February 20, 2019

"Smollett—if he really did stage the attack—would have been acting out the black-American component in this eschatological configuration, the role of victim as a form of status."

"We are, within this hierarchy, persecuted prophets, ever attesting to the harm that white racism does to us and pointing to a future context in which our persecutors will be redeemed of the sin of having leveled that harm upon us. We are noble in our suffering."

Writes John McWhorter in "What the Jussie Smollett Story Reveals/It shows a peculiar aspect of 21st-century America: victimhood chic" (The Atlantic).

What is "this eschatological configuration"? The antecedent sentence is:
Racial politics today have become a kind of religion in which whites grapple with the original sin of privilege, converts tar questioners of the orthodoxy as “problematic” blasphemers, and everyone looks forward to a Judgment Day when America “comes to terms” with race.
Eschatology is — in my dictionary, the OED — "The department of theological science concerned with ‘the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell'" or "In recent theological writing, esp. as ‘realized eschatology’ (see quot. 1957), the sense of this word has been modified to connote the present ‘realization’ and significance of the ‘last things’ in the Christian life." The etymology has roots for last + discourse. McWhorter is talking about "Judgment Day," so the word (the metaphor) is apt.

And here's the Wikipedia article "Immanentize the eschaton":
In political theory and theology, to immanentize the eschaton means trying to bring about the eschaton (the final, heaven-like stage of history) in the immanent world. In all these contexts it means "trying to make that which belongs to the afterlife happen here and now (on Earth)."...

Modern usage of the phrase started with Eric Voegelin in The New Science of Politics in 1952. Conservative spokesman William F. Buckley popularized Voegelin's phrase as "Don't immanentize the eschaton!" Buckley's version became a political slogan of Young Americans for Freedom during the 1960s and 1970s.

Voegelin identified a number of similarities between ancient Gnosticism and the beliefs held by a number of modern political theories, particularly Communism and Nazism....
Back to McWhorter. I'm skipping ahead now:
Notable in smollett’s [sic] account is that he sought to come off as an especially fierce kind of victim—the victim as hero, as cool. “I fought the fuck back,” he told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview. Smollett has long displayed a hankering for preacher status. His Twitter stream is replete with counsel about matters of spirit, skepticism, and persistence that sounds a tad self-satisfied from someone in his 30s. His mother associated with the Black Panthers and is friends with the activist Angela Davis, and in interviews Smollett has identified proudly with the activist tradition.

The problem is that amid the complexities of 2019 as opposed to 1969, keeping the Struggle [sic] going is more abstract, less dramatic, than it once was....
It is and should be a mistake to switch to fakery and overdramatizing to keep the Struggle going. There's no reason why we can't be empathetic and attentive to subtle things. Let's talk about what's really true and what matters. It may be hard to believe that anyone will care about less dramatic problems, but if you wreck your credibility, you'll have no way to talk to people anymore.

110 comments:

Fernandinande said...

We are noble in our suffering.

No, you are ridiculous, blaming others for providing you with slightly less luxury than some other people have.

Tim said...

Smollett is a privileged racist turd. He needs to do time.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Let's be honest here. Smollett and his parents are so dumb, they did not even know the correct spelling of "Jessie".

MayBee said...

I agree with McWhoter in many ways.

One big problem with today's conversation- trying to constantly re-adjust now for the sins of the past- is there is no end to it. The past will always have existed, and new sins can always be found in in. But there's no day we can bring about where the sins of the past did not exist.
Part of it is adding on to the idea of privilege- putting in people's mind that some other group has some super-human ability to breeze through life, feel no pain, never be explained to, never be sexually unhappy, never not get a job. And you, a member of not-this group, need that group to give you power to move forward. That's not true, and it's not a way to live a motivated or satisfied life.

J. Farmer said...

The bizarre thing about modern racial rhetoric is how much it seems to hitch black advancement to the wagon of white wokeness.

Jupiter said...

"Let's talk about what's really true and what matters."

Is that one thing, or two?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Victimhood chic? Absurd when in almost every instance the aspirant is victimizing someone else.

MayBee said...

Part of Jussie's problem is what other people did to take advantage of his victimhood. What he did was very wrong- but it was made larger by all the idiots who had to join in with their outrage, condemnation, and concern.

tcrosse said...

