June 27, 2020

"Revolutionary moments also require public confessions of iniquity by those complicit in oppression. These now seem to come almost daily."

"I’m still marveling this week at the apology the actress Jenny Slate gave for voicing a biracial cartoon character. It’s a classic confession of counterrevolutionary error: 'I acknowledge how my original reasoning was flawed and that it existed as an example of white privilege and unjust allowances made within a system of societal white supremacy … Ending my portrayal of "Missy" is one step in a life-long process of uncovering the racism in my actions.'... If you find this creepy, but don’t want to say that out loud, just know that you are not alone. Ibram X. Kendi, the New York Times best seller who insists that everyone is either racist or anti-racist, now has a children’s book to indoctrinate toddlers on one side of this crude binary.... The use of the term 'white supremacy' to mean not the KKK or the antebellum South but American society as a whole in the 21st century has become routine on the left, as if it were now beyond dispute.... The word 'racist,' which was widely understood quite recently to be prejudicial treatment of an individual based on the color of their skin, now requires no intent to be racist in the former sense, just acquiescence in something called 'structural racism,' which can mean any difference in outcomes among racial groupings. Being color-blind is therefore now being racist. And there is no escaping this. The woke shift their language all the time, so that words that were one day fine are now utterly reprehensible. You can’t keep up — which is the point.... So, yes, this is an Orwellian moment. It’s not a moment of reform but of a revolutionary break, sustained in part by much of the liberal Establishment."

From "You Say You Want a Revolution?" by Andrew Sullivan (New York Magazine).

"Being color-blind is therefore now being racist." — That's been true for a long time, at least where I live. When was the last time you could say "I don't see color" and not be thought an idiot at best. I've lived in Madison, Wisconsin since 1984 — and that's not an Orwell joke — and assertions of colorblindness have always been regarded as racist. I think there was a chance to adopt the ideology and outward manifestations of colorblindness back around 1968, but America went in another direction. Everyone younger than the Baby Boomers could have been taught colorblindness from the earliest age. But that opportunity was lost, and now we are very far along in cranking up racial sensibilities. Sullivan's yearning for a time when you could get off the racism hook by being colorblind — or, realistically, claiming to be colorblind or believing yourself to be colorblind — is a yearning for a past that never existed. There was a time when it was posited as a goal — notably, MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech — but that goal was down a road not taken and a cynic would say you can't get there from here.

189 comments:

Rory said...

"I think there was a chance to adopt the ideology and outward manifestations of color-blindness back around 1968, but America went in another direction."

America is not synonymous with Democrats, progressives, leftists, socialists, or whatever they want to be called.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

It's truly remarkable how fast this movement is moving, how quickly institutions and people simply acquiesce, cave into the demands, how successful it's become.
And yet the same "woke" people will continue to claim that white supremacy is everywhere and institutional racism runs the nation. The same institutions, the same country that is simply rolling over to their demands.
That is completely at odds, it's a contradiction.
We read about previous movements of hysteria - the Salem witch trials, the French Revolution's excesses, the Cultural Revolution in China - and shake our heads. "That can't happen here, we're too advanced." No we're not. I don't see any counterbalancing movement, any push back on this. We're in dangerous times.

Phil 314 said...

When I see these public confessionals I’m reminded of the scene in the killing fields where the locals are encouraged to confess their wrong think.

And in a later scene the protagonist stumbles across the confessor’s body, head wrapped in a plastic bag and dumped in the rice paddy.


Confession is good for the soul because it will take you straight to heaven.

Sprezzatura said...

After reading the first two sentences of this post I thought I knew who was being quoted. I was right.

rhhardin said...

but that goal was down a road not taken and a cynic would say you can't get there from here.

Frost was mocking taking the road not taken seriously.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

White Democratic elites in positions of power over you, are NOT subject to the woke-left teenager shell game goal post moving rule changes.

GatorNavy said...

Once again George Santayana and Edmund Burke are correct. For me, this self flagellation by a voice actor of a cartoon character is reminiscent of Mao’s cultural revolution and the infamous’Year Zero’ of the Khmer Rouge.

Oh, and Churchchill’s quote concerning appeasers is applicable as well.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

“Now, in America, there’s quite, I’ll say, narrow-minded thinking,” he says. “Black people, white people — we are same…human, brother, sisters.” The Dalai Lama says treating people differently because of their race, or their faith or nationality, is “old thinking.”

So how can the world move past that old thinking?

“I think we should emphasize oneness, sameness…emphasize that,” says the Nobel Peace Prize winning monk. Sometimes, he says, there is too much emphasis put on our “little differences” and, “that creates problem.”

“You see, strong feeling of differences, that is short-sighted, narrow-minded.”

Steve M. Galbraith said...

I'm about the same age as you Althouse and although I haven't spent my time in academia I don't recall the "I'm color blind" statement as being labeled racist for most of the 70s through 90s. It was considered ignorant, or not progressive, or even disingenuous; but not openly racist. Sure, by the hard left; but everything they disagree with that involves race is considered racist.
This is new, I think, and has only come out more openly over the past 20 years or so. Moreover, the penalty for expressing one "color blind" view was, perhaps, eye rolls; it's now grounds for calls for abject apologies if not calls for the end of that person's career.

Mike Sylwester said...

Race-hustling is a very profitable business. Lots of people earn money by making racism accusations.

Also, making racism accusations is a good way for liberals to prevent or win arguments.

Beth B said...

You may not be interested in race, but race is interested in you. You will be made to care!

Lewis Wetzel said...

Althouse wrote: "But that opportunity was lost, and now we are very far along in cranking up racial sensibilities."

"Racial sensibilities" means "racism."
Let's be honest in our use of language, shall we?

Paco Wové said...

You sure used a lot of words to say "I live in an intolerant 'progressive' bubble" at the end there.

Rory said...

"Everyone younger than the Baby Boomers could have been taught colorblindness from the earliest age. But that opportunity was lost, and now we are very far along in cranking up racial sensibilities."

Colorblindness was taught from the founding of the Republic, and earlier, for instance via Christianity. Abolitionism and the civil rights movement were manifestations of that teaching.

AustinRoth said...

First, they teach false history to the children.

Then, they use those ignorant tools to recreate the worst aspects of real history.

tim maguire said...

Everyone younger than the Baby Boomers could have been taught colorblindness from the earliest age. But that opportunity was lost,

Part of the problem is that this tiny minority corrupting academia and, increasingly, corporations, is regarded as a substantial force when what they really are is an insignificant force having a significant effect because too few in positions of authority are willing to risk their positions by standing up to them. Most people practice color-blindedness, but their natural inclinations are being undermined through a forced racialization of all their non-race-based behaviours.

Jon Burack said...

Althouse is precisely right, that the colorblindness principle made it only to 1968 in Madison. During the 1969 Black Students Strike, something chilling (even to some of us student radicals at the time) occurred, when the black nationalists, many of them Panthers, I believe, up from Chicago, ordered white radicals to constitute themselves as a separate advisory committee to the blacks who would be in complete control of running the strike. It was a turning point moment for me, one of those markers in my long road away from the left.

Michael said...

Slate's statement is not a confession to "counterrevolutionary error" - it is a submission to revolutionary Terror. It is the equivalent of "I love Big Brother," which Winston Smith declared just before they finally shot him. And the scariest thing is, he meant it.

Gordy said...

There's no way this ends well for blacks.

Sebastian said...

"America went in another direction."

"America"?

Bruce Gee said...

I may be racist but I'm asymptomatic.

ga6 said...

Meanwhile back in Madison:

U. Wisconsin-Madison professor cheers protesters tearing down abolitionist, women’s progress statues

https://www.thecollegefix.com/u-wisconsin-madison-professor-cheers-protesters-tearing-down-statues-honoring-abolitionist-womens-progress/

Steve M. Galbraith said...

"Colorblindness was taught from the founding of the Republic, and earlier, for instance via Christianity. Abolitionism and the civil rights movement were manifestations of that teaching."

