Althouse: "If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk."

July 9, 2016

"If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk."

Said Newt Gingrich (after the Dallas massacre).

218 comments:

1 – 200 of 218 Newer› Newest»

Jake said...: What is a "normal" white american?; 7/9/16, 7:24 AM
Gahrie said...: The only person it is legal to discriminate against today is a White, straight , male.; 7/9/16, 7:25 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: If it is impossible for me to understand the black experience why does everyone keep talking to me about it?

If whites really can't understand then shouldn't we just drop the one sided dialogue?; 7/9/16, 7:26 AM
boycat said...: African American males comprise 6.5 of the population in the US, yet account for 50% of all murderers in America. Grok that.; 7/9/16, 7:31 AM
Saint Croix said...: I like Newt. Always did.

Smart guy.

Here is what Donald Trump had to say.

I think he's waking up to the importance of his words.; 7/9/16, 7:35 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Looks like Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama have a lot in common when it comes to their view of what it means to be a typical or normal white person.; 7/9/16, 7:38 AM
Gusty Winds said...: The video with Newt and Van Jones was good, and they both seemed very genuine.

VP Pick.; 7/9/16, 7:43 AM
Obadiah said...: Despite his awkward use of "normal", he's right. Newt should be at the top of the ticket instead of auditioning for second fiddle. If they would let Newt write Trump's speeches, maybe he would stop shooting himself in the foot.; 7/9/16, 7:49 AM
LCpl Predator said...: We can't have an HONEST conversation. Look what's happening in Chicago. YTD, there have been 2072 shootings. Oh, yea, it's run by Obama's man, Rahm.

Where's the outrage? Most of those being shot are black. I thought 'Black Lives Matter'. Where's Al? Jessie? Barack? It's not just gang bangers getting shot. There are children getting caught up in this as well. Rahm said to take the shooting out back. Where was the criticism for the stupid stuff he said?

Some of the toughest gun laws are in Chicago. Again, why isn't the network news talking about this more? What is the solution to ending the violence?

I never even thought about the cost to the hospitals/state for treating the wounded. Who's paying for it? Oh, perhaps they have health insurance. Then there's the cost of the ambulance. Again, who pays for that?

The towns around me are seeing an increase of crime. I guess I am racist because I'm not surprised when I see the picture in the paper is that of a minority, who wasn't born/raised in our little community. Most recently, two guys stole a vehicle and crashed it into a gun shop, to steal the guns.

This is an excellent site that breaks down all the shootings in Chicago.

http://heyjackass.com/; 7/9/16, 7:53 AM
Bob Ellison said...: If you are a normal white American you understand that talking like that betrays political ineptitude.; 7/9/16, 7:54 AM
Sally327 said...: I'm not Black but I grew up poor so I feel I have some idea what it's like to be an easy target for anyone with a little power to throw around. Anyway, it's amazing to me that the more we talk about race in America the worse it gets.; 7/9/16, 7:54 AM
Hagar said...: Newt is right.
I would recommend reading "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson. B&N has it in paperback, and it is well written and interesting, so it it is not an onerous chore.
Wilkerson does not preach, but just tells the stories of 3 people who escaped from the Deep South during the Great Migration - one goes to California, one to Chicago, and one to New York.; 7/9/16, 7:57 AM
Sal said...: If whites somehow were able to create a white-only society somewhere, blacks would be trying to move there.; 7/9/16, 8:00 AM
Hagar said...: Oh, and obviously written well before our present troubles, so it is more about how things were and partly how they got this way.; 7/9/16, 8:01 AM
Oso Negro said...: If you are a normal black American, you cannot understand how tired we whites
are of listening to you whine and having to pay for your sorry asses. Maybe it just isn't going to work and instead of talking reparations we should be talking repatriation. But what country in Africa offers you a better standard of living? You see how this logic can work.; 7/9/16, 8:03 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: If whites somehow were able to create a white-only society somewhere, blacks would be trying to move there.

Seems like colonial America fit the description of a white-only society - until the slaves were invited.; 7/9/16, 8:06 AM
David Begley said...: BLM protest in white West Omaha last night. One dead black man in black North Omaha this week. No suspects.; 7/9/16, 8:08 AM
Sal said...: Seems like colonial America fit the description of a white-only society - until the slaves were invited.

Good point. Wisconsin farmers should have picked their own cotton.; 7/9/16, 8:09 AM
Sally327 said...: "If whites somehow were able to create a white-only society somewhere, blacks would be trying to move there."

It's called Switzerland. I might not mind moving there myself, if I had lots of money that is.; 7/9/16, 8:09 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Oso Negro said: If you are a normal black American, you cannot understand how tired we whites are of listening to you whine and having to pay for your sorry asses.

You nailed it. "You can't understand" translates to "you aren't buying in to my woe-is-me narrative".; 7/9/16, 8:19 AM
Known Unknown said...: It's called Switzerland. I might not mind moving there myself, if I had lots of money that is.

Switzerland is like paradise in the Brexit movie.; 7/9/16, 8:20 AM
MadisonMan said...: If I can't understand something, then isn't it a folly to try to make me understand?; 7/9/16, 8:22 AM
shiloh said...: "Anyway, it's amazing to me that the more we talk about race in America the worse it gets."

Racism is systemic. Sort of like god ~ eternal. Ironic, eh. Paraphrasing a Billy Graham quote from 40/50 years ago. If there was one thing I could change about humanity it would be that everyone was the same color.

God's little test that "we" fail on a daily basis.

For those who believe in the Bible it goes back to Adam and Eve when Cain killed Abel. Hatred, jealousy, despair, hopelessness ie human emotion ie human nature ie systemic.

When in the course of history has there been peaceful nirvana? Rhetorical.

>

ok, ok, it's the Dem's/Obama's fault and Republicans have and always will be perfect angels!

I yield back the balance of my time.; 7/9/16, 8:22 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/9/16, 8:28 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/9/16, 8:29 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: If I can't understand something, then isn't it a folly to try to make me understand?

Remember that old slogan, "It's a black thing - you wouldn't understand"?

I might not be able to understand, but I can try - it's the refusal to even try that foments misunderstandings and hatreds, IMHO. And I'm not talking exclusively about blacks and whites. (I wonder who's more likely to fall into the toxic trap of, "I'm right and you're wrong and that's that" - liberals or conservatives?); 7/9/16, 8:31 AM
Obadiah said...: The african americans I know who have "made it", who have jobs and live in the suburbs, tell me unanimously that police harassment is real. I know a 60-year old lady, married, raised four kids and sent them to college, goes to church, lives is a suburban home with her husband, who says she has been stopped and questioned by the police about random crimes. That is something I have never experienced. It suggests that there is a problem that is not limited to high-crime inner city areas. That's what Newt is talking about.; 7/9/16, 8:31 AM
Fernandinande said...: Blacks cause trouble, white people to blame.
Rinse and repeat.

Is Gingrich not normal, or does he not understand?; 7/9/16, 8:34 AM
Paco Wové said...: "I wonder who's more likely to fall into the toxic trap of, "I'm right and you're wrong and that's that" - liberals or conservatives?"

Ah, one of those tricky, zen-like questions. To ask it is to answer it.; 7/9/16, 8:34 AM
Curious George said...: Isn't Newt the same guy that decided making a Climate Change commercial with Nancy Pelosi was a good idea?

Go away Newt.; 7/9/16, 8:39 AM
Big Mike said...: Newt's right, but so what? There will be no progress unless and until Blacks themselves understand that they, too, must change.

(1) They have to teach their young men not to respond with violence at every perceived insult or micro-aggression.

(2) They have to stop waiting for Massa -- oops, I meant government -- to come in and fix everything for them while they sit on the sidelines and watch. Roll up your sleeves, show some initiative. You can't clean up your whole street but you can sweep your porch and front walk. Stopped up toilet? Get a plunger and unstop it. Don't wait for Massa to come fix. Massa's too busy.

(3) Teach your teachers that when kids in the classroom taunt their classmates for "acting white" when they do their homework and raise their hands in class, that it's the taunters who must be punished, and severely. If the parents don't square around the teachers, the "soft bigotry of low expectations" will doom their children and the generations that follow their children.

Corollaries to #3 include the following.

(3-a) A credential is not an education. If your child graduates from elementary school unable to read, write, and do simple arithmetic, he or she is not educated.

(3-b) There is no (legal) work today for uneducated teenagers or young adults, and there will be even less in the future as robots and automation cost-effectively replace burger-flippers and stock clerks (and stock clerks must be able to read and do simple arithmetic).

There's more that needs to be done, but this will be a decent start.; 7/9/16, 8:42 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: Paraphrasing a Billy Graham quote from 40/50 years ago. If there was one thing I could change about humanity it would be that everyone was the same color.

I appreciate Rev. Graham's concern for humanity, but in the words of U.S. Sen. George Aiken, R-Vt.: "If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon."

(Is it possible to be an idealist and a cynic at the same time?); 7/9/16, 8:43 AM
HT said...: "Anyway, it's amazing to me that the more we talk about race in America the worse it gets."

The worse what gets?; 7/9/16, 8:43 AM
ga6 said...: I would humbly suggest that the "church lady" is making s--t up, playing the victim/guilt card; a behavior which has worked for over fifty years and three generations. Why should she change now??; 7/9/16, 8:44 AM
William said...: If you are white and live in a dicey neighborhood, there's a good chance you will be the victim of a crime perpetrated by a black. In some cases these crimes will be horrendous. If you're black and live or work in a white area, there's a good chance you will be viewed with suspicion or hostility. We all have our burdens.; 7/9/16, 8:45 AM
Larry J said...: If you keep picking at a scab, it takes longer to heal.; 7/9/16, 8:45 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Newt's a big picture guy, with an historian's eye for detail. I think by "normal" he means here not marginal as in not an OG hippy or Burka wearing religious person. To be on the margins -- long haired stinky white male for example -- is to be more likely to be treated by cops with alert wariness. The average white middle-class American does not go through life with the fear of being pulled over like black people and marginal white people. I get that. It's a little awkwardly put for a guy with Newt's communication skills, but it is true as far as I can tell in my limited experience.; 7/9/16, 8:45 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Much of the problem with the police is the way they fund themselves by preying on local populations. Rich people get pissed off, they get lawyers, they write to the papers, they complain to local business owners and they vote out the local politicians. I know this because I have done several of these things myself in response to the predatory behavior of cops in the town next to mine. Poor people largely just take it, becoming increasingly paranoid and resentful until they erupt in anger.

