I think it’s time to send people this Loury and McWhorter video
I don’t send people links to articles or videos, ordinarily – and by “people,” I mean liberals, because most of the people I know fall into that category. I learned many years ago that (a) they were unlikely to look at them (b) if they did, they weren’t receptive to the content; and (c) they tended to become angry that I’d sent them the material in the first place.
In other words: it was counterproductive, and I stopped sending such emails over fifteen years ago.
But lately I’ve been thinking that things have gotten so bad in this country that it’s time to resume some of this. My idea is to send just one or two links to a small number of people carefully selected as the most potentially receptive and open-minded of the group.
You may want to formulate your own policy, or choose not to do it. But if you are going to send anything, I suggest this video by Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. It’s not only thoughtful, intelligent, and deep, but it’s a courageous discussion about what’s happening right now in America vis a vis race and police. Because of who these two men are, it might be hard for liberals to dismiss them out of hand. Loury and McWhorter are black, and both are intellectuals – professors at Brown and at Columbia.
So without further ado:
Related:
https://twitter.com/ErinMPerrine/status/1271802202995281921
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nbc-anchor-asks-tim-scott-to-say-whether-hes-a-token
Which begs the question: Can a Black Republican, pace Joe Biden, even be considered Black? (We know the question to that.)
I love John McWhorter! I’ve listened to some of his linguistics lectures. He’s very smart and very objective; definitely worth listening to in non-political contexts.
Most black people oppose the goals of BLM. They want more police (eg, even Treyvon Martin’s mother is making news on this), and they don’t want to “defund” or abolish police or families.
Not that this will surprise readers here.
PJmedia reports that the first Antifa rioters are being charged by the Feds, 75 people in 50 cases, mostly involving police. However, this roundup note that no one seems to be from Antifa centres like Portland or Seattle – yet.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2020/06/13/its-going-down-antifa-uncle-sam-just-started-delivering-payback-for-terror-riots-n525503
One imagines that all this goes from local alleged criminals upward or outward to organisational connections. We must wait and see.
“…the first Antifa rioters are being charged…”
It would seem obvious(?) that what has to be done is:
1. Go after the white Antifa rioters ONLY (if that makes me a racist, then go for it!).
2. Stress how the white Antifa rioters (though together with black rioters) are responsible for the looting and destruction of many black-owned businesses and livelihoods.. But (as in #1 above) STRESS the white Antifa rioters (ditto regarding my racism).
3. Show, ceaselessly, how the Democratic Party, at local, state AND NATIONAL levels (as well as the Media) has been supporting, defending, sympathetic to, and/or—at the very least—turning a blind eye toward Antifa, its violent actions and its repellent ideology, to the extent that the claim that “Antifa is DE FACTO the storm trooper division of the Democratic Party is hammered home.
4. Have Trump and other Republican officials go on the offensive regarding helping Black American rebuild, emphasizing the Antifa-Democratic Party nexus.
Once again, leave BLM out of it as much as possible (no matter how much this may rankle—to be honest, this last suggestion may neither be defensible morally nor possible legally; but I’m speaking of real-politic, of practicalities. Note: I’m not a very practical person….)
IOW let those who are able to think for themselves—in the Black community, in the Hispanic communities, in every community—draw the conclusions that any thinking person must inevitably draw.
Related:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/06/13/pro-police-black-women-group-accuses-antifa-of-hijacking-black-agenda-n525823
shadow —
I’ve been a big fan of John McWhorter for years, starting with one of his linguistics series on The Great Courses Plus. (I’ve been interested in linguistics since reading Tolkien in grade school.) I’ve read all or maybe all but one of his books, including the ones on race in America.
I don’t always agree with Loury & McWhorter, but they’re certainly a lot more thoughtful than most black pundits these days. McWhorter is my age, but Loury is 72, and I believe him when he says that the racism blacks encounter has diminished enormously in his lifetime.
In their Bloggingheads video from last week, McWhorter said that he was going to write his next book on the religion of anti-racism. I look forward to reading it.