April 28, 2014

"Instead of being content to punish Sterling and go back to sleep, we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs."

Writes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and I'm just a little worried about what counts as "first signs." Sure, let's be vigilant, but part of vigilance is vigilance about ourselves, and "seek out, expose, and eliminate" sounds a tad mistake-prone and over-righteous.

116 comments:

campy said...

Your worry is misplaced. Black people are all infallible racist detectors. Just ask Crack.

Curious George said...

"Roger, ROger"

Shouting Thomas said...

No, we don't need to do any such thing.

Shut up, mind your own business and leave your neighbor alone.

The anti-racist crusade is our problem. Everybody needs to shut up.

Nothing is getting solved. Everybody is getting more pissed off. All that is happening is that every faction is dredging up past grudges and atrocities.

This is an idiot crusade that will ultimately lead to an incredibly violent denouement. In our profound stupidity, we are generating the very violence we think we are fighting to prevent.

Shut up about racism. You are all making a pain in the ass out of yourselves with this sanctimonious blabbering, and the outcome is going to be horribly negative.

If you want racial peace, let sleeping dogs lie. Humans are sinners. Trying to root out sin from human nature is an idiot agenda. Sin is not going to disappear because of the relentless hectoring.

Shut up about racism and do everybody a favor.

khesanh0802 said...

Let's have a witch hunt!
Whatever happened to all the healing that the great and wondrous O was going to provide? Identifying "racism" around every corner seems to be the strong suit of O, Holder and the usual race profiteers of the Democratic party. As someone mentioned earlier the history of the Democratic party is pretty much the history of racism in this country. The current state would be ironic if it weren't so pathetic.

RMc said...

"Listen, kid, I've been hearing that crap since I was at UCLA! I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your own man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!"

Meade said...

"Shut up about racism and do everybody a favor."

@Shouty: you are the person doing the hectoring. Telling people to "shut up" is not an argument. It's the demonstration of a browbeating bully.

DAN said...

The Knicks' Larry Johnson called for all Black teams (Black-owned) and a... League of Their Own. Let's see if anybody jumps down his throat.

YoungHegelian said...

Wait! There's a bunch of black athletes who are getting behind a movement to out some guy for public judgement for what he does in his private life?

I'm sorry, when it comes to guys who've got a lot to lose when the private becomes the political male black athletes rank right up there. But, of course, fighting RAAAACISM! makes it all right.

Just watch, this shit's gonna come back & bite these guys. That's why these guys are star athletes & not star astrophysicists.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he should go see the new Captain America film. That kind of agenda is precisely the danger sign in that film's plot. . . .

B said...

At least he didn't say exterminate. So I guess it could be worse.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Meade said...
Telling people to "shut up" is not an argument. It's the demonstration of a browbeating bully.

I agree but I note the Professor has at different times expressed both that sentiment and it's inverse (something along the lines of "this issue bores/doesn't interest me and anyone who wants to go on about it should shut up instead").

Listening to NPR on the way home an ex-NBA player opined that Sterling needed to be "reeducated." There was probably a better phrasing choice.

Shouting Thomas said...

Telling people to "shut up" is not an argument. It's the demonstration of a browbeating bully.

Yes, Meade, if there were an actual way to browbeat you into silence, I'm all for it.

You're a destructive idiot.

Your ass kissing white Stepin' Fetchit routine with that vicious black racist is all the proof necessary.

You'd do the world a favor by shutting up. You'd also be doing your bit for racial peace.

The best thing you can do it to shut up. Tell me how I can best hector and bully you into shutting up and I'll work on it until I succeed.

rhhardin said...

It's arguable, not just by racists, that freedom of association means something, and you don't have to rent to anybody you don't want to rent to.

He might be worried about damage to his buildings, for example.

That's profiling, but somehow that got made illegal even though you can't survive without it.

Interest groups are the reason.

Epstein says that in a competitive market that people fall over themselves to serve the unjustly discriminated against, there being an excess profit in doing so.

Unless it's not unjustified, of course. Then there's no profit.

The exception was the old South, where the unprofitability was ensured by private violence. Don't rent to blacks, don't serve blacks, or your business will be burned down.

Which is where the freedom of aassociation has to end; to force you to do what you'd do anyway, but without the threat of private violence in consequence.

So which is it in this case?

Maybe a little silence on the matter is a good idea.

Is it in fact unprofitable to rent to blacks, on the average?

rhhardin said...

A good race riot would be good for MSM ratings.

There's your answer.

n.n said...

