In his book, “Black Victim to Black Victor”, Adam B. Coleman shares Census data that show 60% of black Americans (27,273,482) live in 10 of our 50 states. These 10 states, according to the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau are New York, California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan, and Louisiana.
Very true. And the same can be said of any demonized group (or person). While it behoves us all to avoid judgement based on other than personal experience, it is difficult to avoid filing the negative stereotypes we pick up in media in our subconscious. Let's all step up our game.
The black community is being exploited by the people selling those images. Some of those people are white liberals selling racism. Some of them are white racists selling racism. . But some of them are within the black community, and they are profiting from trauma too, exploiting suffering for monetary gain. The image problem is real, because the trauma is real and pervasive, particularly in the inner cities. Im not black. As an American, and as a human being, I’d like to see the dysfunction in our society improved. I’d like to see the racial animus that has been stoked in the last 20 years tamped down. But there are forces that rely upon division and discord to make money and gain political power. They also enable criminality and destructive personal choices.It’s difficult to fix these things while the government and Left encourages them, and while popular culture glorifies bad behavior.
You hit the nail on the head regarding those who are enabling criminal and destructive conduct. You'd think that if these do-gooders really wanted to help the disadvantaged, they would be showing them a path to avoid that disadvantage in the first place, rather than demanding that everyone else cater to the consequences of that disadvantage.
The “do-gooders”, as you call them, are distinguished by their sanctimonious morally superior attitude, which is a large part of what gratifies them. Generally these are so called progressives. Their only goal, is not equality or anti-racism, its power. Those are just covers for their desire to have a collectivist, statist society.,Those are political tools. They don’t view the groups they purport to save as equals. They see them as subordinate players in the morality play they are starring in and directing. And when people in the group no longer wish to be cast in that role, the progressives get angry, because they believe they know better than everybody else.
They don’t actually believe in the groups they purport to build up. They grift off those groups and then when the group is no longer useful to their ultimate goal of total control and power, they toss the group aside. That’s what they’ve done to the working class, women, heterosexuals, now Jews. And I believe they will do it to American black people too with illegal immigrants and Islamists. You have to be very careful when somebody tells you they are there to save you. You have to save yourself.
Though not American nor live there, not white nor western, I have watched a few US TV shows of recent vintage that featured black main characters. They stood tall and proud; and after an episode or two, you no longer are aware of their colour but rather focussed on their portrayed characters. It strikes me the goal of BLM and CRT is to encourage victimisation. It’s good to know there are critical thinkers such as yourself and the authors you cited, plus more, who are boldly and bravely speaking the truth.
Thank you for your observation from afar. Not sure what those who believe in BLM and CRT are seeing, or what their end game is but I and others know there are people like yourself who can see the truth we try to share,.
Include the likes of Joy Reid, Sunny Hostin and Don Lemon who preach constantly about “the legacy of slavery” and marginalization of black and brown people as though Jim Crow still exists. I highly recommend the films Uncle Tom and Uncle Tom 2. Also follow Chad O. Jackson on YouTube and social media. Chad was featured in the first film and was involved in the production of the second.
Great phrase and like the other porn industry there is a lot of money to be made. Decades ago I walked out of an educational event sponsored by NOW. I knew whatever it was they stood for, it wasn't for me. Recently, an attorney organization has been seeking candidates to head various specialty sections. The application includes a request to explain the obstacles one has faced and how they were overcome. An event I looked forward to attending on litigation updates is going to review the ##metoo in retrospect. I won't be attending any function with the organization, and wish I could get my money back. Ironically, the Critical Theorists (grandfathers to CRT) weren't wrong with their view that everything becomes commodified under a capitalist system. Unfortunately, their solution of destroying culture, especially the family, pushed commodification into every crevice of our lives.
Before COVID, my wife and I hosted parties for Swarthies, where my stepson brought other scholarship students from Swarthmore who had no place to go for the holidays. We did not mind that when things got loud and intense, that the group broke up with the younger people gaming in the living room, mumbling about the older folks and the rest of us remaining at the long tables, sipping bourbon, single malt, or tea and eating multiple slices of pies.
Then came the killing of George Floyd and the refrigerator trucks parked outside nursing homes when the morgues overflowed and could take no more bodies.
