It’s time for us to let go of our pretty “PC” fairy tales, face the facts, and have an honest talk about race.
This weekend riot police were called in when crowds of wilding young people brought violence, looting and vandalism to the streets of Keene, New Hampshire during its annual Pumpkin Festival. And despite the lamestream media’s refusal to discuss the race of the perpetrators, it was obvious to any non-blind person with a television set that there basically one race and one race only that was endangering the law-abiding people of Keene:
White people.
It seems like whenever you turn on the news or open your newspaper, there’s a story about some white buck having been caught running afoul of the law. Sure, we’ve been taught to say out loud that “anyone of any race” could have perpetrated whatever crimes we might see being reported, but c’mon — we know.
The guy who holds up the drug store with a gun? White. The guy who pulls an assault rifle on the bartender who won’t serve him for being intoxicated? White. The professional football player convicted of raping a young woman? White. Hell, last month there was even a national news story about a family reunion in Alaska that required police intervention because no one was civilized enough to keep their violent impulses in check for even a few hours. The PC police made sure that none of the news stations covering that story once mentioned the race of the perps. Not that they had to tell us the family was white. We all knew.
Of course, anyone with a modicum of common sense could have predicted what happened at the Keene Pumpkin Festival. Most of the thugs that took part in the lawlessness were raised in families where the father spends his days working boring and useless middle management careers, rather than being home where he’s needed. And those fathers that are home are usually there because they’ve been laid off from work, and aren’t out having meaningful middle-managment careers they way they should.
In fact, most of the rioters were students going to college at a State school that someone else — parents, the government, taxpayers — were flipping the bill for. Honestly, you raise white kids in an environment where school is just magically paid for without them ever having to hold down a full time job, and what did you think was going to happen? In allowing them to be handed them a life of freebies, we are all collectively responsible for the state of white youth today. They might as well have been born feral.
Now sure, we all know that the media is going to pretend that what happened in Keene has nothing to do with those kids being white. But it’s important to pay attention to what the media won’t show you. They won’t show the Facebook pages of the kids that go to Keene College, who regularly post pictures of themselves openly flaunting the law with their so-called “gangstah” lifestyle. I’m talking about pictures like this:
Those white kids that go to Keene? They spent their formative years listening to music that taught them that being a gangster thug was the way to be cool if you were a guy, and dressing like a stripper was the way to be popular if you were a girl. They were raised on television shows that showed them that made heroes of white drug traffickers, street gangs, and serial killers. They were even encouraged by their so-called “communities” to dress for school in anti-social “gangstah” dress like this. Those kids never had a chance.
And where, I ask you, is the white leadership in all of this?
The leaders of both houses of congress are each white men, as is the vice-President. So too is the leader of almost every single large religious order in America. Our celebrity magazines are peppered with white professional athletes, actors, movie directors and musicians. Where are their voices in all of this? Why are they not coming forward to condemn the white community, the white family, and young white people whenever you see a news story about some white guy doing something they shouldn’t have? Ted Cruz is on every news show on every network these days; when is he going to speak up and tell his people that they are the problem? Why isn’t Rick Perry or John Oliver or Glenn Beck or Bill Maher on their way to Keene, NH right now, to stand with those that want white communities to start being part of the solution? The silence of white politicians and celebrities is truly deafening.
It’s time to stop kidding ourselves.
It’s time to have an honest conversation about race.
Follow Tod on Twitter, view his archive, or email him. Visit him at TodKelly.com
Although not everyone will actually wear the thong in the fitting room
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I heard that the White Vice President’s son tested positive for cocaine.
Well, at least it was a rich people drug, right?Report
Slow clap…Report
Yeah, that’s one of those things you see in movies about white kidsReport
I love it!Report
This is similarly being downplayed… http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11728006/students-warned-riots-break-following-west-virginia-moutaineers-victory
Fact: WVU is 83% white.Report
“”This is not acceptable Mountaineer behavior,” Gee said in the university’s statement.”
