What is important to understand is that contemporary race in
America and I suspect most of the west, is a business like any other. Race
needs professionals to tell you you're surrounded by racism that only they can
address. Or, without being cynical, it's
a part of the connection between government and the NGO's and GONGO's that do its bidding in
exchange for grants and access. If there were no professional racism, someone
would invent it. Just as they create a desire or a fear for any number of other
things.
Does this mean there are few legitimate concerns? Does this mean that civil rights aren’t bona fide worries? The precise answer to that depends on whether you’re a professional in the race industry or not. Ordinary people getting through the day experience a blend of good and bad of the trivial and the egregious. If you’re Hillary Shelton or Al Sharpton then the answer is one of permanent outrage. It has to be. Hoof by claw by tooth by fin the forces of massive implacable horrendous racism are everywhere. Just as Spike Lee once recounted that all White people are racists, even if they don’t know it, even if they aren’t, they still are. Yet we suspect that Hillary Shelton, Al Sharpton and Spike Lee haven’t themselves suffered from the slings and arrows of racism in a very very very long time. If anything they’ve profited by it since. And we celebrate their success. We are happy they’ve made a great boon of whatever circumstances were theirs to have. But be clear, it’s a profession. They’re offering few paths to the overall success of the vast collection of lower middle class black people in America. What they offer is disappointment, indignity, anger – a sense that someone should do something about something somewhere because things aren’t right. That they missed out on every opportunity in America and it’s universally racism’s fault. Or pick whatever engram for that: “republicans”, “white people”, “southerners”, ad infinitum.
Does this mean there are few legitimate concerns? Does this mean that civil rights aren’t bona fide worries? The precise answer to that depends on whether you’re a professional in the race industry or not. Ordinary people getting through the day experience a blend of good and bad of the trivial and the egregious. If you’re Hillary Shelton or Al Sharpton then the answer is one of permanent outrage. It has to be. Hoof by claw by tooth by fin the forces of massive implacable horrendous racism are everywhere. Just as Spike Lee once recounted that all White people are racists, even if they don’t know it, even if they aren’t, they still are. Yet we suspect that Hillary Shelton, Al Sharpton and Spike Lee haven’t themselves suffered from the slings and arrows of racism in a very very very long time. If anything they’ve profited by it since. And we celebrate their success. We are happy they’ve made a great boon of whatever circumstances were theirs to have. But be clear, it’s a profession. They’re offering few paths to the overall success of the vast collection of lower middle class black people in America. What they offer is disappointment, indignity, anger – a sense that someone should do something about something somewhere because things aren’t right. That they missed out on every opportunity in America and it’s universally racism’s fault. Or pick whatever engram for that: “republicans”, “white people”, “southerners”, ad infinitum.
Pick up any women's
or men's magazine. What is it? Diets, food, exercise, fashion and sex. Turn on
the TV - did you even know you had all these maladies that required drugs
they're selling? Create a buzz, make a tweet, start a group, make a march, make
a noise, get paid. It’s the answer for what ails you. It's a con, right here in
River City like Dr. Harold Hill selling imaginary band instruments to the
imaginary band. Are the law firms on TV advertising their services to write you
a will or incorporate your small business or set up a foundation for orphans?
They’re rattling your cage about mesothelioma, pelvic mesh, failed hip joints,
bad drugs and SSI denials. Better Call Saul!
In that way it's bit like terrorism. Terrorism functions
like an NGO or nonprofit. It takes money in, it's organized, structured. It
recruits, it advertises. Two things though are very crucial. 1) the people at
the top aren't getting their hands dirty and 2) it has to create a demand for
its services.
There are no old suicide bombers. But the people who create them are. And how do they do that? They sell a message of hate and grievance, they sell the image of a supernal enemy and they hold out the promise of an abstract ineffable unattainable badly defined goal that’s always out there out of reach, barely. Like any good marketing pro they have to sell the sizzle not the steak. They have to sell the agony not the aspirin. They have the sell the DESIRE in big blinking letters not the afterglow.
There are no old suicide bombers. But the people who create them are. And how do they do that? They sell a message of hate and grievance, they sell the image of a supernal enemy and they hold out the promise of an abstract ineffable unattainable badly defined goal that’s always out there out of reach, barely. Like any good marketing pro they have to sell the sizzle not the steak. They have to sell the agony not the aspirin. They have the sell the DESIRE in big blinking letters not the afterglow.
Terrorism sells. Anyone can tell you that. It’s romantic, it’s attractive it’s sexy, it’s a day off work from your drab job selling fruit. Arab terrorism works on many different levels this way – the sense of entitlement, the disappointment, rage, the thirst for revenge, romance, violence, suicide. Terrorism sells all those things. Or as someone mentioned to me once “If you want to see what a world run by oversexed irrational teenagers looks like, it’s the Middle Ages – literally”.
