Category Archives: Race

Why Waco And Baltimore Are Different

Race Relations

I recently read an op-ed over at CNN.  In it the author, Sally Kohn tries to make the point that one of the reason we are still struggling in America when it comes to race relations is that we  have yet to break the ‘white privilege’ that exists here.

She may be right – I don’t know – but I am pretty sure that the examples of Waco and Baltimore [and Ferguson] aren’t examples of what’s wrong.

Her story and my comments:

(CNN)On Sunday, just after news broke of a shootout in Waco, Texas, involving “rival biker gangs” as The New York Times alert phrased it, the political activist Shaun King wrote on Twitter:

“I’ll wait (and wait and wait and wait) to hear someone on the news call what just happened in Waco ‘white on white’ violence.”

When reporter Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times responded, “do we even know the race of the bikers yet?” activist Deray Mckesson tweeted:

“If they were black gangs, we’d certainly know by now. That’s the point. Waco.”

So, I live in North Carolina, a ‘Confederate’ state, and we have news stories all the time describing rapes, murders, robberies and all manner of crimes and I never hear mention of the race of the suspect. 

Race is rarely reported.

One of the most distinct characteristics of white privilege is the privilege to be unique. When white people commit violent acts, they are treated as aberrations, slips described with adjectives that show they are unusual and in no way representative of the broader racial group to which they belong.

One of the distinct characteristics of being white is that I don’t identify with being white.  Now, and I admit, this might be due to the fact that the world doesn’t SEE me as white, so I get that.  But my point is that I don’t feel any sense of “community” with other white people.  So, to me, a white person committing crimes isn’t an indictment of “my people”.  In fact, the concept of “my people” is foreign to me.

In fact, in much of the coverage of the Waco shootings, the race of the gang members isn’t even mentioned, although pictures of the aftermath show groups of white bikers being held by police. By comparison, the day after Freddie Gray died in the custody of police officers in Baltimore, not only did most coverage mention that Gray was black, but also included a quote from the deputy police commissioner noting Gray was arrested in “a high-crime area known to have high narcotic incidents,” implicitly smearing Gray and the entire community.

I don’t think that this is true.  The actual news coverage of Freddy Gray being arrested and then having died is remarkably void of race mention.  The ensuing RIOTS and their source of anger IS mention repeatedly.

The crime and tragedy of Freddy is not about race – the violence that followed is.

How did press reports quote the police in Waco? “We’ve been made aware in the past few months of rival biker gangs … being here and causing issues,” Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said. Causing issues? Cops were reportedly so worried about the bikers gathering in the Waco strip mall that they had 12 officers as well as officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety stationed outside the restaurant.

I fail to understand her point here.  Yes, local cops had reason to believe that criminal activity was possible and stationed forces accordingly.  Nothing to see here.

Now there’s word that the biker gangs have issued repeated threats against the police in the aftermath of the Waco “melee” as The New York Times headline called it. During the uprisings in Baltimore, I saw a flurry of tweets about black people disrespecting property and throwing rocks at police. Now that these biker gangs have issued actual death threats, why am I not now seeing tons of Twitter posts about white people disrespecting the lives of police?

Again, the author is missing he comparison.  The arrest of Freddy Gray was not the national spectacle – the “uprisings” were.  Now, if white Waco began to riot because the local police department officials were targeting “white gang members” that would be different.

But that’s not happening here.  I suspect that white people in Waco SUPPORT their cops targeting white gang members.

In the comments on one news website, someone — presumably sarcastically — wrote, “More white thuggery. When will whites take responsibility for their decaying culture?”

As it pertains to Freddy Gray, the verdict is still literally out, but the events in Ferguson have been adjudicated.  Michael Brown robbed a store and then assaulted a cop. 

If there were such a feeling among whites as to label us a community, we might say, “We don’t condone the violence or criminal activity of one of our own”.

If the white people of Waco protested that white gang members were arrested not because they were innocent but because they were white, THEN her arguments would make more contextual sense.

“Race literally has nothing to do with this situation,” another commenter replied. Exactly.