Smollett was acting out a scatological configuration.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


“The bizarre thing about modern racial rhetoric is how much it seems to hitch black advancement to the wagon of white wokeness.”

You can raise a heap o’ Toms in a couple of hundred years. The Democrats have it down to a (social) science.

Fernandinande said...

What is "this eschatological configuration"?

It's a highfalutin phrase some clown used because the clown doesn't want to mention low IQs and propensity to crime and violence while trying to excuse the behavior of one of his racist pets who has just committed one of the crimes the clown usually pretends to be upset about.

mccullough said...

Smollet’s half-Jewish. He tries too hard to identify as oppressed.

M Jordan said...

This neo-Puritanism that liberalism has molded into lacks redemption. At least in the bad old days a person could endure their time in the stocks or wearing the scarlet letter then reclaim their life. Today one must confess to one’s sin of racism then be killed much like in the Soviet times. Lacking a redemptive path, adherents have learned the best inoculation from the race charge is to be an accuser of it. In this way our modern liberalism is Red Guardian Where Chinese youth almost destroyed an entire culture with the accusation sword.

What stopped the Cultural Revolution was the fact that, without a path of redemption, eventually the movement turns on its own. And we may be at that point here.

Lucien said...

Should we refer to hoax-crimes as “Smolletts” or “Tawanas”? It would be a shame not to venerate Al Sharpton for his origination of this genre.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...converts tar questioners...

This phrase crash-blossomed in my head. What, exactly, are tar questioners, and what are they converted to?!?

rhhardin said...

Don't immanentize the eschaton. Always good advice.

M Jordan said...

MayBee: “The past will always have existed, and new sins can always be found in in.”

Excellent turn of phrase and full of truth.

Fernandinande said...

The fact that Mr. Smollet is ethnically Jewish, on his father's side.

"Ethinically"? What's that modifier supposed to indicate?

The criminal Smollett is a mulatto, not black, because his father was a white Jew with Russian/Polish ancestry.

rhhardin said...

White racism is the black explanation for their not doing well on the average, to avoid looking at average black IQ as a possible simpler explanation.

A perfect thorn in race relations.

Whites know they're not discriminating, blacks know they are.

MayBee said...

M Jordan- thanks, except for my typo goshdarnit!

nob490 said...

This phrase crash-blossomed in my head. What, exactly, are tar questioners, and what are they converted to?!?

Tar is the verb in this sentence.

Read it as "People who have been converted smear people who question the orthodoxy..."

Francisco D said...

The problem is that amid the complexities of 2019 as opposed to 1969, keeping the Struggle [sic] going is more abstract, less dramatic, than it once was....

The complexities of 2019 are that African Americans are not oppressed by Whites any more. They are oppressed by leftists who use them to silence conservatives or anyone who does not toe the line. Leftists want African Americans to remain in a state of childish victimhood and dependency.

Rory said...

MayBee said: "Part of it is adding on to the idea of privilege- putting in people's mind that some other group has some super-human ability to breeze through life, feel no pain, never be explained to, never be sexually unhappy, never not get a job."

These people have always existed. What's going on now is that these people are trying to convince everyone that their privilege is actually sited in a specific demographic, most of whom come from families that endured millenia covered in pigs**t.

Ken B said...

McWhorter is always interesting and insightful.

mccullough said...

Since Smollet is part Russian this false flag operation was planned by Putin to swi discord among the American public.

Ken B said...

Firstcomment, by Fernandistein, is obtuse. He misses that McWhorter is imputing and thinks he is asserting.

Sebastian said...

"It is and should be a mistake to switch to fakery and overdramatizing to keep the Struggle going."

It should be, from the point of view of nice, reasonable people, but it isn't.

Prog fakers don't pay a price: witness Al Sharpton.

"There's no reason why we can't be empathetic and attentive to subtle things. Let's talk about what's really true and what matters."

What really matters is The Struggle and The narrative. Truth claims are tools, as Habermas didn't say.

"It may be hard to believe that anyone will care about less dramatic problems, but if you wreck your credibility, you'll have no way to talk to people anymore."

