Jason Lloyd Miller and the Question of American Racism

Michael Lumish

I have never in my life met a self-identified White Supremacist.

Not once.

Ever since the 2016 campaign for the presidency of the United States progressive-regressives have continually screamed from the hillsides about the viciously racist nature of the United States.

I disagree. In fact, I would argue that the US, like the liberal democracies, in general, is among the least racist countries on the entire planet. In order to make a reasonable determination on the degree of American racism, however, we must look at the anti-racist gains of the American past and the degree of American racism compared to the rest of the world.

On the first point, Jason and I are in agreement. He writes:

"If you are saying that there is racism in the country, but it’s getting better — I completely agree." That is precisely what I am saying. In fact, not only is the degree of American racism decreased in recent decades, it has decreased by an order of magnitude that we have yet to appreciate. 

In the Civil War, the United States lost around 600,000 men. The war was not fought to end slavery, but to save the Union. However, the reason that the Union needed saving is because the question of slavery was ripping it to pieces. In the South, people were concerned that the industrial North would impose itself upon their way of life. Anyone who knows anything about the Civil War understands the significance of southern fears concerning the nature of northern intentions.

What is less well understood is the fact that the North feared the extension of the southern way of life into northern states. This is why Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) was so important. Scott was born in a slave state, but his "owner" moved to a free state bringing Scott with him. The question then became, does a slave gain his freedom when moved into a free state? The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Roger Taney, said "no." What that meant was that slavery could creep into the North and northerners simply did not want it.

From the Civil War, through Jim Crow and into the Civil Rights Era of Martin Luther King, Jr., American racism steadily declined. If there is one thing that MLK, Jr. and his partners achieved it was not only making racism detested within American society but finally doing away with "de jure" racism, or racism as perpetuated by state laws. Americans despise racism so much that by the time Reagan came into office there were no significant self-identified White Supremacist organizations in the US. The Klan was still out there in a few southern states, but their influence and numbers were (and are) nominal. The same can easily be said about the few Neo-Nazi dingbats hiding out in Montana or northern Idaho. These are people with zero political power and who are widely detested within American society. 

Jason Lloyd Miller, needless to say, does not see it this way.

He writes, "If you are saying that no matter how prevalent individual racists may be, there’s no such thing as “white supremacy” in this country, because it was de jure structurally “corrected” by legislation that was passed 50 years ago — I think that’s a gross simplification..."

What is a gross simplification is Miller's refusal to accept how different the US is today vis-à-vis race relations. Furthermore, the erosion of American racism was not merely due to legislation from fifty years ago. On the contrary. The legislation reflected the changes in American society, not the other way around. 

So, I think that we can agree that the US is not nearly so racist as it once was. Slavery is over. De Jure racism in the form of Jim Crow is over. All the significant White Supremacist organizations, like the Ku Klux Klan, are basically defunct. And not only does the American zeitgeist despise racism but we have put into place a series of laws, and workplace standards, that seek to give certain people of non-European descent a leg-up in hiring and university acceptance. 

Thus not only is there less racism today than in the American past, but there is much less racism. It's not even close. We have so little outward racism in the US that when it is displayed people react in a manner like you may have just urinated on their shoes. Americans absolutely despise racism, but Miller refuses to see it. He writes:

"What I really really don’t understand, is what interest you have in denying that there is structural inequality, and structural racism, still, in this country?"

Structural racism suggests racism as a matter of law. Jim Crow represented str
uctural racism because it was a matter of racism by law. Black people had to give up their seats toward the front of the bus as a matter of law. 

The question that I would ask Miller is, why he seems to have an interest in promoting the notion of American racism, and thereby denying American history, when we have come so far in eliminating it? This is true not only in terms of American history but in terms of the United States compared to other countries.

The US is practically a civil rights Shangri-la compared to most of the rest of the world. In Africa and the Middle East they still practice the slavery of black people, yet no one, including Mr. Miller, seems to much mind. In Iran, and throughout much of the Muslim world, they are still fond of hanging Gay people from cranes or tossing them off of buildings. 

