Shot in the Dark

“Dialog On Race”, Part II – My Term, Your Term

One of the biggest problem in trying to “talk” about “race” with people – mainly but not exclusively with the white liberals who try to control so much of the “debate” – is that while it is human nature to be a racist, a sexist, a classist…a me-ist, in short, is the same problem one always encounters when dealing with people whose fundamental approach to life is idealistic, rather than pragmatic (and what is a liberal but an arrested idealist?); the definition of “racism” becomes less a matter of “lynchings” and “detritus of slavery” and “lack of opportunity”, and more a matter of “failure to adhere to some inhumanly-obtuse standard of purity in thought”.

William Raspberry – in a column that appeared nearly two decades ago, long before the online era – allowed that the former version of racism was dead, and was manifested (as of about 1991) primarily in the sort of ignorance that is, to a modestly secure person, more or less irrelevant.  Now, as I noted the other day, the aftereffects of institutional racism are still with us – mainly, in my humble opinion, in the devaluation of the male, especially the father, in black society.  And there’s a “racism of low expectations” that operates in our welfare system and in our schools, to be sure.  Those are sins of arrogance, political hubris and institutional stupidity (I’ll be charitiable), though, not of racial malevolence; as partisan as I am, I’m not going to say “the Department of Education and the Klan are different sides of the same coin”.

So dialog me this;  does anyone actually think there’s not less racism – defined as “active ractial hatred” – today than there was 50 years ago?  If not, how so?
Bonus question:  If your answer is “yes”, can you show me a society in all of history that has done as much to repeal human nature, as fast as our society has?

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Mitch Berg

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22 responses to ““Dialog On Race”, Part II – My Term, Your Term”

  1. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    There’s no question, Mitch. A lot of progress has been made over the past 50 years. Almost all of which was accomplished despite the determined opposition of political conservatives.

  2. nate Avatar
    nate

    Not sure there IS less racial hatred, Mitch. I keep reading new stuff dug up from Rev. Wright’s teachings. It’s explicitly racial. It’s quite hateful. And I keep reading that it’s mainstream stuff in the Black community.

    Apparently there’s a great deal of residual racial hatred, but it’s running from Blacks toward Whites instead of the other way around.

    .

  3. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    nate, many big city newspapers have either on staff or iviasyndication the columnst whose role is to be the “angry black guy”. The Milw Journal has the perfect one…he’s angry and let’s it be known in every column.

    AC, here’s what liberals have done lately for the African-American community:
    They have declared that blacks love crack cocaine, so had the prison terms reduced to allow the crackheads to be unleashed onto the black community.

    I lived at one time in a town with a lot of white trash. The last thing I would want are a bunch of methheads put into my neighborhood.

  4. nate Avatar
    nate

    For me, the sad part of the last few weeks is realizing how dissimilar is my outlook in life from the people who live down the street from me.

    When the counter clerk at Burger King screws up my order, race isn’t the first thing I think of. I don’t assume she’s screwing with me because she hates the fact that I’m a short, fat, middle-aged white man; and I don’t assume she’s screwing up because she’s a Black and therefore an idiot.

    I just assume it’s a case of Shit Happens (or more likely, teen-aged obliviousness). We get the order fixed and we move on.

    But apparently, there’s a large segment of my community that really, truly believes I’m out to get them; that I spend my days dreaming up new ways to hurt them, rob them of the just benefits of their efforts, and prevent them from succeeding. Naturally, they resent me for it.

    Seriously, that’s disturbing to me. I, personally, have never owned a slave, beat a Black woman, sold drugs to a Black child. Why hate me?

    I don’t think there’s enough conversation about how much Black people hate White people, and the reasons for their hatred.

  5. Fulcrum Avatar
    Fulcrum

    Chuck incorrectly stated: “They have declared that blacks love crack cocaine, so had the prison terms reduced to allow the crackheads to be unleashed onto the black community.”

    Actually Chuck, I think what you are referring to may be changes to unequal punishment for cocaine possession:

    “Under current federal law, someone caught with five grams of crack cocaine gets a certain five-year sentence — while someone would have to be in possession of 500 grams of the white, powdered cocaine to trigger the same mandatory prison time.”

