and other minorities. In short, the contemporary base of the Democratic Party. This is a verifiable fact of history.
The leaders of the Democratic Party soon discovered that sub-groups within the electorate could be easily controlled based on real or contrived grievances. Thus was created fertile ground for demagogues of all stripes. Reverend Wright and his ilk know this strategy all too well.
The antidote for balkanization is a large and thriving middle class. A thoroughly bourgeois society will protect its own interests (mainly property) over any considerations of race or ethnicity. This is why the stated enemy of Marxism is always the middle class. Make no mistake; the Marxist left knows that America’s middle class must be destroyed in order to establish a one party system of rule.
VDH, I love your columns. They make me think, they stretch my paradigms and they are spot on. Thank you for your commentary and insights. Missing amongst all the garbage that flies in academia and our self-proclaimed ‘intelligensia’ is a rare commodity called common sense. We have gotten lost in the ‘Plato” type style of thinking- what if’s and what should be’s. We indulge ourselves in ‘lofty thinking’, whatever the devil that is. Vain and foolish arguements are for the vain and foolish. Give me plain ol’ common sense anytime…
Your point about kids pushing back against things like affirmative action is very true.
My daughter and her friends, who are very nice open-minded 18-19 year olds, are very adamant about the unfairness of this type of treatment. They strongly believe that these types of special treatment are very hypocritical and if anything these actions and lecturing as you point out cause ill feelings toward some “groups” which weren’t there before.
The race thing is a tool for the radical-progressive Democrats to use as a “strawman/red herring” to hammer the Republicans and white Americans with. Pure and simple cruel effort to drive wedges between citizens and fill in the effort with mendacity.
#5 “…There’s a rumor his family was Jewish and also a rumor that he was an illegitimate son of a Swedish noble, or was it a Russian Duke. Of course, the records haven’t been found and it’s also a big pile of “who cares” in so many ways.”
Doug, I am reminded of part of a California folk song I heard sung by Pat Foster many years ago “South Coast”:
“My name is Juan Jano De Castro,
My father was a Spanish Grandee,
But I won my wife in a card game,
So to hell with the lords or’ the sea.”
I am a relatively old (59) guy who has spent most of his life overseas. I could understand the national focus on race in the 60s but find it incomprehensible now. Of the 12 countries where I have lived, the USA is a) the least racist by a comfortable margin and b) the most preoccupied with race guilt.
I am married to a brown Filipina woman and we have a perfect tanned son. At Christmas large family gatherings I am the only white face in the crowd. I view race as something totally irrelevant.
Consequently the national racial hysteria mysitifies me. It is baseless in comparicson to the rest of the world It appears to operate most often in reverse as I see it manifested only FROM minorities, blacks or in fewer cases, hispanics (La Raza) towards their “oppressors.”
While your explanation resonates, it essentially demonstrates incredibly infantile attitutdes about a supposedly serious subject.
I thought that the one good thing that could come from an Obama presidency would be a lessening of our absurd race guilt – or at least the friction associated with it. As you say, it has become worse not better.
It is about time for the USA to get a life on race.
The general American population would have a truly bizarre encounter in Brazil where 100% ethnic Japanese people speak fluent Portuguese and celebrate Carnival with the best Brazilian traditions.
………its “difficult” to discriminate for without discriminating against…..
Let’s see if any of this can sink in. None of you to date have been able to grasp the fact that:
1. A place is not a race. You are white, black or yellow. Other than that you are a mixture but your place of origin is land, not DNA.
2. A religion is not a race. Period. When Catholic or Methodist are races, let me know. As of to date, race is not choice.
3. Spanish is a dialect, not a race.
4. Racism does not discriminate.
5. EVERY ONE SHOULD PRACTICE REVERSE DISCRIMINATION.
And most of all and the very core of the entire stupidity is…..
You are either and American first, or you are nothing in this country.
Yes kids, it is that simple.
Apply the rreality and truth to any problem and it goes away.
DH
Just a quick comment; in this supposed “post racial” world that Barry “O” ushered in we seem to be more racially sensitive then ever. Doesn’t it seem that everyone is walking around on eggshells, afraid to say anything to anyone that might possibly construed as racist? Barry “O” knows this only too well and is eager to milk this to foster diversions which will take attention away from his attempt to turn our country into some sort of third world neo-euro-trash country.
