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This week on CounterSpin: A number of federal agencies rushed to make clear they would be scrubbing activities and events that “celebrate cultural awareness” in an effort to stay on the good side of the weird new White House. Trump and his abettors’ anti-anti-discrimination agenda is as subtle as a sledgehammer. “DEI hire,” for instance, is super-complicated code for the idea that if a person who isn’t white, cis and male got a job, that can only mean a better qualified white cis man was unfairly denied it. That’s just, Trump says, “common sense.”
The irony is not lost that history itself is seen as being manipulated for political purpose when it comes to Black History Month—because we know that history is constantly invoked, if implicitly, as a way of justifying present-day unfairness. White supremacy can be presented as natural if white people invented everything, discovered everything, created all the wealth, and defined civilization. That lies back of many public and media conversations…so just saying Charles Drew invented blood banks is disruptive! What if Black people aren’t subhuman?
What people try to silence tells us what they fear. So what is so scary about everyone, not just Black people, acknowledging the particular circumstances, and responses to those circumstances, of Black people in these United States—our experience, challenges, accomplishments? Is it that history—real history, and not comforting tall tales—connects the past with the present in ways that are powerful, grounding and inspiring?
In March 2021, a hitherto no-name right-wing activist openly declared an intention to mislead around racism and to vilify any questioning of enduring racial inequities: “The goal,” wrote Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, “is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’” He bragged that he had “successfully frozen” the “brand” of critical race theory, and was “steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category.”
A self-respecting press corps would have taken that as a shot across the bow. The corporate news media we have dutifully signed on to present a campaign openly defined as uninterested in truth or humanity and concerned only with rolling back the clock on racial equity as a totally valid, “grassroots” perspective, deserving respectful inclusion in national conversation.
That was a jumping-off point for our conversation with law professor Luke Charles Harris, co-founder with Kimberle Crenshaw of the African American Policy Forum. We’ll hear that important conversation again this week.
Transcript: ‘We Can’t Fight for Racial Justice if We Can’t Learn About Racial Injustice’
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at recent press coverage of Venezuela, Elon Musk and ICE.
Obvious prejudice written by an AA. Claims promoting ID Politics are attempts to divide us. Racism is the intellectual mistake of thinking that there is a causal link between culture and race. Research has repeatedly shown that race is not a scientifically valid concept. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01968-z
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Not About Race – It’s A Class Struggle Goddammit!
https://www.lfks.net/en/content/fred-hampton-its-class-struggle-goddammit-november-1969
——— Don’t give me any more race BS:
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Claims promoting ID Politics are attempts to divide us. Racism is the intellectual mistake of thinking that there is a causal link between culture and race. Research has repeatedly shown that race is not a scientifically valid concept. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01968-z
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Not About Race – It’s A Class Struggle Goddammit!
https://www.lfks.net/en/content/fred-hampton-its-class-struggle-goddammit-november-1969
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“Those that don’t admit to that are those that don’t want to get involved in a revolution, because they know that as long as they’re dealing with a race thing, they’ll never be involved in a revolution.”
——— Black Panther, Fred Hampton, November, 1969
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——— Banks
Black-owned banks reject home loans for blacks at twice the rate of conventional banks – https://news.utk.edu/1997/07/01/black-loan-applicants-rejected-at-black-owned-banks-278/
Do_Black_Owned_Banks_Discriminate_Against_Black_Borrowers – https://www.academia.edu/381747/
[W]hen demographic variables are added to the HMDA model to test for the possibility of redlining, it is found that the black-owned banks may be more likely to engage in the practice than are the white-owned banks. The regulators and the public most likely assume that, if discrimination occurs, it will be perpetrated by white lenders against black applicants. The results of this paper indicate otherwise.
