Is honesty about race increasing?

Terry Morris writes:

I just got around to reading VFR’s Rules on How to Protect Yourself from Black Violence and White Political Correctness. Here is 10(r):

10(r) While it is important for your physical survival to take blackness into account when encountering black individuals or finding yourself in a black neighborhood or at a beach or amusement park with many blacks, when it comes to your social survival you should pretend to be unconscious of blackness. If someone says, “There are a lot of blacks in the park today,” the safest response is, “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Being aware of race, in any context outside of fulsome praise, is tantamount to racism. (Paul K., July 25, 2012.)

I actually find that many whites are more willing and eager to discuss racial differences, and even identify negative black attributes, than is commonly believed.

About a year ago, for example, a person whom I do a lot of business with mentioned a mutual acquaintance of ours, negatively declaring him to be a racist. When I asked her to elaborate, she said that he had said some things to her about blacks “that made me uncomfortable.” I jokingly replied “I’m glad you told me that. I’ll keep in mind never to be realistic about blacks while in your presence.” To which she laughed almost uncontrollably. Since that ice breaking moment occurred, this dear woman and I have had several conversations about racial differences, conversations in which she has, more times than not, been the instigator. In hindsight, I think she was trying to portray herself to me as something she is not; to leave an indelible impression on me that she really is a good person based on race-blindness. But when I let her know that my impression of her goodness has very little, if anything, to do with her opinions about race, and more to do with her honesty about such things, and scolding her, by inference, for exalting herself at the expense of someone else not even present to defend himself, she began to open up to me about her true impression of blacks and the degenerate black culture.

LA replies:

There are two sectors of reality that we need to distinguish: the privately held and privately expressed views of individuals; and the views that may be safely expressed publicly. More and more individuals may privately come to a realistic view of race, and that is good and to be encouraged; indeed, that is what VFR is trying to accomplish in its many discussions about black violence and related subjects. But, by itself, such a change will not mean a change in the rules of what is possible to express publicly. That would require an ideological transformation of the whole society. And, as I’ve written, I no longer expect such a transformation to occur, short of the large scale ruin of the society.

Of course it’s possible that I’m wrong. We could imagine a cover article in Newsweek by some bold egotist like Niall Ferguson declaring,

Why Blacks Are Behind: It’s Inherent.

Which Means that Society Can’t Do Anything
About It, and It’s Not Whites’ Fault.

And such an article could break open the dikes and flood the lowlands of liberalism with the truth. But do I expect that to happen? No. Liberal society adjusts (makes unprincipled exceptions) from time to time, in order to avoid some imminent disaster, such as the current disaster of government debt. For that reason, it’s possible Obama will be defeated. But liberal society, short of its own termination, will not abandon its primary beliefs, such as the belief in the substantive equality of all human groups.

Terry Morris continues:

I’ve personally had many encounters like that over the last several years. Just yesterday I was visiting with another regular client and I mentioned that his insurance agent had been by. Early into the conversation my client said that he didn’t really like the guy much. Having only had that one, brief encounter with the agent who impressed me with his professionalism and cordiality, I was curious about what prompted my client to reveal this to me, so I asked, “Why do you say that?”

His immediate response was, “Well, he’s a racist for starters.” Then he went off into a tangent about him being “cocky” and “hard to work with” and so forth. I simply replied “Well, you may find out that you don’t like me very much either. Judging by what you’ve said, I’m probably a racist in your opinion too.” In this particular case this had the instantaneous effect of shutting the conversation down. My client obviously did not want to discuss the matter any further with me and quickly proceeded to an entirely different subject. But I imagine it will be raised again at some point, and we’ll be able to get down to where the rubber meets the road. All of the above said, I can be very frank with people because I’m an independent business owner/operator, and though I do care about how people perceive me, there are certain lines I simply will not cross no matter what the consequences. Being racially blind or neutral, or in some sort of haze about race, and living in fear that I’ll be affected negatively if I don’t tacitly acquiesce to the tyranny imposed by liberal black worship, is not an option for me. And I dare say if that were my unfortunate condition, then I’d be diligently seeking another line of work.

August 22

Terry Morris writes:

I enjoyed reading your reply to my anecdote. And I think you’re very much right in your conclusions. Indeed, I concluded America was finished shortly following Obama’s election. By the way, I’d lay good money down on his re-election short of divine intervention, which I don’t expect at all. Why would God intervene to save America when America does not want to be saved?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 21, 2012 12:41 PM | Send