So why is it that in cases such as Michael Brown and Freddie Gray — and so many others — race is made central to the story, even in instances where the black and brown people involved are victims of police violence?

The answer is that in Brown and Gray race ISN’T an issue UNTIL the protests and riots occur.

Research shows that implicit bias against black and brown people is real, as is white privilege. And studies show that white people greatly overestimate the share of crimes committed by black people. Is it any wonder, given the racialized nature with which we cover crime? According to one study, television stations covered crimes committed by black people in greater proportion than their actual share of criminal acts in the city.

Here the author is confusing pronouns, she was ‘we’ confused with ‘I’.

On some level, the commenter is right: Race has nothing to do with crime. We know that people of all races commit crimes and are victims of crimes in America and the most sensible among us know such cause or effect has nothing to do with skin color. And yet our perceptions and attitudes about criminality have absolutely everything to do with race.

When one Muslim person even threatens violence in the United States, it’s treated as terrorism of crisis-like proportions. As we saw in the case of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, even when black men are the victims of violence, the burden of proof is placed upon them and their families to show that they didn’t deserve it.

When a crime occurs and the suspect is Muslim NO mention of terrorism is mentioned, but when the suspects admit to being members of terrorist organizations and those organizations claim they have ‘soldiers’ in multiple states – yes, they are reported differently.

A counter example might be the murders of the three Muslim students in North Carolina.  The suspect sounds like an equal opportunity asshole to me but he’s immediately made out to be the perp of a hate crime for the only reason that his victims were Muslim.

When was the last time you saw an incident of a white guy going on a shooting rampage produce calls for soul searching and recrimination on the part of the white male community? Maybe it should. But how can that happen when even after nine people are dead and 170 arrested in a shooting rampage by a criminal gang of bikers, we’d rather not mention that they are white?

Because. 

We teach our kids that such activity is bad.  Joining a motorcycle gang is bad, getting tattoos and dropping out of school is bad.  Dressing like an asshole is bad.  We teach our kids that if you do those things bad things will happen

We use the incident as proof positive that mom and dad are right.  We do NOT riot when biker gangs are arrested.

Pertinent Definitions

For review:

Racism – a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Bigot – a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially :  one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.

Note the difference.

Prejudice – (1) :  preconceived judgment or opinion (2) :  an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge.

Discrimination – the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually.

I think that recent events warrant this review.

Idiots On Parade

Stacey Dash

If you care to see true freakin’ idiocy – goo check out reaction to Ms. Dash on her Twitter account:

@REALStaceyDash

Musings On Ferguson

smut and sensibilityThe dominating theme for the past week has been and is Ferguson.

I think it’s fair to say that most rational minded Americans are trying to make sense out of the events that occurred this summer and then the recent Grand Jury’s decision this past week.

I was recently pointed to this post over at Smut and Sensibility as a response to that decision.  Below my response:

The only kind of bombs I fully support are truth-bombs, and that’s why I’ve come together with a group of POC and select White allies to write this post. We feel it’s critical to have conversations about social justice loudly, noticeably, personally as well as systemically, and eloquently*—in this case, specifically around Ferguson, #stoptheparade, #BlackLivesMatter, #IndictAmerica, and all the myriad things happening right now around police brutality and the devaluing of Black lives.

I’m immediately put off by the reference o=to POC and ‘select white allies’.  This smacks as dog whistle for that group of people who preaches tolerance save for positions other than their own.

That being said, I am fearful of an ever growing and tyrannical state.  A police force being part of that state I am ever watchful.

However, the goodwill generated in the very real condition of big government = bad [ i don’t believe the author actually thinks big government is bad, only big government that doesn’t fit her paradigm ] is lost with #BlackLivesMatter.  Not one single individual I know feels that black lives don’t matter.  Further, given that black lives matter – there seems to be lower hanging fruit that can be harvested rather than heap on this case.

American Racial Incident Bingo

This. Is. Insulting.

The author is treating the incident as a game.  More than that, the very real arguments that challenge her point  of view are being marginalized to that of a common parlor game.

