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We Have a Moral Divide, Not a Racial One
Townhall.com ^ | November 25, 2014 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 11/25/2014 1:48:08 PM PST by Kaslin

As we await protests and riots scheduled for Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere if a grand jury in Missouri does not indict the white officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, a black teenager, a little moral clarity is called for.

For decades now, we have been told that there is a black-white divide in America. The problem with this belief that is that it renders moral judgment -- of white police, of black crime and black incarceration rates, of white judges and jurors, and of black riots and protests - impossible.

It is, we are told over and over, all about "perceptions" -- a "black-white divide" in the way each race perceives racial matters. This is how it works:

Many blacks see racism almost everywhere -- especially in arrest, conviction and incarceration rates, and in white police interactions with blacks. On the other hand, whites (specifically, whites who are not on the left) think that white racism has largely been conquered, and therefore blacks' disproportionately high arrest and conviction rates are the result of black behavior, particularly the high out-of-wedlock birth rate that has deprived the great majority of black children of fathers, not white racism.

According to the "black-white divide" way of thinking, these are simply two conflicting perceptions.

It is difficult to overstate how damaging this is.

It denies the very existence of the two pillars of civilization -- objective truth and moral truth.

For every black and every white unwilling to condemn the protests over Michael Brown's killing that took place before any relevant facts came out -- their half-hearted condemnation of the riots notwithstanding -- truth doesn't matter. The protests, riots and liberal condemnations of the white officer began when no one knew anything about the killing.

There is, then, some validity to this notion of blacks and whites having different perceptions. But when the truth is knowable, one of the "perceptions" has to be wrong. Two distinct ethnic or cultural groups may have different perceptions of musical beauty or of what foods they like. But this is not the case regarding truth, which is based on facts. In Ferguson, either the black (and left-wing whites') "perception" is not truth-based or the (non-Left) white (and black) "perception" isn't.

Once the facts comes out, we are no longer speaking of "perceptions." We are speaking of truth and falsehood.

The other victim of this "black-white divide" explanation is moral truth.

If the truth here accords with what the police officer said, he did not commit an immoral act when he shot Michael Brown. On the other hand, if he shot the young man for no good reason, he committed an immoral act.

But according to the it's-all-a-matter-of-perceptions view, there is no moral truth, only black perceptions and white perceptions.

This all accords with the left's views of truth and morality. Neither exists. Visit any university to confirm this.

The left is philosophically deconstructionist. Shakespeare doesn't say what he wrote, Shakespeare says what the reader perceives. The notion of "original intent" as applied to the Constitution is, to the left, farcical. We cannot know the original intent. It's all a matter of individual perception -- or, more precisely, the perception of different socioeconomic classes, different genders and different races.

And, of course, for the left there is no moral truth. Morality is entirely subjective. "Good" and "evil" are individual or societal preferences. No more, no less.

Like truth, morality is just a perception, one determined by an individual's race, gender, and/or class. That is why, for the left, no man can judge any abortion, no matter how late in pregnancy and no matter the reason -- because men do not possess a uterus.

So who are you, white man, to condemn black protests? You have your perceptions and they have theirs. What you have to do is what the Los Angeles Times did during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, during which 53 people died as a result of black rioting -- including 41 by shooting, four in fires, three by beating and two in stabbings. The Times titled its special section each day of the riots "Understanding the Riots."

So, if there are riots following the Ferguson's Grand Jury decision, we'll know how to behave: no judgment, just understanding. After all, there is no truth; there are only perceptions.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: ferguson; missouri
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1 posted on 11/25/2014 1:48:08 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Thank-you for hitting it right on the nail!


2 posted on 11/25/2014 1:51:36 PM PST by Biggirl (2014 MIdterms Were BOTH A Giant Wave And Restraining Order)
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To: Kaslin
Gotta love this mentality...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuMCaubJ3tY#t=24

They wrong!!! Can't get her baby back...if she wanted her baby she should have done a better job raising him to be a gentleman...not a thug...that shouts, "Burn this bitch down!"

3 posted on 11/25/2014 1:54:46 PM PST by BCW (ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM)
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To: Kaslin

If they matter, then why don’t you start yelling about the same-race murders in Chicago and Detroit? Eh? Is it because this isn’t really about same-race murders, but about ginning up more White Guilt? admit it!


4 posted on 11/25/2014 1:55:20 PM PST by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: Kaslin

Spot on analysis!


5 posted on 11/25/2014 1:59:33 PM PST by jonrick46 (The opium of Communists: other people's money.)
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To: Kaslin

So do Caucasian lives.
So do Indian lives.
Problem is, Michael Brown didn't agree about the latter two. The Indian storeowner was merely to be robbed when he had what MB wanted, and the Caucasian cop was merely to be beaten when getting in MB's way.

