Althouse: "Thirty years ago one could reply, ‘So what,’ ‘laugh it off,’ ‘talk back,’ or some other cliched response."

September 7, 2020

"Thirty years ago one could reply, ‘So what,’ ‘laugh it off,’ ‘talk back,’ or some other cliched response."

"Today that’s impossible. If someone is guilty of hate speech they almost immediately apologize when it’s called to their attention. The social norm against hate speech is pretty firmly established."

Said lawprof Richard Delgado, quoted in "The Deeply Pessimistic Intellectual Roots of Black Lives Matter, the '1619 Project' and Much Else in Woke America" (RCP). Much more at the link. I wanted to highlight Richard Delgado, who was a colleague of mine at the University of Wisconsin back in the days when Donna Shalala was chancellor.

42 comments:

David Begley said...: Got any good Donna stories?; 9/7/20, 7:35 AM
MadisonMan said...: I notice he blames Trump. Well, that got my eyes to roll.; 9/7/20, 7:47 AM
chuck said...: What is hate speech?; 9/7/20, 7:48 AM
Darrell said...: Oh, fuck off, Delgado.; 9/7/20, 7:52 AM
Kay said...: Great article. Very extensive, but it does not go into the history of how it proliferated on social media, which I believe happened through a very specific website that I won’t mention. But otherwise, a nice overview of the phenomenon.; 9/7/20, 8:04 AM
David Begley said...: Delgado moved from Wisconsin to Alabama? Big step down! Who could leave Madison?; 9/7/20, 8:11 AM
Kai Akker said...: They made a similar fuss over Herbert Marcuse, too. If it's basically bogus, it will eventually pass. I liked this part:

"Even as they published in law journals, critical race theorists flouted the staid conventions of the legal establishment, and adopted counter-narratives, fables, parables, allegories – even science fiction – to create what Delgado has called “a kind of counter-reality,” reflecting the perspectives of the downtrodden. The late black Harvard law professor Derrick Bell Jr. wrote four books featuring a fictional character, Geneva Crenshaw, while Delgado invented his own alter-ego, Rodrigo, who was Geneva’s fictional half-brother."

Fictional characters these scholars created. So it has to be true. Yanno, a deeper truth. Filled with the prejudices and ideologies in which the authors believed.; 9/7/20, 8:13 AM
Jamie said...: And we're so much poorer for this change! Not just because the targets of verbal bullying often used to grow stronger by learning to "laugh it off" or "walk away." But also because dubbing something "hate speech" and criminalizing it takes away the most potent weapon against such speech for all of us: ridiculing the speech and the source. Instead of rolling our eyes and turning our backs on the jerk making the racist comment at a party, publicly depriving her of an audience, now we're supposed to view "hate speech" as so dangerous that we must all focus on it like a bird on a snake. So now the "hate speech"-speaker is suddenly the most important person in the room.

And because "hate speech" is in fact almost always still First Amendment-protected speech, the "hate speech"-speaker actually has a legitimate cause to be viewed as a civil rights martyr. What the hell? All we had to do was ignore her!; 9/7/20, 8:15 AM
Rusty said...: "Today that’s impossible. If someone is guilty of hate speech they almost immediately apologize when it’s called to their attention. The social norm against hate speech is pretty firmly established."
No. This where I tell you to fuck off.; 9/7/20, 8:28 AM
Original Mike said...: "If someone is guilty of hate speech they almost immediately apologize when it’s called to their attention."

No, when someone is accused of hate speech. Guilt has nothing to do with it.; 9/7/20, 8:29 AM
Fernandinande said...: Delgado: “If someone is guilty of hate speech they almost immediately apologize when it’s called to their attention. The social norm against hate speech is pretty firmly established.”

The worstest and most deeply hateful hate speech of all is to mention the amazingly and consistently well documented group differences in cognition. Because it undermines about 99% of their anti-white racist bullshit.

"Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2=5."; 9/7/20, 8:29 AM
Expat(ish) said...: Here there is only speech.

Over there are people who want to hate.

Don’t cross the line in front of my speech. I won’t cross yours.

-South Louisiana Voltaire

(AKA: XC); 9/7/20, 8:37 AM
mandrewa said...: But Richard Delagdo's speech is hate speech. Critical Race Theory is just an academic version of racism. And immediately there is problem with that description because racism is sloppy word that means a lot of different things.

I need a tighter word to refer to a KKK level of racism, which is what Richard Delagdo embodies. It's the same essential message as the KKK has. I don't think there is any real distinction between the two other than the identity of who is speaking and how they say it. Critical Race Theory is a fancy form of racism that has been loaded up with layers and layers of pseudo-intellectual discourse to make it seem respectable and also to obscure what it means so that those that practice it can deny what they are doing.

