Reparations are not going to happen on a national sense. If the argument is about injury done by enslavement, the entities that caused the injury are Britain, France, Spain, Holland etc.
A recent book, “The Black Reparations Project”, argues that only United States citizens who are African descendants of slavery (ADOS) are eligible. Barack Obama does not qualify. The late Botham Jean, Andrew Louima, would not meet the criteria. This is a diversion. It does give Conservatives the red meat they need.
Reparations helps Conservatives ignore the incompetent House Republicans who have a leader accepting a deal with the White House before counting the numbers to make absolutely certain that he had the votes. The Republican House, white Affirmative Action at its finest. Perhaps IQ testing is in order?
Edit to add:
Ralph Yarl, the teenager armed with Black skin who was shot in the head by a white guy in Kansas would not be eligible
President Obama, a protege of radical white patrons, could have put an end to the emphasis on victimhood rather than agency and opportunity. He could have redirected the National narrative in a much more productive direction to the benefit of all. Those who see racism behind every tree now need to resort to career criminals as their new folk heroes. Such a wasted opportunity for all of us.
You evidently know nothing of the man, his upbringing, associations, and character. The man, Barack Hussein Obama, could never have done what your fantasy President Obama might have. Not in the cards, never was. See Steve Sailer "America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's "Story of Race and Inheritance.""
I’ve read quite a lot about President Obama and have talked with people who knew him. In my experience, when someone attacks you without any presentation of a counter argument, it’s usually because they can’t refute the argument. Can you please prove me wrong?
I've given you a book-length argument to refute the "sources" and their mythology you've apparently swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Read it or don't—you're the horse, thirsty or not.
I've been to Australia, Britain, Scotland, Africa, and 150-plus countries around the world. The Australian Aboriginals were subject to genocide and brutality. Their were kids (near-looking to whites) who were forcibly taken by whites for adoption. This lasted until the 1970s.
BTW, children of white indentured servants and convicts were not codified into the status of permanent slavery after birth. Indentured servants usually had 7-year contracts and were then given hundreds of acres of free indigenous land. Whites have received billions of acres of free Indian and abundant free African labor which mal distributed massive generation wealth and power to whites.
Just think if freed black slaves received their 40 areas and a mule after the end of the American Civil War. The value of the land today? The ones who received it were forced to return it.
Racism is a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of resources wealth and power. Europeans got the head start and affirmative action programs through the genocide of the indigenous, billions of acres of free Indian/indigenous land, and authoritarian apartheid policies.
The black group wealth of only 2% in this country hasn't changed since the eve of the American Civil when there were 4 million black slaves and 400 thousand semi-free blacks. Blacks were excluded from fully participating in American capitalism because of the 250 years of slavery and 100 years of brutal Jim Crow policies.
Celtics from the British Isles? The dysfunctional "cracker culture" negatively affected the blacks in the South who took it north and so forth. The blacks from the West Indies, not having experienced the antebellum southern cracker culture, tend to succeed better in America than native blacks. Thomas Sowell talks about this in one of his books with references to Grady McWhinney's book, "Cracker Culture---Celtic Ways of the Old South."
Antelebrllium southern cracker culture emanated from the old cracker culture in certain backward parts of Northern England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Known for extreme violence (IHe., Hatfields vs McCoys), castrations during mutual combat---passed on to castrating black males in the south, sexual promiscuity, duels, etc.
Like I said, I wouldn't apply West African histories of violence, slavery and atrocities to the reasons for Black racism and violent crimes today. You're a racist; you believe you have your reasons, but I don't agree with them. Again, I do see them as evidence of how the Southern Black racist narrative about Whites has evolved and mutated to use historical truths to justify modern Black racist attitudes.
I know my natal world; most Whites outside it, who are in the majority, have no experience of it, either, and it hasn't been properly represented in filmed entertainment or literature for two generations now. There are Black Yankees like Obama who get it, but they're as much a slender minority within Black America as my people are within White America.
We are responsible for the fostering and dissemination of Wokeism through our top-tier schools and traditional media outlets, namely The New York Times. Because Anglo-American settler-colonist culture is the foundational culture of this country, we don't talk about or describe ourselves in terms of ethnicity, but we need to start doing that. Part of my newsletter's function is to explain to my specific group, often labeled with an acronym that spells the name for a nasty flying insect, how we've gone overboard by supporting and validating the attempt to bring historical narratives of oppression into the present reality.
Everyone already knows your lensing of reality; it's such a hackneyed and trod-over hamster on a wheel that it's become banal; however, it is having the effect of making racism as meaningless as it needs to be in order to reflect current realities. I reject how you apply your views just as I would reject anyone's racist views, regardless of their race/ethnicity. I will die for your right to express them, but I won't validate them.
You can continue to try to diminish what you perceive to be false equivalencies in my original comment, but that doesn't mean they are any less valid. All you are manifesting is a typical need for your victimhood to be the worst in the world; it's your comfort zone, and you're welcome to it.
As a gay man of a certain age, I will match your direct experiences of discrimination — per my original comment, your ancestors' have no weight in this pissing match — and then some, beginning with your story of how you built up the courage to come out as Black to your racist parents. But I've already written all I need to say about addictions to victimhood. I have nothing to add.
