“One of the consequences of such notions as 'entitlements' is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.” -- Thomas Sowell
Rather than insulting young people, conservatives should be making arguments that convince young people to vote Republican. The existence of College Republicans on campuses across America is demonstrative of the fact that it is possible for people to be both young and conservative. This kind of rhetoric from Jonah Goldberg does absolutely nothing to make the Republican Party a more attractive place for young people. It’s hilarious how conservative Republicans make such reckless arguments and comments that clearly alienate groups of people, then they become incensed when these groups vote Democratic in large numbers. (NEWSFLASH: You’re the cause!)
The Republican Party really needs help with messaging. Prominent conservative Republicans need to quit sabotaging the efforts of those of us who are trying to spread conservatism beyond its traditional audience. I understand that Mr. Goldberg is being provocative in order to sell books, but he needs to find other, less damaging, points to make.
By the way, I am currently reading his book, and it is really good.
My output of essays in 2012 (so far) has been nothing short of atrocious. As Mr. Price said in the video, I have been busy with grad school. Thankfully, I am done with this semester — and I’m done with all the main coursework for my master’s degree. The next two semesters will be simply researching and writing my thesis, so the pace of my articles should increase. My next article dropping soon, hopefully next week, is going to be an analysis on Obama, conservatives, liberals, and race — with an interesting twist!
A word to those expressing “disappointment in my Trayvon coverage”: I appreciate the intelligent people who can disagree without calling me a closet liberal or a socialist. As for those who call me a race-obsessed race-baiter, please note there are PLEEEEEEEEEEEENTY of places to receive your fast-food conservative talking points of the day. Sadly — at least for you — my blog isn’t one of those places.
I am a Nigerian American with diverse cultural experiences, which heavily influence my writings and my ultra-conservative worldview. If you don’t want to hear my unique perspectives on issues, or you think I talk about race too much, PLEASE READ NO FURTHER! It’s really not that hard!
For those who are interested in reading more from me, keep following this blog throughout the summer! I’ve got lots of interesting things to say! I promise!
When will liberals ever give up on portraying Michele Bachmann as a racist?
First they said that Michele Bachmann was a racist for signing a pledge which stated, accurately, that the black family was more intact under slavery than under liberal welfare policies. Now they’re arguing that the congresswoman’s reference to Obama holding up a “tar baby” is coded racism.
If anyone actually listens to the clip, she wasn’t even referring to Obama as a “tar baby.” She said he was holding up a tar baby (the speculators) as something to blame for his failure on energy independence. The term “tar baby” is used as a metaphor for a sticky situation that gets worse the more you get entangled with it. Michele Bachmann was essentially saying that Obama uses the speculators as the sticky situation that can be blamed for all of our energy problems.
I wouldn’t have used the metaphor — mainly because my own literary preference is to use metaphors that are much more vivid. The purpose of metaphorical language is to make a point “pop.” The term “tar baby,” in my view, just isn’t metaphorically potent.
Michele Bachmann is not the first white Republican to be accused of racism for using the “tar baby” metaphor. Dr. John McWhorter, one of my favorite black writers on the issue of race, wrote in The New Republicdefending John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Doug Lamborn from the charge of racism for using the term.
It’s not surprising that liberals are in such a rush to accuse Michele Bachmann of racism, because they like to think that all unapologetic conservatives are racist (if white) and self-hating (if minority). After the Trayvon Martin case, I can no longer defend the entire movement of the charge of racism like I vigorously used to. Certainly, there are conservative racists, but there is no evidence that Michele Bachmann is one of them.
People forget that Michele Bachmann, during her presidential campaign, was one of the only candidates who tried to articulate racial public policy arguments in an attempt to get black and Hispanic votes—she even came under attack from people leaving comments of conservative websites. (I wrote about this in my article Michele Bachmann, the GOP, and the Race Conversation.) Michele Bachmann was my candidate the minute she announced she was running, but her excellent attempts to appeal to black and Hispanic voters—during a Republican primary!—really impressed me.
Please note that I am not one of these black conservatives who will smile like a Cheshire cat and enthusiastically applaud whenever any conservative person says something racially insensitive or openly racist. Some black conservatives are so desperate for the adoration of white conservatives (and their financial support) that they’ll cosign and endorse rhetoric openly hostile to their race. These people are more concerned about the lucrative prospects of being rare black faces reciting talking points that are commonly associated with white people than they are about working to make American conservatism an ethnically and racially diverse movement.