Shouting Thomas:

Exactly. The failure of the civil rights movement to adapt its message and methods to focus on individual rights, and acknowledge individual dignity, is inciting a prejudice, which threatens to destabilize our society.

jacksonjay said...

"I want you to argue with them and get in their face."

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,"

“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,"


"Turns out I'm really good at killing people. "Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine."

President Barak Obama

Æthelflæd said...

"Nothing is getting solved. Everybody is getting more pissed off. All that is happening is that every faction is dredging up past grudges and atrocities.

This is an idiot crusade that will ultimately lead to an incredibly violent denouement. In our profound stupidity, we are generating the very violence we think we are fighting to prevent."

ST is right about this. Nothing good is going to come of it.

JackWayne said...

Mistake-prone?

Try unconstitutional. Try unamerican. Sterling has the RIGHT to say what he wants. Shun him if you want. Anything else is crap.

Michael K said...

Kareem needs to get interested in redistribution. Unless he has blown all his money like so many of his fellow athletes of color.

Andy Freeman said...

> This is an idiot crusade that will ultimately lead to an incredibly violent denouement. In our profound stupidity, we are generating the very violence we think we are fighting to prevent.

The "no racists" folks are not fighting to prevent violence. They're actually trying to provoke it.

We won't know if that's a stupid strategy for a while.


johnnymcguirk said...

After this season no superstar black player, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, etc. will play for this guy as long as there are similarly remunerative options available elsewhere. I don't blame them. Had he said he didn't want his hooker to be seen with Irish people I'd feel the same way. Sterling is history.

Wilbur said...

Anyone who knows anything about the NBA and the people in it has known for many years that Sterling was exactly what he demonstrated on these tapes.

Seems to me a lot of people of all races have some 'splainin to do about their acceptance of this pariah in their midst for all these years.

"I'm shocked, shocked to see this going on in our NBA!"

Dust Bunny Queen said...

This is an idiot crusade that will ultimately lead to an incredibly violent denouement. In our profound stupidity, we are generating the very violence we think we are fighting to prevent."

"ST is right about this. Nothing good is going to come of it."

Not only that....no good is going to come of this crusade. The bar for what constitutes racism seems to be getting lower and lower.

When you conflate real racist actions, which should be derided and the person(s) who do those shamed, with accusing innocent people of being racists for using normal words like devil's food cake, black holes and brown bags** you lose the entire moral high ground. (** look those up they are real instances.)

Just like the boy who cried wolf, eventually people just tune out. You can only tolerate being called a racist for no good reason or for any small thing you might say or do before you snap. The crusaders are creating an atmosphere where REAL racists acts and attitudes are going to become more prevalent.

"Constantly call me a racist? Well. WTF....I guess I might as well just go ahead and live up to it then." This will be the attitude of many. I guarantee it.

rhhardin said...

Mark Steyn weighs in.

grackle said...

Sterling has the RIGHT to say what he wants.

Sure. BUT he doesn't have the RIGHT to own an NBA franchise. There is going to be hell to pay if the NBA owners don't get rid of him. I will not watch another Clippers game until he is gone, gone, gone.

Meade said...

Shouting Thomas said...
"The best thing you can do it to shut up. Tell me how I can best hector and bully you into shutting up and I'll work on it until I succeed."

The best way for you to get me to shut up is to skip over and not read my comments. I hope that helps you.

Nichevo said...

Still working on that ignore button? Meade, you've changed.

CWJ said...

Nobody expects the anti-racist inquisition!

But somehow when my time comes, I don't expect them to fetch the comfy chair and beat me with the soft cushions, even if they get the stuffing all up on one end,

Racism has clearly become original sin for the irreligious.

Forget actual behaviour, it's the thought that counts.

madAsHell said...

I'm told that blacks represent 10-15% of the population, but more than 80% of the NBA.
Racial inequality!!
Something needs to be done!!
We should throw a zillion tax dollars at training white people to shoot and dribble......but something tells me that won't work.

steve said...

Exactly how does someone prove he or she is not a racist if accused of being one?

Revenant said...

BUT he doesn't have the RIGHT to own an NBA franchise.

So far as I'm aware he does indeed have the right to own an NBA franchise: they sold him one.

Unless he's in violation of their agreement, the most they can do is fine him or suspend him. It is unlikely the other owners would agree to a suspension, given that Sterling's remarks were private and illegally recorded.

Æthelflæd said...

The interesting thing to me is that no one seems to care that the married Sterling openly keeps a mistress. He is a classless tool all the way around, and if the NBA wants to get rid of him that's fine by me. I certainly wouldn't want to play for him. This is such a weird story - what with the NAACP being all set to give him an award, and the fact that his character issues were well known long before this incident.

