This isn't new sweetheart with benefits. Gross generalizations are dangerous. Your intellectual and emotional IQ, Becky? Lol!
Racism is a form of prejudice that assumes that the members of racial categories have distinctive characteristics and that these differences result in some racial groups being inferior to others. Racism generally includes negative emotional reactions to members of the group, acceptance of negative stereotypes, and racial discrimination against individuals; in some cases, it leads to violence.
Discrimination refers to the differential treatment of members of different ethnic, religious, national, or other groups. Discrimination is usually the behavioral manifestation of prejudice and, therefore, involves the negative, hostile, and injurious treatment of members of rejected groups.
Thanks for helping me better to explain this bizarre seemingly lockstep defence of the Palestinians we see now with the Black Lives Matter set. The rejection of Western education and values goes back further than I'd realized.
European Jews were well assimilated into whiteness before the black civil rights struggle in the 50s and 60s. Around the world, blacks are at the bottom of the color caste system. I've witnessed this personally during my extensive world travel.
Jews are the smartest people on the planet. Blacks are at the opposite end with the highest rates of criminality, lowest achievement in education, employment, income and wealth, and highest rates of family dysfunction. Of course they will be at the bottom of any system because of their behavior, not their color.
Test that so-called Jewish intelligence in Israel by cutting off the United States gravy train in supporting its economy and security. My wife and I are high income earners. It's very unfortunate that our tax dollars go to a Zionist fascist state like Israel under Netanyahu and the more extremist Zionists he's surrounds himself with. That money would significantly help the financially strapped historically black colleges. One of my first cousins is a chancellor at the largest one, where they produce most of the black engineers in the country.
Israel is on record of supplying apartheid South African white supremacist Afrikaners with arms and special training to kill and oppress Africans. One of the main Jewish arm dealers involved is making money in Hollywood. Keep in mind, that the Jewish population in the United States is only 2.5 million. Imagine a race war or major unrest breaking out in the country. The white extremists like in Charlottesville, Virginia have gone underground and are waiting for the perfect chaos. Who will be the Jewish allies then? Blacks like myself are well armed and prepped to defend ourselves. Blacks were the highest racial group to purchase firearms after Trump was elected. Jews?
So blacks have guns, what else is new? I don't imagine a race war, end of story. I am unfamiliar with your expression ''Jewish woman with benefits''. I don't know what you're talking about. My personal info is none of your business. I am happy to have my tax dollars go to Israel and also to HBCU's and other public universities.
Jews aren't a monolithic group. I dated a white Jewish woman in Los Angeles for three years who had very bad credit and no health insurance. She owned a very lucrative business, but tried to manipulate me in selling my large home in the Inland Empire to move in with her in a fucked up small condo in the hood.
Her family members are generally average. Nonetheless, her rich uncle, an attorney and newspaper owner, was very jealous of my large CalPERS pension, relating he couldn't retire like me without selling off his assets. He was also jealous of how I managed my own legal issues, pro per.
Ultra-orthodox Jews in America (mostly in New York) don't work and depend on welfare checks. Obama with Jewish pressure gave these people multiple millions of dollars in grants. The Jewish people that live a couple of houses down from me aren't rich. Three generations live in the home and the main bread winner is a laborer. His wife is a crazy whore, as corroborated by her daddy. I live in an 8,000 square foot home with a vacation beach home. A Jew is one of my housekeeper
I successfully retired several years ago after working as a professional in the prison industrial complex. My spouse retired as a School District Superintendent, businesses woman, and college professor. We have a number of successful family members. Her late parents, a domestic worker and electrician, invested in properties and left her and her siblings with millions. My wife gave her share to her two daughters, who are both college graduates and professionals.
This list goes on, including my rich uncle who has photos with Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, George Bush, etc. He owns a 100 acre estate with a large mansion, villas, helicopter pad, etc. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (Hillary's former running mate) is a family friend. He's visited my aforementioned uncle and attended the funeral of another one.
i think about the decision not to long ago by key black leaders to airbrush out the jewish supported in the movie selma. why did ava du verney do that?
I have the deepest respect and admiration for you, Glenn Loury, along with John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Kmele Foster, and the many other brave and brilliant black conservative and heterodox intellectuals in this great country. I'm afraid, on this matter, you soft pedal to the point of genuinely missing the mark. There was never an alliance between American Jews and American blacks. There has been completely one-sided Jewish solidarity with black Americans, a one-sided history of profound commitment and courage by Jews in the black civil rights struggle, and far too many Jews have even supported the more radical "black liberation" movements and "anti-racism." There has never been any appreciable understanding, support, or solidarity with Jews from the American black community writ large. Obviously there are individual exceptions but, by and large, black Americans represent the most antisemitic major demographic group in this country and it's not particularly close.
