The Derbyshire thing

John Derbyshire is out at National Review. I don’t have a lot of opinion about that, any more than I had a lot of opinion about the piece that sparked it.  The premise was flawed, because most of us don’t have “the talk“; the talk happens incrementally, and for better or worse, most of us have the race thing figured out by puberty (and the “us” there is race-inclusive).  The timing was colossally bad for such an article. And any collective conclusions on race, no matter how exhaustively hotlinked, are by definition racist. If I were to write, “Ashkenazi Jews are more intelligent than the rest of us,” that would be a racist statement, because the individual Jew in front of me could be a complete moron.

But that word “racist” is the issue. The boy has cried “wolf!” once too often. (Wait, can I use “boy” in a discussion about race?). It’s the new “Witch!”  When people can seriously suggest that Mary J. Blige singing about fried chicken for Burger King supports a racial stereotype, the concept is bankrupt…. because of course all black people like their fried chicken cut into strips and served in a tortilla with three cheeses and lettuce, just as they eat cut and seeded watermelon from sherbet glasses, and a wealthy and accomplished black artist had to take Burger King’s money and turn race traitor because she’s oppressed.

Does anybody really truly give a shit about what one blogger has to say, except insofar as it can be used to score points against National Review (where, it should be noted, it did not appear)?  Well, National Review does, because it’s their brand, and Derb is associated; that’s understandable. But if nobody cared, and nobody complained, what then? And if people really gave a shit, wouldn’t they try to refute Derbyshire’s links, to discredit the idea, instead of deciding that the author had, in the memorable words of one commenter, “intellectual lice”?

Let’s talk about some real racism. A guy in his 20s shoots a teenager. That’s a tragedy, not only for the now-dead teen, but for the shooter, who must second-guess his own actions, run the legal gauntlet, and know he is responsible for taking a human life.  Then let’s add the element of race. Now the tragedy for the shooter is multiplied, because he lives in fear of mob violence. But that’s only the beginning, the stone in the pond creating its ripples. Neo-Nazis and New Black Panthers (but I repeat myself) walk the streets of Sanford Florida (or at least pretend to). An old man in Toledo is beaten by teens avenging Trayvon (or so it’s at first claimed) . Black people in Tulsa are shot for no apparent reason, possibly by a white man. A video surfaces of a white man being beaten and robbed by a black mob.

To my white friends pushing the “Racist!” meme to score a few cheap political points: most of you live in mixed race or even white-minority areas. How fucking stupid is it to foment a race war in which you are highly likely to be a casualty?

Put with the master?

A girl was allegedly raped at the encampment of ’60s re-enactors known as Occupy Cleveland. I’m going to treat the story as true, based on current information, because it is consistent with the details, and because anybody down with the cause enough to overnight there would not invent a story damaging to the cause.

It’s those details that I find disturbing:

CLEVELAND, Ohio (CBS Cleveland) – An “Occupy Cleveland” protester tells police she was raped in her tent over the weekend.

Cleveland police are investigating an alleged sexual assault incident Saturday at the “Occupy Cleveland” rally involving a 19-year-old female student from Parma.

According to police reports, the 19-year-old student was instructed by “Occupy Cleveland” personnel to “share a tent with the suspect due to a shortage of tents.” The suspect identified himself as “Leland” to the woman. The woman told police that after she had thought the suspect went to sleep in his own bed, she slept in a sleeping bag provided to her by the rally.

“From Parma” suggests a certain ethnicity. “Leland” suggests a different ethnicity. “Was instructed” implies a certain accepted power-over, at least to the extent of “it’s our tent and sleeping bag; you will do as we say.” Now, normal people would not bunk a strange male and strange female together, even in a shortage of tents.That’s asking for trouble. And it’s clear that the Parma Occupier felt there would be trouble, as she did not retire until she thought that “Leland” was asleep. At that point, most women would have run home to Mommy. I’ve tented chastely with women not my lovers, without touching them (though in those cases there was definitely “wanna’ at work). So I’m not blaming the victim here, except insofar as she did not act on her gut feeling of wrongness…perhaps because she considered that gut feeling to be evidence of her own racism?

My concern has to do with the “personnel” (I thought this movement had no leaders) who put a young girl in a dangerous situation. Why? Were they blinded by their own idealism? Or was this a deliberate psychological operation? Were they trying to reprogram the Parma girl’s sexism and racism by deliberately bunking her with a black man? This would be consistent with the radical egalitarianism of Marxist movements. Was the perp connected to the camp’s authority structure in some way?