So, if you want to argue that the US is a deeply racist society, as the first black president of the United States suggested, you must ask yourself compared to when and compared to whom? 

What I don't understand is why so many people feel a need to constantly bang the racialist drum without fairly considering the American past, the degree of racism in other countries, or what this incessant harping on the evils of white people will do to the American future.

Demonizing Americans of European descent for the sins of their ancestors is hugely hypocritical in the face of contemporary slavery. It is hugely hypocritical in the face of widespread racism throughout most of the rest of the world. And if you think that continually urinating on "white" people -- whoever they are, exactly -- is going to fix anything then you are sadly mistaken.

All the progressive-regressives are doing, through supporting racist organizations like BLM/Antifa, is considerably adding to the sum total of hatred. I find it both hypocritical and hugely counterproductive.

A bit more on the Great Oakland Walgreens Looting Fiasco of 2020

Michael Lumish

In a recent post, I talked a little about my first encounter with looting in my current city of Oakland, California.

There was some conversation around whether I needlessly brought BLM into the story of the Oakland Walgreens looting. I cannot prove direct causation between the examples set by BLM/Antifa and the looting, but it is clear that they popularized the sport.

BLM/Antifa has spent the greater part of 2020 looting large corporate retail box stores and small black-owned mom-and-pop shops throughout much of the country. That is when they are not tearing down statuary of virtually everyone because they have decided that virtually everyone is racist.

{I would be a little surprised if, say, Mark Twain statuary survived the idiocy.}

In this way, they made looting kind of hip and doubly so when BLM started arguing that looting is actually a form of spontaneous reparations for slavery and Jim Crow and the alleged current monsoon of "systemic racism" sweeping the land.

But what really made it work for those ransacking the various cities were the local and state authorities who tied the hands of the cops.

Neutering law enforcement taught BLM/Antifa that they could do pretty much anything they wanted to such as rioting, looting, burning Federal buildings, beating people up in the streets, and trashing retail outfits, including small black-owned restaurants and stores, with impunity.

{While black lives matter, it is not the least bit clear that black lives matter to Black Lives Matter. This is, after all, an international organization that never breathes a word about the enslavement of Africans today into the markets of the Middle East.}

In any case, there is no possible way that the gangs of Oakland did not acknowledge the obvious when it currently comes to looting.

Of course, they did.

The cops, however, wanted to do their jobs and Police Chiefs were fighting losing battles with the Offices of the Mayors and Governors in primarily Democratic Party-controlled states. This resulted in a large wave of early retirements from the force and other cops simply walking out the door. So, because the cops were not allowed to respond effectively to the violence in the streets local gangs learned that they could easily walk into a Walgreens and shake up the joint with no problems.

So, yes, BLM/Antifa brought looting into style in 2020 and hopefully I can be excused for not viewing my little encounter with it as a distinct anomaly.

Robbery at the Walgreens

Michael Lumish

Yesterday Laurie and I were in our local Walgreens in Oakland, CA when it was robbed by three young black men wearing black hoodies. I had never been in a store that was being loudly robbed before.

They were mainly, for some reason, cleaning out the women's cosmetics aisle.

The leader of the pack tried to intimidate the customers by making a racket so loud and violent that everyone would know that they were there and would be too scared to intervene.

This happened just as I was checking out.

I told the clerk to call the cops and keep the change. She looked at me with the dead eyes of indifference.

We saw the guys run cross the street with their pathetic booty as we walked to the car.

This kind of thing is now acceptable because, ya know, Black Lives Matter.

A Quick Note on Jewish Oversensitivity Concerning BDS

Michael Lumish

Jews are way too oversensitive to political analysis when it is focused upon them.

BDS just represents a little criticism toward Israel because they want that country to live up to its highest and most humane potential. They want Israel to be a good liberal democracy, as we all do.

Thus the BDS folks want Israel to stop being so racist. It's just a little criticism. It's meant to be helpful and, in truth, Jewish people tend to be a bit paranoid, anyway.

