Many viewers were surprised last week when, in the middle of a pandemic briefing, PBS reporter correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked Jerome Adams to respond to claims that he recently made racist comments. Rep. Maxine Waters declared “Donald Trump has found a new vessel by which to spew his racist dog whistles.” For those of us in academia, it was neither a surprising nor unique moment. On campuses across the country, it is now routine for statements found objectionable to be labeled as racist or part of the ambiguous category of “microaggressions.” Indeed, labeling people racists is now a common form of political criticism. It is often a conversation and career stopper for the accused. Few people want to defend someone accused of being a racist, only to be accused themselves.
The greatest problem with this trend in our political discourse is that it diminishes actual racism and the ability to call out real cases. There is real racism that must be addressed in our society. However, if everything is racist, nothing will eventually be viewed as racist or racism will cease to be a term of significance.
Adams, the nation’s first black Surgeon General, has been speaking directly to “my community” as someone who represents the “legacy of growing up poor and black in America.” At the press conference on pandemic responses, Alcindor asked Adams to address all those “offended” by the fact that he “said that African Americans and Latinos should avoid alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. You also said do it for your abuela, do it for Big Mama and Pop-Pop.” Adams responded and explained that he was using “the language that we use and that I use.”
Many declared that the advice to curtail alcohol and drugs was a racist stereotype of minority communities. Yet those comments are similar to comments made in the past by Democratic and liberal figures. Moreover, Adams has given the same advice to other communities. However, Adams was appointed by President Donald Trump and soon people were online saying how deeply offended they are over the inherent racism in his warnings or his use of nicknames for parents and grandparents. One commentator portrayed Adams as not really part of that community: “The Surgeon General is trying to relate to a life he never lived, listen to his voice and they way he speaks.”
Imagine if a Trump official assumed the background of an African-American reporter based on how she spoke. Adams achieved great distinction in his life, particularly as someone who was raised on a farm in Maryland and made it through school on scholarships. Yet, activist Blaine Hardaway declared “Trump sent the only black guy on his team out to chastise black and Latino people for smoking and drinking, as if that’s the reason our communities are predisposed to this virus. Just disgusting.”
Adams could have spared the effort. These attacks are meant to indelibly mark someone, not elicit a response. Critics know that they can isolate people by labeling their views as racist.
The trend has continued unabated with the pandemic. For example, there is a raging debate over the concealment of the origin, early spread, and lethality of the virus in China. However, the Council of Chief Diversity Officers at the University of California has issued a “guidance document” to tell students to stop others from referring to the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus.” Michigan State University warned students that use of anything other than coronavirus is unacceptable as part of a warning on hate speech pledge circulated around the school. Some university officials told students to report students using the term as “racist.”
For the record, I wrote early that I would not use the term Chinese virus rather than the official name. However, I did not reject it because it is an inherently racist term – any more than the use of the Spanish Flu, Zika, or Ebola. Indeed, it was the term used by many scientists in the early stages and even liberals. HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher noted correctly “Scientists, who are generally pretty liberal, have been naming diseases after the places they came from for a very long time.”
Yet, racism is a useful label to use when you are attacking free speech or academic freedom. Many writers seeking to punish or silence others for opposing views have dismissed free speech arguments. While some writings can legitimately be challenged over racial concerns, there remains protections for unpopular and even offensive views. Yet, academics accused of espousing racially insensitive views are targeted for termination as “bad scholars” for holding such views. For example, Joe Patrice, who writes for Above the Law, called for the firing of Law Professors Amy Wax and Larry Alexander because he disagreed with an oped column on how social ills have followed the breakdown of what they call “bourgeois values” of the 1940s and 1950s like strong families, patriotism, and altruism. They prefaced their analysis by noting that those values also came with racist, anti-Semitic, and other problems. Various Democratic politicians, including President Barack Obama, have criticized the decline of the family and similar values. I actually disagree with key points of the column and others have raised questions over racial implications of some of the writings by University of Pennsylvania Professor Amy Wax. Those criticisms relate primarily to other writings of Wax, but this piece did declare that “all cultures are not equal.” However, rather than simply disagree with the merits of this column, Patrice told readers to ignore their express criticism of racism in the column and instead focus on “racially coded language” showing an affinity for “white superiority.” Again there is a good-faith debate to have over other writings by Wax involving racial stereotyping or insensitivity. Yet, even if one believes that Wax is using such coded language or advancing such views, most of us still value free speech and academic freedom as a protection and not willing to fire academics because critics accuse them of “belching out so … lies and half-truths.”
Even airing a defense by accused individuals is now viewed as facilitating racism. Patrice also aired an approving interview with The Nation’s Elie Mystal where Mystal attacked high school student Nick Sandmann in a controversy before the Lincoln Memorial with a Native American activist. The incident was widely misrepresented and Sandman received settlements from CNN and corrections to the early coverage. However, Patrice agreed with Mystal’s objections to Sandmann wearing his “racist [MAGA] hat” and the media airing interviews of Sandmann so this “17-year-old kid makes the George Zimmerman defense for why he was allowed to deny access to a person of color.” It is that easy. You falsely accuse a 17-year-old kid of being a vehement racist and then object to people interviewing him to hear his defense.
The opportunistic use of this label results in tit-for-tat accusations. Trump called Bloomberg a racist for his stop-and-frisk policy despite Trump’s support for the policy. Joe Biden has also been accused of being a racist. Even deregulation by Democrats have been framed as a racist as opposed to an ill-conceived ideal. When Pete Buttigieg referred to his ties to the “American heartland,” former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien called him out for using racist “dog whistles.”