At some point down the line I'll talk about my experiences with Black racism, perhaps; I have other issues to write about, and Black intellectuals like Loury and McWhorter are doing a finer job than I ever could.
I'm also not going to school you further about either Northeastern Anglo-American culture or Australian history. It's up to you to do that, and interpret it how you will. I'm merely pushing back on your racist screeds; in no instance is racism justified: it's ignorant, mendacious, hateful, narrow-minded and biased, obviously.
Victim? I'm not a victim, having successfully navigated through white supremacist hate and roadblocks in my life. I've been successfully retired for the past 16 years. Whites, for the most part, are subordinate to me in everyday life.
I'm currently at my second home on a beach. It was a lovely day. BBQing and entertaining and mixing with white folks. Met new friends. I counseled one guy about his pending divorce.
Been there and done that. New opportunities opened up for me, far beyond my wildest expectations. The journey has been great and I have no life regrets. After my transition, the abyss will be true heaven. I'm 72 years old and have had a great life.
Europeans created the construct of race to justify their fuckery in the world (mal-distribution of wealth and power to themselves through genocide, billions of acres of free Indian land, abundant free African labor, colonization, and apartheid.
People in the world were previously and primarily divided by their religions and where they lived. The Europeans appropriated gunpowder and navigation from the Chinese and then went on a rampage around the world taking other people's stuff.
Europeans initiated the construction of scientific racism, creating a hierarchy of the color caste system that's still prevalent throughout the world today ---whites at the top and blacks at the bottom. I've traveled extensively throughout the world and have taken note.
Now, we Have Charles Murray's pseudo-science (The Bell Curve) that has influenced social policies that are not in the best interests of African Americans. IQ hierarchy: German Jews at the top followed by Asians, Europeans, and (Hispanics, Africans, Arabs, etc. at the bottom) according to Murray.
Racism is an economic relationship. It's a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of resources for wealth and power. Europeans got a head start after the Portuguese started the [race] to the new world with the blessings of a Catholic pope who was gifted slaves.
Before the Transatlantic slave trade, Europe was in bad shape: plagued by rampant diseases wiping out half its population, extensive poverty/crime, stagnant mercantile economies, lack of resources, and debauchery (priests raping children).
In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued a Papal Bull (an official Proclamation or decree by the Pope) - Dum Diversas. Dum Diversas had a disastrous effect on millions of Africans. The Portuguese started the transatlantic slave trade. The Pope gave the Portuguese the "right to invade, search out, capture and subdue all Saracens (Muslims) and pagans (Africans) whatsoever. And other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed. And kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery."
Putting it other words, the Pope gave the right to a Portuguese King, Alphonso, to invade; capture, enslave, and kill in the name of Jesus. Jesus's representative, the pope, was the devil. Europeans perpetuated one of the worst atrocities ever committed in the world by transporting huge numbers of people across the world for enslavement. All Christian dominations originate from the Catholic Church. The first English slave ship was named Jesus.
In the New World, force and violence were used to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity. Slaves' Bibles were specially written for slaves to promote their
submission and servitude.
White supremacy is a religion to which I refuse to subordinate myself, to say the least, to the LGBTQ community which has high-jacked the black civil rights movement. Gays and trans can hide conveniently in and out of the closet. Black folks don't have that luxury.
At the end of the day, racism is a team sport, especially considering the limited resources on this planet. Default isn't a logical response. Racism will be us until the end of days.
Unskilled undocumented Hispanic immigrants with unearned benefits that illegally enter this country are an existential threat to African Americans. Resources are very limited and diminishing.
In his book, " Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict Between Blacks and Latinos and What It Means for America, the author, Nicolas C. Vaca, disdained a rainbow coalition and presumed alliance with Black Americans...they wanted to compete with Blacks for political and economic power...they felt that by the mere fact that they were more socially acceptable than Blacks in American society...they could gain socioeconomic benefits and become the nation's majority-minority population. Their goal, according to Vaca, was to displace Blacks in every way possible."
Racism? Lol!!!! And White supremacy is a religion. 50% of Hispanics identify as white in this country.
On the white extremist side: The leader of Proud Boys is Afro-Cuban. The leader of the Oath Keepers militia group is half-white and half-Mexican. He will now be the new soap keeper for the imprisoned Aryans. Also, Fuentes is a noted white nationalist extremist who is half-white and half-Mexican.
The Hispanic Texas shooter who was found with nazi paraphernalia and hate material?
And whites on both sides of the political spectrum use nonblack minority groups or LBGTQ communities to water down the attention to address the benign neglect of black folks. Intersecting vertical issues with horizontal issues harms African Americans.
NYC officials: 4.3 billion will be spent on asylum seekers (undocumented migrants). 1 billion has already been spent. What about the benign neglect of the homeless who are mostly black? The veterans? To add injury to insult, immigrants without U. S. citizenship are allowed to vote in NYC local elections. WTF!!!!