The Arab terrorism business creates a demand for its
services by singling out Jews and Israel, and building up that enemy until it
is so massive that the only sane act is mass murderous. As a business it has to
control the supply and demand of its own message. It has to ensure that THEY
are the people who are asked to lead the way. Whenever you hear someone say
‘power to the people’, THEY are the people who the people will happily give the
power to.
So like any other NGO or nonprofit or foundation or TV
ambulance chaser or professional race baiter, terrorist organizations create 1)
a target, 2) an aura of hatred, despair, revenge and entitlement, 3) an
organization, 4) an executive of themselves, 5) fundraisers/rainmakers, 6)
recruits and finally, 7) a brand.
Professional race baiters are driving to the protest in a
limo and whipping up the crowd. They're shouting that everyone is a racist and
the only way to smash the chains of bondage and hate is to burn down a
Starbucks. And then miraculously like a faith healer the professionals swoop in
and broker a ceasefire making them indispensable. They created the racial buzz,
they created the riot and they created the temporary solution to it all, all
the while working the government grant and cocktail circuit for more money. If
they were terrorists they’d be hitting up friendly governments for cash while
whipping up the local lower middle class into yet another frenzy aimed at the
Jews. The poor people are otherwise occupied with surviving, the middle class
is protecting what they have and the rich are utterly disconnected from it all
or leading the effort themselves. But the lower middle class – that’s the sweet
spot. Be it race or racial hatred, be it
riots or rockets it’s the same stupid angry mob being cynically manipulated by
greedy nihilists in nice suits.
This is a viewpoint, whether anyone realizes it or not, that is revolutionary within American history, if not western history, more generally.
ReplyDeleteQuestions of "race" have dominated American history, as a field of knowledge, since the "new social history" of the 1960s.
I suppose the question is, are we at a point wherein we can begin to move beyond it. I certainly hope so and very much for the reasons that Trudy points out.
Race has become a racket. To some extent, it always was. But once they destroy someone like Paula Deen, for chrissake, you know that it has much less to do with justice and much more to do with politics.
The ironic thing, of course, is that those of us who tend to participate here are often quick to point out anti-Semitism.
So, how do you reconcile that?
Reconcile what?
DeleteIf we are moving into a post-racial period, which I very much hope that we are, how do we reconcile that with the ongoing prevalence of anti-Semitism?
DeleteYou get me, don't you, School?
In other words, if the ADL can scream to the heavens about anti-Semitism, why cannot Jesse Jackson and friends scream to the heavens about anti-black racism?
We should all scream about racism, and this includes against those that use race for sow division for a political agenda rather than seek solutions that address its root causes.
DeleteDo you think that saying Florida is "apartheid" is the same as what Foxman does?
To me it's an issue of tactics. Foxman makes a statement. People are free to poo-poo it and roll their eyes. People are free to bang out their comments on Huffington Post about 'those Jews are always complaining about something'. It's distinctly different I think, to the megaphone we lend people like Al Sharpton who are not precisely commenting on anyone's specific words or thoughts but instead, exhorting the crowd that everywhere and forever there's a pall of impenetrable racism that circumscribes everything about them.
DeleteMoreover to extend the HuffPo analogy - I don't see anyone precisely bemoaning the end of black slavery or claiming it never happened. Whereas everyday you can read comments on HuffPo that say the analogous thing about the Holocaust. Is there real racism in America? Yes, to some extent. But truly I believe that there's a difference between laws that ensconce racism, like apartheid, and the general sense that people expressed bigotry and dislike. In the last 50 years, black people in America have come as far as anyone in the western world, more or less. And there's still slavery in Africa between blacks. Again this is not to say that nothing should be done. But I always come back around to the notion of the bigotry of enablement. If you spend a lifetime telling someone that nothing is their own responsibility and they can never win then they never try and they never progress.
No, I certainly wouldn't think that saying Florida is "apartheid" is the same as what Foxman does.
DeleteNonetheless, if Trudy is correct, then Foxman is in the same business as Jackson.
What seems reasonably clear to me is that there has developed such as a thing as the "racism industry." That is, there are people who make their living out of whipping up race hatred and racial issues.
This, of course, does not mean that there is no racism in the US. There is. But the degree of racism within the US is much lower than it used to be and considerably lower than is the level of race hatred throughout other parts of the world.
Part of the reason that I have an admiration for the US is precisely because we have done a very good job of overcoming our legacy of racism.
Nonetheless, this causes a problem because while we do not want to buy into the race baiting of certain individuals within the MSM, we still need to recognize and acknowledge that anti-Semitic tropes remain alive and well within political discourse, particularly on the left.