Typical shallow journalism: race, racism and riots

Below is the conclusion of a "Time" magazine article that purports to survey and explain America's current racial problems.  Race relations in some parts of America have degenerated into something like civil war so the problem is an acute one and is much in need of explanation.

The article below does not cut it, however.  It goes down the tired old route of saying how awful slavery was and asserts a link between slavery and the current troubles.  Slavery was indeed oppressive but the chain of events linking it to present-day riots is not given.  A link is just asserted with no reasoning or evidence given.

The actual cause is only incidentally linked to slavery.  Slavery certainly explains how America got an African population but it does not explain why that population is such a problem. 

The cause is asserted by the Left to be the fault of white society.  Whites are said to be unreasonably antagonistic to blacks and so "keep blacks down" by various forms of racial discrimination.  That is an explanation very destructive to racial harmony but it suits the Left in their quest to destroy American society as we know it.  So no evidence or argument will deflect them from that explanation.

And it is true that mainstream American society has always discriminated against outsiders:  The Irish, the Jews, the Chinese, the Japanese etc. 

But that shows that any effect of discrimination fades away  within a generation or two.  Being of Irish, Jewish, Chinese or Japanese origin is no handicap of any sort today.  Even recent arrivals from poor countries often do very well. Even people with poor or little English somehow soon have jobs and rapidly succeed economically. 

Most Indians in the USA today were not born there but they are in fact the highest-earning ethnic goup in America today.  They undoubtedly face some discrimination but it does not hold them back significantly.  They are roughly as brown as American "blacks" but neither their skin colour, their very different religions or their quaint English hold them back for long.

So "discrimination" is an explanation for black failure that only a reality-avoidant Leftist could love.  So what is the real explanation?  It has to be something in blacks themselves.

But the real explanation runs head on into Lefist mythology and so is fiercely resisted.  But it is not at all mysterious and is very well attested.  The difference is not my opinion or anyone else's opinion.  It is a fact that has been repeatedly demonstrated  for around 100 years and is supported by the American Psychological Association:  Blacks on average have very  low IQs. 

That many of them function at all shows that the power of routine and education can substitute to a degree for IQ.  Some people behave adaptively not because they have figured out how to behave adaptively but because almost from birth they have had before them examples of how to behave.  It is imitation learning.

There is of course a small minority of high IQ blacks but that leaves a large population of blacks who have much more difficulty coping with challenges than whites do.  Blacks cannot of course help it if they are one of the many low IQ blacks so they need more help than most whites do.  Low IQ is just as much a handicap as other more visible form of disability and is as deserving of help.

But such help is not given to struggling blacks for a very good reason: The need for it is denied.  As long as the idiotic "all men are equal" gospel is believed, the need for special treatment of blacks will not be acknowledged.  It will in fact be fiercely denied.

The result will be that blacks can clearly see their disadvantaged position in white society and will get angry about it.  After all the Leftist talk blaming their disadvantage on "whitey", they will not blame themselves for their various failures; they will blame it on others.  And the obvious "others" are whites, who do clearly have their hands on all the levers of power in society. 

So most blacks will have a racial explanation for their disadvantage.  Leftist propaganda tends powerfully to make blacks racist against whites.  It is a useful mask for Leftists to condemn racism but they are the principal authors of it.  They always have been.  Hitler was an old-fashioned socialist and both Marx and Engels were outspoken racists.  Amusingly, they both despised Russians, among others.

So the Left have brought about the near civil war we now see in parts of America so it is not surprise that they mostly seem to welcome it.  Leftist State governments have certainly sat on their hands while it happens


During Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, many Americans were outraged when news broke that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor, had uttered the words “God damn America” for “killing innocent people,” “treating our citizens as less than human” and failing “the vast majority of her citizens of African descent.” Obama condemned the comments and reminded the public that, actually, the U.S. had made great progress, even while acknowledging far more was needed.

Today, The conversation is different, and one wonders whether such remarks, as salient now as they were then, would still be met with disavowal. The U.S. cannot deny what is plainly before its eyes. Shocking videos depict George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery murdered in broad daylight. Tens of thousands of black lives have been taken by the coronavirus. And, in the midst of all this, the President fans the flames of racial tensions with dog whistles so unsubtle that even the most skeptical can hear them.

