Response to Rinku Sen of Talking Points Memo

In Sen’s article, “The White Supremacist in Us”, she asserts that institutional racism is still present, and accounts for the rise in hate crimes.

She’s wrong.

Hate crimes rise when economic times are bad. It’s quite a simple relationship actually, something which Ms. Sen seems to have difficulty grasping. She also fails to grasp that African-Americans are no longer the prime target of such crimes. Hispanics, primarily recent immigrants are, just as Arab-Americans and Sikhs were the primary targets after 9/11 and Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor.

She states: “Even a cursory look around most high end restaurants makes it clear that to these employers, only white people look good enough, that the only people willing to put up with dangerous conditions for low pay are Latinos and Bangladeshis and that black Americans don't belong in there at all.”

When is this meme from blacks going to die? Why do African-Americans keep coming back to this over and over? It’s past the expiration date for this excuse. And non-blacks are getting tired of hearing it after four decades of black advancement. Maybe, just maybe it’s the fault of the black community itself that they haven't advanced as far as they should have by this point. Just maybe you should be looking in the mirror rather than looking at us.

It’s easy to cite one example of anything. But where are the others? Where are the other, specific examples of institutional racism she claims? This is the best she can come up with?

It’s also fairly easy to blame an institution as 'racist'. But I see something else. You know what? I see Mexicans and Puerto Ricans and Central Americans and Asians and Bangladeshis and Pakistanis and Sikhs willing to work their butts off in lousy jobs with long hours that pay little, in the hope their kids will have a better life than they do – that’s my father, uncle’s, and cousins’ story after they all came to America from Nicaragua.

You know what I see, living in one of the poorest cities in the US? I see African-Americans who don’t care about their kids’education, who have this sense of entitlement that they are somehow ‘owed’ something. If you want to call that a stereotype, well that’s what I see. I see hard-working African-Americans, a lot of them. But I see the former too, and what I don’t see is a lot of blacks talking about it or criticizing it – Bill Cosby excepted.

And no, I’m not a racist. I don’t believe whites are better than anyone else. I don’t believe in ‘reverse discrimination’. I’m just reporting what I see. Is there some degree of racism in all of us? Undoubtedly, yes. But African-Americans need to do a little self-examination here.

In my opinion, blacks are allowing themselves to become the permanent underclass of America. And if that happens it’s truly a shame, because it means all those brave sacrifices made in the civil rights movement will have been made in vain.

I Didn’t Expect the Bloody Spanish Inquisition…

but then again, maybe I should have:

The Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, CA, has said voting for Barack Obama amounts to a sin because Obama is pro-choice, and has advised his parishioners they need to confess such a sin to their priest or be in danger of losing their state of grace by receiving communion (which Catholics believe is the actual body and blood of Christ) “sacrilegiously.” In November, Roman Catholic bishops in the United States cautioned Obama against enacting an “evil law” that would deregulate the “abortion industry”, saying it would alienate millions of Americans and sow disunity, Agence France Presse reported.

Just one more in a litany of reasons I left the Catholic Church.

McCarthyism From the Left?

I was truly dismayed to see a website called ‘Anti-gay Blacklist’ spring up after the Prop 8 defeat in California.

Let me say from the outset that I support the right of gays and lesbians to marry. But come on, people. Condemning people who are merely expressing a point of view in such harsh terms? Putting a picture of a Holocaust commemoration plaque at the top of the page, implying a comparison to Nazis?

Where is the tolerance that gays demand from straights? Yes, I know about societal discrimination and persecution. But all this extremist stance does is give ammunition to the right, who then go on to say, “See? Didn’t we tell you?” If this situation was reversed and straights were urging the boycotting gay supporters, we’d be hearing screams from the left. What’s the difference between the two? I don’t see any.

Yes, gays do have the right to be angry. Yes, they do have the right to boycott Prop 8 supporters. But do they have the right to couch it in such extreme terms?

ID-ing the Body...

Well, the election is over the Republicans are still busy mopping up the blood, at least when they're not shaking fingers at each other, thankful the carnage wasn’t worse.

But they still have the same fundamental problem. Not, as is being written all over the place, that they lack identity. Republicans do have an identity. The problem is, their identity exists as the party of white folks. Yes, I've heard of Alan Keyes and Colin Powell. But they are hardly representative of African-Americans. Or Hispanics, Asians, or any other minority.

And the United States is changing—whites are rapidly becoming the minority. If the Republican Party wants to continue to appeal to that ‘market segment’, they're by all means free to do so. But it will put them in the minority for the next few decades.

PZ Myers Is An Arrogant Bigot

I guess it’s okay to desecrate things other religions hold as sacred. So if I smash a hole in the Wailing Wall, spit on a Koran, or throw dung on a Buddhist shrine, it’s okay?

In fact, it’s not. But this is what I increasingly see among those who hate and revile religion. I wonder if he’d put up any fuss if I burned an only photo of his beloved grandmother. Maybe I could trash a first edition of Shakespeare, or something else he values.

As a former Catholic, I don’t hold the church in very high regard. But neither will I mock those objects believers hold as sacred. I guess the most insulting thing is that he somehow considers himself superior to Catholics. How? Why? The arrogance here is appalling.

If atheists want respect for their lack of belief (which I feel is deserved), then perhaps they should start respecting the beliefs of others.

The End of an Era, AKA “The Same Ol’ Sh-t”

I keep hearing how the GOP is dead come the fall elections, how the party is tired, out of ideas, on the defensive, reeling from Bush imcompetencies and quagmires.

But what it really boils down to is this: the Republicans haven't done anything for common people, just like the Democrats hadn't done anything for the common people, and the common people are sick of it and going to kick them out.

So what we’ll likely have come January is a Democratic Congress and White House. I predict pretty much the same results as the Republican Congress and White House. There’s no real difference between the two parties. The only thing that changes is how much worse the little guy gets screwed with each year that passes.

When are we going to get fed up and form a serious third party in this country?

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a…Superdelegate?

My mind, having been numbed like everybody elses, is still trying to figure out how the heck the Democrats nominate a president, I’ve come to one conclusion. The Republicans (no matter how much you like/dislike them) trust you. The Democrats don’t.

Why else would they have this bizarre, Byzantine method? I doubt Einstein could’ve made relativity more complicated. I do know that the supers carry special weight, which I interpret as ‘well, let’s not trust those voting idiots too much.’ What other explanation could there be?