A discussion? Hardly. It is just another item for your ridiculous
website, which, again, I discovered when someone pointed it out to me.
You have made a new, apparently lucrative, career out of placing in the
pillory anyone with the temerity to point out the numerous flaws in
American society and you have a number of frustrated folks out there who
fit Mencken's idea of the "booboise" who suck it up.
Your reply to the question of unequal treatment before the law of black
and brown Americans compared to their white counterparts is a perfect
example of that and makes continuing this exercise a waste of time
as others on this list have contended. The only time young white males
will be asked for ID's is when they are purchasing liquor or trying to
get into a bar. Black men AND women are not only asked for their ID's
in situations where whites aren't but there have been numerous cases
where men and women are trailed by store detectives when they are
shopping in large department stores, to make sure they won't shoplift.
(When I went to Fairfax High back in the late 40s, when it was 95%
Jewish, almost everyone I knew shoplifted and no one ever got in a
trouble.) Although men are more often the target, black women also are
victims of such racial profiling, which judging from your answer, you
seem to think is legitmate.
The basis of my statement is a recent survey, published in the
mainstream media which reports that black men and women routinely go to
jail when charged with crimes for which whites are given probation, and
black youth are hauled into the justice system when young whites of the
same age are given probation or counseling. And this situation exists
well beyond the inequities that exist for cocaine possession or useage.
Since apparently, like Rush Limbaugh, and others of his ilk, you
apparently don't think that blacks in America are victimized by racism,
refuse to acknowledge that those without funds invariably receive shoddy
legal assistance, and are so ready to create your own facts, such as
"One in three black males are indeed convicted felons." (and imply that
I wrote that), and that white skin privilege is "baloney," that arguing
with you, or presenting you with facts, is a waste of time.
You have a vested interest in maintaining a contrary view. Or, in simple
terms, that's how you make a living: peddling your invidious brand of
racism and jingoism to those sectors of the society that are all too
ready to gobble it up.
Your final piece of nonsense, that "As a Jew, Jeffrey I don't exactly
identify with the white bogeyman ruling group you try to create with
your perverse fantasies of exploitation and oppression, would seem to
imply that Jews cannot be exploiters as well as revolutionaries or
couuch potatoes. Perhaps, you would describe Charles Hurwitz (Maxxam),
Robert Shapriro (Monsanto), Donald Fisher (GAP) and Michael Eisner
(Disney), as merely office boys.
In concluding this exchange, I wish to thank you, however, for not only
providing excellent material for a high school lesson plan, but for
providing some wonderful quotes for the jacket cover of my memoirs when
I decide to write them.
Jeff Blankfort
David Horowitz wrote:
> > Well, a real discussion. That is a surprise, and a welcome one. You write, "If
> > you are black or brown, none of the above are true." Come again? If you are an
> > older black woman you are going to be asked for your ID more than if you are a
> > young white male? Don't think so. How many of the ID queries are racial, and
> > how many are because aspects of criminal profile are present? (You might want
> > to read my article on profiling "The Death of the Civil Rights Movement" at
> > www.frontpagemagazine.com before you reply). On what grounds are you making
> > the statement "black men and youth go to prison for crimes for which white
> > men and youth receive probation and counseling"? Are you aware that sentencing
> > is dependent not only on the nature of the crime but also the criminal profile
> > of the defendant. If this is just the tired and incredibly lame argument about
> > crack vs. powder cocaine, don't even bother to reply. As for the fact that we
> > have more prison inmates than any other (I won't bother check your facts)
> > doesn't it occur to you that this may have something to do with 1) enormous
> > personal freedom and upward mobility and 2) incomparably generous immigration
> > policies and lack of will to enforce even those (are you aware of how many
> > criminals come into this country annually as illegals).
> >
> > What don't you understand about the fact that blacks are not only not leaving
> > this country but are dying (literally) to get in? What's your explanation if
> > it's not that life is better here for them than it would be anywhere they can
> > think of going? Oh, and you can stuff your privileged white male baloney.
> > You're not talking to the brainwashed politically correct here. One in three
> > black males are indeed convicted felons. This is a serious social problem that
> > has nothing to with racism (unless you want to talk about the leftwing racism
> > that produced the welfare system and destroyed inner city black families.)
> > Your implication that they are in jail because they lacked high paid legal
> > defense rather than that they are criminals is laughable. It's true that OJ
> > Simpson had high paid legal counsel and got off. It's also true that he killed
> > his wife and a stranger. So...
> >
> > "Do you think (America's great wealth) was developed here?" Yes.
> >
> > Your explanation of the deterioration of the economic and social environment
> > in Sub-Saharan Africa after independence just shows how ignorant of African
> > conditions you are. Unless you are complaining that the colonial powers didn't
> > root out tribalism. Because it's the combination of tribalism and socialism
> > that has taken Africa down. Lumumba has been dead forty years. What about the
> > misery Nkrumah inflicted on Ghana, Mugabe on Zimbabwe and so on. How do you
> > blame Europe for the massacres in Rwanda? Why is South Africa now the rape and
> > murder capital of the world with a raging AIDS epidemic and a leader who
> > thinks the AIDS virus is a western plot?
