How refreshing that you shy away from image management and advertising -- if you wanted to do that, you could just join the clowns in Congress who refuse to look back at legislation which is providing disincentives to succeed. Like the scientific method the truth business is grounded in data and empirical research; it's a lot harder but eventually you will come up with solutions that work...
Condolezza Rice gets the message down just about perfectly and delivers it in less than a minute and a half while looking the woke panel on "The View" square in the eye.
Glenn: The student’s question—doesn’t your development message tend to demean African Americans—was one you faced squarely: it has to be said.
I recognize that some of the language you use in describing developmental disparities—“damning,” “shameful”—comes from your passion for the subject, but use of more neutral language may reduce resistance to the message among some.
Sorry for multiple comments, but Loury reminds me of Phyllis Chesler in some ways. She's an old-school feminist who has written super-accurate books about how effectively women can and do destroy other women using the tools of patriarchy, and how no feminists will touch the issue compared to the ways in which women suffer violence at the hands of men (which we do, any cursory examination of CDC statistics will show you that). But women can be and often are also viciously, perversely destructive to one another. Sexism is an incredibly potent weapon for any woman to use against female competition, and too many women aren't shy about using it.
And Chesler is radioactive in progressive (and many liberal) spaces because of it. Now part of it is that she's also caustic as hell, but caustic or not, she's right.
I mean, if we don't wash dirty linen in public, it's never going to get washed at all, and the problems are never getting solved. Oh, I'm SURE that'll improve things. Denial always solves the problem, right? *sigh*
This is horrifying. The author of this piece has carefully managed to avoid saying what exact neighborhood this is -- thereby making ME the "racist" for assuming what is probably the case: this is a majority Black neighborhood where law-abiding people who want to work with law enforcement to safeguard themselves and their families are being SHOT AT by other people in the same neighborhood. Holy cr*p, they are shooting at mothers who are trying to improve things such that their kids can focus on schoolwork and grow up safe, healthy, and happy and able to play in the street and run around outside like any child should be able to do.
Where the eff is the nationwide protest over this? Where are the politicians who say that Black lives matter unless it's another Black person snuffing it out? Honestly, I know where they are -- avoiding the hell out of this issue because if any politician, particularly a white one, were to go near it, they'd be pilloried.
So these families keep fearing for themselves, keep cowering despite wanting to work with law enforcement to find real solutions so their kids can grow up and achieve. Holy sh*t, this is insanity. And it's not racist to point it out -- of COURSE most Black people are not violent! Clearly, the vast majority of Black people in this neighborhood are cowering in fear! A small minority is holding them hostage! Who is telling them that all lives are sacred, including Black lives?
I have thought this and keep arguing this to my friends for a while now, sadly to very little effect. I used to be very left and as such I'm very familiar with the argumentation of said persuasion. It was not until I started looking inward at the reasoning/attacking I used to practice on my friends to the center and the right, when they would point out crime stats or school performance stats in black communities as racist that I realized that I was actually being the racist and de-humanizing one. For in order to get to that conclusion I had to otherize people in the black community. When a democratically run city's problems were brought up I immediately defended it by saying, "well that's just over there" or "you just don't go over there". It was as if I didn't realize, and think of, black people as just everybody else, instead I saw them as victims of white people instead of just another fellow human traveler that wanted safety, opportunity and a sense of purpose and decency, like myself. In short I realized I was looking down on black people in an absurd way.
In addition I also realized that I had viewed the black community as monolith, this expressed itself in me becoming defensive when someone brought up crime statistics and I immediately interpreted that as if the person was talking about a whole black community.
I live in a very liberal city and what I have come to realize is that a lot of white liberals are still the way I was and it is this mental state that is in the way of true progress. I try to tell my "liberal" friends, who primarily live in affluent and low crime neighborhoods, that arguments of defunding the police and systemic racism comes from a position of extreme privilege, and I plead with them to stop viewing the black community as anything else but another fellow citizen who deserves to live just like you.
This is exactly what drives me crazy about the media reporting on an attack of any kind. If the assailant is white, they make sure to include that. If it's not mentioned, it's easy to assume the assailant is black, not because of anything other than the fact that the media wouldn't say. This is wrong, and they need to just stop it.
This past May there was a study out of the University of Michigan on anti-Asian racism. Their data was news reports. Here's one of the headline findings, released by the University of Michigan itself:
"Available information suggests the perpetrators of anti-Asian hate incidents were predominantly male and disproportionately white. Among politicians who made stigmatizing statements and supported discriminatory policies and proposals, the primary perpetrators were white, male and affiliated with the Republican Party."