I would start with a reality that began with only one ‘r’ …. ecsoose my pubic edjumication
In regards to #5-
We live in a mixed race area, our local primary school has 35 languages spoken in the homes. There is some mixing, but lots of cultural division – originating within the racial groups not wanting to spend too much time with those outside their own.
When my daughter was 10, she had a girl in school come up to her, and ask her how she liked being white. This greatly upset this sensitive, sweet, girl who had no idea what the question meant. When I asked her what race this girl was, my daughter didn’t know. When I asked her what she looked like, she said she had black hair. My fair, blue-eyed daughter HADN’T noticed a significant difference! (to this day, I don’t know if the girl was hispanic or asian. I figure she would have noticed a great difference in skin color.)
As she got older, her friends were about 50% white/and 50% minorities. (the “asians” were actually the one who were more academically determined, and so was she. Her “white” friends bugged her because they weren’t as dedicated to their studies.) Her best friend from the time she was 12 is Korean, and from college is Indian.
The “lectures” on racial sensitivity the various systems push, are dividing all the groups, not uniting any of them.
Admirable thoughts Prof, Hanson – I think that everyone understands (whether they admit it to themselves or not) that “race” is now a genuine “Big Business” with thousands of careers and billions of dollars at stake. This is a McDonalds-like operation with branch offices in every large corporation, every university, every government agency and every economic enterprise, all operating under anodyne phrases such as “Cultural Affairs” or “Office of Diversity.” These are the sensitivity-specialists and nose-counters whose job it is to sniff out racism, sexism, homophobia(ism?) et. al. like a fanatic 17th Century Puritan cleric rooting out sin. (See Vincent Price in “The Witchfinder General.) There is no presumption of innocencehere but rather a settled, smug and condescending presumption that anyone who is NOT a direct employee or client of the “race industry” is a racist and a bigot. (All Democrats notably ex-KKK honcho Sen. Robert Byrd qualify as “clients”) And all of this is supported by billions in state/federal grants and foundation support that insure that the race machine is well-fed, well-staffed and well-propogandized. I can well understand why today’s crop of “diversity” experts must still viciously and falsely claim that “racism is still endemic in the U.S.” Without that charge everyone would see them for the ridiculous mountebanks that they really are.
Of course we have “race” on our brain. “Race”; as an issue, is being crammed down our throats on a daily basis. I cannot look at any news outlet any day of the week and not see some story about race, or some racial injustice outrage. It’s in your face every day. The leftoid MSM will never be happy with letting black people be black, or white people be white. While we are all Americans, we have to be aware of the fact that we DO have cultural differences. We have long ago accepted that Protestants are different from Catholics, why can’t we accept that whites and blacks are different from Mexicans? Blacks, however seem to want to be the same as whites. Hispanics insist on being recognized as different by virtue of maintaining a separate language. Asians are also guilty of being in the same box, go to certain parts of town and you will hear Chinese, Japanese, or Korean spoken on a daily basis, although not so much. How often to you have to “Press 1″ for English when dialing a large company or government phone number? Your other option is always Spanish, never French, Russian, German, or Swahili.
Every thing is about “race”.
How could you ever forget it? Race is a money maker in this country. If you forget that fact in public you might find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.
‘sway it is.
We Have Race on the Brain
Very nicely done.
Racial Equality vs Affirmative Action;
Mind-altering Federal cognitive dissonance.
Employment applications are my Fav example:
We do not discriminate…fill in EEO data :)
_Wildly_ hypothetical -PC question:
If Agent Smith convinced Rev. Wright that
he was living in The Matrix, and offered
to let him switch places with the young,
handsome, rich, white, KKK chieftain of
his choice, would RW take the deal ?
See? It is not about race, but class.
EXCELLENT ESSAY VDH …thank you.
a victim needs enablers or there isn’t much point in being a victim.
The only people that I have encountered that seem to be racists are self-hating white liberals (who introducted multiculturalism to Canada) Moslems (of all races) and blacks. I have never heard blatant racism come from the mouths of anyone else.