Well, I'm not sure about that. From the founding? No. If it was then why the need for an abolitionist movement or a civil rights movement? If we were color blind from the beginning then those movements never would have come along. They wouldn't have had to.

It's certainly a Christian idea - that we are all God's children and that beneath these exterior differences we share a common humanity. It's the source, I think, of King's vision, of his dream of universal brotherhood.

Recall the words: "We will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

The left completely reject this vision. They want to bring it down and the country too.

chickelit said...

Since 1968 we have strived as a nation to give blacks equal opportunity. But they look around and say "we don't see equal outcomes and therefore we demand equal outcomes. But "equal outcomes" -- for example equal incomes -- requires dismantling equal opportunity.

Fernandinande said...

MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech — but that goal was down a road not taken and a cynic would say you can't get there from here.

Actually MLK's road was taken: he wanted affirmative action and other special race-based treatment before the ignoring of skin color would take place.

Laughing Fox said...

There's colorblindness, and then there's rational stereotyping. A person can do both. It is racism not to be ready to greet equals as equals when you see no behavior that warns against it. When you see behavior that warns against it--like no-belt very low pants, or a gang tatoo--you would be rather foolish not to stereotype. (That doesn't mean you should immediately avoid or act hostilely, but it does mean that you should be on your guard.)Our problems are that our official policies have encouraged the breakdown of family among the poor, and our cultural teachings have encouraged extortionate demands on the non-poor that lead to demoralization and crime among the poor. (That includes both poor whites and poor blacks.) We can't get out of this by doubling down on the same official policies and cultural teachings.

Michael K said...

Gordy said...
There's no way this ends well for blacks.


That is key. They are being lied to by profiteers and scam artists. They have been since the 60s. They can choose Zimbabwe or they can choose America where everybody else want to come. That white girl screaming at the black men in that video shows how idiotic this all is.

Bill said...

Ann, have you thought about what you will do when they come for you?

traditionalguy said...

Solzhenitsyn’ GulagArchupelago needs to be required reading. More than ever. Revolution is Systemic Terror On the population without limit. Without limit is the key. There can be no law except What the the Party Wants today. No limit exists. None.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The collective corrupt left impeached a president over the actual crimes of Joe Biden.

You racists.

Ralph L said...

The same people most upset about overall black underachievement opened our markets and our borders to the Third World and China.

Gusty Winds said...

"get off the racism hook" - So now everyone born is just automatically on the hook. It still amazes me, unless they are here and I can't read behind their pseudonym, that no UW professors participate in the comments here. This would be a good place for the contrition they owe.

Gahrie said...

I was raised to be color blind. I was born in 1965. I am starting to believe that I have been hopelessly naïve.

Jamie said...

My daughter just graduated from a very diverse, very competitive high school in a pretty well-off suburb of Houston. Her friend groups are unintentionally United Colors of Benetton. She says that "no one" in "her generation" thinks race is important - by
which of course she means that all of her friends of color are from the same socioeconomic stratum and don't envy one another. It's not that they don't "see color" - they recognize and appreciate one another's ethnic differences - but all of them are puzzled by the fact that "all lives matter" is a controversial statement.

This is not to say that they don't uniformly believe that Black Lives Matter is doing important work to mitigate the effects of racism in American society - they do believe that, absolutely and un-questioningly. But they believe that those effects, while still present, result from past racism that no longer exists. It's interesting to listen to them. (And a little discouraging to realize how soon my daughter's innocence will be tarnished. I just hope that we've given her enough to chew on that when the Austin people get hold of her, she will retain some critical thinking, even if she keeps it all inside her head for now.)

Gahrie said...

Why is it bad for White people to voice/portray characters of color, but perfectly fine for minorities to portray White characters?

Why isn't Hamilton cultural appropriation and racist?

Lexington Green said...

Sullivan helped to create all this.

If it destroys him, that will be justice.

No tears for him.

DavidD said...

“There was a time when it was posited as a goal — notably, MLK's ‘I Have a Dream’ speech — but that goal was down a road not taken and a cynic would say you can't get there from here.”

Some of us went down that road a long way. Now what?

Unknown said...

> "Being color-blind is therefore now being racist." — That's been true for a long time, at least where I live.

Bubblesville

Steve M. Galbraith said...

"So now everyone born is just automatically on the hook."

No, not everyone, just white people. It's a sort of racial Marxism where white people are substituted for the bourgeois capitalists.

Under Marx's interpretation of history (this is "vulgar" Marxism, by the way), class division was the cause of the world's misery. You have the proletariat - the workers - oppressed by the capitalist owners of the means of production. If you eliminate this division - get rid of the capitalists - then mankind's suffering would end.

Now we have the suffering of mankind, certainly in America, caused by white people. All non-white people's problems are caused by white people. Non-whites have no moral agency, they are not in anyway responsible for their problems.

It's nutty but history shows people caught up in nutty views.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

MLK was a racist, according to the modern Stalist left's rules.

Judging people on the content of their character? RACIST!

Larvell said...

Ah, confusing America with Madison. Most Americans think these people are crazy. Unfortunately, the crazy ones predominate in the media and universities, and so are taken to be representative of the country as a whole. Crazy people go crazy when a white kid awkwardly smiles at an Indian screaming at him with a bullhorn, but shrug when a black guy with a bullhorn openly terrorizes businesses and customers and when people riot after he is arrested. The left’s descent into violence is not seen as particularly noteworthy, while the right’s descent into violence is dreamed into existence.

Rick said...

assertions of colorblindness have always been regarded as racist.

Only by racists.

mccullough said...

The NBA and NFL are 70% black.

So systemic racism is rampant there.

Someone needs to inform BLM movement that Asians, not whites, have the highest median income in the US.

The US is much less white than in 1968. But it is not more black.

Spiros said...

"Color-blindness" individualizes conflicts and shortcomings. But this is a tough pill to swallow. It's hard to admit to yourself that you're a loser. Or that you got arrested because you're a thief. Or that you didn't get into your dream school because you're a dummy. It is much, much easier to "examine the larger picture" with "racial differences and stereotypes placed into context." How comforting is to think of racism in the United States as an ordinary phenomenon? Or that racism exerts massive negative effects on Black people's health and well-being and life trajectories. If you're Black and you're fat or stupid or violent or whatever, it's because of racism. I think this is very comforting for Black people. But I don't know...

Wisconsin Republican Alliance said...

Not only am I blind to color, I"m blind to the "burdens" faced by black Americans. Woke liberals say that makes me racist, but I think that just makes me a sensible conservative. Bootstraps don't need to have a length limit!

In any event, this woke liberal nonsense has been with us for a long time, ever since radical "Republicans" like William Tecumseh Sherman promised freedmen 40 acres and a mule.

Not only did he go too far in that, some say he went too far in the resolve he showed in the Georgia campaign, and winning the war.

We need to fight a total war scorched earth campaign on woke liberalism!

Rory said...

"No. If it was then why the need for an abolitionist movement or a civil rights movement?"

Because because others taught against the dignity of the individual.

Rory said...

"Ann, have you thought about what you will do when they come for you?"

In a humane society, no one should hold more moral authority than an emeritus professor in a college town.

Koot Katmandu said...

"There was a time when it was posited as a goal — notably, MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech — but that goal was down a road not taken and a cynic would say you can't get there from here."

I think we left that road with affirmative action in the 1970s. I keep hearing the term "systemic racism" I am old 66 the only racism I have ever seen that is truly built into the system and encouraged is affirmative action. Can any one really make the case that affirmative action is not systemic racism how ever much good intended? Does it not grant victim status on groups of people? Do not get me wrong. I think it is fine for business or group to scrap merit based and hire someone disadvantaged to mentor.

Next we moved from the concept of melting pot that combines us into something stronger to diversity that keeps us separate and highlights differences - ends in quota speed sheets. Now the fact that I am white means I can not absorb and take on the good things from different cultures as my own.