The financial incentives for cops have to be changed in order to get better policing.; 7/9/16, 8:48 AM
Obadiah said...: @dda6ga dda6ga
Thank you proving Newt is correct.

If the best we can do when other people talk is to call them liars, then there is nowhere to go but down.; 7/9/16, 8:50 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: I would humbly suggest that the "church lady" is making s--t up, playing the victim/guilt card; a behavior which has worked for over fifty years and three generations. Why should she change now??

Deny, deny, deny. My brother, an attorney, once told me about a black co-worker who went to the repair shop to pick up her car. She tried to pay with a check, but the garage wouldn't take it unless she could recite her account number off the top of her head. She tried, couldn't do it, and had to leave without her car. (I certainly can't recite my checking account number from memory - can you with yours?)

When I told this story in the comments section of another blog, what I got a lot of was: It didn't happen. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. (Calling my brother or the woman herself a liar in the process.); 7/9/16, 8:50 AM
William said...: There are lots of countries where everyone is the same color. England used to be populated strictly by white people. Fortunately they all had different accents so it was easy to spot your mates and isolate your enemies and indulge in the cleansing ritual of class hatred. Hating Them makes Us Us.; 7/9/16, 8:51 AM
Big Mike said...: Obadiah is quite right, BTW. Even Black police officers get pulled over for "Driving While Black."; 7/9/16, 8:52 AM
shiloh said...: "we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon."

Thank you for confirming my argument ie human emotion/human nature.

Returning to the Bible ~ Original Sin.

We er most of us are striving to do the right thing on a daily basis, but sometimes fall short.

>

Peter denied knowing Christ not once, not twice, but thrice! Fear of the unknown/stupidity = prejudice!; 7/9/16, 8:54 AM
Paco Wové said...: Obadiah – I understand your friend's problem, at least in part, but I don't see any solution for it. It seems clear that blacks in the U.S. commit crimes at a disproportionately high rate; if police are investigating "random crimes", it is not unreasonable for them to concentrate their activities to that part of the populace more likely to be involved, if they are to use their limited resources effectively.

This very much sucks for the majority of blacks not involved in crime, who are definitely going to fall under suspicion despite having done nothing wrong.

Given the current state of things, the only two "solutions" I see are 1) black crime rates fall to national averages and/or 2) police criminal investigations become an ineffectual kabuki of justice.; 7/9/16, 8:58 AM
William said...: Obama's father was a Luo in a country run and governed by Kikiyu. His father, despite an advanced degree from a prestige college, never achieved a rank higher than that of a minor bureaucrat. The Luos are routinely discriminated against in Kenya. Kenyatta, the president of that country has engineered several massacres of Luo people........It seems to me that Obama is far more suspicious of Britons than of Kikiyu. People are even prejudiced in their prejudices.; 7/9/16, 9:01 AM
Sal said...: Even Black police officers get pulled over for "Driving While Black."

The black violent crime rate is so disproportionately high, yet when it comes to obeying traffic laws the expectation is that they do so at the same rate as everyone else.; 7/9/16, 9:06 AM
rhhardin said...: As Derbyshire points out this week, Gingrich is a complete empty suit.; 7/9/16, 9:07 AM
Paul said...: "The average white middle-class American does not go through life with the fear of being pulled over like black people and marginal white people."

Maybe because he is far less likely to commit a crime, ya think?

If blacks stopped committing proportionally more crimes and instead, let's say, bald white guys in shorts and mandals started committing most crimes then very quickly they would become the group police would most carefully scrutinize. It's not that hard to figure out people. The longer you guys buy into the white guilt BS and believe white people need to change the longer things will stay the same or even escalate.

I'm probably one of the very few commenters here who interacts with black people and black culture from the inside. I've been playing in black bands since my teens and I can certainly understand my black friends and coworkers. I can also see the dysfunctional society they come from that, until it changes from the inside, will never achieve the equality everyone wants no matter what any white people do.; 7/9/16, 9:08 AM
shiloh said...: "Gingrich is a complete empty suit."

Then he's the perfect v-p for Trump!; 7/9/16, 9:09 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: "Even Black police officers get pulled over for 'Driving While Black.'"

"The black violent crime rate is so disproportionately high, yet when it comes to obeying traffic laws the expectation is that they do so at the same rate as everyone else."

I suspect Philando Castile *wishes* that had been the case.

AP: "He had been pulled over at least 52 times in recent years in and around the Twin Cities and given citations for minor offenses including speeding, driving without a muffler and not wearing a seat belt. He was assessed at least $6,588 in fines and fees, although more than half of the total 86 violations were dismissed, court records show."; 7/9/16, 9:11 AM
Paul said...: Shiloh constantly commits the greatest Althouse sin.

He is boring.; 7/9/16, 9:12 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: The major cause of the current rise in racial tensions is the ubiquity of cheap video recorders rather than any escalation in either rhetoric or behavior by either side. The video of the shooting of the kid in Cleveland was viscerally shocking, primarily because it revealed a level of police ineptitude that would have otherwise been literally incredible. Without the video it is a story that only makes it into the back pages of the local paper.

With more videos to come it is reasonable to expect that things will get worse before they start getting better.; 7/9/16, 9:18 AM
Phil 314 said...: Racism is tribalism for lazy folks

(i.e. "I can't figure which 'other' to fear so I'll just stick to skin color."); 7/9/16, 9:20 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: People are even prejudiced in their prejudices.

True, William. Very true.; 7/9/16, 9:22 AM
traditionalguy said...: Newt is a teacher and he wants to use today as a teachable moment. Whites who still see darker skinned people as dangerous thugs on sight are ignoring the reality. Many such people are our intelligent cousins and countrymen who do not deserve that attitude. So be friendly. Trust and verify.

Newt's experience was in US Army Base life and then in a liberal school in Atlanta. He met the MLKs, Andy Youngs and the Herman Cains living around here. While white people in Minnesota and Wisconsin seem to have have avoided that kind of interaction.; 7/9/16, 9:23 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: With more videos to come it is reasonable to expect that things will get worse before they start getting better.

A technology which (however imperfectly) surpasses the reliability of eyewitness testimony and increases the chances that the truly guilty will be convicted and the truly innocent exonerated is held to be a bad thing?

Instead of "AReasonableMan," perhaps you should call yourself "AReasonableDoubt." (That's a joke, son.); 7/9/16, 9:25 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Lamar Gonna Set You Straight....

I'm Lamar, and I'm a Young Black Man, Proud and prone to Anger Issues. I can't help it: living amongst all these White People with their Little White Problems just makes me Angry. Try MY Problems, Bitches...

But I'm gonna give you some help here, I can be a helpful brother. Here's what to do when you come across me on the street...

Don't Make Eye Contact. You make eye contact? You in trouble now, Motherfucker. I can see the Fear in your eyes, and it just makes me Mad, you being scared just because I'm Black. I wanna Hit you right now, just thinking about it...

Don't stare at my clothes. Yeah, I wear my pants low, and that IS TuPac on my Shirt. So you think I'm some low-life Thug now, right? I should beat your ass for that, all jumping to conclusions and Shit...

Don't do that little 'Shake Your Head' thing at me, Motherfucker. Sure, I'm playing my Beats Loud, but that's because I like them Loud. I know you don't like that, so now you don't like ME. That just makes me want to Fuck You Up, hear me...?

Don't go Crossing the Street, Lil' Bitch. I know what you're doing. Maybe I'm going to cross the street, too: I can walk on either Side, I can walk all behind you and Shit, watch your Pace get all Tight. God, I just wanna Sucker Punch you for that Shit...

And whatever you do, don't Smile and Nod at Me. You White People like to Smile and Nod, trying to Signal that you're OK with Me. But by doing that it just Shows that you're NOT OK with Me, you're just Hoping I go Right Past without Getting In Your Face or Something. I'll slap that Stupid-Ass Smile right off your Face, and I'll do it Right In Front of Your Bitch, the one not making any Eye Contact...

And when you're with your Bitch and See Me, don't go all trying to Act Hard, like you'll Protect Her or some White Shit. You know that ain't how it'll go down. And if I wanted your Bitch there ain't a Thing You can Do To Stop Me. Just keep walking, Motherfucker.

I guess that's It, really: you see me on the Street, you just Keep Walking. You think you got Problems? Fuck You.

I am Laslo.; 7/9/16, 9:26 AM
Big Mike said...: The Black police officer had a blonde wife. She was frequently taken aside and subjected to uncalled-for questioning to determine whether he was her pimp.; 7/9/16, 9:29 AM
Lyle Smith said...: So cops should not enforce the law against certain people? These statements coming from Ryan and Gingrich undermine law and order.; 7/9/16, 9:31 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Paul, I didn't say whites need to change or that black culture isn't responsible for the high scrutiny by police in general. But it is difficult for people to understand if they have not witnessed it or experienced it. No matter what level of success a black man has achieved there will exist suspicion of him and the danger for him in interacting with cops, yes because of a history of and present existence of cultural choices other black people make, but it is inescapable for a non-criminal. There is always the reality he may be treated like a criminal at any time, for reasons beyond his personal control.

No matter how many of us white folk live our lives "free of racism" and try to treat all people the same, and I believe there is little real racism left in white culture, it does not change the reality and experience for a middle-class black man. He lives with the shadow of racism even if he himself is as upstanding as a Mormon. Maybe it affects him, maybe it doesn't if he's lucky. But Newt's statement is simply elucidating the fact that there is a difference to existing black in America that is hard to understand without seeing it and experiencing it.