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——— Police
Harvard Professor: The Facts About Police Brutality – Roland Fryer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruYXzlzoU_A&ab_channel=Triggernometry
BLACK COPS ARE JUST AS LIKELY AS WHITE COPS TO KILL BLACK SUSPECTS – https://psmag.com/social-justice/black-cops-are-just-as-likely-as-whites-to-kill-black-suspects
“we find that nonwhite officers kill both black and Latino suspects at significantly higher rates than white officers,”
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Police kill more whites than blacks, but minority deaths generate more outrage: analysis
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/21/police-kill-more-whites-than-blacks-but-minority-d/
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The Myth of Systemic Police Racism – https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-myth-of-systemic-police-racism-11591119883
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The Truth About Police Shootings in America – https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2021/04/the-truth-about-police-shootings-in-america/
The unfortunate reality is that just as blacks are statistically far more likely to be the victims of homicide or other violent crimes, they are also statistically more likely to commit violent crimes that would bring them into conflict with a law enforcement officer with his or her gun drawn.
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Harvard Study Finds No Racial Bias in Police Shootings – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxvcPouz3kw
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——— AA Government Officials & Upper Class
African American Mayors: http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/black-american-mayors.html
Black Mayors: https://blackdemographics.com/culture/black-politics/black-mayors/
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Top 10 African American Army Generals of All Time:
https://www.part-time-commander.com/top-10-african-american-army-generals/
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_United_States_representatives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_United_States_Cabinet_members
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Black Americans shaping a new America – https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/3791842-black-americans-shaping-a-new-america/
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List of African American federal judges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African_American_federal_judges
BS.
——— The Wealthiest Black Americans:
https://www.forbes.com/2009/05/06/richest-black-americans-busienss-billionaires-richest-black-americans.html
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——— Court Decisions:
Jury acquits Gifford, a [black] man, who claimed self-defense after girlfriend killed by sheriff’s SWAT team in 2017 raid. Andrew Coffee IV cleared of murder charge in 2017 Alteria Woods death
https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/indian-river-county/2021/11/19/andrew-coffee-iv-cleared-murder-charge-2017-alteria-woods-death/8651720002/
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A [black] man charged with attempted murder after firing at Minneapolis police officers in the chaotic protests that followed George Floyd’s death has been acquitted of all charges against him
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-shot-cops-unrest-floyd-death-acquitted-79823107
——— American Black Sub-culture, aka Black Rednecks, Thug culture.
Where Current Black Culture Really Comes From
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imjfiKKQoFM
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THOMAS SOWELL: Sub-Culture–Disruptive to Success
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Szpf9rrF0
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Thomas Sowell on the Current Black Sub-Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtyoNSmOYzo&t=42s
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Thomas Sowell on Black History MYTHS Promoted by the Left
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=848506695999128
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Southern Culture and Homicide: Examining the Cracker Culture/Black Rednecks Thesis
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Southern-Culture-and-Homicide%3A-Examining-the-Thesis-Lee-Thomas/f4d56063fed8ba8249babf90a91d1df9cac9c440
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Do You Think Systemic Racism Exists In America?: Vivek Ramaswamy Asked At Iowa State Fair
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/third-party-voting/
There is no doubt one being born an raised in Nashville, Tennessee would experience cultural prejudice. Assigning racism to cultural prejuce is an intellectual mistake made by both AAs and whites. But cultural prejudice based upon race is not racism, per se. If you do not ID the problem you will never find a solution.
===== Cultural prejudice is not racism.
Thomas Sowell, in his well-researched book, identifies a general, cultural prejudice directed at a specific subculture of African Americans, which he terms ‘black rednecks.’ This difference in cultures highlights the existence of conflict and prejudice toward or between certain groups. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vbOUTNs66o&t=11s
The presence of African Americans in significant positions of authority (Congresspersons, Mayors, Chiefs of Police, Generals, Judges, and various other roles) challenges the notion of the U.S. today, being a systemically racist society.
While cultural prejudice undoubtedly exists, labeling it as racism is not supported by substantial evidence. Racism is the intellectual mistake of thinking that there is a causal link between culture and race. Research has repeatedly shown that race is not a scientifically valid concept. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01968-z