You are absolutely right. This is serious and some (not all, or even many) of the comments on this thread are not helping.
This thread is going to be watched by people far outside Free Republic and it is going to do damage if the racist allegations are not dealt with.
I've lived in the inner city in college and graduate school, and was attending a church that successfully made the transition from being predominantly white to predominantly black in a rapidly changing neighborhood. I'm not stupid, I took precautions then, and I would take precautions today. The same should be done by Hispanics going into predominantly black neighborhoods, or blacks going into Vietnamese neighborhoods, or minorities of any race going into many white neighborhoods. It's the same thing I do when I'm in Korea -- I will be "profiled" if I don't dress and act like an American businessman, because Americans unfortunately have earned a reputation for sexual immorality and bad behavior around Asian women. (American businessmen have their own problems in that area, but at least they're viewed as paying customers.)
My problem is with people who say considerably more than that, blaming the entire race rather than realizing some individuals of all races are really, really bad.
Virtually all people on Free Republic are people who oppose liberalism for a wide variety of reasons. That's good. A very small percentage of FReepers apparently hold some opinions which don't reflect the management's statement, posted here: “Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.”
184 posted on Sun Apr 08 2012 07:56:47 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Travis McGee: “Nice tap dance and subject evasion. Care to actually answer the question? This question opposes objective truth to a PC “third rail of doom.” It's rather important to answer it, and not just evade it. But if you must evade it, you are telling us that your PC fear of the third rail is greater than your desire to seek the truth anywhere it lies.”
It is not a tap dance to say that Jim Robinson gets to define what is and is not allowed on his own website. The rule is this: “Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.”
He gets to define that. I may have some pretty strong opinions about what constitutes racism, but it's his call, not mine.
@ chessplayer re. post 249: I make no claims to be an expert on Derbyshire. That's not the point of my concern; my concern is Free Republic is being accused of being racist when that describes, at most, a tiny minority of Freepers. But the links you and others post to Derbyshire’s views with headlines such as “I am a racist” are disturbing, to say the least.
185 posted on Sun Apr 08 2012 07:59:15 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Travis McGee: “Exactly correct. There is no way a conservative can please a liberal unless he jumps in front of a bus or off of a cliff. It's a fool's errand to try to gain the favor or those who want you dead.”
Often true, but not always. I think there may be quite a few people on Free Republic who are former liberals. Even the head of the Minutemen went out at CPAC to have a meeting with the Occupy people to see if they could have a useful discussion, and it seems to have been of some benefit.
The real point, however, is that the Atlantic has accused Free Republic of being racist, and cited a photoshopped picture of Barack Obama decked out with a bone in his nose. Can we agree that's not exactly helpful to the conservative cause?
Our goal is to win elections, and that requires getting middle-of-the-road people to vote for conservative candidates.
206 posted on Sun Apr 08 2012 11:21:33 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by Pelham (Marco Rubio, la raza trojan horse.): “Congratulations! You’ve earned your Politically Correct Merit Badge.”
Great. Now you're going to blame Marco Rubio as a “La Raza Trojan Horse.” I've got my problems with Rubio, chief of them being his support for Mitt Romney, but I'll happily encourage anti-Communist Cubans and I think people who have suffered persecution of their families under Communism make very good allies.
As for being politically correct, I'm a right-wing conservative in my politics and an evangelical Christian in my faith, and if it weren't for the fact that I'm a Calvinist, I'd happily use the word “fundamentalist” to describe myself. My Korean niece who lives with us attends an independent fundamental Baptist school in which her classmates include Asians, Hispanics and blacks, and in which the only “discrimination” against her is that she's not a Baptist, and that's entirely legitimate coming from a private church-run Baptist school.
We need more conservative Christians who think that way, and who base their beliefs on doctrine, not race.
I've gone down this road with racist bigots in my own conservative Christian circles who cite totally irrelevant verses of Scripture to argue against interracial marriage. That's nonsense; the point is barring marriage between believers and unbelievers. Racism is just as nonsensical from secular conservatives as religious conservatives.
235 posted on Sun Apr 08 2012 17:58:52 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by sargon: “Rather than falling into the trap of governing our behavior towards others based on racial generalizations, I believe it will always be better to judge people individually, by the content of their character.”
203 posted on Sun Apr 08 2012 10:43:59 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time) by CharlesWayneCT: “It was a mis-use of statistics to suggest a larger problem than really exists, in order to justify a wholesale treatment of a race of people differently because of the actions of a few.”
I believe Sargon and CharlesWayneCT are absolutely right here.
Some black people are fine. Some black people aren't. Same can be said for whites, Asians, Hispanics, or any other ethnic group. Deal with people as individuals and most of the problems go away.
In closing, for those who are making racist comments but happen to have Italian, Irish, or southern European heritage, we'd better tread very carefully here. Some pretty horrible things were said a hundred years ago about the propensity toward crime of “wops” and “dagos” like my Italian ancestors. Efforts were made to bar immigration from Italy because its people were supposedly racially inferior. The Chinese Exclusion Act was successfully passed to almost totally forbid immigration from Asia, despite Asians today having a stereotype of being high achievers.
Margaret Sanger and the eugenically-inclined founders of Planned Parenthood had more targets in mind than just black people. To the tiny minority of conservatives who care about race-based politics: be careful about getting on a race-based bandwagon. It will take you places you do not want to go.
@ chessplayer re. post 249: I make no claims to be an expert on Derbyshire. That’s not the point of my concern; my concern is Free Republic is being accused of being racist when that describes, at most, a tiny minority of Freepers. But the links you and others post to Derbyshire’s views with headlines such as “I am a racist” are disturbing, to say the least.
Okay, two tap dances in a row, I’ll take that as “I’m afraid to violate PC taboos.”