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If I Were a Thoughtful Racist
I got to wondering. What would a thoughtful, intelligent, devious racist do? What kind of policies and positions would he take?
A thoughtful racist:
- Would support BLM, as the ultimate result is going to be much more death and destruction in the Black community. Removing the police from black communities, defunding them, and restricting their ability to enforce the law is going to have a severe negative impact on blacks.
- Would be a supporter of Planned Parenthood and abortion. Blacks currently abort ½ of all their children. Racists going back to Margaret Sanger have supported the idea.
- Would support any dysfunctional black culture that glorifies, crime, drugs, violence, and promiscuity and denigrates black women.
- Would support ideas such as this:
that make those traits that are most likely to make someone a success in society “ White” and anathema to blacks.
- Would support the apartheid in our schools with segregated classes, dormitories, graduations in our schools.
- Would support Black dependence on government.
- Would work to destroy Black families and encourage those Black women who don’t abort to have their children out of marriage.
- A thoughtful racist would support a political culture that would try to maximize all the above.
So, who are the real racists in our society? And where do they find a political home?
None of those things seem remotely Conservative to me.
Published in General
It is funny, but last night I uttered out loud to no one after reading another scathing critique of “White Fragility” that I am willing to admit that all rich white liberals are hopelessly and systemically racist for all the reasons you outlined above.
To back up a step, what kind of person believes Black folk need special help?
Oh, I get the whole “righting of wrongs” thing. Affirmative Action makes sense … for a while. 20 years? 30 years? 40 years? A whole industry has formed around systematic racism to the point that it endlessly reinforces the system.
Many of the strongest proponents of these concepts would lose their entire revenue stream if the problem was perceived to be improving, while they gain attention, power and revenue (all interdependent in today’s world) when the problem is seen to be getting worse.
But make no mistake. Most African Americans see through the patronizing liberal racism, the bigotry of lower expectations. A large subset of these people just use these head-patting liberals for their own personal benefit while holding them in amused contempt.
This whole BLM thing, looking at it from 8 miles high, is a manifest admission that 40 years of Democrat Party approach and ‘solutions’ have utterly failed. You can gauge how badly Democrats are losing by how loudly they scream about racism. The worst thing that ever happened to Al Sharpton and his cohorts was the election of one Barack Obama.
Now the word “racist“ has been squeezed dry, they’ve invented another word, “privilege” that is quickly drying up itself from overuse. When NBA players, rap stars living in LA mansions, and Oprah herself start talking privilege, our eyes start rolling. Privilege is actually more subversive, because while only some white peoples are ‘racist’ all can be labeled ‘privileged’.
Poor Oprah had to endure a snooty Gucci clerk in St. Moritz judging her as being too poor to bother with showing her some exquisite Italian leather purse! I want to assure everyone that I, a privileged white hetero have been treated quite the same way by snooty Swiss clerks. But at least Oprah can invite her to her show and then watch as she’s the only one in the audience who doesn’t get the $10,000 check under her chair. But thankfully, Oprah isn’t that cruel. But she could be!
Does it? Economist, Thomas Sowell, studied the impact of affirmative action in five countries: India (with the oldest such program), Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and the U.S. His book, Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, documents the results of his research. He found the following similar outcomes across all five nations:
It’s time to play another round of: “Is it Evil, or Simply Insane?”
I was going to chme in but you already covered it.
I would only add that the deepest racism is that kind when you just have to help them, the poor wogs, because they couldn’t possibly get along without your help. If they do well at anything, it’s because, well, Lovie and I helped them you know.
Also constantly going on and on about Race, and constantly “helping” with tax-payer funded program after program, is a convenient if not-so-subtle way of keeping them a “them” and us a “we”. That, folks, is racism.
No disagreement. But when I say, “makes sense” I mean it’s not, or wasn’t, entirely a ridiculous concept. It was almost impossible to argue against it at the time. I tried myself.