But Mike Brown robbed a convenience store!

Yes.  He did.

No one thinks that the punishment for felony strong armed robbery is the death penalty.  No one is making that case.  Rather, the point is that Mr. Brown state of mind at the time of the encounter was that of a felon – not that of a child seeking the company of his granny.

Mike Brown was a giant demon who charged at Darren Wilson, who had no recourse but to fear for his life and use lethal force.

It has been established that Mr. Brown not only charged Mr.s Wilson but that he assaulted him in the cruiser and attempted to take Mr. Wilson’s gun.

I’m white.  Anglo Saxon.  Protestant.  Male.  Upper Class.  If I try to steal a cop’s gun and then charge said cop I get shot too.

And, more importantly, this is what I teach my son.

Mike Brown smoked pot regularly and/or was high during his interaction with Wilson.

Smoking pot should be legal.  Pot smokers are more calm than alcohol drinkers.  I resonate with the author on this point.

Mike Brown was reaching for a gun when killed.

Mr. Brown was unarmed – but I’ve not heard the defense that he was reaching for a gun.  He simply was presenting a threat to Mr. Wilson.

Mike Brown was a threat and could not be taken into custody alive.

She had me at ‘threat’.

Why are you making this about race?

Serious.  Please check the data that suggests cops kill white people too.

What did riots ever solve? Why are people getting violent?

Wait.  No one is saying not to protest injustices or wrongs committed by the government.  DO!  I’m just saying that evidence suggests justice was served here.

Why riot?

The rest of the post degenerates into mostly straw man arguments save for the interesting:

Do you think you know better than the grand jury? Did you study state law?

I am not an attorney – neither is the author.  I am compelled by the evidence that the Grand Jury was provided all relevant evidence.  I cannot get into an argument regarding the Grand Jury.

Personally I think that the DA reviewed the evidence and came to the conclusion there was no case.  However, because of the political nature surrounding the events, decided that he was going to go forward with a Grand Jury.

It should not be surprising that a group of reasonable and rational people came to that same conclusion.

 

Race, Racism – Bigots and Ignorants Part II

ClippersLast night I posted on the ridiculous reaction of the attorney complaining that making it illegal to allow college admissions to base their decision on race is racist.

A thought on that – consider the opposite of the position.

If it’s okay to allow students with lower test scores in because we want  more black kids in a school then it should be okay to allow students with lower test scores in because we want fewer black kids in school.

Preposterous.

Since posting I’ve been following the story of the LA Clipper’s owner.  The man was quoted:

“In your lousy f**ing Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with — walking with black people,” the man says.

“If it’s white people, it’s OK?” she [the other individual on the phone] responds. “If it was Larry Bird, would it make a difference?”

Bird, the longtime Boston Celtics star, was Johnson’s NBA rival.

“I’ve known (Magic Johnson) well, and he should be admired. … I’m just saying that it’s too bad you can’t admire him privately,” the man on the recording says. “Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f**k him, but don’t put (Magic) on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”

Horrible.  Ugly and horrible.

No one disputes this – but what to do about it?

The first and obvious answers are fairly easy.

  • Quit going to his games
  • Quit watching the team
  • Quit advertising with or sponsoring the team

Less easy:

  • Quit working for the man

But can anything be done to punish the man legally or by the NBA?  And if so, what should it be?

The first first – Can we punish him legally?  I’m not sure how labor laws work during private conversations unrelated to on the job activity, but if they do, specifically in California, any black employee has a case.  If such laws do not include private speech between a man and his girlfriend, then there is little recourse available.

In either case, I have long maintained that an individual retains the right to personal preference – even if that makes him an ass.  In fact, BECAUSE it makes him an ass is why we need to protect individual liberty.  So, should it be illegal to hold bigoted beliefs?  No – it should not.

But the NBA is not the government ans the league can do damn near whatever it wants.  It can suspend Silver, fine him or both.  In fact, there are probably a ton of things it can do beyond either of those two options.

And I admit, I’m not sure the right and best course of action.  Thoughts include:

  • Release the players from their contract to the team
  • Ban Silver from all team operations
  • Buy the team from him and sell to the highest bidder

Again, I don’t know what the best answer is – perhaps after all is said and done, the damage will occur without any intervention: players won’t sign with him, sponsors will flee and advertisers will vanish.

Race, Racism – Bigots and Ignorants

Race

First, so to be clear:

the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others

a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.

The difference between racism and bigotry.

Now, to this oopion:

The civil rights lawyer who argued unsuccessfully before the Supreme Court to end Michigan’s affirmative action ban repeated Sunday that the high court’s decision was “racist.”

“This is a racist decision that takes us back to an era of state’s rights,” civil rights attorney Shanta Driver told “Fox News Sunday.” “This decision cannot stand.”

This is truly remarkable.  A decision that makes it illegal to  give preferential treatment to an individual based on race is called racist.  Forget the lack of understanding of the word – the lack of understanding of where we wanna get to is remarkable.

The future we aspire to is one where we judge an individual on merit of character, on basis of achievement – an equal footing not based on race.

An argument can be made for reparations, to be sure.  But that is an argument based on past wrongs.  Affirmative Action isn’t about that – Affirmative Action is about preferential treatment based on race.

The best way to test for appropriateness?  Ask yourself, if it’s okay to admit a student with lower scores because they are black – is it okay to admit a student with lower scores because they are white?

Voter ID Laws And Paying The Social Debt

I was listening to NPR the other day and Diane Rehm was on.  I’m not sure what the official subject of the show was, but the conversation moved focused race in America.

One of the topics covered involved the voter ID laws being passed in many states in recent years.  The usual points were made in that these voter ID laws impact:

  1. The poor
  2. Minorities

I have my usual response to item 1 in that the cost of IDs is hardly onerous or burdensome.  But, be that as it may.

It was during the discussion that I was struck by thoughts surrounding item 2.  Rather than all this hand wringing over laws that make sense but disproportionately impact minorities creating this manufactured tension, why not address why minorities are disproportionately impacted.

I suspect that no one believes that a black attorney or a Hispanic doctor either doesn’t have ID or would find it difficult to get one.

Just another case of trying to manipulate outcomes to be equal rather than the opportunities.

Anyway, one of her guests was Richard F. America.  He discussed reparations in America and specifically mentioned this topic through the words of his book, “Paying The Social Debt.”

I though the conversation interesting enough, and the point of view different enough from mine, that I wanted to read the book.  So I went to Amazon:

Paying The Social Debt

I’m sure there are a ton of good reasons, but I was just struck by the stones required to charge a hundred bucks for a book on paying social debts.

Profiling

Profiling

Just this afternoon I profiled an individual in my neighborhood.

I know most of the people on my street.  To be sure, not by name but by demographic; age, sex, race, sex and such.  I know if someone I see is a member of that street or not.  Further, I know most of their habits and activities; schools, sports, walking or biking – things that they do when I see them.

Coming into my driveway I noticed a kid – 16 to 19- sitting on one of the utilities facility boxes, you know, those green things for the phone or cable company?  No one that age lives within 15 houses either way.  No one I know of in that age isn’t in school or in some activity that time of day.  I’ve never seen a kid smoking a cigarette while walking around the neighborhood.

Or sitting on a utility box on someone else’s property.

It’s 85-90 today here in Raleigh.  The kid was overdressed in cargo pants and a sweatshirt, though no hoodie.

I walked to the end of my driveway, directly approaching him – the box is right across the street from me- and looked him straight in the eye as I approached.  He kept my gaze without blinking.

I got my mail and walked back.

From my windows I watched him finish his smoke, get up and walk away.  I then followed him until he turned the corner.

I did not call 9-1-1 or engage him.  But I followed him.  And I have zero neighborhood watch training.  And if I wanna watch a kid whom I have never seen acting in a way and manner inconsistent with kids in my neighborhood I’m gonna watch him.  And make note of him.

And any claim that I “don’t need to follow him” will be met with a gigantic FU.

By the way.  The boy was white with striking blue eyes; like a Siberian Husky.

This boy was 100% profiled.  And it had 0% to do with his race.

Obama’s Economy – His Legacy

Forclosure

To demonstrate that good intentions don’t guarantee good policy:

Helene Pearson’s belief in homeownership was shattered in Roseland, the mostly black Chicago neighborhood where President Barack Obama got his start as a community organizer.

Pearson, who bought her two-bedroom, red-brick bungalow on South Calumet Avenue in Roseland for $160,000 in 2006 with a high-interest loan, put it on the market a year ago for $55,000 and didn’t attract a single offer. Her bank has agreed to take it back.

Markets come and then markets go.  But the true testament of our intervention?

For most Americans, the real estate crash is finally behind them and personal wealth is back where it was in the boom. For blacks in the U.S., 18 years of economic progress has vanished, with a rebound in housing slipping further out of reach and the unemployment rate almost twice that of whites. The homeownership rate for blacks fell from 50 percent during the housing bubble to 43 percent in the second quarter, the lowest since 1995. The rate for whites stopped falling two years ago, settling at about 73 percent, only 3 percentage points below the 2004 peak, according to the Census Bureau.

I find it tragically ironic that Obama’s legacy is going to be a more racially divided nation in addition to a more economically separated one.

If I Had A Dream

MLK

If I had a dream, it would be that all people, regardless of color or nationality, would have the same shot at success that I have.  And in the glow of the 50th Anniversary of Martin’s speech, I am depressed that we aren’t there yet.

And infuriated that the policies of the Left, who claim to have the best interests of black America as their goal, has made it so much harder than it has to be:

The history of black workers in the United States illustrates the point.  As already noted, from the late nineteenth-century on through the the middle of the twentieth-century, the labor force participation rate of American blacks was slightly higher than that of American whites.  On other words, blacks were just as employable at the wages they received as whites were at their very different wages.  The minimum wage law changed that.  Before federal minimum wage laws were instituted in the 1930’s, the black unemployment rate was slightly lower than the white unemployment rate in 1930.  But then followed the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 – all of which imposed government-mandated minimum wages, either on a particular sector or more broadly.

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which promoted unionization, also tended to to price b lack workers out of jobs, in addition to union rules that kept blacks from jobs by barring them from union membership.  The National Industrial Recovery Act raised wages in the Southern textile industry by 70% iin just five months and its impact nationwide was estimated to have cost blacks half a million jobs.  While this Act was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was upheld by the High Court and became the major force in establishing a national minimum wage.  As already noted, the inflation of the 1940’s largely nullified the effect of the Fair Labor Standards Act, until it was amended in 1950 to raise minimum wages to a level that would have some actual effect on current wages.  By 1954, black unemployment rates were double those of whites and have continued to be at that level or higher.  Those particularly hard hit by the resulting unemployment have been black teenage males.

Even through 1949 – the year before a series of minimum wage escalations began – was a recession year, black teenage male unemployment that year was lower than it was to be during the later boom years of the 1960’s.  The wide gap of unemployment rate of black and white teenagers dates from the escalation of the minimum wage and the spread of its coverage in the 1950’s.  The usual explanations of high unemployment of black teenagers -inexperience, less education, lack of skills, racism – cannot explain their rising unemployment, since all these things were worse during the earlier period when black teenage unemployment was much lower.  Taking the more normal year of 1948 as a basis for comparison, black male teenage unemployment then was less than half of what it would be during the decade of the 1960’s and less than one-third of what it would be in the 1970’s.

Unemployment among 16 and 17-year-old black males was no higher than among white males of the same age in 1948.  It was only after a series of minimum wage escalations began that black male teenage unemployment not only skyrocketed but became more than double the unemployment rates among white male teenagers.  In the early twenty-first century, the unemployment rate for black teenagers exceeded 30 percent.  After the American economy turned around in the wake of the housing and financial crisis, unemployment among black teenagers reached 40 percent.

The juxtaposition of the stories this week, Martin’s speech and the fast food worker’s strike, is a simple lesson of a sublime dream turned into nightmare by the policies of a party gone horrible wrong.