What? Progs just keep saying the same things. They don't care about "credibility," as long as they can hammer home their orthodoxy. So Smollett faked the attack and smeared deplorables? Yeah, but this is still a racist, sexist country. Etc. etc.

Birches said...

This podcast with McHorter, Loury, Coleman Hughes, Kmele Foster is required listening on the topic.

Levi Starks said...

Jessie went to bed every night praying that
He would get the crap beaten out of himself the next day.
But it never happened.
Sometimes you have to make your own luck.

Fernandinande said...

African Americans ..are oppressed by leftists

How are they oppressed?

Fernandinande said...

This podcast with McHorter, Loury, Coleman Hughes, Kmele Foster is required listening on the topic.

Why ask four blacks about anti-white hate crimes?

rhhardin said...

It's not a sin of the past in any case. It was an economic system - enslave your enemies instead of killing them. Win/win.

The free market and legally guaranteed property rights made it obsolete. A slave contributes more to society working in his own interest than working as a slave.

It died out slowly or quickly, depending; but it wasn't a sin.

MayBee said...

These people have always existed. What's going on now is that these people are trying to convince everyone that their privilege is actually sited in a specific demographic, most of whom come from families that endured millenia covered in pigs**

Rory, exactly.

William said...

White oppression has the peculiar effect of ennobling its sufferers. It's the only type of oppression that has that effect. Other types of oppression offer pain but without the side effect of ennoblement. I'm sure that Smollett at some point in his life has heard a black person make a homophobic, sexist, or anti-Semitic remark, but such remarks, however hurtful, were not ennobling. He is indeed fortunate to live in a country that supplies so many opportunities to be ennobled......I'm thinking of Obama's grandmother. Not the one who clutches her purse at bus stops. No, the Luo one. The Luo are a minority tribe in Kenya. There have been several massacres. Many must live in refugee camps where the women are raped by their UN guardians. Such people undoubtedly suffer but without the necessary ingredient of white participation, their suffering just makes them brutish and resentful instead of eloquent and gracious.......I remember when the Kenyatta family was ennobled by white oppressors. It was an inspiring story on a level with that of Mugabe and Winnie Mandela, but take away the white oppressor and you're not left with much.

M Jordan said...

A theological look at this whole sordid affair makes sense: God interceded on behalf of an abused basket of Deplorables. How? He had the security camera that Smollett was playing to pointed in the wrong direction. Smollett wanted the police to get it (he acted out the scene under it and directed the police immediately to its location), release it, and have it go viral. Then we as a nation could have been treated to a months-long troika led by CNN, MSNBC, and Eric Holder blaming Trump America.

Thank you Jesus for pointing the camera the wrong way. I’m serious.

hawkeyedjb said...

In economic terms, the Smollett play shows that the demand for hate crimes has far exceeded the supply, and new entrepreneurs are being drawn into the industry. Smollett thought he had the skill to compete with established firms, but his business plan was poorly thought out. He isn't good at hiring employees either; undocumented immigrants wouldn't have rolled over so easily.

Ann Althouse said...

"This phrase crash-blossomed in my head. What, exactly, are tar questioners, and what are they converted to?!?"

Same thing happened to me!

II googled the phrase "tar questioners." Who are these questioners of tar?

Oso Negro said...

It's a welcome relief to spend time in a country without black or white people.

traditionalguy said...

A favorite Hebrew prophet spoke of eschatology as finding someway to get out of here. As the end times manifest he said it is getting late and suggested that we speak honestly now.

The end of the world( not of the planet earth, but of the social order that we live in) means the end of an age . At the end of an age is when the secret things are revealed and judged.
The Catholic Church is going into that stage. The World Banks are in it too. The rerun of therace wars is being used as a tool to stop the storm that is going on. The Hollywood system and the MSM is going through its eschatological judgement too.

I blame Trump and Bob Dylan.

Michael K said...

Whites voted for Obama in hopes he would finally bring everyone together.

Instead, he drives them apart in a quest for black votes. This victimhood culture owes a lot to Obama and his racist politics.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I hadn't realized that "Immanetize the eschaton" was a lefty epithet that is a mirror image of our complaint about communism and socialism: that they are trying to make Utopia, which doesn't work on Earth. This a sister of the suicide slur on Jews and Christians that we want a confrontation with Iran to "bring on Armageddon." Progressives are forced to use deliberately obscure terms in order ti disguise the stupidity at the heart of their arguments. Nobody (except those twelfth Imam dudes) wants to bring about the end of the World.

