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Race Relations are Improving, not Worsening
Imagine my shock when I read Jason Riley’s op-ed in the WSJ today that stated in spite of all the condemnations against whitepeople in this country coming from Critical Race Theory, including white supremacy, white fragility, increased enmity between the races and violence against blacks by law enforcement, the data overwhelmingly supports the opposite: the relationships among the races have actually been improving for many years in our country. As many of us have suspected, we have been held hostage to a propaganda machine intended to destroy the fabric of our nation, originating from and emerging from the universities.
Mr. Riley referred in his piece to the report from the Manhattan Institute entitled “The Social Construction of Race Relations in the United States,” by Eric Kaufmann. The report relies on several surveys and sources for data collection, some of them constructed by widely known organizations and some of them created by Mr. Kaufmann. I was especially taken with some of the conclusions that were reached:
- For example, “eight in 10 African-American survey respondents believe that young black men are more likely to be shot to death by the police than to die in a traffic accident; one in 10 disagrees. Among a highly educated sample of liberal whites, more than six in 10 agreed. In reality, considerably more young African-American men die in car accidents than are shot to death by police.”
- Black Biden voters more than black Trump voters see themselves as victims of racism.
- People’s perceptions have been formed to a great extent by the media, which has its own Leftist agenda. When people hear and read certain information enough times, perceptions become reality. So if they hear about “systemic racism” repeatedly in all the many avenues for communicating this ideological information, it becomes true for them.
- Social media has been a powerful force in forming people’s opinions about the prevalence of racism in this country.
The greatest surprise for me was that rather than depending on perceptions of people about race relations, the report is steeped in data from several sources that come up with similar results. We already knew that the CRT was formed by opinions, misperceptions, misrepresentations, and outright contrivances, but where was the data to provide factual, historic reasons to counter these arguments?
Another result in Kaufmann’s report is representative of the biases found among blacks and whites:
The gap between Trump and Biden voters on the question about fatal police shootings is 28 points among African-Americans (81%–53%) but 38 points among whites (53%–15%) in Prolific 4 [an original survey conducted for this report]. Education level was not a significant predictor of accuracy on this question. These results echo those that recently found that only about a fifth of liberals but close to half of conservatives gave the right answer to a question on how many unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. Fully 54% of “very liberal” Americans thought that more than 1,000 were killed compared with the actual figure of between 13 and 27.3.
Much can be gleaned from this statement. Repeatedly, the data reflect the difference between white and black respondents, and Biden and Trump voters. Again, perceptions drummed into the population over time become “truth” to many of us, so that even if our original perceptions were closer to the facts, we have a difficult time rejecting more current propaganda due to its relentless nature.
* * * * *
So how do we overcome this pernicious onslaught of racist promotion? I see a number of steps being taken that offer hope. Parents involved with their children’s education are fighting the curriculum of Critical Race Theory in their school districts, as well as the manipulative information being dispersed by the government in other related areas. Lawsuits are being filed against CRT, stating that it is a discriminatory approach to education. More people, black and white, are speaking out against this mindless, hateful description of our country’s racial profile. And we can hope that more people like Eric Kaufmann do the scientific data collection that gives us choices for evaluating the state of our country regarding racism.
It’s not too late to take back our country.
Published in Culture
This data is also reflective of my personal day to day interactions with people over the years.
However, it was precisely this improvement in race relations that made it so important for Critical Race Theorists to do everything to reverse that progress. Without increasing racism, fear, and distrust among Americans, CRT could not accomplish its goal of restructuring American society. With the Biden Administration fully endorsing CRT these creatures are now in the driver’s seat.
If you look at the linked article and other recent opinion polling you will see the problem is not with black Americans – it is with white progressives; they are the ones playing the key roles in enabling the destruction of our society and plunging us into a totalitarian nightmare.
The data reflect this point over and over: white progressives, beginning in the university, intelligentsia and Marxist circles, are determined to destroy all we’ve accomplished through the years. It is a travesty. I hope people will look at the report; the seeds for extricating ourselves from this disaster are there. Thanks, @gumbymark.
I expect I may not be representative, because I don’t know a one.
What – speechless?😁
How parents are fighting critical race theory in NYC schools (nypost.com)
Loudoun County Parents at War Over Critical Race Theory in Curriculum (philanthropyroundtable.org)
How about these–
https://nypost.com/2021/04/24/how-parents-are-fighting-critical-race-theory-in-nyc-schools/
I keep trying to provide links and my comment isn’t showing up. I’ll try again. I can tell you that Loudon County in Virginia and parents in NYC schools are fighting back.
@susanquinn I was impressed – you gave good answers almost immediately.
And here is an organization operating nationwide to support parents who are protecting their children against this agenda,
Parents Defending Education
Thanks. I just went to Duck Duck Go. There’s more there, too.
No. Don’t want to be cancelled.
It’s been my experience that ordinary black and white working class people get along fine. It’s the “elites” who have a problem.
One of the most telling data points, that racial bias had decreased significantly was Jason Riley’s quote from Eric Kaufmann’s report:
Yes, @randywebster! The elites get brainwashed in the university, but everyday people, blacks and white, who actually come into regular contact with each other get along. Thanks.
Holy [redacted]!
Although that actually goes a long way to explaining the way they react to these events. If I thought there were 1000 of them a year I’d probably be pretty outraged too.
When people work with people as individuals racial issues disappear. Yesterday I took a tour of Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee with @rushbabe49, @raykujawa, @philturmel and his wife Patricia, @neutralobserver and @stad. In the telling of the story of the distillery a place of prominence was given to Nathan “Nearest” Green. Green was a slave who taught Jack about distilling when, as a young boy, he was living with and working for Reverend Call. After the Civil War, Jack started his distillery and brought in Green, now a freeman, and his sons into the new enterprise. You can read more about him here. It was clear that the two had a good relationship born of mutual respect. We need the Golden Rule, not Critical Race Theory.
But there’s gold in those race hustling hills! Can you imagine Al Sharpton, Robin DiAngelo or Ibram X. Kendi actually working for a living?
I don’t think that your analysis is correct. It would be nice if people were this innocent.
I think that they start with the desire to be outraged, in the absence of evidence. They make up lies in order to justify their hate, and they hate anyone who points out the facts.
I agree. The most diverse environment I can think of is a construction site.
I’ve been a construction worker pretty much all my life.
This makes me think of the witch scene in Holy Grail. Everyone’s just itching to dunk a witch.
Alternate headline: “Despite Best Efforts, Democrats Dismayed to Find Race Relations Improving.”
You writing for the Bee now? :)