Blacks need to first and foremost find a cure for self-hatred and self-loathing, a mental illness. There is no such thing as a colorblind society. I haven't seen any colorblind societies during my extensive world travels. The European color caste system has had a very negative impact around the world. While I was visiting Vietnam a few years ago, especially near China Beach, a Vietnamese guide told me that the Vietnamese people didn't go to the beach. They fear turning darker.
In his book, "Black Labor White Wealth", Dr. Claud Anderson states, " By mouthing off the social and economic views of white conservatives, black conservatives convert confusion of the personal racial identity to confusion in the minds of black people about the real issue facing them.
Black conservatives operate under misleading colors. As an old farmer said, 'They run with the hounds while pretending friendship and brotherhood with the rabbits.' The confusion caused by their schizophrenia behavior provides a public cover for anti-black attitudes and activities and makes them appear nothing more than white racist black-face minstrel makeup.
Becoming a conservative has historically provided personal rewards to individual blacks, with few downsides, because of the powerlessness of the black community to hold accountable those members who turn against it. Blacks found that it was not difficult to establish beneficial relations with whites once they accepted a subordinate position and committed themselves to place the welfare of the white class first. Once that was agreed upon, tacitly or otherwise, blacks were then entitled to various forms of paternalistic protection, Christian charity, and meritorious recognition. White conservatives then conferred special status and recognition of conservative blacks as exceptional as acceptable.
Accordingly, black conservatives who place their advancement above the welfare of their race often gain significant personal and financial benefits, recognition, and access to power. They are anointed by whites as [leaders] and touted as role models. In political and social situations, a black conservative is closely akin to Sambo in Harriet Beecher Stowe's [Uncle Tom's Cabin]. In a historical context, a Sambo was black America's worst nightmare. The stereotypical Sambo was more than a minstrel man, a buffoon, and a plantation [darkie]. Sambo represented the extraordinary success of social control, which was the ultimate goal of a slavery conditioning process that transplanted a white mindset into a black personality."
Haven't we already proved redlining impacted more poor whites than Blacks? Why do i keep hearing about redlining as if it only impacted Blacks as a justification for "reparations". Glenn Loury is a National Treasure, and much like Thomas Sowell is never given his due as one of this nations public intellectuals.
I have this memory from the break room at work, so I have to paraphrase it, "this is MERICA....Jesus, Guns, boobs, cowboys, barbecue, and in that order ". So, I chuckled for like ten minutes when you said it is racist and unjustified, there we go again with that nasty root word justice. Restoration or retribution, is there a third type justice___________? Maybe justice is the wrong frame? What if it is just capitalism? For example, Incumbents use the SEC/Law to deny access, create moats and attack economic competitors aka crony capitalism? I try to keep my political beliefs out of my portfolio and If see a trade developing, I get long with dry powder or maybe in this case votes? Is justice by any means capitalism? To extract, deny access and weaken are all military/capitalism tools of the trade. Capitalism extracts profit and is not as concerned with problem solving as it might appear, I am sure Finkelstein has a lot to say about the myth of capitalism. At my altitude, If see an opportunity to extract a check, I am going to take it! I could care less about fixing anything! I dunno, I have alway studied military history, that is my lens and my education in Rome tells me to the victor go spoils, you people (me & mine) lost a war and this is Sparta, so bend the knee. I can function under that paradigm and have found a way to thrive at times. I also realize my point-of-view is rare and somewhat extreme, but I have learned to survive in the wild for better or for worse.
It it just me, or is this comment totally incomprehensible? Perhaps it's yet another example of Substack's (mishmash of nautical terms follows) unmoored flotsam sinking to the bottom (when filtering using Chronological—the ONLY sensible filter, Rossman!) and would make more sense if properly placed in response to some other commenter's ravings...
What at about it is incomprehensible? For example, America or MERICA (all caps) refers the the southern twang of a tiki torch MAGA types that I have worked with in the last decade in various capacities. Are you saying their linguistic swagger and attitudes are a fictional account? I have no idea what " unmoored flotsam " means, it is not the language of common folk who are trying to keep up with you academics. I added some context just for you.
Ah, you meant 'MURRICA' (also 'MURICA), never 'MERICA'—you're obviously not of the "RC Cola and Moon Pie" set and couldn't be bothered to glean the folk wisdom on tap in that neck of the woods. Too bad, you might've learned something a bit deeper about life and "capitalism." At any rate, you answered my question: must be just me. Sorry for the intrusion—back to your ravings...
Your right, I forgot the U sound in MURICA, his lips would move a certain way, LMAO! A pop and a moon pie sounds great, I need those carbs in my life right now, the struggle is real.
So do you think that black folk using the American legal system to extract wealth from the system is any different than Wall Street/Black Rock, Big Pharma, Military Industrial Complex, Internment of Japanese Americans victims or any constituency that wants something from USA Inc? It is not illegal and the actors no more immoral than those in my example, I mean WTC 7 just fell down, LMAO.
I'm generally not in favor of privately-controlled entities (businesses, NGOs, charities, PIRGs, etc.) gaining their funding directly or indirectly from tax revenues extracted from productive members of society (at the point of a gun, incidentally).