In urban centers, black and white protesters have come forward together in defiance, joined by allies like GOP Senator Mitt Romney and longtime Koch Industries executive Mark Holden. In predominantly white cities across the country, white Americans have shown up by the thousands in solidarity. Even small towns in rural parts of the country have joined in the protests.

“Justice for George would be that the police officers who tortured him to death be held fully accountable to the full extent of the law,” Crump told Roye on June 7, at a Houston hotel, while waiting for Floyd’s extended family to arrive“Justice for George would be that the police officers who tortured him to death be held fully accountable to the full extent of the law,” Crump told Roye on June 7, at a Houston hotel, while waiting for Floyd’s extended family to arrive
A lot would need to change to address such deeply rooted bias. The first test may come this year as momentum grows in city halls, statehouses and Washington, D.C., for reforms to root out police brutality, perhaps the most flagrant and visible injustice. “Justice for George is something that many people who were killed through brutality of the police never get,” says Benjamin Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing Floyd’s family. “And that is a transformative justice, a systematic reform across the board.”

Whatever the progress transpires in the coming months, the U.S. still has a long way to go. Last year, I happened to find myself in both Berlin and Charleston, S.C. In Berlin, where Adolf Hitler planned and oversaw the extermination of millions of Jews, it felt as though I couldn’t walk a few blocks without a memorial atoning for that sin. In Charleston, I fell asleep on a picturesque beach, only to learn later that the site was a key node in the Atlantic slave trade, where traders imported 40% of enslaved Africans who came to North America. I spent the rest of the day feeling sick to my stomach, disgusted at the possibility that I had enjoyed a leisurely nap where, perhaps, one of my ancestors endured one of the most gruesome of human institutions.

Awakening can be painful. But in America, a reckoning is overdue.

More HERE 






Coronavirus: Why the ‘second wave’ theory is flawed

Fear of a “second wave” of the coronavirus is creating “dangerous misconceptions” and could actually cause a resurgence of the disease before the first wave is over, a global expert has warned.

Dr Jeremy Rossman is a senior lecturer in virology at Britain’s University of Kent. He has a PhD in emerging infectious diseases.

In an article published by The Conversation UK this week, Dr Rossman wrote that the entire concept of a second wave was “flawed”.

“The idea of a second wave stems from the flawed comparison with the seasonality of the flu virus,” he explained.

When the coronavirus first emerged, analysis of the disease often focused on the various characteristics it shared with influenza. Both are respiratory infections. Both usually cause only mild symptoms, but can be deadly.

“It was tempting to assume that COVID-19 would behave similarly to a flu pandemic. Yet these are very different viruses with very different behaviour,” Dr Rossman wrote.

“COVID-19 has a far greater fatality rate compared with the flu, along with a much higher rate of hospitalisations and severe infection.”

Given the coronavirus’s similarities to the flu, many people have assumed the disease will be seasonal – that it will fade or even disappear in the summer months and come back with a vengeance in winter.

The flu dies down in the summer because of higher humidity, increased ultraviolet light and people spending less time indoors.

As it stands, we simply don’t know whether any of those factors will affect the coronavirus.

“Influenza is a seasonal virus. Every year we see cases of the flu begin in early autumn, increase over the winter and then wind down as we approach summer,” said Dr Rossman.

“This repeats years, and so if a new strain of flu emerges we would probably have a first wave of infections during winter-spring, then the virus would come back in a second wave in autumn-winter the following year.

“It is tempting to speculate that COVID-19 will decline or disappear during the summer, only to reappear gets colder. But we don’t know if COVID-19 is a seasonal virus.”

You might wonder what any of this has to do with the fears of a second wave.

Dr Rossman’s argument is that thinking of the coronavirus as a seasonal disease could lead us to assume it is beyond our control, and will return no matter what we do.

“The concept of a second wave implies that it is something inevitable, something intrinsic to how the virus behaves. It goes away for a bit, then comes back with a vengeance,” he said.

“But this idea fails to take into account the importance of ongoing preventative actions and portrays us as helpless and at the whim of this pathogen.”

This message is particularly relevant in Dr Rossman’s native Britain, where lockdown rules have been relaxed in recent weeks and talk has turned to dealing with a second wave – even though the first wave isn’t even over.

“We are not between waves. We have new cases in the UK every day. We are in an ebb and flow of COVID-19 transmission that is continually affected by our precautionary actions,” said Dr Rossman.

