Quote of note:
Bennett is too intelligent not to understand why many of us would take his mental experiment as a glimpse behind the curtain -- an indication that old assumptions, now unspoken, still survive. He ought to understand how his words would be taken as validation by the rapper Kanye West, who told a television audience that "George Bush doesn't care about black people," or by the New Orleans survivors who keep calling me with theories of how "they" dynamited selected levees to flood the poor, black Lower Ninth Ward and save the wealthy French Quarter and Garden District.
A Specious 'Experiment'
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, October 4, 2005; Page A23
There's no need to pillory William Bennett for his "thought experiment" about how aborting all black children would affect the crime rate. I believe him when he says he wasn't actually advocating genocide, just musing about it to make a point. Instead of going into high-dudgeon mode, let's put him on the couch.
...Levitt's thesis is essentially that unwanted children who grow up poor in single-parent households are more likely than other children to become criminals, and that Roe v. Wade resulted in fewer of these children being born. What he doesn't do in the book is single out black children.
...So now that we have Bennett on the couch, shouldn't we conclude that he mentioned only black children because, perhaps on a subconscious level, he associates "black" with "criminal''?
That's what it sounds like to me. I grew up in the South in the days when we had to drink at "colored" water fountains and gas stations had separate "colored" restrooms; I know what a real racist is like, and Bennett certainly doesn't fit the description. But that's what's so troubling about his race-specific "thought experiment" -- that such a smart, well-meaning opinion maker would so casually say something that translates, to African American ears, as "blacks are criminals."
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Maybe you can get your boy
Maybe you can get your boy cobb to understand some of this stuff. Then again, maybe he's closer to Billy B. than I had imagined. After all, he is suffering with Bennett. It reminds me of Malcolm's oft-repeated line, "What's the matter, massah? We sick?" We sho' is.
"I know what a real racist
"I know what a real racist is like, and Bennett certainly doesn't fit the description."
Robinson has head his so far up his ass he doesn't think shit stinks either.
I don't know...See, even if
I don't know...
See, even if you give Bennett the full benefit of the doubt, it still demonstrates how thoroughly ingrained racists assumptions are in the mainstream noosphere (the precise term, but since it's not in common use...). The op-ed makes that point, so I'm inclined to forgive specific non-essentials.
Robinson lets Bennett off
Robinson lets Bennett off the hook no matter how you parse it. His fake psychological post mortem fails to divert attention away from the odor of genocide emanating from Bennett's remarks.
And that "I grew up in the South" bullshit doesn't confer on Robinson any special authority or legitimacy to define what is or is not racism. He only uttered it hoping that it would lend weight to his plea bargain in behalf of Herr Bennett. Seems to me he spent too much time in the colored rest room.
 Robinson lets Bennett off
But Bennett is also one guy. A guy everyone that thinks Filipe Alou is racist is lining up behind, but...
And whatever you write Bennett is gonna be Bennett...possibly even more so. And do you want to promote a way to think about the Bennetts of the world, a specific point...or every specific point?
That's just how I'm looking at it. We have to be symbolic but we have to be effective too.
Please tell me what you
Please tell me what you think of this:
I think the gap between Bennett's supporters and detractors (or even between Robinson and Ourstorian) is a matter of an adjective and a noun.
Robinson says:"I know what a real racist is like, and Bennett certainly doesn't fit the description."
He uses the word "racist" as a noun. The way he uses the word, it's a defining characteristic, in the same way you'd say "She's a lawyer," or "They're criminals." The word defines the intent and purpose of the individual. It's a label.
P6 uses the word "racist" as an adjective, like this: "it still demonstrates how thoroughly ingrained racists assumptions are in the mainstream noosphere."
The term qualifies the word "assumption" and describes it. The way P6 has done it, the person who makes the "racist assumption" may also make other assumptions that aren't racist.
A person who makes a bad assumption can examine it and correct it. Accepting the possibility of a bad assumption is a lot easier than accepting a label as a bad person.
Yesterday, P6 wrote about the difference between criticism offered and criticism heard. Could this explain at least some of the problem?
"That's just how I'm looking
"That's just how I'm looking at it. We have to be symbolic but we have to be effective too."
I think it is both effective and productive to confront and challenge racists and their enablers at every turn, symbolically and otherwise. I say leave no stone unturned or un-hurled, as the case may be.
"I think the gap between
"I think the gap between Bennett's supporters and detractors (or even between Robinson and Ourstorian) is a matter of an adjective and a noun."
I understand the reasoning behind the above statement QB. But the gap between me and Robinson in this matter cannot be reduced to grammar, syntax or semantics.
the gap between me and
Oh, granted.
I'm just pondering whether the difference in language reveals anything meaningful about the deeper rift.
The "rift," as I see it QB,
The "rift," as I see it QB, speaking personally, is grounded in my refusal to give a rhetorical pass to those who deny the humanity of black folks or to tolerate the interference and interloping of their paid or simply servile apologists. It doesn't matter to me who they are or whom they claim to be.
my refusal to give a
Yes. Just what I was driving at.
I think it is both effective
Of course, and that's being done.