Fernandinande said...

TAR = Tape ARchive. You don't question them.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

and everyone looks forward to a Judgment Day when America “comes to terms” with race.

Hmm, is that what everyone looks forward to? Everyone?
I am tempted to pull up a bunch of quotes form surprisingly-popular figures talking about looking forward to, or gloating about, white people "dying off" and becoming an ever-smaller minority. Usually those happen in relation to some story about the growing diversity/shrinking majority of white people in America--those aren't difficult to find.

I suspect I'd be told it's ugly to point that sentiment out, though, as I'm sure it would be to note how widely-held it seems to be. Some things just shouldn't be noticed, you see.

exhelodrvr1 said...

tar is rat spelled backwards

traditionalguy said...

Tar questioners would be the smear by coordinated media that tries to raise an issue to activate a mob that will tar and feather an enemy of the people. Tar questioners are the CIA masters of the narratives. They need to chose the victims to be tarred before we can figure out that it is them.

Fernandinande said...

Firstcomment, by Fernandistein, is obtuse.

No, I'm obtuse, not the comment.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

To a man with a jigsaw, everything looks like a puzzle.

Amadeus 48 said...

It is interesting to compare McWhorter's analysis to the conversation that Sherman and Maria have in Bonfire after their encounter with the two young men in the Bronx. Sherman fought them! He was in the jungle, and he fought their way out!

Sherman and Jussie (and maybe McWhorter) would have a lot to talk about.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"whites grapple with the original sin of privilege"
I am white, I do not "grapple with the original sin of privilege."
I don't know any one who "grapples with the original sin of privilege."
Original sin is not a privilege, it's a curse. Original sin is central to the belief of Christians, not Jews or Muslims or Hindus or Buddists or atheists. Even Christians don't grapple with original sin. Sin, yes, but not original sin. Only God can do anything about original sin, and he already did this by sending us a redeemer.
I literally cannot make sense of this phrase.

hombre said...

Who cares about “eschatological configurations”? I like “escalation,” as in: This is an escalation of racist black mugging.

In stead of falsely accusing whitey of the historical sins of some of our forefathers, Smollett decided to invent a current sin as the basis for racist black mugging as practiced by racist blacks and their white progressive exploiters.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Racism is the great cludge, the great crutch of our modern world. For those that wish to use the crutch as a springboard to healing and better life, they heal and have a better life. For those that wish to use it as a cludge, it continuously reminds them that it's a cludge and they stay fixed to the ground beating themselves in the head with it.

It is possible to feel sympathy for people historically discriminated against on the basis of race AND BE aware of how that sympathy and pain can in itself become addictive to the said population keeping them from succeeding against all odd.

In short, it is possible to acknowledge black pain in the USA while also acknowledging that in many ways - and for a long time - they have been self-designating themselves as 2nd class citizens. You can do both at the same time.

I and so many other people are past this. So many black people as well. NO ONE is putting guns in the hands of young black men, putting drugs in their bodies, or keeping those that wish to work from working accept other black people at this point. 3 short years ago we had the end of the first black administration. We have examples galore.

Black people are 100% their own worst enemies. You could've said not long ago that it was 80-90%. Not anymore. The white progressive enablers that continually apologize for the 'cludge' are not there to help blacks, but in fact keep them continuously oppressed by using their advocacy as a springboard for false virtue and false moral superiority. They encourage just the kind of behavior that Smollett just engaged in.

I'm all out of sympathy. Have been for a while. Obama had a chance to help this situation within his own community, and not only did he flub it, he doubled-down on it. I'm fresh outta compassion.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Deplorables aren't as black as tar baby questioners tar them. Unless they're Nigerians.

gahrie said...

It is and should be a mistake to switch to fakery and overdramatizing to keep the Struggle going.

Why not use the most apt word: lies?

tds said...

We have to understand, that it is so very hard to be an anti-* warrior, when nobody wants to commit a * crime against you. You wait and wait for years. Finally, you lose patience and organize a crime yourself.