“Letting up precautions will lead to an increase in cases. This is the new normal, and what to expect until we have an effective vaccine with significant population uptake. Until then we have to depend on our actions to keep cases low.”

Health officials have used the spectre of a potential second wave to urge people to keep following the social distancing guidelines.

In China – the original epicentre of the outbreak – the threat of a second wave appears to be more immediate.

A new cluster of cases in the country’s capital, Beijing has led to a swift government crackdown in an attempt to prevent widespread infection.

Beijing has recorded more than 100 infections in the last week, which is China’s most significant surge of cases in months.

Many of the new cases have been linked to the city’s Xinfadi wholesale market. Authorities have been testing market workers, anyone who visited it in the last two weeks, and anyone else who came into contact with either group.

Fresh meat and seafood in the city is also being inspected, in case that is how the virus spread.

A lockdown has been imposed on residential communities around the market, and officials are barring residents of areas considered high risk from leaving Beijing. Anyone from such areas who has already left must report to local health bureaus as soon as possible.

Taxis and car-hailing services have been banned from taking people out of the city.

“The risk of the epidemic spreading is very high, so we should take resolute and decisive measures,” Xu Hejiang, a spokesman for the city government, said on Monday.

According to the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece newspaper, The Global Times, a total of 29 communities in Beijing have now been locked down, and the city is in “wartime mode”.

“Beijing is the capital of China, so the new epidemic outbreak will easily send shockwaves across the country. It is of vital importance that the latest outbreak in Beijing does not impede the national resumption of work and production. This is also a test for Chinese society,” the paper wrote in an editorial.

“The Chinese people need to stay calm, while officials shouldn’t be concerned about being held accountable if new infections appear. China should be more mature after each stage of the battle against the epidemic.

“Beijing has acted quickly and properly in handling the latest outbreak. We hope this case could be a lesson for China in facing the normalcy of the virus fight.”

China had relaxed many of its coronavirus restrictions after the Communist Party declared victory over the disease in March.

SOURCE 







'I will continue to say what I believe to be true': Laurence Fox insists he will 'not stand by' and be silenced by the BLM protests despite fears he may never work again after backlash over comments on race and 'woke' culture

Laurence Fox has vowed to 'not stand by' and be silenced by Black Lives Matter protests and will continue speaking out against the 'inconsistent god of progressivism' even if he never gets another acting job again.

The star of ITV drama Lewis, writing in the conservative magazine The Spectator, said it was a 'cause of sadness' at the possible loss of his career and the 'bleak view of my prospects' came after his appearance on Question Time. 

He accused Rachel Boyle, an academic at Edge Hill University, of racism after she called him 'a white privileged male' on Question Time.

He criticised the ethnicity lecturer's charges of racism last January amid claims that Meghan Markle was being hounded out of Britain on account of her skin colour.  

Fox, who was previously married to Billie Piper, was then embroiled in yet a further controversy after he was forced to apologise for comments he made about the inclusion of a Sikh soldier in Sam Mendes blockbuster 1917.

Writing in the  Spectator he said: 'I have come to the conclusion that I may never get an acting job again without expressing ‘correct’ opinions.

'While this probably isn’t the end of the world for you, it is a cause of some sadness and anxiety for me.

'Not least because I’ve always loved my job and also because I have two children who need dinner and clothes and a holiday once in a while.'

The actor courted further controversy this month after a recent tweet he posted, which said: 'Every single human life is precious! The end!'

It is a clear nod to the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by killing of George Floyd by police officers.

He suffered an immediate backlash online and said in his Spectator column that an actor friend phoned him and challenged him about the tweet, and they haven't spoken since.

He wrote: 'On 25 May the world watched as a policeman kneeled on a man’s neck for almost nine minutes, killing him. Our jaws dropped in horror and disgust.

'Something needed to be done. Justice needed to be done and seen to be done. On that, all were agreed. Black lives matter — three such powerful words. Words we all could unite behind. But was it that simple?

'A week later, I got a text from a very well-known young actor with a screenshot of a tweet of mine which read: ‘Every single human life is precious. The end.’

‘Can you explain this to me?’ said the message. My phone rang; I picked it up and knew straight away that my friend and I were not alone on the call.

‘Hey Loz… I want to really understand you… I mean… I defend you and as you know… I really love you… but this… this is really hard…’ He told how his friend told him 'how can i defend you when you are saying sh*t like this?' and called him 'racist.'

