Monday, August 31, 2015

 

The Limits of Introspection

I know that if I expect wisdom or keen insight from NYT columnist Charles Blow, I'm generally disappointed, in just the opposite way I am rarely disappointed by Sowell or Williams. So Blow is true to form here.


I think it is important to remember the horrible crimes of the deep South Democrats during their two century long reign. Emmett Till's murder by KKK members (I assume) 60 years ago, that is, when I was alive, is an important turning point regarding Democrat imposed Jim Crow institutional racism. But it is just as important to remember the improvement in race relations that has occurred over the past 6 decades. I have the advantage of having lived through it and I remember a lot. Much good happened between whites and blacks during that period. Society improved on race relations and equal protection of the law. So it is probably an easy question to answer but I'll ask it anyway: So why does Mr. Blow and his ilk only see the bad and ignore the good? Here is the part I find so disappointing (and he's quoting Christopher Benson with whom I am unfamiliar):


“Before Trayvon Martin, before Michael Brown, before Tamir Rice, there was Emmett Till. This was the first ‘Black Lives Matter’ story. It is no wonder, then, that each time we read about another young unarmed black male being shot down in the street — unjustly — by an authority figure, there is the mention of Emmett’s name. What we come to see with the loss of Emmett is just what racism has cost us in this country. What it costs us still, in the loss of so many bright, gifted kids. Partly through untimely deaths. But also in the limited opportunities many have to excel, because of mass incarceration or even unwarranted tracking in schools.”
OK, I'm familiar with Martin and Brown, both shot in self defense while they were committing crimes, but why is Mr. Rice on this list? Do Mr. Benson and Mr. Blow believe he didn't have a realistic looking airsoft gun with the orange tip required for toy guns removed? The shooting of Mr. Rice was so quick that I could support negligent homicide charges, if brought, but what was unjust about the proper use of self defense by Zimmerman and Wilson? And I know that this is a tired meme but I'll repeat, the number of young black males meeting untimely deaths by being murdered by other young black males absolutely dwarfs the number of young blacks shot by police. There was a chance for some breakthrough to set logical priorities regarding the actual numbers of people being made victims, but Benson and Blow can't seem to make that connection. Then it goes real bizarro. 'Mass incarceration' is liberal speak for unwarranted black incarceration. I know the justice system is flawed, as all human endeavors are flawed, but racist white cops and prosecutors are not out there railroading a lot of innocent young black men. To pretend that the differential in black v. white incarceration per capita is primarily a problem caused by white racism is to have slept through the last 6 decades and to ignore the actual facts of crime in America. Again, I am most frustrated by the misallocation of outrage by the black community. Don't all black lives matter?


There isn't enough tracking in public schools, not too much; and it is not mainly at the expense of smart young black men and women.


The big finish is all Blow:



Yes, Emmett’s story is a vital American story, and it feels like an all-too-present one as we see this cycle repeating itself: young lives are lost, the body itself is desecrated or neglected, killers are acquitted or not even brought to trial, and the effects of the feelings of terror and injustice galvanize a generation of young people who have taken as much as they plan to take.
In what way is the inexcusable, racist murder of Till by southern Democrats a "cycle repeating itself" today? Who is neglecting and desecrating the body? Whose body? And the killers mentioned by Blow were acquitted or never charged properly, not unjustly (Rice possibly excepted). But it is the same mote in your eye, beam in my eye misallocation of "terror and injustice" that bugs me. It is the same misallocation of equality that outrages the black community over a single tragic but justified homicide but causes nary a ripple of concern when a dozen young black men are gunned down over a weekend (on too many weekends) in half a dozen Democrat controlled cities across our nation. I'll ask for the final time: Don't all black lives matter?


Apparently to Blow and his ilk only the deaths they can blame on whites matter. Black on black crime never enters the picture. That's disappointing on a number of levels.

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Comments:
This caught my eye this afternoon (because it's Blow), on Taranto's BOTWT:

Diagram This Sentence
“And yet, the idea that one can have a physiological response to something other than gendered physicality seems to some antithetical to their rigid, superannuated notions of attraction, or even heretical to it.”—Charles Blow, New York Times, Sept. 7
 
It's not that hard to diagram (which I haven't done since 1979) but it is a singularly stupid sentence. Some of the pronouns don't match to plural nouns they stand for. Generally a mess grammatically, I agree. Taranto is great.
 
It was a nice blog.
 
Thanks for the Blog.
 
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