OIS in Kenosha Wisconsin, civil unrest

[DDTSGM]

I saw this yesterday on Real Clear Politics. It was an interview/podcast with Glenn Loury (bio follows) and the podcast itself was quite thought provoking.

Glenn Loury is an American economist, author and commentator. He was the first ever tenured black professor of economics at Harvard University, and is currently a professor of social sciences and economics at Brown University. He joined spiked editor Brendan O’Neill for the latest episode of The Brendan O’Neill Show. What follows is an edited extract from their conversation. Listen to the full episode here.

This wasn't the most interesting part of the article or podcast, but an interesting take on structural racism

Brendan O’Neill: One of the issues with Black Lives Matter is it has given the distinct impression to people around the globe that America remains a structurally racist country. There are clearly issues that impact on African-American communities. But one of the things you have written and spoken about incredibly well is the hollowness of the term ‘structural racism’. It seems to have become a mantra wheeled out to explain every single problem that faces particular communities or even particular individuals. If someone does not get a pay rise, for example, that must be down to structural racism. If there are not enough black people on a board of directors, that must be due to structural racism, too. Explain to us why you have an issue with that term and why its overuse makes it a meaningless way of understanding contemporary problems.

Glenn Loury: These days, I am given to saying the term ‘structural racism’ is both a bluff and a bludgeon. It is a bluff in the sense that it offers an explanation that is not really an explanation at all, and in effect dares the listener to come back with a response. For example, if someone says there are too many blacks in prison in the United States and that that is because of structural racism, they are daring you to say there are too many black criminals and that is why there are so many blacks in prison. They want you to say it is not the system’s fault, but the individual’s.

It is a bludgeon because it is a rhetorical move. It does not even pretend to be a scientific, policy-based argument. It asserts causes that never have to be demonstrated. We are all supposed to know that things are the fault of something called ‘structural racism’, which is abetted by an ideology of ‘white supremacy’. It is meant to explain everything. Confronted with any racial disparity, the answer is always that it is caused by structural racism.....

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/0...ing-with-fire/

Here's the link to the podcast, which, IMO. is well worth your time. It is entitled Why black autonomy matters:

https://www.spiked-online.com/podcas...onomy-matters/

[Sanch]

So, by my math, Wisconsin cops shoot people less than 0.0072% of the time

Math is proven to be racist. Standardized testing has students of color perform far worse than their white peers on math exams.

Further, I've only seen a single video of law enforcement interacting with a suspect in Wisconsin this year, and in it, they shot the guy 7 times and paralyzed him. Then had the gall to follow hospital policy and handcuff him (as a custody patient) to his hospital bed as all custody patients are required by the hospital to be. Couldn't the officers have made an exception to the hospital policy they have no control over and didn't write? The suspect was paralyzed, what's he going to do?

By my math 100% of officer encounters in Wisconsin (that I've seen) involved shooting the suspect.

[Joe in PNG]

I seemed to have missed that memo.

Wow, the scientific method is racist.

Here's the link: In Smithsonian Race Guidelines, Rational Thinking and Hard Work Are White Values

[JHC]

I dismissed structural racism arguments for decades. Now I think the use of "structural" was confusing as I was looking for "structures". Go figure.

Then a person close to me who is solidly on the left, a social do-gooder who has fostered black children commented on a picture of me with two black male friends at the range. Words to the effect, "thank goodness their friends, that's a scary picture". These are two 30-ish males both college educated professionals. One an Army veteran. When I pointed out very kindly her unconscious bias at work she was freaked! And agreed.

Several writers on the political right, Kevin Williamson for one and I forget the other have observed how interesting it is that a crack epidemic was a law and order problem needing sentencing mandates etc and an opioid crisis was an economic, cultural and mental health crisis that needed "help".
Also how interesting how many gangs of whites can carry rifles to their government's offices, clearing intimidating and in the case of Michigan this year got to shoving and screaming and pushing the intimidation and implicit threat pretty far. One wonders if the shoe was on the other foot.

I struggle to put a finger on "structures" exactly. But maybe those arguing this are pointing to patterns such as sentencing as discussed here.

"Violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to account for any of the demographic differences in sentencing. Black male offenders received sentences on average 20.4 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders, accounting for violence in an offender’s past in fiscal year 2016, the only year for which such data is available. This figure is almost the same as the 20.7 percent difference without accounting for past violence. Thus, violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to contribute to the sentence imposed to any extent beyond its contribution to the offender’s criminal history score determined under the sentencing guidelines."



https://www.ussc.gov/research/resear...ces-sentencing

[Joe in PNG]

The problem is, it's not that racism doesn't exist- it does, and everybody does it, everywhere in the world.

It's that what people are selling now is a refurbished version of White Supremacist Theory. The Modern Intersectionalism holds that the white race is the master race, but that's a bad thing, okay?

[5pins]

[blues]

I dismissed structural racism arguments for decades. Now I think the use of "structural" was confusing as I was looking for "structures". Go figure.

Then a person close to me who is solidly on the left, a social do-gooder who has fostered black children commented on a picture of me with two black male friends at the range. Words to the effect, "thank goodness their friends, that's a scary picture". These are two 30-ish males both college educated professionals. One an Army veteran. When I pointed out very kindly her unconscious bias at work she was freaked! And agreed.

Several writers on the political right, Kevin Williamson for one and I forget the other have observed how interesting it is that a crack epidemic was a law and order problem needing sentencing mandates etc and an opioid crisis was an economic, cultural and mental health crisis that needed "help".
Also how interesting how many gangs of whites can carry rifles to their government's offices, clearing intimidating and in the case of Michigan this year got to shoving and screaming and pushing the intimidation and implicit threat pretty far. One wonders if the shoe was on the other foot.

I struggle to put a finger on "structures" exactly. But maybe those arguing this are pointing to patterns such as sentencing as discussed here.

"Violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to account for any of the demographic differences in sentencing. Black male offenders received sentences on average 20.4 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders, accounting for violence in an offender’s past in fiscal year 2016, the only year for which such data is available. This figure is almost the same as the 20.7 percent difference without accounting for past violence. Thus, violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to contribute to the sentence imposed to any extent beyond its contribution to the offender’s criminal history score determined under the sentencing guidelines."



https://www.ussc.gov/research/resear...ces-sentencing

Try as we may, we're never going to eliminate the "my team", "my tribe" mentality. Whether it's the Irish, the Italians, the Greeks or any given ethnicity that has an "identity". I've been saying for years, here and elsewhere, that until we drop the hyphenated American label, we will never move forward as a nation.

Still, tribalism, just like profiling, is baked into how we conduct our affairs.

That said, there is no excuse for the legal system to treat any group of people differently during the investigation, trial, or sentencing. It's as evil as a bill of attainder.

The playing field should be equal for all...in all areas of our lives from health care and education to employment and rights under the law. No person should be accorded more nor less regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, what have you.

Artificially propping one up to the exclusion of others is a false solution. History has taught us that, imho.

[ER_STL]

You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. They are contaminated, They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white, and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and illogical behavior. In other words, these people, the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible.

To get rid society of these people you need another twenty or fifteen years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common-sense people who would be acting in favor, and in the interests of the United States society.

Interestingly enough, most people aren't aware of what Yuri said was the only defense against subversion of our culture in a free nation like ours. Hint: it aligns with some of the founders' thoughts.

[RoyGBiv]

Interestingly enough, most people aren't aware of what Yuri said was the only defense against subversion of our culture in a free nation like ours. Hint: it aligns with some of the founders' thoughts.

Excellent! Thanks.

[scw2]

I dismissed structural racism arguments for decades. Now I think the use of "structural" was confusing as I was looking for "structures". Go figure.

I struggle to put a finger on "structures" exactly. But maybe those arguing this are pointing to patterns such as sentencing as discussed here.

That's a feature of the "structural racism" argument, not a bug.

Then there is the whole fact that the far left wants to tear down the system, so instead of fixing policies such as those that result in disparate sentencing outcomes, we need to defund the police, not hold anyone in jail for "minor" crimes such as attempted rape, etc. Because racism.

It can be used as a smoke screen to hide behind when the facts don't back up a given argument and dares the other person to challenge their incorrect viewpoint. For example, when the criminal gets shot because they started pulling a gun and someone argues why that is about as clear cut case of use of force, then they can try to frame that as supporting racism to the gullible.