Yes. True Mountaineers bear arms. The white leadership is disappointed in their youth for only using beer bottles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Mountaineers#MascotReport
Now, now, the last time Pitt came to play they used rocks.
(throwing them at the players on the bus).Report
I’m honestly shocked you heard about it, way up in NY. I figured Sam or I’d post about this, since it’s local.Report
. . . and I thought this was a piece of performance art:
Youths Dancing on Upturned Car.
Not particularly my cup of tea, but anything in the medium of tangled steel I find so 80’s.
Tedium is the most heinous crime; apathy the natural state of man.Report
Tedium is the most heinous crime; apathy the natural state of man.
I rather like that turn of phrase.Report
Of course, there are the preparatory crimes associated with tedium:
Attempted Tedium, Solicitation of Tedium, Intentional Tedium, Tedium-in-fact, etc.
There are also the aggravating factors:
Aggravated Tedium, Habitual Tedium, etc.
Be on the lookout for tedium in progress.Report
They are not just white, they are white males, for the most part, rioting in Keene; I count two definite females; at least 11 males, the rest unknown, in your top photo.
So let’s talk about the real problem. Not just white, not only white, but those guilty of being male while being white.Report
We need to find a group of exemplary women and hold them up in cases like this. “KNOCK IT OFF, WHITE MALE PEOPLE! ACT LIKE YOU’RE A FREAKING FEMALE INUIT!”
We might have to deal with white men mocking each other by saying “dude, you’re acting like an Inuit Chick” but we should do our best to communicate to these white men that their culture is nothing to be proud of, nothing to be emulated, and they’d be a hell of a lot better off if they acted like Inuit Women.
Jesus Christ, white males need to engage in some serious self re-evaluation.Report
Dare we ask what religion these white males are?Report
They they’re sure acting like they won’t be judged for their actions in this world. Unitarian Universalist?Report
Or, alternatively, that they can go to Confession the next day and get it all “expunged” from God’s Big Book of Sins, so Roman Catholic?Report
Lutherans. They’ve been saved, so they’re in the clear.Report
@james-hanley
I thought Presbyterians were the ones that were saved?Report
@james-hanley
Even if they save, they still take half damage.Report
@james-k
I didn’t know you had it in you… nice!Report
@murali
I’ll have you know, I’m a master of terrible puns.Report
This came to mind for whatever reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuDx6_PLIVkReport
BSDI
Godwin’s Law
Too big to fail
Male privilege
RAAAAAPEReport
Well played…Report
More seriously:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/10/the_whiteness_project_whites_and_blacks_are_still_living_in_separate_worlds.htmlReport
See the various riots on campuses after basketball tournament victories and losses. Once again booze involved. (as this was). Again typically the same group involved.Report
Fantastic, Tod.Report
It’s Time to Have an Honest Conversation About Race…
And by that, you mean, it’s time to write a humorous and snarky post, turning the tables and reversing the roles of the races, followed by everyone out-joking one another in the comments. Because that way we don’t actually have to have an honest conversation about race, as long as we are witty and erudite (and white, preferably, or at least that we act white).
For those that would be influenced by a post like this, they are already aware of the hypocrisy of a white society. For those that wouldn’t, well, this post would do nothing. It seems more like the self-congratulatory thing that white folks do to make themselves feel superior because they get the joke (which means they don’t actually have to grapple with the issues). Either way, this post is all about white people.
You know why this is not funny to me? Because what Mr. Kelly wrote is written about my race every day.Report
Satire doesn’t need to be funny to be pointed and witty.Report
Neither does a circle jerk.Report
That’s a fair enough point. Though, fwiw, this was not meant to be a funny, humorous, or snarky post.Report
What was it meant to be then?Report
Because what Mr. Kelly wrote is written about my race every day.
And using a little bit of substitution, one hopes that those who are inclined to write such things about your race see how absurd the statements are.
Now, I suppose, it might be a tad circle-jerky given that those who are inclined to write such things probably aren’t inclined to read Ordinary Times (except, of course, to find examples of beta maleness).