I'm of the Grover Norquist school (lobbyist for Islam, alas) who said: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
I consider government both inherently corrupt ("power corrupts") and largely incapable of doing other than, inefficiently and at exorbitant cost, providing the absolute minimum level of essential services: armed forces, courts, prisons, utilities, weights and measures, and the like. Once interest groups get involved, as they surely will and do, "state capture" becomes assured to one degree or another.
You really sure you want these clowns running your life? Remember, if you owe them, they own you. Lots to think about, so little time to do it. Now, Ima get me some RC Cola and a pie. Later.
Here's some reading material for you to peruse and mull over:
Our country appears to be going down, and taking Western Civ with it. We could be sinking into another Dark Ages, like Europe did after the Roman Empire crashed. I think that peoples' attitudes towards reparations would be more widely positive if the above things were not the case, our country was flush with money, and it was realistic to believe we could just keep on spending and it will all be okay.
I'm afraid I agree with you. And while Europe descended into madness, violence and chaos the burgeoning Islamic Empire flourished, a beacon of light in an otherwise self-chosen dark world. Will there be another similar culture that flourishes today? India? China? It won't be modern Islam, it's still dragging itself out of its own Dark Ages which arguably started about six hundred years ago.
Yes that is exactly what I have been wondering: who will be the keepers of knowledge and reason? I think about the people who stashed the Dead Sea Scrolls into those caves, and I think about the burning of the Library at Alexandria. I never anticipated I would be in a position to experience any part of what they did.
Interesting article and project--I had no idea it was happening!
Another important kind of knowledge that gets lost is the "know-how to do things." Surgeons, for example, go through training programs that resemble apprenticeship and journeyman stages of learning skilled crafts. Much of the knowledge is transmitted by showing and practicing behaviors. When the people who hold this knowledge are gone, those methods of creating things and solving problems die with them.
The Symbolic Betrayal of the Black Race: In his book, “Black Labor White Wealth”, Dr. Claude Anderson relates," the term Uncle Tom is not an appropriate label for an individual who is “white on the inside and black on the outside” and sells out his race by placing his gains with whites ahead of the rights and gains of his people. Contrary to popular usage of the label, the character Tom was not the culprit in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle Tom was a brave man with dignity who cared about his family and race. The real villain was another black slave named Sambo. He was committed to the white master and used every opportunity to undermine the other slaves. Sambo, in many respects, was like today’s black conservatives. Sambo always followed the white slave master, Simon Legree, and offered to show him how to “tree the coons.” It was black Sambo who beat Uncle to death for both refusing to whip a black female slave or sell out his people. Uncle Tom tried to empower his people by undermining and beating the social structure whenever he could. Uncle Tom felt it was important to get his people across the river to freedom. He risked his life to do so. The Sambo character personifies a very successful social control construct created by conservatives. He was such a successful phenomenon that the concept he personified became a greater danger to blacks than Uncle Tom. As blacks move towards structuring policies of racial accountability, it will be very important for them to know who helps and who hurts the race. Sambo was the black slave character in numerous novels and movies who was willing to pick up a weapon and defend his white master against the approaching Union army or hide the master’s silver from Northern carpetbaggers. What is the difference between the fictional Sambo characters and today’s real-life blacks who join the conservative movement to argue against affirmative action, black reparations, and set asides? They declare that the world is now color-blind and are opposed to any policies requiring whites to share the socioeconomic burden that centuries of slavery and second-class citizenship have imposed on blacks. Isn’t espousing a color-blind, race-neutral, melting pot society, a moderate way of hiding master’s silver? What are black conservatives conserving when black America is burdened by poverty, crime, unemployment, homelessness, and other social pathologies? Based upon historical treatment alone, there should be a general antagonism between blacks and conservatives. Though conservatives claim that they are not racist, for centuries, they have opposed programs and policies to help blacks. Andrew Hacker, a white writer, provided insight on this in his new book, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Unequal. Hacker asserted that: “There persists the belief that members of the black race represent an inferior strain of the human species…Of course, the belief is seldom voiced in public. Most whites who call themselves conservatives hold this view about blacks and proclaim it when they are sure of their company. Since white conservatives share their true feelings only in the privacy of other whites, there is a strong possibility that black conservatives do not know how white conservatives truly feel about them.”
If it were an end - no more “structural racism”. , no more “critical race theory”, no more “DEI”, I might say OK just to put us all on a level playing field. A meritocratic world without excuses....
Doubt the race hucksters would bite on that one ....
If you have not watched Glenn's debate with Christopher Hitchens on this subject then it is a must. Whatever side one is on, two brilliant minds - Hitchens stumbles a bit in his argument and Loury doesn't miss a beat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EAawXDvLjI
Reparations are not going to happen on a national sense. If the argument is about injury done by enslavement, the entities that caused the injury are Britain, France, Spain, Holland etc.
A recent book, “The Black Reparations Project”, argues that only United States citizens who are African descendants of slavery (ADOS) are eligible. Barack Obama does not qualify. The late Botham Jean, Andrew Louima, would not meet the criteria. This is a diversion. It does give Conservatives the red meat they need.