Jews suffer, by far, the highest rate of hate crimes, year after year, decade after decade, overwhelmingly at the hands of blacks. The most dangerous, hateful libels of Israel come disproportionately from American blacks. Yes, affirmative action is an issue, too, since it is both a racial quota against Jews and Asians and also a fundamental assault on the meritocratic system in which Jews have thrived, in spite of profound antisemitism. Jews have thrived in America and everywhere by accepting the rules and the standards of the culture at large and achieving against all odds. Demanding handouts, special treatment, corrosion of standards, corruption of rigor, pathologization of conscientiousness and discipline, denial of genius and aesthetic beauty in favor of endless virtue signaling, yes, this is all a profound affront to the Jewish people and all we've rightly earned. Frankly, the victim mentality that defines so much of the American black community is disgusting, and it ensures the perpetuation of blacks as an underachieving, socially destructive underclass.
There was never an alliance to break. There are two cultures with foundationally different values, diametrically opposed values, and these values are not qualitatively equal by a long shot. There is a profound cultural sickness in the American black community which manifests in remarkably high crime rates, remarkably low achievement in almost everything except sports and music, remarkably high rates of broken families, remarkably high rates of substance abuse, a high rates of criminality, remarkably high rates of conspiratorial thinking and embrace of misinformation, and remarkably high rates of antisemitism. There is much that goes right within Jewish communities, and Jews are, by and large, one of the least violent, most high achieving, most philanthropic, most pro-social communities in America, as we have been everywhere. Black Americans could learn a great deal from Jewish Americans and Jewish Americans would be happy to lend a hand, as we have always shown, but black Americans treat us with resentment and hatred, and often murderous violence. Too many black Americans rage over "microaggressions" or the phantasm of "structural racism" while simultaneously calling for a second Holocaust in Israel and slandering American Jews as some kind of domestic enemy. The irony couldn't be more stark.
You can be sure that American Jews read Baldwin, Ellison, Wright, Hurston, Hughes, and yes, the people with three names. American Jews really do revere MLK, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. We really know and honor the history and tragedy of slavery and Jim Crow. American Jews readily do love and appreciate jazz. How many black Americans know much of anything about the Holocaust, let alone the Russian pogroms, let alone the blood libel, let alone the Inquisition, let alone the endless series of slaughters at the hands of Christian and Muslim mobs over the centuries, let alone the extermination of the Jews of Arabia by Muhammad, let alone the Roman occupation and ethnic cleansing of our homeland, the one place where, for better or worse, we are indigenous? How many black Americans read Singer, Aleichem, Roth, and Bellow, or listen to Gershwin, Bernstein, Copland, or Goodman, or have the faintest idea of our holidays, traditions, culture, or values? It has been a one way love affair, an abusive relationship.
Now that legions of black Americans are actively celebrating a genocidal assault on thousands of Jewish civilians in Israel and openly call for the destruction of the state of Israel, a second Holocaust, a great many of us Jews feel like the decades of abuse and ingratitude and simmering hatred are no longer matters for our own introspection, our own redoubling of efforts to understand, excuse, justify, forgive, and wave off. For decades, we have done our damnedest to be allies with people who accept our allyship only when it's convenient and then immediately stab us in the back. Now that Jews are actually in an existential struggle (which blacks are manifestly not), many of us are forced into recognition of who our friends and enemies are whether we like it or not, whether it confirms or upends our prior allegiances. Jews have been extraordinarily supportive of black Americans throughout our shared history on this continent and the searing ingratitude and violence we've gotten in return is inexcusable. I don't think many Jews are in any appreciable way racist. This is a question of culture. Realistic Jews, Jews intent on survival, will gladly work alongside black conservatives, black patriots, black allies. Sadly, the obvious truth is that this is a distinct and reviled minority in the American black community, most of which is in thrall to a corrupt and pathological culture that threatens our people, who are under more than enough threat as it is.
I was shaken by this candid comment, DL -- shaken because I know it to be largely inarguable. I did miss the mark you mention -- in 1986, when that piece was originally published. But I won't miss it tomorrow, when I address this same subject before the congregation at Palm Beach Synagogue! Thanks for the painful nudge. GL
I might add that the embrace of Palestinian Nationalism, seems be fueled by an anger and a drive for vengeance. Perhaps it’s a desire for blacks to assert their independence in directing foreign policy, but their has not been a lingering anti French hostility inspite of France’s role in Algerian colonialism, or anti British hostility inspite of the British history of African colonization. Even now, Hamas executed a student hostage from Tanzania, but this has elicited no response from anyone.
