"What did you learn in school today, dear little boys of mine?"

I learned that Robert Stacy McCain is a racist wanker. After recounting a "joke" about how all kids learn about today is Rosa Parks (I don't recall my math classes going this way, though: "What's the square root of 36?" "Rosa Parks?" "Good!"), McCain has to jump in with this:

The Historic Victimhood Narrative is virtually the only history or civics taught in American public schools today. "America The Beautiful" has been replaced by "America The Oppressive." Parents who send their offspring to these government-run indoctrination camps should be prosecuted for child abuse.

Apparently, teaching about people that were involved in movements that fundamentally and radically altered political and legal systems in this country that had been standing for nearly a century is bad. Why? Because telling kids about Jim Crow and slavery, that America did reprehensible things, amounts to "indoctrinating" them. Instead, we should completely gloss over anything bad that America has ever done so that kids get a completely non-biased education of how America is perfect and good and made of candy. Frankly, we do that all too much already. Sure, kids learn that there were slaves, and then there weren't, but then there was Jim Crow, until the '50s and '60s, but how much attention is paid to, say, the Philippine-American War, Manifest Destiny, and pretty much every other horrible atrocity committed by their country? Almost none, I'd wager.

Amusingly enough, McCain continued with an update:

Children are taught to reverence a pantheon of symbolic personalities whose biographies are didactically rendered in such a way as to ignore whatever fundamental reality might contradict their function as symbols.

Indeed! For instance, they're not informed that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slaveowners. They're not informed that Abraham Lincoln wanted to colonize the slaves in Africa. They're not aware that one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence thought that black skin was a form of leprosy. They're not aware of any of the racist attitudes all of our presidents held. But of course that's not what McCain had in mind, and the irony inherent in his words probably didn't occur to him.

Via LG&M.
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I feel so left out

Ed Brayton is so lucky... somebody sent him some racism! The KKK mailed some fliers in response to Obama's election, and a blogger scanned their copy. Now you can see that the "Marxist/Communist" includes equality for blacks, women, and gays, and that's why they have to be stopped!

(I wonder which Marxists / Communists they're fighting nowadays, anyway. Cuba? China?)
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I've heard this stuff a lot; it galls me

Michael Savage says something racist--no-one is shocked:

During the presidential campaign, Savage repeatedly described Obama as an "affirmative action" candidate. For instance, Media Matters for America noted that on his October 27 broadcast, Savage said that Obama "benefited from affirmative action, stepping over more qualified white men, I actually lost as a result of affirmative action, many times in my life. ... [W]e have America's first affirmative action candidate about to become president."

Apparently Savage never heard about the last President we have. Bush was a legacy admission to Yale, gaining admission in part because his father and grandfather had attended, in spite of mediocre grades and SAT scores. He got into the National Guard, avoiding service in Vietnam, because of political favors from family friends, because he was white and rich. And though he of course denies asking for such favors, other accounts recall him boasting about them. His life was a long line of mediocrity and failure, but despite this he managed to climb higher due in large part to family connections. The notion that affirmative action is bad because it will push aside talented white people in favor of lackluster minority candidates is a joke, ignoring that mediocre, inexperienced, and untalented white people are given preferential treatment all the time.

Opposition to affirmative action like that Savage spouts stems mostly from the idea that jobs belong inherently to white people--that it is their birthright. Anything that dismantles such notions of white privilege must be attacked bitterly.

And this isn't even going into the rest of what Savage said, that because of Obama's election "there's gonna be a wholesale firing of competent white men in the United States government up and down the line, in police departments, in fire departments." Which completely ignores the picks Obama has made so far, but reality is anathema to people like Savage.
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"All Barack Obama proved is that racism never existed!"

Thank god Obama was elected! That surely proved that there's no more racism in the U.S.

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

A related article notes that this election appears to have done wonders for the recruitment efforts of white supremacist assholes:

One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an AP count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day. On Saturday, one Stormfront poster, identified as Dalderian Germanicus, of North Las Vegas, said, "I want the SOB laid out in a box to see how 'messiahs' come to rest. God has abandoned us, this country is doomed."