Reparations helps Conservatives ignore the incompetent House Republicans who have a leader accepting a deal with the White House before counting the numbers to make absolutely certain that he had the votes. The Republican House, white Affirmative Action at its finest. Perhaps IQ testing is in order?
Edit to add:
Ralph Yarl, the teenager armed with Black skin who was shot in the head by a white guy in Kansas would not be eligible
President Obama, a protege of radical white patrons, could have put an end to the emphasis on victimhood rather than agency and opportunity. He could have redirected the National narrative in a much more productive direction to the benefit of all. Those who see racism behind every tree now need to resort to career criminals as their new folk heroes. Such a wasted opportunity for all of us.
You evidently know nothing of the man, his upbringing, associations, and character. The man, Barack Hussein Obama, could never have done what your fantasy President Obama might have. Not in the cards, never was. See Steve Sailer "America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's "Story of Race and Inheritance.""
I’ve read quite a lot about President Obama and have talked with people who knew him. In my experience, when someone attacks you without any presentation of a counter argument, it’s usually because they can’t refute the argument. Can you please prove me wrong?
I've given you a book-length argument to refute the "sources" and their mythology you've apparently swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Read it or don't—you're the horse, thirsty or not.
I've been to Australia, Britain, Scotland, Africa, and 150-plus countries around the world. The Australian Aboriginals were subject to genocide and brutality. Their were kids (near-looking to whites) who were forcibly taken by whites for adoption. This lasted until the 1970s.
BTW, children of white indentured servants and convicts were not codified into the status of permanent slavery after birth. Indentured servants usually had 7-year contracts and were then given hundreds of acres of free indigenous land. Whites have received billions of acres of free Indian and abundant free African labor which mal distributed massive generation wealth and power to whites.
Just think if freed black slaves received their 40 areas and a mule after the end of the American Civil War. The value of the land today? The ones who received it were forced to return it.
Racism is a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of resources wealth and power. Europeans got the head start and affirmative action programs through the genocide of the indigenous, billions of acres of free Indian/indigenous land, and authoritarian apartheid policies.
The black group wealth of only 2% in this country hasn't changed since the eve of the American Civil when there were 4 million black slaves and 400 thousand semi-free blacks. Blacks were excluded from fully participating in American capitalism because of the 250 years of slavery and 100 years of brutal Jim Crow policies.
Celtics from the British Isles? The dysfunctional "cracker culture" negatively affected the blacks in the South who took it north and so forth. The blacks from the West Indies, not having experienced the antebellum southern cracker culture, tend to succeed better in America than native blacks. Thomas Sowell talks about this in one of his books with references to Grady McWhinney's book, "Cracker Culture---Celtic Ways of the Old South."
Antelebrllium southern cracker culture emanated from the old cracker culture in certain backward parts of Northern England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Known for extreme violence (IHe., Hatfields vs McCoys), castrations during mutual combat---passed on to castrating black males in the south, sexual promiscuity, duels, etc.
*there
Like I said, I wouldn't apply West African histories of violence, slavery and atrocities to the reasons for Black racism and violent crimes today. You're a racist; you believe you have your reasons, but I don't agree with them. Again, I do see them as evidence of how the Southern Black racist narrative about Whites has evolved and mutated to use historical truths to justify modern Black racist attitudes.
I know my natal world; most Whites outside it, who are in the majority, have no experience of it, either, and it hasn't been properly represented in filmed entertainment or literature for two generations now. There are Black Yankees like Obama who get it, but they're as much a slender minority within Black America as my people are within White America.
We are responsible for the fostering and dissemination of Wokeism through our top-tier schools and traditional media outlets, namely The New York Times. Because Anglo-American settler-colonist culture is the foundational culture of this country, we don't talk about or describe ourselves in terms of ethnicity, but we need to start doing that. Part of my newsletter's function is to explain to my specific group, often labeled with an acronym that spells the name for a nasty flying insect, how we've gone overboard by supporting and validating the attempt to bring historical narratives of oppression into the present reality.
Everyone already knows your lensing of reality; it's such a hackneyed and trod-over hamster on a wheel that it's become banal; however, it is having the effect of making racism as meaningless as it needs to be in order to reflect current realities. I reject how you apply your views just as I would reject anyone's racist views, regardless of their race/ethnicity. I will die for your right to express them, but I won't validate them.
You can continue to try to diminish what you perceive to be false equivalencies in my original comment, but that doesn't mean they are any less valid. All you are manifesting is a typical need for your victimhood to be the worst in the world; it's your comfort zone, and you're welcome to it.
As a gay man of a certain age, I will match your direct experiences of discrimination — per my original comment, your ancestors' have no weight in this pissing match — and then some, beginning with your story of how you built up the courage to come out as Black to your racist parents. But I've already written all I need to say about addictions to victimhood. I have nothing to add.
At some point down the line I'll talk about my experiences with Black racism, perhaps; I have other issues to write about, and Black intellectuals like Loury and McWhorter are doing a finer job than I ever could.
I'm also not going to school you further about either Northeastern Anglo-American culture or Australian history. It's up to you to do that, and interpret it how you will. I'm merely pushing back on your racist screeds; in no instance is racism justified: it's ignorant, mendacious, hateful, narrow-minded and biased, obviously.
