POC

A group of students at the Claremont Colleges are in search of a roommate for next year, but insist that the roommate not be white. Karé Ureña (PZ ’18) posted on Facebook that non-white students in need of housing arrangements should reach out to either her or two other students with whom she plans to live in an off-campus house. The post states that “POC [people of color] only” will be considered for this living opportunity. “I don’t want to live with any white folks,” Claremont Independent

Racist?

Cultural Appropriation?

A female student of color assaults a white male for appropriating her culture... dreadlocks.

The white student is wearing a hairstyle with roots in ancient Greece, India (he is Caucasian after all), the Nordic (Viking) countries, and the Jewish Nazarites.

The black girl is apparently upset that he is wearing a hairstyle that was appropriated by Rastafarians followed by black Americans in the 70's.

So the key question is how much of this girls culture has been appropriated from others?  How much of her culture is African?  Very little I would guess.  Glass houses and all...

REASON

Dreadlocks have varied origins, it is a hairstyle worn by some African tribes, it also has independent origins in cultures as far ranging as Europe and Asia.  

Is a white male guilty of racism for wearing dreadlocks?  Is a black female guilty of racism for attacking him over it?  Or is it just stupidity?  

 

White Privilege, Racism, and Complacency

Here are some interesting articles for you to ponder on Martin Luther King Day.

America the land of Opportunity for Black Immigrants - Quartz

Black immigrants outpace native blacks and whites in selective college enrollment - Diverse

Black immigrants narrow black-white achievement gaps - University of Chicago - Rauh

Should black immigrants benefit from affirmative action - Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

What Drives Success - New York Times 

Goodbye Woodrow Wilson?

At Princeton, the Black Justice League takes on an iconic figure of the Democratic Party, an unapologetic progressive, and an avowed racist.

Culminating a yearlong campaign to purge Princeton of Wilson the BJL staged a 32 hr sit-in in the office of the president, and the president of Princeton capitulated.

Was Woodrow Wilson a racist? Undoubtedly! He was even considered a racist by the standards of his own time.  The question therefore becomes is his racism the total sum of his being and accomplishments?  

While he was a racist by the standards of his own times, it was also not uncommon by the standards of his own time.  He reversed policies established through reconstruction effectively resegregating the federal government.

He also led the country in WWI, was instrumental in the founding of the League of Nations, supported suffrage, granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans, and laid the groundwork for the subsequent New Deal.  

Do we judge figures from the past with the morals of the present?  Should Wilson be erased from Princeton?  Should the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs be renamed? What do you say?

Stop Calling me White... It's Racist.

For the Record, This is White:

The rest of us exhibit widely varying skin tone:

http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutorials/guest/skin_tone/skintone.html

Can you find your own color here in more than one race?

I tend to average: center Pallor-African, left Pallor-Asian, to center Tanned-Caucasian, I'm not nor have I ever been "White"

Who's Racist Now?

Our schools need teachers who reflect the ethnic and racial background of its students.

Stop for a second and consider what the reaction would be if this statement was made in regards to, and by community members of an affluent white neighborhood.  

"We're just saying what the community wants. We didn't fight for a white male or female teacher to educate our babies" Rev. Karen Crozier

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/07/28/4044162/southwest-fresno-leaders-criticize.html#storylink=cpy

District spokeswoman Micheline Golden said Beck was the best pick for the job and one of only four teachers in Fresno Unified with experience teaching the three cultural studies classes he'll be responsible for at Gaston.

Rev. Paul McCoy of New Light for New Life Church of God said he met Beck this month at a meeting with one of Gaston's principals and found him "highly intelligent." He's qualified for the job, McCoy added, but said, "we told him it's not about him."

Now suppose how many African American teachers heard that in Neshoba County Mississippi in say the 1950's.

Racism is Racism, no matter the color of your skin.

The Fresno Bee

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/07/28/4044162/southwest-fresno-leaders-criticize.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/07/28/4044162/southwest-fresno-leaders-criticize.html#storylink=cpy

Histrionics

Simon Waxman

Managing editor of the Boston Review went on a hysterical, panties-in-a-knot rant over the "offensive" use of the names of American Indian Tribe names for US Army Helicopters.  Unfortunately it appears he was too busy dribbling pee down his leg to do anything that could possibly be construed as journalism.

