Cry “racist”
I agree with Roger Simon:
These days one might as well call the Democratic Party The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Racism…
The conclusion we are supposed to glean from this, the rule of rules that must be obeyed at all costs, is that whites are always wrong when criticizing blacks.
Not just wrong, but racist. Always. There is literally no negative word that might be said that is not racist, and that includes numbers like statistics.
And it is racist of me to point this out, no doubt.
As far as the specific words of Trump regarding Cummings’ section of Baltimore goes, Trump’s use of the word “infested” has been criticized as inherently racist. In fact, CNN host Victor Blackwell said, “when [Trump] tweets about infestation, it’s about black and brown people.” And this despite the fact that this is the sentence in which Trump used the word, “Cummings’ district is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
Is Blackwell implying that black and brown people are “rats and rodents?” Or alternatively, is he implying that only areas with black people can be “rat- and rodent-infested?” If that’s not a racist comment by Blackwell, I don’t know what is.
Rats and rodents are equal-opportunity pests. They thrive, for example, where there is garbage freely available. A more likely explanation of why there are rats in that part of Baltimore is that the city garbage collection and control is poor, and that Cummings (Trump’s target) isn’t raising a commotion with the city to get it taken care of. Trump’s point is that Cummings is neglecting his own district.
What is the goal here on the part of the Democrats? It is to broaden and broaden the definition of “racist” so that it can be tactically applied to nearly anything a Republican might say. And they keep attacking Trump in particular in this manner because he is especially blunt and non-PC in his words, and in addition he takes the fight to the Democrats, hitting them where it might hurt.
Make no mistake about it—Trump’s dig at Cummings was also aimed at cutting into the black vote for Democrats. And if that tactic by Trump were ever to be successful, the Democrats would be in big, big trouble. So their cries of “racist” are meant to rally the black vote as well as the leftist SJW vote.
Will it work? I don’t know. I do know that it’s getting old for a lot of people.
As recently as April, 2019, the Baltimore Sun published an editorial entitled, “Baltimore’s perpetual trash problem.” Here’s an excerpt:
Why can’t we have a clean city? It’s a problem that has perplexed generations of mayors in Baltimore. Call it the perpetual trash nemesis…
here we are again in a mess of a city. Food containers, balled up clothes, paper, banana peels, plastic bags and tons of other pieces of litter line the shoulders of roads, pile up in alleys and are strewn across fields and yards. Not only is it unsightly and contributes to a rodent problem, but it can create a glum and gloomy feel in a time when the city is already facing self-esteem issues because of high crime and the scandal surrounding the University Maryland Medical System and Mayor Catherine Pugh, who’s now on an indefinite leave, and her Healthy Holly books. If anything, the city needs a major scrubbing to help restore some of its faith and image.
Acting Mayor Jack Young, tired of seeing people casually toss litter out of car windows or on the ground as they walk down the street, has decided to take on the issue as one of his main platforms. “A clean city is an inviting city,” he said during a recent meeting with The Sun’s editorial board. The city’s crime problem makes it hard to keep some neighborhoods clean, he said, noting that criminals don’t like “clean spaces.” They need trash piles to hide drug stashes or debris-cluttered alleys to make it difficult for police to chase them. John F. Chalmers, head of the city’s Bureau of Solid Waste, said sanitation workers will clean up trash piles only to have dealers dirty them up again. Some will threaten city employees who try to tidy up. So whatever Mr. Young has in mind, it seems solutions for the trash and crime problems will go hand-in-hand.
Catherine Pugh is black. Acting mayor Jack Young is black. John F. Chalmers is black. Apparently they all can point out the garbage and rat problem without being accused of racism. The problem is a simple statement of fact which should be valid no matter who says it. But somehow, when the evil Trump says it, it’s suddenly a racist statement.
I have already said that one of the goals here is to redefine the word “racism” to mean something very broad when a Republican or a disfavored white person says it, so that the word becomes applicable to almost any utterance of that person and thus very useful to the left. But there’s a related goal, and that is to redefine the word “racism” to mean something very narrow and perhaps even non-existent when uttered by a black person who is not on the right, or even by a white person with the correct leftist political affiliation.