Victim? I'm not a victim, having successfully navigated through white supremacist hate and roadblocks in my life. I've been successfully retired for the past 16 years. Whites, for the most part, are subordinate to me in everyday life.
I'm currently at my second home on a beach. It was a lovely day. BBQing and entertaining and mixing with white folks. Met new friends. I counseled one guy about his pending divorce.
Been there and done that. New opportunities opened up for me, far beyond my wildest expectations. The journey has been great and I have no life regrets. After my transition, the abyss will be true heaven. I'm 72 years old and have had a great life.
Europeans created the construct of race to justify their fuckery in the world (mal-distribution of wealth and power to themselves through genocide, billions of acres of free Indian land, abundant free African labor, colonization, and apartheid.
People in the world were previously and primarily divided by their religions and where they lived. The Europeans appropriated gunpowder and navigation from the Chinese and then went on a rampage around the world taking other people's stuff.
Europeans initiated the construction of scientific racism, creating a hierarchy of the color caste system that's still prevalent throughout the world today ---whites at the top and blacks at the bottom. I've traveled extensively throughout the world and have taken note.
Now, we Have Charles Murray's pseudo-science (The Bell Curve) that has influenced social policies that are not in the best interests of African Americans. IQ hierarchy: German Jews at the top followed by Asians, Europeans, and (Hispanics, Africans, Arabs, etc. at the bottom) according to Murray.
Racism is an economic relationship. It's a competitive relationship between groups for ownership and control of resources for wealth and power. Europeans got a head start after the Portuguese started the [race] to the new world with the blessings of a Catholic pope who was gifted slaves.
Before the Transatlantic slave trade, Europe was in bad shape: plagued by rampant diseases wiping out half its population, extensive poverty/crime, stagnant mercantile economies, lack of resources, and debauchery (priests raping children).
In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued a Papal Bull (an official Proclamation or decree by the Pope) - Dum Diversas. Dum Diversas had a disastrous effect on millions of Africans. The Portuguese started the transatlantic slave trade. The Pope gave the Portuguese the "right to invade, search out, capture and subdue all Saracens (Muslims) and pagans (Africans) whatsoever. And other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed. And kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery."
Putting it other words, the Pope gave the right to a Portuguese King, Alphonso, to invade; capture, enslave, and kill in the name of Jesus. Jesus's representative, the pope, was the devil. Europeans perpetuated one of the worst atrocities ever committed in the world by transporting huge numbers of people across the world for enslavement. All Christian dominations originate from the Catholic Church. The first English slave ship was named Jesus.
In the New World, force and violence were used to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity. Slaves' Bibles were specially written for slaves to promote their
submission and servitude.
White supremacy is a religion to which I refuse to subordinate myself, to say the least, to the LGBTQ community which has high-jacked the black civil rights movement. Gays and trans can hide conveniently in and out of the closet. Black folks don't have that luxury.
At the end of the day, racism is a team sport, especially considering the limited resources on this planet. Default isn't a logical response. Racism will be us until the end of days.
Unskilled undocumented Hispanic immigrants with unearned benefits that illegally enter this country are an existential threat to African Americans. Resources are very limited and diminishing.
In his book, " Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict Between Blacks and Latinos and What It Means for America, the author, Nicolas C. Vaca, disdained a rainbow coalition and presumed alliance with Black Americans...they wanted to compete with Blacks for political and economic power...they felt that by the mere fact that they were more socially acceptable than Blacks in American society...they could gain socioeconomic benefits and become the nation's majority-minority population. Their goal, according to Vaca, was to displace Blacks in every way possible."
Racism? Lol!!!! And White supremacy is a religion. 50% of Hispanics identify as white in this country.
On the white extremist side: The leader of Proud Boys is Afro-Cuban. The leader of the Oath Keepers militia group is half-white and half-Mexican. He will now be the new soap keeper for the imprisoned Aryans. Also, Fuentes is a noted white nationalist extremist who is half-white and half-Mexican.
The Hispanic Texas shooter who was found with nazi paraphernalia and hate material?
And whites on both sides of the political spectrum use nonblack minority groups or LBGTQ communities to water down the attention to address the benign neglect of black folks. Intersecting vertical issues with horizontal issues harms African Americans.
Honoring the Tuskegee pilots.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/192163079902097?mibextid=9drbnH&s=yWDuG2&fs=e
Thanks for this.
NYC officials: 4.3 billion will be spent on asylum seekers (undocumented migrants). 1 billion has already been spent. What about the benign neglect of the homeless who are mostly black? The veterans? To add injury to insult, immigrants without U. S. citizenship are allowed to vote in NYC local elections. WTF!!!!
Blacks need to first and foremost find a cure for self-hatred and self-loathing, a mental illness. There is no such thing as a colorblind society. I haven't seen any colorblind societies during my extensive world travels. The European color caste system has had a very negative impact around the world. While I was visiting Vietnam a few years ago, especially near China Beach, a Vietnamese guide told me that the Vietnamese people didn't go to the beach. They fear turning darker.