I think you buried the lead by stating this so late in your essay, “For at base, this emerging political identity among blacks, unlike its counterpart in Zionism among Jews, is profoundly anti-Western.”
I have never thought about this difference, and it leaves me despondent. Do you think this difference holds true?
Excellent essay! "I do not know whether, all these years later, I should feel proud of the essay's prescience or dispirited by its continuing relevance." Both, I think. As I have said before, I believe that the problem of disparate socioeconomic outcomes between different groups is the key to understanding this conflict, which I fear will persist as long as those disparities continue.
See my May 8, 2023 comment on Dr. Stanley Goldfarb's article in The Free Press:
"How America's Obsession with DEI Is Sabotaging Our Medical Schools":
I prefer that my primary care physician and support staff be black. I used to be involved in a charity that raised money for 2nd year black medical students. We desperately need more black doctors who better understand black medical needs and benign neglect.
A white doctor, whom I thought was very competent, prescribed high blood pressure medication to me not recommended for black people. I almost died because of his ignorance and negligence. I ended up doing the research for which should have been done before being prescribing the wrong medication.
My daughter, a former peace officer, suffered from a botched surgery. She ended up in the hospital with immense pain and jaundice. The Asian doctor assigned to her failed to give her appropriate pain management, pain medication. I had had him removed from treating her. So much for the bright Asians' increasing presence in medicine. There's great disparity in blacks being treated for pain management, etc.
There are other positive and crucial traits in being a decent doctor, exclusive of a cold fucking biased robot.
Thomas Sowell: "Recent scholarship traces the roots of southern violence to the Scots-Irish, who brought a relatively violent “cracker culture” with them to the United States in the eighteenth century. The tolerance for violence inherent in cracker culture was believed to be transmitted throughout the South to other whites and was maintained, in part, through evangelical Christian doctrine.
Some southern blacks were also influenced by “cracker culture,” leading to the emergence of a “black redneck” phenomenon influencing homicide among blacks. Using county-level data circa 2000, this study empirically evaluates the merit of the cracker culture/black redneck thesis. Negative binomial regression analyses for a full sample of counties suggest that a measure of southern cracker/black redneck culture is an important factor affecting contemporary rates of argument homicide among both whites and blacks. When counties are divided into south and non-south sub-samples, the results are also consistent: a cracker/black redneck culture effect is evident for both racial groups in the south and is also apparent outside of the southern region. We interpret these latter findings as possible support for the thesis that southern cracker/black redneck culture has been transported through migration to non-southern localities."
Whites were the first rioters & looters. Many prosperous Black communities were destroyed by whites. Nnumerous Blacks were murdered in cold blood with impunity. The American Justice System didn't work for Black folks then, and and is broken now.
"Race riots were not born in the 1960s; they were born in the 1870s. The Meridian, Mississippi race riot of 1871, the Colfax massacre in Louisiana in April 1873, the New Orleans riot of July 1866, the Memphis, Tennessee riot of May 1866, the Charleston, South Carolina riot of September 1876, and the Willington, South Carolina race riot of 1898, to name a few, occurred under the passive and sometimes direct hand of the police. The result: The ability of former slaves to create intergenerational wealth – the keys to all success in a capitalist Nation was systematically destroyed for Generations" -- Arthur H. Garrison/The Morning Call.
Middle/upper middle class white males are 30% of the population yet commit 80% of mass public shootings. Because of them, the term "going postal" has now expanded to grammar schools.
Yet, political and academic silence nullifies their direct responsibility, tripping a default switch that equally distributes blame amongst the rest of the 70% non-white male population. This blocks urgent conversations about the growing problem of white male terrorism, arising out of their historic insecurity over their masculinity in the context of white supremacy.
This insecurity can be traced back to slavery, especially the post Civil War era. White men lived in rabid fear, angst, and hatred over the thought of Black men coming into contact with "their" white women, despite the fact that white males commonly raped and molested Black women during and beyond slavery.
They also promulgated myths of Black male sexuality being highly aggressive, accompanied by an instinctual desire to rape white women. In fact, white men exhibited a puerile fetishistic interest in Black male sexuality. After 1877, when white males reversed the equality and gains made during Reconstruction- the most progressive era in America, Black male lynchings became a common form of not just political violence, but violence with sexual sadistic undertones. Many of these lynchings concerned the "honor" of white women."