Not only were the perps predominantly white, but they were apparently spurred to their hatred by hate-rhetoric-spewing Republican politicians. However, when you read the study directly, you'll find:
"The race and/or ethnicity of offenders was explicitly identified in the news in 57 incidents, or 8.39% of the 679 incidents of harassment that we analyzed. Of these 57 incidents, white
individuals were reported as the perpetrators in 44 incidents. In contrast, Black individuals were reported as the perpetrators in 6 incidents overall."
Hmmm. Deliberate, selective suppression of perpetrator descriptions by the media magically turns into hard "data" for a "study." This is embarrassing to anyone associated with the University of Michigan.
"Available information suggests..." Is this really any way for a major university or journalist to start a data driven report? And my question (I really don't know) is, isn't the statistics on crime, i.e. racial breakdown, neighborhood breakdown, readily available and public knowledge?
You're absolutely right, and we all need to be honest. We should not lie about facts. As a country, we used to be honest. Media used to be more or less honest, just report on the facts.
When I went to college 10-15 years ago, we always received notifications about muggings (which were frequent!), rapes and other crimes. They always reported the appearance of the suspect, including what suspect was wearing, skin color, hair color, gender, tattoos, piercings, location, any identifying characteristics.
I agree with you that we should be honest about everything and not shy away from the truth.
Suppose you were an individual, facing off against a lack of integrity regarding one's own values and wellbeing. Would not honesty regarding your shortcomings be potential tools for your enemies and competitors to use against you? Does that suggest you should not be forthright about such things? The fact that others will use your vices against you does not mean you shouldn't be open about articulating and confronting those vices: the point is to BE better, not just look better, and you'll be hard pressed to find a more reliable friend in such a pursuit than honesty and the truth. Regardless, people who hate you will always find an excuse to do so -those who have better intentions can only appreciate an honesty regarding one's shortcomings, as a community or as an individual.
How refreshing that you shy away from image management and advertising -- if you wanted to do that, you could just join the clowns in Congress who refuse to look back at legislation which is providing disincentives to succeed. Like the scientific method the truth business is grounded in data and empirical research; it's a lot harder but eventually you will come up with solutions that work...
Condolezza Rice gets the message down just about perfectly and delivers it in less than a minute and a half while looking the woke panel on "The View" square in the eye.
https://twitter.com/mrctv/status/1450846756405657603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1450846756405657603%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fwatch-condoleezza-rice-shreds-critical-race-theory-on-the-view
Maybe that's one of many reasons she is the Director of The Hoover Institution.
Jason Riley pulls it all together nicely here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-could-take-democrats-to-school-education-election-parents-11635280933?mod=opinion_major_pos7
Glenn: The student’s question—doesn’t your development message tend to demean African Americans—was one you faced squarely: it has to be said.
I recognize that some of the language you use in describing developmental disparities—“damning,” “shameful”—comes from your passion for the subject, but use of more neutral language may reduce resistance to the message among some.
Sorry for multiple comments, but Loury reminds me of Phyllis Chesler in some ways. She's an old-school feminist who has written super-accurate books about how effectively women can and do destroy other women using the tools of patriarchy, and how no feminists will touch the issue compared to the ways in which women suffer violence at the hands of men (which we do, any cursory examination of CDC statistics will show you that). But women can be and often are also viciously, perversely destructive to one another. Sexism is an incredibly potent weapon for any woman to use against female competition, and too many women aren't shy about using it.
And Chesler is radioactive in progressive (and many liberal) spaces because of it. Now part of it is that she's also caustic as hell, but caustic or not, she's right.
I mean, if we don't wash dirty linen in public, it's never going to get washed at all, and the problems are never getting solved. Oh, I'm SURE that'll improve things. Denial always solves the problem, right? *sigh*
When I read this article, you were the first person I thought of:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/they-want-me-dead-nearly-dozen-philadelphia-families-fearing-for-lives-after-cooperating-in-criminal-investigations/ar-AAPZ1eg
This is horrifying. The author of this piece has carefully managed to avoid saying what exact neighborhood this is -- thereby making ME the "racist" for assuming what is probably the case: this is a majority Black neighborhood where law-abiding people who want to work with law enforcement to safeguard themselves and their families are being SHOT AT by other people in the same neighborhood. Holy cr*p, they are shooting at mothers who are trying to improve things such that their kids can focus on schoolwork and grow up safe, healthy, and happy and able to play in the street and run around outside like any child should be able to do.