Alas. the road to hell is often paved with good intentions! Hubert Humphrey wanted to eliminate racial (and other) discrimination in private employment so he got through Congress, with the help of (President Lyndon Johnson, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII. This not only made it against the law to use racial criteria in private employment but established “vested interests,” as Humphrey put it, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) to administer this law. These vested interests, following Parkinson’s Law, have violated that law, and the provision against the use of racial (and other) quotas, and have established the practice of racial (and other) discrimination in employment and education.
(This law was itself a violation of the Constitution, trying to regulate private employment. It was also utopian, assuming that “government” would be omniscient, knowing universally what merit in employment would be.) This is the source of all the obsession with race Hanson describes.
Just wanted to second Charles Stevens’ and David Thompson’s comments #1 and #2.
Gee, I didn’t realize I was such an a hole.
“Race is used by progressives as a tool much like PC to quiet and subdue Americans.”
It’s been my contention that when race is injected more and more often into the discourse by “progressives” it’s because they’re intellectually lazy. Rather than examine why another may disagree with them on just about any issue based on the issue itself, they just chalk it up to racism on your part (because we have a black president in case you didn’t notice). The very fact that they brought it up first means you deliberately tried to avoid it and that, too, makes you a racist.
Pardon me for not caring about race. I’m with Steve MacDonald (27), except my spouse is a different hue from a different country and we’ve lived here most of our lives now. As far as I can tell; ethnicity and national origin haven’t hindered us in any way in this country. I could cite trivial examples otherwise in her country, but I’ve seen worse elsewhere.
Politicians can turn anything into a problem, and the solution always costs more than it is worth to anyone except them.
I have two observations to make. First, as someone born after 1980, I attest to the frustration my generation feels with the academic, for lack of a better term, obsession with race. Now, I grew up in New Hampshire which is still relatively sane. We grew up with an, I’ll admit, somewhat homogeneous population. We had a few minorities (two black kids, a few hispanics, and a family of Jews. Most everyone else was Irish, French-Canadian, Italian, or some combination thereof.) We all got along and any enmity between people was based upon them being jerks rather than anything racial. Although we did make fun of peoople based upon their heritage, but we were equal opportunity offenders. None of us could understand the obsession the older generation had with race, or why there needed to be an affirmative action. The two black girls in the school were both straight A students and regularly had the best grades in the school. It never made sense to us.
Hopefully, my cohorts weren’t poisoned in college (went to art school myself).
Secondly, as an American of Irish descent, why don’t I get special treatment? During the 19th century, there No Irish Need Apply signs all over the country. We couldn’t get jobs, couldn’t own property, most people wouldn’t do business with us when we tried to make out on our own. Why isn’t there a quota for me to make up for what my ancestors had to go through?
Dark Helmet
I don’t think you’ve been reading the comments.
Something went terribly awry.
Obama’s Race Speech was to have healed us.
Just watch Sally Quinn as she tingles after hearing The One’s words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClutOJ_-Htk
(You might want anti-emetic meds before viewing)
This post is not about race, but about Obama’s style. Watching the HC summit, I just can not believe how arrogant he is. The man has no deal making skills whatsoever. The only thing he does is lecture and in a very haughty way. Watch how he treats the courteous Mc Cain who brings up the very valid point of preferences for certain states
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-to-mccain-the-elections-over/
Professor Hanson-
I try to never miss an article….This is your best in recent memory. Please….you keep them comming, and I will keep reading.
My wife is American of mexican heritage and I’m American of jewish heritage, we tell all our friends that our kids are Jewxicans! But in reality We tell our kids they are AMERICAN first. It seems to me that the people who want to keep racism alive and well in the USA are trying to keep their pockets full of money. VDH is right the kids these days are tired of hearing the race card. I coach and teach in Los Angeles, my classes and teams are so diverse that these kids do not blink an eye about what color their friends are. The Elite need to wake up and stop this nonsense. We the commoner need to step up and stop supporting/electing these race baiters to office.