Once you start to treat opposing views or practices as presumptively racist, everything you dislike become vehicles of racism. meritocracy, Western literature, earthquake warnings, and the “white-nuclear family” have all been denounced as advancing racism. Even food controversies can be converted into racist moments today. Patrice recently accused me of “delightfully passive racism” because I did not know what chicken tikka masala is. Uber put out a list of the top orders during the pandemic by state. The list was a surprising contrast of top ordered dishes from the mundane French fries (Arizona, Florida, Illinois) to the highly specific like Garlic Naan in Minnesota. Some seemed a bit exotic to be the most common dish ordered in a given state. I decided to share on Twitter as a light distraction from the grind of pandemic disaster stories: “The most popular uber eats orders in Oklahoma is spicy tuna roll and in both Missouri and Wisconsin crag Rangoon? California is chicken tikka masala? I don’t even know what that is beyond the chicken. If true, we have an outbreak of the panpompous.”
That is all it took: racism and what Patrice calls “performative white nationalism.” I did not know what chicken tikka masala was and that made me the Bull Connor of the culinary arts. (In reality, as my exasperated wife and kids pointed out, I have had the dish and, while it is not one of my favorite Indian dishes, it is widely known by others). It was not enough to be clueless, however, I had to be racist. Of course, Patrice tellingly did not label the failure to remember the dish as racist until after he ridiculed my testimony in the Clinton and Trump impeachments hearings.
There is no label quite as effective as racist. It is a claim that can never be conclusively rebutted so you simply dismiss any attempt as “performative white nationalism.” In the meantime, real racism is obscured by a wall of trivialized accusations. There continue to be acts that discriminate being people based on race and legitimate concerns over arguments that advance different treatment based on race and other immutable characteristics. It is important to have that discussion as a country. Those arbitrarily throwing around racism labels for political advantage only serves to give cover for real racism that continues to plague our country.
Perhaps everyone with opposing views is a racist. Or, alternatively, a MAGA hat could be just a hat and chicken tikka masala could be a delicious, but sometimes forgotten, marinated chicken dish.
Among other questions, do the Pearl Clutchers of the Potomac (and their spawn) realize yet that “Chinese” is not a race?
perhaps the title should say instead “THE GROWING TRIVIALITY OF RACISM CHARGES”
better yet,
“THE ONGOING TRIVIALITY OF RACISM CHARGES”
Saying there cannot be racism is like saying an individual cannot prefer strawberry yogurt over butterscotch pudding.
All men are created equal. The outcomes of their lives are up to the individuals.
If Americans cannot discriminate, Americans cannot be free.
People must adapt to the outcomes of freedom. Freedom does not adapt to people, dictatorship does.
Why is Turley wasting time and words on this? I saw the exchange. It’s no big deal. The woman is a well-known racist and Trump critic. It should just simply be ignored.
Yeah, why waste time on this? The backup president refused to extend Obamacare enrollment extension that could help people being laid off – just because it has the black guys name. And of course we all know Obama was not a legitimate president because he was a Kenyan – the backup president said it and Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate is safely locked inside the backup president’s head.
So yeah, why waste time on this? Why not something that really helps people? Oh I forgot, the malignant narcissist lacks empathy. That is why. And the law professor has the enviable job of pointing readers here elsewhere.
“malignant narcissist”
where have i seen that formulation before.
oh wait one of our other users likes that turn of phrase. perhaps “Hutom” picked it up here?
of course with a Bengali nom de plume like Hutom one suspects the author is an Indian national
not that there’s anything wrong with that
All too true, Hutton. Amid this pandemic, Americans by the millions are losing their employer-based health plans. Yet Trump cant consider reopening Obamacare enrollment. Because you know ‘Obamacare is socialst’ and we cant have that corrupting our free market healthcare system. ..Like any of that matters now..!
One of our daughters runs a Womens health Clinic and here is what she sees daily: Patients who are Black, White, and Hispanic who are at all ages …vastly overweight, & whom don’t follow their Doctors orders or take their medicne as prescribed , some of whom when feeling better stop taking their meds, diabetics who eat horribly. thus more than half have early high BP, asthma, obesity, diabetic complications such as insulin intollerance, failing kidney etc. So the reporter who looked quite overweight & asked that question also need to hear what I just said as to why many are sucumbing needlessly to the coronavirus, It’s called poor health due to very bad eating habits and ignoring good medical advice.
Well, damn. I guess the virtue police are starting to see through the ruse. Trump picked an NBE (Not Black Enough) Surgeon General hoping to distract folks from figuring out the He (Trump) *personally* modified COVID19 to kill blacks because reasons.
And here I thought their main objection to Trump was his abject stupidity, while all along they knew he was a molecular biologist just “Columbo-ing” his way through the presidency. That he stole…Errr, that Russia stole for him, right under the nose of Obama the Magnificent. 3-D chess, indeed. Well played, leftists. Well played.
NOTE TO READERS:
Kydave, Young, Beatrix and spete17 are all aliases used by the commenter first known as ‘Estovir’.
NOTE TO NEW READERS (habitual readers already know this):
Seth Warner is a blight on any reasonable discourse. He seldom has any point to his postings, and the times he does, they’re idiotic, obtuse, indefensible, and wrong. Rather than respond directly to any point, he’ll try to “figure out” who the poster is in real life. Obviously, the round(s) of electroshock he’s undergone were either ineffective or need a more recent (current? lol) application.
Peter – prove it!!!
Racist is a Term the Fascist use to divide and conquer..I’m a white guy who has NEVER been eligible for ANY social Program because of my color.
