Friday, July 24, 2020



The Dehumanization of Blacks
  
If you take black and white left-wing rhetoric seriously, blacks are not human beings like members of other races. They are first and foremost black; they are human beings defined before anything else by their color — not their humanity, their personality, their character, their mind or their heart. So much so that, according to white and black leftists, if you dissent from this racist view, you are now labelled racist.

The idiocy and inhumanity (literally) of this, the “progressive” view of black people, is easily demonstrated. Do any blacks see themselves first as black? When a black man, let’s call him James, looks into the mirror, does he first see a black person, or does he see James? When a white woman, let’s call her Karen (I’m playing with the left here), looks into the mirror, does she first see a white person, or does she see Karen? Does any human being first see his or her color?

Of course not. Yet, we are supposed to believe that the most important thing about a black individual is that he or she is black. And if we do not honor that fact — if we aim to be “colorblind” — then we are labelled racist.

This dehumanizing nonsense goes for racial truth these days. Thus, for example, we who are not black are supposed to acknowledge that we cannot possibly see the world the way a black person sees the world; we cannot possibly understand what it is like to be black. This is part of the dogma the left imposes on society through the media, through cancel culture (say that you are colorblind and you might lose your job and your reputation), and through racial sensitivity training seminars at colleges and in the workplace.

But all this does is promulgate the view that blacks are inherently different from all other people. As a result, the only way the left’s view of blacks differs from that of white supremacists is that the latter believe blacks are inherently inferior, whereas the left believes blacks are inherently different. But both the left and the white supremacists agree that race contains immutable characteristics.

Aside from its inherent racism, the progressive view of blacks is pablum. No one can see the world through another’s eyes. No one can fully understand what it is like to be any other human being. Do all whites understand how other whites see the world? One of the ongoing jokes in the public dialogues I have with Adam Carolla around the country is how much we think alike despite the fact that our backgrounds could hardly be more different.

Other than being white and male, we have essentially nothing in common. He is an atheist; I am a religious believer. He is Italian; I’m a Jew. He grew up poor and on food stamps in Los Angeles; I grew up in a solid middle-class home in Brooklyn. He had little formal education and never went to college; I grew up in a house of intellectuals and went to an Ivy League graduate school. Even though I cannot “relate” to his experience or he to mine, we are nevertheless very close because, in addition to that intangible thing that creates friendships, we have the same values.

On the other hand, I am a Jew, and George Soros is a Jew. Other than the same ethnic ancestry, we have absolutely nothing in common. I have far more in common with the black conservative intellectual Larry Elder. The notion that race or ethnicity bonds people is both stupid and racist.

The prominent black conservative John McWhorter, a Columbia professor, just wrote a review of “White Fragility,” the book the left most frequently recommends to explain America’s alleged systemic racism. The title? “The Dehumanizing Condescension of ‘White Fragility.’”

McWhorter writes:

“One of America’s favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract.  The book diminishes Black people in the name of dignifying us.”

(I suspect it was The Atlantic’s choice to capitalize “black”; the syndicators of my own column once changed “black” to “Black” because they follow the Associated Press’ rules for English.)

“‘White Fragility’ is the prayer book for what can only be described as a cult.”

“A corollary question is why Black people need to be treated the way DiAngelo assumes we do. The very assumption is deeply condescending to all proud Black people.”

“Few books about race have more openly infantilized Black people than this supposedly authoritative tome. Or simply dehumanized us.”

“Her answer to white fragility, in other words, entails an elaborate and pitilessly dehumanizing condescension toward Black people. The sad truth is that anyone falling under the sway of this blinkered, self-satisfied, punitive stunt of a primer has been taught, by a well-intentioned but tragically misguided pastor, how to be racist in a whole new way.”

McWhorter understands that to see blacks the way the white and black left want people to see them is to dehumanize blacks. If blacks are black before they are human — if no nonblacks can relate to blacks, disagree with blacks or want to see past color to the person’s heart — black-nonblack relations will have been set back a half-century.

Incredibly, beginning this coming year, thanks to progressive teachers, there will be mandatory reading of racist tracts like “White Fragility” to dehumanize blacks. That any black would see this as progress is worthy of tears.