Funny thing, the biggest hate mongers Ive ever met are all on the left. I personally have a wife whose parents are immigrants from the Phillipines(my wife is american born) and she always lived in mostly white midde class neighborhoods. Ask my wife-shes always said she personally encountered more rascism from other minorities rather than whites. Same with my own biracial children, Ive heard especially blacks say some really ugly things to them. Frankly, I dont think I need any lessons in race relations from racists. Van Jones(total ahole) lecturing ANYONE on race? Give me a break. Julian Bond-whos HE to talk about racism, racist loser. Obama, the guy who called the white cop names rather than his racist black professor? Funny how its ALWAYS blacks complaining about the SAME THINGS they did 50 years ago and who do they elect? RACISTS.
Democrats were the party that invented Jim Crow laws that circumvented Republican Reconstruction in the old South. Historian Eric Foner calls the KKK the military force of the Democratic Party. Democrats cannot get race and ethnicity out of their brains. It is a very old habit which they wield now like a weapon to bash the political opposition. In many cases race is an anomaly- why is Obama called black? His mother was white and he was raised culturally white. Tiger Woods is half-Asian. Conservatives should take the lead in leading Americans to consider race irrelevant. Liberals will never do it.
We are the HUMAN ‘race’.
Ethnicity, biology and DNA only separate us by a few bits.
What ‘culturally’ separates American blacks from American whites is the simple fact that the negro was taken from the tribe and sold into slavery not all that long of a time ago and therefore there is a lot of ‘tribal’ mentality in the black ‘culture’ to this day. The ‘black on black’ crime is representative of black Africa. In the USA, blacks come together as ‘bloods’ but in reality, these many blacks who were bought and sold from Africa were tribal enemies and would have had each other’s throats in Africa’s past and even present settings.
To consider someone a ‘brutha’ by ‘color’ alone is racist in and of itself.
Ahhh, but only the ‘white man’ is racist. You know, that blue eyed, fair skinned, light-haired person who is actually a minority when you count him/her worldwided. Brown eyes are ‘common’. Blue eyes are not. Brown skin is ‘common’, pale skin is not. Fair hair is uncommon, dark hair is not.
Did it ever occur to anyone that the reason white people are considered the ideal of beauty is because they have the most symmetrically even features out of all the ethnicities and they have the ‘rarity’ of beauty factor via their pale skin and pale eyes?
46. Catherine:
“Something went terribly awry. Obama’s Race Speech was to have healed us.”
What went wrong is you didn’t pay attention.
“This week the Internet is alive with a tape of an elderly white Vietnam veteran duking it out with an African-American bully on an Oakland bus….”
Not quite. The Viet vet is 67 and nowhere near decrepit. He’s more than a head taller than the “African-American bully” and must outweigh him by at least 100 pounds. If you listen to the tape, or even read the transcript, it’s obvious that the vet saw easy pickins and goaded the black man into a fight.
In reality we can’t really consider the U.S. to be “post-racial” until you see no self-segregation in the prisons.
It is important to note that the statements attributed to Mr. Limbaugh were completely fabricated:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100013647/the-rush-limbaugh-media-lynch-mob/
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjY5NzliM2M0ZGJiZjdhNjUxMTcyNzcyNzA2ZWE1NDI=
51.mhr, here here! See Gran Torino. Clint Eastwood has taken up the call. A hilarious parody of race, with a crusty white American widower, played by Eastwood, ironically with a Polish surname, living in the midst of immigrants and gangs. His neighbourhood having gone to rat____, he takes charge and gives the young Korean boy next store some tough love in being a man.
A great flick parodying the race issue and a great laugh.
In California history the ethnic group which suffered the most discrimination has been the Chinese. And while others obsess about race, they just focus on success in school and work. While my friends of Chinese heritage never mention the past injustice, I find it odd how “affirmative action” has been, and continues to be, used to discriminate against them.
As for my friends who emigrated from south of the border, they all would be appalled if the Southwest ever reverted back to Mexico.
mhr, most people do find race irrelevant.
Why else would we have people from all walks of life in political, educational, engineering, militarily.. leadership positions?
My friend’s kid watches, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ t.v. program and the winner of the program was a deserving, talented black kid. America is more color blind than politicians would rather lead us to believe.
FSU’s football player Myron Rolle was the winner of a Rhodes scholar in late 2008. Mr. Rolle is an amazing athlete, man for ALL to emulate.
The bus incident in Oakland was perpetuated by 2 stupid people who were egged on by more stupid people. The failure I saw in that scene was not ONE person tried to stop, intervene in the matter.
