Too bad Barry wasn't there for a threesome.
Posted on 07/24/2013 12:09:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Next week I will participate in a racial discrimination hearing against a Manhattan night club that frisked and searched me when I attended on a "Black night" but does not search patrons on mostly white nights.
Last week, I was accused of stealing an iPhone by a white woman in Miami who came up to me and asked if she could search my pockets to find it. It was not a joke or a pickup line.
And just last month, I had to pull out my own iPhone to photograph and report the license plate and medallion number of a taxicab driver in New York's Union Square who refused to pick me up and then drove across the street to pick up a white customer seconds later.
For many African-Americans, I suspect these stories aren't entirely surprising. As President Obama said last week, racism is a daily part of our lives. Like air and water, it's part of the environment in which we live. Yet far too many white Americans still live in denial about its persistence.
That's the conclusion to be drawn not just from anecdotal experience but from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Wednesday that showed a vast disparity between white and Black perceptions on race relations. The poll, conducted after George Zimmerman was acquitted for shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, found that 52 percent of whites think race relations are "good" in America while 58 percent of Blacks describe race relations as "bad."
The new poll numbers follow similar results from a Washington Post-ABC News poll two days earlier. In that poll, 86 percent of Blacks disapproved of the Zimmerman verdict while only 31 percent of whites felt that way. Even more disappointing is that 86 percent of African-Americans say Blacks and other minorities do not get equal treatment under the law, while only 41 percent of whites think that's true.
So what explains the disconnect?
Years ago, I heard a law professor explain what I call the "magnet analogy." Remember those big red and silver horseshoe magnets from high school? Now imagine you had to walk around the world with a huge horseshoe magnet on your neck. Aside from the heavy burden of carrying the extra weight, you'd quickly see the world a lot differently from those without the magnet.
The first thing you'd notice – there's a lot of metal in the world. Keys, coins, cell phones, even appliances would suddenly get a lot more of your attention. Why? Because the magnet attracts them. But those without the magnet would continue to remain oblivious to the metal assault on your body.
That's the experience for African-Americans every day. We're surrounding and inundated by the metal of racism while those who do not carry the magnet of Blackness remain oblivious to our experience. To them, racism is a thing of the past.
The problem is we need to recognize how new and subtle forms of race bias have replaced the old overt acts of racial discrimination. Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion explains how brain science has identified subconscious racial bias taking place in "nanoseconds" at subliminal levels. "There's something that police officers and college students and George Zimmerman all have in common," she told MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry recently. "And that is that they're more likely to shoot a black man with a wallet than they are to shoot a white man with a gun." They call it "shooter bias."
Unfortunately, our laws and our public discourse haven't kept up with the changes in racism. Many whites are still stuck in the 1960s image of overt bigotry, of Klansmen burning crosses and segregationist governors blocking schoolhouse doors. They may know a parent or a grandparent who still uses the N-word, but as long as they refrain from using it themselves then they can't possibly be racist, they think.
But Paula Deen aside, modern racism isn't really about the N-word. New code words like Detroit, Chicago, "Stand Your Ground," voter ID, food stamps and welfare now carry the same impact with dog whistle messages too subtle to be reported by many in the media. This seemingly race-neutral language allows the majority to engage in public discourse under the mantle of innocence and thus dismiss the vestiges and effects of hundreds of years of legally sanctioned white supremacy. The only racists in this vision are the people who complain about racism.
That's why the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act last month and argued it had outlived its utility. And that's why George Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara last week told Fox News's Sean Hannity that his client, a known killer with a long arrest record, was just a "meek, mild guy without a racist bone in his body."
If you kill an unarmed Black boy or fan the flames of white resentment on talk radio, you're a "patriot." But if you help the family of the young Black boy who was killed, you're a "race hustler." To be white in America allows you the freedom to remain oblivious to these distinctions.
Yes, this dialogue must be a two-way conversation. But until white Americans examine their own racial privilege and open their eyes to the experience of Black Americans, they'll never notice the magnet we carry every day.
*******
Keith Boykin is a New York Times best-selling author and former White House aide to President Clinton. He attended Harvard Law School with President Barack Obama and currently serves as a TV political commentator. He writes political commentary for BET.com each week.
What always gets me is how many blacks treat Asians. Okay, now, here is a group that has done nothing to them, as far as I know. Nothing. But day-amn, the racism... whoo.
“White Men Can’t Jump’’. “Black Men Can’t Read’’.
“The friends I have that were born in Africa, cannot stand the “African-Americans”, they think they’re lazy and ungrateful.”
I fully understand. Other than skin color being similar, no other similarities between the two groups at all.
and of the interracial rapes, some 14,000 black perp on white victim, while NO white on black victim could even be documented... Additionally, The real state is more that 50% (more like 60%) of all murders AND violent crime comes from 3% of the population. That stat comes from the group of black males under 30. If you cut that to BM between 15-30 the number of murders does not appreciably change, meaning that more that 50% of all murders and violent crime are perpetrated by about 1.5% of the population.
For many people, particularly blacks, racism is a business. And until this fact is acknowledged, nothing will ever change.
Maybe the taxi driver didn’t like gays: http://gaylife.about.com/od/index/ig/Famous-Gay-Celebrity-Couples/Keith-Boykin-and-Nathan.htm
I’m sure that if people on this board ran into Thomas Sowell or Clarence Thomas they wouldn’t be locking car doors or clutching handbags.
They *might* follow them in the grocery store but only for the purpose of engaging them in conversation.