Njlamer, howdy, stranger, where you from?? This happens to be a small town and we all know each other. Never saw you before.
Peter – you are not the sheriff of this blog. You don’t get to check IDs.
Seth may not be the sheriff, but his constant use of the Royal We certainly leads me to think he *is* a small (schizophrenic) town unto himself.
kydave – I have a later comment on this point. 🙂
LOL! Spot on.
Paul, leave Paint Chips alone. He is on the prowl.:-)
Agreed this was a silly controversy. But with what CV-19 is making clear about racial issues surrounding the virus is this triviality the best use of your time?
Elvis:
” But with what CV-19 is making clear about racial issues surrounding the virus is this triviality the best use of your time?”
*************
I’m fascinated to know how the Wuhan Virus has now turned racist. Maybe it didn’t like Asians but it’s an equal-opportunity infector. Please don’t bore with me some contrived monolog about it hitting the black community the hardest. It hits the communities with the highest age and age-related comorbidities. If that makes it racist the you’re gripe is with Mother and Human Nature. Call me:
People felled by it around Detroit and New Orleans are disproportionately black for some reason. Around New York, that hasn’t been the case.
The virus didn’t turn racist. It’s effect has highlighted racial disparity.
Fascinating how the right will give things like viruses and markets aspects of human personality when they just reflect aspects of human personality.
Again, specifics beat generalizations all the time unless you’re just virtue signaling in which case, I’ll raise you.
Cool. Then why don’t you cite some specifics?
To date, diabetics and the obese are far more likely to be affected by COVID. Coincidentally, diabetes and obesity are disproportionate to the black community.
I’m not a doctor, but it’s hard not to notice the correlation.
True. Add that to a big picture reality that it’s harder, big picture to social distance and statistically speaking you’re more likely to have a job deemed essential in the various stay at home orders and you’re on to something.
and smoking too. They like “KOOL” cigarettes
Elvis:
Cause I’m not asserting the proposition. Semper necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit.
Is that Latin or do you need the heimlich?
Both
Ha. Join the vomitorium then. Room enough for everyone.
Elvis J – this is the proper definition of a vomitorium. It was on my Master’s exam.
1.
each of a series of entrance or exit passages in an ancient Roman amphitheater or theater.
The other one, is “Fake News.”
Paul. I was tempted to correct him on vomitorium as well but ran out of energy. Anyone who has visited the Flavium Amphitheater has been in and out of a vomitorium.
in law, the burden of proof is on the prosecution
or in logic, the one who makes an assertion, has the burden of proof
but we can see how law and logic are out the door in this affray
mespo! Maybe you should use Pig Latin, as well as classical Latin, to accomodate some of our commenters who may be struggling with reading comprehension?
Sickle Cell anemia is a genetic disease and is well known among blacks being identified over 100 years ago. Alias Paulie, do you believe that Sickle Cell anemia highlights racial disparity?
Total apple and oranges hypothetical. I didn’t say there was no such thing as genetic. Hell, I worked in one of the top biogenetic labs in the country when I was a kid.
I said that CV-19 highlights racial disparity.
One can look at any group and take note of illnesses that occur in one racial group rather than another. If that was the meaning of your “racial disparity” comment you wouldn’t be getting these types of responses.
“top biogenetic labs in the country when I was a kid.”
You were a kid, not a scientist. I know a guy who works in one of the top hospitals in the world, John’s Hopkins. He cleans toilets.
Actually I’m getting the response I’m getting because I’ve touched a nerve. And what I’m saying is obvious. That’s why all the obfuscation coming back.
See Allan, the reason I originally arrived on this blog was because I have to research cult mentality for an assignment…
And you guys just make it so easy.
I’m laughing my butt off trying to picture you in a lab.
” I have to research cult mentality for an assignment…”
Did some 7 year old give you that assignment?
Well the guy got to be president of the prodco through family and his second in charge should really be boss. Seven’s probably about right for him. Which gives him about three years on you.
I guess you are confirming that I was right and a 7 year old is dictating your resonses.
Agreed then, obtuse one. When losers stalk you it doesn’t even warrant a response.
“Agreed then, obtuse one. When losers stalk you it doesn’t even warrant a response.”
Alias Paulie, that is why when substantive rebuttal of some your very foolish ideas was provided you ran away. However, now without any discussion of merit you pursue the discussion whining and using foul language.
This was my boss:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ruddle
Elvis, that must have been a fantastic gig. in all seriousness, rather than just the usual Dem-Repub type fencing, why not elaborate what if any insights into the crisis you can bring from this experience to the discussion?
this is how we can all make a relevant contribution to the conversation which is interesting and may help us learn as we go
perhaps this particular essay does not lend itself much to a useful conversation at all; the headline is one that highlights the irrelevance of the concept of racism to unfolding events in the first place. at least that’s my perspective.
I’ve tried, Kurtz. It’s a futile experience here. Always getting bogged down in the b.s.
as i have recommended to all my friends and collaborators in dialogue here, don’t troll and don’t be trolled.
we saw this in the endless round robin about ‘china virus,” which is a geographically accurate moniker, but one that trolls in both directions
if we are just trolling all the time then this is a useless exercise
hence, i believe it’s productive to try and take people at their face value and assume a bona fide attitude of debate, even if it seems like another user can only speak in a polemical or adversarial voice
if a civil war were ever truly joined, the time for talking would be over. Thankfully, for now, we can still have a meaningful conversation as fellow Americans
Mr Kurtz – generally I do not troll, however there are one or two commentors who deserve to be trolled. 😉
I don’t troll, Kurtz. If you track all the threads I’m involved in down they begin with me answering the Prof. and then fending off detritus from there on. Pure attacks on personality. Never with factual in formation…
Which would make one wonder why i even bother. Not sure myself.