6 posted on 11/25/2014 2:10:21 PM PST by ctdonath2 (You know what, just do it.)
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To: Kaslin

BANG! You nailed that one in the dead center of the 10 ring!!!


7 posted on 11/25/2014 2:13:03 PM PST by piytar (No government has ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason.)
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To: Kaslin

Yeah, and I’d refine it a little: we have a moral divide in this country between normal people and bullsh!t artists who make money and get their jollies through other people’s hatred and misery. Quite a few have made fortunes, or political careers, or both, out of it. One is sitting in the Oval Office.


8 posted on 11/25/2014 2:15:38 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Kaslin
For every black and every white unwilling to condemn the protests over Michael Brown's killing that took place before any relevant facts came out -- their half-hearted condemnation of the riots notwithstanding -- truth doesn't matter. The protests, riots and liberal condemnations of the white officer began when no one knew anything about the killing. There is, then, some validity to this notion of blacks and whites having different perceptions. But when the truth is knowable, one of the "perceptions" has to be wrong. Two distinct ethnic or cultural groups may have different perceptions of musical beauty or of what foods they like. But this is not the case regarding truth, which is based on facts. In Ferguson, either the black (and left-wing whites') "perception" is not truth-based or the (non-Left) white (and black) "perception" isn't. Once the facts comes out, we are no longer speaking of "perceptions." We are speaking of truth and falsehood.

PFL

9 posted on 11/25/2014 2:16:35 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: Kaslin

Young black men: 3% of the population. 50% of the murder.

What Democrat thugs want is non-stop racial show trials of the extremely rare white-on-black killing, couched as “murder”.

To distract from the above statistic. You are not allowed to discuss or even know the above statistic.


10 posted on 11/25/2014 2:17:04 PM PST by stinkerpot65 (Global warming is a Marxist lie.)
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To: Kaslin

...”Once the facts comes out, we are no longer speaking of “perceptions.” We are speaking of truth and falsehood.”...

Might be better said once the facts/evidence come out it’s all about shaping and “presenting” falsehood into something ‘almost true” thus creating a zone of doubt.


11 posted on 11/25/2014 2:22:04 PM PST by caww
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To: BCW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuMCaubJ3tY#t=24";

“Sign in to confirm your age”

So what the video about?


12 posted on 11/25/2014 2:31:27 PM PST by Slambat
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To: Kaslin

Bingo!


13 posted on 11/25/2014 2:35:31 PM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: Kaslin

My take on Ferguson: Anyone who does not listen to and do what a police officer tells them to do should not be surprised if they end up dead. “Get out of the street and walk on the sidewalk.” “Sure, officer.” That would have been the end of it.

I’m sick of Sharpton, Holder, The One, and their racist ilk. Time for a curfew at dusk in Ferguson. The outside agitators will have to leave or be arrested. All looters will be shot on sight.

The family of the punk that was justifiably killed look like opportunists and are only interested now in the fame and money his death brings them. Perhaps better parenting would have saved their son?

The National Guard did a poor job last night. The rioters should have been rounded up and put behind a chain link fence til they could be sorted out. That poor cop and his new bride will never see a night’s peace again. All he did was his job.

Those who don’t like the results of the grand jury must simply live with how our laws work. These people have been taught they can do what they want when they don’t like how things go.

Every police department in this country ought to purchase the Israeli poop gas which will make a crowd go to the nearest shower as fast as they are able. Peaceful demonstration or we will make you smell very bad for many days.


14 posted on 11/25/2014 2:40:27 PM PST by Frangibled (Paranoia - Surest sign of sanity between 2014 and 2016...........)
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To: Kaslin

We have a racial divide too, don’t give yourself Dennis

And getting larger People are waking up and no longer denying it, as you just have


15 posted on 11/25/2014 2:43:03 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat (Get ready St. Louis . . . Guns Up . . .LnL . . .STK)
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To: Slambat

Michael Brown’s mother and father inciting the crowd to “burn this bitch down.”


16 posted on 11/25/2014 2:50:35 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: Kaslin

One of his better pieces!


17 posted on 11/25/2014 2:50:36 PM PST by MNDude
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To: Kaslin

These protests are just designed to keep us busy blaming each other instead of noticing that our country is being overrun by invaders.


18 posted on 11/25/2014 2:51:09 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Kaslin
Since 93% of black murders are committed by blacks, this sign needs to be turned around and directed the other way.

But in reality, this protestor really means that only blacks may take black lives.

19 posted on 11/25/2014 4:07:24 PM PST by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: UCANSEE2

+1


20 posted on 11/25/2014 4:48:18 PM PST by Bigg Red (Congress, do your duty and repo his pen and his phone.)
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