SOURCE 





Prosecutor Criticized for Charging St. Louis Couple Who Pointed Guns at Protesters

A Missouri prosecutor faces heavy scrutiny at the national and state level for bringing criminal charges against a St. Louis couple who pointed guns at trespassers in late June to defend themselves and their property.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner filed the charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who became nationally known because of a viral video of them holding firearms outside their home as protesters marched past.

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis,” Gardner, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The McCloskeys both were charged Monday with a single felony count of exhibiting a firearm in an angry or threatening manner. He held a semiautomatic rifle, she a handgun.

The couple has said that protesters tore down a gate to gain entry to their property June 28.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday that she discussed the case with President Donald Trump that morning.  “The president, I asked him about that this morning. He said it is absolutely absurd what is happening to the McCloskeys.

McEnany added of Gardner: There have been many cases brought to her attention of violent rioters that she has failed to charge. But instead, she’s charging the individuals who are defending themselves from violent protesters. You have 300 to 500 protesters who stormed the gates, tore down the gates, and trespassed on their property.

The White House press secretary noted that Patricia McCloskey said some trespassers threatened to kill the couple and occupy the house, while others shouted threats to burn down the house.

“They were completely within their right, and it is an egregious abuse of power,” McEnany said.

In a video announcement, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the state’s top law enforcement official, said he would seek to dismiss the case. Schmitt, a Republican, called it a “political prosecution” and said citizens shouldn’t be targeted for exercising their right to self-defense. Missouri’s “castle doctrine” law allows residents to defend their property.

If it goes to trial, the case likely will boil down to whether a jury believes the couple reasonably believed they were acting in self-defense, said Amy Swearer, a legal fellow at the Institute for Constitutional Government at The Heritage Foundation.

“The burden is on the state to prove it wasn’t reasonable self-defense,” Swearer told The Daily Signal. “There are so many questions to piece together for the facts and the timeline, I don’t envy lawyers from either side of this case. But it is good to have so much video, so it’s not just a he said/she said.”

Although there may be a legitimate question whether protesters were on the McCloskeys’ property, the couple asserted that some in the crowd were armed and shouting threats, Swearer said. The broader context includes the violent unrest that was happening in the area, she added.

The prosecution’s championing of the right to protest would be a difficult case to make, Swearer said. “The protesters were out of public property and in a private gated area,” she said. “It’s not the case that the McCloskeys went out of their way to silence anyone.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, tweeted Tuesday: “Every Missourian has the right to protect their family and their personal property.”

The previous day, Parson also was critical of Gardner on Twitter, noting that “the Circuit Attorney’s office has admitted there is a backlog of cases and dozens of homicides that haven’t been prosecuted, yet she has accelerated this case forward.”

Mark McCloskey, 63, and his wife Patricia, 61, are both lawyers.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called the prosecution an abuse of power and last week asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the prosecution by Gardner as a possible civil rights violation. 

“This is an unacceptable abuse of power and threat to the Second Amendment, and I urge you to consider a federal civil rights investigation into the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office to determine whether this investigation and impending prosecution violates this family’s constitutional rights,” Hawley’s July 16 letter to Attorney General William Barr says, adding:

There is no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound. The only possible motivation for the investigation, then, is a politically motivated attempt to punish this family for exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Indeed, this is part of a troubling pattern of politically motivated prosecutorial decisions by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney, who has not seen fit to prosecute many violent offenders, and who has expressed hostility to gun rights in the past. Recently, reports indicate that she declined to pursue charges against dozens of individuals arrested during a weekend of riots in the city.

Gardner was elected in 2016. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that her campaign was financed in part by the Safety & Justice Committee, a super PAC financed by liberal billionaire George Soros.

Gardner framed the prosecution as protecting the First Amendment right to protest, saying: “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation will not be tolerated.”

She added: “The people of St. Louis have elected me to pursue equal justice under the law fairly and impartially, and that is what I intend to do.”

SOURCE 





German state bans burqas and face veils in schools, saying they do not belong in a free society

A German state has banned the use of burqas in school, saying that the full-face Islamic covering does not belong in a free society.

Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany announced the ban on Tuesday. The state has already banned the use of such coverings for teachers.