However, you have not noticed, that during those years of waiting for your share of spotlight, you went a little mad. Hungry, you go big: rasism, anti-gay bigotry, political attack, all in one. You throw in fashionable props to spice things up: red hats, noose, bleach.

Being a dumb actor, you don't notice that your story doesn't make sense. Annnnd here we are today.

JAORE said...

"... if you wreck your credibility, you'll have no way to talk to people anymore. "

Yet there will ever be foot soldiers willing and able to take up that fallen (false) flag and charge into the breech.

Now if the MEDIA cared about credibility wemight get somewhere.

joshbraid said...

"The complexities of 2019 are that African Americans are not oppressed by Whites any more. They are oppressed by leftists who use them to silence conservatives or anyone who does not toe the line. Leftists want African Americans to remain in a state of childish victimhood and dependency."

I agree that "Leftists" need victims to gain power. I think that this does not preclude that some people who are not "Leftists" also need victims to gain power.

The more general topic is how much revenge is needed for past "sins" in a system where redemption is not an option.

LordSomber said...

Long-time reader of McWhorter, but I personally cannot be weighed by "guilt" whilst awaiting evidence of a claimed wrong.

Bay Area Guy said...

I hereby offer a pardon to all white liberals of the racial guilt that absorbs them based on their privileged circumstances and the latent disdain they harbor for our brethren of color.

Can I get an Amen?

Fernandinande said...

"The fact that we have these fear mongrels, these people that are...trying to separate us."

Thus spake The Littleist Victim.

Greg P said...

Althouse writes:

It is and should be a mistake to switch to fakery and overdramatizing to keep the Struggle going. There's no reason why we can't be empathetic and attentive to subtle things. Let's talk about what's really true and what matters. It may be hard to believe that anyone will care about less dramatic problems, but if you wreck your credibility, you'll have no way to talk to people anymore.


Great idea! Here's what's real and true:
1: The vast majority of racism in the US is anti-white. The next largest slice of it is anti-Asian. There is proportionally very little racism directed against anyone else

2: 99%+ of the failures of "minorities" in the US today are cause by themselves, their families, and / or programs of the Left (see all the "Great Society" programs that pay people to engage in self destructive activities".

3: The vast majority (> 80%) of the most bigoted and hateful monsters in America are on the Left. Most of the rest of the bigotry that happens in the US is a direct result of the Left's bigotry. When you define "diversity" based upon skin color, you are clearly telling people that they SHOULD consider someone with a different skin color to be different from them. Having told them that, you don't get to complain when they believe you, and act on it

4: Barack Obama was a crappy President. His left-wing policies horribly screwed up the US economy, and horribly screwed over the American people.

5: Donald Trump has been a far better President for America that Barack Obama was

6: If you have a penis, you are male. if you try to go into women's restrooms, / bathrooms / changing rooms / locker rooms you should be arrested, and thrown in jail. Your feelings about this are irrelevant

7: "Gender" is BS. There are two sexes, male and female. Have a penis? Male. Have a vagina? Female. Have both? You're a sub 1% edge case weirdo, and we're not going to make public policy based on your problems. Have neither? Ditto.

8: If you believe in individual freedom, then you believe in the absolute right of any individual, including business owners and business managers, for any reason, to refuse to hire / rent to / do business with gays / "trans".

If you don't believe in individual freedom, stop making any gay / "trans" "rights" arguments based upon their individual freedom. Rights adhere to everyone, or to no one. Anything that only adheres to members of a "protected class" is a privilege, not a right.

9: Our system of gov't does not allow judges to grant privileges, to anyone, for any reason. They all come from written laws, or the written US Constitution, and are explicitly and publicly stated / granted

Francisco D said...

Frenandistein asked, How are they oppressed?

By encouraging victimhood and dependency.

They are used by the Left to shame Whites into silence and thus, gain power.

Achilles said...

Fernandistein said...
African Americans ..are oppressed by leftists

How are they oppressed?


Public Schools for one.

But that is a class issue not a race issue.

Fernandinande said...

Frenandistein asked, How are they oppressed?

By encouraging victimhood and dependency.


Giving people stuff is not a form of oppression. Being stupid with what you're given is not a form of oppression.

