The racial paradise bait and switch
James P. writes:
Before the election, many conservatives argued that the election of Obama would prove that there was no more racism in this country, and thus we could end affirmative action, etc., and liberals would no longer be able to argue seriously that we lived in a racist nation.
But as the Washington Post reports, liberals believe the struggle against racism must continue and intensify. In fact, racial injustice is such a large and pressing problem that most of the women in the YWCA survey think that fighting racism should be Obama’s top priority!
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Gintas writes:
Dmitri over in the “Communism and natural selection” entry mentioned:
When in 1930s Stalin unfolded repressions against the high-ranking communists and farmers, he justified it with the Law that he invented. He claimed that the Class Struggle must intensify as society approaches Communism. Later, this principle was criticized by more liberal communists as anti-scientific. But Stalin knew what he was talking about. He was right, because the philosophy of Communism is Natural Selection. One who does not fit, is unfit. And as Communism approach and requirements toughen, more and more people will find themselves unfit.
What James P. mentions is a case of what Dmitri was describing, is it not?
But as the Washington Post reports, liberals believe the struggle against racism must continue and intensify. In fact, racial injustice is such a large and pressing problem that most of the women in the YWCA survey think that fighting racism should be Obama’s top priority!
John B. writes:
I notice that the Washington Post article points out that, in the area of “racial progress,” “much work remains to be done.”
Doesn’t it always?
Sage McLaughlin writes:
I’ve been waiting for the examples of the “bait and switch” to start rolling in. Before the election, liberals were banging on about Obama’s role as a “uniter,” as a person who would end racial division and signal the beginning of a new, cooperative era of racial harmony. This was obvious and discreditable nonsense. Every sane, reasonably well-informed person could see that Obama would do absolutely nothing to heal racial division, since he never acknowledged any of the real reasons for white resentment—affirmative action and like policies perhaps being chief among them.
Last week, the head of the Black Coaches’ Association (BCA) was on ESPN complaining about the dearth of head coaches in the college football ranks. His rationale was remarkable in the present context. He said that, if we could elect a black president, what was so backward about our collegiate athletics programs that we could not name more than six black head football coaches? Aha, I said, there it is. Obama’s presidency is going to be used as an argument for affirmative action, and this will be the dreary refrain: “Obama can be president, so why can’t Black Man X have Prestigious Position Y?”
If the election of a black president is in itself a good thing, the essence of social virtue—irrespective of any other considerations—then the promotion of blacks as blacks will become the normative, enlightened policy across the board. The Obama presidency, rather than assuaging this sense of entitlement on the part of blacks, will only serve to inflame it, especially as their own lack of achievement continues inevitably to fester. In case it wasn’t clear enough where ESPN was coming from, one commenter (the insufferable Chris Fowler) remarked that, of course, college athletics directors were not a famously “enlightened” bunch and, shaking his head ruefully, speculated that there were “probably not a lot of Obama voters in that group.”
LA replies:
This is an excellent comment, articulating a new stage of affirmative action, perhaps not different in kind from the earlier stage, but more baldfaced and insistent.
The BCA head’s reasoning is like that of the Eurobots who on the election of Obama said, “We must have black political leaders too,” and proposed selecting them by affirmative action.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 24, 2008 10:39 AM | Send