There are a lot of questions here, and I’ll be looking for answers.

UPDATE: Hmm, Cleveland girl, not Parma, and attending a school for the learning disabled. And OC’s spokesperson claims they don’t make sleeping assignments. Which doesn’t necessarily say that a different subgang of “they”s might do so, given that “there are no leaders” (bullshit). Or that “Leland” was just a predator who came for this specific purpose, and told her that “the administrators” told him to sleep with her. Apparently OC has a fairly detailed set of rape policies.

Yes, I know that “LD” does not mean “nutter”, but those with one issue often have other issues. The notion stated by the one interviewee that she might have come out deliberately to claim rape is pretty absurd. But we knew from the get-go that the victim was a card or two short of a full deck, because why would somebody put themselves in that situation? I’m still waiting for information that will make this make sense.

Black

Here’s an idiot in the UK who thinks that people’s association of black with bad is an arbitrary construct which can be reprogrammed by lying to students, dressing witches in pink, and getting rid of white paper.

We learn very early on that black is bad, and nature is the teacher.  The night is black, and you can’t see. You trip, fall, and hurt yourself…even if your name is Tyrell Williams. And in the night there are creatures who can see in the dark better than we can…creatures who are hungry. Our ancestors built fires to make light to chase them away…and the black coals the next morning frequently burned them.

There is no intrinsic reason why our more melanin-resplendent brethren (most of whom aren’t “black”)  should be related to the darkness of the night…unless they behave like the beasts of the night.

Malcolm XI

I am ROTFLMAO over this video explicating the physical resemblance between Malcolm X and Pres__ent Øbama. Clearly, this is a racist argument. I don’t care how “the brother” lecturing in the video is dressed or how he sounds…he looks like a honky to me. Granted. the photos are suggestive, though the Ferrous One’s sardonic response was “They all look alike to me.” It’s no more a stretch to believe that Stanley Ann Dunham bore Malcolm X’s love child, or raised another woman’s, that to believe some of the other theories about this strange man we’re saddled with. I absolutely draw the line though at the notion that the kid was specifically bred to become President. Too much could have gone wrong; a proper conspiracy would have bred dozens of racially-grievanced, power-hungry, rootless and confused narcissists to run the country. And if you’ve come with me this far, that last line made you sweat.

Snark

Alvie, on Bill Maher’s suggestion that that Øbama “act black”:

“Act!?” Why not just…be? I thought it was bad when a President was an …actor. It sure was during the 1980s.

Better late than never

I see that the Washington Post has finally decided to find some sources in the Justice Department and confirm what the dextrosphere already knew: that white people have no voting rights in Eric Holder’s America. I guess that makes it official, and believable.

I suppose that tomorrow, NPR’s one Black civil rights expert will explain how this fits in with historical notions of civil rights. Oh, wait…

Hang her high and drop her fast

Quite a charming family the Sherrods have, per Dan Riehl.  Daddy’s a race-baiter, kids are named Kenyatta and Russia…

And a commenter notes on the loss of the family farm:

a 6,000 acre farm that can’t generate enough revenue to cover the mortgage ??? what am I missing here ???

from:

http://www.ces.uga.edu/Agriculture/agecon/pubs/comm/pdf/CASH%20RENTS%20PAID%20FOR%20GEORGIA%20FARMLAND%20IN%202007.pdf

Dry land, no particular crop: 42.27 per acre (average)

lease out 2,000 acres for $84,540 annually …

on a 6% mortgage 84K would service $1.4 million … since they have been on that land for decades I would suspect their mortgage was alot less than that …

Marxism in action, inherit a 6,000 acre farm and run it into the ground …

Let her hang…and don’t cut her down

I really wanted to believe the redemptive narrative about Shirley Sherrod. Good people like Elizabeth Scalia were behind it. Yeah, maybe she was a victim…

No. She’s talking about suing Breitbart. who wants to bring back slavery, she’s talking about Fox News wanting to bring back Jim Crow. Apparently the dignified woman who was Ms. Sherrod has lost her soul and been possessed by the spirit of Al Sharpton. Take Vilsack’s promotion and shut up already.

Let her hang

I feel a bit of sympathy for Shirley Sherrod. You see, I was fired for “racism” once myself.