They are used by the Left to shame Whites into silence and thus, gain power.

Now you're claiming that whites are being oppressed, which in this case is slightly true.

+

Public Schools for one.

Bullshit.

But that is a class issue not a race issue.

It's a race issue, not a school issue. That's why the poor Chinese kids in those same ghetto schools go on to be successful.

FullMoon said...

It's Time for Congress and State Legislatures to Make Hoax Hate Crimes Themselves Hate Crimes, and Felonies to Boot
—Ace of Spades

As Infobee and John Hayward argue -- what is a hoax hate-crime if not an effort to create waves of hatred and possible violence against a race or group?

BTW, Rush Limbaugh read this thread and pointed out, rightly, that we'd be living in a different, more dangerous world if Smollet's plan to get this fake attack on camera worked.

Apparently the camera he thought would film the attack was pointed in the opposite direction.

But if he had gotten this basic fact right, we'd have seen coverage of this staged attack of MAGA-hat wearing white men (wearing gloves and ski-masks to hide their ethnicity) beating up and tying a noose around the neck of a black man.

This would have of course created -- what's that word? -- Backlash against white people, especially those wearing red hats, and put their lives in danger from bad actors seeking racial vengeance.

No one cares about this, huh?

More at Ace of Spades

FullMoon said...

mccullough said...

Since Smollet is part Russian this false flag operation was planned by Putin to swi discord among the American public.


Needs a sarc tag 'cause leftzies here will believe it.

As left commenter here likes to say "You can't prove it is not true".

Anonymous said...

"There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” --- George Orwell

MD Greene said...

Achilles said:

How are they oppressed?

Public Schools for one.

Here's another: Three generations of welfare that assumed black people were too benighted (subtext: not smart enough) to compete in the modern marketplace. If you want to talk about oppression, there's an idea that deserves examination.

Before all that "help" arrived, African Americans had to work harder than the rest of Americans, just to survive. They clung to their families and churches as the safest refuges in a casually racist reality that we all now regret and deplore.

In a country where African- and Caribbean-born blacks run circles around African Americans in schools and the professions, it's useful to question the wisdom of the post-1967 emphasis on the permanent struggle against white racism and on the assertion of victimhood and hostility instead of the character and drive that would show those earlier rancid assumptions for the crap they were.

This is the most depressing article about public schools that I ever have read: https://quillette.com/2019/02/10/public-educations-dirty-secret/. The students are modeling behavior that destroys their chances and that is supposed to be understood "in context." They are being encouraged in this, and they are the ones who suffer the consequences, just as their ancestors did when they were treated as chattel.

So, yes, white Americans have much to answer for, but it's not the "racism" claimed by Jussie Smollet et al., but a newer, more subtle, insidious racism that is every bit as insulting.

tcrosse said...

So, yes, white Americans have much to answer for, but it's not the "racism" claimed by Jussie Smollet et al., but a newer, more subtle, insidious racism that is every bit as insulting.

The soft bigotry of low expectations, to coin a phrase.

Yancey Ward said...

Why does it take so many words to state the fucking truth- Smollett is a race-hustling fraud who has committed crimes for which other people have been prosecuted.

Birkel said...

Does John McWhorter suggest a reordering of the value of victimhood to decrease the likelihood of future hoaxes? Or does McWhorter just pander to Leftist sentiment regarding this one hoax?

I won't read John McWhorter to find out.

Yancey Ward said...

Go back and watch that Good Morning America interview in light of what you know today.

Yancey Ward said...

"but if you wreck your credibility, you'll have no way to talk to people anymore"

This is naiveté. Smollett will be replaced in the media by the next race-hustling fraudster who will again to elevated by the same media and political activists whose memories only go back to tomorrow.

Browndog said...

Smollet is a hard core democrat activist, and has shared a stage with every prominent race baiter there that has political power--from Nancy Pelosi to Kamala Harris. I've seen photos of him with Obama and Vallerie Jarret from 2015.

I mention this because the notion that Kamala Harris was the power player behind this "hoax" in order to drum up support for her anti-lynching bill is gaining traction.

Sam L. said...

McWhorter has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overthought this. But, HEY!, it's what I'd expect from The Atlantic.

Tommy Duncan said...