And it doesn’t matter if the words are almost identical.
[ADDENDUM: Maybe they really mean that Trump is “rattist.”]
When are minorities going to fed up with corrupt democrats using their races to cover up their corruptions or use racism to get out of trouble when their wrongdoings get exposed. The relationship between Democrats to blacks is similar to that of avanetti and stormy daniels, stealing from someone they vowed to help.
Larry Elder, one of the most sensible black pundits, has been posting some devastatingly effective tweets concerning Trump’s supposed racism by quoting from Thomas Sowell, “As a black man, I am offended when white people take the likes of Al Sharpton seriously.”
I mentioned previously that the Orkin pest control company rates cities by rats. Here is the list and Baltimore is number 8. Obviously, Orkin is racist.
https://www.orkin.com/press-room/chicago-tops-orkin-rattiest-cities-list-third-year-row
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/july_2019/trump_a_racist_32_of_democrats_say_any_white_criticism_of_politicians_of_color_is_racist
32% of Democrats Say Any White Criticism of Politicians of Color Is Racist
I call it Colored Privilege…
Palestinian Rules.
They cannot be criticized.
Hence there’s no OODA loop.
Hence there’s no possibility for improvement.
(But then “improvement” is a patriarchal, colonialist, oppressive, racist, Zionist concept.)
Only ‘people of color’ are not racists, but ain’t it funny that ‘people of color’ are willing to undergo many hardships to come America?
And, right on cue, someone releases a video of Bernie in 2015 saying the same thing. Is Bernie racist? Of course he is – NOt. He’s a Dem.
Trump gives them rope, they tie the knot and jump.
I’ve been watching a very smart, pull-no-punches, very foul-mouthed black conservative commentator on You Tube named Jericho Green. Here’s what he had to say about the Baltimore nonsense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCcz0cVY1t8
Neo, WRONG link for Roger Simon.
I am not sure how we get out of this intersectionality mess. It is no good. My daughters are half Asian (Pacific Islander really) and neither they or I can speak out in this world with the new rules.
The link for the Simon piece: https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/the-democrats-not-trump-are-the-racists/
I will spare readers a recounting of the incidents over my lifetime that have resulted in my rolling my eyes over a charge of “racism.” Be that as it may:
1) I have seen sufficient examples of scoundrels using a charge of “racism” to gain advantage- decades of examples. It didn’t start yesterday.
2) Too many “well-intentioned” so-called progressive folk who cry “bigotry” or “racism” assume that when it comes to bigotry or racism, they are as pure as the driven snow. Sorry, guys, you are blind to human nature. All of us have in-groups and out-groups- myself included. Are our progressive friends going to claim that labeling a group as “deplorables” doesn’t involve making an out-group to be scorned?
“Acting Major Jack Young, tired of seeing people casually toss litter out of car windows or on the ground as they walk down the street,…”
Though they enable Baltimore’s dysfunction, it’s not Baltimore’s democrat leadership, black Mayors or even Rep. Elijah Cummings who toss that garbage upon Baltimore’s streets, facilitating Baltimore’s rat infestation.
When we blame other people and outward circumstance for our own failures, when we refuse to state clearly where responsibility lies, we fashion the bars of our own imprisonment.
Black culture is sick and they have only themselves to blame.
“You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln
Geoffrey Britain:
Apparently it’s not just the black areas, at least according to the article.
Geoffrey Britain:
I think you are way over-generalizing to “black culture.” I’ve been in plenty of black areas of many cities and don’t see more garbage than in other areas of these cities.
White slums are not especially garbage-free, either.
Republicans have made essentially no effort to appeal to black voters for generations. And no, proclaiming how not racist you are is NOT appealing to black voters. That’s the stuff you do to appeal to white voters in the suburbs.
