***NOTE*** – We originally published this back a couple years ago, but the topic is (unfortunately) just as relevant as ever. Case in point: the professional race-baiters who fanned the flames of Ferguson & Baltimore, the newer #BlackLivesMatter agitators, the recent ginning-up of the Black Church Arson Hoax, and countless other incidents.
EACH was driven by those seeking to make things worse, rather than better, rendering actual DISCUSSION about race all but impossible.
Anyone would acknowledge that there are still a few despicable racists out there (e.g. Dylann Roof). But monsters like Roof are now the most extreme & infinitesimal fringe, the overwhelming exception to the 99.9999999% rule, with the outcry against them being both visceral and universal. Despite proclamations to the contrary, race is no longer a major detriment to one’s potential for success in America. Quite the opposite, as the recent (and hysterical) example of Dolezal, Rachel can attest.
But our good ‘ol neighborhood Race Peddlers™ & Grievance Hustlers™ ain’t gonna fold up their tents just yet. Because the very topic which they so publicly rail against is the same one which has bestowed upon them ALL of their power, …and they won’t be giving it up anytime soon.
—JTR
—————-
(*ORIGINAL POSTING: July 24, 2013)
Amazingly, they’re still at it.
As you’re no doubt aware, the current cause célèbre of the Race Industry (aka: “Big Racism”) is the alleged “racial profiling” of Trayvon Martin, even though the trial proved that no such racial profiling existed in that case. Regardless, this has been discussed endlessly by both CNN and the MSNBC gang, the aforementioned Race Hustlers, and of course the President himself.
But profiling (racial and otherwise) happens every day, to everyone. We ALL do it to one extent or another. Please consider a couple of examples to which I believe we can all relate….
SCENARIO #1: a group of neatly dressed, black young men (approximately seventeen years of age) comes out of the local church as you walk towards your car. Several of them look you directly in the eye, smile warmly, and at least one says, “Good evening” to you.
Do you:
- Run away, screaming (“Aaaagh! Black youths!!!”)
- Snarl at them (“…damn black kids…”)
- Or, return their greeting with a “Hello” or “Good evening”, which possibly even leads to a friendly conversation.
I’d suggest that you’d likely choose option #3, in part or in full. The reason is simple: hoodlums usually don’t dress neatly, spend any appreciable time in a church (unless they’re vandalizing it), and they don’t greet strangers on the street respectfully.
SCENARIO #2: You are once again walking towards your car, when a group of white young men (of the same approximate age as in scenario #1) comes out of a nearby alley. They’re wearing do-rags and leather jackets. They are moving erratically. A couple of them are rather heavily tattooed; another is drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag. And they all are staring at you like a kid stares at candy in the local Five-and-Dime: hungrily.
Do you:
- Breath a sigh of relief (Hooray! They’re white, so I have nothing to fear of their possible intentions!!!)
- Offer them a ride in your car.
- Or do you tense in preparation for a possible conflict, perhaps even crossing the street to avoid them.
Again, I’m guessing #3 is the most normal response.
This is basic pattern recognition, and it doesn’t matter if you are White, Black, Hispanic, or from one of the “Border Planets” in Firefly. When you see anyone (and especially boys in their late teens/early twenties) acting in a suspicious manner, you behave accordingly.
So when the President says things like “There are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars…”, I’d submit that in ANY such case there are almost certainly other factors involved besides JUST their skin pigmentation, including their dress, behavior, location (!!), the way they carry themselves, time of day/night, eye contact (or lack thereof), facial expression, and a host of other clues that each of us processes instantly to help give us that all-important “friend-or-foe” warning.
Can someone’s race play a part in that warning? Sure, …in the right situation. Courtesy of the always brilliant Walter E. Williams:
In a number of cities, there have been complaints of racism because some taxicab drivers turn down black fares. By simply knowing that a driver refused a black passenger, we cannot make an unambiguous statement about whether the decision was motivated by racial preferences.
As early as 1999, D.C.’s taxicab commissioner Sandra Seegars, who is black, issued a safety advice statement urging the city’s mostly black cabbies to refuse to pick up “dangerous-looking” passengers. She described “dangerous-looking” as a “young black guy … with his … shirttail hanging down longer than his coat, baggy pants down below his underwear and unlaced tennis shoes.”
Would anyone argue that black cabbies who turn down black fares are racists? A law-abiding black person denied a taxi is rightfully angered, but to whom should his anger be directed: at the driver who’s trying to protect his life, or at the people who’ve instilled fear by robbing and assaulting cabbies?
As always, it’s a matter of context. But “Big Racism” constantly seeks to ignore ANY such context, and insists that you do the same. This is anti-intellectual at best, and potentially suicidal at worst.
We need to continue to identify the Race Peddlers (and their mind-numbed devotees) as exactly what they are: opportunists and charlatans, who seek to frame every confrontation, disagreement and policy debate as a matter of racial injustice …all for their own aggrandizement and power.
And while they have the Constitutional freedom to say whatever their hate-filled hearts desire, we thankfully have the freedom not to listen, …at least for the time being.
Two Heads are Better Than One 