Comments on: This just in: Obama not Jesus, or even Omnipotent

By: Scroop Moth

Scroop Moth — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:42:49 +0000

KBELLS – Did you see “White Man’s Burden” with John Travolta? That movie provides a narrative about a black boss who discriminates against white employees. Of course a black boss could mistreat white employees but I don’t think it would amount to racism in the absence of conditions that reinforce oppression.

I’ve heard white employers, among whites, refer to black men as “boys.” Granted, bossman is old and another is dead. Black men sometimes are alcoholic and crackhead farm workers, a condition which does not make them un-useful to savy farmers. We all know employers who treat loyal black servants with lifelong affection and deference. Wealthy social conservatives cultivate these relations in the South. Not long ago, I attended a housekeeper’s funeral. Her employer trusted her implicitly in almost all matters, even where a doctor and a lawyer would have been appropriate, and continued to pay her salary when she was too old to work. Her employer paid for the funeral — but did not attend. The list of survivors in the notice did not match her marriage, which shockingly revealed that the housekeeper at one time of life had gone creeping. Despite half a century of faithful service, the housekeeper had failed in her most essential role as a keeper of the social order. I still don’t understand whether that post-mortum rejection was disappointment or an assertion of superiority.

Life is complex, isn’t it? I know a black business owner who prefers white employes because of performance. His black customers think this is just, and are delighted with the service they get.

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By: Make it Man

Make it Man — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:53:56 +0000

There are plenty of folks decrying the water carrying media these days, and it’s not always conservatives.

Camille Paglia has an incisive column over on Salon about the lack of media coverage of Obama and their “sadomasochistic anti-Palin orgy”. Hat tip to Drill for his link on the Wirled Views today:

I’ll give you the text version over on Free Republic because it doesn’t have all the pesky ads at Salon that slow things down.

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By: Xion

Xion — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:38:22 +0000

We have milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, picoseconds and leftiseconds. A leftisecond is how long it takes a liberal to trash one of their own when he says something conservatives agree with.

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By: Yeah

Yeah — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:41:26 +0000

The other Hitchens wrote a similar column, only more clearly from someone who did not endorse Obama.

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By: Cheryl D.

Cheryl D. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:52:24 +0000

Interstingly, then, poor white trash can’t be racist either, because they have no cultural power. Are you aware, Scroop, that most white people have little to no cultural power? Come on, I was a very poor white child who once had a black crossing guard call me “whitey.” Now, it’s rather pitiful to pick on a kid, but the assumption that white people have power and black people don’t is simply foolish–it depends on the people and the situation. Especially since in a face-to-face confrontation, the black man is more likely to have fighting experience and/or a weapon, either of which can level the playing experience pretty quickly.

Yes, historically there has been more white racism than black, but I don’t think that’s true today. And the addition of “power” to the definition of racism is not only inaccurate, but as I think I’ve demonstrated, it doesn’t even effectively make the point that white people can be racist but black people can’t.

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By: outkast

outkast — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:50:20 +0000

Since it’s been anticipated that I’d say this (as a white male Republican): LOL, Llama!

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By: Matt Y.

Matt Y. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:07:48 +0000

But, evils in society ultimately stem from evils in the hearts of people. The way to improve society is to change hearts and minds of individuals. At least, that’s how I see it. When enough people turn against something, society will change (and laws as well, eventually). It begins with individual people. And for individuals, it begins in the home.

As the home, so the nation.

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By: Make it Man

Make it Man — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:00:49 +0000

Of course not. Because we all know that blacks do not have power. They’re victims not the oppressive white devils, dontcha know.

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By: kBells

kBells — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:35:13 +0000

So if a black boss favors his black employee over his white employees, that’s not racism?

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By: Scroop Moth

Scroop Moth — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:57:31 +0000

The word “discrimination” has to be the primary term in our definition of racism, because without it, racism is just an intellectual mistake and an idiosyncrasy of personality, not the systematic policy of oppression we’ve experienced. One individual doesn’t make a regime.

Conservatives think of evil as a personal moral flaw and blame individuals rather than society. Thus, racism for them is private prejudice for which virtuous individuals share no moral responsibility.

NICK H PETERS compels himself to distinguish “white racism” from other possible forms of racism, presumably the “black racism” of blacks who dislike whites, as if that had any social significance at all. There was no racism in America than white supremacy, however, so Nick’s “White racism” is a redundancy.

Liberals see racism as a cultural behavior that is reinforced by political authority and economic power, rather than as an individual moral flaw. God might look upon an individual’s private prejudices in isolation, but liberals don’t.

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