Trump is the first Republican in my lifetime who is seriously appealing for black votes on a national level. I don’t know if he can overcome the GOP’s legacy of neglect and indifference but it’s damned amazing to watch him try.
Mike
Sorry about the incorrect link. I just fixed it.
There is perhaps nothing more inherently racist than those who hide behind their race as a shield of integrity or virtue. The idea that challenging a man of color on anything proves you are a racist is a disturbing precedent. I’ll never forget seeing someone suggest during the 2008 election cycle that the only reason one would not vote for Barack Obama was because they were a racist. It always struck me that for this to be true, it must be equally true that the only reason to vote for him was the self-same reason and therefore equally racist as a motivation.
My neighborhood is infested with rodents: squirrels, chipmunks, and field mice. Does saying so make me a racist? Rhetorical question, of course it does, I’m white.
God forbid these people accept the reality of the situation and do something to make it better. As opposed to screaming ‘racist’ every time Trump speaks or tweets.
I read that non-whites can’t be racist, and all whites are racists. Does that mean that “racist” is just another ethnic slur, like “honky” and “cracker”?
neo,
I wish I were over-generalizing but statistics reveal otherwise.
90% of blacks vote for democrats, whose policies inherently declare them to be victims, policies that declare them to, in no way be responsible for their plight. Name one major black organization that blames black crime and imprisonment rates upon black perpetrators. The denial is literally biblical.
Geoffrey Britain:
Different topic. We’re talking about rats in different areas of a city.
Let’s see, they get welfare, medicaid, section 8 housing, Obama phones, school breakfasts and lunches, SNAP, WICK, and who knows what other benefits, all for just existing. Tell me what the difference is between this and full blown socialism? Baltimore is just Caracas north, it has just had more time to perfect social pathologies to go along with the economic pathology of socialism.
Washington, D.C. ranks higher than Baltimore (no. 8) on that Orkin list of the “rattiest cities”, it’s no. 5. And the rats there are not just in the poor neighborhoods — Capitol Hill has one of the highest number of complaints about rats.
Cry “Racist!”
And let slip the dogs of politics.
Pingback:The Democrats, Not Trump, Are the Racists – Truth Day
I think I see the problem here…..Merriam Webster-
The History and Dictionary Meaning of Racism
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism#note-1
“Racism appears to be a word of recent origin, with no citations currently known that would suggest the word was in use prior to the early 20th century. But the fact that the word is fairly new does not prove that the concept of racism did not exist in the distant past. Things may have words to describe them before they exist (spaceship, for instance, has been in use since the 19th century, well before the rocket-fired vessels were invented), and things may exist for a considerable time before they are given names (t-shirt does not appear in print until the 20th century, although the article of clothing existed prior to 1900).
Dictionaries are often treated as the final arbiter in arguments over a word’s meaning, but they are not always well suited for settling disputes. The lexicographer’s role is to explain how words are (or have been) actually used, not how some may feel that they should be used, and they say nothing about the intrinsic nature of the thing named by a word, much less the significance it may have for individuals. When discussing concepts like racism, therefore, it is prudent to recognize that quoting from a dictionary is unlikely to either mollify or persuade the person with whom one is arguing.”
OK? carry on.
Poor Charles Blow !
Relegated to toiling in the cotton fields of Massa A.G. Sulzberger’s Op-Ed Page !
Time for a Nat Turner moment at the NYT !
Here’s a Randy Newman song about Baltimore. From 1977.
Hooker on the corner
Waitin’ for a train
Drunk lyin’ on the sidewalk
Sleepin’ in the rain
And they hide their faces
And they hide their eyes
‘Cause the city’s dyin’
And they don’t know why
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it’s hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it’s hard just to live, just to live
–Randy Newman, “Baltimore”
It doesn’t matter what the current anti Trump meme is, all my liberal lefty friends believe it ardently. It’s astounding actually. They seem to be incapable of the act of critical thinking because that requires they consider Trump in a positive light for even a moment. So, today, they are pro rat infestation. What?
