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| Not a white person in sight |
Yep. Probably no demographic group has been more devastated by absent fatherhood and the rise of broken families more than African Americans. In fact, it's become so obvious that we say it and miss the implications of what we're saying.
A few years ago, to demonstrate the idea of 'privilege', some PSA organization produced a video. In that video, it had a hundred or so people line up on one side of a field. Then the narrator asked questions. If the answer was yes (or no, can't remember which), you stayed put while everyone else stepped forward. The line of people attempted to represent people from every possible demographic group, and who had the real privilege at the end.
The first question out of the box was 'How many of you gre3w up in a broken home?' It seemed almost half the people stayed put. And of those who stayed put, the vast majority were black. And among those who remained to continue the walk across the field, very few blacks were left.
The message was supposed to be what privilege is really all about. Yet nobody who made the video, or the outlets that showed and promoted the video, or the various websites that shared the video, seemed to get the most obvious problem. Per the sampling chosen for the video, the overwhelming number of blacks were left standing after the first question because of one reason: broken households.
So naturally today Google, like most of our nation (our own parish notwithstanding), chose to emphasis the inconsistently promoted Juneteenth and downplay, if not altogether ignore, Father's Day. Except for a brief mention on the news and a special BBQ segment on the local news, it was Juneteenth all the way (with Pride Celebrations elbowing in for a close third, if not second).
With each passing day, I become less able to convince myself that our leftwing ruling class isn't purposefully encouraging the worst behavior and attitudes in the black community in order to foster a self-fulfilling prophecy that can be used to dismantle the heritage of America and the Christian West. At some point, there simply isn't any other explanation for what our eyes can see and our ears can hear.
True, it could be our modern arrogance and hubris that leads to continuing support for the LGBTQ lifestyle and a whole month of PRIDE in the era of AIDS. But more and more it seems deliberate. After all, even the most obstinate narcissists can't possibly miss what is so nakedly obvious.
Note: Apparently this is already a meme. Google had to do Fathers Day before Juneteenth because you can't celebrate blacks and fathers at the same time. Ouch, yet as one fellow said, don't blame the messenger, Google wrote that joke itself.
A few years ago, to demonstrate the idea of 'privilege', some PSA organization produced a video. In that video, it had a hundred or so people line up on one side of a field. Then the narrator asked questions. If the answer was yes (or no, can't remember which), you stayed put while everyone else stepped forward. The line of people attempted to represent people from every possible demographic group, and who had the real privilege at the end.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't demonstrate the idea of privilege at all. The authors of the ad are too stupid to make the distinction between privilege - which means private law, a benefit conferred by gatekeepers contra standard practices known to all - and advantages. Very few people have much privilege and the most prevalent manifestation of privilege - a connection who helps you get a job somewhere - is one you see all up and down social strata in this country.
(Tom New Poster)
ReplyDeleteI still stick with Orwell's rule of thumb to invoke incompetence before conspiracy. De Balzac says in "Lost Illusions" that the ruling classes exploit opportunities to extend and consolidate advantages ad hoc, but don't bother to create them. Fatherlessness was not created by the Left, and it might be truer to say (as Paul Johnson does in "Intellectuals") that weak, absent and abusive fathers can spawn a resentment that leads to utopian yearnings, which are then exploited. However the connection arose, it's there now. That's been obvious to me since the 1990s.
The ruling class typically doesn't need to create the opertunities. The lower classes do a good enough job of creating their own weaknesses. Contrary to what many believe, being poor doesn't automatically make sombody a good person. The ruling classes have done plenty to make the issues worse, but most of the differences between Blacks and Whites in the US today have roots going back centuries to the geographic differences between Europe and Sub-Sahara Africa.
DeleteI think there is a middle ground between incompetence and conspiracy. I don't think the Left sat around and said, 'Hey, let's get black Americans to act in the worst ways possible and exploit that.' I do think they saw problems in the black community and have encouraged reactions to those problems - including not really calling out the problems but sufficing to let blame fall on white America or anything else - that are counterproductive at best. I also don't think that the party that produced the most diehard opponents to civil rights legislation suddenly changed on a dime and became the biggest lovers of the black community. In fact, like many things, I have a hunch it was likely seizing an opportunity more than any preplanned course of action. And it continues to go on, with the worst attitudes and reactions and behaviors getting a nod from our modern leftwing dominant ruling classes.
DeleteYeah, that's the issue. Most people don't understand that middle ground exist.
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