I have also argued, referring to your point # 1. That AA hurt black men more than anyone and as a result black families and potential families because women ( including well-off white women) getting in on the quotas. But black females were hired and elevated over black males as a two-for-one category, depriving the black male of that job and diminishing his (their) status in the community.
I’ve been reading Sowell for decades now.
In many cases it’s both.
Add a dash of ignorance and another of arrogance.
To understand your point, people have to be able to get beyond what Thomas Sowell calls “stage one thinking.” They have to learn to ask, “And then what?” If the government dictates X, what incentives will that create? What disincentives? How will people respond to the incentives and disincentives? Could their responses cause unintended consequences?
Conservatives often lament the fact that Blacks (and other Lefty Poster Children) overwhelmingly vote for the very policies that put them and keep them in the very conditions they complain about. We talk about how the Dems use Blacks, and wonder why Blacks don’t see it. When we do this, we often overlook the other half of the equation: Blacks are using Dems right back, leveraging their votes to force Dems to give them other people’s stuff. Why would either side want to change the dynamic when each side feels they are profiting from the arrangement? Sure, the Dems are cynical and corrupt, but Blacks et al are also. It’s not that Blacks are acting as Useful Idiots for the Left. It’s that Whites are acting as Useful Idiots for both sides.
If they didn’t vote lockstep for Democrats they would have far more leverage.
As it stands Republicans can pretty much ignore their votes.
Yes. We often say that people act in their best interests, but it’s not true. People act in their perceived best interests. The way to drive a wedge into the Black-Dem alliance is to change Blacks’ perception of what is in their best interests — a tough nut to crack.
Sometimes people act in their short-term best interests but hurt themselves in the long-term.
Also, Republicans have mostly done a really lousy job of having a presence on the ground in black communities, so it’s not as though there’s been much compettition for the Dems.
A thoughtful Racist would advocate for the legalization of drugs. That way, upperclass recreational users (and their college-bound children) are shielded from any messy criminal record, they don’t have to go to the “bad areas” for drugs and can go to boutique-like places that take debit cards.
Nothing like poorly educated people shooting themselves in the foot and reloading with ‘drugs’. Less competition for the sober, awake and breathing types
The definition of racist today is too broad.
If anyone has a prejudiced thought for a few minutes then everyone is a bigot.
I don’t know what it means anymore. Racism used to refer to a belief, but now it seems to be synonymous with “white.” But how does skin color dictate belief?
I’ve been called a racist for opposing affirmative action, calling diversity a delusion (Heather Mac Donald) and I’m not white.
That’s true, but it’s somewhat built into the cake as conservatives, by nature, tend to want to leave people alone (in the best sense of the phrase).
LBJ was an unreconstructed racist of the old school. When the federal government finally crushed segregation and the Klan in the South he didn’t change his ideas about blacks, he changed his strategy.
If he had deliberately sought to destroy the black family and the black community forever leaving them powerless and dependent on his ilk in the government then he could not have done any worse than he did with the Great Society.
I agree that GOP shouldn’t pander to expand their ‘base’ but there are a lot of ‘swing’ voters who have been fed lies by the left and GOP is only hurting themselves by not combatting those lies.
There are many blacks, Hispanics and Asians who are either politically indifferent or centrist who by habit vote Democrat because GOP hasn’t informed them how they are voting against their own interests.
Best example, John Yoo says Asians are politically stupid for voting Democrats and I completely concur, speaking as a former Asian Democrat.
Regarding conservatives want to leave people alone, that is true but you’re talking out of context. On policy, conservatives, specifically libertarians, want to leave you alone. In politics, you want to cast as wide a net as possible. In an election season, people want parties to court their vote. Politicians need to answer the question, why should I vote for you and not the other guy/gal. I see no contradiction.
Regarding racism, I think there is a spectrum of racism. I am not defending prejudice/racism.
There are virulent racists.
There are people who are slighly prejudiced against some groups but not all groups.
To say that some people are ‘pure’ is empirically false.