If you believe that the meaning of a word is its using, than the word “racism” as used in USA means nothing at all. Just an universal substitute for “you are a bad person”.
Esther, this remind me a short remark from Karel Chapek: “In editorial room of a newspaper: Here is news that a cure for bubonic plaque was found. Anybody knows whether our party is for bubonic plaque or against it?”
If a rat infestation problem would continue, there can be a real bubonic plaque problem next.
The white female head of the DCCC just resigned, essentially agreeing that she’s racist because there are too many white people with jobs staffing the organization to end racism.
Here is a modest proposal to deal with the rat infestation. It worked excellent in Leningrad during German blockade. There was a reasonable fear that in deteriorating sanitary conditions in famine-stricken city can be an epidemic caused by hungry rats. And the scientists in a virology lab chose an air-born flu virus lethal for rats but harmless for human. They infected by it a large stock of rats bred in the lab and released them in drainage system in several sites in the city. In just two weeks the whole population of the city rats was dead, and there were no epidemics in Leningrad during the blockade.
Sergey, we may have come to the point where if Trump tweeted against the Black Death, his opponents would defend the bubonic plague.
There was a wise observation by Thomas Alva Edison explaining regular epidemics of insanity that occur even among advanced nations. It is: “80% of people just do not think. Never. Another 15% erroneously think that they think, when they just repeat what they heard or read in newspapers, and only 5% actually think”.
Neo, slums are slums. There are more black slums than white slums. Democrats, usually black, preside, and are infinitely re-elected. See Baltimore. See Elijah Cummings and the others you named. Black; and corrupt.
Baltimore is but an example.
And I rather doubt that you have been in many black “areas” of many cities, unless you were a slum tourist. Why would you be in Southside Chicago, where black “youths” kill their brethren daily? Suburban Atlanta, with self-segregated high-end black neighborhoods, is an “area” but hardly a slum.
Name some “areas” and cities, for our edification, if you please.
Geoffrey Britain is correct.
Cicero:
Oh, so you want my slum bona fides? First of all, I grew up in New York. I’ve been in Harlem many times, and many other areas of Manhattan too numerous to mention. I’ve been to burnt-out sections of the Bronx back in the 80s. I’ve been in many areas of Brooklyn as well that are poverty-striken and mostly populated by minorities. I’ve been in Boston’s Roxbury and Dorchester. And all of these mostly before they began to be gentrified, which has happened to a few in recent years.
Hey, I’ve even been to Baltimore a couple of times. And to the residential parts of DC, not the suburbs. I’ve spent significant time in Oakland. I’ve been to the South Side of Chicago and lots of Detroit, although not in recent years (but in the years of riots and turmoil).
Is that enough for you, or do you need more?
I’ve also been to many non-black areas of big cities such as New York where I’ve seen plenty of rats and I’ve seen plenty of garbage.
And I’ve been to many white communities that are poor, in cities and in rural areas, that feature a lot of garbage.
I am not disputing—and I don’t think you can find a single thing I’ve said in this thread—that black communities have a higher incidence of crime than other communities. In fact, I’ve written about that here many times. But what Geoffrey Britain wrote about—and what I disagreed with—was his assertion that “Black culture is sick and they have only themselves to blame,” based on Baltimore and rats.
As I also pointed out, according to the article it’s not just black areas of Baltimore that have a garbage and rat problem. I have seen this myself in some other cities—a more general garbage and rat problem. And (although I didn’t write about it yet in this thread) “they have only themselves to blame” is a hyperbolic generalization by Geoffrey Britain. Yes, “black culture” is to blame. But it didn’t arise in a total vacuum. There is a place for blaming the history of racism. By now, too, a sort of critical mass of dysfunction has been reached in the black communities of various cities such as Baltimore, something that has taken on a self-perpetuating life of its own, something that makes it particularly difficult (not impossible, but difficult) to break the cycle. This was not always the case for what Britain is calling “black culture,” as Thomas Sowell (whose work I admire) has pointed out. The welfare state has made things worse rather than better.