He said: 'This is the position I took last night and I live by in life. If you can improve on it, I'm all ears. Or you can keep screeching ''Racist!'' at me and I can carry on having a jolly good giggle at your expense. The tide is turning'.

January 17, 2020: The actor later went on to reveal that he does not date women under the age of 35 because they are 'too woke' and many of them are 'absolutely bonkers' during an interview with the Delingpod podcast.

During the podcast , Fox said that he called off a relationship with a former partner because she praised a Gillette advert which highlighted 'toxic masculinity.'

June 18, 2020: In a piece for the Spectator, Fox, questioned if Meghan Markle stepped down as a working royal because she did not get the 'limelight'

Fox also referred to Blackout Tuesday - where millions across the world boycotted social media by filling their feed with black squares - the actor wrote: 'Instagram seems to be broken'.

Referring to the protest movement in his Spectator column he added: 'Righteous global outrage at a cruel and vile killing has morphed into a different agenda.

'Similar things have happened with other movements; #MeToo,Extinction Rebellion, Brexit, even the Covid-19 pandemic.

'The left rightly expose great chasms of inequality and hypocrisy in society — then proceed to throw themselves like lemmings into that void, unable to obey their own edicts.

'Desperately important causes have been politicised to the point of meaninglessness, opportunities for action hijacked swiftly by the cynical actors.'  

Fox added that the pursuit of justice should 'bring us together, not divide us. Not social justice, not climate justice, not black justice. Just justice.'

He surmised: 'So here I am, a white posh bloke, who loves his job, who has worked hard to be good at it, facing an uncertain future — all for the heinous sin of shaking my fist at the ugly, hypocritical and inconsistent god of progressivism.

'But unhappily for some (my agent and bank manager mainly) I will continue to say what I believe to be true.

'I’m not always right and very often wrong, but unless we can accommodate multiple understandings of a situation soon, it will all end with us abandoning words and reason, the tools given to us to heal and come together, in favour of the simpler but far more terrifying tools of engagement: fists, knives and guns.'

‘Denounce him! Disgraceful!’ came the cries from the illiberal liberals, who see race in every injustice and cry ‘fascism’ at anyone who doesn’t view the world from their same narrow and unstable ledge of conformity.'

SOURCE 





Student journalist sacked for column calling institutional racism a ‘myth’

Syracuse University student Adrianna San Marco was fired from her gig as a columnist at a local newspaper when she dismissed the notion of “institutional racism” in an opinion piece for a separate, conservative website.

San Marco, an outspoken conservative, stands by her column in The Daily Orange, despite widespread backlash. In the piece published by LifeZette, she called institutional racism a “myth” and claimed statistics indicate that police do not target African-Americans.

The Daily Orange is an independent newspaper that does not rely on New York’s Syracuse University for funding, but the paper’s editorial content is run entirely by university students, according to its website.

San Marco said the paper “is guilty of limiting dissent” and feels Syracuse University discriminates against conservative views altogether.

Daily Orange editor-in-chief Casey Darnell told Fox News that his paper “has published dozens of columns and letters to the editor from liberal and conservative writers alike” but feels San Marco crossed a line.

“Dismissing the existence of racism, whether institutional or otherwise, dismisses the lived experiences of people of colour, especially our black community members. San Marco’s article reinforces false and dangerous stereotypes of black people as criminals, and dismisses that police officers kill black people at disproportionately higher rates than white people,” Darnell said.

“We aren’t afraid of controversial views, but we have a responsibility to avoid promoting harmful ones. We don’t censor conservative columnists,” Darnell said. “In fact, we have already hired a conservative columnist to replace San Marco.”

In an email interview with Fox News, San Marco told her side of the story, explained why she feels The Daily Orange limits diversity of thought, and said cancel culture has become a “central pillar of social media”.

SM: There absolutely is a cancel culture, in fact it has become a central pillar of social media. If your views don’t align with the progressive left they attempt to silence your voice. Several conservative speakers … have been “cancelled” because they dare to defy the narrative written by the left. The solution for this could come from two sources, one being far more likely than the other. Either Twitter users mature overnight and stop the childish “cancel party” hashtags or those with power can stop listening. I doubt the mob will stop tweeting any time soon so the best solution is to ignore them. Media outlets shouldn’t be dictated by twitter hashtags nor should politicians. Cancel culture is only powerful if we give in to their ignorance.

SOURCE 

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 
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