I wish our president had the guts to address it truthfully and help heal the wounds. But I feel he's done just the opposite. And so many people are so sick of hearing his critical race theory crap that we tune out ALL of the voices who cry racism. Sure the cops are acting, for the most part, with the caution of hard-earned experience and cold demography, and I wouldn't define that as "racism" but the word has become a catch-all for the black experience in the USA and I understand it. I understand Newt's point. It doesn't hurt for Republican's to make such admissions now and then.; 7/9/16, 9:35 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: MisterBuddwing said...
A technology which (however imperfectly) surpasses the reliability of eyewitness testimony and increases the chances that the truly guilty will be convicted and the truly innocent exonerated is held to be a bad thing?

Only a complete moron would read that post as implying this.; 7/9/16, 9:35 AM
Lyle Smith said...: In history and historian circles Newt is known for not having an eye for the details.; 7/9/16, 9:37 AM
Anonymous said...: MisterBuddwing: When I told this story in the comments section of another blog, what I got a lot of was: It didn't happen. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. (Calling my brother or the woman herself a liar in the process.)

OK, so you find that you don't change any minds when you relay these anecdotes. Now what?

I have a few of those anecdotes of my own. Yes, it sucks to be a law-abiding citizen and hassled by the police. It sucks to be an honest citizen and get treated suspiciously by shopkeepers and other people. So, now what?

I don't have a solution, but I do know one thing: continuing to relay anecdotes about discrimination plus haranguing white people about how they "don't understand" isn't going to fix anything. Naturally, one feels indignation at seeing honest people treated like criminals. But the fact of the matter is that the discriminatory behavior toward blacks by other races (and by blacks themselves) is not irrational behavior. It is not merely the product of ignorant bigotry which can be fixed by "understanding", but of human beings practicing normal human discriminatory prudence. Magic words and moral superiority don't make the statistics go away, and the statistics ain't pretty.

That doesn't mean that the quality of policing and abusive police behavior doesn't warrant examination. But even there what we see it isn't always all about irrational racial prejudice, and pretending that it is leaves the problem unresolved. We need to stop conflating real racial animus/police brutality with the "discrimination" that is a rational response to reality. Refusing to do so just hardens peoples attitudes.; 7/9/16, 9:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Newt is right. Trump should tap him for VP, but now that Newt said something reasonable and true, Trumpkins will probably reject him.; 7/9/16, 9:39 AM
rhhardin said...: Don't go Crossing the Street, Lil' Bitch. I know what you're doing. Maybe I'm going to cross the street, too: I can walk on either Side, I can walk all behind you and Shit, watch your Pace get all Tight. God, I just wanna Sucker Punch you for that Shit...

When I was training my Doberman in NJ in the 80s, I'd go to malls and heel around outside against all sorts of distractions off leash. I noticed that doubtful characters would cross the street to avoid me, and normal people didn't.

I gather that Dobermans raised by doubtful characters are mean sons of bitches, and Dobermans raised by normal people are nice. That prejudice translated into street crossing.; 7/9/16, 9:39 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: Only a complete moron would read that post as implying this.

Well, then, I guess I didn't read it that way.

OK, so you're saying there's a price to pay for stronger, more reliable evidence.

(Did I tick you off with my little joke? It was a joke.); 7/9/16, 9:39 AM
Paco Wové said...: "He lives with the shadow of racism even if he himself is as upstanding as a Mormon."

It's not clear to me what you mean by "racism" in the above sentence. Based on your previous paragraph, it seems to mean "a history of and present existence of cultural choices other black people make".; 7/9/16, 9:43 AM
Michael K said...: she has been stopped and questioned by the police about random crimes.

I think this is exaggerated. I know black doctors and am sure that makes, especially young males are viewed with suspicion by police.

Middle aged females, I doubt.

Dressing with gang styles invites attention.

I live in a 95% white suburb but there are blacks living on my street and black men acting as Little League coaches on my grandson's teams. They are uniformly (as best I can tell) seen as friendly intelligent people who have chosen the Bourgeois life. They wave when I drive by and we talk when I walk my dog.

I was raised by a black nursemaid in the days when most middle class families had a nanny.

When I was a senior in high school my best friend and I spent almost all Friday nights in a black tavern in Chicago where we were the only two whites. We would play bumper pool with the guys in there for beers. We got to be very good at bumper pool and won almost every game. We were all drinking and competing but never felt the slightest hostility.

I would not dream of doing such a thing today. I think some of the trouble is the rising expectations but they are not being fulfilled.

Some of that is the collapse of the black family. Some is the gang culture that disdains education.

Whites are the least of their problems. Just like the Israelis are not the Palestinians' problem. It is themselves and their culture.; 7/9/16, 9:50 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Yes, there is some discrimination purely based on skin color. There is some driving while black problems. But I don't think that it is that much worse than other small prejudices we see in life. My partner has had one ticket in her life, and got the cop fired for it. Much more common I'd the cop who asks her out on a date after pulling her over for her led foot. I tend to get tickets instead of warnings, despite now being fairly scrupulous about speed limits. Back when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I got plenty of tickets for driving while early adult male. One of my kid's best friends didn't really see much in anti-black discrimination until they went away to college in Madison. They went to an expensive prep school, and lived in a nicer house than my kid did. They worked hard, did well, and should get their professional doctorate degree by the end of the year. And, you wouldn't know they were black on the phone. Esp in my career as an attorney, that is the type of blacks I have tended to meet and work with. And no doubt, Obama's kids, as well probably those of many other rom intent Blacks, are similar. And, indeed, I would bet that his kids have almost completely only benefitted from being black. As was the case with their father.

But then we watch quasi-real life detective shows like the First 48, and see a very different type of blacks. It is hard to understand them due to their atrocious grammar (at least from our point of view). They sound illiterate, and are. I can at least understand most of the poor whites I meet. Not these (mostly) guys. It is interesting to watch the black detectives switch into this black ghetto speak in order to build rapport, and then back to talk to the other cops and the audience. None of the perps (or suspects) are married, but most have kids. And, right there, is a good part of the problem. Females having their kids out of wedlock, to be supported primarily by welfare programs primarily instituted by Dem politicians, and their kids growing up without a strong paternal influence. While Black families have never been as strong, they practically disappeared in the lower classes after LBJ and his War on Poverty. We are in the third or so generation of this, and the effects are becoming ever more evident. I should add that in these shows, it is the females in the victims' families that are most of those grieving - mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, etc.; 7/9/16, 9:50 AM
Michael K said...: "Trump should tap him for VP, but now that Newt said something reasonable and true, Trumpkins will probably reject him."

No, Newt is too old. He is 74.

He has a lot of baggage but his age is a bigger problem. Trump needs a young person to succeed him. I doubt he will serve more than one term.; 7/9/16, 9:51 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: MisterBuddwing said...
Well, then, I guess I didn't read it that way.

So your are an incomplete moron?; 7/9/16, 9:52 AM
damikesc said...: Not trying to show how "tough" I am and not feeling a desperate need to get "respect" probably is more helpful to me than my skin color.

If it is impossible for me to understand the black experience why does everyone keep talking to me about it?

If whites really can't understand then shouldn't we just drop the one sided dialogue?

And why do these same activists assume that all minorities can understand the white experience?

Do blacks know what it's like to not have an excuse when you fail to accomplish something?

Where's the outrage? Most of those being shot are black. I thought 'Black Lives Matter'. Where's Al? Jessie? Barack? It's not just gang bangers getting shot. There are children getting caught up in this as well. Rahm said to take the shooting out back. Where was the criticism for the stupid stuff he said?

Let's go for small fries? Why do we allow MSNBC hosts call anybody racist when they employ noted bigot Al Sharpton? Why does nobody call them out on it?

Racism is systemic.

The "systems", by and large, are run by Progressives. The most "racist" cities are run by Democrats. "Racist" colleges are run by Democrats. "Racist" Hollywood is run by Democrats.; 7/9/16, 9:55 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Bruce Hayden said...
My partner has had one ticket in her life, and got the cop fired for it.

For a poor person, of any color, your partner may as well be living on a different planet.; 7/9/16, 9:56 AM
HT said...: It's quaint and romantic to think the supposed collapse of the black family is a relatively recent thing.; 7/9/16, 10:00 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I tried to clarify in the next 'graf, Paco, by saying, "I wouldn't define that as 'racism' but the word has become a catch-all for the black experience in the USA and I understand it."; 7/9/16, 10:08 AM
donald said...: I've never liked Newt, never have.

I've seen him up close and personal and he's a slimy pos, so he'll be just perfect as Trump's running mate.; 7/9/16, 10:12 AM
MayBee said...: AReasonableMan said...
Much of the problem with the police is the way they fund themselves by preying on local populations. Rich people get pissed off, they get lawyers, they write to the papers, they complain to local business owners and they vote out the local politicians. I know this because I have done several of these things myself in response to the predatory behavior of cops in the town next to mine. Poor people largely just take it, becoming increasingly paranoid and resentful until they erupt in anger.

The financial incentives for cops have to be changed in order to get better policing.

I agree with this.

I also agree with the idea that I can't know what it is like to be black.
But black people also don't know what it is like to be white. I think the idea of "white privilege" falsely gives the impression that being white is free ride in life. No problems, no-one says no to you, you don't have to do exactly what the police tell you to do.

And I think not pushing back on that idea doesn't help the racial problems in this country. I think BLM people and activists need to be told they are wrong about their perception, but people it's getting to the point where that is just racist and socially unacceptable to say such a thing.; 7/9/16, 10:13 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: The one thing whites may not understand is how difficult it is to be a greatly outnumbered minority culture in a big society.

The one thing blacks may not understand is that this isn't racism - it's mostly "low number-ism"

I grew up in a working class town in Northern Cal. The whites, blacks & Asians (not many Mexicans at the time) mingled together freely. I'm still friends with those guys. Sports and girls were our common interest. Fighting was permissible, but had implicit rules like in Hockey. There were almost no class distinctions (no rich kids were there). Yes, the words "niggers" and "faggots" were used more frequently. Yes, there was mischief and occasional conflict. But there was much more laughter and comraderie. It worked well. Many of the kids grew up to be small college athletes and then high school coaches. These were all Democrats, but none were liberals. We didn't like smelly hippies or politics. We did like the cops and the 4th of July. Life was good.