Temujin said...

Why, it's almost as if no one has read "Darkness at Noon", which, of course, they have not. Or they would know what's coming and would jump on this nonsense with both feet.

By the way, you can purchase "Darkness at Noon" from Amazon through the Althouse portal. Just sayin'.

Mark O said...

One must credit BLM and others for creating in racism a ubiquitous sin that cannot be denied, from which none can find forgiveness, and which bestows staggering political and social power. Even the slightest objection to the obvious defamation is proof of racism.

No wonder they call it the original sin.

MayBee said...

Althouse, again I recommend the podcast Blocked and Reported by Katie Herzog and Jessie Singal. They criticize this stuff from a center left pov. I find it quite brave. They are also very funny. I really enjoy it and I think you would too. I know you've liked Jessie Singal.

Ann Althouse said...

"'MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech — but that goal was down a road not taken and a cynic would say you can't get there from here.' Actually MLK's road was taken: he wanted affirmative action and other special race-based treatment before the ignoring of skin color would take place."

I wrote "There was a time when it was posited as a goal — notably, MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech..." Doesn't matter what he had in mind or on his agenda. I didn't say anything about MLK's road. I said the goal was posited in that speech, and that speech was heard and remembered and taken to heart by millions of Americans and it's still one of the most memorable ideas we've ever heard.

That idea, posited there, is what I am talking about. Doesn't matter if MLK didn't actually mean it. That would only underscore the fact that we were setting out on a different road at that point and we've lost whatever progress we'd have made if we'd just gone hard on the colorblindness idea — imagine there's no color/it's easy if you try — until we'd grown 3 new generations of Americans who'd been socialized and disciplined not to think or speak in those terms.

Who knows what problems we'd have if we'd done that? Maybe things would be worse. But my point is, we didn't do it, and half a century has passed.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger Gordy said...
There's no way this ends well for blacks.
6/27/20, 9:57 AM


Of course not. Blacks are 13% of the population, around a third of black male adults are felons. #BLM is influential because of its support by whites. Without that support, it would not exist as political force. The future of #BLM depends on the support of whites, not blacks.

Howard said...

Being colorblind means you have superior black, white and gray vision. I'd rather have too many rods than cones... It's an expression of my innate Neanderthal nature.

NoMook said...

So far, the change in required racial sensibilities cock sucking has only been figurative. When the cock sucking becomes literal, that is when the shit really starts.

JAORE said...

When they condemn color blindness using those precise terms "they" are probably right. But for many color blindness means adopting that old "content of character" bit. No longer acceptable now of course. So does character (including actions that define your character) count at all? Apparently not. So skin color is the foremost trait of human beings.

How progressive.

Words suitably changed we are all guilty, guilty, guilty.

DEEBEE said...

I too assert that I am color blind. But being a POC creates a conundrum. The kind that get super computer in sci-fi movies to blow circuits.

But seriously, us boomers or ones nearby are still coddling our young ones. When a swift kick upside the behind is needed we have wistful pieces like Sullivan;s. Much as I yearn for that rational argument — a la the Firing Line genre, it indeed is gone. But that is because we have given it up to coddle our young uns.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

bootstraps = self-sufficiency.

Not allowed.
You racist.

Anger, rage and dependency on the lying media/Schitt-show is the name of the game.

buwaya said...

The obvious twist, or inversion here, about universal racism, especially among the successful, is that only racists can be successful, as only racist societies can succeed.

There is, after all, not a single successful non-racist society anywhere.
And everything glorious and useful seems to be the work of racists.

Where, however, is the brave wag who will go there?

Steve M. Galbraith said...

LBJ openly promoted this idea of rejecting a "color blind vision" in his June 1965 Howard University speech. There he said the measure of progress would not be equal opportunities - a color blind approach - but equal results - where race is taken into account.
At that time, it made sense. But now? It doesn't. But anyone advocating that will be denounced and canceled. So here we are. What a mess.

LBJ's full speech is here: Howard University Address

Rory said...

"You have the proletariat - the workers - oppressed by the capitalist owners of the means of production."

Race has allowed regular white people to be cast as the oppressors, while the capitalist owners have assumed the mantle of the vanguard of the proletariat.

Kassaar said...

It's truly remarkable how fast this movement is moving, how quickly institutions and people simply acquiesce, cave into the demands, how successful it's become.

I just encountered the motto “Stay stupid, stay alive” in a novel about the corporate world. It fits them like a glove.

bagoh20 said...

The only reason to insist on seeing color is so that certain judgments and assumptions can be made about that person without knowing anything else. That's a good definition of racism. This is the evil and illogical of progressiveness. In valuing change above all else you are eventually forced back to the opposite of where you started.

Is the goal now more racism or less. I know a lot of people consider racism that infantalizes some people and indicts others based on skin color is not racism, but it is straight up racism and if you accept it you are the racist doing the damage.

Rick said...

But my point is, we didn't do it, and half a century has passed.

Most of the country did do it and it's working well. Some are desperately fighting that progress (by among other things) insisting that progress is racist.

Unknown said...

America did go hard down the road towards colorblindness.

All the progress that has been made is being destroyed by fanatics and the silence and inaction of our leaders at federal, state, and local levels.

Narr said...

1963. Sunday School class at St. Luke's (soon after, United Methodist) Church, being coached to sing it out--

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world!
Red, brown, yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves [etc]


It was obvious that orders had been passed down from the hierarchs, and that some of the teachers weren't quite sure that sort of thing should be encouraged. Certainly, by the time I walked away a few years later they were still chanting it, and most of the oldsters and many of the youngsters were as racist as they ever were, if not more so.

Narr
For myself, it was an early inkling of one of the many deep differences between me and Jesus

Oso Negro said...

It all started with the loss of the word "negro". Negro was a fine word - rich, evocative, rolled off the tongue in a satisfying manner. I started a band called "The Negroes" in Austin back in 1979 in personal protest. Traditional American values of freedom of speech or equality under the law mean nothing to the Democrats and Republicans have been a poor opposition. I suppose it will come to submission or war.

Wince said...

The left's deliberate strategy is for everyone else to see one color: Eggshell.

mikee said...

We are only 8 years away from the 25 year limit on affirmative action defined by Sandra Day O'Conner. However, she did say the limit was not binding on Supreme Court Justices in 2028, who could continue affirmative action if necessary.

I, for one, think almost all actual racism in the US could be eliminated by stopping the government and academia from taking any notice of skin color.

n.n said...

It's not too late for Progressive sects, Liberal factions, and Moderates, too, to stop indulging diversity (i.e. color judgments) or judging and labeling people based on low information attributes. No quotas. No affirmative discrimination. No colored Americans. No 1/2 Americans. Sex: male and female, are significant as the foundation of the natural order. No diversity rackets. Lose your Pro-Choice religion. #Reconcile

hombre said...

“Just because he was anti-slavery doesn’t mean he was pro-black.”

“Pro-black?” Is that’s what’s required now? Sorta like the LGBTQWERTY movement? It’s not enough that we accept their stuff, we have to embrace it too?

How about this: I’ll be pro-black when he is pro-white and when blacks stop killing and assaulting people in disproportionate numbers. When black crime ends, what this guy and other race-baiters call “systemic racism” will end.

Kevin said...

Sullivan points out were not on a road at all. Roads have defined boundaries to know when you’re on and off them, and a clear definition of where they’re taking you.

What we have now is a nothingness which is constantly being redefined such that only those doing the defining will always be road-worthy.

That’s not a direction, it’s a game.

A game smart people will choose not to play.

MikeD said...

I'm a decade older than our hostess and I grew up in "old" SF Bay Area and "old" Seattle, long before both became the feudal authoritarian shit holes they are now. That said, in my 80 years I've never been in any situation where declaiming I'm "color blind" fit in a convo. Must be a least coast/urban mid-west thing? FWIW, I worked in the DC area for most of the 70's.

