Althouse: Racism over, black people say.

January 19, 2009

Racism over, black people say.

Or something.

55 comments:

David said...: Dream fulfilled?

Only if King was dreaming just of elites, which he was not.

Much of what is going on in significant parts of the African American community is a nightmare: poor educational performance, crime, drugs, children without fathers present.

I believe that King would be focusing in those issues if he were alive. He might sound a lot like Bill Cosby, but with more credibility.; 1/19/09, 10:45 AM
paul a'barge said...: Oh goody.

Does that mean an end to racial preferences?

Oops. Not so fast?; 1/19/09, 10:47 AM
Swifty Quick said...: "Racism over, black people say."

But not white people. This is almost like a national version of Family Feud.

Did you know that MLK used the word gainsaid (actually "gainsaying") in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail?

I'd like to think he'd have been above it, but if he were still alive today I can't help but believe he'd be about where Jesse Jackson is.; 1/19/09, 10:53 AM
The Dude said...: Good. Don't miss it at all. Someone please tell Jesse Jackson to quit using the kind of language he prefers - it is vile and racist.

And it is racist to point out that black communities are crime-filled cesspools. It's a cultural thing that people of pallor cannot understand.

So sit back, watch the level of the seas recede, see the adulation of the world wash over us and marvel as Pax Obama reigns for 1,000 years.

Also, all wars will end, the economy will right itself tomorrow, and all God's children will something something - I forget - the teleprompter just quit on me...; 1/19/09, 10:54 AM
Bissage said...: "Racism over, black people say."

Great. Now I can finally ask a black girl out on a date and she'll say "yes."; 1/19/09, 10:57 AM
David said...: No she won't Bissage. Over means over--no affirmative action for whites.; 1/19/09, 10:59 AM
dbp said...: "The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since his 1963 "I have a dream" speech -- roughly double the 34 percent who agreed with that assessment in a similar poll taken last March."

Wow! Just since March, look at all the progress we have made as a nation! By this Summer we should be up to 100%. At the rate we have been going.; 1/19/09, 11:02 AM
former law student said...: What the heck was the question the poll asked, and what did people think it meant: a land where being non-white is no handicap (doubtful) or a land where a biracial man can become President (what we have)?; 1/19/09, 11:07 AM
Roost on the Moon said...: Oh, cool, can I sneer with you guys?

Yeah, look at all those idiots. This is awesome.; 1/19/09, 11:07 AM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: The poll found 69 percent of blacks said King's vision has been fulfilled in the more than 45 years since

So, we can at least give Bush credit for this?

He so screwed up the Republican Party that the public voted for a largely unknown liberal black candidate.

Okay, half credit goes to Grandpa McCain. Great campaign you ran there, Senator.; 1/19/09, 11:08 AM
KCFleming said...: I for one think it's great, and it permits me to tell our Chicago-trained school board superintendent that his race-based policies for 'closing the gap' are no longer needed.; 1/19/09, 11:11 AM
themightypuck said...: This is pretty low hanging fruit. Everyone knows that people like to party and be outrageously optimistic at times like these. The King is dead. Long live the King. And all that jazz.; 1/19/09, 11:12 AM
themightypuck said...: One more thing. Obama has an extremely white "jump" shot.; 1/19/09, 11:28 AM
Meade said...: Great. Now I can finally ask a black girl out on a date and she'll say "yes."

Only if you're willing to give up being white. And married.; 1/19/09, 11:42 AM
AmPowerBlog said...: From Hot Air:

"Glenn Reynolds says the difference between responses from whites and blacks comes from a guilt to which whites cling. I’m not certain that’s it entirely, although I think some on the hard Left like to use it as a crutch to justify their somewhat totalitarian policy demands. Without having American society to decry for its racist/imperialist bent, their policies of confiscation and elite control make no sense at all, to the extent they ever did. Acknowledging that a free-market, democratic nation can make that kind of progress knocks the legs out from under the International ANSWER/World Can’t Wait crowd."; 1/19/09, 11:48 AM
Tibore said...: "Racism over..."

That's funny. CNN said the exact opposite of what they said today back on the 8th. Did something change since then?; 1/19/09, 11:54 AM
TMink said...: David wrote: "I believe that King would be focusing in those issues if he were alive. He might sound a lot like Bill Cosby, but with more credibility."

We agree. My reading of Dr. King is that he was working to eliminate barriers for the success that hard work and dedication can bring to people in this country.

James Brown understood this when he sang "We don't need a handout, just open the door and get out the way, I can get it myself."