There were 148 public mass shootings between 1982 and 10/2023. 79 (53%) were committed by non-Hispanic white males, and 26 (18%) by black males. White males are 30% of the population, black males are 7% of the population. White males committed 7/10ths of the public mass shootings that black males committed. Black males committed more public mass shootings per capita than white males. Black males committed public mass shootings at a rate of 143 % more than did white males. These statistics are from Statista.com- Statista Research Department.
If there are prospects for a better future, we must abandon any attempt to divine a pallet of different remedies that address the uneven real/imagined victimologies. We must recognize the internal contradiction of assuming there can EVER be consensus about adjusting preferential remediations among/between different aggrieved groups. There is no mathematical formula for dealing with real and perceived historical injustices.
The path forward must be premised on a policy that does NOT attempt to apply deferential remedies for some, but not for others. Affirmative discrimination can never be applied in such a manner that differential levels will satisfy everyone. It's a fool's errand to assume otherwise. Equality of opportunity and equality before the law are the only principles that can unite disparate identities for the common good.
What does equality of opportunity mean to you? Sounds good, but never seen a real life example of it that satisfies the diverse experiences, barriers, privileges and support of the American population.
What does it mean? The state will take no action to support various groups/identities as a remedial act to redress perceived or imagined historical "injustices." In effect ,it is the idea that equality before the law should be the foundational principle of governmental operations -- no favoritism for any race, creed, religion, age, or ethnic identity, the principle that underlies the 14th Amendment.
Thanks for the respone. I think we're talking past each other at this point.
After reading your response, it looks like I need to be more specific. For example, how do we ensure all kids have an equal opportunity and support to receive a quality public school education no matter what their neighborhood conditions are. This is a basic example where the government does have more control over than not.
1. All kids are not equal. They will not grow at equal rates, intellectually or otherwise.
2. All people (kids, too) do no have equal tastes, nor do they have equal talents, or interests.
3. All homes are not the same. No way one can make affirmative compensations such that life in all homes would be the same. Unless children are living in in a purely communist society, their home life cultures will not be the same., And, even if incomes were equal, some would be rural, while others would be urban. Some would have parents who provided discipline, others would not. Some would practice BBall; others would practice the 3 R's,.
4. It is illogical to assume you can create a perfectly 'equal' footing or life context. Some children take advantage of opportunities; others ignore the library and just want to hang wid the bothers and be cool. It is not a question of white privilege.
I get the equality before the law part. Thanks for breaking it down in more detail. My question was regarding the equality of opportunity portion of your comment. And I'll be more specific, what does it look like to you in real life. Not a definition, not a theory, I understand those. Like Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. That's where I've seen "rational" theories and definitions fall apart - when it comes to real world application.
So I ask my question again, what does equality of opportunity, however you define the term opportunity, look like in practice in a very diverse American society?
As Thomas Sowell has so often noted, talent, intelligence, personality aspects, height, weight, sex/gender, ethnicity, skin quality, hair color, etc. are not, and cannot, be distributed equally. So too with almost every other potential characteristic - language, regional dialect, cultural tic's, etc. Any one, or any group of these personal characteristics could be used in a discriminatory manner to affect decisions about which candidate shall or shall not be offered a job. None of us start from a totally equal position.
My point is, the STATE cannot, nor should it attempt, to make compensatory adjustments to level the field of competition. To do so would merely replace one collection of bias's for another. Example. Assume a woman of Greek ethnicity is competing with a woman of Norwegian ethnicity. How much should the darker-skinned woman be added remedially, even though the lighter skinned woman speaks several foreign languages fluently? What is the intersectionality of Greek ethnicity compared to Norwegian ethnicity? If you have an answer, how do you know? Who established the calculus for ranking race/ethnicity such that the 'unbiased' government HR Team can render "social justice"?
Finally, What preconceived bias caused you to assume the ethnic Greek woman had a darker skin--since I did not specify that in the example?
Glenn, this is a brilliant essay. It took me back in time to those events and ideas that surrounded us in that era. “Comparative Victimology” is a phrase I have been looking for to describe those sorts of discussions. This essay could easily constitute an entire semester of analysis and discussion.
This isn't new sweetheart with benefits. Gross generalizations are dangerous. Your intellectual and emotional IQ, Becky? Lol!
Racism is a form of prejudice that assumes that the members of racial categories have distinctive characteristics and that these differences result in some racial groups being inferior to others. Racism generally includes negative emotional reactions to members of the group, acceptance of negative stereotypes, and racial discrimination against individuals; in some cases, it leads to violence.