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I would not be surprised if someone put this forth in all seriousness

Watermelons have Viagra-like effects:

A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra _ but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks going all night long.

Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body's blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation's top producers of the seedless variety.

Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems.

"Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it," said Bhimu Patil, a researcher and director of Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. "Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra, but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side effects."

So now we know the truth: blacks are sex maniacs because of all the watermelon they eat. It's all coming together.
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I can't wait to tell all my Chinese friends that they're black.

In South Africa, at least.

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as "black," a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, ethnically Chinese citizens will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

In 2006, the Chinese Association of South Africa sued the government, claiming that its members were being discriminated against because they were being treated as whites and thus failed to qualify for business contracts and job promotions reserved for victims of apartheid. The association successfully argued that, since Chinese-South Africans had been treated unequally under apartheid, they should be reclassified in order to redress wrongs of the past.

I heard about this and had to Google it to find the article. Which was disturbing, because American Renaissance and Color of Crime are some of the top results. The latter takes this occurrence as proof that whites are being discriminated against. But of course, he also thinks that inserting extra letters into "racist" will fool everyone.

The article also mentions that this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened in South Africa--which the long-time reader of this blog would already know, eh?
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I know I said probably no posting, but...

How could I resist posting about this?

The publishing company that owns the Curious George image says it is considering legal action to stop the sale of a T-shirt depicting Barack Obama as the monkey from children's books.

The T-shirts are being peddled by Marietta bar owner Mike Norman at his Mulligan's Bar and Grill in Cobb County. They show a picture of Curious Georgie peeling a banana, with the words "Obama '08" underneath.

...

Norman has said he got the T-shirts from someone in Arkansas. He started selling them at his bar -- known for the provocative, ultra-conservative political slogans often posted on signs out front -- in April but said he has no plans to mass market them.

The sales came to light this week when a loose coalition of local groups called a protest of the T-shirts.

About a dozen protestors rallied against the shirts Tuesday afternoon, condemning them as racist and asking Norman to stop selling them.

Norman acknowledged the imagery's Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey.

"We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears -- he looks just like Curious George."

Of course! We're not in '40s, therefore racist imagery isn't racist anymore! Because everyone knows that all racism ended in the '40s!

And a picture of the shirt:

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Life imitates art

A scene from Simpsons is particularly relevant:

Moe: *spray-painting a sign that reads UNITED STATES FOR UNITED STATESIANS* You know what really aggravateses me? It's dem immigants. Dey want all the benefits of livin' in Springfield, but they ain't even bothered to learn themselves the language.

Homer: *painting a sign that says HOMER SAY "GET OUT!"* Yeah! Those are exactly my sentimonies!

Barney: *incoherent, drunken vocalizations*

Moe: Ah, you said it, Barn.

Via Orcinus.
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Their last name isn't even spelled the same!

Well, we knew that Fox can't distinguish between two black people, and now we find out that they can't even distinguish between two people with similar last names.

When discussing that Clinton has challenged Obama to what she styled a "Lincoln/Douglas" debate, Fox flashed an image on the screen to illustrate (in a Lord Privy Seal kinda manner). On the right-hand side was Abraham Lincoln. On the left-hand side was... Frederick Douglass.

Granted, it's hard to tell Stephen Douglas and Frederick Douglass apart. One was an ardent supporter of slavery who claimed that blacks were inferior to whites and that the Declaration of Independence's statement "all men are created equal" did not apply to them, whereas the other was a leading abolitionist and one-time vice-presidential candidate for the Equal Rights Party. But they're both dead.

Via This Modern World, which has a screen capture if you don't want to watch the video clip at Huffington Post.
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Looks like we'll have to change the rules for Nevinyrral's Disk

Well. Larry Niven is apparently bugfuck insane.

Now a fixture at Department of Homeland Security science and technology conferences, SIGMA is a loosely affiliated group of science fiction writers who are offering pro bono advice to anyone in government who want their thoughts on how to protect the nation.

The group has the ear of Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Jay Cohen, head of the science and technology directorate, who has said he likes their unconventional thinking. Members of the group recently offered a rambling, sometimes strident string of ideas at a panel discussion promoting the group at the DHS science and technology conference.