This is what troubles me: "...we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs". This is the language of the purge, of the guillotine, of the gulag, of the inquisition. Private heresy must be exposed and exterminated!

Meade said...

steve said...
"Exactly how does someone prove he or she is not a racist if accused of being one?"

1. Acknowledge that racism exists.
2. Tell your accuser: "I reject racism in all its forms."
3. Mean it.

William said...

So far as I can remember, Kareem kept a tactful silence about the Black Mafia muders of the adults and children, his co-religionists, who were staying at his house. They were members of some Muslim sect that had openly criticized the Nation of Islam. They were killed, reportedly, because of this and because the killers felt that Kareem had hid money in the house and the victims knew where it was.....If you're going to speak out against injustice, denouncing the killers of children under your protection wouldn't be a bad place to start.......I guarantee that in the next year some NBA player will be involved in some ghastly scandal and that that scandal will not attract a teeny fraction of the opprobrium attached to Stirling.

Paco Wové said...

"At least he didn't say exterminate"

It does sound kind of like a dalek, doesn't it?

"...seek out!... Expose!... Eliminate!..."

BTW, Meade, ST isn't a 'bully' by any stretch of the imagination. He's a bloviator, certainly, but you seem to get along with plenty of those.

grackle said...

… given that Sterling's remarks were private and illegally recorded.

I'm no lawyer but if his girlfriend recorded their conversation I'll bet it was not illegal. Different states have different laws but I read somewhere that in most states to be illegal it would require a third party do the recording without the knowledge of the two participants.

So far as I'm aware he does indeed have the right to own an NBA franchise: they sold him one.

Really? A constitutional right? Remember that exemptions passed by Congress allows sports franchises to avoid most antitrust legalities. What Congress gives Congress can take away.

The NBA better watch out. They've been gaining a bit on the NFL in recent years but a racist brand will not help that at all. Who is going to want to play for him? Sponsors are pulling out already.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Sterling has the RIGHT to say what he wants.

Sure. BUT he doesn't have the RIGHT to own an NBA franchise

So...if a person is branded or even outed as a racist, he/she doesn't have the right to own ???? It isn't "illegal" for him to own a sports team. What types of businesses do YOU think you should deny possession of for the crime of thinking something unsettling or unpopular? We already know that if you donate some money to a cause that isn't popular at your place of business you can be hounded out and denied the ability to make a living. Mozilla.

Do you think that stripping people of the livelihoods and possessions is good enough for thought crimes? Maybe you want MORE> Perhaps you would rather see a set of Gulags or Re-education camps. Maybe something with concertina wire and black and white striped outfits? Force those heretics to repent. Right?

Thought crimes! Global warming deniers. Anti Gay Marriage. I'm sure you can think of some more things worthy of punishment.

Oso Negro said...

Blogger Meade said...
steve said...
"Exactly how does someone prove he or she is not a racist if accused of being one?"

1. Acknowledge that racism exists.
2. Tell your accuser: "I reject racism in all its forms."
3. Mean it.


Meade, my dear fellow, the definition of "racism" has evolved greatly, and that makes an enormous difference in how your point number 2 is interpreted.

CWJ said...

Holy Fred!

I make an analogy to religious belief, and exactly 20 minutes later Meade offers a simulacrum of a Catholic's baptismal vows as the means to absolve yourself of the Racism sin.

chickelit said...

Thankfully, SCOTUS is diligently working to eliminate the justification of racism in college admissions, some of its members notwithstanding.

MayBee said...

I don't think even KAJ wants all of his private conversations recorded and released to the public for scrutiny.

Is that what people want? How do the peopl calling for his head get around the fact that's what happened?

chickelit said...

Did anyone else find it odd that POTUS chose to speak up on the Sterling matter but not the recent SCOTUS decision? Erich Holder weighed in on Schuette, praising Sotomayor of course. My explanation is that the Sterling kerfluffle involves basketball which is something POTUS cares more about than affirmative action.

chickelit said...

Is that what people want? How do the peopl calling for his head get around the fact that's what happened?

Do you think they even think about it? Did the French Reign of Terror terrorists actually do much thinking? It was mostly chop chop chop 'til you drop!

m stone said...

I don't see any players in the NBA play-offs sitting out games in solidarity.

That would mean something.

But that would cost them.

chickelit said...

Meade's 3 point program failed on Crack who denies that black on white racism even exists. The best Crack can do is retort that "whites started it."