@Crazy Jane

Thank you for directing us to this article:

https://quillette.com/2019/02/10/public-educations-dirty-secret

The tory is sad but enlightening.

Tommy Duncan said...

@Althouse: This is one of your best posts. Your commenters are insightful and unafraid. There is actual thoughtful back-and-forth commentary without anger and name calling. I've regained a little of my faith in mankind.

YoungHegelian said...

His mother associated with the Black Panthers and is friends with the activist Angela Davis, and in interviews Smollett has identified proudly with the activist tradition.

So Smollett is a Jewish/Black Red Diaper baby!

Jeeez, no wonder he's so fucked up. No one emerged unscathed from hanging around that crowd of bozos.

Funny how long it took for this to be mentioned, and by "this" I mean the Red Diaper angle more than the Jewish heritage.

Bay Area Guy said...

George W. Bush had one good line on race relations -- "the soft bigotry of low expectations"

Every other minority group that came to the US rose up through the ranks, despite many obstacles

With blacks, the Left said, well, let's try something different. Let's hold you out as innocent victims as a group, let's fund a entire welfare state to service you, let's transform the societal norm from husband/wife/children into out-of-wedlock births and no husbands, and let's just see what happens.

(Fails miserably).

So, the Left says, wow, racism is even worse than we thought, let's do a lot more of the same!

Kevin said...

and everyone looks forward to a Judgment Day when America “comes to terms” with race.

And if that day never comes because it's been slowly bleeding away over time such that noble suffering long ago ceased to have any relationship to the current experience?

Wouldn't those continuing to suffer be those who continued to fool themselves that this was the path to their brightest future?

Wouldn't they feel entitled to a reckoning, though the need for one was long gone?

Isn't this why people like Crack continue to demand reparations? So the redeeming event can be realized and signal to the countless generations which have kept it going even as society has moved on, that the time for noble suffering can be over?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I first came across the term "Red Diaper baby" from a writer called Tom Wolfe. He wrote an excellent first novel years ago called "The Bonfire of the Vanities". Maybe we can all read that book and discuss it in this blog.

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...

We have learned that the demand for violent bigots clearly outstrips the supply.

JohnAnnArbor said...

Two completely separate comments:

--People can often view everything through their most familiar lens. Engineers see problems to be solved with technology, business people see processes that can be optimized for efficiency to get a higher return, etc. Jussie is an actor. I've noticed that some of those in the performing arts often see everything in very overdramatic terms. Since they play fictional roles all the time, they may blur fiction and reality, too.

--Prof. McWhorter is very bright and can be absolutely hilarious, too. An example is this brief set of lectures on language (linguistics is his specialty). Interesting, and funny too.

narciso said...

well Michael b Jordan, kilmonger from black panther comes from that legacy among others, wolfe reference the 1970 trial in new haven, of the panthers for having tortured alex rackley, reputedly because he was a police informant, you might miss it because it is in Sherman McCoy's recollection, which shows supreme naivete, glenn Reynold's father was on the faculty at yale back then, as well, one of the few avowedly conservative figures was Robert bork at that time, and he was in the law school,

Big Mike said...

IF he really did stage the attack???

n.n said...

the panthers for having tortured alex rackley

Shades of Mandela's "South Africa", and a cause for political separation, not black and white, but "Hutu", "Tutsi", and South Africans.

Rick said...
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Rick said...

Isn't this why people like Crack continue to demand reparations?

No. People like Crack demand reparations because demanding money is easier than training yourself to provide something of value.

Kevin said...

People like Crack demand reparations because demanding money is easier training yourself to provide something of value.

Crack’s music has already provided something of value.

n.n said...

when America “comes to terms” with race

The progress of diversity ensures the persistence of color judgments and precludes reconciliation. Debasing human life through cruel and unusual punishment, denying due process for social progress, only serves to exacerbate this acute liberalism.

bagoh20 said...

A really bad word choice on so many levels. Rest assured that this kind of thing will never come from the tweets or lips of Trump, and thanks for that.

Jim at said...

Both sides got the Smollett story wrong.

The left got it wrong because it was wrong.
The right got it wrong because they pointed out the left got it wrong.

That's all you need to know.

bagoh20 said...