I thank God for Dr. King. Racism is a sin, and it hurts us all.

But I can't stand the people who say "If Dr. King were alive today he would be supporting illegal aliens" or whatever.

The man said what he said, and I am thankful he said it. I think there is enough good in what he did say that we can ignore what he never said.

Trey; 1/19/09, 12:00 PM
Paddy O said...: Very interesting and hopefully something that does continue to grow.

My generation is the first to grow up without institutional racism. There are no legal barriers to equality anymore. The problem for so long has been lingering personal racism, and even deeper (I think), lingering perception about racism and lingering damage from generations of very truly evil racist behavior at all levels and just about every corner of society.

That might not ever really be fixed, expect by time, in which those who grew up without institutional racism begin to be the ones to pass on their experiences, rather than those who had only very persistent discrimination shaping the worldviews of so many.

Of particular interest to me today is the fact that I'm reading two books by James Cone this week, he being the theological mentor of Jeremiah Wright, and the great thinker on 'black theology'. It's powerful reading, for broader theology as well as black theology.

But, this survey and the events of this week add a brand new dimension to these books that force new questions and assessments.

Very interesting and very, very good for the country, I think, even if one doesn't agree with Obama's politics.

The game has changed.; 1/19/09, 12:19 PM
cardeblu said...: America isn't "post-racial" yet according to Tavis Smilely and Cornell West. Obama's election is "another down payment on the dream." We're just "less racist."

So, when does this get paid off? Can we pay more in principal?; 1/19/09, 12:27 PM
Beth said...: Trey: "I think there is enough good in what he did say that we can ignore what he never said."

I don't why I like that statement so much, but I do, and I keep going over it in my head. Thanks, Trey.

Paddy O: also, good analysis. Lots to think about.; 1/19/09, 12:29 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: The game has changed.

The game has changed in the sense that it's going to be harder for the Jesse Jackson's and Sharpton's to use race as a way to conduct financial shakedowns.

That's not the same thing as saying they won't try.

As cardbleu shows, for some, it will never be enough.; 1/19/09, 12:34 PM
traditionalguy said...: Big news. This news reminds me of the Japanese bushido type Army guys who finally gave it all up on some long conqured Pacific Islands in 1959 or so, saying, "Take me to your Emperor... I'm tired of this act and want some Love now." Or whatever they said in Sino-Eubonics.; 1/19/09, 12:35 PM
garage mahal said...: Racism isn't over until Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton publicly apologize for what did they did to this country. Until then the stain of their legacy remains.; 1/19/09, 12:40 PM
Swifty Quick said...: My reading of Dr. King is that he was working to eliminate barriers for the success that hard work and dedication can bring to people in this country.

Let's get real. He would've moved harder to the left just like all others on the left. The Kennedys, for instance, are much further left than they were in the 60s. In fact by 1968 was King already moving to the left of LBJ on other issues, such as Vietnam.; 1/19/09, 12:46 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Racism isn't over until Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton publicly apologize for what did they did to this country. Until then the stain of their legacy remains.

I could care less about an apology from either of them. Riding off into the sunset and getting real jobs that actually do something to benefit the black community would be more penance than saying I'm sorry ever could.; 1/19/09, 12:52 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I kinda like Rev. Al.

Jackson gets on my last nerve.; 1/19/09, 12:59 PM
TMink said...: Zeb wrote: "He would've moved harder to the left just like all others on the left."

I disagree Zeb, because Dr. King had something that none of the hangers on or Jesse Jackson types had: Dr. King was a real Christian.

I see no evidence of that with Jackson or Sharpton. But Dr. King had a deep and abiding world view from his spirituality that the Kennedy's and SNCC and such lacked. You can see it in their approach to change, Dr. King was willing to be jailed, Jackson threatens and manipulates.

The best part of the civil rights movement came from it being a spiritual awakening. The worst legacy came from when that Christian fundament was abandoned.