Meade, unilateral remedies just don't work as universal remedies.

Paco Wové said...

"I don't think even KAJ wants all of his private conversations recorded and released to the public for scrutiny."

In fact, KAJ says as much at the link Althouse provides:

"Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way? ... The making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplice to the crime. We didn’t steal the cake but we’re all gorging ourselves on it."

Anonymous said...

Seek out. Expose. Eliminate. Vigilance!

I'm really starting to wonder what the hell is wrong with people that they're not recognizing that this stuff has passed over into complete insanity. Time to put down the crack pipe and go home and sleep it off. Seriously, I recommend a remedial course in the history and etiology of religious nutjobbery, whether your heresy hunting is aimed inwardly or outwardly. It's starting to feel like fucking Cathar country around here.

Illuninati said...

As a typical lefty, Obama is much better at bullying a doddering old man who uses some offensive speech than in convincing a man with guns, Putin, to leave the Ukraine alone.

Anonymous said...

Meade: 1. Acknowledge that racism exists.

OK.

2. Tell your accuser: "I reject racism in all its forms."

Aside from coming across as an utter abject cocksucker, you'd be lying. Human beings are "racist". People are different. We notice. That's not a bad thing in itself.

3. Mean it.

Nobody "means it". Aside from a subset of European-brand humans who get off on posturing as Great White Morally Exalted Bwana. No other people out there but crazy whites and chicken-shit whites spend their time anxiously undertaking this ludicrous non-stop examination of conscience.

Meade, you don't even acknowledge that blacks are human beings like yourself. Human. Flawed. "Racist" in the normal, human, ineradicable way that we all are. Meet people face to face, not from your White Church Lady anti-racist perch. The vast majority of human beings aren't white and nobody but the race hustlers and grievance mongers among them pays any attention to what whitey thinks about race, anyway. They already have their own opinions. (Often quite interesting ones, too.)

Skeptical Voter said...

Grackle--the law in California (set forth in our Penal Code) is that both parties to a conversation have to consent to its being recorded. Ms. Stifiano or her enabler probably didn't get that pathetic old geezer's consent to being recorded. Who knows--maybe they did, but unless and until that is proven, then the recording was illegal.

However as the saying goes, the "illegality of the recording" butters no parsnips. It's pretty much out there for all the world to hear. And it seems like at least half the world has got its righteous tail feathers in a ruff about this and are piling on Sterling.

Sterling was a cuckold. He gives this babe $2 million and now she wants to hang out with other people. A guy who, in the Italian phrase, is "wearing the horns" can do and say some crazy stuff.

I think that Ms. Stifiano and her lawyer (she promised to "get even" when Mrs. Sterling sued her) did not realize just what a fire storm those tapes would set off.

But if "getting even" was the goal, she succeeded.

Paco Wové said...

Apropos Meade's 3-step program, I have a hard time thinking he means it seriously – it seems more like he's just throwing it out there to troll the commentariat. Meade has a history of goading current and former commenters along, apparently just for the hell of it. In fact, I've long suspected that "Crack Emcee" is just an elaborate troll persona crafted by Meade to get people riled up and clicking. Think of it – have you ever seen a picture of "Crack" and Meade – together? I rest my case.

ken in tx said...

"I reject racism in all its forms."

Sounds like an echo of "I reject Satan and all his works."

Can I be Baptized/waterboarded now?

Æthelflæd said...

ken in sc said...
"'I reject racism in all its forms.'

Sounds like an echo of 'I reject Satan and all his works.'

Can I be Baptized/waterboarded now?"

Perfect.

LL said...

Racial McCarthyism.

Wince said...

I just watched Spike Lee decry Sterling's "racist" remarks on Anderson Cooper.

Spike Lee. Really?

*I'd call Sterling's comments bigoted, not racist.

Gahrie said...

Telling people to "shut up" is not an argument. It's the demonstration of a browbeating bully.

But apparently calling them racist is just fine.

Illuninati said...

Anglelyne said...

"Meade, you don't even acknowledge that blacks are human beings like yourself. Human. Flawed. "Racist" in the normal, human, ineradicable way that we all are."

I don't know about Meade specifically, but Anglelyne has nailed the paternalistic attitude of the left towards common people.

MayBee said...

Paco-

Thank you. His article is much different than I expected it to be from Althouse's exerpt. He is absolutely right in what he says.
The "first signs" comment wrt Sterling are appropriate. The signs of racist behavior were already there. Sterling had already treated too many minorities too unfairly for people to just ignore, and it is gross that this private phone call is what has people talking.