...

Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.

"The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren't going to pay for anything anyway," Niven said.

Let's not forget that his fears are completely unfounded--undocumented immigrants don't receive a disproportionate amount of health care, and they do pay taxes into the system. But also, perhaps Niven is completely unaware that there are Spanish-speaking citizens of the U.S. who might also hear about these rumors? Wait, no. To Niven and his ilk, that's the whole point; despite directing all their rants towards "illegal aliens", they really mean that they just don't want any Latinos in the country at all.

And of course he's saying that he wants us to spread rumors that we're killing patients in order to drive away Latinos so that they'll die somewhere else. In short, he wants to kill Latinos without actually doing anything--although he might take up the direct approach later if the indirect way of killing them isn't effective enough.

What does any of this have to do with protecting the nation anyways? Oh no, we must kill off the sick and elderly before they topple our military and take over the Pentagon!

Via Sadly, No!
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Your ironic statement of the year

Today is Confederate Memorial Day, commemorating the surrender of General Joseph Johnston to General William Sherman. Mostly it's an occasion to remember the people who died in the Civil War, which is fine.

Up to a point:

"That's important because we are where we are today. We have the rights and freedoms that we do because our ancestors were willing to stand up and fight for what they thought was correct, and for the right of us to decide our own futures," said Adele Whitlock, president of the Robert E. Lee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Yes, that's right. The Confederacy was fighting for rights, freedoms, and the right to decide your futures. Specifically, the right to keep slaves, the freedom to do so without Northerners butting in, and the right to decide not only your future, but also the future of four million black people, who couldn't be trusted to do that for themselves.

I know that "they died to give us freedom" is the knee-jerk eulogy for any deceased soldier, but can't these people at least think about it for a second first?
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A conservative bigot who hates Arabs? Shock!

The New York Times has a fairly lengthy article up today that highlights the disgusting religious bigotry of the conservative movement after 9/11. Oh, of course they don't phrase it that way, and in fact rely on the hate-mongers as putrid "balance" in this story of how a bunch of bigots forced a woman out of her job as principal of an Arabic school that she founded. The reason they did so is because, in their vapid and xenophobic minds, anyone who would learn Arabic is an Arab, who is a Muslim, who is a terrorist (and never you mind that the school was named after a Lebanese Christian pacifist).

In newspaper articles and Internet postings, on television and talk radio, Ms. Almontaser was branded a "radical," a "jihadist" and a "9/11 denier." She stood accused of harboring unpatriotic leanings and of secretly planning to proselytize her students. Despite Ms. Almontaser's longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate, her critics quickly succeeded in recasting her image.

The conflict tapped into a well of post-9/11 anxieties. But Ms. Almontaser's downfall was not merely the result of a spontaneous outcry by concerned parents and neighborhood activists. It was also the work of a growing and organized movement to stop Muslim citizens who are seeking an expanded role in American public life. The fight against the school, participants in the effort say, was only an early skirmish in a broader, national struggle.

"It's a battle that's really just begun," said Daniel Pipes, who directs a conservative research group, the Middle East Forum, and helped lead the charge against Ms. Almontaser and the school.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, critics of radical Islam focused largely on terrorism, scrutinizing Muslim-American charities or asserting links between Muslim organizations and violent groups like Hamas. But as the authorities have stepped up the war on terror, those critics have shifted their gaze to a new frontier, what they describe as law-abiding Muslim-Americans who are imposing their religious values in the public domain.

It's not enough to go after terrorists, now they have to harass and intimidate perfectly law-abiding Muslims who just want to practice freedom of religion. It's like they think that's enshrined in the supreme law of the land, or something!

Mr. Pipes and others reel off a list of examples: Muslim cabdrivers in Minneapolis who have refused to take passengers carrying liquor; municipal pools and a gym at Harvard that have adopted female-only hours to accommodate Muslim women; candidates for office who are suspected of supporting political Islam; and banks that are offering financial products compliant with sharia, the Islamic code of law.

Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to take passengers carrying liquor... well, I agree that's stupid--pretty much as stupid as saying a pharmacist can refuse to give out birth control because they're Christian. But I suspect Pipes wouldn't agree. Nor would he give a damn about political candidates who support political Christians, like Dobson or Hagee, nor would he care if an institution went out of its way to accommodate Christians. He also probably wouldn't recognize that it is due to Christians demanding accommodations for their religion that set the precedent that allows Muslims to do so, as well. But that's because he's a misanthropic twit.

Muslim leaders, academics and others see the drive against the school as the latest in a series of discriminatory attacks intended to distort the truth and play on Americans' fear of terrorism. They say the campaign is also part of a wider effort to silence critics of Washington's policy on Israel and the Middle East.

"This is a political, ideological agenda," said John Esposito, a professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University who has been a focus of Mr. Pipes's scrutiny. "It's an agenda to paint Islam, not just extremists, as a major problem."

That portrait, Muslim and Arab advocates contend, is rife with a bias that would never be tolerated were it directed at other ethnic or religious groups. And if Ms. Almontaser's story is any indication, they say, the message of her critics wields great power.

Of course. Because these people don't see any difference between "Islam" and "extremists".
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Update

Quick update to this, which is being picked up all over the blogosphere (not my post, of course, just the issue in general--no-one links to poor Zathras). I particularly want to point you to Orac's post on the subject, which even has video of the event, and a response from Zirkle's website over the situation he now finds himself in.

I just want to give a tip to Mr. Zirkle. If you don't want people to think you're sympathetic to Nazis, then you probably shouldn't rely on websites like http://www.davidduke.com/, http://www.jewwatch.com/, http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/, http://www.kkk.bz/, http://www.realjewnews.com/, and http://christianparty.net/ to make your point.
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Hoosier Tony Zirkle dances to the strain of the "I Was Not a Nazi Polka"

And this guy's from my state, too:

A congressional candidate is defending his speech to a group celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, saying he appeared simply because he was asked.

"I'll speak before any group that invites me," Zirkle said Monday. "I've spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta."

I think the "my best friend is one" idea has hit bottom with this. I mean, see? Zirkle will appear on a black radio station! That proves he's not racist!

Zirkle compared his speech to other politicians appearing at Bob Jones University.

That... that doesn't help you any. You might recall that when President Bush appeared at Bob Jones University back in 2000, it pissed a lot of people off? And all they did was prevent students from dating people of another race--they weren't celebrating the birthday of Hitler.

Zirkle said he did not know much about the neo-Nazi group and that his intention was to talk on his concern about "the targeting of young white women and for pornography and prostitution."

...is this guy mentally ill or something? He didn't know much about the group? I assume he knew at least their name, which is the "American National Socialist Workers Party". Did this guy just sleep through history class?

Actually, apparently he did:

When asked if he was a Nazi or sympathized with Nazis or white supremacists, Zirkle replied he didn't know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it.

"This is just a great opportunity for me to witness," he said, referring to his message and his Christian belief.

He also told WIMS radio in Michigan City that he didn't believe the event he attended included people necessarily of the Nazi mindset, pointing out the name isn't Nazi, but Nationalist Socialist Workers Party.

Oh, well, sure--that's completely different from the National Socialist German Workers Party. How silly of us? And really, being surrounded by swastikas on Nazi flags, in front of a portrait of Hitler, at an event celebrating Hitler's birthday... well, who could possibly think they're Nazis because of that, huh? It's not like they were goose-stepping, doing the salute, and shouting "Sieg Heil!"

At the event, Hitler's birthday was observed with a cake with a photo of Hitler and the words "Seig Heil."

And really, it looks like Zirkle will fit right in:

The event was not the first time Zirkle has raised controversy on race issues. In March, Zirkle raised the idea of segregating races in separate states. Zirkle said Tuesday he's not advocating segregation, but said desegregation has been a failure.

But I'm sure he'll show up to talk on their radio stations, so obviously this means he's not a racist.

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Well, waddya know?

Davis has already apologized for his earlier remark about Obama:

Republican Rep. Geoff Davis apologizing to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday after referring to him as "that boy."

...