Kurtz, that sounds reasonable. Sober tonight? ..Just kidding..!
I think you’re right about something. I think the wheels are coming off Trump’s presidency and it’s a very dangerous time. We have to put country first. If that means rallying behind Mike Pence, I’m okay with that.
I looked for an answer to Kurtz and saw none. The only thing seen was a P Excuse. Typical. You throw out names like others throw out garbage.
See Kurtz?
What do you want Kurtz to see? That you run away? use foul language? can’t respond with fact?
Alias Paulie. More foul language from you and whining about responses. You don’t have to engage. We have a lot of discussions based on fact that you ran away from so they are over. You have few facts but a lot of foul language so this discussion will probably continue.
Allan, I haven’t seen you respond to a fact yet in my time here.
“Allan, I haven’t seen you respond to a fact yet in my time here.”
Alias Paulie I will quote how I answered you before:
You lie, but that is OK. We are all used to it and no one expects you to change your ways.
Your best retort a couple of weeks ago was “Screw it. I’m done.” https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/24/arizona-man-dies-after-using-fish-tank-cleaner-to-treat-covid-19/comment-page-1/#comment-1934667 You were done then and you are done now. It took so many posts to get you to realize you didn’t know what you were talking about on the travel ban either.
We can go back to another favorite of yours after you screw up on the ventilator and drug problems. “Now STFU.” https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/24/arizona-man-dies-after-using-fish-tank-cleaner-to-treat-covid-19/comment-page-3/#comment-1934955
The only thing you seem to be good with is foul language, abusive behavior and changing aliases.
And I’ll answer how I just answered:
Allan, I haven’t seen you respond with a fact yet.
The virus is more lethal to those of any race who are overweight, diabetc and/or hypertensive.
All of these conditions figure prominently in the black community.
They having nothing to do with systemic racism but are the consequence of unhealthy habits.
Short of having you go into their homes and forcing them to eat better and exercise, all that can be done is inform them of the risks. That is what the surgeon general was trying to do.
Labeling every problem as one of racism makes it impossible ever to address them.
Citing half of the causes for the disparity is laudable. And convenient. And gives half the picture.
You haven’t given any picture.
Copied from above:
[True. Add that to a big picture reality that it’s harder, big picture to social distance and statistically speaking you’re more likely to have a job deemed essential in the various stay at home orders and you’re on to something.]
Piece that together with the genetic predisposition you’re citing. Really illuminating that you Trumpers just want to focus on that. Rather a big blind spot.
You are blowing smoke. American Indians on the reservation tend to have the same health problems, weight, diabetes, hypertension, but not have service jobs or lack space for social distancing but are dying at much higher rates than others in the same state.
I know doctors who provide health care for Indians and others who provide care in the black community and they report the same medical problems and a very high rate of noncompliance with treatment plans.
They want to die at a lower rate: stop eating so much, stop eating crap, start exercising, follow your doctor’s treatment plan.
Young, you know of doctors who provide healthcare to Indians?
Oh that’s right, you work in a medical research lab. Right? That’s why you’re qualified to speak on health-related issues with an insider’s point of view. But interestingly, your healthcare-related comments are usually made under another name.
My spouse is a doctor, many of our friends are doctors, some work in both those communities. I said what I know from them, not from my personal contact with those populations.
But, see for yourself. It isn’t hard to find a doctor with similar patient loads. They will say the same.
one of my old buddies was an ER doc in the midwest. he moved to Oklahoma, under a federal program that helped under-write bonuses for “rural doctors”
that was well over a decade ago
I dont know that he served the Native population but in Oklahoma they have a lot of Natives compared to other states
Kurz,
Several of the doctors I have in mind for my information worked in family practice in the same programs, one FQHC, federally funded clinic and the other on and off the reservation. I volunteered to help with the grant paperwork to expand an intensive diabetes care program that actually worked well judging by lab tests for awhile, but the patients tended to lapse back into noncompliance over time. It was very disheartening to all.
The homophobe seems to think I am Estovir. He missed when Estovir snapped at me a few threads back when I said nobody would waste time reading his long cut and paste jobs. I thought Estovir was another name for By the Book. Both seem a little bipolar.
Young, again you’re presenting yourself as a healthcare insider. And we have another commenter who keeps hinting at his healthcare expertise. I venture you and him are the same person.
If I’m not mistaken, Estovir presents himself as a physician. He doesn’t hint at anything.
No, Gainesville has used several aliases, but ‘Estovir’ is not one. They have perspectives completely at odds with each other.
Absurd,
I hadn’t read Estovir closely enough to see a difference in message. It was mostly the similarity in style that I noticed. Boring and immune to logic. I was slso wondering if Elvis was BTB again.
Kurtz,
If you are still in touch with your friend ask if he worked in an FQHC. Just curious. Those I am familiar with don’t have ERs, just primary care.
Absurd, if you honestly think that commenter is an actual physician then you ‘are’ absurd.
Since when do doctors have hours to post on these threads? And the fact that we’re having a healthcare emergency makes a doctor’s participation even more ridiculous.
“having a healthcare emergency makes a doctor’s participation even more ridiculous.”
Paint Chips, if you were aware of what is going on in the country you would recognize that many physicans aren’t working or working less. Physicians in the NYC environs that are in the front lines are breaking their butts. In many locations hospital census counts are much lower than ever.
Seth, I don’t know who Young is but it’s obvious Young is not Estovir.
Subject material concerns often reveals how folks may have made their way here in the first place. From whichever angle they come.
