The New Original Sin
I've always loved and clung to the Martin Luther King view, judging people by the content of their character. Character is under our control. As I see it, our character -- who we are -- is created by the behavior we repeatedly engage in. Want to have good character? Behave well: Be kind, generous, honest, accountable, stand up for your beliefs and for the dignity and individual rights of others -- to name a few I think are vital.
Well, the new "original sin" is to be born white.
In The New York Times, headline: "'White Supremacy' Once Meant David Duke and The Klan. Now It Refers to Much More," Michael Powell writes that organizations from the NFL to art museums are being accused of perpetuating "white supremacy":
But some Black scholars, businessmen and activists -- on the right and the left -- balk at the phrase. They hear in those words a sledgehammer that shocks and accuses, rather than explains. When so much is described as white supremacy, when the Ku Klux Klan and a museum art collection take the same descriptor, they say, the power of the phrase is lost.Prof. Orlando Patterson, a sociologist at Harvard University who has written magisterial works on the nature of slavery and freedom, including about his native Jamaica, said it was too reminiscent of the phrases used to describe apartheid and Nazi Germany.
"It comes from anger and hopelessness and alienates rather than converts," he said.
The label also discourages white and Black people from finding commonalities of experience that could move society forward, Professor Patterson and others said.
"It racializes a lot of problems that a lot of people face, even when race is not the answer," Professor Patterson said.
Glenn C. Loury, a conservative-leaning economics professor at Brown University, hears in the term an attempt to spin a mythic narrative about a fallen America.
"So we declare structures of our country are implacably racist," Professor Loury said. "On the other hand, we make appeals to have a conversation with that country which is mired in white supremacy? The logic escapes me."
Then there are those whose cultural signposts are found outside the Black-white divide. The essayist Wesley Yang, the son of Korean immigrants and the author of "The Souls of Yellow Folk," often examines racial identity and has found himself watching the debate over these words as if through a side window. Did this thing called white supremacy really so neatly define the lives of Black people and Latinos and Asians?
"The phrase is destructive of discourse," he said. "Once you define it as something that has a ghostly essence, it's nowhere and everywhere."
Where does this lead? Well, for one, here:
This is not access to education but the denial of it: what I call "benevolent racism."
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) October 18, 2020
It claims to help but robs kids of an education. For prob most students, if there are no grades, no need to work to improve in an area. No need to meet deadlines? Fab training for work world!
I guess I failed to chose my ancestors correctly.
Jay at October 18, 2020 9:40 AM
I'm sure it's in order to fulfill their primary role as daycare providers. School choice can't come soon enough.
Spiderfall at October 18, 2020 10:00 AM
Quit pretending that this is any sort of thoughtful discourse. These are idiots.
You don't stand a chance today of defeating the US up front - but if you simply convince people it is the height of kindness to lower standards for those poor people who cannot succeed - through no fault of their own! - you can get the country to kill itself. Convince every government institution and contractor they employ that "diversity" is the finest of all goals and they will race each other to starvation.
This article was blocked on Facebook, first as SPAM, and then because it didn't meet "community standards". Apparently, the real-world experience and opinion of a world-traveller, without a single obscene word, is forbidden.
One wonders when Dr. King's statement regarding character will be banned.
Radwaste at October 18, 2020 10:44 AM
IDK Raddie, the idea of Kamala Harris as a bulwark against the incursion of the Left into Democratic Party politics is a bit far-fetched. After all, she has one of the most left-wing voting records of any modern Democratic senator.
The idea of her as a politics-as-usual politician is not so far-fetched. She may subscribe to the far-left philosophy now, but I have no doubt it's only as a path-to-power. Once in office, the acquisition of power will be her goal.
Conan the Grammarian at October 18, 2020 11:22 AM
Not knowing any history, the "white supremacy" accusers are unaware that every part of the world in the 1800s had slavery. North African countries routinely captured European sailors and kept them as slaves. Thomas Jefferson as president sent a fleet to stop that slavery. The first, and for a century the only, abolitionist movement was started by white people in England and the US (and Canada). It was Britain that for 80 years waged naval war on the slave trade and finally stopped it. We fought the civil war over slavery, with approximately 1 dead soldier for every 6 slaves freed--that is pretty good reparations I think. The US was NOT ahead of Europe economically or intellectually until AFTER the civil war and probably not until the 1950s. Pretty hard to argue that our advantage was due to slavery, especially when the South was behind the North economically at the time of the civil war. So many idiots, so little time to refute them.
cc at October 18, 2020 12:58 PM
Conan, from what I heard, a lot of black supporters of Biden were NOT happy when he picked Harris, given her record. But, it does make it harder for conservatives to attack him as a puppet of the left wing. Unlike if, say, he'd picked Liz.
Lenona at October 18, 2020 2:13 PM
Not much difference there Lenona. But lets be honest, there weren't that many good candidates who wanted the job. I may think Harris was a dumb pick but I also recognize it was a choice between dumb and dumber.
Ben at October 18, 2020 4:31 PM
Q: What’s the favorite department store of neo-Nazis and the KKK?
A: White Supremacy’s
JD at October 18, 2020 7:38 PM
The unions are playing right into the hands of the wealthy. By depressing the value of servant labor they help cut costs for the management class.
Spiderfall at October 18, 2020 8:48 PM
When so much is described as white supremacy, when the Ku Klux Klan and a museum art collection take the same descriptor, they say, the power of the phrase is lost.
Lot of that going around these days. "Racist" and "hate speech" have been reduced to meaningless name-calling.
Rex Little at October 18, 2020 9:15 PM
"You are a racist!"
"Yeah, so?"
"You are a sexist!"
"Yeah, so?"
"You are a Nazi!"
"Yeah, so?"
Ho, hum.
Jay R at October 19, 2020 12:28 PM
It's like "transphobic", the made-up thoughtcrime of the moment.
An actual phobia is (1) a serious malady and (2) not yet illegal.
But they're working on the second part.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 19, 2020 7:38 PM
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