Discrimination refers to the differential treatment of members of different ethnic, religious, national, or other groups. Discrimination is usually the behavioral manifestation of prejudice and, therefore, involves the negative, hostile, and injurious treatment of members of rejected groups.
Adapted from the APA Dictionary of Psychology
Without U.S. tax dollars, Israel would cease to exist. And I'm not broke. Lol!!!!
Thanks for helping me better to explain this bizarre seemingly lockstep defence of the Palestinians we see now with the Black Lives Matter set. The rejection of Western education and values goes back further than I'd realized.
European Jews were well assimilated into whiteness before the black civil rights struggle in the 50s and 60s. Around the world, blacks are at the bottom of the color caste system. I've witnessed this personally during my extensive world travel.
Jews are the smartest people on the planet. Blacks are at the opposite end with the highest rates of criminality, lowest achievement in education, employment, income and wealth, and highest rates of family dysfunction. Of course they will be at the bottom of any system because of their behavior, not their color.
Test that so-called Jewish intelligence in Israel by cutting off the United States gravy train in supporting its economy and security. My wife and I are high income earners. It's very unfortunate that our tax dollars go to a Zionist fascist state like Israel under Netanyahu and the more extremist Zionists he's surrounds himself with. That money would significantly help the financially strapped historically black colleges. One of my first cousins is a chancellor at the largest one, where they produce most of the black engineers in the country.
Israel is on record of supplying apartheid South African white supremacist Afrikaners with arms and special training to kill and oppress Africans. One of the main Jewish arm dealers involved is making money in Hollywood. Keep in mind, that the Jewish population in the United States is only 2.5 million. Imagine a race war or major unrest breaking out in the country. The white extremists like in Charlottesville, Virginia have gone underground and are waiting for the perfect chaos. Who will be the Jewish allies then? Blacks like myself are well armed and prepped to defend ourselves. Blacks were the highest racial group to purchase firearms after Trump was elected. Jews?
Don't let your pants get too big for you. Lol!
So blacks have guns, what else is new? I don't imagine a race war, end of story. I am unfamiliar with your expression ''Jewish woman with benefits''. I don't know what you're talking about. My personal info is none of your business. I am happy to have my tax dollars go to Israel and also to HBCU's and other public universities.
Indie T, are you a Jewish woman with benefits? Physical or monetary? Lol!!!!
Jews aren't a monolithic group. I dated a white Jewish woman in Los Angeles for three years who had very bad credit and no health insurance. She owned a very lucrative business, but tried to manipulate me in selling my large home in the Inland Empire to move in with her in a fucked up small condo in the hood.
Her family members are generally average. Nonetheless, her rich uncle, an attorney and newspaper owner, was very jealous of my large CalPERS pension, relating he couldn't retire like me without selling off his assets. He was also jealous of how I managed my own legal issues, pro per.
Ultra-orthodox Jews in America (mostly in New York) don't work and depend on welfare checks. Obama with Jewish pressure gave these people multiple millions of dollars in grants. The Jewish people that live a couple of houses down from me aren't rich. Three generations live in the home and the main bread winner is a laborer. His wife is a crazy whore, as corroborated by her daddy. I live in an 8,000 square foot home with a vacation beach home. A Jew is one of my housekeeper
I successfully retired several years ago after working as a professional in the prison industrial complex. My spouse retired as a School District Superintendent, businesses woman, and college professor. We have a number of successful family members. Her late parents, a domestic worker and electrician, invested in properties and left her and her siblings with millions. My wife gave her share to her two daughters, who are both college graduates and professionals.
This list goes on, including my rich uncle who has photos with Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, George Bush, etc. He owns a 100 acre estate with a large mansion, villas, helicopter pad, etc. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (Hillary's former running mate) is a family friend. He's visited my aforementioned uncle and attended the funeral of another one.
What else is new, Lol!
i think about the decision not to long ago by key black leaders to airbrush out the jewish supported in the movie selma. why did ava du verney do that?
I have the deepest respect and admiration for you, Glenn Loury, along with John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Kmele Foster, and the many other brave and brilliant black conservative and heterodox intellectuals in this great country. I'm afraid, on this matter, you soft pedal to the point of genuinely missing the mark. There was never an alliance between American Jews and American blacks. There has been completely one-sided Jewish solidarity with black Americans, a one-sided history of profound commitment and courage by Jews in the black civil rights struggle, and far too many Jews have even supported the more radical "black liberation" movements and "anti-racism." There has never been any appreciable understanding, support, or solidarity with Jews from the American black community writ large. Obviously there are individual exceptions but, by and large, black Americans represent the most antisemitic major demographic group in this country and it's not particularly close.