Thank you Young for you excellent comments btw.
Also I don’t hardly ever see this guy anymore. At the time and it was possibly 12-15 years ago, he said it was a government-incentive type program and I inferred that it was federal.
Many of the Native American reservations are in rural areas, what they call “underdeveloped,” and like other people living in rural areas, health care providers are geographically dispersed.
Natives have the benefit of the DOI trying to help out their situation, but I could only speculate as to who administered the benefits. that my friend was respondiing to in his relocation.
Kurtz
Thank you for the kind remarks.
Yes, EMTALA is another way illegals get free health care, also sometimes people with visas. For awhile people were flying from South America, Brazil, I think, to Miami and then taking a cab straight to the hospital ER for free treatment only to return home when it was finished. They were not poor and I imagine a bill was sent to some place in Brazil, but there was little prospect of its bring paid other than by taxpayers. Might still be happening.
I agree that it is in everyone’s interest to treat patients in the ER, particularly with a disease like covid going around, but if they are illegal they should at some point return home.
If the homophobe doubts what I said about FQHC clinics he is in a good location to prove me wrong. He can drive I-10 to Indio and then drop down to the farming communities in the Imperial Valley or he can take I-5 north to the San Joaquin Valley and drop in on any of the FQHC clinics in either location. Go ahead, Seth, show me what you learn on the ground.
Since when do doctors have hours to post on these threads? And the fact that we’re having a healthcare emergency makes a doctor’s participation even more ridiculous.
I have no reason to believe anyone devotes ‘hours’ to posting here. The only one I’d have accused of that would be Diane (aka Late4Dinner).
Kurz,
As a lawyer you will appreciate this. An FQHC, federally qualified health care clinic, is a private entity but the doctors working there get some protection under the Federal Tort Claims Act because of the federal funding and involvement with the government. I had not expected that.
By the way, if someone tells you illegals don’t get health care they are either misinformed or lying. They come in droves to FQHC clinics and get treated for free.
People also dont realize that illegals have been getting free health care under the EMTALA
while that was signed into law in 86, for some reason it seems like only since admin of Geo bush sr that illegals got mandatory service . i could be wrong about that, not sure about the whens of that particular.
this EMTALA treatment for illegals and other people with no health care insurance is expensive for us all, but there are valid public health reasons to give them treatment at least at emergency level, and the virus is just such a reason, a shared karma with whomever lives here whether we like it or not
Always time for the king though.
Or call me
” is this triviality the best use of your time?”
Alias Paulie, no answer is required but Turley writes for his pleasure not yours. Not every article need be about something substantial. That type of attitude creates telescopic vision. In truth, however, the article has significant substance. Perhaps it is not the article you don’t like rather it points out something you don’t want to hear.
Actually I don’t so much like to hear from you, Allan. I read Turley’s columns.
” I don’t so much like to hear from you, Allan. I read Turley’s columns.”
Is that a recent discovery? In a way you are being redundant based on prior comments especially since I already said “Alias Paulie, no answer is required ”
I guess my comment “Perhaps it is not the article you don’t like rather it points out something you don’t want to hear.” hit closeer to home than you would like.
Actually you’re just a pain in the butt.
Don’t blame others for your habit of straining. In some sense of the word straining is like telescopic vision where all your efforts go to one place resulting in swelling and pain.
Take a laxative.
Take a laxative? You too funny.
That’s my main observation of what should be required of a host on Fox. They all look fecally stressed out.
“You too funny.”
That should be ‘you are’ too funny.
“They all look fecally stressed out.”
Actually they all look quite relaxed and different from CNN and the others like them. In those cases it appears that what should be coming out of their lower ends is coming out of their mouths.
Nah. You too funny, yo.
I’ve been really “IMPACTED’ by this virus myself, not wanting to go to the store for the usual supply of greens and fruits
Kurtz, find a store where they are willing to buy what you want for you and bring it to the trunk of your car unless of course you can get it delivered.
Certainly having that effect all the way around, Kurtz! Ha.
Wow! Alias Paulie hit’s back like an invertebrate.
STFU F widget. One thing to be counted on here…, Allan just doesn’t get it. But I’m pretty sure he’d blow Absurd in public.
“STFU F widget. One thing to be counted on here…, Allan just doesn’t get it. But I’m pretty sure he’d blow Absurd in public.”
Imagine that. Alias Paulie wanted Kurtz to see something and I just responded asking if he thought Kurtz would like to see foul language and a few other things. I guess alias Paulie proved my point.
What is really sick is that I suspect that White Liberals are far more racist than White Deplorable Conservatives. Look at it this way – White Liberals can’t stand White Conservatives because they see as stupid credulous rubes who hate readin’ and writin’ and maps, and because we cling bitterly to our guns and our Bibles. In other words, it is pretty much a city vs. country class thing.
So if they hate our kind of White folks so much, do you really think they have love and respect for a bunch of Black yahoos out their with their “baby momma and baby daddy” language, a ton of high school dropouts, with Red Velvet Cake fake hair in their heads, and tats everywhere, and a wide spread of criminality, ignorance and trashy behavior, and lots of guns, and lots of religion, — do you really think White Liberals have anything but contempt for them??? As least us Deplorables can read and write, and speak passable English.