Karl Marx did something similar. At heart, and simplified, Marxism is a rationale for genocide, or at minimum the killing of many, many people. I argue that the rationale for killing is the first and primary meaning of Marxism. And it stands by itself. Everything beyond that is just a kind of decoration. The purpose of the decoration is to confuse others about what it is really being said, because if the primary intent or the point of the whole thing is stated clearly, most people would have rejected it.

And the same thing goes for Critical Race Theory. Except I think that Critical Race Theory is more nakedly obvious than Marxism is or was. Than are fewer layers of verbiage hiding the essential nature of what Critical Race Theory is all about.; 9/7/20, 8:39 AM
rcocean said...: Do people understand the con? You get everyone to buy into the concept of "Hate Speech". Then you buy into punishing people for "Hate Speech". Then the Left, EXPANDS the definition of "hate Speech" to include ANYTHING they dislike. And you're screwed, because you've bought into the assumptions. So now, don't like illegal immigration? Hate speech. Don't like affirmative action? Hate speech. Don't want to bake a Gay wedding cake? hate speech.

Conservatives bought into the concept of "Hate Speech" and now they're going to pay for it. Big Time.; 9/7/20, 8:39 AM
Original Mike said...: "And because "hate speech" is in fact almost always still First Amendment-protected speech, the "hate speech"-speaker actually has a legitimate cause to be viewed as a civil rights martyr. What the hell? All we had to do was ignore her!"

Amazing how supposedly smart people don't understand something their mother taught them when they were five years old.; 9/7/20, 9:07 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: OK.

Why are so many black people being killed by other black people in Chicago? Why are so few unarmed black people being killed by police in Chicago?

Why are so many black babies being born out of wedlock in America, when the evidence is clear that out of wedlock births are a major indicator of the collapse of the nuclear family, which leads to all sorts social pathologies.

Is that hate speech? I don’t apologize.; 9/7/20, 9:14 AM
Bruce Gee said...: From the article: "....“Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,” which says African Americans aren’t only subjugated through hate and terror but also kept down through supposedly white cultural mechanisms of individualism, objectivity, neutrality, meritocracy and color-blindness..."

Sadly, it is through individualism, objectivity, neutrality, meritocracy and color blindness that any POC is going to accomplish anything. This whole argument is a box canyon of logic.; 9/7/20, 9:17 AM
MartyH said...: " This whole argument is a box canyon of logic".

Yes, and we've already seen examples of what they do when they finally realize CRT is a box canyon of logic-declare logic racist. It's the logical thing to do.; 9/7/20, 9:29 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Delgado moved from Wisconsin to Alabama? Big step down! Who could leave Madison?"

He first moved from Wisconsin to Colorado, and he was there when I visited at Colorado in the spring of 1991. Then he moved somewhere else.

He came to Wisconsin on what was called the Madison Plan — Shalala's use of university money as an incentive to various departments at UW Madison to bring in faculty who were members of minority groups. Some departments rejected this kind of pressure, but the law school quickly put together 4 offers and got this supplemental money. Delgado was one of the 4. He later criticized the Madison Plan because it didn't give him enough support once he was here, so it could be said it was designed to cause minorities to look bad. Was he wrong??? He soon left for Colorado. Later he went to UCLA and then to Alabama, where he holds a chair. You cannot assess whether something is a step down unless you know how lucrative the position is and what kind of teaching obligations are involved.; 9/7/20, 9:46 AM
Temujin said...: CRT is a poison pill. It's intent and purpose is not to raise up the Black race. It's not about raising up anything. It's purpose is to destroy Western Civilization as a whole and the US in particular for it's crimes of slavery. There is no growing away from it. No healing. No apologies large enough. No reparations great enough. There will never be a way to move on with life for everyone, until we are prepared to...get this...move beyond the past history and to move forward into the future. Not saying forget the past. But learn from it, and move forward. You don't move forward by repeating the sins of the past.

