December 6, 2011

Falser words were never spoken: "It's not’s racist if it’s true”

From Wikipedia's article on the annual West Indian Day Parade and Carnival in Brooklyn on Labor Day:
In 2003, a man was fatally shot and another was stabbed in the neck.[4][5] In 2005, one man was shot and killed along the parade route. In 2006, one man was shot and another was stabbed. By the 2007 parade, there was only one report of violence, when a man was shot twice in the leg.[6][7]. In 2011 pre-dawn marches took a violent turn with the murder of one person, five instances of gunshot victims and three instances of stabbings coupled with sporadic shooting at crowds of people.

Two of the five victims this September were NYPD flatfoots who were winged by bullets. 

Not surprisingly, New York cops don't like being assigned to this wingding. A whole bunch made comments on a Facebook page devoted to protesting their having to risk their lives at the West Indian Day event, without realizing the implications of Facebook demanding your real name. The New York Times was properly aghast at what they said:
It offered a fly-on-the-wall view of officers displaying roiling emotions often hidden from the public, a copy of the posting obtained by The New York Times shows. Some of the remarks appeared to have broken Police Department rules barring officers from “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” about race or ethnicity. 
The subject was officers’ loathing of being assigned to the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn, an annual multiday event that unfolds over the Labor Day weekend and has been marred by episodes of violence, including deaths of paradegoers. Those who posted comments appeared to follow Facebook’s policy requiring the use of real names, and some identified themselves as officers.

The NYT's link in the above paragraph on the routine violence among parade-goers goes not to an NYT news story, as most NYT links do, but to a Yahoo News story from the AP. Apparently, the pattern of gunplay at the parade is not news that's fit to print.

One naive soul argued on Facebook:
... “It’s not racist if it’s true,” yet another wrote.

Haven't we all learned by now that that's close to the opposite of today's dominant mindset? Today, the more you get punished for racism the more truth you tell and the more credible of a witness you are.

For example, when America's most prominent man of science said in 2007, ""[I am] inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa [because] all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really," James D. Watson got Watsoned for racism precisely because that's what all the testing says and he is America's most honored scientist.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...Facebook’s policy requiring the use of real names..."

Um, that's news to me. I have a Facebook account with a false name.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

"Speaking Truth To Power" has come to mean "Telling your friends what they want to hear about people they don't like."

Being an optimistic American (or perhaps Anglospherian), I continue to believe that the truth will eventually prevail. Contemplating the deaths under communism of 100,000,000 - 200,000,000 of their own people, not foreign enemies, informs me otherwise.

Anonymous said...

By the way, West Indians in NYC are definitely doing better than traditional US blacks. Not much better, but enough for most people to notice. I'm guessing that there is a selection effect at work. Despite strong appearances to the contrary, not everyone has left Jamaica yet. I'm guessing that those who have left have more human capital than those who stayed.

Pup said...

Aren't West Indians 'racist' in living up to racial stereotypes?
They should stop being so 'auto-racist' so others won't be 'racist' about them.

Pupp said...

Big Brother Is Reading Your Facebook Wall.

Anonymous said...

I saw someone seriously argue that even if racial stereotypes expressed truth, it would be immoral to believe them.

Anonymous said...

The truth is not a defense - that was the gist of a judge's ruling in the UK - when someone pointed to factual data about islam.

Various Artists said...

@Anonymous 12/6/11 5:35 PM

> even if racial stereotypes expressed truth, it would be immoral to believe them.

That's because I think they think the bottom would open up in the world if it was widely and openly believed that some groups were inferior. It /feels/ that way, they're so afraid of the idea that they don't want to look at it. Yet, we had that up to what, 1965, re blacks, and there was no abyss - there was segregation and lack of enfranchisement, but I don't think anyone thinks we'd go back to that. I guess it's just "people's collective feelings". Or, maybe, too big a jump from our ideology, "All men are created equal" - I guess it would be a serious ground shift. Besides the law, I wonder if socially, qualitatively new lines and differences would form if some groups were officially recognized as inferior?

I wish some of you smarter people would tackle this instead of taking ineffectual potshots from the side. I think serious thinktank-type power will have to prepare a way for acceptance of these differences. Or I suppose, just a new bunch of genetic revelations could slowly eat away at how seriously people take the equality ideology.

Anonymous said...

"a copy of the posting obtained by The New York Times"

Yes, it must take some clever sleuthing to "obtain" a Facebook page.

Anonymous said...

"They called people “animals” and “savages.” One comment said, “Drop a bomb and wipe them all out.”

Sorry, steve, but this goes far beyond legitimate complaints about the danger of working the parade.

Your post is misleading about what the complaint was really about.

Anonymous said...

New Yorker here. According to the local elite media, the only acceptable solution to the frequent shootings at this parade of mayhem in the local media is to call for greater gun control and nothing else. To suggest canceling or even imposing some kind of limitations is "racist".

I used to think that canceling it was a good idea, but then I came up with an even better one: reroute this parade through some of Manhattan's most exclusive neighborhoods. These lily white areas could use the infusion of diversity for a few days. If the liberals who live there oppose having this parade in their neighborhood, we should call them "racists" until they relent.

Why should this wonderful diversity be confined to the ghettos of Brooklyn?

Anonymous said...

The comments over at Andrew Sullivan's Facebook page in response to his question, "Do you think IQ disparity among racial groups is a legitimate form of inquiry?" are pretty depressing, but not unexpected from his usual lefty audience.

Those answering "No" to his question seem to fall into one of two groups: 1.) those who deny that we can study the question since they argue we cannot define race (oh, that old argument again); 2.) and those who feel that no good can come from pursuing the answer to the question. This latter group at least begrudgingly accepts, it seems, that there are such identifiable genetic population groups that can be termed "races" and that there are indeed IQ differences.

I don't know what these people are going to do as research on cognition continues. Go insane? Riot? Or go into hiding?

CJ said...

Just in case there are any youngsters here who don't know that West Indian parades are the same all over the world:

Caribana Parade - More of the Usual

Anonymous said...

And yet we are constantly lectured that West Indians are the 'Jews of black America'.

jody said...

in the US, positive stereotypes are still allowed, even though sometimes those can be offensive as well. you can still say "(group) is good at (activity)" without repercussion.

Kylie said...

"New Yorker here. According to the local elite media, the only acceptable solution to the frequent shootings at this parade of mayhem in the local media is to call for greater gun control and nothing else."

Responsible dog and gun owner here. I'm in agreement with the local elite. I've concluded that neither dogs nor guns belong in the hands of NAMs. Nothing I've read or seen indicates that the vast majority of them are willing and/or able to accept the responsibilities that come with handling dogs and guns.

Kylie said...

"And yet we are constantly lectured that West Indians are the 'Jews of black America'."

The really depressing/ironic/horrifying thing is that they are.

Maya said...

"I don't know what these people are going to do as research on cognition continues. Go insane? Riot? Or go into hiding?"

Oh, come on. "These people" will do nothing of the sort. They'll adapt to the new popular way of thinking, and they'll learn to parrot it with a self-satisfied tone with a lightning speed. They DON'T CARE about race, IQ and blablablah. They just want to be considered moral by certain types of people while feeling superior to other certain types of people. That's all.