US Army helicopters have been named for native American tribes since the H-13 Sioux, it was followed by the Shawnee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and the UH-1 Iroquois (the famous Huey) with one notable exception.

The AH-1 version of the Iroquois was named Cobra in an early spasm of political correctness, according to the US Army Aviation museum, native American tribes complained that it wasn't named after a tribe and they went back to the old naming methodology and the Cobra was followed by the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Apache.

What's more, native Americans seem to approve of the nomenclature, the ND Guard's first two UH-72 Lakota were christened in a ceremony by George Ironshield of the Standing Rock tribe,  an event attended by representatives of many other tribes.

Mr Waxman also apparently overlooked the the fact that Army Material Command actually gets approval from Native American tribes before naming its aircraft.

If it's really an issue...

you can go ahead and name your next helicopter after my ancestral tribe, the Feni.

You're all a bunch of Microracists

Microaggression, Microassaults, Microinsults, and Microinvalidation

 

Would you ask an Asian student: "Can you help me with this calculus problem? I just can't figure it out." (You're a racist: Implies Asians are good at math.)

Is your office decorated in Danish Modern? (You're a racist: One’s racial identity can be minimized or made insignificant through the sheer exclusion of decorations.)

Would you make this statement? “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.” (You're a racist: Implies minorities receive an unfair benefit.)

Do you believe we are all human beings and skin color is unimportant? (You're a racist: You deny  the racial and experiential reality of people of color.) 

Would you correct spelling and grammar errors on a submitted college paper? (You're a racist: Creating a hostile campus climate by "correcting perceived grammatical choices that in actuality reflect ideologies".)

Would you correct the use of capitalization of the word "indigenous" in a term paper? (You're a racist: Disregarding the writer's scholarly advocacy and ignoring other ideological implications.)

Want to have a discussion? (You're a racist: Creating a hostile climate by questioning and allowing classmates to question the epistemological and methodological commitments of other students.)

Wait... It gets better; in the Catch-22 department:

Microaggressive acts can usually be explained away by seemingly nonbiased and valid reasons... but they're still microaggresive acts.   No matter what your thoughts, feelings, or underlying motivations, conservative or liberal... if you're white, you're a racist.

It appears that modern and symbolic racism are most closely associated with political conservatives, who disclaim personal bigotry by strong and rigid adherence to traditional American values (individualism, self-reliance, hard work, etc.), whereas aversive racism is more characteristic of White liberals (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1996, 2000).  Aversive racists, are strongly motivated by egalitarian values as well as antiminority feelings. Their egalitarian values operate on a conscious level, while their antiminority feelings are less conscious and generally covert (DeVos & Banaji, 2005)

Somehow, I can't shake the feeling that this entire concept is racist.

 

Seriously, I can't make this shit up:

Psychology Today 

CFP 

National Review 

Fordham University

UCLA

Carter Disappointed He Was Passed Over for Dear Leader of North Korea

Do to North Korea what you did to the US and I'll smack the crap outta ya!

(Yonghap - Pyongyang)  Jimmy Carter expressed his disappointment last week at not being chosen as the new Dear Leader of The Hermit Kingdom.  Still, he wished The North Koreans well and urged the international community to stop discriminating against the "misunderstood" country, whose government is dedicated to mass starvation of its people and continuous nuclear sabre rattling.

Here's an excerpt from Carter's Statement:

"Kim Jong-Un, as his name suggests, is the Un-dictator, and we should give him a chance," argued the former president.  "Un is the Un-Jong, the refreshing crisp and clean no caffeine 7Up uncola to the former dictators's oppressive caffeine-laden cola.  The people here are well-fed, the lights are on, and I've never seen such happy, well-choreographed dancing in the streets as I have in Pyongyang.  It reminds me of those cheerful kids in those old Dr. Pepper commercials..."