Until all people are willing to move past this. CRT is the opposite of healing. It is asking for a pound of flesh. Or more. It is collectivism run amok. Let's say not as amok as slavery, but CRT is not done with it's work yet. It is still feeling its way. It could find it's way there. And that's the horror of it. It (CRT) is whatever a particular proponent wants it to be. It owns the universities, and has now worked it's way (through the 1619 Project) into the middle schools and the grade schools. It runs amok in the corporate offices. Our media is beside itself, crying on TV and radio begging forgiveness. Bad thinkers are publishing sophomoric thoughts as books and getting their 15 minutes of fame PLUS a few million dollars. Diversity Consultants rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

CRT is not only the hot topic- as it turns out, White Hatred is profitable. Who knew? But first and foremost CRT is a poison and needs to be recognized as such. It is Mein Kampf with a new name and book cover.; 9/7/20, 9:47 AM
Temujin said...: "He later criticized the Madison Plan because it didn't give him enough support once he was here, so it could be said it was designed to cause minorities to look bad. Was he wrong???"

This is the actual result and side issue of all affirmative action programs. Admitting or hiring people based on the color of their skin or gender, and not based on their actual work or abilities or history of work and production is antithetical to having standards in the first place.; 9/7/20, 9:58 AM
TSH73 said...: Ann, having been reading a bit of Delgado and his critics, Delgado's work seems deep into a strange racial essentialism, i.e. only minorities can speak validly about minorities in society. And CRT per Delgado seems deeply objectionable in its lack of concern with empirical support for its axioms e.g. that American society is best seen as a system aimed at the subjugation of minorities.

Seems to me Delgado and his ilk are doing a lot of harm, especially now. Would love to hear your take on Delgado.; 9/7/20, 10:04 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: My very favorite thing in the whole world is "educators" who want to be respected as "educators" while at the same time obviously are concerned with nothing but their own egos and nest feathering. It sounds like Delgado, Esq shopped himself around looking for the best sinecure he could wheedle which he was obviously owed him by society and taxpayers because Respect Higher Education.; 9/7/20, 10:07 AM
Original Mike said...: "He later criticized the Madison Plan because it didn't give him enough support once he was here, so it could be said it was designed to cause minorities to look bad. Was he wrong???"

If by support he means "money", I was expected to bring in my own money (and I did). If he means "pat on the back", that and two bucks will buy you a cup of coffee (I think).; 9/7/20, 10:10 AM
Original Mike said...: Blogger rcocean said..."Do people understand the con? You get everyone to buy into the concept of "Hate Speech". Then you buy into punishing people for "Hate Speech". Then the Left, EXPANDS the definition of "hate Speech" to include ANYTHING they dislike. And you're screwed, because you've bought into the assumptions. So now, don't like illegal immigration? Hate speech. Don't like affirmative action? Hate speech. Don't want to bake a Gay wedding cake? hate speech."

That about nails it.; 9/7/20, 10:11 AM
Narr said...: Wisconsin to Alabama? Maybe the guy preferred warmer climes, and you can bet your sweet bippy that he was enticed with a pallet of cash and bennies. That's how academic hot commodities circulate.

As to the logic, it's not that 2+2 = 5, it's that it equals 22.

Narr
The people who prattle most about hate speech, simply hate speech; 9/7/20, 10:12 AM
mtrobertslaw said...: Let's see now, CRT claims, in effect, that whites are genetically predisposed to control and exploit people of color. If that is true, what are whites to do? They cannot control their genes. In relation to people of color, they are a deadly virus and always will be. And so what are people of color to do? They have only one option-eliminate the virus.
The supporters of CRT are playing with fire. They are sowing the seeds for a civil war.; 9/7/20, 10:13 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: I really don't think that you can do any review of Critical Race Theory in the law without considering its running mate, Critical Legal Studies, a Marxist outgrowth of the Legal Realism movement of the 1920s and 30s that came into prominence in the 1970s and after. One of the leading exponents of CLS is Mark Tushnet, who was also at Wisconsin Law back in those days.

THE CLS and CRS movements go hand in hand. They are both bent on "revealing" and selectively reconsidering the past so that tradition, history, and custom are wrecked, and a new vision of the future will arise from that rubble.

Anyone who claims to be on the right side of history is peddling a Marxist line.; 9/7/20, 10:28 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: It is delicious on all levels that Delgado holds the John J. Sparkman chair at Alabama Law.

For you young folks, Sparkman was a long-serving southern segregationist the US Senate and was Adlai Stevenson's running mate in 1952 against Eisenhower/Nixon. I am sure that Delgado holds that chair as a defiant gesture at the beliefs and mores of its namesake. I am sure that the Alabama Law School that hired Delgado is relieved to have the Sparkman Chair defanged by having Delgado sit in it. And John J. Sparkman is spinning in his grave.