(Oops! Did I just use the word “diverse”? I’m sure I’ll be called a faux-conservative because “diverse” is a “liberal” word!)
The image of conservatives being racists is something the Democrats will always attempt. However, with the Trayvon Martin case, I do find it sad that conservatives actually gave the left credible opportunities to accuse the right of racism. I hope conservatives can now see why engaging in the racism that has been prevalent on the right throughout this Trayvon Martin case is so damaging. It makes it difficult for some to discern between false accusations of racism leveled against conservatives and real accusations of racism leveled against conservatives. All conservatives, sadly, get tarred with the same brush.
In this case, however, the charge of racism against Michele Bachmann is demonstrably unfounded.
As someone from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria who was born in Enugu (the capital of the short-lived state of Biafra) about 19 years after the Nigerian Civil War, it is a big deal for me to see Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Harvard- and MIT-trained economist and Igbo woman, being seriously considered for the post of president of the World Bank. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a conservative economist who used privatization as a way to help Nigeria’s economy, particularly by opening up the telecommunications market for investment. If she wins, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala would be the first woman, the first black, and the first African to head the World Bank! She’s been backed by The Economist(ahead of Obama’s left-wing pick) and by Forbes magazine!
Her family members are no intellectual slouches, either. Her husband is a brain surgeon; her eldest daughter has a Ph.D. in experimental pathology from Harvard University, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School; and her son is a critically acclaimed novelist with a B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard, and an M.D. from Columbia Medical School.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s presence on the world stage is needed to help rectify the ignorant image that many Westerners have of Nigerians. When they see “Nigerian” they instantly think: “internet scam artist.” (The amount of times I have received this insult from people who don’t like my arguments is incalculable.) It’s rare that people see “Nigerian” and instantly think “the most educated group of people in the United States”—even though it is a fact.
Interestingly, 37 percent of Nigerian Americans have bachelor’s degrees, 17 percent have master’s degrees, and 4 percent have doctorates. By contrast, only 19 percent of white Americans have bachelor’s degrees (almost half of the percentage for Nigerians), 8 percent have master’s degrees (less than half of the percentage for Nigerians), and only 1 percent of whites have doctorates. Nigerians are also more educated than every other immigrant group to the United States. Yet, curiously, when speaking of model minorities, people are quick to talk about Chinese, Swedes, and Russians. We (Nigerians) are never recognized for our intellectual achievements.
The statistics are similar wherever Nigerians migrate to in the Western world. British Nigerian children are also more academically successful on a percentage basis than white British children. In fact, the record holders for A-Level Mathematics in Britain are Nigerian children who passed Cambridge University tests at age 8.
I wonder where racists like John Derbyshire and his sympathizers are to explain away Nigerian academic dominance. Their theories of black intellectual inferiority completely fail when Nigerians are analyzed.
In any event, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala should be the president of the World Bank not because she is a Nigerian like me, but because she is manifestly the most qualified candidate to hold the post.
This is from Dr. Craig’s Reasonable Faith tour last year.
What I find most interesting about this debate is the fact that Peter Atkins has literally been debating this issue for decades, yet he still hasn’t formulated any decent arguments to defend his position. I wonder if Atkins realizes that the more he accepts debate invitations only to deliver such puerile playground arguments against the existence of God, while debating serious Christian apologists armed with real arguments, the more he demonstrates the implausibility of his godless worldview.
Either way, he still gets more respect from me than Richard Dawkins. (Dawkins is stillrefusing to take his butt-whooping from Dr. Craig like a man.)
It’s hilarious how pro-Zimmerman people—and I am sad to admit that they are almost invariably on the right—are acting as though the case for Zimmerman being a racist rests solely on whether or not he uttered the word “coons.”
This is complete nonsense birthed from an unwillingness to look at the totality of the facts.
The cumulative case for Zimmerman’s racism is so strong that one could easily concede the “coons” point and still have a credible case to accuse Zimmerman of racism. Here are four main points:
1) Aside from the fact that Zimmerman called the police many times on “suspicious-looking” black males, Zimmerman called the cops on a 7-9 year old, four-foot tall black child who looked “suspicious” while walking to an elementary school. I’ve yet to see one of Zimmerman’s prominent defenders in the conservative media address this point. Why would a black child walking to an elementary school look suspicious? And even if one takes the absurd position that Zimmerman was concerned for the child’s safety, why would that necessitate a phone call to the police, as opposed to watching and making sure the child got into the school where he would have been safe?
2) Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin and started listing crazy stereotypes all because Trayvon was wearing a hoodie while it was dark and raining. “He looks like he’s on drugs.” “Something is wrong with him.” “He looks like he has something in his waistband.” “They always get away.” While “colorblind” people can pretend that Zimmerman would have treated a similarly dressed white person the same way, it is obvious that he profiled Trayvon. Listen to more of Zimmerman in action with another black male “criminal”:
Unlike most black people, I support sensible racial profiling by trained, accountable law enforcement officers — when absolutely necessary. I don’t support racial profiling by crazed, racist vigilantes.
3) Zimmerman started a new website in which he proudly displayed an image of a black cultural center defaced by graffiti that read: “Long Live Zimmerman.”
Why would any non-racist person endorse people defacing black cultural centers with graffiti—even if the graffiti was flattering to that person? There is no plausible way that Zimmerman couldn’t have known that the image was of a black cultural center, since the picture floated around the internet was attached to news stories that explained how racists have been defacing black centers with graffiti. Evidently, Zimmerman sees this as a badge of victory.
This fits in nicely with Zimmerman’s father’s comments about how much hate has been coming from blacks and the president – essentially reciting the right-wing talking points that have been repeated during this case. (However, Judge Zimmerman expects that we’re all supposed to forget about the hate that came from his son who actually chased down and killed an unarmed teen.)
It’s peculiar that people like Hannity harp on about the Black Panthers putting a bounty on Zimmerman’s head — which is indeed reprehensible — but they conveniently forget to note that the only person who is guilty of killing anybody in this case is Zimmerman. To sick, twisted people like Hannity, that’s excusable, but the Black Panthers putting a bounty on someone’s head is unconscionable.
4) Lastly, we know that Zimmerman’s MySpace name was “datniggytb.”
Zimmerman claims that this is a term of endearment given to him by his black friends (despite the fact that Zimmerman is not black). This argument is remarkably similar to the nonsense point that his fake black friend used to dismiss “coon” as a term of endearment (before it was turned officially into “punks” or “it’s cold.”)
Oh, and we can’t forget, as Hannity always reminds us, Saint Zimmerman mentored black kids, so he is congenitally incapable of having hate towards blacks!
In essence, it is preposterous to pretend as though all that needs to be proven is that Zimmerman didn’t say the word “coons” for the charge of racism to magically disappear.
Zimmerman’s fans can have the word “coons,” and I’ll still have a credible case for calling Zimmerman a racist. In any event, because I am a conservative, I am against hate crime legislation. I think they are superfluous in cases where there is racial hatred or hatred based on sexuality. Anyone who commits a brutal unprovoked assault or murder is guilty of a hate crime—and the law recognizes that even without hate crime legislation. (I am currently researching this topic for a term paper in my victimology grad class.)
Zimmerman should be imprisoned for life for killing an unarmed minor. While I resent that conservatives are pretending that Trayvon’s race has nothing to do with this case—except, of course, when they are joyfully thug-ifying the dead black victim and smearing blacks in the process—I believe Trayvon’s race in this case is culturally important, even if legally immaterial.
Zimmerman’s racism doesn’t keep me up at night. I don’t go about my life terrified of experiencing racism, nor do I believe that I am powerless to achieve in America because of the racism of a few. However, it’s sad that some conservatives are furiously arguing against the charge of racism that Zimmerman faces because they need their absurd colorblind worldview, where all 21st century racism is a figment of the imaginations of blacks, to remain intact.
It would have been beautiful if conservatives acted like principled adults during this case. The right could have kept the moral high ground while civilly answering leftists who absurdly argued that Rush Limbaugh was responsible for the death of Trayvon. Also, the right could have had the legitimate authority to take NBC to task for doctoring the Zimmerman tape. However, the right has no moral standing to accuse the left of any malpractice in this case after taking fake pictures off neo-Nazi websites to thug-ify the dead kid, engaging in shocking racism by falsely arguing that the mainstream media lightened Trayvon’s picture to make him look more “innocent,” and writing pseudo-intellectual, racist pieces telling whites to avoid blacks. The right, by and large, has been heinous in their coverage of this case.
Now Zimmerman has been arrested and charged with 2nd degree murder, which no prosecutor worth their salt would go for without absolutely devastating evidence to defend their position, I am content with letting the American judicial system handle this case.