Where the eff is the nationwide protest over this? Where are the politicians who say that Black lives matter unless it's another Black person snuffing it out? Honestly, I know where they are -- avoiding the hell out of this issue because if any politician, particularly a white one, were to go near it, they'd be pilloried.
So these families keep fearing for themselves, keep cowering despite wanting to work with law enforcement to find real solutions so their kids can grow up and achieve. Holy sh*t, this is insanity. And it's not racist to point it out -- of COURSE most Black people are not violent! Clearly, the vast majority of Black people in this neighborhood are cowering in fear! A small minority is holding them hostage! Who is telling them that all lives are sacred, including Black lives?
I have thought this and keep arguing this to my friends for a while now, sadly to very little effect. I used to be very left and as such I'm very familiar with the argumentation of said persuasion. It was not until I started looking inward at the reasoning/attacking I used to practice on my friends to the center and the right, when they would point out crime stats or school performance stats in black communities as racist that I realized that I was actually being the racist and de-humanizing one. For in order to get to that conclusion I had to otherize people in the black community. When a democratically run city's problems were brought up I immediately defended it by saying, "well that's just over there" or "you just don't go over there". It was as if I didn't realize, and think of, black people as just everybody else, instead I saw them as victims of white people instead of just another fellow human traveler that wanted safety, opportunity and a sense of purpose and decency, like myself. In short I realized I was looking down on black people in an absurd way.
In addition I also realized that I had viewed the black community as monolith, this expressed itself in me becoming defensive when someone brought up crime statistics and I immediately interpreted that as if the person was talking about a whole black community.
I live in a very liberal city and what I have come to realize is that a lot of white liberals are still the way I was and it is this mental state that is in the way of true progress. I try to tell my "liberal" friends, who primarily live in affluent and low crime neighborhoods, that arguments of defunding the police and systemic racism comes from a position of extreme privilege, and I plead with them to stop viewing the black community as anything else but another fellow citizen who deserves to live just like you.
This is exactly what drives me crazy about the media reporting on an attack of any kind. If the assailant is white, they make sure to include that. If it's not mentioned, it's easy to assume the assailant is black, not because of anything other than the fact that the media wouldn't say. This is wrong, and they need to just stop it.
This will make you feel better...
This past May there was a study out of the University of Michigan on anti-Asian racism. Their data was news reports. Here's one of the headline findings, released by the University of Michigan itself:
"Available information suggests the perpetrators of anti-Asian hate incidents were predominantly male and disproportionately white. Among politicians who made stigmatizing statements and supported discriminatory policies and proposals, the primary perpetrators were white, male and affiliated with the Republican Party."
Not only were the perps predominantly white, but they were apparently spurred to their hatred by hate-rhetoric-spewing Republican politicians. However, when you read the study directly, you'll find:
"The race and/or ethnicity of offenders was explicitly identified in the news in 57 incidents, or 8.39% of the 679 incidents of harassment that we analyzed. Of these 57 incidents, white
individuals were reported as the perpetrators in 44 incidents. In contrast, Black individuals were reported as the perpetrators in 6 incidents overall."
Hmmm. Deliberate, selective suppression of perpetrator descriptions by the media magically turns into hard "data" for a "study." This is embarrassing to anyone associated with the University of Michigan.
"Available information suggests..." Is this really any way for a major university or journalist to start a data driven report? And my question (I really don't know) is, isn't the statistics on crime, i.e. racial breakdown, neighborhood breakdown, readily available and public knowledge?
You're absolutely right, and we all need to be honest. We should not lie about facts. As a country, we used to be honest. Media used to be more or less honest, just report on the facts.
When I went to college 10-15 years ago, we always received notifications about muggings (which were frequent!), rapes and other crimes. They always reported the appearance of the suspect, including what suspect was wearing, skin color, hair color, gender, tattoos, piercings, location, any identifying characteristics.
I agree with you that we should be honest about everything and not shy away from the truth.
Suppose you were an individual, facing off against a lack of integrity regarding one's own values and wellbeing. Would not honesty regarding your shortcomings be potential tools for your enemies and competitors to use against you? Does that suggest you should not be forthright about such things? The fact that others will use your vices against you does not mean you shouldn't be open about articulating and confronting those vices: the point is to BE better, not just look better, and you'll be hard pressed to find a more reliable friend in such a pursuit than honesty and the truth. Regardless, people who hate you will always find an excuse to do so -those who have better intentions can only appreciate an honesty regarding one's shortcomings, as a community or as an individual.