Trey; 1/19/09, 1:12 PM
traditionalguy said...: The racial politics will never be over any more than cons jobs, like those in the movie The Sting, will never cease. We can only hope to live among mentally healthy and unselfish people from all ethnic heritages and keep our Free Speech as a non-negotiable Demand.; 1/19/09, 1:34 PM
William said...: In the 18th & 19th centuries, religion was as much a dividing line as race is today. The Scots and the Welsh had as much reason to distrust the English as the Irish. There was, however, no religious dividing line between them. They were thus able to become British, and the Irish were not. The integration of the Scots into the British Empire worked out very well for the Scots. They prospered and thrived....The marginalization of the Irish was a tragedy both for Great Britain and Ireland. In America, Canada, Australia, the Irish used their energies and efforts to prosper and to cause their countries of residence to prosper. Ireland became a land of failed rebellions and sullen people. I am Irish enough to blame the English for this, but I am aware that the endless chewing of resentments had their effect as well. Ireland was a dead end. The Irish became free and prosperous after they emigrated-- from history as much as from Ireland. Ireland itself became prosperous only after it emigrated en masse to the EU from the British isles......Finally, at long last, I come to the moral of this parable. I would recommend to the blacks that they take the pathway of the Scots and not the Irish.; 1/19/09, 1:35 PM
ricpic said...: Try having a conversation with a black and then tell me that racism is over. For a white it's like walking on eggshells. For a black...well, I don't know what it is for a black, but from the permanent rictus of a smile plastered on their faces when they talk to me my guess is that they would dearly love to kill whitey and they're fighting it with everything they've got: ergo "the smile."

Yes, everything is getting better and better every day in every way.; 1/19/09, 1:40 PM
traditionalguy said...: Best advice in three words or less: Divide and conquor. Mr obama will divide more of the Black Racists than the White Racists, who have long since moved on to better pastures for their hate-fits.; 1/19/09, 1:51 PM
Trooper York said...: Actually I have met Rev Al and he is a nice guy. He gets the joke. It's just a gig for him. Like when he was first hanging out with James Brown back in the day.

That's why he is the hardest working man in racism.

Just don't take him too seriously.; 1/19/09, 1:54 PM
Eli Blake said...: ricpic:

but from the permanent rictus of a smile plastered on their faces when they talk to me my guess is that they would dearly love to kill whitey

No, it has something to do with wanting to kill ricpic. I have discussions with black friends of mine all the time, and we hit all the bases: race, religion, politics, etc. Maybe you ought to stop and listen to yourself next time. And about the 'walking on eggshells' part maybe that's part of what gets some black people irked at you, they know you're not saying what you're really thinking.; 1/19/09, 2:13 PM
ricpic said...: God, to be as noble as Eli Blake.; 1/19/09, 2:16 PM
Geoff Matthews said...: MLK was for hard quotas in public and private hiring. I have no doubt that he wouldn't change his mind on this just when AA was ramping up.

As well, the plagerism and adultery seem to undermine the 'true Christian' aspect a wee bit.; 1/19/09, 2:18 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I have discussions with black friends of mine all the time, and we hit all the bases: race, religion, politics, etc.

I usually stick to sports. I don't even like talking with white people about that stuff.; 1/19/09, 2:31 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Zeb wrote: "He would've moved harder to the left just like all others on the left."

It's interesting to note (and probably no accident) that King was greatly influence by Obama's favorite philosopher, Reinhold Niebuhr.

Does anyone know if Obama was led to Niebuhr through King?

Niebuhr's liberalism was a hard-headed one, based on his understanding and view of the duality of human nature. Humans weren't naturally good and, so, one had to understand that force was sometimes needed in the world (he rejected pacifism in the face of the threat from fascism).

He famously said, "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."

It seems to me that it's this aspect of Niebuhr which leads to many of Obama's views of politics, especially foreign policy. Obama's no muddle-headed liberal, that's for sure.; 1/19/09, 2:42 PM
KCFleming said...: I usually stick to sports. I don't even like talking with white people about that stuff.

I join you in your astute avoidance of the topic.; 1/19/09, 2:48 PM
Skyler said...: Whites no longer routinely discriminate against blacks.

You don't see black working gangs anymore, they're mostly hispanic now. Blacks tend to be more like the Huxtables than "Good Times."

But black racism is thriving. Note that blacks vote monolithically, support OJ Simpson (still!). Blacks don't think of whites as equals, they think affirmative action is the same as equality.

I see no reason for jubilation yet.; 1/19/09, 2:59 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: "Hardest working man in racism".

LOL.; 1/19/09, 2:59 PM
Meade said...: "...we hit all the bases: race, religion, politics, etc."

Are you out of your mind? Those aren't the bases. Those have never been the bases.; 1/19/09, 3:12 PM
David said...: That's right, Meade. The bases are first, second, third and home. Everyone knows that.

Zeb says: "Let's get real. He [King]would've moved harder to the left just like all others on the left."

