The Plantation Theory: Time to retire a dumb Cornel West idea and the rhetoric that goes with it.

National Review ^ | 07/24/2013 | Kevin D. Williamson

[SeekAndFind]

SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

[VRW Conspirator]

Yeah, what you said.

[freerepublicchat]

The plantation analogy is very appropriate.

The plantation analogy is completely backward.

Who is doing the work on the plantation while others are taken care of with food, shelter, Obamaphones?

[cripplecreek]

Slaves were fed and clothed as well.

Slavery is a perfect analogy made even more perfect with the deliberate denial of education that kept them on the plantations of the past. Meanwhile their masters in DC live in the big houses.

[USS Johnston]

Professor West gets a pass, of course, but blonde ladies and golf-tanned Caucasian gentlemen on Fox News probably should not be engaging in loose talk about plantations...because it leads to erroneous thinking.

The author -- reeking of hubris and false degree of moral superiority -- THINKS he's nailed it, but hasn't come close.

Kevin D. Williamson doesn't deserve any credence or relevance in this pointless essay on the concept of "Plantation" -- especially when he flippantly dismisses the opinions of "blonde ladies and golf-tanned Caucasian gentlemen on Fox News" as though FOX News is in his mind its own "plantation."

Though I'm going to assume Mr. Williams is as fruity as Carmen Miranda's head-wrap (and part of the "Gay Plantation"), he is still entitled to his arrogant opinion.

That said, the rest of us will continue to discuss the whos, whats, and whys of the black plantation dynamic, and NOT be shut down by this subversive hack.

[USS Johnston]

I'm sorry, but I think the writer of this article is seeking to make a point that is considerably less rational than he seems to believe. He is unrealistically fastidious in trying to police the perfectly legitimate use of analogy in argument. And in that makes some distinctions that really are misleading.

I agree.

But not only that, this intellectual snob (Kevin Williams) appears to be anointing himself "Keeper of All TRUTH" as he guns down the right of others (especially "FOX NEWS" and its "blond/tanned" analysts) to define the wherewithal of "Plantation."

[Ohioan]

But not only that, this intellectual snob (Kevin Williams) appears to be anointing himself "Keeper of All TRUTH"

What you describe is a common vice among some of those who have written for National Review through the years. They have some intelligent writers, but also some who suffer from an arrogant overestimation of their perception, analytic abilities, etc..

I am not really familiar with this individual, but I stopped to comment, because of what I perceive as obvious fallacies. Taking an arrogant disdain for those he criticizes, does not strengthen his argument--quite the opposite.

Cheers!

William Flax

[neverdem]

"That is one of the reasons that affluent black households often end up less wealthy than white households with identical incomes and education levels. Women exhibit similarly risk-averse investing behavior with the same result."

I don't think it's cultural at all. Racial and gender quotas have resulted in a system where people are promoted way above their abilities - a system with a supercharged Peter Principle.

IMHO, I think it's both, from Archie Bunker stereotypes in the popular media to de facto reverse discrimination against white males in general, and more recently, reverse discrimination against the admissions of East Asians at elite colleges and universities.

[SunkenCiv]

Part of the National Review’s diversity outreach plan.

Thanks SeekAndFind.

[Cyber Liberty]

One would think, for a professional head-shot portrait, someone would straighten the glasses?