Davis' campaign said it sent a letter to Obama apologizing for the remark, which was widely reported on blogs and newspaper Web sites, including the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"My poor choice of words is regrettable, and was in no way meant to impugn you or your integrity," Davis wrote in the letter delivered to Obama's Washington office Monday afternoon. "I offer my sincere apology to you and ask for your forgiveness."

[Edit] Although, as Matt Yglesias points out, nobody was upset that Davis might have called Obama's integrity into question. It was the racist nature of those remarks that we objected to. Well... most of us. [/Edit]

Also, I watched the video on that page on the same issue, but before it played the news clip it showed me an advertisement. Mr. T was the spokesman for World of Warcraft.

Damn, now it's actually tempting to get the game.
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Not to mention paying the participants with food coupons

In most instances where people cry "What about the Tuskegee Experiments!?" I tend to tune them out.

However....

Scientists using federal grants spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil. Families were assured the sludge was safe and were never told about any potential risks.

Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

...There is no evidence there was any medical follow-up.

Comparable research was conducted by the Agriculture Department and Environmental Protection Agency in a similarly poor, black neighborhood in East St. Louis, Ill. Residents there also were not told of the potential risks.

...

However, there has been a paucity of research into the possible harmful effects of heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, other chemicals, and disease-causing microorganisms often found in sludge.

A series of reports by the EPA's inspector general and the National Academy of Sciences between 1996 and 2002 faulted the adequacy of the science behind the EPA's 1993 regulations on sludge.

The chairman of the 2002 academy panel, Thomas Burke, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said epidemiological studies have never been done to show whether spreading sludge on land is safe.

"There are potential pathogens and chemicals that are not in the realm of safe," Burke said. "What's needed are more studies on what's going on with the pathogens in sludge - are we actually removing them? The commitment to connecting the dots hasn't been there."

It seems that, instead of doing preliminary, basic studies to see whether spreading sludge on lawns might be safe for people, they just skipped straight to testing on poor black families--and apparently didn't even do a medical follow-up. That's abhorrent.

Via aimai, via LG&M.
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On behalf of Kentuckians, let me apologize

One of our Representatives, Geoff Davis, recently referred to Obama as "boy":

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, a Hebron Republican, compared Obama and his message for change similar to a "snake oil salesman."

He said in his remarks at the GOP dinner that he also recently participated in a "highly classified, national security simulation" with Obama.

"I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," Davis said. "He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country."

Via Americablog.

And for anyone who wants to say, as do some of the commenters on the original piece, that "clearly Congressman Davis was referencing his youth and inexperience", I would point out that Obama is only three years younger than Davis. It boggles my mind that people could seriously suggest that Davis would actually refer to someone only three years his junior as "boy", even if being "only" 46 does make Obama young for someone running for president.

And hey, a man called Geoff Davis made a racially insensitive (at best) remark about a black man, just in time for Confederate Heritage Month!
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Thank god that there's no more racism in the U.S.!

Otherwise we might have stories like this:

An Ohio man has been indicted on charges that he threatened to blow up the U.S. Supreme Court and attack black men, including a justice on the court, according to an indictment filed Wednesday.

David Tuason, 46, targeted black men known to affiliate with white women, well-known white women who had relationships with black men, and children of mixed-race parents, federal authorities said.

...

According to the indictment, Tuason sent a letter to the Supreme Court building in July 2003 in which he threatened to blow it up. The letter was addressed to an associate justice of the court referred to as "CT."

Tuason claimed "CT" would be "castrated, shot or set on fire...I want him killed."

The letter contained several racially charged remarks.

The indictment says letters were also sent to several Ohio sites, including the Kent State University women's basketball team, several Ohio high schools and the Severance Hall home of the Cleveland Orchestra.

...

The threats he's accused of are mostly alike, promising physical violence against black men associated with white women.

Tuason, of Pepper Pike, Ohio, was indicted on two counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications and six counts of mailing threatening communications.

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The US is still racist

Even the young'uns:

"Most people in the U.S. think racism is a thing of the past, or they think only the older generation is racist anymore," said Anthony Greenwald, a professor of social psychology at the University of Washington who has studied racial biases in America.

