When does it become obviously insulting, to make the very first thing you say about a black person's achievement that he's a black person achieving it. He's a specific person!
That screen shot is from the front page of today's NYT. The headline when you click through is "Eric Adams Is Elected Mayor of New York City/Mr. Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, will be the second Black mayor in the city’s history."
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It is part of the media's equation; and they have lost the ability to change the inputs.
Think that's bad? Eileen McNamara's NYT column headline is, "Michelle Wu is Neither White Nor Male. She Was Elected Mayor of Boston." It is insulting, but they can't help it. Racialism is like a religion at the NYT.
They certainly don't want to talk about the rebuke to their pet "defund the police" policy, now, do they. They are human beings and human beings have limits to how much crow they are able to eat on a given day. So they pretend they have won a great victory in racist NYC.
Virginia has its first elected AA lieutenant governor. Did anyone report it? No?
Oh yah, she’s a Republican…
They don’t call it identity politics for nothing, Ann.
It will continue so long as the supply chain of sufficient quantities of AA Democrat voters is threatened…
Your screen grab failed to capture the balancing item on the right - that Alvin Bragg was elected as Manhattan's first black DA. A headline that manages to invoke Trump's name.
When the facts roughly coincide with what they want to publish, they go with it.
So, yeah, I'm going with Never.
Funny how you AREN"T hearing about the FIRST BLACK WOMAN who won the Lt Governorship in Virginia...because she is a REPUBLICAN. Democrats, Progressives and the Media all suck. they don't really care about you even if you are black...unless you get on their plantation and spew their lies. You are a slave on their plantation and you had better not step off or YOU are a RACIST!!! It is actually hilarious, and why we point and laugh at them.
When does it become obviously insulting, to make the very first thing you say about a black person's achievement that he's a black person achieving it.
How about now? Look, Professor, you are going against official Democrat Party doctrine, which says that a person is whatever their skin color is. It is what it is.
The question is, will he be as big a disaster as David Dinkins was?
They're announcing that he's another sacred object, for news coverage.
"When are "we" going to stop doing this?" We? You mean them, don't you?
Look at all the tweets and video clips from MSLSD regarding the Youngkin victory. All race, all the time. And the Virginia contest was between two white guys. Without race as the topic, the libs have nothing to say.
There was a time I would have insisted race didn't matter. It does, much as I may wish it didn't, and much as I think the race-obsessives are taking us in the wrong direction.
There's a wonderful tweetstorm by Sean Ono Lennon where he calls race "the least interesting, interesting thing about you." That a black man is now mayor-elect of NYC is (mildly) interesting. It's less interesting than that he's a former police captain who ran during the Defund the Police era. Or that he's a relative centrist in a field of Democrats that stretched way, way to the left, and that he'll replace the Sandinista-friendly Bill de Blasio.
The NYT may prefer not to think too much about those, so his skin color gets top billing.
This betrays internalized beliefs of racial inferiority among some on the left.
It has proven easy to get the majority on board with race-blind policies and accept MLK Jr. on judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. The moment anyone focuses on race they start down the path leading to tribalism, apartheid, discrimination, and genocide. Slippery slopes.
There is no third option with inherently coarse and symbolic politics.
Somebody said, back when Ginsburg was confirmed as the 2nd woman SC justice that, in a way, her conformation was more important than Sandra Day O'Connor's. Because the 2nd time is when it becomes normal. After Ginsburg, we can stop talking about how woman the latest nominee is. Sadly, in our identity politics obsessed age, that person was wrong from a media standpoint, but in regular person terms, she was right--it doesn't matter anymore.
Nobody outside of the identity politics obsessed media cares that Eric Adams is black.
The question is, will he be as big a disaster as David Dinkins was?
SPOILER ALERT: He will be worse than Dinkins.
The better question is will he be worse than De Blasio. He inherits a broken city so he doesn’t have as far to fall…but don’t count him out!
When are we going to stop doing this?
Not any time soon.
