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Op-Ed: Thomas Chatterton Williams: My black privilege
Los Angeles Times ^ | January 3, 2016 | Thomas Chatterton Williams

Posted on 01/03/2016 1:07:31 PM PST by EveningStar

A couple of years ago, I participated in an Aspen Institute symposium on the state of race. During the roundtable that followed the panels, as I spoke about my experiences growing up black in the 1990s, I was interrupted by a Latino sociologist and former gang member from UC Santa Barbara. People who care about people of color, the professor instructed me, ought to focus their energies on continued systemic racism and forget about anything so nebulous and untrustworthy as observation. Like it or not, I was the victim of greater social forces. It did not matter that I had come to see my life as something of my own making -- the evidence of my senses was useless...

While prejudice and inequality have proven tenacious, if we take the expression "black lives matter" seriously, we must also accept when black autonomy, equality and even privilege exist. To do otherwise is like overprescribing antibiotics: a valuable defensive tool grows impotent through overuse. Our reflexive indignation fosters a laziness of thought that, paradoxically, can reinforce some of the very anti-black biases it hopes to wipe out.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: afroturf; astroturf; bellkkkurve; blackkk; blackliesmatter; blacklivesmatter; blackprivilege; california; oped; racism; redistribution; reparations; whiteprivilege
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To: EveningStar

My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing.— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 24, 2014


21 posted on 01/03/2016 2:35:50 PM PST by Flick Lives (One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. -- Heinlein)
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To: TexasFreeper2009
If you are an ugly fat and black... you blame the difference in treatment on racism.

I once had an argument with my father, a roaring liberal till the day he died, about problems in the black community. When I said not everything can be blamed on race, he said grimly, "You're starting to sound like a Republican."

By then I had, in fact, switched to the Republican party. And this might have been part of the reason. Republicans seem more in reality -- or rather, aware of the facts of life. Some of us -- in fact, a LOT of us -- are smarter than others. Pretty girls, rather than ugly, tend to get the guys. Liberals keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I cannot use my gender (female), looks (average), or childhood (difficult) to blame for my mediocrity. Which is what I think many of these BLM people are doing. The black girl who feels out of place at the private school probably has other issues, but why is it the fault of the white students? She might be better off in a different learning environment.

22 posted on 01/03/2016 2:35:57 PM PST by MoochPooch (I'm a compassionate cynic.)
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To: kearnyirish2

I had one insist that Obama had “solved the debt.” Like, he believed the nation was no longer in debt, because of Obama. We were at work and he was actually my boss, so I had neither the time nor wherewithal to sit down with him and say, “.... What????”


23 posted on 01/03/2016 2:43:13 PM PST by A_perfect_lady (Welfare: It's a Safety Net, Not a Hammock.)
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To: A_perfect_lady

Hopeless, isn’t it? Then again, in NYC they believed white people came in at night and dumped garbage/litter in their neighborhoods...


24 posted on 01/03/2016 2:44:47 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: driftless2
I agree X10,000.

We fought a war between the states to end slavery, we forcibly put an end to slavery and Jim Crow laws nearly seven decades ago, and even forced bused thousands of children, both black and white, to schools dozens of miles from their homes, all in the name of racial diversity.

It call came to bupkiss. Thank you Mr. Sotero.

25 posted on 01/03/2016 2:45:42 PM PST by Company Man (Tweet of the year: "My favorite part about the Obama era has been all the racial healing")
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To: kearnyirish2

Also, the moon landing was faked, and HIV/AIDS was created in a lab in Houston Texas to kill them.


26 posted on 01/03/2016 2:47:29 PM PST by A_perfect_lady (Welfare: It's a Safety Net, Not a Hammock.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution. It’s not about racism. At all. Racism is just a tool to get them to where they want the world to be.”

Exactly. The left has many tools they use to tear down Western Civilization in general and America in particular. Multiculturalism, racial division, environmentalism, feminism, etc. All the fuss they make over these issues is a false front. As you have stated the real issue is revolution.


27 posted on 01/03/2016 2:47:57 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (It's the apocalypse, lets have some fun!)
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To: driftless2
Sorry, meant to say we put an end to segregation and Jim Crow nearly seven decades ago. It all came to nought.
28 posted on 01/03/2016 2:49:08 PM PST by Company Man (Tweet of the year: "My favorite part about the Obama era has been all the racial healing")
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To: MoochPooch

Liberals often shake their heads at Conservatives and deplore our inability to grasp their “nuanced” arguments.