Jews suffer, by far, the highest rate of hate crimes, year after year, decade after decade, overwhelmingly at the hands of blacks. The most dangerous, hateful libels of Israel come disproportionately from American blacks. Yes, affirmative action is an issue, too, since it is both a racial quota against Jews and Asians and also a fundamental assault on the meritocratic system in which Jews have thrived, in spite of profound antisemitism. Jews have thrived in America and everywhere by accepting the rules and the standards of the culture at large and achieving against all odds. Demanding handouts, special treatment, corrosion of standards, corruption of rigor, pathologization of conscientiousness and discipline, denial of genius and aesthetic beauty in favor of endless virtue signaling, yes, this is all a profound affront to the Jewish people and all we've rightly earned. Frankly, the victim mentality that defines so much of the American black community is disgusting, and it ensures the perpetuation of blacks as an underachieving, socially destructive underclass.
There was never an alliance to break. There are two cultures with foundationally different values, diametrically opposed values, and these values are not qualitatively equal by a long shot. There is a profound cultural sickness in the American black community which manifests in remarkably high crime rates, remarkably low achievement in almost everything except sports and music, remarkably high rates of broken families, remarkably high rates of substance abuse, a high rates of criminality, remarkably high rates of conspiratorial thinking and embrace of misinformation, and remarkably high rates of antisemitism. There is much that goes right within Jewish communities, and Jews are, by and large, one of the least violent, most high achieving, most philanthropic, most pro-social communities in America, as we have been everywhere. Black Americans could learn a great deal from Jewish Americans and Jewish Americans would be happy to lend a hand, as we have always shown, but black Americans treat us with resentment and hatred, and often murderous violence. Too many black Americans rage over "microaggressions" or the phantasm of "structural racism" while simultaneously calling for a second Holocaust in Israel and slandering American Jews as some kind of domestic enemy. The irony couldn't be more stark.
You can be sure that American Jews read Baldwin, Ellison, Wright, Hurston, Hughes, and yes, the people with three names. American Jews really do revere MLK, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. We really know and honor the history and tragedy of slavery and Jim Crow. American Jews readily do love and appreciate jazz. How many black Americans know much of anything about the Holocaust, let alone the Russian pogroms, let alone the blood libel, let alone the Inquisition, let alone the endless series of slaughters at the hands of Christian and Muslim mobs over the centuries, let alone the extermination of the Jews of Arabia by Muhammad, let alone the Roman occupation and ethnic cleansing of our homeland, the one place where, for better or worse, we are indigenous? How many black Americans read Singer, Aleichem, Roth, and Bellow, or listen to Gershwin, Bernstein, Copland, or Goodman, or have the faintest idea of our holidays, traditions, culture, or values? It has been a one way love affair, an abusive relationship.
Now that legions of black Americans are actively celebrating a genocidal assault on thousands of Jewish civilians in Israel and openly call for the destruction of the state of Israel, a second Holocaust, a great many of us Jews feel like the decades of abuse and ingratitude and simmering hatred are no longer matters for our own introspection, our own redoubling of efforts to understand, excuse, justify, forgive, and wave off. For decades, we have done our damnedest to be allies with people who accept our allyship only when it's convenient and then immediately stab us in the back. Now that Jews are actually in an existential struggle (which blacks are manifestly not), many of us are forced into recognition of who our friends and enemies are whether we like it or not, whether it confirms or upends our prior allegiances. Jews have been extraordinarily supportive of black Americans throughout our shared history on this continent and the searing ingratitude and violence we've gotten in return is inexcusable. I don't think many Jews are in any appreciable way racist. This is a question of culture. Realistic Jews, Jews intent on survival, will gladly work alongside black conservatives, black patriots, black allies. Sadly, the obvious truth is that this is a distinct and reviled minority in the American black community, most of which is in thrall to a corrupt and pathological culture that threatens our people, who are under more than enough threat as it is.
I was shaken by this candid comment, DL -- shaken because I know it to be largely inarguable. I did miss the mark you mention -- in 1986, when that piece was originally published. But I won't miss it tomorrow, when I address this same subject before the congregation at Palm Beach Synagogue! Thanks for the painful nudge. GL
I might add that the embrace of Palestinian Nationalism, seems be fueled by an anger and a drive for vengeance. Perhaps it’s a desire for blacks to assert their independence in directing foreign policy, but their has not been a lingering anti French hostility inspite of France’s role in Algerian colonialism, or anti British hostility inspite of the British history of African colonization. Even now, Hamas executed a student hostage from Tanzania, but this has elicited no response from anyone.
the student was jewish not black to these people
I think you buried the lead by stating this so late in your essay, “For at base, this emerging political identity among blacks, unlike its counterpart in Zionism among Jews, is profoundly anti-Western.”