Francisco D said...

mccullough said...Someone needs to inform BLM movement that Asians, not whites, have the highest median income in the US. The US is much less white than in 1968. But it is not more black.

I view the post-war influx of Vietnamese into the US as the proximal cause of "systemic racism" thinking. That many of the kids did extremely well was a reality check on the notion that virulent White racism was holding back Blacks and other non-White minorities.

Systemic is a virus that cannot be seen. Therefore it takes faith to believe in it.

The success of Asian immigrants in general had to be countered by the Marxists and race mongers because it contradicts their faith.

effinayright said...

Rory said...
"Everyone younger than the Baby Boomers could have been taught colorblindness from the earliest age. But that opportunity was lost, and now we are very far along in cranking up racial sensibilities."

Colorblindness was taught from the founding of the Republic, and earlier, for instance via Christianity. Abolitionism and the civil rights movement were manifestations of that teaching.
************
Correct.

As for not being taught color-blindness, is there any American adult over 50 who was NOT taught King's "content of their character" speech?

The author's entire premise is a Mobius strip of ignorance and contradiction. It is the LEFT that has stoked the flames of racism in our education the past fifty years, not the ordinary white person.

hombre said...

I thought we were becoming a nation of morons. It now appears that we are becoming a nation of moronic pussies.

n.n said...

There is no such thing as "color blind". We see each other as we are, fat and skinny, tall and short, male and female, black and brown and white and albino, too. However, whereas bias is normal, prejudice is a forced, progressive condition.

Michael said...

Actually there was a time. Blacks had the choice of integrating with the white culture, a move requiring the discipline of educational advancement, family cohesion, the Kings English Or. They could choose Malcolm’s philosophy which was the black culture was just fine thank you and adoption of white culture is both unnecessary and immoral. Most chose poorly.

The Minnow Wrangler said...

anti-de Sitter space said...

"After reading the first two sentences of this post I thought I knew who was being quoted. I was right."

Ditto...I knew who it was and yeah when he's wrong he's REALLY wrong but when he is right he's really right and he makes his points very well.

Andrew said...

The equivalent of colorblindness today is "All Lives Matter." That is considered a racist statement. If I were to respond to my company's recent email endorsing BLM with a polite response of "ALM," I'm not sure my job would be safe.

I grew up in the 80's, and remember when The Killing Fields (mentioned above) came out. That movie helped me understand communism viscerally when I was a teenager. It's an imperfect movie, implying Nixon and the US was to blame for the Khmer Rouge's ascendance (a nevertheless powerful montage set to "Nessun Dorma"). And it ends with that insipid song "Imagine" without a hint of irony. (What does "no religion" and a "brotherhood of man" look like? Watch this movie.) But it should still be required viewing in public high schools, for the confessional scenes alone.

Anyway, it is indeed frightening how much our own country's path is resembling the transition into a Year Zero.

n.n said...

At least 1/2 of America never indulged diversity. The other 1/2 is still sacrificing babies on the barbie for medical progress and social justice, and gerrymandering the vote to suppress democracy.

Kevin said...

I can no longer tell whether I’m a racist, because the definition has become meaningless.

On the other hand, because the definition has become meaningless, I no longer care.

Narr said...

The law prof Kermit Roosevelt (IV?) argues that neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution were intended as universal declarations, applicable to all people at all times.

Rather they both, to one degree or another, need to be seen in their original contexts as attempts to define AND LIMIT what can be considered a real political community and how the members of THAT COMMUNITY should interact.

A-historical ideologues have tried to twist them into something like The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I kinda like the UDHR--recognizing the fact that there are only a handful of countries in the world (all Christian or post-Christian and Western in political culture) where it isn't a mere grotesque joke . . .

Narr
He was on CSPAN a while back

MayBee said...

When I was in elementary school, a group of black parents had bravely developed a subdivision that would be redline proof. Anybody could live there, just as anybody could live in my neighborhood (which was mixed race), but it was especially built by the black families. It was in my school district, and mostly black but also a few white people lived in that neighborhood and was (and still is) full of nice middle class houses. We all went to elementary school together, a school that was about 1/3 black. We went to each other's birthday parties and our moms drove us to the school field trips and I have to say there was no racial tension and there were no line. We went to middle school and high school together, although by high school there was busing which increased tensions quite a bit.
The kids from my elementary school, white and black, have spread out far and wide. I am FB friends with a huge number of them, and we have architects and business owners and teachers and military retirees and everything in between. It was, as I see it, the goal of colorblind.
I don't like today's way. I don't want to be told to assume black people think differently than me, or to make me feel self conscious about not sounding woke enough or not wanting to assume they love the country or fellow humans.
I think my generation did really really well together. I don't know how division benefits us.

bagoh20 said...

" But my point is, we didn't do it, and half a century has passed."

I never left that road myself, and I think most Americans, at least middle Americans, have stuck to it. What happens in the media, and what is important and active on campus is not us. It's a small group of very loud mouths with out-sized influence on the culture. Most of us still treat Black people we know and meet as equals. The problem is with progressive policy that has been increasingly pitting us against one another.

How do you treat Blacks you encounter, or work with, or have as friends. Do you always open the door for them, always concede to their opinions, hand them money like homeless people, or children? Of course not. That would be racist, but that's how progressive policy treats them. They should be disgusted with it. Blacks are letting themselves down, by accepting being treated like that by White progressives looking for salvation from a history they were never part of. Blacks don't need them, or their selfish motivations. They were born free in the most upwardly mobile society that ever existed, and they can do just fine with their own talents and hard work. The White progressives need them to beg or demand rather than work and build on their own, so they they can take credit and assuage their self-imposed guilt. It's insulting.

Jim Gust said...

"You can't get there from here" is from the Firesign Theater, I believe it was Nick Danger, Third Eye. At least, that's the first time I heard the phrase, and I've been borrowing it ever since.

Jim Gust said...

"You can't get there from here" is from the Firesign Theater, I believe it was Nick Danger, Third Eye. At least, that's the first time I heard the phrase, and I've been borrowing it ever since.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

We've had, for good or bad, roughly a half a century of affirmative action, race conscious policies to try and mitigate racism. Federal, state and city governments are filled with such laws and policies and regulations; outreach programs, minority set asides. Even our private institutions, universities and corporations have such programs.

And still the left insists that we have "institutional racism" throughout the country. Even though these supposed racist institutions bend over backwards to assist blacks and other minorities. Why would white racists do such things? It's illogical.

This is a religion that we're trying to reason with. Facts and reason don't work. Hell, facts and reason are dismissed as racist standards used to maintain white supremacy.

Howard said...

Blogger Oso Negro said...

blah blah blah. I suppose it will come to submission or war.


You have already tapped out, but you keep running your mouth with threats of violence that will never come. It's always manana with you people

madAsHell said...

Revolutionary moments also require public confessions of iniquity by those complicit in oppression.

Have we confused iniquity (immoral behavior) with inequity (not equal)??

h said...

I'm not sure it is possible to imagine outcomes that are too silly to occur, but will the woke left come to a position of insisting that the MLK memorial be removed. It contains these dangerous and frightening words, "Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class." That yelling woman in the video in an earlier post where she screams mindlessly at two elderly composed black men (one who is dressed up as Frederick Douglass) could, I think, be brought around to supporting such an MLK removal, if only some of her compatriots suggested that failure to support the removal would be taken as evidence of a lack of commitment to "the cause".

Gahrie said...

OK...someone help me out here...

If I'm not supposed to be colorblind... as a White man, why shouldn't I be pro-White? And if being pro- White is offensive because it is definitional anti-Black, why is it ok, (and perhaps mandatory) to be pro-Black?

You really don't want White people to start asking these questions. Really.

bagoh20 said...