Not all North Koreans agreed with the decision to pass over the former US President.  "We are a militarily impotent economic basket case," a Communist Party food taster remarked off the record, "Carter would have been perfect for the job."

A wathcally wathist behind evwy Twee!

Back on US soil, Carter lost no time leveling charges of racism against any republican whose name he could remember.  Newt Gingrich made the fatal mistake of mentioning foodstamps, which the tens of millions of tea party klan members know is secret racist code.  That inspired an anonymous MSNBC news presenter to call Mitt Romney a racist for giving a poor black woman cash as he met her on a campaign event rope line.

If Mitt Romney is a racist for giving a black woman 50 bucks, then the US Government is a hateful bigotry machine, running the biggest progressive plantation in the history of the planet. It’s neo-slavery! Progressives are the new slave masters, trapping poor blacks in crime-infested ghettos, locking them in crumbling union-dominated schools that the liberal elite would never even think of sending their own kids to, and lying to them every few years to harvest their votes.

Jimmy Carter, the ideal democrat, would fit equally well in either the US or North Korea, as would the obedient propaganda toadies at MSNBC...

Race to the Bottom

Toure:  Mess NBC Common Tater

If we're going to have a productive discussion on race, we need to drop the generalities and focus in on the specifics

There's been some back and forth over the tiresome issue of racism in America, thanks to the equally-tiresome sexual harassment charges against Herman Cain. 


Diversity Ink blogmeister Malcolm recommended I listen to what Toure had to say.  I didn't want to be combative, Malcolm is a nice guy, but I find Toure shallow, predictable and short on specifics.

I did read his NY Times article, No Such Place as 'Post-Racial America.'  While I agree with the title and some of what's in it, I found it clumsy and liberally sprinkled with hot-button words and phrases as he argues against using...  hot-button words and phrases.  I agree with him that words are abused in order to shut down dialog. I posted on the topic just a few weeks back (Speech Codes are Thought Codes).

He makes some good points when he cautions whites (correctly) that racism is our problem too. He says we have a duty to “interrogate the system,” because even though we may not support racism, we do benefit from it (OK.  How?).

He starts out well, rightly assailing the use of catchall words designed to snuff dialog, and he makes his case for this quite convincingly. The big unfounded assertion he leaves out there is that America is a racist country.

Race and racism are still critical factors in determining what happens and who gets ahead in America.

In what way?  He doesn't say. He continues...

A place where black unemployment is far higher than white unemployment, [...]

Could there be other factors to blame besides race? Could it be that those who are unemployed are unemployable? Without a diploma or job skills?  I keep trying to picture well-dressed, well-educated black people standing around in groups unable to get a job, but I can’t quite manage it.

[...] where profiling and institutional racism and white privilege and myriad other forms of racism still shape so much of life in America.

His credibility would be helped by some actual examples of profiling, institutional racism, white privilege and the myriad other forms of racism. Just playing buzz-word bingo and firing off broad generalities doesn't cut it.  Time to get down to brass tacks and name names.

Toure's Syndrom: A fact-free spasm of guilty white liberal nonsense...

Now I've seen ol' Toure in action, and he gets wound up when egged on by the gape-mouthed, guilty-white leftwing levellers at MSNBC. They eagerly and masochistically accept the bracing flagellations administered by people of color. We're white! We deserve it!

Here's a particularly stinging lash, swung rather broadly...

But it makes you part of the system and reveals why it’s also your responsibility to interrogate and examine how our society works and be aware of the biases that keep white supremacy functioning.

White Supremacy?  Is he serious?  I understand his point, but plastering a broad swath of America with such a fraught term is guaranteed to kill any hoped-for dialog.

This is why there are so many of us white "cowards" the Attorney General complained about awhile back.  Invite me in to dialog, and then start slapping me with the broad brush and hanging labels around my neck?   No thanks.  Life's too short.