In his book, "Black Labor White Wealth", Dr. Claud Anderson states, " By mouthing off the social and economic views of white conservatives, black conservatives convert confusion of the personal racial identity to confusion in the minds of black people about the real issue facing them.
Black conservatives operate under misleading colors. As an old farmer said, 'They run with the hounds while pretending friendship and brotherhood with the rabbits.' The confusion caused by their schizophrenia behavior provides a public cover for anti-black attitudes and activities and makes them appear nothing more than white racist black-face minstrel makeup.
Becoming a conservative has historically provided personal rewards to individual blacks, with few downsides, because of the powerlessness of the black community to hold accountable those members who turn against it. Blacks found that it was not difficult to establish beneficial relations with whites once they accepted a subordinate position and committed themselves to place the welfare of the white class first. Once that was agreed upon, tacitly or otherwise, blacks were then entitled to various forms of paternalistic protection, Christian charity, and meritorious recognition. White conservatives then conferred special status and recognition of conservative blacks as exceptional as acceptable.
Accordingly, black conservatives who place their advancement above the welfare of their race often gain significant personal and financial benefits, recognition, and access to power. They are anointed by whites as [leaders] and touted as role models. In political and social situations, a black conservative is closely akin to Sambo in Harriet Beecher Stowe's [Uncle Tom's Cabin]. In a historical context, a Sambo was black America's worst nightmare. The stereotypical Sambo was more than a minstrel man, a buffoon, and a plantation [darkie]. Sambo represented the extraordinary success of social control, which was the ultimate goal of a slavery conditioning process that transplanted a white mindset into a black personality."
Haven't we already proved redlining impacted more poor whites than Blacks? Why do i keep hearing about redlining as if it only impacted Blacks as a justification for "reparations". Glenn Loury is a National Treasure, and much like Thomas Sowell is never given his due as one of this nations public intellectuals.
Moynihan report. Prophetic.
I have this memory from the break room at work, so I have to paraphrase it, "this is MERICA....Jesus, Guns, boobs, cowboys, barbecue, and in that order ". So, I chuckled for like ten minutes when you said it is racist and unjustified, there we go again with that nasty root word justice. Restoration or retribution, is there a third type justice___________? Maybe justice is the wrong frame? What if it is just capitalism? For example, Incumbents use the SEC/Law to deny access, create moats and attack economic competitors aka crony capitalism? I try to keep my political beliefs out of my portfolio and If see a trade developing, I get long with dry powder or maybe in this case votes? Is justice by any means capitalism? To extract, deny access and weaken are all military/capitalism tools of the trade. Capitalism extracts profit and is not as concerned with problem solving as it might appear, I am sure Finkelstein has a lot to say about the myth of capitalism. At my altitude, If see an opportunity to extract a check, I am going to take it! I could care less about fixing anything! I dunno, I have alway studied military history, that is my lens and my education in Rome tells me to the victor go spoils, you people (me & mine) lost a war and this is Sparta, so bend the knee. I can function under that paradigm and have found a way to thrive at times. I also realize my point-of-view is rare and somewhat extreme, but I have learned to survive in the wild for better or for worse.
It it just me, or is this comment totally incomprehensible? Perhaps it's yet another example of Substack's (mishmash of nautical terms follows) unmoored flotsam sinking to the bottom (when filtering using Chronological—the ONLY sensible filter, Rossman!) and would make more sense if properly placed in response to some other commenter's ravings...
What at about it is incomprehensible? For example, America or MERICA (all caps) refers the the southern twang of a tiki torch MAGA types that I have worked with in the last decade in various capacities. Are you saying their linguistic swagger and attitudes are a fictional account? I have no idea what " unmoored flotsam " means, it is not the language of common folk who are trying to keep up with you academics. I added some context just for you.
Ah, you meant 'MURRICA' (also 'MURICA), never 'MERICA'—you're obviously not of the "RC Cola and Moon Pie" set and couldn't be bothered to glean the folk wisdom on tap in that neck of the woods. Too bad, you might've learned something a bit deeper about life and "capitalism." At any rate, you answered my question: must be just me. Sorry for the intrusion—back to your ravings...
Your right, I forgot the U sound in MURICA, his lips would move a certain way, LMAO! A pop and a moon pie sounds great, I need those carbs in my life right now, the struggle is real.
So do you think that black folk using the American legal system to extract wealth from the system is any different than Wall Street/Black Rock, Big Pharma, Military Industrial Complex, Internment of Japanese Americans victims or any constituency that wants something from USA Inc? It is not illegal and the actors no more immoral than those in my example, I mean WTC 7 just fell down, LMAO.
I'm generally not in favor of privately-controlled entities (businesses, NGOs, charities, PIRGs, etc.) gaining their funding directly or indirectly from tax revenues extracted from productive members of society (at the point of a gun, incidentally).
I'm of the Grover Norquist school (lobbyist for Islam, alas) who said: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
I consider government both inherently corrupt ("power corrupts") and largely incapable of doing other than, inefficiently and at exorbitant cost, providing the absolute minimum level of essential services: armed forces, courts, prisons, utilities, weights and measures, and the like. Once interest groups get involved, as they surely will and do, "state capture" becomes assured to one degree or another.