Liberals, in my view, have wrecked this spirit, this societal balance. I hope we can regain it. The modern day Dem party and its henchmen like BLM are obstacles to any equanimity because they want free stuff and political power, without working hard and honorably to acquire it.; 7/9/16, 10:14 AM
cacimbo said...: Baton Rouge- An armed felon is killed while fighting with police after menacing people with his gun.
MN- An armed man is shot by a non-white police after being pulled over because he matched the description of a robbery suspect. Whether he had a permit to carry is not yet known. We have yet to hear police version of event and video is all post shooting.
Dallas - Twelve shot, five police killed, seven police injured, two civilians injured. Black shooter states his goal is to shoot white police. Shooter page is homage to Black Supremacist groups. Black twitter goes crazy happy over shooting.

Politicians call on WHITES to change.; 7/9/16, 10:15 AM
Sebastian said...: "police harassment is real" It's possible. I'm a small gov guy suspicious of state power.

But how would any back person know whether the "harassment" actually closely reflects overall crime and arrest rates? How could any black person distinguish harassment from confirmation bias ("that white cop has it out for me because I'm black")? How would any individual black person know whether white cops "harass" blacks more than black cops?

Hypothesis: Black perceptions of harassment, amplified by the cops-are-pigs and whites-are-racists narratives, far exceed any actual actual harassment.; 7/9/16, 10:15 AM
HT said...: "Hypothesis: Black perceptions of harassment, amplified by the cops-are-pigs and whites-are-racists narratives, far exceed any actual actual harassment."

Observation: humble honky seeing same policeman talking roughly to black person of same age as white person he spoke to nicely right before.

Sure you can have your hypothesis that black people have skewed perceptions, but whites can also bank data of real life observations.; 7/9/16, 10:20 AM
David said...: Chief Koval is correct. But it's mostly white people who have created the worst aspects of the environment by using accusations of racism as a political tool. The result is that, in the public forum, we can not have a true dialog. We can't really discuss issues of family, poor education, black on black crime, abortion (a plague for blacks) and other issues that involve the social dynamics of black families and neighborhoods. These matters can be discussed frankly in private conversations, but explode into accusation and counter accusation in the public arena. It's all part of the political-social culture of shaming, moral superiority, accusation and distancing that is overwhelming our ability to work together to find solutions to the actual problems.

Newt is correct too. But he's talking into the same toxic environment.

Perhaps the greatest lost opportunity of the Obama presidency is the unrealized potential he had to change that dialog.; 7/9/16, 10:21 AM
MayBee said...: I believe that black people are not given the benefit of the doubt by the police that middle class white people are given. I bet Asians get even more benefit of the doubt.

But....
When you are a minority and you are told daily that your minority status is the reason people treat you the way they do, you see it in everything. It is easy to imagine it is the reason everything happens to you. Someone says "no" to you, it's because you are black. You don't get something you want, it's because you are black. It creates a flawed feedback loop.

I don't think that's a healthy signal for our society to be putting out.; 7/9/16, 10:22 AM
Sebastian said...: "The one thing whites may not understand is how difficult it is to be a greatly outnumbered minority culture in a big society." Huh? I'm a member of several very small minorities. I am greatly outnumbered in many respects that matter to me. Of course, I don't draw the same inferences from it that many blacks do. The issue is, how do you interpret the "being outnumbered," does it even make sense to think of yourself as an "outnumbered minority." and even if you think it does, should that override all other identities? As long as (many) blacks hold on to the we-get-screwed by-whitey narrative, and as long as that narrative pays political and emotional dividends, it will continue.; 7/9/16, 10:25 AM
damikesc said...: But how much of this "harassment" is due to culture itself. A culture of "no snitching" insures tons of harassment as police, when investigating a crime, don't have a single suspect to investigate since nobody wants to name who might have done it. They have to case a wide dragnet over everybody. It sucks, but that's life. Don't hold "not snitching" as being the apex of "keeping it real" and you might not be bothered about crimes nearly as much.; 7/9/16, 10:25 AM
HT said...: "As long as (many) blacks hold on to the we-get-screwed by-whitey narrative, and as long as that narrative pays political and emotional dividends, it will continue."

Such an attitude is not helpful, but I'd like to point out that it will happen to someone regardless of his attitude. It will continue no matter what.; 7/9/16, 10:27 AM
Browndog said...: Some of Laslo's finest work,right there.; 7/9/16, 10:28 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Lamar Gonna Set You Straight....

I'm Lamar, and I'm a Young Black Man, Proud and prone to Anger Issues. I can't help it: living amongst all these White People with their Little White Problems just makes me Angry. Try MY Problems, Bitches...

You all talk like this Shit can get Solved. It ain't Never gonna get Solved. We all be dead and this Shit will just keep on keeping on...

See, you White people think us Blacks are a Problem, but we're just ONE of your problems: you're also worried about your jobs, your retirement funds, your kids' schools, what restaurant to go to tonight, what new car to buy, Mexicans, Muslims, Game of Thrones-- all that White People Worry Shit...

Me, all My Problems are YOU. Any problem I have will inevitably make me end up answering to a White Person -- every God Damned Time...

And I gotta say: for all the White People I meet, most of them are Assholes. And the Passive-Agressive Ones can be the worst: come on and just Hate me, motherfuckers, don't try and hide it by acting like you are doing Shit for My Own Good...

My Own Good is just fine, until some White Person comes and fucks it up...

The only time a White Man worries about ONE Thing and ONE Thing only? When he gets himself in Prison and worries about getting ass-raped by a Big Brother. NOW you only got One Problem, bitches...

You think you got Problems? Fuck You.

I am Laslo.; 7/9/16, 10:39 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Lots of good points here, but let me add another as yet unaddressed. Blacks and SJW types talk about "systemic" racism a lot but don't seem to realize that what they regard as "systemic racism" is simply their inability to reconcile themselves to the fact that they are a minority living in a majority white culture and under the laws and social mores that this nations overwhelmingly white ancestors established. Should I immigrate to Japan should I rail at the "systemic" "racism" inherent in the fact that all the street signs and store fronts are in Japanese? Do such facts make Japan a consciously "racist" society? No, such aspects of Japanese society are simply a reflection of the numbers of Japanese vs anyone else living in Japan. Do you expect that that--in order to demonstrate their "non-racist" bonna fides--the Japanese should print all street signs instead in Swedish or, say, Spanish? Yet that logic is exactly what minorities living in this country are suggesting, i.e., that they should be allowed to let their culture be dominant rather than that of the white majority who created this nation. And when they do not get their way in this regard, they increasingly become frustrated.

Such frustrations can partly be chalked off to the phenomenon known as the post-colonial "revolution of rising expectations" on the part of minorities, and in part to the "White Guilt" that at least two generations of propagandizing our youth by the left in academia, Hollywood, the MSM, etc., has wrought--leading to a white culture now ashamed of its many historic accomplishments, unable/unwilling to proudly defend such and thus easy pickings for minorities/SJW types on the left. Sadly, for those of us on the right there are damn few champions on our side willing to armour up and take to the lists to defend the honor of Western Civilization. Instead, our political and cultural leaders now are pretty much found sitting cowering in their tents..; 7/9/16, 10:54 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Politicians call on WHITES to change.

7/9/16, 10:15 AM

Just like the Orlando murders somehow became the fault of Republican Christians.; 7/9/16, 10:54 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: A black militant racist shoots a dozen cops and Gingrich lectures white people. Yeah, this is the guy who holds hands with Pelosi and supports Climate Change legislation... Guys like Newt are the lemmings urging republicans to follow democrats off the cliff.; 7/9/16, 10:58 AM
Owen said...: Michael K: "...Whites are the least of their problems. Just like the Israelis are not the Palestinians' problem. It is themselves and their culture." This. I think the collapse of the family structure and the absentee fathers/baby-daddies is a key driver. That is not the fault of whites --unless whites' decades-long subsidization of a dependent underclass was racist? Maybe it has been "killing them with kindness," a phenomenon that IMHO is very real.

I would also speculate that our culture has become much more narcissistic, with its chief criterion being how one feels and not what one thinks. In such an environment the self-pitying narrative of racism tends to flourish.; 7/9/16, 11:01 AM
Real American said...: If blacks didn't commit a disproportionate number of the crimes in this country then the police wouldn't bother them so much. But they do, so the police play the odds.; 7/9/16, 11:29 AM
Anonymous said...: But, but but Trump loves the Newt.; 7/9/16, 11:48 AM
Anonymous said...: Newt is encouraging voters to follow Trump off the cliff.; 7/9/16, 11:49 AM
virgil xenophon said...: @Real American/

Yeah, its like two identical Ford Tarusus with Fla rental plates headed north on I-95, one car with four blond-haired blue-eyed types and one car with swarthy Columbian types and I point a loaded gun at your head and say: "One of those cars contains 10 keys of heroin. Pick one and if you're wrong I'll blow your brains out." Which one would YOU pick? As sports-writer Damon Runyon of the 30s Tin-Pan Alley days said: "The race may not always go to the swift, nor the contest to the strong--but that's the way to bet."; 7/9/16, 11:52 AM
Anonymous said...: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/trump-barred-speaking-nypd-officers-article-1.2704476?cid=

The Donald got nixed.

On Friday morning a rep from Donald Trump's Manhattan organization asked the city's top cop to let the candidate speak to a 3 p.m. roll call at the NYPD Midtown North Precinct. The request came in the wake of the murders of five Dallas police officers Thursday during a protest over police shooting.

But Police Commissioner Bill Bratton strongly rejected the idea, which a police source said came from Trump's head of security Keith Schiller.

Our interest is staying out of the politics of the moment, and not to provide photo ops," he told reporters. "If Mr. Trump wants to speak to me, I would be happy to brief him on what we’re doing. If Sen. Clinton wants to speak to me, I would very happy to brief her on what we’re doing. But we are not in the business of providing photo ops for our candidates.”; 7/9/16, 11:58 AM
Gahrie said...: It's quaint and romantic to think the supposed collapse of the black family is a relatively recent thing.