Bravo, KAJ.

n.n said...

Wilbur:

If his general character was previously known, then this is a manufactured incident, which was inflated for some grand effect, and with an ulterior motive.

Revenant said...

I'm no lawyer but if his girlfriend recorded their conversation I'll bet it was not illegal.

It is illegal in California and several other states. It was, in any case, private, which is the relevant bit.

Really? A constitutional right?

Do you suffer from a visual impairment that causes you to see the word "constitutional" in sentences in which it does not appear, or is it just that you're unaware that "constitutional rights" are not the only kind of legal rights?

Remember that exemptions passed by Congress allows sports franchises to avoid most antitrust legalities. What Congress gives Congress can take away.

Yes, Congress could revoke the entire NBA's anti-trust exemption if they wanted to. Will they? Of course not.

The NBA better watch out.

You don't get it. He owns the franchise. The NBA has minimal say in the matter. He'll be fined and told to apologize, and that's the end of it.

glenn said...

Here's what Kareem really wants (and needs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f42ziXunhrY

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Black people can call for whatever they want but the reality is, except to the degree that Blacks can be manipulated for monetary or political advantage, White people don't really give a shit. Crack is correct about that. Yet ironically, he can't imagine a future where Black self-reliance renders what White people do or don't give a shit about, moot.

CWJ said...

First "Meade," then me, then "ken in sc," and now "AEthelflaed."

Who else wants to come to the water and be reborn free from the original sin of racism?

Subsequent confirmation will require paying Crack the stipulated reparation.

Meade said...

"Meade, you don't even acknowledge that blacks are human beings like yourself."

Wait. Where did I fail to acknowledge that? I reject any effort by anyone to dehumanize anyone anywhere.

I was trying to offer a good-faith answer to what I thought was a good-faith question from steve. If you have a better answer, have at it.

Phil 314 said...

Listening to a former Clippers player interviewed on Dan Lebatard show (ESPN radio)today, I was struck by this comment from the interviewer (when discussing Sterling and other NBA owners, paraphrasing)

"Not all owners are racists" (or something to that effect, the key words were "Not all NBA owners")

The clear assumption was that many (white) NBA owners are and/or hold racist views. And Lebatard never questioned the "not all" descriptor.

I'm further struck by every ESPN commentator having to say "don't get me wrong, what Sterling said was reprehensible" as if the underlying suspicion was that as a white person you secretly harbor some sympathy with the racist remarks.

Meade said...

Gahrie said...
"Telling people to "shut up" is not an argument. It's the demonstration of a browbeating bully.

But apparently calling them racist is just fine."

Did I call Shouting Thomas racist?

Well, he is on record defending racism's "rational purpose". So, yeah, that does pretty much make him a race-ist, don't you think?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Kareem left Milwaukee because there were too many whites there, so there's that.

Nichevo said...

I wasn't planning to go all the way down the rabbit hole with you, Meade, so I'm not going to speak to any purpose of racism. However, when you can tell a Japanese from a Chinese or a Russian from a Ukrainian, by their physiognomy, there's something there! And if you don't call it race, you painfully call it something else that is what everybody else means by race.

Jupiter said...

"The exception was the old South, where the unprofitability was ensured by private violence. Don't rent to blacks, don't serve blacks, or your business will be burned down."

You are mistaken. In the Jim Crow South, racial discrimination was imposed by law. It would certainly have been possible for the federal government to stop the States from enforcing those laws, without depriving any private citizens of any of their rights. You may think that would not have been effective, but the experiment was never tried. Instead, the right of free association on private property was simply abolished.

It's bizarre, when you consider the historical record. Supposed concern for the well-being of a small racvial minority has been the excuse for the State of Massachusetts to take over the country. And as Cliven Bundy noted, the minority's well-being does not seem to have improved much.

Smilin' Jack said...

...I'm just a little worried about what counts as "first signs." Sure, let's be vigilant, but part of vigilance is vigilance about ourselves, and "seek out, expose, and eliminate" sounds a tad mistake-prone and over-righteous.

Saying stuff like that is the first sign.

exhelodrvr1 said...

I think we should all take the pledge - this could be the start of a 360 degree turn in how the nation treats racism!!

Roughcoat said...

Remember what Kareem said about the racist and anti-sentiments voiced by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan?

No?

Neither do I.

Kareem Abdul-Torquemada.

TMink said...