The privileged journos with elite educations identify as part of the cause. They're "anti-racists", not just as a political position, it's their personal self-image, it's their moral identity. As "anti-racists" they are part of something bigger than themselves. It's a belonging that makes up for everything else they despise about themselves and anchors their considerable, free-floating anxiety.
When a guy like Adams gets elected, focusing on his race makes his victory their achievement not just his.
It's like after Obama was elected President these lefty journos suddenly discovered America was much more racist than before, not less, because the more racist they perceive America to be, the greater their sense of personal achievement in getting a black man elected and the more important and needed they feel as members of the cause that gives their relatively easy lives meaning. And they don't have to give up anything to get that feeling.
Discovering the war against racism in America had been won would be the worst thing that could happen to these poor white souls who rely on racism to abide themselves. They won't let that happen.
The white left, who are in charge, only see thru the lens of skin color and race.
Obey.
The white left are anti-Martin Luther king Jr. anti-character.
Collectivism is a disease of the mind. It is at the root of human conflict. You'd think we would learn after all the centuries. I think the first thing that struck me from reading Ayn Rand so many years ago, was her shining a light on collectivism and how it is used to manipulate and destroy- not only people, but systems, cultures.
Eric Adams is Eric Adams. He's a unique individual. Like him or not, he is unique, with no others exactly like him ever before or after he is gone. And the same thing goes for all of us. So why do so many refuse to acknowledge the wonderful individuality of our lives and insist on ignoring it to look at the least important or impressive thing about ourselves- the color of our skin?
The Left, especially the professional Left (i.e. the media, academia, etc) hangs onto collectivism like an emergency life vest, hides behind it, shoves it in everyones face, and sees their world through it. It's a human characteristic that is anything but sophisticated. Yet we have our entire corporate America getting behind this way of thinking, as they back BLM and bizarre gender claims. This is not progress and they are not progressives. It's as regressive a characteristic as there is, and it has been the bane of our lives for generations.
I saw where the crazy cat guy, Curtis Sliwa, got 45,000 votes.
Good catch, Althouse. Can't we just all move on. Everyone is exactly equal and any oppressions remaining are they own damn fault. Preach it, retired white lady on a generous government pension.
And Progressive like to forget about this: https://www.wordfoundations.com/all-of-the-first-blacks-in-congress-were-republicans/
It might be too reasonable, but I figure it's a comment on the voters. After all our history-yadayada--the voters became so unracist as to elect a black man.
They're announcing that he's another sacred object, for news coverage.
When you get it right you get it right. Nail, head.
The alternative is "Mr. Smith, who is a [fill in appropriate pejorative]"
@wendybar
Nailed it.
It's so arbitrary - the most important thing about Eric Adams is that he's black, the second most important thing is that he's the second "of his kind," it's taken as given that he's Democrat (and if he weren't, he'd somehow be "the black face of white supremacy") - and all these immutables are vital to understanding him. But don't you dare assume his gender, because if (man!) he feels like a woman, then he really is one. But he could change his mind, and then, don't you dare assume he was mistaken the first time, because gender, unlike every other quality of a person, is as delicate and changeable as a spring breeze.
On the other hand, if one were to evaluate him as an individual, one might be led to believe that there are other characteristics about him that both he and we should consider more salient, such as that he ran on law and order... like a Republican.
They might've mentioned the fact that Adams will be NYC's first Black mayor in almost 30 years. At least that would've been newsworthy.
Actually curious: is he the first ex-cop elected mayor?
First ex-cop elected mayor of NYC, I mean. Obviously, I assume cops have become mayors in other cities.
Race fatigue is real and contagious. The way the DNC media studiously ignores women and minority winners when they are GOP just adds to our belief they don’t really care about minority achievement either. DNC media just promotes leftism.
Prof A: This game never ends. When it gets stupid to declare “[First/second/third…N+1] to do X!” then they change the category. “Tenth black mayor!” will not happen; instead it will be “first black left-handed transsexual mayor with a golf handicap under 17 who once visited Cleveland.” The point is to celebrate not the individual qua individual, but to force all of us to recognize ever-more-ridiculous categories imposed by them.