> >
> > Cuba. Well, Jeffrey, I give up mentally on this one. Have you read nothing but
> > NACLA reports since 1959? Castro was not forced into the arms of the Soviet
> > Union, he leaped into them (I can't believe I'm having to argue this in
> > 2000). He was a Communist in 1954 (check this out with Saul Landau, who is
> > one of those who testifies to this). Secondly, the aid the Soviets gave $6
> > billion a year to a country with only 6 million people at the time (you do the
> > math) is unprecedented. Third, the Soviet relationship has been dead for 10
> > years. What has Castro done since to diversify? He's turned Cuba into a whore
> > house. I won't even go into the education and health propaganda (what good,
> > Jeffrey, is an education system which indoctrinates 6 years olds in
> > totalitarian clap trap? of what benefit is a health system that has no
> > medicines?). This is a country which was the second richest in per capita
> > income in all of Latin America in 1959. It's now a nation where people ride
> > bicycles instead of automobiles and eat meat twice a month. Get a better
> > excuse.
> >
> > Since you're argument is always the devil made them do it (do you really think
> > US capitalists made Mexico a corrupt one-party state for all those years?), to
> > the clear as day cases. 1) Hong Kong's economy has the highest concentration
> > of foreign investment in the world, and its people have the highest per capita
> > incomes of any people in Asia. 2) Before the Korean War, North Korea was the
> > industrial heartland of Korea. There is a war. Both sides are devastated.
> > South Korea becomes what you would call a neo-colony of the United States. The
> > result for South Korea is a fantastic economic boom, entry into the world of
> > industrial nations with the per capita income to go with it, an economy more
> > competitive internationally than the Soviet Union at its zenith (you have
> > probably bought a Korean made VCR, for example; I'll bet you have never bought
> > anything from the Soviet Union but vodka and caviar), and a fledging democracy
> > (not very good, but probably better than Mexico's). On other hand North Korea
> > adopted those socialist policies you and Fidel love so much. Result: An
> > economic basket case with mass starvation as recently as the last few years
> > and Stalinoid demi-god for a ruler in what is a rigid totalitarian state.
> >
> > Is this example of why you are 100% wrong about the impact of foreign
> > investment and U.S. protrection clear enough?
> >
> > My question: "Do you think that the trillions in wealth
> > > that Microsoft has generated comes out of the sweat of the working class?"
> >
> > Your answer: "Not directly, but it came from somewhere. Suppose that Nike's
> > Phillip
> > Knight has contributed his share and made his own bundle with Microsoft.
> > Every dime he makes comes from exploited labor." This is priceless Jeffrey. I
> > wonder that you didn't bring in the price of beer in Siberia. As for "it came
> > from somewhere" -- if you are not a Marxist as you coyly try to imply next in
> > your post, why would you even ask such a question? It comes from supplying a
> > need that is so useful to so many people that they are willing to pay
> > trillions for it.
> >
> > Of course I never called your students naive for wanting equal rights, equal
> > treatment, equal justice say with the ethnic majority, whatever that is these
> > days. As a Jew, Jeffrey I don't exactly identify with the white bogeyman
> > ruling group you try to create with your perverse fantasies of exploitation
> > and oppression. If instead of indoctrinating your students with discredited
> > totalitarian doctrines like Marxism (your entire teaching method, as described
> > in your posts, is a violation of their academic freedom by the way), you
> > taught to them to think about the world practically, you would them this:
> >
> > "Human nature being what it is, minorities in all the human cutlures that have
> > ever been recorded have a somewhat harder time getting equal treatment and
> > respect. And this will probably always be the case. That said, minorities in
> > America have more rights, more privileges, more freedom than minorities
> > anywhere else have or have had since the beginning of time. Moreover, the
> > beauty of America is that it promises equality to everyone regardless of race,
> > color or creed. That opens the possibility that things will be even better
> > tomorrow.
> >
> > "However we have to fight for this possibility. Unfortunately in America there
> > is a powerful movement on the left to erase the principles of equality that
> > Americans have struggled so hard to establish. The left is a throwback to 19th
> > Century and even 18th Century prejudices that want to undo the great bourgeois
> > revolutions of those times which overthrew the aristocracies based on status
> > and established individual rights and liberty. Leftists want to re-institute
> > status and group identity as a basis for social order. They want create pariah
> > groups and privileged groups, based entirely on skin color, or gender or
> > ethnicity. Before we can advance in America to even greater levels of racial
> > and ethnic equality we have to defeat this left which is poisoning the minds
> > of our young with racial and ethnic prejudice and hatred, much of it directed
> > towards the institutions and culture of this land itself. These leftists are
> > the priests of a destructive religion. They will try to convince you that you
> > are controlled by alien powers. Patriarchies and ruling classes and dominant
> > races. These leftists will try to convince you that you are victims and that
> > nothing you do, no crime you commit, no failure to perform is your
> > responsibility. It's all because of them. This is a perfectly crippling
> > message that will prevent you from ever realizing your own power if you
> > believe it. If other people control you, if the system is rigged against you,
> > why should you try to succeed at all? In fact the greatest obstacle you will
> > face in improving your lot in this life if you are black or brown is not the
> > occasional bigot you will meet, but the seduction of a political left that
> > doesn't really give a damn about you or your people, but only about its own
> > gratification and self-serving agendas. If you give these false prophets your
> > soul, you will spend your life in fruitless self-pity, petty resentment, and
> > alienation. You will withold yourself from the political and economic
> > mainstream of American life. You will blame others for what you should
> > probably take responsibility for yourself. You will forgo every opporunity to
> > learn about yourself, to improve yourself, and to compete. You will have
> > squandered the greatest opportunity the world as it really exists has to
> > offer."
>
> > You, Jeffrey, are the worst nightmare these students will have to face.
> >
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Sep 12 2000 - 22:01:36 CUT