Relying on politicians to ‘shoot it to you straight’ or ‘solving’ anything is inept servitude to politicos/ ideologues.
Every human being is a descendant of Lucy, whose skeleton was unearthed by Mary Leaky in the famous Olduvai Gorge in Africa. We all have Lucy’s DNA. Under KKK rules, having Lucy as our common mother makes every single human being a N—–r. All human beings are members of the same minority group – we are all black Africans.
Slavery has been very common for all of history. Every human being, if he/she traces his family tree back to Lucy will discover that at least one of his ancestors was a slave. Therefore, the Queen of England, the Emperor of Japan, every human being is descended from slaves.
I run a tanning salon and my customer are white women who want to get a black as possible. Black is beautiful because we are all born black. The Progressives want to shut me down because I am destroying animosity among races.
The enemies of our country hate us because we are rich and free and powerful. They want to destroy us. But they are poor and powerless. To destroy us they must first divide us. And because they are too stupid to study history, they have divided us into “races” even though we are all one race. They call themselves Progressives because of the Progress they’ve made in destroying the American dream.
Delia,
I had not planned to add my two cents but I just can’t help myself. I have read PJMers spout on about how they are not racist, the progressives are. You talk about how you don’t say racist things; you give the outward impression of acceptance. Then every once in a while someone says something that flies in the face of what you say. Delia, I have often read comments from you stating that there is only the human race. You have often objected to the hyphenated American manner in which several people of various ethnic groups refer to themselves and it seems that you truly see people as people. Then you wrote: “Did it ever occur to anyone that the reason white people are considered the ideal of beauty is because they have the most symmetrically even features out of all the ethnicities and they have the ‘rarity’ of beauty factor via their pale skin and pale eyes?”
First, is there a study validating your claim about the symmetry of the “white” face? As to the beauty factor of pale skin and eyes…. the reason this is considered “ideal” is because beauty is subjective. The reason this image is considered “ideal” is because European cultures have been dominate through out the world and the rules of beauty established by European cultures were adopted by the cultures that were assimilated by European cultures. When people of color are considered beautiful, they tend to have features that are very similar to the statues of Greek gods, the model for western beauty.
I preface my next statement by saying that I am humanbeing first, American second, and somewhere down the list of descriptors that help define who I am, I identify myself as being a black man. I am not one to “race bait” but your comment is an example of soft racism. In one breath you say, “Ethnicity, biology and DNA only separate us by a few bits,” and in the next breath you imply superiority of whites in your justification for why whites are considered more beautiful; whether you mean to or not you intended this consequence, that is how I and many others would characterize your statements.
About the whole “tribal enemies” explanation for black on black crime, are you suggesting that blacks have some metaphysical connection with their tribal pasts and can sense the presence of an ancient tribal enemy, and then draw lines along those ancient judges in the form of gangs? I will grant you that Tribalism did facilitate the slave trade in that more powerful tribes preyed on weaker tribes, sellin them to Eurpoean traders for superior wares and weapons. But your explanation for violence in the black community is far too simplistic. A break down in the Black family structure, a turn a way from the traditional values of the church, and an increasingly materialistic society that emphasizes individual comfort coupled with a sense of helplessness is to blame for black crime statistics. (I’m not making excuses here I am simply stating it plainly. Black people have to address these issues, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get over it. I share the conservative irratitation over learned helplessness.)
David Sheedy,
You need to go watch the “Gran Torino” again. You missed the idea that Eastwood’s character learned as much about his neighbors as he taught the Asian boy who is Vietnamese, not Korean. Eastwood’s character fought in the Korean War. The movie is great because it teaches us to look at the soul of the man, not take it so personally when someone says something that is incensiive out of a lack of understanding or poor word choice. So with that said, to Delia, I do not think less of you for your comments, I will assume you meant no offense. I have found your comments to be for the large part enlightening. I point out my objection to your words in an attempt to further racial harmony.
53. skeeziks:
“What went wrong is you didn’t pay attention.”
Reread the transcript from the anointed one’s speech.
I am healed! Thank you! Thank you!
Blacks murder people at more than twice the rate whites do. Three times as many black babies are born out of wedlock as white babies.