Adlai Stevenson could not be reached for comment, but the highly-praised and witty loser would come out with something that made it clear that he would have won if he weren't in harness with Sparkman, but he couldn't have won without being in harness with Sparkman. Delgado would point out that even a liberal's liberal like Stevenson bowed to the altar of Jim Crow to keep the black man down.; 9/7/20, 10:47 AM
bagoh20 said...: It makes me imagine a person so offended by cockroaches that on the sight of one, they would pull out a gun and start shooting at it. It sure does show everyone how much they hate cockroaches and how little they care about people. This obsession and overreaction is like that.; 9/7/20, 11:00 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I am not going to read that, but did Delgado, anywhere, define precisely what constitutes "hate speech"? Because, if he didn't, I accuse him of hate speech.; 9/7/20, 11:03 AM
Joe Smith said...: Doesn't matter how smart you are, if you're a quota hire you will never be respected by anyone except lefties.

Even then, they won't really respect you because they know, deep in their hearts, that you didn't do the work to get the job.

You were just a few shades dark enough.

If I were a truly smart minority in business or academia, I would be phenomenally pissed off.; 9/7/20, 11:05 AM
Darkisland said...: Blogger David Begley said...

Delgado moved from Wisconsin to Alabama? Big step down! Who could leave Madison?

Probably less racism in Alabama than Madison.

Question for Ann: Does Delgado identify as Hispanic?

John Henry; 9/7/20, 12:11 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: "The Madison Plan." I will keep that in mind for when a new-speak term is needed for racial prejudice.; 9/7/20, 12:13 PM
Tina Trent said...: Donna "paying c!osing fees is for the little people when you've got my ties to Countrywide VIP" Shalala.

The hag should have gone to prison for fraud.; 9/7/20, 12:55 PM
Tina Trent said...: Ive been predicting twenty years to the complete destruction of free speech and equality before the criminal justice system through the mechanism of hate crime laws since 1997.

It's happening pretty close to schedule. So, 23 years. In fairness to my prediction, they didn't get the whole system up and going until 1999. So I'm a year off.

I fought back these laws in Georgia in 2000. Lost this year with opponents denounced as Nazis from the House floor and rioters outside threatening anyone who dared to oppose it. Some legislators told me they never saw anything like the vitriol -- hatred -- and physical threats -- from the hate crime activists. Just wait. Now they're eagerly awaiting the first "appropriate" case. A black guy announcing he was going to kill a white guy then stabbing one nearly to death in an auto parts store while screaming slurs apparently isn't enough. He told the cops he set out to kill whites, but that's not hate. Raping a bunch of old women doesn't count as gender bias because they're not gay or transvestite -- het women need not apply. A gang beating a random white guy half to death two blocks from the capitol during a riot didn't count either. Nor following three cops home and firebombing their cars. The police were white and firebombers black. However some anonymous graffiti with swastikas and MAGA written is being called "anti-semitic hate by Trump supporters" and reported in the news that way.

See how it works? Anyone surprised? It's worse every year.; 9/7/20, 1:10 PM
Anonymous said...: The New York Times’ historically revisionist 1619 Project, published last year and distributed to more than 3,500 K-12 classrooms, similarly instructs that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country.

The indoctrination of children is a scary fucking thing. And to teach little white boys and little white girls to hate themselves is racist, and evil. And to expect taxpayers to pay for this hatred of the U.S.A. is disgraceful.

I think the left is well aware that anybody with money will remove their children from public indoctrination. The left wants more and more poor people in the world. And the left wants to keep them in a state of poverty, and wants to control them and tell them how to think.

People on the right should actively fight for school choice, and empower poor parents to avoid this horseshit. Fight, and fight hard, for school choice. Destroy this racist and hateful indoctrination by allowing poor people to escape it.; 9/7/20, 1:47 PM
buwaya said...: "CRT claims, in effect, that whites are genetically predisposed to control and exploit people of color."

Thats the same as saying whites are the master race, and so are destined to rule.

Everyone agrees, it turns out. Its just that some people are upset about a proposition that they actually acknowledge. Its all emotional fallout.; 9/7/20, 2:33 PM
Don B. said...: In answer to Darkisland's question at 12:11, we find at the linked article that Delgado "identifies" as Chicano.; 9/7/20, 2:52 PM
Krumhorn said...: Andrew McCarthy recently wrote this excellent piece on the same topic.

- Krumhorn; 9/7/20, 3:37 PM
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The Godfather said...: Please read the cited and linked article about Critical Race Theory (CRT -- see, it's so important it has its own shortcut!). I didn't know until I did: Critical Race Theory is as much the enemy of liberal democracy as Fascism and Communism once were. And it's an enemy of progress in the US for Blacks most of all.; 9/7/20, 10:02 PM