by John Walters
“And those children that you spit on/As they try to change their world…”
If you follow me on Twitter (or if you don’t, and have a life), you know I’ve been utterly preoccupied with the events in Columbia this week. And it’s left me bewildered. I just watched a doc on Kent State a week ago. I rooted for the family in Sounder (chill out, it’s a joke…but I did). I like to think I’m not an old guy who just hates change.
That’s not for me to judge.
I’ve been bewildered at how much people think all existing rules or truths should be sacrificed as long as people don’t feel threatened or offended. I’ve been bewildered that the most trenchant voice arguing on my side of things is Jason Whitlock. I’ve been bewildered that the same black people, some of them very public, who’ve been ripping me have not a word to say about what Whitlock is writing, at least not publicly.
It feels as if this week we exchanged equality for mequality: the only thing that’s fair is that I get my way.
It feels as if there must be more to this. Money, perhaps. Did Mizzou suddenly become MORE racist once students’ health care and abortion-clinics privileges got cut? I wonder.
I’m quite comfortable with how I treat everyone, regardless of race, creed, bra size, etc. What this week seemed to say to me, with a loud voice, is that if you are white, here are the ground rules: You either agree completely with what any black person says pertaining to racism, or you are racist. There is no middle ground. Just as Ellen DeGeneres said in February of 2014: “Either ’12 Years a Slave’ wins Best Oscar, or you’re all racist.”
I’ve had plenty of discussions with black people on Twitter this week. One of my favorites just ended. After he’d failed on every logical argument and was forced to acknowledge that Chancellor Loftin’s appeasement of Jonathan Butler actually came before the Homecoming parade, he left me with this:
“FACT:You’re butt hurt cause the minority rose up and accomplished something huge.
get a hankie and cry it out. Inaction will not be tolerated any further. Anyone can be taken down. New times my friend.”
I’ve also been called a “wing nut asshole” and an “arrogant prick” by the same people who are fighting for the right not to be offended by defamatory speech. Lots of great irony this week.
I don’t know where this ends. I do know that it doesn’t end in my life time. It may never end in the history of this country.
It’s like, Yes, slavery was awful. Also, yes, most of the white people you direct your anger to come from families who immigrated to the USA after slavery ended. But I guess we still get that white privilege card.
Slavery on this continent is the product of the white man. So, too, is the democracy and republic that is the USA. Which is why, as horrible as slavery was, and nobody disputes that, there aren’t many people eager to leaver this place. Besides, we have the most evolved spectator sports.
I don’t know what else to say. There have been so many injustices that black people have had to deal with and still do. There are also some stories that are a little more nuanced than that (hello, Michael Brown).
I hope Missouri becomes a more enlightened campus. I also wonder what the body count will be on the South Side of Chicago this weekend. It’s a crazy world.
Music 101
For Your Eyes Only
Schmaltzy early ’80s tune, sure, but Sheena Easton was as lovely as any Bond girl. And, like Sean Connery (who is not 007 in this film) she is a great Scot. The song reached Top 5 in the U.S. Note: Blondie wrote a song of the same name hoping it would be selected as the theme, but no dice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN1WBgS9u_E
Remote Patrol
SATURDAY
No. 12 Oklahoma at No. 6 Baylor
ABC 8 p.m.
Corey Coleman leads the nation in TD receptions (20) and receiving yardage per game
The CFB rankings explode wide open if the unbeaten Bears fail to hold serve tonight in Waco. And they have Oklahoma State in Stillwater next week. That’s a tough two-fer before meeting TCU. The Sooners are the first team with a winning record Baylor has met all season. Meanwhile, use “Last Channel” to hit FOX and Oregon at No. 7 Stanford. The Ducks have won three straight.
As said yesterday, I share your view although I’m not as bewildered. I’ve been seeing this coming over the past few years. Millennials are actually patting themselves on the back while I am convinced their arrogant, myopic, bullying intransigence is worsening racial relations to an alarming level. You want a “race war”? Just DEMAND all white Americans “apologize” for their “white privilege”.
One quibble – you say above “slavery on this continent is the product of the white man”. Not true unless you are specifically speaking of black slavery & even then it’s not so, er, “black & white”. Many of the various tribal peoples on this continent (before AND after the “white man” arrived) had enslaved those they defeated in wars &/or raids & had done so for hundreds of years. Also, the people in Africa who actually captured & sold others to the white Europeans were black Africans. To discount or eliminate that fact is to, er, “whitewash” history.
One final question – if a journalist wrote in a major newspaper that a group of people NEEDED to isolate themselves for any period of time to “protect their sense of whiteness” – how would that go down? Silly me, I thought that was the KKK’s philosophy…