Debate: James Baldwin Vs. William F. Buckley On Race

1) It's wild to consider the hypocrisy involved, while watching Buckley lose this engagement, when conservatives call Obama arrogant for sticking his chin out.

2) This was 1965 - I was alive when this debate occurred - and Baldwin is mentioning "slavery" going on as he spoke.

Fecklessness

"They get lost in Scripture, property laws, cultures and customs and ignore fundamental truths."

There's no way to protect against the harm this causes:

And, in a general sense, it's been THE problem since slavery,...

I Am Sure There Is No God, But If There Is, He's A Racist

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever." 

 - Thomas Jefferson

Years after Thomas Jefferson’s famous words “all men are created equal” began to ring as a call to conscience, he himself must have felt every bit of their hollowness. Polish Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko bequeathed Jefferson enough money to free his slaves, as well as to set them off with land and farming equipment of their own, but Jefferson refused this gift.

...Haitian slaves liberated themselves by successfully defeating Napoleon. President Jefferson was the first to refuse to recognize their independence from France. As a result, over twenty years later, the French reminded the Haitians that they, themselves, constituted a debt. The Haitians did the only thing they could to retain their physical freedom and borrowed the equivalent of $150 million dollars (almost double the cost of Louisiana) from Wall Street to pay “reparations” to the French. Of course, this original predatory debt reaped enormous rewards and in the end they paid the equivalent of $20 billion dollars for their freedom – something that never should have been for sale. And all the way up until 1947, 80% of Haiti’s economy went to pay off this debt to National City Bank – known today as Citibank.

I Watch White People Living (And This Is Not A Real Life)

Young black men are forced to make other people feel comfortable around them, to make themselves appear less threatening.  Why is it a young black man’s responsibility to make others feel at ease? They sense the tension rising when they are laughing and goofing off with friends loudly.  They know that despite their best efforts, the culture of fear surrounding them is overpowering.

Unless Your Name Is "Sitting Bill" You've Got Nothing,…

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G.O.P. Flirting W/Mormonism Was No Fluke (But No Filter)

Ronald Reagan and the occultist

1 Mention Of Arrest Statistics & It's A Subtle Humiliation

Blacks can drink more than whites.

For A White Culture (It's Just Amazing How Dark It Gets)

The psychologist Melvin Lerner developed just world theory in the 1960s, arguing that we’re motivated to believe that the world is a fair place. The alternative—a universe where bad things happen to good people—is too upsetting.

So we engage defense mechanisms such as blaming the victim—“She shouldn’t have dressed that way”—or trusting that positive and negative events will be balanced out by karma, a form of magical thinking.

Kraus and Keltner found that the higher people perceived their social class to be, the more strongly they endorsed just-world beliefs, and that this difference explained their increased social class essentialism: Apparently if you feel that you’re doing well, you want to believe success comes to those who deserve it, and therefore those of lower status must not deserve it. (Incidentally, the argument that you “deserve” anything because of your genes is philosophically contentious; none of us did anything to earn our genes.)

Higher-class Americans may well believe life is fair because they’re motivated to defend their egos and lifestyle, but there’s an additional twist to their greater belief in a just world. Numerous researchers have found that upper-class people are more likely to explain other people’s behavior by appealing to internal traits and abilities, whereas lower-class individuals note circumstances and environmental forces. This matches reality in many ways for these respective groups. The rich do generally have the freedom to pursue their desires and strengths, while for the poor, external limitations often outnumber their opportunities. The poor realize they could have the best genes in the world and still end up working at McDonald’s. The wealthy might not merely be turning a blind eye to such realities; due to their personal experience, they might actually have a blind spot.

I Need Specifics: "We Shall Overcome, Suuuundaaaay!"

It's Louis C.K.'s most well-known bit, so few can deny it's out there:

“If you're not white, you're missing out because this shit is thoroughly good. I'm not saying white people are better, but I'm saying that being white is clearly better. Who could even argue?”

What's not out there, usually, are the results:

"What the fuck happens in America? What happens in America that my brother spends three years here and starts having nightmares too freighted to forget? What happens in America that my best friend who loved and consumed American culture all his life says, after spending two years in NYU, that white people are just better? What happens in America that makes him run for his life because he thinks someone is coming to kill him?"

Or why we get those results:

"I can tell you how America failed to love. I can tell you that America doesn’t love its inarticulate. Instead of asking my brother 'How can I help?' or 'What can I do?' teachers suggested lower level classes and punished with words and grades. College professors did the same. When he turned in essays much more articulate than his speech, they asked 'Who helped you?' and 'What did you plagiarize?'"

America's created a racist culture, born out of slavery and Jim Crow:

"Instead of thinking about why all their friends and girlfriends are white, white students ask 'Why do they only hang out with other black kids?' or 'Why do they only date other Asians?' They say minorities are being exclusive. And in the classrooms, rather than trying to understand and love, we learn to define and patronize other people and their experiences."

A culture - to the outsider - as obviously twisted as Nazi Germany's:

"America tries constantly to ignore the weak and break the strong."

No, seriously - I'm talking painfully obvious,...

The U.S. Speaks English & That's That (No Discussion)

TMR's Saturday Jam Session: Boys Playing (With Dolls)

Larry Wilmore's Tips For Republican Minority Outreach

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All still applicable, BTW,…

 

"Jesus Is White"? (Christianity Has Been Opportunistic)

Who's going to win this silly, on-going, centuries-long battle over nothing?

The Pagans - or the Christians who keep stealing from them for power?

And how long before believers admit both groups have been lying?