If it was true that average America had not actually gone down that road, then why would the left be trying to destroy it? It's like the statues that represent it. It must be destroyed simply becuase it's there and it's successful. The road is there and we were mostly on it. Leaving it will be the legacy of the post Boomers, and it will not be remembered as a good thing by those who come after them. We still need to fight to stay on that road. I'm prepared to be destroyed if sticking to it requires that.

Big Mike said...

Howard (10:35) self-identifies as a Neanderthal. IMAO he is not nearly that advanced.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

I've lived in Madison, Wisconsin since 1984 — and that's not an Orwell joke — and assertions of colorblindness have always been regarded as racist.

Wasn't Madison, Wisconsin once described as "Thirty square miles, surrounded by reality"?

That's something to think about, Professor.

The Crack Emcee said...

Hear the right yowl as 13% of the nation says "stop killing me" - again.

Wisconsin Republican Alliance said...

Why be any less colorblind than redlining was? Is it any wonder that liberal anti-racism shamers want us decent, hardworking Americans to believe that these problems aren't self-perpetuated?

People have been getting reparations wrong ever since the commies won WWII.

bagoh20 said...

Calling colorblindness racist was just an early step on the progressive road that led to "all lives matter" being racist. You see how it works. You take anything seen as good and accepted by most Americans and you just start pretending it's racist or oppressive or anything ugly and when that ugliness becomes common, you move on to the next thing. For some reason liberals were the last to notice this as it slowly turned them in to Progressives and they left the liberal values now held only by Conservatives. Their old identity programmed minds have never been able to move over to where their values went. They can never accept that they too are actually Conservatives, so they vote for the likes of Joe Biden to avoid having to actually wear the thing they held as evil all those years.

Yancey Ward said...

I still hope all this insanity is just a phase that passes away within a few months, but increasingly, I am starting to realize this might well end in rivers of blood. At this point, I am grounding my optimism in the two old dudes in the tweet post below facing down the young maniac, but I also note that they are exactly that- old, and perhaps not representative any longer.

How much longer will Sullivan have a platform? Not long is my guess. New York Magazine is only humoring him for a bit, but if he doesn't stop, the younger and more passionately intense writers are going to have him ridden out on a rail.

Finally, there is this from Sullivan:

"So, yes, this is an Orwellian moment. It’s not a moment of reform but of a revolutionary break, sustained in part by much of the liberal Establishment."

Sullivan is wrong in the last part- it is sustained totally by the liberal establishment. Totally at this point.

Bob Smith said...

When one of my well credentialed but stupid friends made that “I don’t see color” remark I asked her if she drove a car. And to let me know when she was out and about. She was offended.

bagoh20 said...

" but will the woke left come to a position of insisting that the MLK memorial be removed."

I would think the Emaciation Memorial would be going too far if anything would. There is no logic to it. It's just mob mentality. You know, the kind of thing that led to lynchings. If they had any sense of history, or human nature they might see the resemblance.

Nichevo said...

In any event, this woke liberal nonsense has been with us for a long time, ever since radical "Republicans" like William Tecumseh Sherman promised freedmen 40 acres and a mule.


You know, Ritmo, all, I'm curious about this.

Was it really Sherman?

Was he authorized to make this promise? By whom? If he did it of his own initiative, what force does it have?

Why did he do it? Was it necessary? Did the freedmen do something to fight the Rebels they otherwise would not have done?

Was it serious or just PR? Did he mean it? Where were the acres and mules to come from?

The sticking point is, did he really have to bribe slaves not to be slaves anymore? What was the point of it?

Fernandinande said...

"You can't get there from here" is from the Firesign Theater

A story with that exact title was in the 1959 "Friends Journal", and the phrase appears in the 1963 "Congressional Record" (3 years before F.T.), and the very similar expression "everyone tells me it is almost impossible to get there from here" is in the "Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen's Magazine" of 1898.

Link.

Bruce Hayden said...

Just a tiny bit OT. Althouse is on a real roll here. And has been for some time. It is partly the questions she asks and how she asks them, and partly the commentariot that she has built. I think that I probably would have enjoyed her as a professor in law school. Back when I was in LS, a bit over 30 years ago now, the best would make you think, switching back and forth between different views with lightening speed while te worst merely expected mindless recitation of leftist twaddle. Ann, no doubt was in the former category.

This has been one of the more moving discussions I can remember. Underneath this, is a very fundamental difference in beliefs, and esp in political beliefs, underlying much of what is going on in this country. This country became great based on a fundamentalist Christian belief in equality. But not equality of result, but rather equality of opportunity.

The antithesis of this is Marxism, which preaches equality of result. Of course, as we saw in Animal Farm, some, in a Marxist state, are always more equal than others, and they are the ones who use their power over others to take a bigger piece of the pie, for some imagined rationale why it is better for the people. Equality of result requires power to the masses, which ultimately means power to the government, because it requires taking from those who work harder and are more talented, and giving it to those who don’t and aren’t.

What we are facing right now is a Marxist attack on our fundamental American values of individualism and equality of opportunity. This despite 100 million deaths during the last century due to that philosophy. And we should be afraid right now. Really afraid.

bagoh20 said...

Howard is coming dangerously close to calling for mass murder. Not warning it could happen, but calling for it, taunting, practically demanding people be shot in the street. If it happens, remember that.

Original Mike said...

I am a young boomer and was raised in color-blindedness. I've had it beaten out of me.

Mark said...

Thanks AA for today's world, which you helped to create.

frenchy said...

The silent majority has yet to speak and is still clearing its throat.

Francisco D said...

I don't want to be told to assume black people think differently than me, or to make me feel self conscious about not sounding woke enough or not wanting to assume they love the country or fellow humans.

I do not believe that BLM reflects the attitudes of the Black community. They would love to have a race war, but that is not going to happen because plenty of Blacks have strong middle class values and plenty of Whites do not see Blacks as their enemies.

Marxists are the enemy. They hide behind "Blackness" in order to disguise their efforts and insulate themselves from criticism.

Michael K said...

You have already tapped out, but you keep running your mouth with threats of violence that will never come. It's always manana with you people

Howard subscribes to Orwell's rule about war.

"There is no need for war. There is always surrender."

RigelDog said...

Ms. Althouse notes that "color-blind" has been viewed as racist/problematic for a long time, at least among liberals. That's true, and there are many situations where using that term does discount the unique experience of being Black in America. BUT---assigning the pejorative, all-encompassing slam of "racist" to those who use the phrase is such a limited and ungenerous take. In my experience, what people mean when they use this kind of phrase is that the color of someone's skin never triggers a negative perception or negative behavior on their part. If we were being honest, we'd acknowledge that a follow-up conversation would make that clear and that people who use the phrase are probably not racist in any significant way. A person of color could ask, "Lisa, when you say you don't see color when you look at me, do you mean that you think my life experience and identity is the exact same as a white person? Do you think that it's up to you to define my Blackness for me? Are you saying that there's something wrong or strange about looking Black?" The person would almost always respond in horror at the idea that they are refusing in some way to acknowledge the other person's true appearance and experience.

Drago said...

Howard: "You have already tapped out, but you keep running your mouth with threats of violence that will never come. It's always manana with you people"

LOL

Howard: you people are cowards and don't have the guts to do anything violent!
Inga: you people are the ones causing all the violence!

The best part? These two idiot bookends will push both narratives simultaneously on the same thread while agreeing with each other.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I understand the actor who plays Zoidberg in Futurama is not actually an outer-space crustacean, but is in fact a Reptilian.

CANCEL!!!

Lucien said...

I oppose affirmative action, but recognize that it is possible to judge people by the content of their character while still taking race into account in things like hiring decisions.
Or put another way, my decision to hire you, or not, is not a judgment of your character as a person.

Rusty said...

"I live in a mixed race neighborhood."
I do too! They all think I'm an asshole and I think they're all assholes. We have common ground. It works!

RigelDog said...

