Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Ferguson in Perspective: Jason Riley Tells Hard Truths
I am not in a position to judge whether Darren Wilson handled himself properly in his confrontation with Michael Brown. It is clear enough that Brown was a punk — the sort of dope-head thug who would forcibly rob a convenience store. And the story told by Wilson is plausible enough: that Brown was walking in the middle of the street and interfering with traffic; that, when told to move to the sidewalk, he balked; that, when Wilson began to get out of his car, Brown shoved the door back against the policeman, grappled for his gun, and ran; and that he later turned around and charged Wilson. But, of course, this story may not be entirely true, and Wilson may have overreacted.
But even if Wilson is at fault — and I am well aware that policemen can be trigger-happy and that, in a crunch, they can easily get rattled, misjudge, and overreact — what happened in Ferguson that night (as opposed to succeeding nights) was, from a political perspective, inconsequential. As Jason Riley of The Wall Street Journal courageously points out in the video posted below, African-Americans make up 13% of the American population and 50% of the homicide victims, but very, very few of the African-Americans who are killed in this country die at the hands of white policemen. In fact, 90% of the African-Americans who are murdered in the United States are murdered by their fellow African-Americans. What happened in Ferguson was a relatively rare event that may or may not tell us something about Darren Wilson and the police force of St. Louis County. But it tells us nothing about white racism in the nation as a whole and next to nothing about discrimination against American blacks.
Once upon a time, Eric Holder called for us to engage in a conversation about race. If that conversation were to be frank, it would have to start with the brute and ugly fact pointed out by Jason Riley. I do not doubt that racial prejudice still exists, but it does not constitute a serious obstacle to African-American advancement. The most grievous problems that African-Americans face today have little or nothing to do with the conduct of ordinary white people. Of course, they may well have something to do with white conduct in the past, which has a lingering effect. But nothing can be done about that. Long before they encountered George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were on the downward path. Given their taste for dope, their instinct for defiance, and their predilection for violence, they were both likely to end up as killers or as killed.
If Barack Obama and Eric Holder were actually interested in the welfare of the likes of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, they would level with their fellow African-Americans. They would initiate a genuinely frank conversation about race aimed at altering African-American conduct. As things stand, they are only interested in manipulating African-American fear and anger for short-term political gain — and the same can be said for the scoundrels (largely white) who manage CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Pravda-on-the-Hudson, and Pravda-on-the-Potomac and who treat the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown as national news. Apart from Jason Riley (and Bill Cosby), there are only a handful of African-Americans who care enough about the welfare of their fellow African-Americans to have the courage to level with them and there are even fewer whites (liberal or conservative). In the mainstream media the former are treated as traitors to their race and the latter are demonized as racists.
Do not get me wrong. I am not so naive as to suppose that simply telling the truth about moral breakdown within the African-American community will miraculously change conduct. I will only assert that, until the truth is acknowledged and becomes a subject for rumination within that community and the nation at large, things will most certainly not get better for those among our fellow citizens who happen to be black.
Published in General
Can I hear an Amen?
Amen.
I have become a big fan of Jason Riley. He is clearly tired of the garbage that passes for conventional wisdom, and he’s willing to “speak truth to power.”
Interestingly, so far I have not heard condemnation of him, like there was for Cosby some years ago. This may be due to Cos breaking the ground, and/or that Riley brings the facts that can’t be argued with. (If I recall correctly, Cos’ evidence was more anecdotal.)
“…there are only a handful of African-Americans who care enough about the welfare of their fellow African-Americans to have the courage to level with them and there are even fewer whites (liberal or conservative). In the mainstream media the former are treated as traitors to their race and the latter are demonized as racists.”
Do you suppose William F. Buckley Jr. would judge John Derbyshire as one who “levels” with blacks? Clarity is courage.
Did NRO help or hinder our conversation about race by removing Radio Derb?
It wouldn’t surprise me. Though I strongly suspect he doesn’t care.
Derbyshire’s main problem is that he’s white. From a practical standpoint, whites can’t say what Jason Riley can.
That’s just the way it is.
I live in the suburbs of Houston, and in the last couple of years, there have been a lot of apartments built nearby. Going to the local grocery store, there has been a noticeable change in demographics. As well as a noticeable increase in local bank robberies, almost always attributed to black males.
A couple of months ago, I was awakened by commotion outside my bedroom window. I got my gun and investigated, and it turned out there was a home invasion in progress. I live in a nice quiet gated community, but later that morning, I had young black males running through my front yard with automatic weapons while eluding the police.
I’m not racist, and I am always happy to see young people gainfully employed, especially if they are young black males. I believe in merit, and take joy in people working to improve themselves. My first job was as a dishwasher, and I eventually got promoted to short order cook. At I believe $1.25/hr. That’s how I learned responsibility, and now I am glad say I make at least twice that.
Let me repeat: I am not racist. However, I am much more leery of young black males because it is just a fact that they present a greater threat to personal safety than any other demographic category.
Whatever the cultural or societal reasons for this, it is objectively true, and it behooves everyone who practices situational awareness to be cognizant of this fact.
A quibble: they were likely semi-automatic weapons.
When, in the collective, an African-American community (in this case Ferguson) starts receiving unsolicited Twitter-transmitted advice from Palestinian activists based in the Mideast on effective tactics for rioting and related crowd-scale violence and disorder, perhaps that ought to be taken — both by the specific community in question and also by the larger African-American community seeking to weigh in on such matters — as some sort of indication that the behavior presently on display and its motivating mentality are not attracting exactly a laudable variety of kindred-spirit support.