Doubtful, though unprovable either way. King was a breakout individual, but also a product of his times and background. African-American church leaders were and are generally quite conservative in their values. Dr. King recognized at the time, and would have emphasized today, that personal responsibility and effort are a huge part of the struggle.

Obama's success springs in considerable part from his refusal to use race as a crutch or see it as a barrier. Of course he used his race as an advantage in some ways. But he does not seem to buy the victimization approach. At a personal level, he shouldn't since he was a beneficiary of many kinds of support, starting with his mother and grandparents.; 1/19/09, 4:17 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/19/09, 4:37 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Those aren't the bases. Those have never been the bases.

He must've mistook the out of bounds markers for the bases.; 1/19/09, 4:37 PM
Anonymous said...: "Racism over, black people say."

And now on to the problem of salmonella; 1/19/09, 5:54 PM
Michael Haz said...: Now that racism has ended, I hope America can devote it's collective (token lefty word) resources to ending other injustices, such as:

No instant replay in baseball or basketball.

Too may fat people weigh more than the motorcycles they ride.

Lack of a means to preserve Dick Clark for future generations.

No cure for beer goggles, other than waking up in the wrong bed the next morning.

No universities for naturalists.

No graduate programs in Tattoo Studies.

I'm sure there are many others.; 1/19/09, 6:25 PM
Michael Haz said...: Whaaa...? You don't hit the bases, you hit the ball.

Maroon.; 1/19/09, 6:27 PM
Methadras said...: So all it took was to vote a black man as President? Well, that was easy. It should have happened 30 years ago, then at least we could have avoided a whole ton of messes. Who would have thunk it?; 1/19/09, 6:28 PM
Meade said...: But Methadras, it couldn't have happened thirty years ago. Thirty years ago, Barack Obama was still palling around with the Weather Underground.; 1/19/09, 6:31 PM
Methadras said...: Darn, thwarted by terrorists.; 1/19/09, 8:16 PM
Anonymous said...: The change in racial attitudes has been enormous in my lifetime (66 years). I just posted a piece to my blog about that, focusing on the widespread notion among Whites, especially in the South, not so long ago that physical contact with a Black person contaminated a White person. It's Thoughts of Water on the Eve of Obama’s Inauguration.; 1/19/09, 10:09 PM
reader_iam said...: onscrn: Well worth the read. Thanks!; 1/19/09, 10:33 PM
Donna B. said...: I had two best friends in HS. They were the only two girls who spoke to me on my first day as a transfer student, and I'm a loyal sort. My family had just moved from Colorado to east Texas.

One, let's call her Sally, was the popular girl, president of this and that, a trendsetter, and very beautiful and white.

The other, let's call her Frannie, was black, just as fashionable and as much of a trendsetter, but not allowed in those "invitation only" groups that Sally was president of.

Sally invited me to join those groups, but I was blackballed because of my friendship with Frannie. You see, Frannie and I didn't confine our friendship to talking at school, we went cruising the town together, spent the night at each other's house, etc.

All of us talked frankly about such things as my being welcome at Frannie's church and her not being welcome at mine (which I left soon) and that both of us were welcome at Sally's.

Yet, Sally would never join Frannie and me in our shenanigans. She was well aware of what that would do to her social position in the town.

Where I was raised in Colorado, there were as many Hispanics as whites and you could count the number of blacks on one hand (probably still can).

I didn't see the blacks as all that much different from Hispanics and thought nothing of socializing with them, as I'd socialized with Hispanics.

After living in the south (within 150 miles of east Texas) for 40 years, I can only say that blacks had far more going for them in the 60s than they've got now.

There was little difference when I was in HS in the grades between blacks and whites (in that particular town, at least) and their academic and artistic accomplishments were recognized and applauded.

Socialization between blacks and whites wasn't much in evidence, but blacks were not considered as "dumber" than whites.

Many of the current problems have to do with the breakdown of the black family and community. For this I blame the Sharpton/Jackson mentality of everything bad that happens to a black person is whitey's fault, and the war on drugs.

If white people have anything feel guilty about the way black people were treated in the last several decades, it's the war on drugs.

That same war is not doing the Hispanic community any good either.; 1/19/09, 10:39 PM
amba said...: More important is this.

Granted it is the elites who have already achieved quite a lot who are saying it.; 1/20/09, 12:48 AM
AlphaLiberal said...: Well, I think that's premature but hope to be proved wrong. Maybe when college-trained African Americans can work in the field of their training and don't have to work was waiters, "sanitation engineers" and the like, we'll have arrived.

and may we have...; 1/20/09, 12:31 PM