Steve M. Galbraith asks: And still the left insists that we have "institutional racism" throughout the country. Even though these supposed racist institutions bend over backwards to assist blacks and other minorities. Why would white racists do such things? It's illogical.}}

The "answer" is that critical social justice has been teaching for a couple of decades now that whites have never (and never will) promote anything that doesn't ultimately reinforce white power and privilege. That's a fundamental tenet that can't be challenged, and certainly not by white constructs like "facts" and "logic."

I wish I were exaggerating but I'm not.

Howard said...

Hi BM. At least I am not a Homo Erect Us like you, ;^) NTTAWWT. You enjoying New England open water swimming season? Walden pond is about 80-F now. Gotta get there before 0800 to park.

Mark said...

This is a religion that we're trying to reason with. Facts and reason don't work.

Are you suggesting that religious faith and reason are incompatible? That all religion is, in itself, irrational and embraced only as a rejection of reason?

No, nevermind answering that. You are not "suggesting" it. You are saying it outwardly.

I suppose that you are unaware that at least one religion's motivation is to seek and testify to truth? That they have absolutely zero interest in professing a lie? That they recognize a God that is Himself, Logos? That is, the fullness of Reason and Truth?

Readering said...

Princeton announces it is removing the name of Woodrow Wilson. That will please all the folks here who insist that racism is a problem of Southern white male Democrats.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Jim Gust said...
"You can't get there from here" is from the Firesign Theater,


Nick: I'm looking for the Same Old Place.

Yokel: You must mean the Old 'Same' Place. You can't get there from here.

Incidentally, on a 1968 grand automobile tour of the US with my parents, five siblings and a dog, a crusty Connecticut Yankee used that precise language when my father asked for directions. "You can't get there from here". Later when I heard it on Nick Danger--Third Eye it seemed documentary.

Narayanan said...

as always it is bad American phrasing to say "I don't see color" which is literally like saying my eyes are lying to me.

it is better to be able to say Color does not color my thinking and be able to show how and why.

rcocean said...

The Supreme Court ruled in 1977 in Bakke, that we were to judged by the Color of our skins, and Grandma O'Connor reiterated that in 2000. its been open season on Young white man for quite some time, especially those from the working or middle classes trying to get ahead.

And black folks have NEVER believed in the oolor-blind nonsense. I don't even think MLK did. People forget MLK's most famous speeches were co-written by white leftists with the goal of persuading White People to pass Civil Rights legislation.

rcocean said...

the Beneficiaries of special privileges, even those based on race, never give them up voluntarily. The Left and black folks are NEVER going to stop crying "Racism" when they are rewarded for doing so.

Caligula said...

"Why isn't Hamilton cultural appropriation and racist?" Because black people can't be racist. (And, yes, white people can't help being racist).

Did you skip the mandatory diversity training? This is primary dogma.


And here are corollaries, plus some anxillary 'truths.' Acceptance and acknowledgement are mandatory.

Race-neutrality is racism (when committed by a white, esp. by a white male).

Racism is not racism (when committed by a PoC).

Racial favoritism is anti-racism (and those who are not anti-racist are incorrigibly racist).

Anti-fascists are not fascist (if they say so). No matter what they do.

The category "women" includes people with the functional male genitals they were born with. You shall acknowledge this publicly, whenever and wherever public acknowledgement is required.

Jupiter said...

I was raised in the 60's, with all the kumbaya crap, and "Don't use that word!", and color-of-their-character. But about the third time some black piece of shit with the IQ of mud pistol-whipped me for having money in my pocket, I realized that negros are stupid and dangerous and it's a good thing we have found ways of keeping them away from where we live.

I think it must be a chick thing. They don't rob the white chicks, and they actually treat them fairly well, because they are hoping to have sex with them. Of course, they don't have much impulse control, so sometimes that hope becomes a reality when the white chick wasn't expecting it. After that, we don't generally hear any more of the see-no-color bullshit.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

"Are you suggesting that religious faith and reason are incompatible? That all religion is, in itself, irrational and embraced only as a rejection of reason?"

Religious belief is not based on empirical evidence. It's based on supernatural beliefs, e.g., Original Sin, virgin birth, Mohammed receiving messages from God and riding winged horses into heaven, et cetera.

You cannot reason a person out of believing that that all human beings are born with Original Sin. Just as you cannot reason a "woke" person out of believing that all white people have the "Original Sin" of racism.



effinayright said...

agoh20 said...
Howard is coming dangerously close to calling for mass murder. Not warning it could happen, but calling for it, taunting, practically demanding people be shot in the street. If it happens, remember that.
***********

If it happens, he will beat his dick like it owes him money.

hstad said...

The new 'race hustlers'are a carbon copy of the old race hustlers! This has nothing to do with "racism" it's all a power grab. Look how organized these groups are and that takes money - lots of it. "... “Wherefore art thou...?”

Here'someone else's take on today's "racism" hustle:

"We neglect current slavery in Mauritania, Sudan, and parts of Nigeria and Benen but complain, debate, and demand favors because of events over a century old and focused in the United States..." - Thomas Sowell.

ALP said...

On a related note, the white man that did the voice for Cleveland Brown on "Family Guy" is stepping down for racial reasons. FFS! I watch a TON of animation - the voice actors behind the scenes are good at their jobs BECAUSE they can sound like *something they are not* - women voice male characters and vice versa (what is going to happen there I wonder?), adults do voices for child characters, all manner of accents must be produced, young people voice old characters, humans produce voices for animal characters. It is also common for a voice actor to do several voices on a show but I guess that's over. OH and are we going to forbid any non-Asian voice actors to do any anime? GOOD LUCK - a Google search finds a whole lotta white, non-Asians in that job.

FFS!

Lewis Wetzel said...

Religious belief is not based on empirical evidence. It's based on supernatural beliefs, e.g., Original Sin, virgin birth, Mohammed receiving messages from God and riding winged horses into heaven, et cetera.
Christians, most of 'em, any, believe that their belief in God and the crucified and risen Christ is based on reason, and that reason demands faith.
It is a matter of faith whether or not empirical evidence reveals the truth. Empirical evidence cannot reveal the existence of the self, or at least the self of anyone else.

SigmundSauerkraut said...

Watch "The Red Violin" and pay close attention to the events in Shanghai, late 1960s.

Then listen to/read this:
https://www.npr.org/2016/05/05/476873854/newly-released-documents-detail-traumas-of-chinas-cultural-revolution

Forget about black and white; pay attention to red. If this keeps up, it will be running in the streets.

n.n said...

"Are you suggesting that religious faith and reason are incompatible? That all religion is, in itself, irrational and embraced only as a rejection of reason?"

Faith, a logical domain; religion, a moral philosophy; and traditions are separable. There is no inherent conflict between them. The problem is when people conflate logical domains and elevate myths (e.g. circumstantial), historical, physical, to assert scientific truths. Some people believe in the myths passed through ancestors, while others believe in the myths passed through signals of assumed/asserted character and fidelity, and fill in the missing links with dark ("invisible") matter. Some people receive their religion (and its relativistic cousins "ethics", "law") from God, while others from mortal gods and goddesses. Science is, with cause, a philosophy and practice in a limited frame of reference.

eddie willers said...

Just what the hell is wrong with benign neglect?

Readering said...

MS gov says he'll sign state flag bill. Sky falling.

Michael K said...

Readering said...
Princeton announces it is removing the name of Woodrow Wilson. That will please all the folks here who insist that racism is a problem of Southern white male Democrats.


Good. The man who might have saved us from Wilson.

"I am so old, I remember when most racists were white." T Sowell

racism is a problem of Southern white male Democrats.

No, lots of white leftists and black leftists. It's kind of a leftism thing these days. It used to be white southerns.

hstad said...

