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Where Is the Black Silent Majority?
“Most black people know that George Floyd is no more representative of blacks than Derek Chauvin is of police officers. They know that the frequency of black encounters with law enforcement has far more to do with black crime rates than with racially biased policing. They know that young black men have far more to fear from their peers than from the cops. And they know that the rioters are opportunists, not revolutionaries.” — Jason Riley
In his WSJ article, Jason Riley referred to a quote from Daniel Patrick Moynihan where he wrote that there “is a silent black majority as well as a white one” and that “it shares most of the concerns of its white counterpart.”
Jason Riley is a man of wisdom, and he happens to be black. But his comment surprised me. Perhaps the majority of black people can see through the lies and distortion of information about law enforcement and the black community. But if that’s true, I continue to be puzzled by the loud voices of what Mr. Riley calls the black minority, and how they seem to be driving the agenda of black Americans.
I know that old habits are hard to break, such as the black community voting for Democrats. But many of us expect that more black people will begin to publically act like they share more values with the greater community than with the extreme. How much longer will they justify their support of Democrats? When will they have reached their limit in tolerating the black extremists? When will they finally act like they understand that the Democrats despise them and expect them to vote for them? When will they decide that they are alone at the ballot box and no one can stand over them and force them to vote against their own interests?
I think the time is now.
Published in Group Writing
I guess you have a valid point regarding empathy. Democrats have held complete control over major American cities for more the half a century just by saying they have empathy, whether real or not.
Never? I posit that you have no clue what will happen in the second or third American Republic. But, as for this one, I suspect you are correct.
I like a lot about Tio Hardman’s position in stopping violence in their own neighborhoods, but I think trying to work with BLM is a bad idea. BLM leadership is all about violence.
I’m not sure that’s true, @arvo. I think a big part of the problem is that the media doesn’t want them to know we care. Trump talks all the time about caring about the blacks in Chicago, for example. Tim Scott is ranting about the Dems not working with us, quoting the bible. How would you see empathy being demonstrated by us?
@susanquinn, exactly! Trump’s Super Bowl commercial was targeting Black voters with empathy for the incarcerated! Pre-Covid, he was showing some movement in this space that other Republicans could not. Trump, support him or not, made people feel like he cared way more than Hillary could, and that’s how he won. The people that moved to him felt like they hadn’t mattered, but they mattered to Trump.
For me, we walk the dogs down the street. We say “Hi” to the Black man sitting in his garage. We say, “Crazy what’s going on, right?” He tells us about his experience, that he didn’t even know a white person until college, that his college was integrated but everything at the college was segregated, and we also learned that somehow he lived in this little subdivision for 40 years, but didn’t know the white people who had been there almost as long.
Made us sad.
Considering blacks are being killed – even black cops – then yes.
The Democratic Party was once home to the great bulk of Catholic ethnics and blue-collar families. By 1972, the party became to be dominated by anti-American, lefty, pro-abortion etc factions that had open contempt for non-elite white people. With the exception of the anomalous Reagan, the GOP was not appealing. For traditional Democrats at least there was some local patronage even if the national Democratic Party was becoming hostile. In 1988, Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt, and Al Gore suddenly discovered that despite unambiguous pro-life records, they were really pro-choice all along because by then there was no way an anti-abortion candidate could win the nomination. In 1992, Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey (not to be confused with his empty-suit kneejerk liberal son the senator) was denied the opportunity to speak at the convention because he was the last of the pro-life, pro-labor, pro-welfare Democrats. The old-time Democrat who seeks to represent and defend the values and sensibilities of the non-rich, non-woke white voter and his black counterpart is extinct.
White unionized workers, cops, firemen, and their kin would probably love to vote for an old-time Democrat who shared their values and was sensitive to their programmatic preferences. White bread Republicans like McCain and Romney don’t resonate with that demographic on policy (aren’t there some solutions other than rhetoric about entrepreneurship and proposed 2.5% cuts in the rate of increase in federal spending?) not do they seem eager to aggressively defend traditional sensibilities in the culture wars.