Sterling is a bigot, but has his stupidity hurt anyone? Is there any evidence of bias? It is not against the law to be an idiot, even a racist idiot. Now I think it would be appropriate if nobody would work for him as that is protected speech as well. But if that is the worst racism we can find, that an old geezer who pays blacks millions of dollars does not want his mistress to take photos with Magic Johnson, then we are truly past racism.

Trey

Roughcoat said...

"... seek out, expose, and eliminate" sounds a tad mistake-prone and over-righteous."

It sounds to me like an Einsatzgruppe entering a rural village in Belorussia.

Jupiter said...

What's so funny about this, is I am pretty sure just exactly how pleased all the "non-racists" commenting here would be if they invited one of their white friends to a party in their home and she said, "Great! Can I bring a bunch of my black friends?"

Like, what could go wrong?

Roughcoat said...

Re: "Remember what Kareem said about the racist and anti-sentiments ..."

Correction: "anti-semitic sentiments"

Revenant said...

And as Cliven Bundy noted, the minority's well-being does not seem to have improved much.

Please don't defend that fuckwitted remark of Bundy's. Under slavery black Americans were worse off in every way.

J.R. said...

It sounds a lot like ABC-accuse, blame, crucify.

Gahrie said...

Meade:

I was actually referring to Crack and you know it.

If acknowledging the fact that there are different races, with different characteristics based on genetics makes you a racist, then I am a racist.

What is interesting on an intellectual level, but never discussed, is that there is an increasing amount of evidence that there are distinct sub-species of humans. (Think Bengal Tiger and Siberian Tiger. Very different animals, but still both Tigers) One population of humans mated with Neanderthal, and at least one more population mated with a different hominid. Sub-Saharan Africans are notable for being "pure" humans.

There. How is that for some honest discussion of race?

Gahrie said...

By the way...Justice Sotomayor apparerently believes that different races exist, and that the differences between them matters.

vza said...

Kareem Abdul Jabar's piece makes more sense than any of the other commentaries I have read on this topic. We cannot change the heart of a pathetic,ignorant man, but we should be vigilant in calling out and eliminating the racism that still exists in some of our institutions and the way we do business in housing, loans, etc.
The "first signs" of Sterling's racism were apparent long before this sad, sleazy private conversation. And those first signs involved actual discrimination. Why didn't the league do something about him back then?

David said...

Can't we all just get along?

Apparently not.

Jason said...

I think we should bring back the practice of dueling.

Anonymous said...

"Black people can call for whatever they want but the reality is, except to the degree that Blacks can be manipulated for monetary or political advantage, White people don't really give a shit. Crack is correct about that. Yet ironically, he can't imagine a future where Black self-reliance renders what White people do or don't give a shit about, moot."

This.

exhelodrvr1 said...

We'll be much farther to getting past racism when people are colorblind when addressing racism

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I think it's fine to purge all the billionaire racists.

Oh, wait, you mean more than that.

Stan Smith said...

If you persist in believing that you are a perpetual victim, you will BE A PERPETUAL VICTIM.

Let it go, Indy.

test said...

Meade said...
steve said...
"Exactly how does someone prove he or she is not a racist if accused of being one?"

1. Acknowledge that racism exists.
2. Tell your accuser: "I reject racism in all its forms."
3. Mean it.


Compare step two to Meade's defense of Crack. In that case he claimed Crack isn't a racist because he doesn't believe one race is inherently inferior. Why exclude all but one narrow definition? Because other common definitions would clearly include Crack?

Step 3: fail.

Meade said...

Marshal said...
"Why exclude all but one narrow definition?"

What are the broad definitions of "racist" that pertain to steve's question?

Meade said...

"Yet ironically, he can't imagine a future where Black self-reliance renders what White people do or don't give a shit about, moot."

Have you had a real one-to-one conversation with Crack? Ironically, you seem to be unable to imagine Crack's ability to imagine.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...


Sometimes it's useful to reverse situations.

Would you guess that it is probably: rare?, fairly common?, or commonplace? - for a Black female, when presented the circumstances, to ever say to her lover, "Don't you be bringing your White girls around here!"

Of course, expressed much more colorfully (pun intended).

Doesn't excuse it, of course, but does put it in some perspective.

Joe Schmoe said...

I admit that racism exists. In fact, we have a long way to go to really rid ourselves of racism. We're barely half-way there.

This country will only truly be free of racism when we can elect a black man for President. A conservative black President, that is.

Nichevo said...

Have you? In what medium? I've tried, here, and while I don't reject it, 'tis heavy going.

Scott M said...

Kareem finished up by grabbing a reporter by the lapels and harshly whispering, "Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes."

donald said...

Sounds like a spokesman for CAIR to me.