It's just that they want Israel to stop being a racist state.

They want Israel to stop being a colonialist state.

They want Israel to stop being an imperialist state.

They want Israel to stop being a militaristic state.

They want Israel to stop being a brutal apartheid regime.

These are heartfelt criticisms that come from a caring for the Jewish people and our place in the world.

They, therefore, want Israel to stop stealing land from the native indigenous Palestinian people.

They, therefore, want Israel to stop stealing water from the native indigenous Palestinian people.

They, therefore, want Israel to stop raping Palestinian women, like they did with Rasmea Odeh after dragging her into an Israeli military-industrial, prison-complex hell-hole.

For this reason they also very much want Israel to stop slaughtering Palestinian children for sport.

They want Israel to cease and desist from their bloody military adventures into neighboring countries.

They just want Israel -- well, really, Israeli Jews, if not Jews, more generally -- to stop being so terribly bloodthirsty, vicious, and cruel to the innocent.

What the BDS folk want more than anything is for the Jewish people to finally give up our nefarious ways and join the community of decent nations.

If now and again a Palestinian child stabs a Jewish grandmother in the street or an Arab detonates a bomb in a crowded pizza parlor, well, it's a natural response to the blood-thirsty behavior of the Jewish people.

This is merely criticism and should be received in the spirit within which it is offered.

The BDS bottom line is simple. If Jews throughout the world do not want to see violence against themselves or their children then we need to practice greater humanity. We need to be kind people rather than cruel and violent dregs.

It's just criticism.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS EVIL

Michael Lumish

There are several things that I despise about the Trump Administration.

The first is all this peace in the Middle East nonsense. It is much better to go back to encouraging hostility between Jews and Muslims because, as a dick-like personal acquaintance of mine once told me, the Jews are not "humane" to the innocent, bunny-like Palestinian-Arabs.

Thus the only thing to do is, yet again, fund the Palestinian Authority and the PLO so that they can finance the "Martyrs Fund" wherein they literally pay random Arabs to kill Jews in the streets of Israel.

After all, as Barack Obama understood, the only path to peace is through Jewish blood. Until the Israeli Jews recognize that Judea is Arab land and they have no right to build villages for themselves on the land of their heritage, then the Democratic Party, the European Union, and the United Nations have no choice but to finance "pay-for-slay" wherein the West pays Arabs to kill Jews.

But it is clearly for our own good.

I believe that it was Hitler who told the Jews, "Sit your ass down and shut the fuck up or it may go bad for you." Greater words of wisdom were never spoken.

And in that vein of peace, it is also necessary to give gazillions of US tax dollars to the Ayatollahs in Iran who call for not only the genocide of the Jewish people but for death to America. It is, therefore, necessary to help the Holy Men of Iran build a Nuclear Weapon of Peace for the purpose of stabilizing that part of the world through a nuclear arms race.

What Biden and Obama understand, and the insidious racist and sexist Republicans do not, is that the only way forward is for the Sunni Arab states, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to have nukes of their own in their never-ending struggle against the Shia Muslims of Iran.

This nuclear arms race will represent a soothing Balm of Peace and Goodness to the Levantine mind.

But enough of those insidious Jews and the desire of the Democrats to help them through hatred.

Maybe sometime in the next few days, I will discuss American political culture and how it is important to manufacture fear and loathing toward those disgustingly white fascist Americans of European descent and their "Zionist" allies.

What Joe Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Democratic Party understand, but that you may not, is that Martin Luther King, Jr, got it all upside-down and backward. The thing is not NOT to judge people according to skin color but to make sure that people follow the example of BLM/Antifa by encouraging violent racism in the name of peace-loving anti-racism.

It is, therefore, necessary for "progressives" and youthful Democrats to cover their faces in the streets for the purposes of political violence against synagogues and cops and anyone wearing a red baseball cap.

But that is for a later discussion.

Would this be wrong?

 Michael Lumish