I don’t think they do. I think they hate Blacks with a passion and they try to compensate by calling everybody else racist because they know in their heart-of-hearts that they are racists, and they project that onto everybody else. That, and they like to virtue-signal and race-bait for votes
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Agreed. The self-understanding of gentry liberals hinges crucially on certain self-aggrandizing poses vis a vis the rest of the population. Or, as one wag put it, liberals are generally people who fancy they’re better than the places they grew up. There’s been an element of that in gliberal and leftoid thinking for at least a century, but it was only after 1965 that it was all that obtrusive. It is not the exclusive element. They’ve conceptualized the larger society as consisting of strata of status with themselves as the sorters and regulators. (See the pose adopted by Paul Fussell in Class if you want to see the gears turning). Note, institutions run by gentry liberals (e.g. higher education) are gross in ways the rest of the society is not.
Fussell’s book Class is a seminal read if you want to understand America at all. I have recommended it a thousand times and made my kids sit down and read excerpts in person i thought it was so important. thanks for sharing this wise suggestion absurd
I got the recommendation from an infamous racist who was himself a keen observer of American society. not that the book has much to do with race, rather, the social sorting of class.
in my view, it’s one of the core misunderstandings of Americans, that we do not have class permeating our social activities as has every other society in history. this goes back to the propaganda written by “Massa Tom” which is the constant source of confusion about the real world as it is not as how he “fancied it to be”
For crying out loud. It’s a display of bad attitude by a literary critic ensconced at Rutgers.
It’s a book of genius level insight
you can call him a poseur, i dont know him or care about his own biography, and the book stands on its own merit. it explains a lot. at least for a young guy from the midwest where “class” as a concept is considered distasteful to mention or discuss at any level
you are apparently from the East and so I suspect that it may have been a bore for you. however, you brought it up, which shows it apparently had some impact on you
the power of the people you identify as “gentry liberals” has grown and so their attitudes are important whether they are good or well founded or not. i reiterate my “READ IT” recommendation
It’s a book of genius level insight
No, it has some insights, but it mostly reflects the pathologies of a very disagreeable man. He followed up with BAD, which made his decay in old age very clear.
All one need do is look to see where White liberals live and send their kids to school. Actions, you know, ….
Arthur Garrity was 54 years old when he had the apercu that it was his job to re-organize the Boston school system. It’s a reasonable wager that his children were out of harm’s way.
I think they hate Blacks with a passion
No, they don’t. But they’re very resistant to absorbing the human reality of rank-and-file blacks and seeing them as human beings with agency and with their own particular set of preferences. A great deal of liberal social policy is predicated on the idea that the attitudes and preferences of gentry liberals are some sort of gold standard. The frustration of gentry liberals is derived from the reality that rank-and-file blacks live their lives the way they want to live them and not the ways that gentry liberals want to live them. Normal people are concerned that certain baselines be observed, but are otherwise laissez-faire about the choices people make about what to do with their time and the implications of that in social data.
No, white liberals do not hate blacks. White liberals want nothing more than to be LIKED by blacks and seen as being different than all of those stupid, unwashed whites that they feel so much superior to.
Remember the “bitter clingers” remark?
antonio
You never disappoint! Wild and wooly.
Thanks Squeeky for ruining Red Velvet cake for me from now onwards.
So if they hate our kind of White folks so much,…
I believe white liberals subconsciously hate themselves. They unwittingly project that hatred in the hope they will relieve themselves of this hideous nature that is eating them from the inside out. However it isn’t working. They are absolutely miserable in their existence and because they lack the humility necessary for self-reflection, they cannot fathom the source of their misery. So they lash out at every thing and every one but themselves. This is the soul of the Democratic party.
Nope, they think quite well of themselves. It’s you they despise. And their grandparents.
Nah, that’s what they project. Anyone, that confidently thinks that highly of themselves, always has some sense of self-deprecating humor. These folks have none. The fact is they are so insecure about themselves and the worldview they’ve absorbed, they have to get control by any means necessary and are terrified at the thought of losing it.
If a White Person….
Moves out >>>White flight>>>Racism
Moves in>>>Gentrification>>>Racism
Sees color>>>Racism
Doesn’t see color>>>Ignoring Racism>>>Racism
Doesn’t Partake in Culture>>>Non-inclusive>>>Racism
Engages in Culture>>>Cultural Appropriation>>>Racism
Whites cannot win no matter what they do.
antonio
Antonio, you forgot the best one…
“I have black friends”->> That’s what all the racists say!
“I don’t have black friends”->> You obviously hate black people!
I have relatives that grew up in Cuba under communism and often their daily experience was reading in Granma (the Cuban Communist Party newspaper) or seeing a billboard with “Record harvest for the 10th year in a row” while waiting in line for toilet paper or meat. Now imagine that your entire society is based on lies. Arguably well meaning lies, but lies nonetheless. Unfortunately, your daily reality does not correspond with the official propaganda and you are not free to say such without suffering serious social, economic or criminal consequences. Our situation is similar to this but to a lesser degree. We are incessantly told that everyone is the same in ability and if this does not appear to be true, if all groups do not achieve in a similar manner, it is only due to racism, discrimination, white privilege, or etc. (you pick). And leftists never question this original assumption but double down on their assertion. Believe me, there are people who read blogs such as this who make it their business to find and expose such heretics and destroy them.
Poor victim, how did you survive?
This is not a reply to the above statement. Not claiming to be a victim of Communism though I still have relatives living in Cuba who are.
Communism was responsible for more suffering and deaths than any ideology of the 20th century and that is a fact. Wonder how many leftists here would prefer to live in Cuba as ordinary Cubans do. Most Western self-proclaimed “Marxists” are upper middle class and well to do. Funny how you don’t meet people from the former USSR, China, Eastern Europe or Cuba who sing the praises of Communism.
Yes antonio, I’m sure most “self-proclaimed Marxists” are upper class. Probably both of them.