I have never thought about this difference, and it leaves me despondent. Do you think this difference holds true?
Excellent essay! "I do not know whether, all these years later, I should feel proud of the essay's prescience or dispirited by its continuing relevance." Both, I think. As I have said before, I believe that the problem of disparate socioeconomic outcomes between different groups is the key to understanding this conflict, which I fear will persist as long as those disparities continue.
See my May 8, 2023 comment on Dr. Stanley Goldfarb's article in The Free Press:
"How America's Obsession with DEI Is Sabotaging Our Medical Schools":
https://www.thefp.com/p/how-americas-obsession-with-dei-is/comment/15771376.
I prefer that my primary care physician and support staff be black. I used to be involved in a charity that raised money for 2nd year black medical students. We desperately need more black doctors who better understand black medical needs and benign neglect.
A white doctor, whom I thought was very competent, prescribed high blood pressure medication to me not recommended for black people. I almost died because of his ignorance and negligence. I ended up doing the research for which should have been done before being prescribing the wrong medication.
My daughter, a former peace officer, suffered from a botched surgery. She ended up in the hospital with immense pain and jaundice. The Asian doctor assigned to her failed to give her appropriate pain management, pain medication. I had had him removed from treating her. So much for the bright Asians' increasing presence in medicine. There's great disparity in blacks being treated for pain management, etc.
There are other positive and crucial traits in being a decent doctor, exclusive of a cold fucking biased robot.
The vision of the future is Reginald Denny meets Damien "Football" Williams.
What would Scott Adams do?
Thomas Sowell: "Recent scholarship traces the roots of southern violence to the Scots-Irish, who brought a relatively violent “cracker culture” with them to the United States in the eighteenth century. The tolerance for violence inherent in cracker culture was believed to be transmitted throughout the South to other whites and was maintained, in part, through evangelical Christian doctrine.
Some southern blacks were also influenced by “cracker culture,” leading to the emergence of a “black redneck” phenomenon influencing homicide among blacks. Using county-level data circa 2000, this study empirically evaluates the merit of the cracker culture/black redneck thesis. Negative binomial regression analyses for a full sample of counties suggest that a measure of southern cracker/black redneck culture is an important factor affecting contemporary rates of argument homicide among both whites and blacks. When counties are divided into south and non-south sub-samples, the results are also consistent: a cracker/black redneck culture effect is evident for both racial groups in the south and is also apparent outside of the southern region. We interpret these latter findings as possible support for the thesis that southern cracker/black redneck culture has been transported through migration to non-southern localities."
Whites were the first rioters & looters. Many prosperous Black communities were destroyed by whites. Nnumerous Blacks were murdered in cold blood with impunity. The American Justice System didn't work for Black folks then, and and is broken now.
"Race riots were not born in the 1960s; they were born in the 1870s. The Meridian, Mississippi race riot of 1871, the Colfax massacre in Louisiana in April 1873, the New Orleans riot of July 1866, the Memphis, Tennessee riot of May 1866, the Charleston, South Carolina riot of September 1876, and the Willington, South Carolina race riot of 1898, to name a few, occurred under the passive and sometimes direct hand of the police. The result: The ability of former slaves to create intergenerational wealth – the keys to all success in a capitalist Nation was systematically destroyed for Generations" -- Arthur H. Garrison/The Morning Call.
Middle/upper middle class white males are 30% of the population yet commit 80% of mass public shootings. Because of them, the term "going postal" has now expanded to grammar schools.
Yet, political and academic silence nullifies their direct responsibility, tripping a default switch that equally distributes blame amongst the rest of the 70% non-white male population. This blocks urgent conversations about the growing problem of white male terrorism, arising out of their historic insecurity over their masculinity in the context of white supremacy.
This insecurity can be traced back to slavery, especially the post Civil War era. White men lived in rabid fear, angst, and hatred over the thought of Black men coming into contact with "their" white women, despite the fact that white males commonly raped and molested Black women during and beyond slavery.
