Originally posted at Too Sense:
According to Lou Dobbs, we have no problem talking about race in America, it's just that people don't do it because they're afraid of being attacked for saying unpleasant or un-P.C. things. What we have here is a coded language problem: for many American white people, "talking about race" is actually code for "saying nasty things about black people." These people who claim not to be free to express themselves think that any "honest" discussion about race has to include "certain ugly truths" such as "black people have babies out of wedlock," "black people are on welfare," "it's the blacks that are killing each other," and "affirmative action is racist." Those are just a few examples
These poor, oppressed souls know, they just know, that there are certain facts that America is not willing to accept. If only they could get America to accept those facts, get people to wake up and "see the world for what it really is," all of these racial issues could be put to rest. It just so happens, as a matter of purest coincidence, I'm sure, that all of the "facts" that these people refer to as being forbidden in conversation are blatantly racist negative stereotypes about black people and/or other minorities. The problem, you see, is that America just won't admit to the racists that they've been right all along, that everything started going downhill with Emancipation, got worse when Truman integrated the armed forces, and just went all to hell with Brown v. Board.
Well, I say let these folks make whatever statements they want, in every newspaper and on every network. Bring them out into public view, let them spew as much ignorant bile as they have stored up in their wormy little guts. And then, when they've had their say, demolish their argument. Show how ignorant and small they are, how little they know about the world, how much they have been consumed by hate and superstition. The facts, whether historical or present-day, are against the racists, and an open debate would show as much
I have no problem dealing with the David Dukes of the world, because they are out there in broad daylight saying foolish things, falling back on old myths and fantasies, and generally showing their bright red asses wherever they go. We're not "done" with civil rights in America, but we have made enough progress that someone with views like David Duke's is going to be seen as at best an ignorant fool and at worst a hateful demagogue (Duke is both wrapped up in one). David Duke we can handle, because he is exposed in the public arena and people can (and have and will) engage him and defeat him simply on the merits.
No, the ones you have to watch and be concerned about are the ones in the suit and tie who play the "polite company" game, never saying anything racist in public, but quietly believing all the racist lies, and supporting racist policies, while never being exposed as a racist. These are the folks who get most indignant at the suggestion that America is a "racist" country, because they know damned well that it's true and they want everyone to look away from that fact so that things can continue as they are. If we don't talk about racism and identify it as such, we won't correct it, and the racists can continue going about their merry business.
They don't need public laws to enforce segregation, because suburban flight and a lack of mass transit from major urban hubs out into the suburbs does that for them. And this sub-prime mess is going to make things even easier for them, because now all they have to do is strictly enforce lending standards for credit-worthiness. Statistically, the number of minorities buying into the middle-class and affluent 'burbs is going to drop significantly, and it won't take any racist laws to do it. They don't have to segregate schools officially, all they have to do is put the good schools in the areas where minorities will have little or no access to them, and continue to let urban schools go under (a simple matter of keeping property taxes from affluent districts targeted at the schools in those districts rather than applying any such revenues to poorer school districts). None of this is inherently racist, but it serves the racists' purposes, and all of it will continue without any real examination of racial impact as long as we keep avoiding a genuine conversation about race.
According to Lou Dobbs, we have no problem talking about race in America, it's just that people don't do it because they're afraid of being attacked for saying unpleasant or un-P.C. things. What we have here is a coded language problem: for many American white people, "talking about race" is actually code for "saying nasty things about black people." These people who claim not to be free to express themselves think that any "honest" discussion about race has to include "certain ugly truths" such as "black people have babies out of wedlock," "black people are on welfare," "it's the blacks that are killing each other," and "affirmative action is racist." Those are just a few examples
These poor, oppressed souls know, they just know, that there are certain facts that America is not willing to accept. If only they could get America to accept those facts, get people to wake up and "see the world for what it really is," all of these racial issues could be put to rest. It just so happens, as a matter of purest coincidence, I'm sure, that all of the "facts" that these people refer to as being forbidden in conversation are blatantly racist negative stereotypes about black people and/or other minorities. The problem, you see, is that America just won't admit to the racists that they've been right all along, that everything started going downhill with Emancipation, got worse when Truman integrated the armed forces, and just went all to hell with Brown v. Board.
Well, I say let these folks make whatever statements they want, in every newspaper and on every network. Bring them out into public view, let them spew as much ignorant bile as they have stored up in their wormy little guts. And then, when they've had their say, demolish their argument. Show how ignorant and small they are, how little they know about the world, how much they have been consumed by hate and superstition. The facts, whether historical or present-day, are against the racists, and an open debate would show as much
I have no problem dealing with the David Dukes of the world, because they are out there in broad daylight saying foolish things, falling back on old myths and fantasies, and generally showing their bright red asses wherever they go. We're not "done" with civil rights in America, but we have made enough progress that someone with views like David Duke's is going to be seen as at best an ignorant fool and at worst a hateful demagogue (Duke is both wrapped up in one). David Duke we can handle, because he is exposed in the public arena and people can (and have and will) engage him and defeat him simply on the merits.
No, the ones you have to watch and be concerned about are the ones in the suit and tie who play the "polite company" game, never saying anything racist in public, but quietly believing all the racist lies, and supporting racist policies, while never being exposed as a racist. These are the folks who get most indignant at the suggestion that America is a "racist" country, because they know damned well that it's true and they want everyone to look away from that fact so that things can continue as they are. If we don't talk about racism and identify it as such, we won't correct it, and the racists can continue going about their merry business.
They don't need public laws to enforce segregation, because suburban flight and a lack of mass transit from major urban hubs out into the suburbs does that for them. And this sub-prime mess is going to make things even easier for them, because now all they have to do is strictly enforce lending standards for credit-worthiness. Statistically, the number of minorities buying into the middle-class and affluent 'burbs is going to drop significantly, and it won't take any racist laws to do it. They don't have to segregate schools officially, all they have to do is put the good schools in the areas where minorities will have little or no access to them, and continue to let urban schools go under (a simple matter of keeping property taxes from affluent districts targeted at the schools in those districts rather than applying any such revenues to poorer school districts). None of this is inherently racist, but it serves the racists' purposes, and all of it will continue without any real examination of racial impact as long as we keep avoiding a genuine conversation about race.
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