I’m thinking about what a post where we grapple with the issues would look like and, so far, most of the flashes I see involve many of us repeating things we’ve said before. We’d talk about the War on Drugs, the issues of culture, the issues of Paternalism, the issues of going out of our way to avoid Paternalism, education policy, tax policy, and health care policy. Some people will want to talk about what individuals can do in the middle of a thread about what we, as a society, need to do. Other people will get all defensive about what we, as a society, need to do and will discuss what they, as individuals, have done and how that should be enough.
I’m sure you know the script and who will be playing whom. Again.Report
Hey, now!
We are more gamma than beta.
We ASPIRE to beta.
The most manly man here was @veronica-d .Report
OK. I’ll take you up on your implicit challenge, and make a brief but as honest-as-I-can-make-it comment.
I get that you didn’t find the post funny. I didn’t grasp your comment at first, but upon reflection came to a better understanding of it. So a personal thanks for making it and for contributing to an honest discussion.
I did find the post “funny,” at least in the sense that I felt foolish for not having recognized its point before being slapped with it. I had read about the events, had the usual reactions about kids being kids, and pretty much never thought about how very differently the reports would have gone had the issue of race been directly raised. So for me, Tod’s post hit a target. One might even say I was “influenced” by it.
I and many others spend time trying to grasp, as best we can, what it means to be a privileged member of a racist society. Do I get it right all of the time? Nope. But I urge you not to lump every “white person” into one of two camps: those you dismiss as nothing but “self-congratulatory” because they “get It,” or those who couldn’t possibly be affected by the post because they don’t. Otherwise, you’re going to get responses like Jaybird’s, which you might (and understandably so, meaning no disrespect to Jaybird) have found as dismissive as your comment to Tod. I understand that wasn’t your intent, but I suspect it wasn’t Tod’s either. Nor is it mine.Report
This post mocks an outrage; race-based bias in media coverage of youthful barbarism. It does so by pointedly reversing racial terms. (Also class terms; all those neglectful middle-manager fathers.) The result is an outrage because it accurately reflects an outrage.
Of course society is hypocritical. Hypocrisy is not a bug, nor a feature; it’s the operating system. Everyone knows that; but people don’t need teaching as much as they need reminding.Report
In the interests of equal time…
Men open fire at house party after losing game of beer pong
H/T: Lion of the BlogosphereReport
tod:
Is this one of those stunt threads were you try to make point about white people or republicans?
I’ve got news for you. The riots that are going to happen in Ferguson after the grand jury no bills Ofc. Wilson are going to make this look like nothing. There has been more evidence coming out now about the incident and it looks better for Wilson. Sorry Chris.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-evidence-supports-officers-account-of-shooting-in-ferguson/2014/10/22/cf38c7b4-5964-11e4-bd61-346aee66ba29_story.htmlReport
Man, talk about according legitimacy to state violence…Report
Hard to argue with that. “The riots that haven’t happened will obviously be much worse than the riots that are happening.”Report
Kazzy:
As far as I can tell, the HN protestors didn’t kill anyone and there wasn’t any major property damage. Do you really think another Ferguson riot will be that tame?Report
That should be rioters not protestors. It’s been a long day.Report
Are these riots that haven’t happened yet, the same riots that haven’t happened yet in response to George Zimmerman being acquitted? Cause those are going to be epic.
And speaking of things that have not happened yet, I have yet to become convinced that @notme is not really a leftist sock puppet.Report
jr:
I guess this riot didn’t happen even though it is in the LA Times. That one example was the easiest one to find but I’m sure there were others.Report
Forgot the link.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/16/local/la-me-ln-zimmerman-protests-arrests-20130716Report
So you’re predicting riots that will kill people by pointing to one in which no one got killed?Report
The fact that they haven’t killed anyone yet just proves how pent up their rage will be when they really unleash it.Report
From the article:
Sorry @notme, but you are not doing much to disabuse me of my sock puppet theory.Report
Correlations are real-valued.Report