They also promulgated myths of Black male sexuality being highly aggressive, accompanied by an instinctual desire to rape white women. In fact, white men exhibited a puerile fetishistic interest in Black male sexuality. After 1877, when white males reversed the equality and gains made during Reconstruction- the most progressive era in America, Black male lynchings became a common form of not just political violence, but violence with sexual sadistic undertones. Many of these lynchings concerned the "honor" of white women."
There were 148 public mass shootings between 1982 and 10/2023. 79 (53%) were committed by non-Hispanic white males, and 26 (18%) by black males. White males are 30% of the population, black males are 7% of the population. White males committed 7/10ths of the public mass shootings that black males committed. Black males committed more public mass shootings per capita than white males. Black males committed public mass shootings at a rate of 143 % more than did white males. These statistics are from Statista.com- Statista Research Department.
I think dispirited is the proper choice.
If there are prospects for a better future, we must abandon any attempt to divine a pallet of different remedies that address the uneven real/imagined victimologies. We must recognize the internal contradiction of assuming there can EVER be consensus about adjusting preferential remediations among/between different aggrieved groups. There is no mathematical formula for dealing with real and perceived historical injustices.
The path forward must be premised on a policy that does NOT attempt to apply deferential remedies for some, but not for others. Affirmative discrimination can never be applied in such a manner that differential levels will satisfy everyone. It's a fool's errand to assume otherwise. Equality of opportunity and equality before the law are the only principles that can unite disparate identities for the common good.
What does equality of opportunity mean to you? Sounds good, but never seen a real life example of it that satisfies the diverse experiences, barriers, privileges and support of the American population.
What does it mean? The state will take no action to support various groups/identities as a remedial act to redress perceived or imagined historical "injustices." In effect ,it is the idea that equality before the law should be the foundational principle of governmental operations -- no favoritism for any race, creed, religion, age, or ethnic identity, the principle that underlies the 14th Amendment.
Whites have had favoritism for the past 400 years-- the white affirmative action and headstart programs. WTF! Lol!!!
Thanks for the respone. I think we're talking past each other at this point.
After reading your response, it looks like I need to be more specific. For example, how do we ensure all kids have an equal opportunity and support to receive a quality public school education no matter what their neighborhood conditions are. This is a basic example where the government does have more control over than not.
I appreciate the back and forth.
1. All kids are not equal. They will not grow at equal rates, intellectually or otherwise.
2. All people (kids, too) do no have equal tastes, nor do they have equal talents, or interests.
3. All homes are not the same. No way one can make affirmative compensations such that life in all homes would be the same. Unless children are living in in a purely communist society, their home life cultures will not be the same., And, even if incomes were equal, some would be rural, while others would be urban. Some would have parents who provided discipline, others would not. Some would practice BBall; others would practice the 3 R's,.
4. It is illogical to assume you can create a perfectly 'equal' footing or life context. Some children take advantage of opportunities; others ignore the library and just want to hang wid the bothers and be cool. It is not a question of white privilege.
I get the equality before the law part. Thanks for breaking it down in more detail. My question was regarding the equality of opportunity portion of your comment. And I'll be more specific, what does it look like to you in real life. Not a definition, not a theory, I understand those. Like Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. That's where I've seen "rational" theories and definitions fall apart - when it comes to real world application.
So I ask my question again, what does equality of opportunity, however you define the term opportunity, look like in practice in a very diverse American society?
As Thomas Sowell has so often noted, talent, intelligence, personality aspects, height, weight, sex/gender, ethnicity, skin quality, hair color, etc. are not, and cannot, be distributed equally. So too with almost every other potential characteristic - language, regional dialect, cultural tic's, etc. Any one, or any group of these personal characteristics could be used in a discriminatory manner to affect decisions about which candidate shall or shall not be offered a job. None of us start from a totally equal position.
My point is, the STATE cannot, nor should it attempt, to make compensatory adjustments to level the field of competition. To do so would merely replace one collection of bias's for another. Example. Assume a woman of Greek ethnicity is competing with a woman of Norwegian ethnicity. How much should the darker-skinned woman be added remedially, even though the lighter skinned woman speaks several foreign languages fluently? What is the intersectionality of Greek ethnicity compared to Norwegian ethnicity? If you have an answer, how do you know? Who established the calculus for ranking race/ethnicity such that the 'unbiased' government HR Team can render "social justice"?
Finally, What preconceived bias caused you to assume the ethnic Greek woman had a darker skin--since I did not specify that in the example?
Glenn, this is a brilliant essay. It took me back in time to those events and ideas that surrounded us in that era. “Comparative Victimology” is a phrase I have been looking for to describe those sorts of discussions. This essay could easily constitute an entire semester of analysis and discussion.