The Racism In Making Up For Racism
It's just bizarre how people who claim to be against racism call for racism -- selectively applied -- and see no logical issue in that.
Terrif Lionel Shriver piece at The Spectator:
After the explosion of international self-abasement over George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, much theatrical soul-searching ensued. So your basic man or woman on the street might have reason to puzzle why it is that in the wake of all this hyper-awareness about race (which the left simultaneously instructs us both does not exist and explains everything), relations between the hues seem only to decay.In order to redress 'structural racism', the state of Oregon (impressively still extant, given the determination of both nature and Portland's Antifa activists to burn it down) has reserved $62 million, out of a total Covid relief fund of $200 million, for black people. Black individuals who've suffered losses from government shutdowns can apply for grants of up to $3,000 per family, while black-owned businesses struggling during the pandemic can qualify for relief up to $100,000.
If you're familiar with America's north-western demographics, the first peculiarity that leaps from this weighted state benevolence is its disproportion. This is Oregon. What black people? Only 2.9 per cent of Oregonians are black. Yet close to a third of the relief fund is to be administered exclusively to this tiny, sanctified sliver of the population. Per capita, black applicants are bequeathed more than ten times the financial assistance as residents of other races. Isn't that 'structural racism'? Furthermore, by fostering resentment in the unanointed, this is a dubious formula for teaching everyone to get along.
Likewise problematic is the fact that 13.3 per cent of the state is Latino. Though more than four times more populous than black residents, Hispanic Oregonians don't qualify for 'The Oregon Cares Fund for Black Relief and Resiliency' -- as Maria Garcia, owner of Portland's Revolución Coffee House, has discovered. Although her profits have withered from coronavirus restrictions, Ms Garcia's application to the Cares Fund was declined because '0 per cent of its owners identify as Black'. The café owner is now suing in federal court, arguing that a blacks-only fund violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
You'd think that the bald unconstitutionality of apportioning emergency assistance on the basis of race would be cut and dried. Unfortunately, previous Supreme Court rulings -- permitting race-based admissions to promote diversity in education and narrowly allowing the use of racial preferences in the awarding of state and federal contracts -- have muddied what should have remained clear constitutional waters. In recent decades, the whole foundational American principle of equality under the law has been eroded. So the US now has Bad Racism and Good Racism.
...Races, sexes, sexual identity cadres and the disabled are being incentivised to operate like trade unions or lobbying factions, whose interests are mutually exclusive and whose relations are therefore, if you will, structurally hostile. We've grown so numbly accustomed to raising category over character that we're forgetting how depressingly regressive this primitive tribal mindset is.
Crid at December 16, 2020 11:08 PM
Not a lawyer, but I wonder if the non-black residents of Oregon can file a class-action for racial discrimination.
Patrick at December 17, 2020 3:23 AM
I have an in-law who lives in Oregon. One time, he told me, "There is Oregon and there is Portland. Please don't confuse the two."
Conan the Grammarian at December 17, 2020 5:30 AM
Eh, it's child-rearing extrapolated to the greater population.
"No, you already took several cookies. You don't get any now, but your sister can have one".
The problem is, dealing with individuals and dealing with populations isn't the same thing. Because within the population that took the cookies from the jar are many people who never even got a crumb of the cookie, and are now being denied cookies.
It's why collective punishment is frowned upon by the international community. So in this case it's more like collective reward, but given that it's about allocation of resources it acts like a collective punishment.
If the races in America were like tribes with their own separate bits of land, it might make sense... take a bit of fertile land from Tribe A and give it to Tribe B so they can live off of it... but it doesn't work that way, it is all enmeshed and people live together (in spite of neighborhoods being segregated), and a scholarship to one person from an ethnic group doesn't benefit others from the ethnic group.
NicoleK at December 17, 2020 11:59 AM
Same thing with the earlier Will and Grace casting conversation, the people advocating this think that some benefit will accrue to them personally, despite the fact that it rarely does.
They never seem to realize that those Affirmative Action diversity set-asides never put them in the manager's chair, but put an already well-educated person of their tribe into that chair, someone who probably would have made it into that chair on their own.
Diversity admission set-asides at elite colleges don't benefit the poor and oppressed non-whites of the hood, but the mediocre children of high achieving non-whites.
Conan the Grammarian at December 17, 2020 12:53 PM
someone who probably would have made it into that chair on their own
Because of that set aside, we'll never know and I'll just assume it was because of their ability to tick of a particular box or boxes.
Strange they like check boxes for some things, and not others like "have you been convicted of a felony".
I R A Darth Aggie at December 17, 2020 1:13 PM
Is it just me, or does any one else notice that ever since our first black president was elected -- which should have been a conclusive demonstration that America is NOT a racist society -- race relations have been steadily declining? Obama's legacy increasingly seems to be racial hostility and division. To wit, there is now a "black national anthem" and the "Star-Spangled Banner" for the rest of us. How soon before the rest of us are "taking a knee" when we hear the BNA?
Jay R at December 17, 2020 1:29 PM
It is both at the same time Jay. Advocacy is a business like any other. People go to work and stump for their particular issue for eight hours the same as other people get up and build lawnmowers all day long. So what do you think the election of a black president does to those who's livelihood depends on 'fixing race relations'. They don't say good job we're done and find something else to do. Instead they double down trying to keep the money flowing like any other struggling business.
Ben at December 17, 2020 6:37 PM
> Please don't confuse the two."
Well, Cali viewed whole seems dominated by the delusions & corruption of San Fran and Sacramento. There are probably still great places to live in the Golden State, but corrections are approaching which will burden every county.
In matters of tech, Balaji Srinivasan is a voice deserving your attention on Twitter, podcasts, conference appearances, and investment philosophy.
He greatly admires the mayor of Miami. If the magic of the Silicon Valley social blend continues to be diminished by big name departures (and accelerated by Covid's nourishment of remote employment), Cali's crash will be hastened.
Yeahyeah, but the point is— with the exception of the state's largest city possibly facing some kind of budget or comity crisis, Portland's descent into lunacy probably won't threaten the rest of the Oregon the way Frisco's collapse will burden California's Modoc and Imperial counties.
Might be wrong. Maybe all of Oregon's money happens in Portland.
Crid at December 17, 2020 7:44 PM
There was an interesting article a few years back in an alum Magazine I read, about how one problem with affirmative action in college is sort of a domino effect.
So, say someone who isn't quite qualified to get into a top level school gets in, that means they DON'T go to the second tier school where they might have thrived. And the second tier school has to accept third tier students, and so on so forth. (Yes I know "tier" is ambiguous and what's great for one person is not for another, but there are still general trends)
Which means none of the students end up doing as well as they would have, which ends up creating a weaker generation over all.
It was an interesting theory. Wonder if you could publish it today.
NicoleK at December 17, 2020 9:29 PM
I don't think Portland has the dominant proportion of the state's population, the way Chicago dominates Illinois.
However, it seems to have the premier position with regard to economics. Nike's headquarters is in Beaverton, a Portland suburb. Wells Fargo has a large operations center in Beaverton. The tech sector grew with the state's efforts to transition away from a natural resource based economy, but that growth has been mostly limited to the Portland area.
Portland has been the epicenter of most of Oregon's economic growth since the 1860s with the railroad and shipbuilding establishing Portland's economic dominance over the rest of the state.
Conan the Grammarian at December 18, 2020 6:45 AM
As of about 10 years ago, Portland was a sensational, absolutely magic place to visit
crid at December 18, 2020 1:45 PM
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