Well..its less than 100 years old. At the turn of the 20th century, Black families were largely intact, and while illegitimacy rates were higher in the Black community, they were under 25% as late as the 1960's.

Welfare destroyed the Black family.; 7/9/16, 11:59 AM
mockturtle said...: @Owen: I would also speculate that our culture has become much more narcissistic, with its chief criterion being how one feels and not what one thinks. In such an environment the self-pitying narrative of racism tends to flourish.

Yes. It is due to the feminization of our culture.; 7/9/16, 12:00 PM
mockturtle said...: @virgil xenophphon at 10:54

Great comments. The only reason Trump has a following is that he is not 'cowering in his tent'.; 7/9/16, 12:05 PM
Gahrie said...: She tried to pay with a check, but the garage wouldn't take it unless she could recite her account number off the top of her head. She tried, couldn't do it, and had to leave without her car. (I certainly can't recite my checking account number from memory - can you with yours?)

OK..now why did this happen? Either :

A) The garage owner was racist, and was harassing the lady

or

B) The garage owner had been victimized in the past by Black people using stolen, fake or invalid checks.

Which do you honestly think is more likely?; 7/9/16, 12:11 PM
Matt said...: "If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you've ever been a cracker stationed on a predominantly black US Army base, you do. Was less than a welcoming experience.; 7/9/16, 12:15 PM
eric said...: If they are racist, why did they take the car and do the work to begin with?

Doesn't make sense.; 7/9/16, 12:16 PM
Gahrie said...: ok, ok, it's the Dem's/Obama's fault and Republicans have and always will be perfect angels!

No..the Republicans aren't angels...but Republicans do want to treat people as individuals and treat them equally, while Democrats want to put people into identity groups and treat them unequally.

Also just for the record, every major racial offense of this coutry was done by Democrats......defense of slavery, Jim Crow and segregation, the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment, etc.; 7/9/16, 12:17 PM
mockturtle said...: You're so right, Gahrie! Institutionalized racism was created and perpetuated by Democrats. Probably the most racist President we've ever had was Woodrow Wilson.; 7/9/16, 12:36 PM
mockturtle said...: And the reason Democrats have done this? Control. It's always about control. In modern times, it's a benevolent type of control: We'll give you this and that and you will be OURS forever! Give you everything except true freedom!; 7/9/16, 12:39 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: When he's right, he's right.; 7/9/16, 12:56 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "I know a 60-year old lady, married, raised four kids and sent them to college, goes to church, lives is a suburban home with her husband, who says she has been stopped and questioned"

I do volunteer chores for a variety of poor, disabled, elderly (and to be brutally honest, the occasional lazy person working the system) people. The White people usually spin a litany of hard luck and spiteful relatives. The Black people usually spin a litany of hard luck, spiteful relatives, and racism. Neither will admit the impact of their own poor choices, even while telling you about them, but it is amusing to see the Black folks conditioned to automatically thrown in racism to their list of woes. Admittedly, if there was some way their White peers could add racism to their list of excuses, they undoubtedly would.

Yes, I am probably way too judgemental to be a decent volunteer and, when the role is called up yonder, I doubt I'll get any karmic credit for it.; 7/9/16, 12:57 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Throw" and "roll". I aced the verbal section of my SAT's, honestly.; 7/9/16, 1:00 PM
mockturtle said...: Neither will admit the impact of their own poor choices

I have observed the same lack of objectivity.; 7/9/16, 1:02 PM
n.n said...: Gingrich is describing a symptom and -- deliberately? -- ignoring causes. Addressing the former will create a perception of goodwill, but will ultimately end with a catastrophic failure.; 7/9/16, 1:11 PM
bbkingfish said...: It is frightening that tens of thousands of veterans of the Afghanistan/Iraq campaigns walk among us and so many of them are ticking time bombs.; 7/9/16, 1:26 PM
Jupiter said...: Before we get too enthusiastic about this Philandro guy, it turns out he was driving with the gun sitting on his left thigh. The police have no record of the Concealed Carry Permit his girlfriend claimed he had. And he was not pulled over for a broken taillight. He was pulled over because he bore a strong resemblance to the man who committed a robbery in the area a few nights earlier. With a similar gun.

http://tinyurl.com/jqgdmvk; 7/9/16, 1:54 PM
FullMoon said...: Jupiter said... [hush][hide comment]

Before we get too enthusiastic about this Philandro guy, it turns out he was driving with the gun sitting on his left thigh. The police have no record of the Concealed Carry Permit his girlfriend claimed he had. And he was not pulled over for a broken taillight. He was pulled over because he bore a strong resemblance to the man who committed a robbery in the area a few nights earlier. With a similar gun.

http://tinyurl.com/jqgdmvk

I read that. Does not make much sense having a gun in plain sight when pulled over, unless he was planning on using it, which he did not. No record of permit found YET. Cop may have told him "....broken taillight"
And, perp was gainfully employed? Hoping vic was indeed a bad guy, but new facts seem kind of grasping at straws to make that case. Time will tell, maybe.; 7/9/16, 2:08 PM
Francisco D said...: My White Guilt credit card is maxed out from overuse.

I am 63 years old and used to be a liberal. My parents proudly told their friends and colleagues that I went to an integrated school and my best friend in Junior HS was Black. They were cool because I was cool.

I accepted blame for Bull Connor, segregation and the MLK assassination because I was white and it was important to be cool. The Black Panthers may have been murderous criminals (read David Horowitz) but they were cool in standing up to "The Man." The White Man.

Now it's my fault that police try to enforce the law, sometimes with mistakes. It's my fault that there is systemic racism at elite universities that go out of their way to admit lesser qualified African-Americans. It's my fault that Black males commit a higher proportion of crimes than Whites and spend more time in jail. Microagressions are my fault, although if they are so "micro" what's the point in bringing them up?

I could go on, but what's the point? I don't need to be cool any more. Newt, Hillary! and others who carry the White Guilt credit card still need to be cool. Screw them.; 7/9/16, 2:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Newt believes in AGW too, Trump doesn't. Now why would Trump love Newt so much? Such conflicting messages!; 7/9/16, 2:23 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/9/16, 2:27 PM
dreams said...: What about the way blacks treat whites, I've noticed lately a couple of incidents where it seemed blacks intentionally acted in a way that was disrespectful to me. It can work both ways. Thanks a lot Obama for all the racial healing.; 7/9/16, 2:30 PM
Anonymous said...: White people are outraged over the accusation of being racist while at the same time dismiss the complaints of those who are real victims of racism daily. Oh poor white people, such victims.; 7/9/16, 2:31 PM
hombre said...: Here's what I understand, Newt: 40% of all cop killers were black between 1994-2005 (BJS data) More recent data purportedly shows the figure to be higher, but is not as readily available from DOJ, presumably because it does not support the Obama/Holder/BLM narrative. Police officers are more than 18 times more likely to be killed by blacks than the other way around.

Also, recent FBI crime stats indicate that blacks, who are 13% of the population (males less than half), commit 57% of the murders, 62% of the armed robberies and 45% of the assaults in our 75 largest counties. 80% of black victims are murdered by other blacks. How's that for "risk," Newt.

This relatively easy to find data will not appear in the media or cross the lips of politicians who trade on divisiveness, but I'm not sure what else we need to understand.; 7/9/16, 2:35 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: A) The garage owner was racist, and was harassing the lady

or

B) The garage owner had been victimized in the past by Black people using stolen, fake or invalid checks.

Which do you honestly think is more likely?

I can't imagine a life in which I'm under constant suspicion, not for anything I've personally and actually done, but for things that "my people" have done.

Which makes your subsequent comment, "Republicans do want to treat people as individuals and treat them equally, while Democrats want to put people into identity groups and treat them unequally" a bit... ironic.; 7/9/16, 2:36 PM
damikesc said...: Oh poor white people, such victims.

How dare you criticize racism against you! Don't you know others are suffering?!?

Hell, I'll give them that Progressive whites are unbelievably racist.

No record of permit found YET.

I thought the local sheriff indicated his office never issued him one.; 7/9/16, 2:39 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Blogger hombre said...

Also, recent FBI crime stats indicate that blacks, who are 13% of the population (males less than half), commit 57% of the murders, 62% of the armed robberies and 45% of the assaults in our 75 largest counties. 80% of black victims are murdered by other blacks. How's that for "risk," Newt.

When people, even Republicans, talk about 'systemic racism', they are saying that the stats you quote are the fault of systemic white racism. Blacks are not responsible for them and can do nothing about them. Whites have complete power over the lives lived by Blacks and the moral decisions that they make.
More social poison brought to you by America's party of progress.; 7/9/16, 2:43 PM
dreams said...: "White people are outraged over the accusation of being racist while at the same time dismiss the complaints of those who are real victims of racism daily. Oh poor white people, such victims."

When you get black people pissed off at white people, there are going to be some white people who will suffer the consequences of that anger.; 7/9/16, 2:44 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: So your are an incomplete moron?

I readily accept failing at being a moron.; 7/9/16, 2:46 PM
Gahrie said...: "Republicans do want to treat people as individuals and treat them equally, while Democrats want to put people into identity groups and treat them unequally" a bit... ironic.

I never said that the garage owner didn't treat everyone the same way...maybe he made White people do it also.

I never said the garage owner was a Republican.

That being said, I think what the garage owner did was wrong. If I was the victim of bad checks, I would just refuse to accept checks at all, from anybody.

In which case your Black friend would go away believing he refused her check because she was Black.; 7/9/16, 2:47 PM
Gahrie said...: "White people are outraged over the accusation of being racist while at the same time dismiss the complaints of those who are real victims of racism daily. Oh poor white people, such victims."

Straight, White men are the only people it is legal to discriminate against today.

Some of us are getting a little tired of that shit. But we don't plan on killing anyone over it.; 7/9/16, 2:49 PM
Hyphenated American said...: "White people are outraged over the accusation of being racist while at the same time dismiss the complaints of those who are real victims of racism daily. Oh poor white people, such victims."