Whether Jesse Jackson likes it or not, those two statistics are not about white people. Those statistics are about rampant immorality in the black community.
Maybe that’s why a lot of white people are sick and tired of being lectured about our “racist” views and actions.
Steve McDonald @post 27 said: “I view race as something totally irrelevant.”
It is a most nihilist statements ever. The Bible condemns miscegenation. God created Races at the Tower of Babel.
Marxism and Freemasonry both deconstruct race in order to rebuild the Tower of Babel. America is a Masonic creation and in the last one hundred years, thru political correctness, has become Marxist.
The Old Order is based on Race. To attack the Old Order is nihilism. And to say that race does not matter is about deconstructing the Old Order.
America being a “Novus Ordo” has to be rejected. It is the seat of world revolution. A true conservative upholds Race. “Belonging and volkenhass is the glue that holds nations together”. Political correctness is Marxist ideology about deracinating people.
The whole subject is a study in absurdity.
Diversity and tolerance is celebrated, but 98% of Blacks voted for the candidate who looks like them. 12 months after the country elected a multi-racial, undeclared Marxist president, 70% of the population is labeled racist, because we protest when the truth comes out. Meanwhile white progressives tolerate no political doctrine but their own.
The Civil Rights movement was about equality. But now every process is rigged to give unfair advantages to people with the correct skin color, even if they lie about it. The end result is mediocrity, at best. A man with an embarrassing intellect becomes Attorney General of the country. Maxine Waters is allowed to lecture Ben Bernacke. But a principled genius like VDH becomes a marginalized political commentator.
Everybody agrees that racism is a horrible thing, but we allow Black people to be virulently racist. The Cambridge Police Officer, an acknowledged example of racial tolerance is branded a racist by a black president. The officer’s hate-filled racist accuser is granted the highest honors our most prestigious university can give.
We lavish gifts and advantages on people to “equalize” their opportunities in life. They spit in the eye of the generosity with an out-of-wedlock rate of 70% and a culture dominated by criminal rappers.
Hundreds of other examples can be cited.
I’ve had enough of it. They can call me whatever they want. I don’t care. Like everything else with the progressives, their slurs are contemptable lies.
Allowing them to do this to the country is like allowing your child to control your home. If you do that, you are a fool. Our country is filled with fools because we allow it. The clownish idiot Holder was correct that we are cowards, not because we don’t talk about the subject, but because we don’t put a stop to the hypocrisy and destructive behaviors. And black adults, if there are any outside a few thousand conservatives, would be ashamed, if they had any shame.
The politics of race is really about big business in 21st century America. Corporations and businesses are forced to contract with specialty companies to offer them diversity training. Large companies realize that it would cost them more in bad publicity and lawsuits if they did not succumb to this type of extortion. People like Sharpton, Jackson and so many others figured out the game long ago and have profited enormously. Martin Luther King would be appalled if he were alive today.
The same thing can be said with the whole global warming frenzy. It does not make a difference if global warming is real or not. Lots of money has been invested into the whole green game and those investors are not going to see their investments tank
As a teacher who has taught students from around the world, I must assert that, ufortunately, American blacks are the most racially-concious and hostile toward others not like them. It is sad and plays into stereotypes, but it is true. A big reason urban schools fail are because black students and their parents are not willing to work with white teachers. I’m sure white welfare workers and cops will say the same about their clientele.
Another sad fact: It is not allowable to point out this racist attitude without being called a racist yourself. Although I do not allow it without a negative consequence, I’ve heard other teachers say, “If I had a dollar for everytime a student calls me racist…”
PIMF. Please change that “are” in the 3rd sentence to “is.” Sheesh!
@56: the Asians in Gran Torino are Hmong, a montagnard culture from the Southeast Asian peninsula, not Koreans. The movie is quite explicit about this – guess you weren’t paying attention. The Korean and Hmong cultures are about as different as two cultures can be, with respect to food, language, level of economic development, and just about everything else, although both belong to the same “race”. Come to think of it, that’s another good argument against the obsession with “race” – the differences between ethnic groups within a “race” are of much greater magnitude than the differences between races – hence the absurdity of lumping Norwegians with Albanians, or Luo (1/2 the ethnicity of our beloved leader) with Pygmies.