You really sure you want these clowns running your life? Remember, if you owe them, they own you. Lots to think about, so little time to do it. Now, Ima get me some RC Cola and a pie. Later.
Here's some reading material for you to peruse and mull over:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/welcome-to-the-world-of-minority-contracting
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-black-family-40-years-of-lies
Our country appears to be going down, and taking Western Civ with it. We could be sinking into another Dark Ages, like Europe did after the Roman Empire crashed. I think that peoples' attitudes towards reparations would be more widely positive if the above things were not the case, our country was flush with money, and it was realistic to believe we could just keep on spending and it will all be okay.
I'm afraid I agree with you. And while Europe descended into madness, violence and chaos the burgeoning Islamic Empire flourished, a beacon of light in an otherwise self-chosen dark world. Will there be another similar culture that flourishes today? India? China? It won't be modern Islam, it's still dragging itself out of its own Dark Ages which arguably started about six hundred years ago.
Hmmm...I hope it's Canada ;)
Yes that is exactly what I have been wondering: who will be the keepers of knowledge and reason? I think about the people who stashed the Dead Sea Scrolls into those caves, and I think about the burning of the Library at Alexandria. I never anticipated I would be in a position to experience any part of what they did.
Yet here it is again. https://www.theverge.com/22313763/scientists-climate-change-data-rescue-donald-trump
Interesting article and project--I had no idea it was happening!
Another important kind of knowledge that gets lost is the "know-how to do things." Surgeons, for example, go through training programs that resemble apprenticeship and journeyman stages of learning skilled crafts. Much of the knowledge is transmitted by showing and practicing behaviors. When the people who hold this knowledge are gone, those methods of creating things and solving problems die with them.
Canada a culture? Surely you jest. Canada is a set of manners (good ones)...
You can tell we're civilized because we apologize after whacking you with a hockey stick for wearing the wrong team jersey ;)
Neither will gratuitous red meat for the flock.
I am currently at my second home on the beach observing lots of red meat. You would lose your mind. Lol!
Meritorious manumission negroes like Glenn Loury?
The Symbolic Betrayal of the Black Race: In his book, “Black Labor White Wealth”, Dr. Claude Anderson relates," the term Uncle Tom is not an appropriate label for an individual who is “white on the inside and black on the outside” and sells out his race by placing his gains with whites ahead of the rights and gains of his people. Contrary to popular usage of the label, the character Tom was not the culprit in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle Tom was a brave man with dignity who cared about his family and race. The real villain was another black slave named Sambo. He was committed to the white master and used every opportunity to undermine the other slaves. Sambo, in many respects, was like today’s black conservatives. Sambo always followed the white slave master, Simon Legree, and offered to show him how to “tree the coons.” It was black Sambo who beat Uncle to death for both refusing to whip a black female slave or sell out his people. Uncle Tom tried to empower his people by undermining and beating the social structure whenever he could. Uncle Tom felt it was important to get his people across the river to freedom. He risked his life to do so. The Sambo character personifies a very successful social control construct created by conservatives. He was such a successful phenomenon that the concept he personified became a greater danger to blacks than Uncle Tom. As blacks move towards structuring policies of racial accountability, it will be very important for them to know who helps and who hurts the race. Sambo was the black slave character in numerous novels and movies who was willing to pick up a weapon and defend his white master against the approaching Union army or hide the master’s silver from Northern carpetbaggers. What is the difference between the fictional Sambo characters and today’s real-life blacks who join the conservative movement to argue against affirmative action, black reparations, and set asides? They declare that the world is now color-blind and are opposed to any policies requiring whites to share the socioeconomic burden that centuries of slavery and second-class citizenship have imposed on blacks. Isn’t espousing a color-blind, race-neutral, melting pot society, a moderate way of hiding master’s silver? What are black conservatives conserving when black America is burdened by poverty, crime, unemployment, homelessness, and other social pathologies? Based upon historical treatment alone, there should be a general antagonism between blacks and conservatives. Though conservatives claim that they are not racist, for centuries, they have opposed programs and policies to help blacks. Andrew Hacker, a white writer, provided insight on this in his new book, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Unequal. Hacker asserted that: “There persists the belief that members of the black race represent an inferior strain of the human species…Of course, the belief is seldom voiced in public. Most whites who call themselves conservatives hold this view about blacks and proclaim it when they are sure of their company. Since white conservatives share their true feelings only in the privacy of other whites, there is a strong possibility that black conservatives do not know how white conservatives truly feel about them.”
Close the southern border!!!! Undocumented immigrants have unearned benefits.
If it were an end - no more “structural racism”. , no more “critical race theory”, no more “DEI”, I might say OK just to put us all on a level playing field. A meritocratic world without excuses....
Doubt the race hucksters would bite on that one ....
People think that reparations marks an end...that it would be end to affirmative action, etc etc....
It wouldn't. Reparations would be a beginning.
If you have not watched Glenn's debate with Christopher Hitchens on this subject then it is a must. Whatever side one is on, two brilliant minds - Hitchens stumbles a bit in his argument and Loury doesn't miss a beat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EAawXDvLjI