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"Victimhood chic? Absurd when in almost every instance the aspirant is victimizing someone else."

This is the thing that should be seen by all. These crybabies are the victimizers, the assailants, the slanderers, the defamers, the bullies, and often of entire groups of innocents. They are everything they claim attacked them, and they know they are lying, and they hope it damages people. They need prosecuted very publicly.

bagoh20 said...

"The right got it wrong because they pointed out the left got it wrong."

No comprendo. What am I missing?

Francisco D said...

Here is an example of how Affirmative Action (one example of the victimhood and dependency culture that the Left foists upon minorities) oppresses African Americans:

A Black kid grows up in a rough environment, but is a very bright and hard working. After college, he enters Med School, earns an MD and specializes in neurosurgery.

A well intentioned liberal lady is referred to him and goes to her appointment. After the nurse brings her into the examining room, takes blood pressure, etc., she waits anxiously for the doctor.

A Black man walks into the room and says, "Hi. I am Dr. Carson." She is aghast and confused. How could this be? Her blood pressure goes through the roof and she has a stroke.

Dr. Carson eventually saves her life.

rcocean said...

I find it hilarious that people believe that if we only do X - no matter what X is - black people will finally stop rattling the slave chains, complaining about "racism" and declare that white people have done enough.

When has that ever worked? American Jews are constantly bringing up the Holocaust. Irish Americans (who faced less discrimination than the Germans, Italians, Poles, and Swedes) still wank about "No Irish Need Apply" Signs from 1890. American feminists - the privileged group on the face of the earth - never stop playing the victim card.

Hey, I don't blame black people for trying to get some reparation cash. If people are dumb enough to fall for it, that's their problem.

Rick said...

Crack’s music has already provided something of value.

Obviously he doesn't think that sufficient.

narciso said...

How things are done down there:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-mendoza-lightfoot-take-on-preckwinkle-20190219-story,amp.html

walter said...

As the police investigation into the alleged attack against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett continues, it was revealed Tuesday that in 2007 Smollett pleaded no contest to DUI, driving without a license and providing false information to law enforcement, the L.A. City Attorney's office confirmed to NBC News.

Smollett, now 36, was sentenced to two years probation and a choice of a fine or jail in the 2007 case, an L.A. City Attorney's spokesman told NBC News.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/Jussie-Smollett-2007-DUI-arrest-506058301.html

JohnAnnArbor said...

Not sure how relevant that is, Walter. Not the same type of incident.

Jim at said...

No comprendo. What am I missing?

For the last two days I've been watching media and 'entertainment' people walking back their view of the incident. The most common thread is both sides got it wrong.

They got it wrong because the story was wrong.
We got it wrong because how DARE we point out they got it wrong.

The next time the left accepts blame for anything will be the first time. Don't hold your breath.

walter said...
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walter said...

JohnAnnArbor said...
Not sure how relevant that is, Walter. Not the same type of incident.
--
History of lying to Police?
Yeah..dunno whaty I was thinking. Sorry for the OT post....

Kevin said...

and declare that white people have done enough.

In a society where victimhood is currency, one can never be fully compensated.

It puts you back at the bottom of the pile.

FullMoon said...


Titania McGrath @TitaniaMcGrath

It is absolutely *essential* that we believe Jussie Smollett.

If we don’t, other people who haven’t been attacked might not have the courage to come forward.#IBelieveJussie
7,143
11:41 AM - Feb 20, 2019

William said...

Why would Jussie possibly lie about something like this? He has a promising career on a successful tv show. He doesn't need the attention. Those who disbelieve Jussie are the kind of people who doubted Ford. Just like Jussie, Ford had no reason to come forward and subject herself to public scrutiny. America will be a better country, a country that we can be proud of, when people believe in Jussie and Christine. I hope that they're Kamala's guests at the next State of the Union address. Stay strong Jussie.

Oso Negro said...
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walter said...

Yes William.
And he should wear the noose at the SOTU..because one never leaves that sort of hate behind.

Oso Negro said...

@ Crazy Jane - Thanks for posting that quillette link. I figured it was bad, but not THAT bad.

Josephbleau said...

“Who are these tar oppressors?” I don’t know, I ain’t no ways tarred.