Black militant racists are the Establishment in African American Studies Departments.
Radical militant misandrist feminism is the Establishment in Women’s Studies Departments.
Racist La Razans are the Establishment in Chicano-Latino Studies Departments.
This is what the Left supports.
Left of Centre, 62. You’re right. ;-)
I should see the movie again.
As far as thepoint being, that the movie is a praody of the race issue, and indeed that it is about the soul of any human being rather than some ethnic detail, who really did get the main idea of this film!?
And as for your detail, Left, # 70. Johnyaya, has cleared it all up. Very interesting, and if they’d have me, I’d be delighted to get an invite for dinner sometime. I will watch the movie again. I need to get the details on the Hmong – they’re great! I need a goke laugh too….
The next time I hear (particularly amongst Europeans), that there’s really no difference between Canadians and Americans, what should I conclude?
Progressives’ main modus operandi – “I’m going to prove you wrong,
therefore I’m right”. A less than useless exercise.
So, you’re right, Left. Hope you feel better.
Johnyaya,
” Come to think of it, that’s another good argument against the obsession with “race” – the differences between ethnic groups within a “race” are of much greater magnitude than the differences between races – hence the absurdity of lumping Norwegians with Albanians, or Luo (1/2 the ethnicity of our beloved leader) with Pygmies.”
Well put.
David,
I thought a comment page was intended to be a place of open debate and that by placing a comment on this page one is inviting comments, whether another agrees or not. My modus operandus is to add to the debate. If you considered a position you have not considered before, then I am a happy. In answer to your your question about Candaians and American being no different, I would politely let her or him know that the or she is lacking understanding, if it mattered enough to me to say respond at all.
Peace
Left, @73, you took the bait didn’t you…
My answer to “who really did get the main idea of this (Gran Torino) film?” is both of us.
How about I just say, you’re Right. ;-)
As for ethnicity, cultural differences, and national pride, all can be a very defining and positive aspect of one’s life, and I agree with you that it doesn’t warrant any response at all – except maybe one to generate some laughs.
What is so dominant in these comments is how this issue is manufactured in political debates, and non existent amongst all populations. Yet, we are being told it’s an issue.
“66. proreason:
The whole subject is a study in absurdity…” says it in one line, and provides very strong support to the argument.
There really are very important issues to handle that are of far greater consequence than one that is fabricated for political tactics.
David @74,
I took it hook line and sinker. You got me. Point taken.
Inalso agree with your response to 66. I just wish I knew how to solve the issue. The are far too complex for one answer solutions. I will say this, I am going to make a promise to myself to call my own when they are being ridiculous. I will call my black peers on it when they are being too sensitive, playing race card for selfish purposes, and doing what I can to influense black youth positively. I will also call our anyone who operates from stereotypes or bigotry, including those who look like me.
I’m done. I have wasted enough of my time. Thanks for the smiles.
Left o’ center @76, your perspective is one I think more of all of us share.
And, anything but a waste of time.
Did we not just completely diffuse a false issue that is played up all over the place? We did indeed… you did, and many others on these pages, from all walks of life, professions, backgrounds, and political stripes.
By the way, Stephen Colbert had a geneticist on to illustrate we are all ultimately related. There were 12 famous people on the show, Kristy Yamagouchi, a black professor from Stanford (and the anecdote is passed on to me by a friend, so unsure who else), and 11 of the 12 were shown to be genetically related by going back 9 generations.
It was very interesting. The professor from Stanford, who happened to be very dark, was shown to be related to Steven Colbert. The geneticist was able to describe characteristics of each person, by referring to the base genes, of which there are 2 – lactose intolerance, non-sensitivity to caffeine, diseases common through each families past, and many other characteristics.
You can imagine, that each person on the show was blown away by being told so much about their likes, dislikes, and personal family history by a virtual stranger, all through DNA.
So, if we want to pour cold water on this moronic issue of race, this is one very valid way to do it … and add in some humour, and we’ve got the ingredients of all being a lot closer in our perspectives, having some great laughs, and quashing this very tired and corrosive discourse perpetuated by political types at the expense of many.
Good to chat with you (if you happen to see this post).