Things You Hear on NPR: Yeah, We’re Going to Accuse You of Racism No Matter What You Do
April 2, 2017
It’s the same old “racism” Catch-22—damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Disney was criticized for years for supposedly not having enough black characters in their major movies, then for having black actors do some of the voices in the cartoon movie The Lion King. (Critics said, What, Disney can only have black characters if they’re animals? as well as accusing Disney of casting black actors only as the voices of the villains, which isn’t even close—James Earl Jones played the central character of the king and father, Mufasa, and black actors also voiced Rafiki, Simba’s mother, one of the Nalas, and one of the Simbas’ singing voice.) Then Disney made The Princess and the Frog, with predominantly black (and non-animal) characters, and was criticized for supposedly playing into racial stereotypes.
So a white supremacist or “white nationalist” (wants a constitutional amendment making America white-only, banning all people except “non-Hispanic whites of the European race, in whom there is no ascertainable trace of Negro blood”) briefly became an official delegate of the Trump campaign.
If racism is going to start becoming more popular or mainstream now, I gotta get this off my chest:
During recent oral arguments before the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia mentioned the theory of academic mismatch, that affirmative action hurts its intended beneficiaries by putting each affected student (whatever his individual academic level) in a school where he will be below average and do poorly, rather than a school where he will be on par with his classmates and do well.
Further Thoughts on the Confederate Flag(s)
June 24, 2015
Interesting notes on the history of the flags of the Confederacy, according to Wikipedia.
One of the first acts of the Provisional Confederate Congress was to create the “Committee on the Flag and Seal”, chaired by William Porcher Miles of South Carolina. The committee asked the public to submit thoughts and ideas on the topic and was, as historian John M. Coski puts it, “overwhelmed by requests not to abandon the ‘old flag’ of the United States.”
Read more. My takeaways (subject to the obligatory caveats about trusting Wikipedia):
Racism, Racism, Everywhere! Plus: ‘Fact-checking’ Paul Ryan
September 4, 2012
Lately a lot of liberals seem to think that our desire to elect Republicans can only be explained by racism.
Rich Lowry discusses some examples (full version at Politico, short version at National Review Online).
[Michael Eric Dyson] wrote a blog post for The New York Times contending that, by attacking Obama for cutting Medicare to pay for “Obamacare,” the Romney campaign is engaged in a politics of “racially freighted resource competition.”
Why? Because Medicare beneficiaries are “largely white” and “Obamacare” beneficiaries will be “disproportionately minority.” Edsall calls this supposed strategy “subtle.” Very, very subtle.
In Jim Geraghty’s daily e-mail (you can subscribe for free in the top-right corner of the National Review Online main page), I was very interested to read about a new Republican TV ad:
