Racism

[_JS]

I would prefer that this type of discussion be cast in terms of "social relations" rather than "racism," a construct more focused and less charged and broad enough to encompass all matters of race and the like.

That would probably be a better term as there are issues that are not accurately reflected in the term of "racism."

But is racism proved in the opinions of people who are convinced that a storm had a racial preference?

The issue was of course, not with the storm itself, as most people well know, but with the handling of relief efforts during and afterward.

[domer]

To make the point even clearer, JS, how about "human relations"?

[_JS]

I wonder, are there real solutions to these "accepted bigotries" of society?

[BT]

but with the handling of relief efforts during and afterward.

What specifically was racist about the handling of relief efforts?

[sirs]

but with the handling of relief efforts during and afterward.

What specifically was racist about the handling of relief efforts?

Perception....fanned by the mainscream media and black activists

[BT]

Perception....fanned by the mainscream media and black activists

I recognize the resentment. The question remains was it reality based. If not, why use it as an example.

[kimba1]

I can answer that one
it wasn`t enough
it didn`t help that the news made it looked like fed aid was slow
even though help has there from the very beggining and is just simply overwhelmed and for some reason the locals totally ignore the fact that fedral aid was told by gunfire to go away
and the evidence of this is the local police spent more time stopping those people than helping evacucation.

[sirs]

Perception....fanned by the mainscream media and black activists

I recognize the resentment. The question remains was it reality based. If not, why use it as an example.

Given that we're talking about how "fast" the government, in particular the Fed, was supposed to act, when in reality everyone recognizes the universal agonizing slow pace the bureaucratic machine runs in reality, complicated by multiple agencies, 1 run by a Republican (the Fed), the other run by Democrats (State & local), assuming the other was to take care of everything, I'd say much of it was not reality based.  Add to that the calls from select Black activists and celebrities fanning the notion that not only was the Fed targeting blacks in who not to help (debunked by the facts), but the Fed in fact was responsible either by sheer negligence of inadequate levy maintaining (a state obligation) or by way of directly blowing up the levies.  In either case, much was not reality based

So why is it used as an example?  You'd have to ask Js

[BT]

So why is it used as an example?  You'd have to ask Js

I thought i did. Even though it was in reply to your post.

[sirs]

So why is it used as an example?  You'd have to ask Js

I thought i did. Even though it was in reply to your post.

Sorry.

[sirs]

it didn`t help that the news made it looked like fed aid was slow even though help has there from the very beggining and is just simply overwhelmed and for some reason the locals totally ignore the fact that fedral aid was told by gunfire to go away and the evidence of this is the local police spent more time stopping those people than helping evacucation.

Really?

[kimba1]

see
nobody remembers
it somehow forgotten that aid was delays due to gunfire

[sirs]

Duke Case: The Larger Tragedy
By Thomas Sowell

It has now become more and more obvious, even to some people who initially believed the "rape" charges against Duke University students, that there was never a speck of evidence to support the charges and a growing amount of evidence to the contrary.

However reprehensible District Attorney Nifong's words and actions have been throughout this case, it would be a serious mistake to see in this tawdry episode just the vileness of one man.

The larger tragedy is what this case revealed about the degeneration of our times and the hollowness of so many people in "responsible" positions in the media, in academia, and among those blacks so consumed by racial resentments and thirst for revenge that they are prepared to lash out at individuals who have done nothing to them and are guilty of no crime against anybody.

The haste and vehemence with which scores of Duke University professors publicly took sides against the students in this case is just one sign of how deep the moral dry rot goes, in even our most prestigious institutions.

The January 29th issue of The Weekly Standard has a devastating article about the lynch mob atmosphere created, not only by the Duke University faculty and administration, but also by writers for such "respectable" publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post, not to mention a professor of law at the University of Southern California and a former president of Princeton.

We have become a society easily stampeded, even by the unsubstantiated, inconsistent and mutually contradictory statements of a woman with a criminal record.

All it takes is something that invokes the new holy trinity of the intelligentsia -- "race, class and gender." The story of a black woman gang-raped by white men fit the theme so compellingly that much of the media had no time to waste trying to find out if it was true before going ballistic.

The biggest losers from the current Duke "rape" case include not only the three students accused but also the black community, which has once more followed a demagogue who knew how to exploit their emotions for his own benefit.

Some of these demagogues are white like Nifong but there are also homegrown black demagogues like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who have prospered greatly, and basked in the limelight, by leading other blacks into a blind alley of futile resentments and counterproductive self-dramatization.

The unraveling Duke "rape" case should be a wake-up call, both for blacks and for liberals, on how easy it is for their emotions to be manipulated by even a third-rate demagogue with a flimsy fraud. The time is long overdue for some of those who consider themselves "thinking people" to start doing some thinking.

Many liberals can at least afford their mindless crusades. They may end up looking silly, but that has never stopped them before.

The biggest losers from getting sucked into these frauds are blacks, especially young blacks who go off on an emotional tangent that leads nowhere, at a time when there are so many opportunities in other directions, if they will direct their time and efforts in those directions through education and other serious interests.

The current self-destructive misdirection of energies in black ghettoes cannot be explained by a "legacy of slavery" or "racism." For one thing, this level of self-destruction in black communities did not exist half a century ago, when racism was worse and the black population was generations closer to the era of slavery.

Moreover, a virtually identical pattern of self-destructive attitudes and behavior has been found among British lower-class whites, where none of this can be blamed on racism or a legacy of slavery. (See "Life at the Bottom" by Theodore Dalrymple.)

What the two self-destructive communities on opposite sides of the Atlantic have in common is hearing a steady diet of propaganda blaming all their problems on others, and depicting "society" as determined to keep them down, regardless of anything they might do to try to lift themselves up.

That same deadly message has produced the same tragic results among very different people. The Duke "rape" fraud is yet another sign that the time is long overdue for all of us to start thinking.


The Lynch Mob Mentality

[_JS]

So this is what this thread has become?

[sirs]

So this is what this thread has become?

Become what?  I thought the topic was Racism.  I referenced the Duke case in my initial response, and Sowell has written another one of his gems about it.  So, what's the problem?  Can we look forward to you addressing Bt's question?