Al from Chgo said...

Kareem wants to substitute Black Robes with red piping for white sheets..."beware the Spanish Inquisition"

Tarrou said...

And the Great White Defendant Hunt continues............

test said...

Meade said...
What are the broad definitions of "racist" that pertain to steve's question?


What other forms of racism does your estabishment of innocence process include other than believing that one race is inferior or superior to others? It's your theory, what are you referring to and why did you narrow the definition to exonerate Crack? Because you think his racism is less important than confronting conservatives over racism?

Two that pertain to Crack:

1. He believes those who share white skin deserve to be punished for each others sins.

2. He believes skin color confers particular characteristics and beliefs on racial groups.

The Crack Emcee said...

Marshal,

"Two that pertain to Crack:

1. He believes those who share white skin deserve to be punished for each others sins.

2. He believes skin color confers particular characteristics and beliefs on racial groups."

#1 is a lie - only conservative whites live in fear that somebody's out to do anything to them. They voice it every time reparations comes up - that someone's going to "take" something away from them, rather than the obvious:

The COUNTRY will pay blacks for what the country's done.

Let me say it again - no blacks will be coming to anyone's door - but you'd never know that talking to conservative whites. You ALL phrase it as though you, personally, will be giving up something, rather than blacks gaining justice - thus, you keep blacks from justice.

That's YOUR problem, not my view of anything.

#2 is also a lie. I've said, repeatedly, white CULTURE makes you think the way you do. Not surprising since, as whites always tell me, they "don't even think about race." How can whites understand what they don't think about? And how can blacks benefit when white culture keeps you willingly ignorant of the most important issue in America to blacks?

BTW, whites repeatedly lying on me is a white privilege AND white supremacy,...

Doug said...

grackle said:
Sure. BUT he doesn't have the RIGHT to own an NBA franchise.

Does he have the right to keep what he ALREADY OWNS? Or is it your point that some agency has the right to seize his property because of his spoken thoughts?

test said...

#1: Here's Crack justifying race preferences penalizing white (and asian) children because other whites did something awful:


The Crack Emcee said...
Marshal,

"But race preferences are difficult to support. It's hard to justify discriminating against little white and asian kids who in many cases attended the same schools and lived in the same neighborhoods as those receiving the race preferences."

Is not - you show them a picture of a lynched black and say "Whites did that to blacks for 400 years" and then they're quite understanding.

Conservatives, not so much,...

4/3/14, 10:01 AM

sunsong said...

Worth a watch - about 3 minutes:

three things about the donald sterling tape

test said...

The Crack Emcee said...

#2 is also a lie. I've said, repeatedly, white CULTURE makes you think the way you do.


Since we don't all think the same this is obviously false. In fact the only characteristic that all whites share is white skin.

Nichevo said...

Crack, imho it's shit for you to confuse accusations of lying (which I'm sure you do get) with people who simply do not understand WTF you are saying. Not because they're stupid, but because your style can be somewhere between elliptical abd obtuse. To paraphrase Patrick O'Brian, brother, sometimes you trail your coat (i.e. go looking for a fight).

1) Just curious-the COUNTRY will repay you? With what? From whom?

2) I got nothing. I don't know the words. Skin or culture, yours is not working for you, ours is for us. I don't see any reason why we need to "see it your way."

I mean pragmatically. Talk if justice aside.

The American culture can absorb and assimilate anything desirable in black culture, just as we have French or Chinese, without succumbing to it.

What will you do if you decide you will never get justice? Suicide? Fight and die? Leave?

I don't even know how to help you. Seems with sincerity the best thing is leave you be.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Let me say it again - no blacks will be coming to anyone's door -

They'd better not. I also don't want to see any Jehovah's Witnesses or Avon ladies either!

The Crack Emcee said...

Marshal ,

"#1: Here's Crack justifying race preferences penalizing white (and asian) children because other whites did something awful."

For 400 years - let's not trivialize it, by leaving that part out now, Marshal.

And tell me, since your heart bleeds so much about discrimination, how do you feel as you see unemployed, or even unemployable, blacks now? Do you care that their descendants were, definitely, discriminated against? Do you share any sense of justice for them - or is all your compassion used up after you consider the "plight" of whites and asians - the two richest groups in America?

You're a joke, Marshal,...

bbkingfish said...

You're "a little worried about what counts as 'first signs?'"

You must not have read Jabbar's little essay, which you link. I don't think his meaning could be any plainer than he makes it.

Gahrie said...

And tell me, since your heart bleeds so much about discrimination, how do you feel as you see unemployed, or even unemployable, blacks now?