Liberals are outraged when they are accused of being racists, while at the same time dismiss the complaints of those who are real victims of institutionalized racism like "affirmative action" in college admissions, corporate and government employement. Sad.; 7/9/16, 2:51 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: That being said, I think what the garage owner did was wrong. If I was the victim of bad checks, I would just refuse to accept checks at all, from anybody.

A sign saying "No Checks Accepted" certainly beats unnecessarily humiliating (and alienating) the customer.

Some of us [white men] are getting a little tired of that shit. But we don't plan on killing anyone over it.

I'm certainly glad you don't, but can you really speak for an entire race/gender? (Can anyone?); 7/9/16, 2:53 PM
Gahrie said...: I can't imagine a life in which I'm under constant suspicion, not for anything I've personally and actually done, but for things that "my people" have done

Really?

When I was a teenager, my dates' Dads sure as Hell were suspicious of me. When I was in college, the co-eds were suspicious of me. When I was a white man walking or driving in minority neighborhoods, the cops were suspicious of me. (They mostly thought I was trying to buy weed)

Today I am assumed to be a racist because I am an old White dude.

But I'll tell you what...if things are so bad, and every cop is racist and automatically suspicious of you..why would you even think about not complying?; 7/9/16, 2:53 PM
rcocean said...: Gingrich is always gassing about things he knows nothing about. Why should the average white person have to "Understand" what its like to live as a black person?

Does wealthy, insulated, Gingrich know what its like to live as a poor white? I doubt it. Does the average white person know what its like to live as a Jew, Asian or Cuban? I doubt it, but they all seem to doing better than the average White person.; 7/9/16, 2:56 PM
rcocean said...: When the NYT and people like Gingrich blame "white people" for Asian and Hispanic cops shooting blacks, you know something else is going on.; 7/9/16, 2:58 PM
Hyphenated American said...: "That being said, I think what the garage owner did was wrong. If I was the victim of bad checks, I would just refuse to accept checks at all, from anybody"

Well, if you're u were in the business of making people feel good about themselves, then maybe yes. But he was in the money making business, and in order to survive he has to take reality into account. In reality, black, white, Asian, Hispanic businesses know which group commits more crimes, and act accordingly. It's not racism, it's reality. They cannot ignore reality.; 7/9/16, 3:01 PM
dreams said...: "Does wealthy, insulated, Gingrich know what its like to live as a poor white? I doubt it. Does the average white person know what its like to live as a Jew, Asian or Cuban? I doubt it, but they all seem to doing better than the average White person."

And not to forget about fat women who supposedly experience job discrimination because of their weight and the short men who supposedly don't fare as well as tall men and on and on.; 7/9/16, 3:02 PM
Lydia said...: Imagine being a successful black man, with a nice house in Hartford, Connecticut, who's out front shoveling snow from his driveway when something like this happens:

"A police officer from West Hartford had pulled up across the street, exited his vehicle, and begun walking in my direction. I noted the strangeness of his being in Hartford—an entirely separate town with its own police force—so I thought he needed help. He approached me with purpose, and then, without any introduction or explanation he asked, 'So, you trying to make a few extra bucks, shoveling people’s driveways around here?' ”; 7/9/16, 4:14 PM
Jupiter said...: FullMoon said...

"I read that. Does not make much sense having a gun in plain sight when pulled over, unless he was planning on using it, which he did not. No record of permit found YET. Cop may have told him "....broken taillight"
And, perp was gainfully employed? Hoping vic was indeed a bad guy, but new facts seem kind of grasping at straws to make that case. Time will tell, maybe."

You miss my point. The officer made an *entirely* reasonable stop of someone who looked *a lot* like a guy who used a gun in a robbery. The guy had a gun in his lap, he reached for it, and the cop shot him.

A typical night, unfortunately, for a cop in a town with armed robbers. So, what's the problem? The fact that said guy happened to be black? Cops can't choose the complexion of armed robbers.; 7/9/16, 4:17 PM
RichAndSceptical said...: Hopefully that kills the possibility of Newt becoming VP.

Using race as an excuse is not going to improve anyone's life.; 7/9/16, 4:21 PM
Jupiter said...: Lydia said...
Imagine being a successful black man, with a nice house in Hartford, Connecticut, who's out front shoveling snow from his driveway when something like this happens:

"A police officer from West Hartford had pulled up across the street, exited his vehicle, and begun walking in my direction. I noted the strangeness of his being in Hartford—an entirely separate town with its own police force—so I thought he needed help. He approached me with purpose, and then, without any introduction or explanation he asked, 'So, you trying to make a few extra bucks, shoveling people’s driveways around here?' ”

OK, Lydia, I'm imagining it. "Why, yes, officer, and I thought I'd start with my own."

Now you imagine being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, tied up in a closet and raped daily for weeks by a bunch of sadistic bastards because your father is wealthy.

Same thing, more or less. A cop's well-intentioned mistake, and a carefully planned crime carried out by a pack of vicious, amoral savages.; 7/9/16, 4:24 PM
Anonymous said...: Newt should try living like a Jew for a year. When I was 8 y/o and had to walk to the bus stop, every week I was routinely chased down the street by a couple of Greek kids and their dogs. A few years later, as the neighborhood changed, the Greek kids and their dogs were replaced by different groups of black kids, who got their jollies by threatening to beat up a white Jewish kid and chasing him down the street in fear of his life. In between they got their laughs by pitching rocks at the old rabbi and breaking the glass windows of the Hebrew school. Ah yes, those were the days....; 7/9/16, 4:30 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: From a Norman Mailer essay (you can find it in parts on the Internet -- - just Google the phrases):

"The Night Belongs To The Negroes"

Fire -- in dumpsters, in trash cans, in newspapers on the street -- the ashes touch us all, but we are friendly and oblivious. Hip is the sophistication of the wise primitive in a giant jungle, and Hip in the City is the Fire of the Negro.

What characterizes a member of a minority group is that he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant, marvelous and awful, good and evil. I see this misunderstood on bloody white faces at dawn as they wait for buses to get them home after their Night in the City.

Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men, and the Negro knows this best. Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor. The Negro in the City knows these small battles, they pepper his skin.

The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation.This is the crux of where the races coincide, and it is the cross on which the Negroes at night hang.

Growth, in some curious way, I suspect, depends on being always in motion just a little bit, one way or another. See this as the Negroes pace the street, hands with hard fingers probing for a weak touch.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same, and the skin's color does not change at night, its shadows are the same.One is always living a little more or dying a little bit, and the Negro knows this under every streetlight and in every dark city corner.

The natural role of twentieth-century white man is anxiety.

I am Laslo.; 7/9/16, 4:35 PM
Hagar said...: What Gingrich is talking about is a hangover from the bad old days of Jim Crow when even the most respectable Black people had to schedule their travel with care so that they could eat and sleep in "black" areas of the towns on their route.
Today it is highly illegal to discriminate against any of the protected minorities, but the attitudes still hangs in, and everybody looks with suspicion on everybody else.
And, of course, the young, who have been told that these laws being passed would magically cure all these ills, but see that they have not - especially since they are too young to know how really bad it was in the old days, act up.

Interestingly, I read that a number of the Black middle class are moving back to the South. They say the climate is better, the food is better, and they meet with less discrimination in the Deep South now than they do in the North. Plus there are jobs there and they get hired now.; 7/9/16, 4:37 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Althouse has been reading Mailer, but probably hasn't read the Essay in my 7/9/16, 4:35 PM Post.

I can't help it if I dig in the weeds.

I am Laslo.; 7/9/16, 4:41 PM
Anonymous said...: http://www.startribune.com/philando-castile-had-permit-to-carry-gun/386054481/

"Philando Castile had a valid permit to carry a gun when he was shot and killed by a St. Anthony police officer, a source confirmed to the Star Tribune Friday.

Castile, a 32-year-old school cook from St. Paul, was killed by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights Wednesday night. His final minutes were live-streamed by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, who was a passenger in the car.

In the video, Reynolds said Castile told the officer, Jeronimo Yanez, that he had a permit and was carrying a gun. Yanez shot Castile multiple times.

“He’s licensed to carry, he was trying to get his ID, his wallet out of his pocket and he let the officer knew he had a firearm and was reaching for his wallet,” Reynolds said in the video as a bloodied Castile lay in the driver’s seat dying.

Although the names of gun permit holders are not public under state law, a source confirmed Castile was issued the permit when he lived in Robinsdale."; 7/9/16, 4:45 PM
eric said...: I've a suspicion this will turn out to be a good shoot.

Even though the media has spun this as a bad shoot, I'd be willing to bet the facts are

1) He told the guy not to move.

2) Their was a gun in plain site and he went for the gun.

Suggestion: If you have a gun in your vehicle, visible, don't move toward it when the police officer is telling you not to move.; 7/9/16, 4:56 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Lots here that studiously avoids what Gingrich actually said. Precious little that genuinely contradicts it. Why not both/and rather than either/or?; 7/9/16, 5:06 PM
rcocean said...: Philando Castile was stopped and killed because he was wanted for an armed robbery and had a gun.

One less crook.; 7/9/16, 5:25 PM
Michael K said...: "If you have a gun in your vehicle, visible, don't move toward it when the police officer is telling you not to move."

I had breakfast with my daughter the FBI agent this morning.

She said if she is stopped by a cop, she holds her badge out the window before he ever gets to her car.

I guess she has been caught speeding.

Anyway, she is white with red hair and pale complexion.; 7/9/16, 5:26 PM
Michael K said...: And, of course, she always has her gun with her.; 7/9/16, 5:27 PM
mockturtle said...: We'll eventually find out what really happened in Minnesota. I was appalled when I saw the video but having seen subsequent photos and information, it looks as though this guy was a Crips member; had an arrest record; may have had a permit to purchase a firearm but not a CWP; bore a striking resemblance to the videotaped bank robber; the woman who filmed the incident in question was not his girlfriend, which may explain why she continued to stream instead of trying to help him.