I think you know that, which is why I am assigning your remark a tentative Troll Alert status.
When are we going to recognize that the left’s focus on race is akin to Qanon conspiracy theories? They both deal in facts that are distorted to gratify a demented mind. The only difference is the power of the believer. Am I exaggerating to make my point?
When people like you stop supporting a political party whose top guiding principle is identity politics. Not before.
The question is, will he be as big a disaster as David Dinkins was?
That would be a very high bar.
Adams is following Comrade DeBlasio in office. He will at least be a small improvement. Dinkins was a useless failure.
Well, it is the NYT, so I’m guessing never.
rehajm: "Virginia has its first elected AA lieutenant governor. Did anyone report it? No?
Oh yah, she’s a Republican…"
Oh. My. God!
The Lt Gov-Elect of VA is really going to trigger our LLR Chuck!
Black. Female. Strongly conservative. Effective at pushing back on LLR Chuck's beloved CRT and identity politics. Solid military record.
That's Strikes One, Two, Three, Four and Five in Chuck's book.
I fully expect some significant racist attacks by Chuck against her similar to Chuck's racist attacks against Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson and John James.
Yes, it's silly. Sort of like all the firsts for climbing Mt Everest. There's a first for each country and then each gender, disability and ethnic group from that country. The there's the youngest and oldest from each country to reach the summit.
Winsome Sears(R) winner.
“The Democrats have been successful in instilling fear in people who look like me,” she told Zenger in a wide-ranging interview. “I have had white liberals talk down to me — talk down to me, and as if I didn’t exist — simply because I’m a Republican.”
the White Left are condescending racists and thought-crime ideological intolerant authoritarians.
Winsome Sears(R) is running against Democratic Del. Hala Ayala. Before being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017, Ayala was a cybersecurity specialist at the Department of Homeland Security.
Holy crap. Did VA and the rest of us dodge a bullet.
Here in Atlanta, "the Slum of the South," we'd be shocked if a Black person WEREN'T elected mayor.
A headline from the future, perhaps:
"First Elected Black Woman Who Wasn't Called a Black Woman in Headlines"
A headline from the future, perhaps:
"First Elected Black Woman Who Wasn't Called a Black Woman in Headlines"
I have a confession to make… I defecate ALL over the white left. I have no remorse.
It’s a terrible thing.
The Lt Gov-Elect of VA is really going to trigger our LLR Chuck!
Don’t say “trigger.” Winsome Sears loves to pose with her AR. Like a lot of former Marines, she’s quite accurate with it.
"Let's GO" Chuck
why we care about this loser is beyond me.
I noticed most online news blurbs about Winsome Sears mentions she is a woman but not that she is black. Maybe they go into that in the article but it would be highlighted in the headline if she were a Dem. Two different sets of rules for Dems and Reps. Always. How is that not prejudice?
Jemele Hill, who is a black ex ESPN reporter tweeted out that "White Supremacy won in Virginia."
Christine Pushaw followed up with a picture of their current Governor in black face, vs a picture of their NEW Lt. Governor that IS black..
Jemele has always been a RACIST and now she is a joke.
So should Adams be compared to Frank Rizzo?
It was obviously insulting the first time.
It's simple really...Democrats have always been the party of racism.
The real racists are the political left. Every black who accomplishes anything is a big surprise to them.
This is dispiriting. If 2024 a rematch, the headline for either as victor will be that for 3rd time in a row America elects oldest ever president.
Folks once we set aside the excreta of race politics let's focus on the fact that in a field full of leftist crazies a police captain was elected. For NYC that is some rebound after the crazy that's been going on there for years.
Here's hoping Mayor Adams will be remembered as a good mayor, an effective mayor, an improvement over the current mayor, rather than merely one with a particular skin color.
At one time, it was historic. Now it's hysteric.
For the progs it is all about touting the race card. Real economic and education results don't matter one iota.
"When are we going to stop doing this? When there's a third black mayor? A fifth? A tenth? Never?"
When it stops serving the progressive narrative. Blacks aren't persons they are victims! American society is racist, so racist that it is very unusual for any blacks to achieve anything! They are still very marginalized, you see, even if they are elected.