But what their argument usually comes down to is: racism.


29 posted on 01/03/2016 2:49:44 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (I don't know what Claire Wolfe is thinking but I know what I am thinking.)
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To: A_perfect_lady

You’re right! Don’t forget those divers down in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina...


30 posted on 01/03/2016 2:50:06 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Liberals often shake their heads at Conservatives and deplore our inability to grasp their “nuanced” arguments. But what their argument usually comes down to is: racism.

Or sexism, or "abelism," etc.

Can anyone really argue with a liberal? My experience -- he (often she) will either get hysterical and make ad hominem attacks or literally run out of the room (as had happened to me). Once someone Facebooked me: "I'm not going to argue with a religious fundamentalist!" Even though the issue (& my comment) had nothing to do with religion.

31 posted on 01/03/2016 2:57:18 PM PST by MoochPooch (I'm a compassionate cynic.)
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To: EveningStar
...and forget about anything so nebulous and untrustworthy as observation.

so that's why no one can find the racism the BLM people protest about.

32 posted on 01/03/2016 2:59:40 PM PST by School of Rational Thought
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To: Company Man
Sorry, meant to say we put an end to segregation and Jim Crow nearly seven decades ago. It all came to nought.

Getting rid of segregation was not a bad thing. Creating NEW forms of segregation and discrimination supposedly benefiting blacks and other minorities was wrong.

The (deliberate) failure to hold black people to the standards of other Americans has resulted in a group of Americans who think they're above the law. We've got to stop that.

33 posted on 01/03/2016 3:21:12 PM PST by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
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To: aquila48
The issue is the “Bell Curve” and all its ramifications, which can be seen all over the world.

The truth that shall remain unspoken...

There is a simple and factual explanation for of the plight of blacks in America and around the world.

We will continue to spend trillions on welfare, prisons, head-start, affirmative action, low income housing and midnight basketball. But nothing will work because we won't acknowledge the real cause.

The issue is ugly and real.

34 posted on 01/03/2016 3:38:24 PM PST by Senator_Blutarski
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To: ClearCase_guy
The issue is never the issue.
The issue is always the revolution.

It's not about racism. At all.
Racism is just a tool to get them to where they want the world to be.

Just read Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party by Dinish D‘Souza.

D'Souza makes the case that what he learned in his discussions with fellow felons during his incarceration is how well leftist propaganda fits the model of a confidence swindle. He now dismisses the idea of arguing with a leftist to try to convert him. The leftist “argument” is not truly an intellectual argument but a swindle.


35 posted on 01/03/2016 3:48:57 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: driftless2

Bingo!
Is it wrong to be disappointed of anyone who was given such great gifts of opportunity only to flush them down the crapper?
The worst thing that could happen to the Black Community is for those outside to become apathetic because they never cease with demands.


36 posted on 01/03/2016 3:58:02 PM PST by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
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To: driftless2
The (deliberate) failure to hold black people to the standards of other Americans has resulted in a group of Americans who think they're above the law. We've got to stop that.

I couldn't agree more.

37 posted on 01/03/2016 4:03:25 PM PST by Company Man (Tweet of the year: "My favorite part about the Obama era has been all the racial healing")
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
The leftist "argument" is not truly an intellectual argument but a swindle.

I absolutely agree with that.

Unfortunately, some of the swindlers don't know it, and they think that they do have an intellectual argument. They are annoying, especially because they are relentlessly trying to be "correct" when I know that the real goal is just to rip me off. Correctness has nothing to do with it, whether they realize that or not.

38 posted on 01/03/2016 4:55:10 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (I don't know what Claire Wolfe is thinking but I know what I am thinking.)
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To: Tarasaramozart

It’s always scary being around unsocialized people.They tend to be violent and unpredictable.


39 posted on 01/03/2016 4:58:07 PM PST by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: ClearCase_guy; metmom
D'Souza contemplates starting a "Free Market University" online. Real Soon Now.

I checked for any online trace, and found only a linkless homepage at www.freemarketuniversity.com, just a placeholder with a name.


40 posted on 01/03/2016 5:47:28 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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