"The truth is, we've found no indication that race bias is any less apparent among young people [than it is] among older people," he said.

About a million people have taken part in an online psychological experiment, called the Race Implicit Attitude Test, that determines the test-taker's subconscious attitudes toward African Americans, Greenwald said. It requires that test-takers quickly sort positive and negative words — such as "terrible" and "joy" — along with black and white faces into categories.

"People are usually surprised and disturbed by what they learn. Most people have no idea they have the biases they have," said Greenwald, who helped develop the test. "Their professed attitudes often don't match the test results."

...

Greenwald says about 70 percent of the 1 million people of all races who have taken the Race Implicit Attitude Test possess subconscious negative associations toward African Americans. About one-third of all African Americans possess subconscious negative associations about African-Americans.

Non-Web-based tests with smaller numbers of respondents indicate that a smaller percentage of all races has negative associations with Hispanics and Native Americans, and a much smaller percentage has negative associations with Asians, Greenwald said.

"It doesn't make sense to say that you're 'colorblind,' " Greenwald said. "People need to be aware of the fact that our cultural environment — like news, entertainment, literature, all that — has implanted certain ideas in our heads."

You can take the test here. Select "Demonstration", then "Go to the demonstration tests", go past the disclaimer, and choose the test "Race IAT".

Before Miller started her own online boutique, she worked as a software engineer. On a break one day, she commented to a co-worker that her mother never allowed her to stay out late when she was young. Her white co-worker asked if that was because her mother was afraid of gang violence.

"I was shocked," Miller said. "I wanted to say, 'What about me makes you believe that I grew up in some gang-infested project somewhere? What made you think that was my upbringing?' He was basing it all on race."

To many people, Miller's co-worker's comment may seem innocuous. To others, it may seem deliberately racist. And regardless, it's an example of how the issue of race can be insidious in our culture.

"You end up thinking, 'Wow, what other assumptions has he made about me because I'm black? And is that the reason I didn't get that promotion?' It's not as in-your-face as it was, but it still takes an emotional toll on people," Miller said.

This portion hits on what I was mentioning the other day:

"Everyone's identity was tied up in their race. 'I'm Korean.' 'I'm Japanese.' 'I'm Indian.' And that's really neat to celebrate your heritage," she said. "But all of sudden, I felt like a really boring white person. I didn't have anything cool about me, I was just plain Jane."

She feels that being Korean, or Japanese, or Indian, is itself a category that comes with a heritage to celebrate--but being white is not. White is not just another race to her, it's the default, it's normal, it's "just plain."

And this is a common misconception that has to be dealt with:

On one hand, there are "outdated" social programs and clubs that divide people up based exclusively on color, she said. "I'm all for programs that help people who've been disadvantaged. But race doesn't make you disadvantaged. Poverty makes you disadvantaged," she said.

Poverty does make you disadvantaged, yes. But to say that race does not, is to live in a fantasy. The reason affirmative action is race-based instead of class-based is because blacks face challenges that whites--even poor whites--simply do not. As The Debate Link quoted:

Poor whites are rarely typified as pathological, dangerous, lazy or shiftless the way poor blacks are, for example. Nor are they demonized the way poor Latino/a immigrants tend to be.

When politicians want to scapegoat welfare recipients they don't pick Bubba and Crystal from some Appalachian trailer park; they choose Shawonda Jefferson from the Robert Taylor Homes, with her seven children.

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What next? Revival of Teutonic theory?

Say what?

Two Anglo-Saxon traits, deeply ingrained in the American ethos, will inevitably upset the ambitions of gay marriage advocates: First, a traditional opposition to cultural tyranny and, second, a respect for marriage, the most basic institution of human social organization.

Uh, wow. I thought we were long past the time of ascribing traits to "Anglo-Saxons", but apparently not. Hey, at least this guy agrees with prior writers that Anglo-Saxons love liberty and hate tyranny, but apparently only for themselves--not enough to give the same rights to others, like gays.

I'm so flabbergasted by that statement that I'm not even going to bother ripping apart the rest of the inanity in that article.
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