It's so damned frustrating that we are at the mercy of ill-informed media as well as agenda-driven homemade videos. Unless we were on the scene, we can't possibly know the truth.; 7/9/16, 5:30 PM
mockturtle said...: I apologize for the bad construct of sentence number two.; 7/9/16, 5:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Castile wasn't wanted for an armed robbery.

http://www.snopes.com/philando-castile-was-not-wanted-for-armed-robbery/

"MOSTLY FALSE
WHAT'S TRUE: Police who pulled over and killed Philando Castile reported they thought he might have resembled a suspect in an armed robbery case.

WHAT'S FALSE: Philando Castile was not "wanted" on an armed robbery charge or a "suspect" in such a case at the time he was killed.

ORIGIN:On 8 July 2016, the web site Conservative Treehouse published an article that perpetuated several false rumors about the death of Philando Castile, who shot and killed by police officers during a traffic stop in Minnesota. Among those rumors was the claim that Castile was wanted for armed robbery and was illegally carrying a firearm:..."; 7/9/16, 5:36 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/9/16, 5:50 PM
traditionalguy said...: Newt gave his teaching on better understanding after the Minnesota blunder, but before the Dallas massacre.
It amounts to respecting one another. If that takes too much strength and courage for arresting police officers, then there will be a war that could easily have been avoided. Newt's strategy sounds better.; 7/9/16, 5:50 PM
Anonymous said...: According to FBI data...

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12116288/minnesota-police-shooting-philando-castile-falcon-heights-video

"An analysis of the available FBI data by Vox’s Dara Lind shows that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: They accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population. Although the data is incomplete, since it’s based on voluntary reports from police agencies around the country, it highlights the vast disparities in how police use force.

Black teens were 21 times as likely as white teens to be shot and killed by police between 2010 and 2012, according to a ProPublica analysis of the FBI data. ProPublica’s Ryan Gabrielson, Ryann Grochowski Jones, and Eric Sagara reported: "One way of appreciating that stark disparity, ProPublica’s analysis shows, is to calculate how many more whites over those three years would have had to have been killed for them to have been at equal risk. The number is jarring — 185, more than one per week."; 7/9/16, 5:51 PM
mockturtle said...: A black man is 40 times more likely to be shot by another black man than by the police under any circumstance. Seems to me that is worth protesting.

I have personally known only two people who were shot and killed. Both were black and so were the shooters.; 7/9/16, 6:04 PM
Gahrie said...: An analysis of the available FBI data by Vox’s Dara Lind shows that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: They accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population.

According to the FBI:

In 2012, Blacks committed 49.4% of the murders, even though they made up just 13% of the population.

In 2012, Blacks committed 32.5% of the forcible rapes, even though they made up just 13% of the population.

In 2012, Blacks committed 54.9% of the robberies, even though they made up just 13% of the population.

In 2012, Blacks committed 34.1% of the aggravated assaults, even though they made up just 13% of the population.

People are missing the forest because everyone is pointing at the squirrel.

The only three categories were the rate of Black crime was similar to the percentage of Black population were DUI, liquor law violations and drunkenness.; 7/9/16, 6:16 PM
rcocean said...: The Asian cop said this to the dispatcher before he pulled Castile over:

I’m going to stop a car. I’m going to check IDs. I have reason to pull it over.”

“The two occupants just look like people that were involved in a robbery. The driver looks more like one of our suspects, just ‘cause of the wide set nose.”; 7/9/16, 6:32 PM
rcocean said...: Castile had 55 driving violations most of them for driving after his license had been revoked.; 7/9/16, 6:35 PM
eric said...: Blogger Michael K said...
"If you have a gun in your vehicle, visible, don't move toward it when the police officer is telling you not to move."

I had breakfast with my daughter the FBI agent this morning.

She said if she is stopped by a cop, she holds her badge out the window before he ever gets to her car.

I guess she has been caught speeding.

Anyway, she is white with red hair and pale complexion.

Your daughter is wrong to do this. We are taught that doing this is an issue of integrity. When you "Badge" another officer it's a way of saying, "Hey, I'm a cop like you, give me special consideration."

She may not mean it that way, but in my 20 years of service, everyone has understood it to be this way.

I never, ever, ever, badge another officer unless I'm in a situation where shots are being fired and I'm in plain clothes. Then I will hold up my badge for all to see.

When I'm pulled over by the police, I put my hands on the steering wheel and hold them both there in the 10 and 2 position. I do this after the window is rolled down. Both windows, in case they come up on the passenger side.

When he asks for my ID, if I'm carrying my weapon (I usually am), I tell him I'm carrying. He asks me a follow up question, sometimes he asks if I'm a police officer. I tell him and wait for instructions. If he asks to see my badge, then I show him. If he asks where my weapon is, I tell him.

But "badging" another officer like your daughter does is usually considered poor etiquette.

On the other hand, I've never met another agency, State, Local, or Federal, who thinks the FBI are anything other than full of themselves. Sorta like how the military branches all make fun of each other, we all make fun of the FBI.

So maybe the FBI teaches their agents to "badge" other officers because they are just that cool.

(And although this is written, Michael, I hope you can hear the good natured tone of voice this message is written in); 7/9/16, 7:10 PM
Michael K said...: "Your daughter is wrong to do this. We are taught that doing this is an issue of integrity. "

I doubt she is doing this to ask for favors. That is true and what other cops do is not my concern.

She's only been an agent 17 years. Once on a stakeout in Detroit, she saw a drive-by shooting. They had to decide whether to chase and break cover or ignore it. They chased.

I also doubt "being cool" is part of it.; 7/9/16, 7:28 PM
Michael K said...: "They accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population."

This is a fake statistic. If 1% of the population commit 50% of the crimes, do you think stopping more than 1% is racist ?

If so you are an idiot.; 7/9/16, 7:30 PM
Jupiter said...: I don't know whether he was a crook. It appears he was a Crip;

http://tinyurl.com/gvup9u6

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Lots of black guys are Crips. It's kind of like a white guy being in Rotary. Heck, Trayvon's dad was a gangbanger, and so was Mike Brown's.; 7/9/16, 7:49 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "An analysis of the available FBI data by Vox’s Dara Lind shows that US police kill black people at disproportionate rates: They accounted for 31 percent of police killing victims in 2012, even though they made up just 13 percent of the US population."
What's that phrase I am looking for? Oh yeah "Apples and oranges."
A disproportionate rate would involve two like groups. Blacks may make up 13% of the US population, but that does not mean that they make up 13% of all individuals who have contact with the police. You could hardly make a more dishonest comparison, which mean that this is typical for Vox. You might as well claim that police kill young people at a disproportionate rate because only 20% of the US population is between 18 and 30 years of age, yet they make up 70% of the victims of police killings.; 7/9/16, 7:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Michael K is an idiot to admit on a public forum that his daughter the FBI agent flashes her badge first thing when she is stopped by police for a traffic violation. You really think you are above it all. Guess what, you're not and neither is your "liberal" FBI agent daughter.; 7/9/16, 7:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Does Michael K's "liberal" FBI agent daughter even know what kind of garbage he spews on this blog daily? I wonder.; 7/9/16, 7:58 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Unknown, always look at supposed 'facts' and 'analysis' from prestigious liberal websites with a jaundiced eye. The only people that bother to correct their half-witted attempts to reason their way to their preferred policy positions are conservatives, and they don't care what conservatives think about them.; 7/9/16, 8:02 PM
Francisco D said...: UnKnown,

You are truly an idiot. Whoever pays you should be ashamed. You have merely served as a distraction. Perhaps that is what you are paid to do.

OK. I know that I should not feed the trolls. Sorry!; 7/9/16, 8:13 PM
dbp said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/9/16, 8:24 PM
dbp said...: My own experience is that when I was a young white man, I got a lot more unwelcome attention from police than I do as a middle aged white man. I chalk it up to the fact that young men commit more crimes than older guys. Back then, the real reason they pulled me over to see if I was up to anything. I wasn't "up to anything" but I still got tickets since I was speeding. Now, they don't bother to pull me over and I don't get tickets.

Two possibly confounding factors. I lived in Washington State when I was young and have lived in New England for the last 24 years--the cops could just be more lenient out here. Also, around the time I moved, I got into the habit of always driving with my headlights on. I think this nod at "safety" could be warding off cops.; 7/9/16, 8:29 PM
dbp said...: Added: This was in my earlier comment but it got scrambled by a stray brush on the touchpad.

If anything, I drive faster now than I did when I was young. Mostly this is due to the fact that I can afford faster cars now--even our Yukon (the slowest in the family fleet) is considerably faster than the Tercel I had as a kid.; 7/9/16, 8:34 PM
Hyphenated American said...: "Black teens were 21 times as likely as white teens to be shot and killed by police between 2010 and 2012, according to a ProPublica analysis of the FBI data. "

Here is some weird statistics:

"Black officers account for a little more than 10 percent of all fatal police shootings. Of those they kill, though, 78 percent were black.
White officers, given their great numbers in so many of the country's police departments, are well represented in all categories of police killings. White officers killed 91 percent of the whites who died at the hands of police. And they were responsible for 68 percent of the people of color killed. Those people of color represented 46 percent of all those killed by white officers."

This is from the same article by propublica. Note that black policemen kill mostly blacks (78%), while white policemen kill mostly whites (and only 46% of their victims are "people of color" - which means they kill even fewer blacks). In short, black policemen are twice as likely to kill blacks than white policemen. Explain that racial dynamics.; 7/9/16, 8:39 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Hyphenated American said.
" . . . Explain that racial dynamics."
Systemic racism. Black cops participate in the reality engineered by white supremacists for their own benefit. All racial disparities that work to the disadvantage of people of color is the result of white supremacy.; 7/9/16, 8:59 PM
Sal said...: I got into the habit of always driving with my headlights on. I think this nod at "safety" could be warding off cops.

I've been speeding for 40 years and have never gotten stopped for speeding. It might be my always-on headlights or it might the KKK sticker on the back window. Whatever, it's worked.; 7/9/16, 9:02 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Blogger Sal said...

. . . it might the KKK sticker on the back window.

The white supremacy angle is supposed to be a bit more subtle than that these days, Sal.; 7/9/16, 9:10 PM
Matt said...: My God in Heaven, how I love Laslo's posts.