See Also:
Hush Rush:  Bigotry Goes Equal Opportunity
Leftwing Hate and Anger

It’s Because He’s Black

James Baskett as the beloved Uncle Remus

I try to stay away from racial issues, but when I get called a racist, or when I see others become the target of such noxious stink bomb attacks from the left, I just can’t let it pass

Racism is contemptuous, so by implying that we on the right are racist, the progressive social engineers are declaring us contemptible. It is an insult, but it doesn’t surprise me. The sleazy slimy left has shown over the past 100 years that there are no depths to which it will not sink to advance its dehumanizing agenda.

Ho Hum... Another Charge of "Racist!" Against Those Racist Republicans

DeWayne Wickham at USA Today is the latest lefty to reach for the tattered pack of race cards. His article accusing Republicans of racism towards our president is so exploitative and so completely over the top, I can’t believe I read it in USA Today. It’s more fit for the Daily Kook or the Democratic Underground Sewer.

First, he goes after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

“Even then, two years out from the next presidential election, the Alabama-born senator said the top goal of GOP lawmakers to oust Obama.”

Get the implication? McConnell was born with a silver slave whip in his hand down in Old Alabamy. He surely owns a flame-ready cross, itching to plant it on the white house lawn and set it ablaze at the drop of a pointy white hat.

He next turns his attention to Majority Leader Cantor, who should be admired for not busting out in laughter at naïve Obama’s tactical blunder blast, “Eric, don’t call my bluff!” Anyway, Wickham insists that Cantor dissed the president all because he's black...

He attacked this first African-American president with a palpable disrespect not only for Obama personally, but also for his esteemed office.

...the House majority leader complained that the president had cut short the meeting and stormed out of the room. "He shoved back and said, 'I'll see you tomorrow' and walked out," Cantor snidely told reporters— as though the president needs his permission to end a White House gathering. (USA Today – DeWayne Wickham)

Never! Never in the history of the United States has someone been so contemptuous of the president! I guess Wickham was on vacation during the Bush years, when loony lefties compared that president to Hitler, chimpanzees, and klansmen.  They even made a movie fantasizing about his assassination. That is palpable disrespect, as well as a disgusting disregard for one’s humanity.

DeWayne then shamelessly invokes Frederick Douglass in a historical non-sequitur that has nothing to do with the situation at hand.  The comments are so ignorant I don't want to stink up this forum with them.

A Congressional Tar Baby

In an unrelated racial incident, my Congressman, Doug Lamborn, used the term “tar baby” when talking about DC negotiations with the President and the Democrats, and the leftwing wackadoos are all over it like stink on a war protester.  Here is what Congressman Lamborn said:

"Even if some people say, 'Well, the Republicans should have done this or should have done that,' they will hold the president responsible," Lamborn said. "Now, I don't even want to be associated with him. It's like touching a, a tar baby and you get it . . . you know you're stuck, and you're part of the problem now, and you can't get away."

Poor choice of words, but not the personal racial attack some of the nuttier libtards are making it out to be, some going so far as to accuse Lamborn of calling the president a tar baby. No doubt hoping to fan the flames and turn this into a conflagration. Anything to keep hatred’s fires burning.

Fear and smear are all the intellectually bereft left has left

Finally, a lefty commenter at a lefty blog again accused me of opposing Obama because of his race. Instead of flaming her, I simply replied: “Prove it.” Because she can’t. And that is the staunch attitude I’ve been seeing from my fellow tea partiers.

The left has cried “Racist!” one too many times -- the charge has lost its sting

We see such outraged screams for what they really are: The last desperate gasps of a deflated, discredited movement, drained of all but its hatred. The American Left has bankrupted the nation and poisoned our culture, and they won’t go down without expending every last dirty trick in their arsenal of lies and slander.

The Obama presidency is a colossal failure

He’s surpassed the dreaded George Bush in debt racked up, people unemployed, inflation, dollar devalued, taxpayer money given to bankers and corporations, gas prices raised and Pakistanis killed. So why does the left still insist Obama is an improvement over Bush?

He has shown himself to be so woefully unprepared and incapable, he makes Jimmy Carter look good. At this point in the Carter presidency, liberals were already jumping ship, or at least no longer attempting to defend the indefensible. Why not now?

I can only conclude that liberals are only defending President Obama because he is black.