I can give you the names of two off the top of my head who teach in the same social research faculty. There are about 70 professors on that faculty.
At this time of pandemic, when we are supposed to be listening to the “doctors and scientists”, it it attack the doctors and scientists time.
Build a fire, burn a witch or call the person a racist and one gets a similar result. That is the typical discourse of some on this blog. They seem to gather together.
All cultures are not equal and to label them so is beyond stupidity!
Egalitarianism is creationism for liberals!
No, it isn’t but luckily we still have the right to disagree.
Fortunately, we do have the right to disagree. I said the above because most leftists base their life philosophy on what they perceive as right thinking, platitudes and theories despite whatever they might observe in their daily lives. I am personally and well acquainted with leftists and leftist thinking. Would compare their fervor to that of religious fundamentalists. You cannot reason with a leftist or a religious fundamentalist.
antonio
Can not reason with stupid so you will go through life being wrong. P.S., there are no leftists in US government nor posting on this sight so find another bogeyman. Try lamenting RWNJs, they are prevalent here and in our gov’t.
@YNOT
I think many leftists are well meaning but naive. Bet you wouldn’t say the same about Trump supporters or me. I think they are wrong they think I am evil. Not the same thing.
Never had anyone who knows me think I am stupid. Successful career and hold a professional license in several jurisdictions. Sir, your opinion of me is absolutely irrelevant. I don’t need leftists approval to feel good about myself. And besides I am Hispanic, are you allowed to hate me?
antonio
Thomas Sowell had it right some years ago: “The word ‘racism’ is like ketchup. It can be put on practically anything – and demanding evidence makes you a ‘racist.”
+1
Benjamin Disraeli wrote in his book “Endymion”
“No man will treat with indifference the principle of race. It is the key to history and why history is so often confused is that it has been written by men who were ignorant of this principle and all the knowledge it involves… Language and religion do not make a race—there is only one thing which makes a race, and that is blood.”[pages 249-250]
in his book Tancred, he wrote “race is everything”
I am not quite the “racist’ that Disraeli was, but, I think it’s interesting to recall his viewpoint. He was an important person, so for those who haven’t heard of him, look it up.
Russ, who are you?? Never seen your name before.
Peter – You are NOT the gate-keeper of this blog. STFU
There’s a reason Elie Mystal isn’t practicing law anymore: he stinks at it. If the common-and-garden screening processes adjacent to the labor market had been operating normally, he wouldn’t have squandered all of those years preparing for and attempting to ply a trade which was so unsuitable to him. Instead of looking himself in the eye, understanding how he’d been gypped, and finding another line of work, he earns a living from being embittered. It’s bloody too bad.
“Indeed, labeling people racists is now a common form of political criticism.”
Your use of the word “now” suggests that you haven’t noticed for the past 30 years.
Wasn’t Joycelyn Elders the first black Surgeon General?
Yes, she was. But female accomplishments and milestones tend to be overlooked, forgotten or ignored. And I believe Turley is conflating the life stories of Elders and Adams. She actually DID grow-up in poverty and segregation in tiny Schaal, AR, a community of black cotton sharecroppers. Dr. Elders she was born in 1933; in the Deep South, a very different era than that experienced by the 45 y/o Adams, who was raised on a farm in the largely Amish agricultural community of St. Mary’s County, MD. There is nothing impoverished about the area where Adams was raised, if anything, agricultural land in the area is quite valuable.
St. Mary’s County Md. is not ‘largely Amish’.
There are lots of Mennonites there as well, if you want to split hairs. But Mechanicsville, where Adams was raised, is one of three Amish settlements in St. Mary’s County founded by Amish people who left Lancaster County, PA between 1930 and 1940.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell the Amish from the Mennonites, when they’re out and about.
Mistaken for fools, the Amish are incredibly clever. Rumspringa is pure social genius.
Possibly, a century from now, our descendants all may be slaves to the AGI, caught in the cybernetic machine mind-meld, and the last germ of independent thinking humanity will be the Amish.
There are 100,000 people in St. Mary’s County. No, you’re not going to find 50,000 Mennonites or Amish there. Mennonites and Amish are about 0.2% of the population of the U.S.
https://www.lmhs.org/about/anabaptist-statistics/
But female accomplishments and milestones tend to be overlooked, forgotten or ignored.
Of course this is a fiction. Women who do X will get extensive publicity when 20 men doing that and more just go about their business without much attention. See the careers of Amelia Earhart, Carly Fiorina, and Danica Patrick for examples.
Joycelyn Elders got a great deal of public attention because of her stupefying vulgarity.
Yet Professor Turley so easily forgot about her……
So what? She was a third echelon Clinton official who left office 25 years ago. And she’s better forgotten.
I love that this conversation has brought her back into focus for me. Fascinating woman.
Truth……..and there a few were others before this current one.
The guy being accused should flip them “the bird”.
I think he just did.
The “racist” charge has lost all meaning because it’s reflexively leveled by liberals against anyone that contradicts them. It’s got all the rebuttal power of “ I know you are but so am I.” It simply shows how intellectually bereft and sclerotic the Left has become. Let it die.
Agreed. What gentry liberals have done is manufacture a small class of professional race-hustlers, mostly employed in higher education, with a scatter of others in the media, electoral politics, and law. Firing these institutional parasites would suffice to eliminate most of the trouble. Of course, the culture of gentry liberals is so degenerate and anemic that to tell them to quit aggressing against others in this way is to tell them that they should cease to be.
What Paul Hollandar said a generation ago applies: it is reasonable for us to surmise that people are generally disinclined to claim the status of victim unless there are benefits attached to so doing. Collective welfare will be improved if we eliminate those benefits, and crush the would-be benefits distributors.