State Premier Winfried Kretschmann said that it was rare for school girls to wear burqas but that a ban was required for the exceptional cases.

The new rule will apply to girls attending primary and secondary schools in the state. 

Kretschmann added that such coverings, which are usually worn by conservative Muslim women and girls, do not belong in a free society, although he admitted that banning them at university level was a more complex matter. 

Members of Germany's ruling CDU party have long called for a ban on full-face coverings in schools.

The country's left-wing Green party has been divided on the issue, but in Baden-Württemberg, Green party leaders were in agreement with the CDU, with state party leaders Sandra Detzer and Oliver Hildenbrand referring to the burqa and the niqab as 'symbols of oppression.'

Other party members have argued that a ban could stoke tensions and negatively impact cultural integration. 

It comes after a ruling earlier this year which saw a court in Hamburg overturn its own ruling on full-face coverings.

In February, a German court overturned a school's niqab ban after a 16-year-old girl was told she had to show her face to teachers.

Hamburg education officials had ordered the girl's mother to ensure that her daughter did not wear the veil at school, a decision which an administrative court overruled.

State law does not currently permit the authorities to impose such a ban, the court said in a statement.

The teenager, who is studying retail sales, has 'a right to unconditional protection of her freedom of belief' the statement added.

Hamburg's social-democratic education senator Ties Rabe immediately said that he would seek to change the state law.

Each German state has its own education ministry, and the 16 states have differing laws on headscarves in schools.

In 2015, Germany's Constitutional Court overturned a blanket ban on teachers wearing them, ruling that it was against religious freedom. However, eight of Germany's states maintain restrictions on wearing the hijab by female teachers.

Germany's neighbouring countries including The Netherlands, France, Austria and Denmark have introduced a so-called 'burqa ban' to varying degrees.

SOURCE 





The Leftmedia's Very Effective 'Systemic Racism' Narrative

The Left has made significant gains convincing too many Americans to hate America.

A newly released Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 56% of voters believe that American society is racist and discriminates specifically against black and Hispanic Americans. Furthermore, a whopping 71% of Americans “believe that race relations are either very or fairly bad, a 16-point increase since February.” The Journal reports that the belief that minorities are discriminated against in American society has doubled since 2008.

The polling also makes clear that political viewpoints represent the biggest indicator for how Americans see the issue. As the Journal reports, “An overwhelming majority of Democrats, 90%, said black people are discriminated against, whereas 26% of Republicans agreed. A similarly large share of Democrats, 82%, believe American society is racist, a view held by 30% of Republicans.” And regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, roughly half of Americans now view it positively, up from 38% in 2016.

The big question is whether this poll is an accurate reflection of where America is as a country, or whether it’s a reflection of the power of mainstream media pollaganda. The answer is likely evident to anyone objectively viewing the data: the power of MSM pollaganda. There is a constant media drumbeat telling us how awful the U.S. is, down to its very founding. People are subject to it every day not only in the news but in sports commentary, TV shows, and social media. It’s honestly amazing that 44% of Americans aren’t suckered into believing the Left’s narrative.

And make no mistake: Exposing and fighting against racism is not what is genuinely behind this “anti-racism” movement. Instead, Marxists have weaponized Americans’ strong and instinctive aversion to racism to deceive people into joining — or at least abiding — an anti-American revolution. The vast majority of Americans hate racism, so to get Americans to hate America, the Leftmedia paints the false narrative of the country as a bastion of racism down to its very core.

In fact, no country has done more to combat genuine systemic racism than has the U.S. Why? Because at our core, America is a nation uniquely founded upon the belief that every human being is created with dignity and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights. And American history is the testimony of a nation seeking (by no means perfectly) to genuinely live up to these founding ideals.

Radical leftists know that in order to move Americans to abandon and reject their noble heritage and to embrace the “social justice” lie of Marxist equity, they must be deceived into believing they are fighting the good fight against evil “systemic racism,” and that by doing so they will be on the “right side of history.” Sadly, what this poll indicates is that the Leftmedia has had significant success getting Americans to believe the lie. But it also serves as a motivator to challenge and stand against this bogus racist caricature of America. Their aim is to divide and destroy. Don’t fall for it.

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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