Too bad Barry wasn't there for a threesome.
Oh, we see it.
There is a lot of racism today.
Most of it comes from blacks in power afraid of losing their grip on the moocher class:
From people like Holder, Jarrett, Obama, Sharpton, Jackson, Farrakhan, Congressman Elijah Cummings, etc., etc.
And from organizations like the NAACP,the Congressional Black caucus, The New Black Panthers,.
Someone hung a magnet around my neck when I was born. It attracts false charges of racist intentions and attitudes to me no matter what I do. I moved my backpack off a wall so that someone climbing from below would not reach up and roll it off the wall and fall backward onto the rocks below. For this crime, my magnet attracted the accusation of racism.
I walked into a public waiting area and sat among the women and children instead of going back to ‘hang out’ with an unhappy group of men I didn’t know. For this my magnet attracted extreme charges of racism and the group in the back of the room talked loudly of my bigotry and were agitating to beat me so that the women around me, who were not white and did not have this magnet around their necks, pulled their children to “safety” and moved away from me. The only way I escaped a thorough beating was that the staff called my name NEXT which I thought would get me a beating for preferential treatment.....
I was accosted by a massively muscled enraged man who blocked me on the sidewalk, drew his clench fist back as if to punch me and glowered at me in such rage that I hung my head frozen in fear, waiting for a beating. My magnet is strong -the fact that I was white walking down a sidewalk meant I should be beaten unless I visibly cowered in his presence.
My magnet attracted false charges of racism when I didn’t want to vote for an unqualified, inexperienced presidential candidate who said he believed in the redistribution in wealth.
No matter what I do or say, I can ALWAYS be accused of having racist intentions because I have white skin. It isn’t enough that I worship a God who created it us equal and that I love my friends and relatives the same regardless of whatever their skin color is. I’ll always have a magnet around my neck as long as I am white. Ironically, many of those who voted for Obama have the same magnet and the fact that they voted for him does nothing to diminish it.
Actually even if I were Hispanic it’d still be there. I would have it if I were mixed race because Obama’s mixed race means he’s not a bigot (African American) and if I were mixed race it would mean I am a bigot (White).
People of any color are going to recognize, or at least try to recognize, the obvious sub-human scumbags of any color, just because such awareness is necessary to stay alive and unharmed.
When sub-human scumbags quit being sub-human scumbags, it's really difficult to differentiate them from regular humans.
All that is required to pretend to be human is for these cretins to start living and thinking like humans; quit committing crimes; dress like humans; walk like humans; learn to read, write, and speak like humans; get jobs and pay your bills like humans; mind your own business like humans; keep your hands off other people and their property; etc., etc.
It has nothing to do with color. Lots of white, yellow, green, red, blue, purple, and pink sub-human scumbags get the same treatment, and rightfully so.
I just don’t care anymore”
That’s pretty apt.
There was a time when I was deeply offended by real racism. But I’ve been hectored and bullied for so long now about phony racism and I’ve had to watch as the country commits socialistic suicide just to demonstrate that it’s not racist that...you know what? I really don’t care anymore.
Let them go about their business.
But I am not going to do anything to help them, nor will I be offended anymore at any actual racism that I see. I don’t care anymore. Blacks turned out in droves to put obama into office, so I can only assume that they hate America as much as he does. Which means I really have nothing to say anymore to them, nor any energy to expend to try to help them with their many problems. I’m not the slightest bit racist. Never have been. But now I’m indifferent to their plight. And that was not always the case.
I'd rather be "racist" than a statistic.
What blacks and government see as racism is not racism at all.
Translation: Racism is defined however we say it is, and for the purpose of enriching race baiters at the expense of honest people.
And this has NOTHING to do with the fact that black youth are somethign like 27 times more likely to be committing crimes
HALF the black population has been to jail. And those are just the ones who HAVE BEEN CAUGHT
If that's what the "new Racism" is, then this guy has absolutely no point and Racism isn't a problem in America.
It’s truly bizarre. They vote as an almost monolithic block, straight Dem ticket down the ballot, and black trumps white every time (which is why we don’t have President Hillary), and then they say we don’t see them as individuals. Well, unless they break away from that.... they AREN’T individuals. They are a Grievance Group, stuck together like a coral reef.
The fact is, I respect a black person who not only had to overcome what racism there is from whites, but also had to overcome growing up surrounded by an inferior subculture that does not tolerate those who deviate from it, and rise above it. You can bet they have gotten much more grief from blacks than from whites.
“And most blacks would see it exactly the same way.”
I would hope so.
Years ago, I spent a few nights pulling 12 hours sifts monitoring radios in a Humvee. I had a black SSgt who worked with me. Since the 12 hour shifts had no more than 5 minutes of useful work, we spent a lot of time talking.
He grew up in East St Louis. He said I was very naive about race (this would have been in the early 90s). He said his oldest brother was out of prison after killing a white man, mostly for being white. “If you went with me to his house, the ONLY thing that would keep you alive would be his concern about getting caught.” Several other of his brothers had beaten white guys...for being white.
He joined the military because he figured he would end up in prison if he stayed. He said it opened up a new world for him, where he could be nice to others and they would be nice to him. “I like just about everyone I meet, and they like me. I’m happy. I smile & they smile. I love this life!”
He went home one time on leave. He said he spent 2 days there, then cut it short and left for fear of getting into big trouble. He never went back. He said I needed to understand that just because I was nice to someone, it didn’t mean they would be nice back. He was a hard worker, good at his job, and a very nice guy. I’ve often thought about what he told me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.