Laslo, you magnificent bastard. I will read your book. If you have one.; 7/9/16, 9:29 PM
dbp said...: I have been tempted to put a Marine Corps sticker on my car on the theory that lots of cops are former Marines. I have resisted since lots of cops are former soldiers who like to bust the chops of former Marines.

A further confounding factor is that I drive one of three different cars, "my car" is the one left after my wife and daughters take what they want. My older daughter and I like the Subaru with a manual, so I occasionally get that one. My wife and younger daughter prefer the Saab, since neither of them are comfortable with a stick. I usually end up with the Yukon, which is fine but would be my 3rd choice.; 7/9/16, 9:41 PM
ccscientist said...: I'm white and I think I have a higher opinion of the potential abilities of blacks than they do themselves. I have seen that blacks can be tops in any field, from medicine to music to economics. BUT the gansta culture is the opposite of motivating, the opposite of suitable for success. And this culture is engendered by the political rhetoric that blacks are oppressed and can't succeed. As Thomas Sowell (a black economist) has argued, Nigerians who have come here recently are quite successful--they don't have the mindset of "failure is inevitable". If I see a black person from Africa, I can pick them out of a crowd--they hold themselves differently.
Yes, there are hassles and disadvantages to being black, but I guarantee you that a black person moving to a white suburb will be safer than he was on the south side of chicago, even if he gets stopped a few times more often. AND these hassles can be overcome.
Remember that asians are heavily discriminated against in college admissions (so they don't "take over" since they are "too good") and yet still do well in life, just as jews were kept out of the Ivy League for 100 years and just went to the 2nd tier colleges and still went on to get boatloads of Nobel Prizes.; 7/9/16, 9:43 PM
mockturtle said...: Laslo, you magnificent bastard. I will read your book. If you have one.

Me too!!!; 7/9/16, 10:15 PM
Michael K said...: "Does Michael K's "liberal" FBI agent daughter even know what kind of garbage he spews on this blog daily? I wonder."

A friend used to say "Let nasty people talk to other nasty people. Nice people can talk to other nice people."

I agree with her.

And I don't feed trolls.; 7/9/16, 11:10 PM
Anonymous said...: "A friend used to say "Let nasty people talk to other nasty people."

You hold daily conversations with yourself?; 7/9/16, 11:15 PM
Michael K said...: I really do wonder at the angry leftists here.

At other blogs we can carry on discussions that are interesting and do not deteriorate into these juvenile attacks.

Why do you feel the need to do this ?; 7/9/16, 11:18 PM
Michael K said...: Sorry. I fed a troll.; 7/9/16, 11:18 PM
walter said...: Blogger LCpl Predator said...
We can't have an HONEST conversation. Look what's happening in Chicago. YTD, there have been 2072 shootings. Oh, yea, it's run by Obama's man, Rahm.
_
Obama was ignoring it while Rahm was in his employ.
It's about not being able to cleanly and politically capitalize on those tragedies...one of many lost opportunities that Obama might have seized.

Now..I was pulled over, approached by two cops on either side of car and had car searched as I exited a parking lot. Was told only that they were having theft problems there. Well..though very white (dermatologist told me so)..I had a rusty Cavalier and sported a scraggly beard.

MisterBuddwing said...Deny, deny, deny. My brother, an attorney, once told me about a black co-worker who went to the repair shop to pick up her car. She tried to pay with a check, but the garage wouldn't take it unless she could recite her account number off the top of her head.
--
Logically, is that enough context to confirm it was racial?; 7/10/16, 1:43 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: If you are a delusional cunt, you are more apt to vote than the undelutional cunts and therefore you are smart enough, having let me graciously explain it to you, to vote Hillary!(!).

Any questions dirtbag jerk?; 7/10/16, 2:15 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: From Ace of Spades to Z man as it were, Buckley is indeed a likely adversary.

Why didn't Buckley do more better?

These men will tell you.

Oh my, they will.; 7/10/16, 2:22 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Any red pill nonsense is akin to saying "Merle Hagard sucks."

Bitch, Haggard taught sucking not with intent.

And you?

You got words people ought care about?

Thank the grace of God I don't walk your footstepts.; 7/10/16, 2:25 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Is there any man alive more Merle than Merle?

No.

So stop being bitches, all right.

I ain't joking.; 7/10/16, 2:30 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qogVHlmFcx0; 7/10/16, 2:31 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: History shows white man has been the innovation beyond being slave; whether quasi or maybe or like or wise.

Dying ain't much of a living: true.; 7/10/16, 2:33 AM
Qwinn said...: "White people are outraged over the accusation of being racist while at the same time dismiss the complaints of those who are real victims of racism daily. Oh poor white people, such victims."

If there are so many "real victims of racism", why do such a huge percentage of the ones that get hyped up by the media and BLM and the Left (but I repeat myself, twice) turn out to be fraudulent, like Trayvon and Ferguson? I mean, seriously, if it's such an open-and-shut case that these things happen all the time, couldn't you find better examples that don't involve completely making up shit like "Hands up don't shoot" supposedly said by a guy who just robbed a store?; 7/10/16, 3:47 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: MisterBuddwing said...Deny, deny, deny. My brother, an attorney, once told me about a black co-worker who went to the repair shop to pick up her car. She tried to pay with a check, but the garage wouldn't take it unless she could recite her account number off the top of her head.
--
Logically, is that enough context to confirm it was racial?

I wouldn't mind staking out that place and see whether they applied that policy to everyone.

But at least you're not claiming it didn't happen.

With all of these comments, a common theme seems to have emerged. As far as not a few commenters are concerned, reports of prejudice are exaggerated or totally made up - until they're proven to be true, in which case, the prejudice is totally justified.

(First deny, then justify.); 7/10/16, 4:20 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Driving while black" anecdotes are fun, but they're just anecdotes.

"A greater percentage of male drivers (12%) than female drivers (8%) were stopped by police during 2011. A higher percentage of black drivers (13%) than white (10%) and Hispanic (10%) drivers were stopped by police during 2011.

Stopped drivers reported speeding as the most common reason for being pulled over in 2011.

Approximately 80% of drivers pulled over by police in 2011 felt they had been stopped for a legitimate reason. In 2011, about 68% of black drivers believed police had a legitimate reason for stopping them compared to 84% of white and 74% of Hispanic drivers.

In 2011, about 3% of traffic stops led to a search of the driver, the vehicle, or both. Police were more likely to search male drivers (4%) than female drivers (2%).

A lower percentage of white drivers stopped by police in 2011 were searched (2%) than black (6%) or Hispanic (7%) drivers."; 7/10/16, 9:40 AM
Qwinn said...: "With all of these comments, a common theme seems to have emerged. As far as not a few commenters are concerned, reports of prejudice are exaggerated or totally made up"

Ferguson. Trayvon. The guy in the van.

If "prejudice" were so widespread - or even uncommon - in a country of 320+ million, the media and the Left (and you) would've had your pick of legitimate examples to choose from. Instead, you repeatedly pick completely absurd cases where the supposed victims are usually in fact the aggressors. Why, give me one good reason why, you couldn't find a -real- innocent looking 11 year old who was killed at age 11 to splash on the cover of every magazine, instead of showing 7 year old pictures of Trayvon as an 11 year old instead of showing his current thug/tatted pictures. Come on. Give us one legitimate reason you couldn't find a better example to make your case of prejudice and hate than a guy beating Zimmerman's head into the pavement. Or rioting over Ferguson, a guy who just robbed a store, tried to wrestle the gun away from the cop and that charged him.

If those are the cases you choose to highlight, to actually riot over, then yes, I absolutely believe that you have nothing better. Logic 101.; 7/10/16, 10:43 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: Or, to put it another way: "Blacks aren't treated nearly as badly as they claim - and what's more, they totally deserve it."; 7/10/16, 11:37 AM
walter said...: to put it another way, "You're just hung up on details because Raaaaacist!"; 7/10/16, 12:08 PM
Qwinn said...: "Or, to put it another way: "Blacks aren't treated nearly as badly as they claim - and what's more, they totally deserve it."

The specific ones you keep touting as victims certainly did. Trayvon was pounding Zimmerman's head into the pavement - by any sane self-defense doctrine, he deserved it. Michael Brown robbed a store and attacked police officers. He also deserved it, absolutely.

If you want to extend that to blacks in general, the racism is yours. Likewise, if you want to *exonerate* those specific persons because of their race, once again the racism is yours.

I said nothing negative at all about blacks in general, just the specific ultra-violent ones you guys want to canonize as saints for your cause. Where, exactly, is the racism in that?

I note that you don't argue that Trayvon or Brown were actually innocent, or explain why BLM and the Left would choose those as their victim/saints, if there were any better examples of injustice to be found.; 7/10/16, 2:36 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/10/16, 4:58 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: Quiwwn:; Believe it or not, I wasn't talking particularly about you. I'm talking about the contributors to this thread who either say, "Blacks are a bunch of thin-skinned whiners" and the ones who say, "Yes, blacks get treated differently, but that's because they have a huge image problem that they've brought on themselves."

You're trying to use me as some of foil to stand in for all the people you disagree with (e.g., "The specific ones YOU keep touting as victims..."). Then, having pinned "specific" examples" on me, you set up some silly straw man argument that I'm extending those arguments to "blacks in general." If you can cite specific examples in which I - me - invoked Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown, I'd certainly like to hear them.

Lumping people together and holding each individual in that group equally responsible for something someone else in that group did or said - isn't that the essence of prejudice?

To quote the old conservative trope, you're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. (And BTW, it isn't all about you.); 7/10/16, 5:01 PM
Hyphenated American said...: "Lumping people together and holding each individual in that group equally responsible for something someone else in that group did or said - isn't that the essence of prejudice?"

If you run a small business, and you see that people in a particular group are more likely to steal from your store than people from another group - is it prejudice to act based on this empirical observation?

Let's compare old grandmas and school kids - who is more likely to steal candy from a small store? Is it "prejudice" to act based on that empirical knowledge?; 7/10/16, 5:10 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/10/16, 5:23 PM