Our racist universe

The universe is racist—because it keeps supplying the most perverse anti-black stereotypes. Which in turn requires virtuous, liberal people to engage in the endless labor of mentally canceling out those stereotypes in their head, either by denying their existence, or by attributing them to white racism.

From the Fox News station WJBK in Detroit:

Witnesses say two men in the Brightmoor neighborhood were so passionate about the way they make Kool-Aid, they started arguing with each other over who does it better.

Sadly, that fight took a horrifying turn when they both pulled out guns and started firing at each other. Again, this was over Kool-Aid.

They didn’t hit each other, but two innocent bystanders suffered gunshot wounds in the soft drink shooting. Police call it utterly ridiculous, but they’ve seen worse. Fox 2’s Andrea Isom has the story.

About which Paul Kersey at SPBDL comments:

This is all a dream, isn’t it? A comedian or script writer trying to come up with the most perverse Black stereotypes to create a joke or scene in an absurd film couldn’t conjure up a story like the one Andrea Isom broke for MyFoxDetroit.

LA writes:

Just wondering: are there still Middle American cities that are bent out of shape about their lack of “diversity,” i.e. about their lack of blacks, and are seeking ways to attract more of them?

By the way, I think that that would make a cool title for a book sending up liberalism:

Our Racist Universe

Or maybe this would be better:

Our Racist, Anti-Woman, Homophobic, Islamophobic Universe, and How We Can Change It.

- end of initial entry -

Jay P. writes:

“The universe is racist—because it keeps supplying the most perverse anti-black stereotypes. Which in turn requires virtuous, liberal people to engage in the endless labor of mentally canceling out those stereotypes in their head, either by denying their existence, or by attributing them to white racism.”

You put that beautifully. I spent almost 50 years of my life doing that mental labor. My sense of relief was palpable when I (finally) got around to reading The Bell Curve last year and realized that the racial differences I witness don’t need to be explained out of existence.

LA replies:

Thank you. If The Bell Curve was important to you, you will like my article,
“My views on race and intelligence.”

Clark Coleman writes:

Larry,

You speak as if it is self-evident that there is no racism involved in this Detroit incident. Don’t you realize that if people like you cared more about the plight of men like these in Detroit, that you would provide more educational opportunities for them, and then they would lead better lives, and then they would not be angry and commit violence? So, even though you thought it was laughable, in fact it turns out that your racism is responsible for the Kool-Aid shooting. In fact, not just your personal racism, but a structural racism that permeates our society (which we are not conscious of and cannot see, but which has effects such as these incidents) is responsible for this shooting.

LA replies:

Clark, it hurts to admit it, but you have touched the worm of guilty doubt that always lingers in the back of my mind. Even as I keep arguing, with apparent total conviction and sincerity, that blacks’ own qualities and dispositions, and not white racism, are the cause of black dysfunction and violence, I am always secretly wondering, Is this really true? Have whites really tried everything that could be tried to help lift blacks out of their increasingly backward, disordered, and menacing state? Haven’t we given up too soon? Isn’t it really the case that if we had shown true compassion and generosity and had gone the extra mile, and the extra ten thousandth mile, and provided yet more jobs training programs, and more federally funded neighborhood sports activities, and more Head Start, and more No Child Left Behind, and more Afro-Centric education, and more Ebonics (yes, I realize that Afrocentrism and Ebonics contradict No Child Left Behind, but we have to try everything, don’t we?), and more Section 8 housing to place improvident and criminal blacks among middle class whites, and more magnet schools, and more charter schools, and if we had also worked much, much, much harder to remove racist stereotypes from our own minds and strip ourselves of the racial suprematist attitudes borne of our invisible white skin privilege which permeates every aspect of our waking and sleeping lives, then those two young black men in Detroit would not have been shooting each other over which one made better Kool-Aid?

So yes, Clark, I admit it. I have had these thoughts, but I dishonestly suppressed them so that I could keep pushing my racist message that whites are not to blame for black dysfunction and failure.

June 1

Paul K. writes:

I’m sure Michelle means to ban Kool-Aid, which is high in calories and has no nutritional value, and it’s a shame she didn’t get around to doing so in time to prevent this senseless tragedy. This goes to show that she and Barack need another term to get the job done.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 31, 2012 06:21 PM | Send