The Crack Emcee said..."...Hear the right yowl as 13% of the nation says "stop killing me" - again.6/27/20, 11:38 AM

Interesting comment - but propoganda at it's core. But facts are hard to dismiss:

AG BARR, ON SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES [FOX NEWS WITH MARIA BARTIROMO, 6.21.20]
AG BARR stated: “…Instances in the shooting of black unarmed males has been dropping. It was 38 five years ago, last year it was ten [black population of 13.4 million]. Ten in the nation and six of those were involved in attacking the police officer. So while any death is too many. The fact is that in proportion it’s relatively small. I mean there were roughly 8,000 homicides of African Americans in our country every year. 8,000! Ten last year were shooting (by police) a black male…”


Narr said...

It's obvious even to an atheist like me that RACISM(tm), which humans are prone to, is nothing but our old friend Pride.

The woke are so ignorant of history and religion that they imagine they are on to something that can be eradicated.

Narr
I laugh. Proudly

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Black people rightly complain about police shootings so that means anything and everything done in the name of preventing this is acceptable? It's a blank check to say and do anything?

We can't say, "No, we're not going to fire people and ruin their careers simply because they disagree with BLM?"

Nope, that's not acceptable.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Marxists are the enemy. They hide behind "Blackness" in order to disguise their efforts and insulate themselves from criticism.”

This cannot be over stressed. BLM has openly Marxist roots, and AntiFA was originally created by the Soviets, under Stalin, to combat Naziism in Germany. And, of course, Fascism and it’s descendant, Naziism, were developed to counter Soviet Marxism. Of course, with the fall of the Soviet Union, both groups have swung over towards a more Maoist version of Marxism.

Which explains why they want to tear down all those statutes. We have a glorious, often inspirational, history. Marxism has better than 100 million dead bodies during the 20th Century to its credit. If you honestly and critically looked at both of our histories, you almost cannot prefer our political system to the Marxist one being pushed so hard by the left right now. So, the history books had to be rewritten, and mostly were, but we still had all those statues around the country reminding us of our roots, so those have to go to. Only in our collective ignorance, of our greatness, and the repeated bloody failures of Marxism, can they hope to prevail.

n.n said...

Feminists used the same argument, claiming that rape-rape was systemic, which would validate their demand for the Alt-Choice, Pro-Choice, selective-child and other purposes. Is this a collusion to conspiracy of common causes?

Howard said...

Calling you people's Barney Fife bluffs is not inviting violence bagoecoli, it is mocking you weak ass braggart bitches.

n.n said...

Affirmative reconciliation to mitigate progressive diversity and other classes.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Bagoh, as is usual, has some thoughtful posts that are dripping with way too much common sense.

We can't have that! guards - seize him.

Birkel said...

I will only be satisfied when the names Harvard (housed slaves for profit), Brown (slave trader), Yale (slave trader), Princeton (last university in America to accept blacks), Stanford (racist and Chinese slaver), and Georgetown (sold slaves) are deleted from all history books.

readering somehow believes there is a logical stopping point to all this.

Until you commit suicide for your inherent flaws, it is not enough.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Princeton announces it is removing the name of Woodrow Wilson. That will please all the folks here who insist that racism is a problem of Southern white male Democrats.”

Southern White male Democrats who, among other things, resegregated the federal government, after it had been desecrated to some extent by the Republicans after the Democrats lost the Civil War.

What was weird to me was seeing the remnants of that segregation, reinstituted by Wilson. I went to work for the Census Bureau in the mid 1970s as a computer programmer. It is based in Suitland, MD. Much of the facility was constructed during WW II. We had an older Black woman as a GS-12 supervisor, and she could, and did, point out which bathrooms had been White and which had been Colored. She had spent better than a decade in that facility having to use segregated restrooms. We were at the end of the wing, so we had the former Colored restrooms closest. My relationship with her was interesting. She couldn’t drive on snow or ice. She grew up in the south where it was rare, so never learned. So whenever it would snow, she would call, and I would go pick her up, since I had grown up driving in it, and the car I brought from CO had four studded snow tires.

Drago said...

Readering: "Princeton announces it is removing the name of Woodrow Wilson. That will please all the folks here who insist that racism is a problem of Southern white male Democrats."

within 7 days Howard and Inga will be telling us that Woodrow Wilson was a conservative republican all along.

Drago said...

bagoh20: "Howard is coming dangerously close to calling for mass murder. Not warning it could happen, but calling for it, taunting, practically demanding people be shot in the street. If it happens, remember that."

He'll just claim Steve Bannon made him say it....and Inga will believe him.

elkh1 said...

Everything except gender is binary.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"You cannot reason a person out of believing that that all human beings are born with Original Sin."
Nor can you reason a person out of believing that all human beings are born without original sin. There is no empirical evidence that shows that human beings are born perfect, or that they they can be made perfect.

cubanbob said...

Howard said...
Being colorblind means you have superior black, white and gray vision. I'd rather have too many rods than cones... It's an expression of my innate Neanderthal nature."

Give me more cones. I like the bright colors of Kodachrome. Black and white is depressing.

Drago said...

Here's a hilarious video of Howard's Heroes which shows what really happens as soon as the police are allowed to enforce order against Howard's Heroes whom Howard claims are as brave and courageous as the guys who stormed the beaches at Normandy and Guadalcanal:

Too funny.

Watch the lefties fall all over themselves and scream like sissies when they encounter the slightest pushback.

tim in vermont said...

Thelonius Monk was a great musician and artist and his music would be great if we only found it on recordings and never saw his face or knew his race, but his blackness was next level cool too.

You couldn’t listen to Ray Charles without seeing blackness and that was a part of his greatness too. It is stupid to say you don’t see color, but the people claiming that it is racist to say it are likely the same people who are claiming that *science* proves there is no such thing as race. Maybe we should say “I try not to see color where it shouldn’t matter” but that’s probably racist too.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

What is the physical and scientific evidence of the human body indicating it is filled with or has "Original Sin." Where is this "sin" located? In the blood? In cells? In the cerebrum? Where?

It's a metaphysical concept. You can believe it if you want but the concept that man has "Original Sin" within him, that he is born with it, cannot be explained, to my knowledge, by science.

Michael K said...

I think Howard is losing it at last. Soon he'll be telling us how many commies he killed in Vietnam. These fake Marines always get into as they lose their minds.

Michael K said...

I think I read that blacks were only 17% of the rioters. The rest were white.

No Asians, of course, They were studying.

Rick said...

Blogger The Crack Emcee said...
Hear the right yowl as 13% of the nation says "stop killing me" - again.


Debate.org


According to this survey Crack's 13% encompass 70% of respondents. That seems about right. The racists can keep dreaming.

Mark said...

"You cannot reason a person out of believing that that all human beings are born with Original Sin."

One can undeniably reason a person into believing in the existence of Original Sin.

In fact, the idea of Original Sin was born of reason inasmuch as it is not explicitly set out in scripture, which is said to be the revealed word of God. Rather, someone looked around at the human experience and condition, read passages from scripture, and made the rational conclusion from them about the existence of Original Sin.

The key is understanding exactly what the "Original Sin" is. And most secularists, in their zeal to disparage religion, are too proud to be bothered with actually understanding what it is they criticize.

Mark said...

What is this "Original Sin"?

Well, humanity, as represented by a man and a woman, one day decided that they did not really need God. They thought that they could "know" just as good as God could. They decided that they would like to decide for themselves what was true and was false, what was good and what was not-good. They decided to put themselves first. First, before all other things, including objective truth and reality. Humanity decided that they could be gods themselves.

Now, does this not describe the history of mankind? Does it not describe every generation of every people on earth? Is it not playing out before our lives this very moment?

The Original Sin was separating oneself from God. Purely as a matter of reason as applied to the observed practice of people everywhere, we can say that this Original Sin exists and has existed throughout history. All without dragging scripture into it.

Mark said...

It's like people who say, "I don't believe in Hell. It doesn't exist. It's just irrational superstition used by the powerful to exploit people and keep them in submission."

But if there is anything that is certain in all this religion business -- more certain that God exists -- is that Hell exists.