Maybe racism is like a virus. Some viruses are more lethal than others.
Racism is not a black and white issue, there are many shades of grey. Again, I’m not defending racism.
Lastly, if racist thoughts constitute racism then we are all racists. Fortunately we can’t be prosecuted for thought crimes or can we?
Which was the liberal position by the late seventies. The notion that racism requires power arose next, and then the notion that racism requires privilege because too many “disadvantaged” were obviously wielding great power. Inconvenient successes like Barack Obama.
Meditation: Given the culture, how would one raise a black child to not be paranoid on matters of race? I have known “disadvantaged” professionals who were brilliant but unable to correct mistakes because they too often interpreted criticism as irrationally motivated bigotry rather than genuine constructive criticism. There is an entire body of media and political actors with incentives to stoke the paranoia to generate ratings and votes, respectively.
The Communist backers of Antifa and BLM seek the civil disorder that arises from weakened police presence and nuclear family to empower their mercenary militias in their looting and intimidation campaign. The appeal to liberal guilt over past racism is just a cynical rhetorical ploy. The white leadership hectoring the black cannon fodder in city after city after city betrays the astroturf nature of the Insurrection. Leadership-quality blacks are not on board. Their experience, direct or generational, with riots and looting and the consequences is not positive.
In Cold War parlance, there are fellow travelers who are infused with the doctrine and dedicated to the Marxist cause, and there are useful idiots who are manipulable using the “sophisticated” psychological techniques of the Cause. The contempt of the leadership for their cannon fodder is such that useful idiot is the accepted leadership term for their foot soldiers. Think of how the Venezuelan people have prospered under Marxist rule, and the contempt at the top of the pyramid for those lower down becomes undeniable.
Martin Luther King, Jr. made annual trips to Moscow and received donations from the Soviets of a million dollars a year that the Soviets saw as sowing disorder and moral shame in the US. Racism has been a Communist cudgel against the US from its inception. Ironically, an embrace of Dr. King’s Christian calls for color blindness is the cure that the masters of BLM and Antifa are struggling now to neutralize and eliminate. Along with free speech (Twitter, FaceBook), freedom of worship (churches, synagogues, and mosques closed, liquor stores and casinos open thanks to tyrannical governors and mayors), right to bear arms (attacked first thing here in Virginia when we elected a Democratic legislature and governor for the first time in 20 years), right to assemble (ironically, while governors and mayors recognize a “right” to riot and loot), and the rest.
MLK made annual trips to Moscow?
If MLK lived a full life I wonder if he would have pushed for socialism in America or become a ‘civil rights sellout’ like John Lewis.
or for that matter, hair color or eye color
On my birth certificate, I am listed as a ‘Yellow Korean’. I thought it was hilarious when my mom found my birth certificate and showed it to me.
I thought it was hilarious. My white friends were offended. I told them calm down, there was no malicious intent. It was a sign of the times.
We can’t say the word ‘negro’ anymore.
How many times did MLK mention the word ‘negro’ in his I have a Dream speech?
remember during the 1980s when the NBA promoted the United Negro College Fund?
Now that organization is called UNCF… great, another acronym… the last thing this world needs is another acronym
Which is why they first redefined “racism” so that only white people could be racist (i.e., only people with power could be racist) and then redefined it again so that every white person is, by default, racist, and then redefined it a third time so that color blindness is racist. Presumably, the word will continue to morph as needed to handle counter arguments.
Regarding black communities, the message should be we believe in expanding education and job opportunities for all Americans. The message doesn’t have to be tailored for each community. Everyone regardless of race wants better and more opportunities in education and employment, regardless of what people think or say.
Have you noticed the word ‘dog whistle’ is only used by the left and dog owners/trainers?
I might have deployed it once or twice in retaliation. Privilege being a dog whistle for those opposed to black supremacists, for example. Sauce for the goose.
I am happy that a few left-of-center people are also disgusted by this.