As a request to the editors, I would love to hear Jason Riley as a guest on one of the podcasts…
Paul A. Rahe:
So if I understand correctly more blacks need to kill whites so that the rates even up? That way everybody will be happy?
Maybe Ferguson in Perspective also puts The Talk: Nonblack Version by John Derbyshire in perspective?
http://takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire/print#axzz3Aun7ceNV
Although I may be “in things racial” a coward, I also argue politics with progressives. Hope you enjoy this excerpt from a black US Army lieutenant colonel:
As far as Thomas Sowell is concerned, his premise is all wrong. He bases his arguments (many of them) on the faulty premise that Black people are enthralled with a liberal government. However, he (since it has been sometime since he speaks of talking to people that grew up in the hood and are still there) ALWAYS conveniently forgets to include in his argument, that Blacks simply pick the better of two evils, based simply on policy, and not enthralled by either.
I have written to Sowell, some years ago, and I asked him, “What program has EVER, EVER in American history been directed, solely for the benefit of the African American?” – After some email dialogue and his laborious side-winding, he eventually acquiesced and agreed with me – NONE.
Black people KNOW this and clearly understand, that neither party will stop putting black men in prison, destroying black families, address unfair labor practices, balance the legal system, stop shooting unarmed black men, or even say the words “…help Black People” in public.
A white person can’t say what Jason Riley said. Any one who did would pay a very high price at the hands of the racial grievance industry. Eric Holder’s statement of a couple of years ago that we were a “nation of cowards” afraid to discuss race and that we needed an “honest conversation about race” was a farce because we all know that as soon as any white person makes a statement not already in line with the views of the racial grievance industry, heavy pressure is applied to marginalize that person, and stop the conversation. When people pay a high price for attempting an honest conversation about race, the rest quickly learn to keep their mouths shut.
Affirmative Action?
P.S. The excerpt in #15 above is from an e-mail that the LTC sent to me. I tried for almost two years to get him to see the light, but only ended up proving that die hard pogz cannot be moved. Oh yea – and one more thing – there is no level of nastiness (that I ever discovered) that they won’t go to in order to “win” an argument. Many of his comments to/at me would self-destruct on contact with Ricochet’s CoC.
I also like JR and he demonstrates more courage than most journalists, if he were truly courageous however he would be talking about black racism which is what we are seeing. If officer Wilson were black and all other circumstances were the same, would we be seeing any of this? It is assumed by both the rioters and most of the peaceful demonstrators he is guilty of some sort of misconduct simply because of the color of his skin. Racism? I think so!
As much as I like Jason Riley and his new book “Please Stop Helping Us” (an Encounter book!), and as much as loathe the media circus that’s developed around Ferguson, I must point out that the argument that “blacks are killed more by blacks that whites” is — by formal argumentation standards — a fallacy of logic.
It could be red herring and/or the “tu quoque” fallacy.
Unlike the Trayvon Martin case, there is also something beyond and separate from the race issue in the Ferguson case, namely, that a person in a position of authority (someone authorized to apportion violence under strict protocols) killed an unarmed civilian. The case is deserving of the utmost scrutiny, and though the media’s high volume of coverage may be in bad taste, their premises for that reportage are fine.
I am completely, adamantly opposed philosophically to reverse discrimination programs; but I do think we as conservatives need to confront the perception in communities like Ferguson that the police are not members of the community but an occupying army. It seems to me that laws could be written in a race neutral way to require that police recruits have a preference if they were schooled or have lived in the jurisdiction they are going to patrol. The inconvenient fact is that Black Americans score so much lower than whites on standardized or written tests, and police work [unlike being a fireman] is at least 85% paperwork. Maybe technology can help with body cams and dash cams reducing the amount of written reports required, maybe patrolling and taking statements can be made separate functions. Liability laws also need to be relaxed for good faith errors made by policemen that can’t navigate the bar exam hypothetical nature that modern policing entails. Black Americans are taught cradle to grave in this country that the deck is stacked against them and that they as a community and individually should be given a pass on impulse control issues. Having Black police officers would help.
That perception is called “prejudice.” It should be confronted as such.
Also, the flip side of your proposal means that white neighborhoods will prefer “people from around here” to be their police officers. Chew on that one for a minute.
Agreed, to the extent that it should be, say, a statewide story in Missouri. However, the reason it’s a national story is because the unarmed civilian was black and the officer was not.
Also, the flip side of your proposal means that white neighborhoods will prefer “people from around here” to be their police officers. Chew on that one for a minute.
I don’t think it would cause white neighborhoods to “prefer” anybody, but concede it would have the same effect on their communities as others; I have no problem with that result. I’m not a racialist.
Yes, you do think it would cause white neighborhoods to “prefer” someone. At least according to your statement, “It seems to me that laws could be written in a race neutral way to require that police recruits have a preference if they were schooled or have lived in the jurisdiction they are going to patrol.”
And even if you don’t have a problem with it, the NAACP, the ACLU, and the federal courts might.
I think Black communities would prefer more Black police officers, I do not think most white communities care if the percentage of minority police in their neighborhoods go up or down, so in that sense I don’t think your statement is valid. As for the ACLU, NAACP and federal courts I agree they may have a problem with any idea that tries to inject common sense into the American legal system.
I recently read that another contributor to a lack of change in the demographics of a police force as the population changes is the low turnover on the police force. Civil service, promotion, and pension systems are set up to reward longevity, and to discourage moving to different cities.
Boozswha, if I understand you correctly then, your proposed law would only apply to black communities.
Anger, not racism, is the root of the problem of crime for many men. And anger is not dealt with as long as one continues to play the blame game. In black communities, white racism is the easy culprit that keeps people from taking responsibility for changing themselves and improving their lives.