    So, you can have one hundredth of a pound of crack and you get a mandatory 5 year sentence, but it will take possession of over one pound of powdered cocaine to receive the same penalty?

  6. Badda Avatar
    Badda

    And???

  7. Yossarian Avatar
    Yossarian

    I, personally, have never owned a slave, beat a Black woman, sold drugs to a Black child.

    Obviously, you have to get out more; broaden your horizons.

  8. Badda Avatar
    Badda

    Did you see AC’s skirt billow up over his face when trying to answer the question?

    You should be a Left-Leaning politician, pally.

  9. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    Fulcrum, you are only half correct. What the left said was the the terms for crack were more harsh then those for powdered cocaine, AND most of those who smoke crack are African-American.

    A) That is racist (imagine the outcry if a white group would have said that those who shoplift are primairly African-American)

    B) If it is true, then we are doing the black neighhorhoods a favor by removing the crackheads.

  10. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Gee, Chuckwagon, didn’t know the Bush Justice Department and Supreme Court were a bunch of dirty librals. Guess when you’re just to the right of Mussolini everybody looks like a leftist pansy.

  11. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    didn’t know the Bush Justice Department and Supreme Court were a bunch of dirty librals

    When they’re wrong, we call it “Liberal in effect”.

    Hope that clears things up for ya.

  12. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    Mussolini was a liberal. Apparently you haven’t read Jonah Golberg’s “Liberal Facism” yet…..or are you waiting for the pop-up book version of it?

  13. Badda Avatar
    Badda

    AC gets trounced yet again.

    So, how’s that “war” against “morons” going, AC? 😆

  14. joelr Avatar
    joelr

    I used to think that issues of race in America could benefit from open and honest discussion. These days, I’m thinking Pat Moynihan had it right decades ago, and as much as possible, I practice benign neglect, except when it comes to bigots of great prominence — like Wright and Duke, say.

  15. Fulcrum Avatar
    Fulcrum

    Chuck, I am not sure who on the left is saying these things, but maybe they are saying that those who are in jail for crack dealing are primarily african-american, because research seems to indicate the majority of crack users are caucasian.

    # The US Sentencing Commission found in its 1997 report that “nearly 90 percent of the offenders convicted in federal court for crack cocaine distribution are African-American while the majority of crack cocaine users is white. Thus, sentences appear to be harsher and more severe for racial minorities than others as a result of this law. The current penalty structure results in a perception of unfairness and inconsistency.”

    Source: US Sentencing Commission, Special Report to the Congress: Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy (Washington, DC: US Sentencing Commission, April 1997), p. 8.

  16. Badda Avatar
    Badda

    Too bad that the research doesn’t have legal powers then.

  17. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    Fulcrum, I haven’t really been following the crack issue that closely. I only know what I read (scanning more accurately) in the newspapers. But from your source, it looks like crack dealers tend to be African-American. Users then are more white.

    Let’s use the same analogy. If most of the meth pushers are white, and their victims black, I would love to see extra harsh sentences for meth dealers. I would not say that it has a negative impact on the white trash-American community.

  18. angryclown Avatar
    angryclown

    Badda asked: “So, how’s that “war” against “morons” going, AC?”

    Not so good, Badda. You guys are too stupid to know when you’re KIA.

  19. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    “research seems to indicate the majority of crack users are caucasian.”
    Despicable.
    First, ‘majority’ is meaningless. The country is not half black and half white. Second, if anyone is a victim here it is the addicts, not their well-heeled pushers.

  20. Badda Avatar
    Badda

    Hmmm, AC… that sounds like you’re perpaps failing to identify the target.

    Boy, does he keep hitting himself with friendly fire! Ouch!

  21. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    You guys are too stupid to know when you’re KIA.

    Which is a definition of “heroism” in many respects.

    You’re welcome.

  22. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    angryclown said:

    “There’s no question, Mitch. A lot of progress has been made over the past 50 years. Almost all of which was accomplished despite the determined opposition of political conservatives.”

    I am curious about what points angryclown is counting as progress, and what among them that “political conservatives” as a group have opposed.

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