Personally, I am appalled that the unemployment rate for Blacks is almost double that of Whites. I just don't think White racism is the reason for it.

Do you care that their descendants were, definitely, discriminated against?

If you mean "ancestors" Then no, I don't care. All of us have sob stories in their ancestry. The great thing about this country is that your ancestors don't matter, and if you reject wallowing in pity and victimization, and work hard, you can do anything....even get elected president as an empty suit.

test said...

The Crack Emcee said...
let's not trivialize it, by leaving that part out now, Marshal

Since you see it right in my comment it wasn't left out was it? Hvaing to make shit up in order to justify your outrage is a pretty strong sign you're wrong.

how do you feel as you see unemployed, or even unemployable, blacks now?

I argue for the things that would actually help them (along with everyone else effected): improved education, an end to the war on drugs, and a less antagonistic relationship with law enforcement, less pointless bureaucratic regulation, less money sucked out of the private sector and spent on boondoggles and otherwise unemployable political activists.

Do you care that their descendants were, definitely, discriminated against?

Whose descendents? Do you mean ancestors? If so then I do care in the sense I wish it didn't happen, but until someone invents a time machine there's nothing to be done about it. I also wish WWII hadn't ocurred, Joan of Arc wasn't burned at the stake, Jewish pogroms didn't occur, and the Fourth Crusade hadn't been undertaken - along with a host of other regrets.

is all your compassion used up after you consider the "plight" of whites and asians - the two richest groups in America?

Viewing everything in group terms has led you seriously astray. Most race preference beneficiaries are not poorer than the people denied jobs or school admission because of them. It's also the source of your anger transferrence from one group of people who did something terrible to another group who had nothing to do with it.

You're a joke, Marshal,...

Coming from someone with such a profound misunderstanding of justice I'll take that as a compliment.

Anonymous said...

"..And tell me, since your heart bleeds so much about discrimination, how do you feel as you see unemployed, or even unemployable, blacks now? Do you care that their descendants were, definitely, discriminated against? Do you share any sense of justice for them - or is all your compassion used up after you consider the "plight" of whites and asians - the two richest groups in America?.."

Beyond 'feeling' what are you doing? I mean in addition to blame 'whitey'.

How long to football season?

Sofa King said...

What are the broad definitions of "racist" that pertain to steve's question?

White.

Stan Smith said...

Yo, Crack:

What I said before: those who persist in believing that they are perpetual victims will be perpetual victims.

Apparently nothing but white folks walking around in hair shirts forever will satisfy you.

The Crack Emcee said...

Marshal,

"I do care in the sense I wish it didn't happen, but until someone invents a time machine there's nothing to be done about it."

Yes there is - we can empty the treasury just like we filled it and give the money to the families that earned it.

That's called JUSTICE.

Why that's so hard to understand is beyond me,...

Dr Weevil said...

Stupid M.C. ButtCrack fails to mention that he wants 100 Trillion dollars, and that that it is more than the total wealth of the entire world. This has already been explained to him in detail, with no effect. Emptying the treasury won't even come close. His wish is the same as a child's wish for a pet unicorn: it won't happen because it can't happen, and only fools demand things that they cannot ever have.

That leaves out the question of whether giving people large sums of money does them any good. The experience of lottery winners and generations of welfare recipients suggests that unearned money tends to destroy people's morals and characters and happiness.

test said...

The Crack Emcee said...
Yes there is - we can empty the treasury


There is no "Treasury". We have a net national debt measured in trillions. The assets you want given to blacks would therefore have to be taken from others who had nothing to do with slavery.

Why that's so hard to understand is beyond me,...

It's because you support the principle of group guilt and I don't. Only amongst whites though. You agree you don't owe anyone for crimes other blacks commit because that would be racist.

Dr Weevil said...

How do we feel as we see "unemployed, or even unemployable, blacks now"? A Hell of a lot more sympathetic to those who quit whining and try to make themselves employable. It's not easy, but plenty of non-black people over the years have (e.g.) learned to read as adults.

Do we "care that their descendants were, definitely, discriminated against"? Either M.C. ButtCrack has a time machine, or he doesn't know the difference between ancestors and descendants. Do I care that my ancestors suffered terribly in the Irish Potato Famine? I guess, though the question seems academic. Do I think the miseries of people who died decades before anyone I ever knew was even born ought to effect contemporary policy in any way? No. My grandmother missed the Famine by 50 years, but still cursed the "bloody British" all her long life. She would have lived a happier and more successful life without that pointless prejudice.