Black voters are in an almost identical bind. The party of rich white liberals despises the values of the black middle class, glorifies hucksters like Al Sharpton but is still the party of patronage, affirmative action while the GOP does not seem to be able to speak to their obvious concerns and instead just seems to vaguely threaten the existing streams of aid (as if anything is ever really cut or eliminated).
If Trump could put aside the silly twitter battles with Lilputian media figures and examine the larger battlefield instead, he would notice that the vast hordes of us normals, the average Americans of all races are awaiting our champion. In his own weird way, he is well-positioned to be that guy but I am not confident he can rise to it.
Yes, the old liberals are long gone. And I think you’re right about Trump, @oldbathos. In the WSJ today op-ed page, they pleaded with Trump to do much of what you’re saying: broaden the scope and stop obsessing about the same old tiresome hurts to his ego. Many of us have been wishing for that shift for the last 3.5 years, so I’m not hopeful. If he doesn’t take the larger view, he could end up defeating himself. Let’s hope for that shift.
VDH was one of very few who seemed to analyze the last election correctly in the lead up and aftermath.
Here’s what he’s saying about this one.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/2020-election-contest-of-the-angry/
Fair enough.
You know the Broken Windows Theory of Policing? That is what Trump practices on Twitter.
VDH is always so insightful. I pulled out these sentences from the article:
Clearly, our imperfect nation needs to be destroyed, according to the Left.
You have put your finger squarely on the problem.
@cliffordbrown, I just realized there are two parts in Marjorie’s comment. First, that they are not being well-served by their local Democrat leaders, and second, that we on the Right still aren’t doing a good job of reaching them in their communities. Were you referring to one or both of those ideas?
Elections are decided by the ten percent in the middle that really don’t care about politics.
They’re mostly concerned about “nice”.
Attorney General Barr is sounding the alarm about this, and about counterfeit ballots from the ChiComs to create chaos, make the election outcome untrustworthy.
@miffedwhitemale, which group are you referring to, and where does 10% come from?
The second, made worse by the first.
There’s a saying in Baseball (in normal years), that every team is going to win 60 games and every team is going to lose 60 games. What matters is the 42 games remaining.
There are hard core partisans/political junkies on each side. Campaigns aren’t about them. These are the people that can tell you today who they’re going to vote for (or against!) in November. Then there are the party followers – they vote R or D because that’s what their parents did, or that’s what they always did. For them the name on the ballot is almost inconsequential.
Look at the extremes – Nixon/McGovern in 1972 went 60%/38%. Reagan/Mondale went 59%/41%.
The people that make a difference in who wins and who loses is *by definition* the people that are non-ideological/non-partisan – shift that 10% and the outcome changes.
Thank you! Except I think that probably bodes badly for Trump, no? Especially if they’re looking for “nice.”
Don’t forget about voter turnout.
I won’t go that far. For 100 years Southern whites voted Democrat, and eventually they were so repulsed they were able to break the habit.
God help us if our current crop of societies “leaders” and “intellectuals” are the ones who shape it. I see no Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamiltons out there…..
This isn’t one of the videos I was talking about, but it’s still pretty moving:
Remember that most of the black middle class work for the government.
I wonder how this influence stacks up against @arvo‘s sense of empathy missing.
Trump seems to be able to talk to construction workers. I think some of his language quirks, which hit me like fingernails on a black board, are the Queens thing and New York worker talk.
If BLM helps get that “silent majority’s” kids and grandkids a leg up on getting into college, landing jobs, getting promoted and so on–maybe even significant money as reparations–is that silent majority going to vote against its financial interest? BLM is advocating for greater and more pervasive affirmative action programs, and the public response of various gifts and preferences as atonement for racism only reinforce that.
Will we see California’s black “silent majority” joining Asian parents in California and oppose this?
A simple majority vote will amend California’s constitution.
The fight against ACA5 seems to be led by Ward Connerly. For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, it is his work that the California legislature is seeking to undo.
The current incarnation of the UC Board of Regents supports the repeal of Proposition 209.
Or, as I think they say in Queens: [Expletive] me? No! [Expletive you!]
well I don’t know if they’re going to change their voting habits, but, I do know why you don’t hear the silent majority – they’re silent