Test: did the NYT have an equally big headline about the first black woman elected to statewide office in VA?
Winsome Sears(R), Lt. Gov.-elect of VA., is not an African-American, nor is she Black-American. Sears is Jamaican-American if hyphenation is necessary. Sears is American; her character says so.
When will the racialist counting stop? When we stop counting.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Race fatigue is real and contagious. The way the DNC media studiously ignores women and minority winners when they are GOP just adds to our belief they don’t really care about minority achievement either. DNC media just promotes leftism.
11/3/21, 7:42 AM
THIS!!^^^^^
This is the second time I've seen Sean Ono Lennon's name in connection with some interesting political/cultural musings. And here I thought the most interesting thing about him was his collaboration w/ Les Claypool of Primus making neo=psychedelia.
Tim in Vermont was the first one to hit it:
They have to report he's the "second black mayor", because otherwise they'd have to report:
In a complete rebuke to the anti-police narrative of progressive Democrats, NYC elected a former police chief who promises to go after the criminals.
And they weren't going to be honest, and report that.
Heck, VA just elected a black female Lt Governor. If she were a Democrat, that would be a big deal. But since she's a Republican, and part of the Republican wave sweeping VA, they give it no notice.
Which they'd like to do with Adams, but they can't because he's going to be mayor of their city.
So they do the skin color instead
Wow, Howard, feeling bitter after the complete shellacking your side took yesterday?
Net 15 pt shift in NJ. Net 13 pt shift in VA. New York State voters rejected changes to add same day voting registration, and other Democrat "fair voting" rules, by large margins.
With all the media power of your side, with big tech doing everything they can to put a thumb on the scale for your side, your side got hammered.
Scared? You should be.
Willing to give up the things like CRT that made the voters reject your Party?
I'm guessing the Party isn't going to be willing to do that. At least, not until after you get shellacked again next year
"When does it become obviously insulting, to make the very first thing you say about a black person's achievement that he's a black person achieving it."
Evidently, you're not much inclined to the CRT view of antiracism, in which race/gender are the key -- and usually the only noteworthy -- characteristics. How can it be insulting to focus on what's important? Would it have been better if the headline read 'victimized candidate defeats systemically racist opponent'? In CRT-land, it's essentially the same thing.
Regarding anything obviously stupid - as we eye-roll the Dems' race-addiction - The longer it goes on the shorter it will last™. Have faith yo.
Adams is the FIRST black mayor of NYC. Dinkins was a resident like FJB.
That's cute, Greg thinks I care about the DNC. I am happy you got a much needed boost to your self esteem.
"This is dispiriting. If 2024 a rematch, the headline for either as victor will be that for 3rd time in a row America elects oldest ever president".
Well, nil desperandum. We can only hope that the next president will have the vigorous, youthful aid of people like Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi.
When the black officials are Republicans - like Winsome Sears in Virginia or the surgeon general in Florida.
It will stop whenever the just-elected black person is a Republican. That's based on guidance from Joe Biden, who has observed that if you're not a Democrat, you're not black.
In Boston, the first woman and first woman of color, Michelle Wu, was elected mayor.
But are the Chinese really "people of color?"
And does anybody think how insulting the headlines are to Kim Janey, the current mayor, who wasn't elected (she took over when Marty Walsh became Biden's Secretary of Labor), but was authentically female and Black.
Blogger meep said...
"First ex-cop elected mayor of NYC, I mean. Obviously, I assume cops have become mayors in other cities."
Former Chief of Police Frank Jorden was Mayor of San Francisco from 1992 to 1996.
And of course, Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia.
His statue was taken down and his mural was painted over.
In the 1970s nobody could have predicted that he'd end up in the same company with Christopher Columbus and Thomas Jefferson.
Not only did VA elect a black woman as Lt Governor, it also elected the first Hispanic to be elected to state wide office in VA as attorney general. Both are conservative, so no mention of either. Winsome Sears is not black black and Jason Miyares is clearly not a 'correct' Hispanic.
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