It was a weekday morning in the spring of 1989, and I was working in the lawn and garden department of Sears at Randall Park Mall (a store that no longer exists). I was the only one working the department. I had one of those high-energy, in-your-face kind of Caucasian customers, and I saw two Negro matrons waiting to be helped. The guy was a bit of a pest. I don’t remember exactly what he bought, but it was high-ticketish, and he left happy. So I turned to help the ladies, and the guy came back, wanting some little accessory he had forgotten. So I went to help him, because basically I wanted him gone. So then the women asked why I’d helped him instead of them, and I made some joke about “pushy white males.”  Now, anyone in my age group would have realized that I was riffing on a cultural stereotype, and that the remark was if anything anti-Caucasian. But all these women knew is that they hadn’t gotten served, and their not getting served had something to do with the other guy being white.  So they raised a big stink, and I was the propitiatory offering.  Now, did I have an issue with black people, or a policy of helping white people first? Of course not. Black people’s money was just as green as white’s; greener in fact, as they more often paid in cash. I had a colleague who openly declared, “When I see a turban I run in the other direction” and was fine with the rest of us helping any middle-Eastern customer when he was around. But they weren’t threatening any boycotts, and he wasn’t saying anything to the customers about it.  I can’t say that I blame Sears for doing what they felt they had to do; after all, I did use the “w word”. If I had said “pushy male”, perhaps the women wouldn’t have gotten up on a feminist high horse, but who knows?

Which brings us to the video.  There’s a certain amount of rethink going on, because there’s enough context (even in the edited video) to see that Sherrod had repented of treating white folks differently. Yet she’s telling this story in this way because she knows it will play well at the NAACP, so she’s not exactly ashamed of her action or inaction. Likewise, the NAACP has backed off their earlier condemnation, under member pressure. Does anyone doubt that if the roles were reversed, if a white man had said something similar at a meeting of the  NAAWP (an organization that would quite simply not be allowed to exist), there would be no forgiveness? Sherrod openly admitted to treating the races differently, in a position of public trust. That’s not only discrimination, but discrimination by a public official on the discriminated-against party’s dime.

People are discussing this in terms of strategy, and I’m going to support the Breitbart video on that basis. The Left has long been insisting on a zero-tolerance policy towards racism. Any policy is “racist” if it harms one more Negro than their per-capita share, no matter what the motivation. Criticism of Obama or Holder is racist, no matter how justified, because of the color of their skin.  If they’re going to insist on zero-tolerance for racism, I say give them what they want…including zero-tolerance of the racism of holding black people to a different standard about racism.  Working-class blacks are about the last refuge of anti-Semitism in this country. I’ve been the target of several anti-Jew remarks, which is funny in a way because I’m as goy as Göring, but am physically a plausible representation of Tevye. For years we had the anti-Semitic murals at Grandpa’s Kitchen (which, though Palestinian-owned, was kept in business by black people). And black people are suspicious of white people in general, for good reason…though when even the Rev. Jackson fears young black males following him at night, don’t we also have good reason for suspicion? And what about Identity churches like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s, or black-supremacist organizations like the NAACP?

Now, actually, I’m not in favor of that standard as a standard. I think everyone is worthy of “advancement”. But not everyone will join the Church or the libertarian movement (the best ways I can think of to advance everyone), and advancing people is hard work, so I really don’t mind if charity begins at home and colored people advance colored people first, as long as they grant everyone else the same right. Zero tolerance for racism means zero tolerance for everyone, because everyone has at one time or another thought a racially-collectivist thought, and frankly, I don’t have the time or energy to police people’s thoughts. There’s quite enough to do to fight the out-and-proud cases like the New Black Panther Party or the Aryan Nation. But if the Left is going to insist on using “racism” as an all-purpose insult, as the sin which cannot be forgiven, we’ll have to throw it back in their faces until they have to admit that the term means nothing. And if that means collateral damage like Sherrod, so be it. Nobody has a right to a government job. Yes, it sucks to be her. But then, it’s not like Sears has offered me an apology either, let alone my job back. No statement can be unsaid.

What’s interesting is how quick they were to make her part of the grease spot on the pavement that includes Van Jones, Obama’s grandmother, and gay people. They didn’t even want to hear her side of the story (at least Sears listened to me before they axed me). All the administration was afraid of was “You’re going to be on Glenn Beck tomorrow.” That’s a nice compliment to Beck, that he matters that much. Is the “racism” smear that useful, that they have to go to such extremes to preserve it? It’s beginning to appear that if Sherrod was harmed by anyone but herself in this, it was members of her own race, in the administration and NAACP. Which may be the worst part of this.

“Civil rights” and total war

William Grigg, who is generally amazing, is particularly so here.