Why? Because, again, Hell is being separated from God. It is the absence of God in one's life. And if you deny God, you necessarily are creating a bit of Hell.

Again, it is a matter of reason.

bagoh20 said...

"...there were roughly 8,000 homicides of African Americans in our country every year. 8,000! Ten last year were shooting (by police)..."

Every one of the 10 was national news, and none of the other 7,890 made the grade.

So, tell me how Black lives matter to the media, or to BLM, who spend their time at White brunches yelling about Blacks dying in a place where no Blacks ever die, and avoiding the places where almost all of them do. It's pure fraud - outrage without any attempt at real solutions. Whatever BLM manages to accomplish will inevitable lead to more murder, especially among Blacks who depend on the cops the most. If they managed to stop every Black killing at the hands of cops it would stop 10 out of 8,000. Is that their lofty goal? To save those 10, they will get a couple thousand extra over the 8,000 killed. Great Job!

William said...

I am curious as to how the codicils and curlicues of racial casting should play out. Suppose Lifetime was producing a six part miniseries on the loves and heartbreaks of Kamala Harris, based on a screenplay by Stacey Abrams. Would it be possible to have an Indian actress play Kamala, or could it only be a black actress? I don't think there are all that many Indian-African actresses in SAG, but, if there were, they should lobby hard for casting only Indo-African Americans in the role.....What with the Darwinian boogie, the first thing I notice about a woman is her sex appeal, but, in a work environment anyway, that is soon superseded by notice of her competence or good nature. I think that's what happens with race. You notice what race or ethnicity someone is, but over time what you notice is their competence or character. You don't have to be exceptionally tolerant or colorblind to do this. That's just how most people operate.

The Godfather said...

I am a pre-Baby-Boomer (I was born during, not after, WW2). My parents (members of The Greatest Generation) raised me not to judge people by their race, ethnicisty, religon, etc. I've lived my life that way. I'm sorry if Althouse spent her professional life in an environment in which racism was mandatory. I think she's done remarkably well in overcoming that environement.

I dispute that color-blind attitudes are no longer viable. They are viable for me, and for the vast majority of the people I interact with. I predict that color-blind attitudes are the future. Racism in the US is headed for the ash-heap of history.

Howard said...

The blog is not the arena, Drago

narciso said...

except she's not particularly competent or of good character, so her attributes are in, now it's tricky because someone like archie panjabi (from the good wife woudn't work) neither would casting kerry washington, although that's probably what they'll do,

Friedrich Engels' Barber said...

Bruce: "BLM has openly Marxist roots"

Critical theory is just another tedious species of academic cleansed bigotry, a bad recovery from European history infection, as ironically was e.g. Pol Pot’s pathology. But since critical thinkers now hold the power, all meaning is twisted to support that power. And, as has been observed, many young women are particularly drawn to power - hence screaming young blondes.

effinayright said...

Can't be solor-blind any more.

Now it's got to be: "Hey! I see you are an oppressed minority, but I promise to treat you better than I treat myself and other whites! Here! Help yourself to my wallet!!"

Anyone think that will work?


BUMBLE BEE said...

It is remarkable how closely Firesign Theatre fits into today's circumstances.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Shoes for industry, shoes for the dead.

Ampersand said...

So if colorblindness is racist, when we see a person of another race are we supposed to think they are better, worse, or unintelligibly different? And this is some sort of advancement in human relations?

Gahrie said...

Hear the right yowl as 13% of the nation says "stop killing me" - again.

Sorry...what was that? I couldn't hear over all the gunfire in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore.....

Gahrie said...

Hear the right yowl as 13% of the nation says "stop killing me" - again.

I couldn't hear it clearly, maybe it was the 900 hundred Black babies that are killed every day.

Howard said...

By definition, color blindness is White Male Privilege
The first major study of color blindness in a multi-ethnic group of preschoolers has uncovered that Caucasian male children have the highest prevalence among four major ethnicities, with 1 in 20 testing color blind. Researchers also found that color blindness, or color vision deficiency, in boys is lowest in African-Americans, and confirmed that girls have a much lower prevalence of color blindness than boys.

Bob Smith said...

I dreaded the day (but knew it was coming) that I’d find out we really are this stupid as a country. I think I’ll swing by the cemetery and see if there’s smoke coming out of Dad’s grave.

ken in tx said...

Forty acres and a mule was a real thing, but I don't think it was Sherman's idea. It was supposed to administered by the Freedman's Bureau. The land was taken from the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma, because the Cherokee supported the Confederacy. There are all black towns there still from this program. The problem was that a claimant had to make their own way to Oklahoma and make an application.

BTW, Crack? Wasn't it a white French woman who did you wrong and tried to kill you? Do you blame white Americans for that? Or just white women?

Narr said...

Some people call "People Are No Damn Good," or "People Are Fuuucked Up," by the name "Original Sin."

"Original Sin" explains something that doesn't need explaining. It's a theory so weird that not even the original compilers of the tales and legends of the Semitic God-botherers of the Ancient Near East could dream it up.

Narr
But "someone" did, that's for sure



Richard Dolan said...

"But that opportunity was lost, and now we are very far along in cranking up racial sensibilities."

And it is very unlikely to end well. Just look at what's happening in Madison (or Seattle or Minneapolis or Chicago) if you doubt that.

Original Mike said...

"Original Sin" was one of the ideas that caused me to ultimately reject the religion in which I was raised.

MikeR said...

"A road not taken". Not true. It was taken by conservatives, and we have by and large stuck to it. Maybe once the rest of the country gets tired of tearing themselves apart they could try it too.

Iman said...

Drago at 3:04pm... these Antifa/BLM assholes claim they embrace violence, I think many, many more of them should be given a chance to embrace the ground, with a few kisses and baton love taps thrown in for good measure.

MikeR said...

"We are not there yet. But unless we recognize the illiberal malignancy of some of what we face, and stand up to it with courage and candor, we soon will be." So stand up to it. Writing articles is a good step, but not sufficient. Let Andrew Sullivan and all those who disagree with these movements, act against those who want to burn us down. Why did his article not demand that decent publications, and decent institutions of all kinds, get rid of these kind of fascists?

Iman said...

Blogger Howard said...
The blog is not the arena, Drago


And your keyboard is not a cudgel, Howard you mincing pansy, you.

Greg the class traitor said...

"and assertions of colorblindness have always been regarded as racist"

and assertions of colorblindness have always been rejected by the racist sum who run the Left, since their program requires everyone to be racist and obsess about skin color

Fixed it for you

DeepRunner said...

This is becoming the look and feel of a hostage video, where the person on camera denounces whatever (most likely America) and claims how wrong they/it have been. But in this case, it's more about virtue-signaling than real change. Look, if someone wants to cost themselves employment because of newly-discovered "understanding," fine. Their choice. But don't sacrifice oneself at the altar of "conscience" and engage in self-flagellation just to show how much one has "grown."

The Crack Emcee said...

Gahrie said...
Hear the right yowl as 13% of the nation says "stop killing me" - again.

"Sorry...what was that? I couldn't hear over all the gunfire in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore....."

You mean like the Irish and Italians did before us?

That's what I thought, you racist asshole.

Cameron said...

" Gahrie said...

Why is it bad for White people to voice/portray characters of color, but perfectly fine for minorities to portray White characters?

Why isn't Hamilton cultural appropriation and racist?"

Or The Wiz ?

mtrobertslaw said...

A more philosophical view of Original Sin is that it refers to human beings' insatiable desire to acquire more and more power.

Kirk Parker said...

Get back to me when Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing is banned because it uses a black actor to play a white person.

Kirk Parker said...

Jamie,

I take it your daughter is attending UT over your strenuous objections, and without any financial help from you?

Nichevo said...

You mean like the Irish and Italians did before us?

That's what I thought, you racist asshole.

6/28/20, 3:15 AM


How many trillions were the Italians and Irish given to stop criming, stop dysfunctioning, and particularly, to stop killing each other?