Racial Issues and Radical Centrism What RC.org needs, at least seems to me is needed, is some kind of statement about racial issues / ethnic issues. There is a critique of Libertarianism by Kevin MacDonald that makes the point which is applicable to other political philosophies including RC, that whatever ideals anyone may believe in --maximum opportunity, freedom, justice, etc-- the fact is that many people, maybe most people, will continue to pursue identity politics and put their own group first. This is very easy to see in the case of African-Americans with their 90% voting record in favor of Democrats, although this time around it may decline to some place in the 80s. Jews are not as skewed, but typically have voted in the 70% range and this time may end up in the low 60s. Hispanics who are Catholic vote strongly Democratic but those who are Evangelical vote Republican. And so forth, with white Evangelicals more and more trending Republican. As for single white women, most , by large margins, vote Democratic. Where in all of this is "individualism" and any political philosophy that is based on abstract principle of right vs wrong ? Instead the deciding factor is "does this favor our interests ?" Right and wrong or philosophical principles have little to do with anything. Actually, I don't think that the situation is this dire, but it is very easy to see exactly this development all around us. Thomas Sowell's paper, following, is a very useful antidote to identity politics thinking. But it is only a start. Which is why we seem to need some kind of position about racial or ethnic --or gender-- issues. I mean, what use is a political philosophy that disregards the fact that large numbers, pluralities and maybe majorities, vote identity first and foremost ? How many black people are here ? Zero. How many women ? Zero. How many you-name-it ? Also zero. Except that we do have minority people and we are non-discriminatory. THAT is something to build upon, or it would be if somehow we had some kind of expressed principle that others could relate to and understand as important to them as black or ethnic or female. In other words it is not enough to privately assume that brotherhood / sisterhood are good things, we need to make this clear generally. Not in some high-handed way, but in some way that makes good sense to others and is something they feel they can rely on. Billy ============================================= Real Clear Politics April 24, 2012 Who Is 'Racist'? By _Thomas Sowell_ (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/?author=Thomas+Sowell&id=14502)
Whatever the ultimate outcome of the case against George Zimmerman for his shooting of Trayvon Martin, what has happened already is enough to turn the stomach of anyone who believes in either truth or justice. An amazing proportion of the media has given us a painful demonstration of the thinking -- and lack of thinking -- that prevailed back in the days of the old Jim Crow South, where complexion counted more than facts in determining how people were treated. One of the first things presented in the media was a transcript of a conversation between George Zimmerman and a police dispatcher. The last line in most of the transcripts shown on TV was that of the police dispatcher telling Zimmerman not to continue following Trayvon Martin. That became the basis of many media criticisms of Zimmerman for continuing to follow him. Only later did I see a transcript of that conversation on the Sean Hannity program that included Zimmerman's reply to the police dispatcher: "O.K." That reply removed the only basis for assuming that Zimmerman did in fact continue to follow Trayvon Martin. At this point, neither I nor the people who assumed that he continued to follow the teenager have any basis in fact for believing that he did or didn't. Why was that reply edited out by so many in the media? Because too many people in the media see their role as filtering and slanting the news to fit their own vision of the world. The issue is not one of being "fair" to "both sides" but, more fundamentally, of being honest with their audience. NBC News carried the editing even further, removing one of the police dispatcher's questions, to which Zimmerman was responding, in order to feed the vision of Zimmerman as a racist. In the same vein were the repeated references to Zimmerman as a "white Hispanic." Zimmerman is half-white. So is Barack Obama. But does anyone refer to Obama as a "white African"? All these verbal games grow out of the notion that complexion tells you who is to be blamed and who is not. It is a dangerous game because race is no game. If the tragic history of the old Jim Crow South in this country is not enough to show that, the history of racial and ethnic tragedies is written in blood in countries around the world. Millions have lost their lives because they looked different, talked differently or belonged to a different religion. In the midst of the Florida tragedy, there was a book published with the unwieldy title, "No Matter What ... They'll Call This Book Racist." Obviously it was written well before the shooting in Florida, but its message -- that there is rampant hypocrisy and irrationality in public discussions of race -- could not have been better timed. Author Harry Stein, a self-described "reformed white liberal," raised by parents who were even further left, exposes the illogic and outright fraudulence that lies behind so much of what is said about race in the media, in politics and in our educational institutions. He asks a very fundamental question: "Why, even after the Duke University rape fiasco, does the media continue to give credence to every charge of racism?" Harry Stein credits Shelby Steele's book "White Guilt" with opening his eyes to one of the sources of many counterproductive things said and done about race today -- namely, guilt about what was done to blacks and other minorities in the past. Let us talk sense, like adults. Nothing that is done to George Zimmerman -- justly or unjustly -- will unlynch a single black man who was tortured and killed in the Jim Crow South for a crime he didn't commit. Letting hoodlums get away with hoodlumism today does not undo a single injustice of the past. It is not even a favor to the hoodlums, for many of whom hoodlumism is just the first step on a path that leads to the penitentiary, and maybe to the execution chamber. Winston Churchill said, "If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." He wasn't talking about racial issues, but what he said applies especially where race is involved -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