Everyone should read Hollandar’s “Anti-Americanism” if you want a blue print for what is going on, who’s behind it and why is picked up steam.
https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Americanism-Critiques-Home-Abroad-1965-1990/dp/019503824X
The couple recently executed in Wisconsin by their adopted daughter’s thug boyfriend were perfect examples of “gentry liberals”. And unlike most who profess to love diversity, but do so from afar, they actually got their hands dirty. Unfortunately, being a good “gentry liberal” didn’t protect them from the inevitable results of their ideology. Wonder if they had any second thoughts while standing in the ditch during the last moments before execution? Naw, they likely blamed themselves for their “white privilege” or not doing enough for minorities. White liberals (TM) are absolutely hopeless. I have encountered such people when trying to explain a number of racial realities and have absolutely ZERO sympathy for such people when their “beloved pets” do not reciprocate the liberal’s affection.
antonio
You don’t know WTF you are talking about antonio and your ghoulish act is getting old.
btb:
I’ll take Antonio’s authenticity over your contrived talking points any day.
“Talking points” equal inconvenient facts to Mespo.
Elvis:
I’m waiting for that monumental day when btb actually gets a non-cut and paste idea.
@BTB
Point and sputter is not a reply, nor is a slur a refutation or argument. So tell me with a straight face that blacks do not commit crime in wildly disproportionate numbers. I won’t hold my breath for that one.
Here is another inconvenient FACT.
Madison, Wisconsin Is 8% Black: In 2018, 83% of Homicides and 69% of Gun Crime Were Committed by Blacks.
Possible replies for a leftist:
It really didn’t happen, these statistics are inaccurate.
Well, it happened but it really isn’t their fault, racism is to blame.
Since leftists are so much smarter than others I am sure a few lefties can come up with other explanations for black crime.
antonio
antonio:
” So tell me with a straight face that blacks do not commit crime in wildly disproportionate numbers. I won’t hold my breath for that one.”
**********************************
Of course, it’s true and it mimics crime stats for the poor segments of society since the beginning of the country. The interesting question is the exact etiology now when black s have entered the middle class in large numbers (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/10/03/black-household-income-is-rising-across-the-united-states/). Is it economic or cultural, or evidence of a genetic predisposition or something else?
The genetic angle is the weakest argument since pre-60s black families experienced little violent crime. And the answer might lay in the utter destruction of the black nuclear family by naive but well-meaning (I suppose) liberals insisting on knowing better how to help blacks than blacks do for themselves. I also think dejure desegregation was a facilitator in black plight denying that segment of the population the support that defacto segregarion had done for other ethnic groups (China Town, Little Italy etc.) throughout our history.
The genetic angle is the weakest argument since pre-60s black families experienced little violent crime.
Not true. Southern cities often had stupefying homicide rates in the 1920s. I think it may have been more agreeable for Northern blacks than it was subsequently. See Thos. Sowell’s account of his youth in Harlem. There was a severe decline in the quality of life therein between 1945 and 1970.
I enjoyed the infamous quasi-auto-graphical novel “PIMP” by “Iceberg Slim” which deals with pre-1960s era black pimping “game” as they call it. The language is “earthy” and in the “argot” of the times.
Very interesting, for students of crime at least. NOT for children
@this is absurd
Yes, at the turn of the 20th century, blacks crime rates were higher than whites but no where near as high as today. A combination of segregation and white control ensured they would be lower but once the black middle class were able to leave after the Civil Rights movement, chaos ensued.
While no one knows the exact percentages, the Bell Curve puts the nature – nurture argument for IQ differences to be between 40 – 80% Linda Gottfriedson puts it around half. And lots of other things flow from low intelligence besides lack of academic achievement (i.e poor self control, present time orientation, etc).
Of course, leftists have no problem advocating a genetic cause when it fits their purposes (i.e. causes of homosexuality).
I recommend anyone interested read “The Color of Crime” which can be easily downloaded in pdf form. Of course, the statistics are a little off because Hispanics are counted as “White” if perpetrators and non-White, if victims.
Segregation does not tamp down crime rates in black communities, it just inhibits inter-racial crime. White control does not tamp down crime rates in black communities either, unless the white decision-makers are willing and able to vigorously attack social disorder in black neighborhoods over and above what black politicians might do if those neighborhoods were constituted as stand-alone municipalities.
We don’t need segregation. We don’t need institutionalized discourtesy of any kind. We do need to have the right incentives built into our political economy (our common provision especially) and we need properly staffed police forces making use of best practices.
Actually, I do not favor legally enforced segregation but do favor freedom of association and freedom to contract. And I support such rights for reasons some may or may not approve of. But If some want to freely associate or contract with anyone, I am all for it. The Civil Rights movement took this away.
antonio
But don has know, he has Cuban relatives.
…doncha…
I don’t think being offed by your daughter’s bf is an ‘inevitable result’ of being a social-policy blockhead.
Brilliant essay but for nought! Dialogue will not change the state we are in. Some seek power and that is their goal. Period!!! “General” Adams is an outstanding person but will be destroyed by liberal blacks in power simply because he is NOT racist like the are.
“[He] will be destroyed […] because he is not as black as they are.”
Fixed that for you.
Dave is lubed up, drinking early during the pandemic.
Bonus points for being the first posted in a great long while who even considered the jelly instead of the state. 🙂
Thad, howdy stranger. Where you from? We’re a small town here and everyone knows each other. Ain’t seen you around before. Just stopped to gas your car?
Peter – again, you are not the gate-keeper of the blog.