L'Hote: "Bullshit Social Climber Faux-Antiracism
L'Hote blogs that deejay and Internet personality" Jay Smooth was lecturing Radley Balko on Balko's attitude toward "people of color." (It was in a tweet about The Onion's tweet about Oscar nominee, 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis.)
"L'Hote" writes:
I laughed out loud. It's like God decided, "I'm going to create the perfect possible example of cultural liberalism's preference for feelings over material conditions."Jay Smooth makes videos on the Internet. So he's got that going for him. Radley Balko, meanwhile, has gotten actual black people out of actual jail. He has worked tirelessly against police abuse and corruption, the drug war, and mass incarceration, and specifically the mass incarceration of young black men. He's been cited in court cases where innocent people were freed. His journalism-- you know, the kind where you go out into the world and find out facts in order to create change, rather than sit in front of a webcam and use tired slang-- has helped to create material change in the world. That matters. You know what doesn't matter? Tweets about how offended you are by something. Your tweets do nothing. They accomplish nothing, make nothing happen. They do less than nothing: they are nothing that you mistake for something, and thus make it harder to actual apprise the actual situation. Let's check the percentages, please.
If you're a white person who thinks that "Jay Smooth" has the right to lecture Radley Balko about race in America, you care more about your social positioning than about the material conditions of the nonwhite people you claim to be speaking for. Period. But then that's true of white, web-enabled social liberalism in general: it is fodder for the endless cultural and social status competitions of the people undertaking it, and not for the productive purpose of ending racism, or sexism, or homophobia, or other ills. Online social liberalism is a cul de sac.
The joke here is that I think Balko is an asshole, and his economic politics a horror show. And while I doubt he's ever spent a spare moment thinking about me, I'm certain he'd find me an even bigger asshole than I find him. I hope he never gets what he wants economically. But none of that that matters in this context. You know why? Because getting people out of fucking jail transcends petty personal bullshit.
We don't have to click on the link to learn who Jay Smooth is, right? That won't be on the test, right? It's not an essential body of work, right?
Little girls in made wealthy in movies won't be the ones for whom we need feel the most piquant stings of racism and sexism, right?
Please say "right."
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at February 26, 2013 1:01 AM
It's pretty easy to be indignant when the stakes aren't all that high. I saw the Onion tweet on another blog, and while it was nasty and not terribly clever, a dismissive "bad show, lads" is about all the reaction it deserved. Anything more is tantamount to showing off.
Damn, Crid, you're either up late or up early, not sure which.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at February 26, 2013 5:02 AM
My tweets mean nothing?? But I tweeted with such conviction. . . :-(
dts-01 at February 26, 2013 5:16 AM
When I first saw the report on the Onion remrk, I saw it as Onion tweets preeteen C***. I thought fine they went too far and were being called out on it. When I saw the 8th headline about it, I was thinking why so much press on it.
To me this is just PC ism, appearance trumps actions or reality. Just look at the unemployment numbers and the unemployment gap between whites and blacks. If Obama were a Republican, the Black Caucaus would be calling him the worst President ever causing a war on blacks, and going by the numbers they would be correct.
Joe J at February 26, 2013 7:07 AM
Radley Balko, meanwhile, has gotten actual black people out of actual jail.
Oh, pish-posh. Being a trendy no-thought-required social-climbing progressive isn't about what you've actually done. It's about what you say you've done, and what you say you're going to do.
Tweets along those line work perfectly.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 26, 2013 7:27 AM
it's amazing how many white guys feel comfortable telling women and POC what they should and shouldn't be angry about.
It's amazing to me how many liberals presume to know what I'm feeling, simply by virtue of my being a woman. It's even more amazing that a half black man who grew up in NYC thinks he can speak for me as a woman, when I am white, and grew up in between two dairy farms in MN.
One thing about liberals that annoys me beyond almost anything else is their condescension in speaking for people, without any knowledge of specific situations or respect for a possible differing opinion.
Jazzhands at February 26, 2013 12:17 PM
Know this.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at February 26, 2013 1:56 PM
it's amazing how many white guys feel comfortable telling women and POC what they should and shouldn't be angry about.
Funny how it isnt amazing when its women and POC feel comfortable telling white guys what they should and shouldn't be angry about.
lujlp at February 26, 2013 3:08 PM
For the record, though we've never met, I know he went to a good school, and his tweeting describes a kind and thoughtful man. There are few men on the planet I'd think less likely to be an "asshole."
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at February 26, 2013 6:12 PM
"jay" should realize that bashing white males for daring to talk IS racism.
Lobster at February 27, 2013 9:45 AM
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