The Swarthies dispersed, with some never to return or keep in contact. In our mixed community, it was difficult to jump start the conversations again. But in sports bars, the Phillies, Fliers and Sixers gave us something to watch in silence until the ads gave us space to talk. At first, old men sharing stories about exaggerated prowess or simply the shared anxiety of living longer than we expected. Then, the holidays came and broke the boredom of too many old men complaining. Wives, kids, and grandkids showed up. It became easier to talk about sport and race across the barriers of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and age. No miracles are expected, but it is a start. If only the performance of the Philadelphia sports teams can give us something to collectively cheer about.
Cecil, clearly every nationality can be viewed through a myopic lens and a caricature of any culture can be made. For example as a caricature I suspect most German Americans do not want to be viewed as Jack booted, pickelhaube wearing people. The problem, as I see it, is that entertainment and media has embraced the caricature and made it real. One can assume that most people of any culture are not reflected in the costume portrayed. Sadly however entertainment and media make it seem ubiquitous and then theater becomes life.
Yes the same could apply to the Japanese, the Irish and everyone in between. The media makes them into caricatures that become believable by the uninformed. Although Hollywood and the corrupt media preach DEI and end racisms now, they are the biggest pusher of trauma porn for many ethnicities. It's not about ending racism or creating a more diverse society, it's all about making more and more money for themselves.
I personally believe that there is a pervasive, cynical effort to keep black Americans in a constant state of paranoia and frustration, which will lead to destructive behaviour. This will allow society's do-gooders to recycle the problem of racism and maintain a healthy supply of victims, so as to justify continuing their revolution. This includes the ideologues who are fixated on inducing white guilt and so therefore need a constant supply of black suffering. Sadly, there are many black Americans who are intoxicated with this desire to be seen as perpetually wronged victims, including those who take pride in destructive and criminal behaviour as a form of vengeance against American society. This is the poisonous atmosphere that I felt duty-bound to leave. I hate the herd mentality and I hate victimhood politics. It's true that the media profits from this cynical poison, and of course, there are the usual racial bigots who enjoy finding any justification for their reprehensible views. That being said, Americans watch far too much television and consume far too much social media from an increasingly young age. I very much wonder if 50-90% of this racial perception issue could be cured simply by switching off the idiot box and turning off the smartphone.
Reading a book, actually communicating with someone of a different ethnicity, visiting a city or state the media claims is racist. Do your own research and think for yourself. We are lazy and social media has made us lazier. We get our information from click-bait, Facebook, and cable news and run with it. Thinking critically is not allowed. You either run with the herd or get left on the curb. I'm happy on the curb.
"Sadly, there are many black Americans who are intoxicated with this desire to be seen as perpetually wronged victims, including those who take pride in destructive and criminal behaviour as a form of vengeance against American society."
I love this truth you wrote, even though I wish they weren't true. There are times when you could remove black from the sentence and it would still be accurate.
I grew up in Central Idaho. There’s a specific culture in the Northern Rockies. The highest value is being a hard worker and being honorable to your word. Any black person who visited or lived there would be judged by those characteristics just like everyone else. If you could get up at dawn every morning and buck haybales for the cows, you would gain utmost respect from virtually everyone in town.
The first black person that lived year round in my hometown was the Catholic priest. No one ever stopped going to church or spoke ill of him. Ever.
Now the media is specifically going after white rural people and creating caricatures of them. I believe that it would be very easy to find common grounds with white rural people if you were to visit anywhere and just say you are worried about the racial divide and want to understand each other more. You would be treated very well.
I enjoy towns such as yours because everyone is respectful of everyone and you can tell everyone are hard workers. Some of the best people I met lived in Bangor, ME. No racial divide, no nonsense, at least back in the 70's. The media does their job well. Those who live in the south are always shown as illiterate red-necks who live in trailer parks. Farmer and hard working Americans who live in the mid-west and west are portrayed as out of touch with reality, illiterate racist, farmers. I've never been to Idaho but I think I'd like to visit there some day.
Interestingly, in all the time I lived there, the only prejudices I heard expressed were against Californians and environmentalists. The “Californians” were well-off white people from California who bought land in the area -which drove up property values so people local people couldn’t afford to buy- and also acted arrogant and looked down on working class people.
I don’t live there now but if you ever visit Central Idaho, message me and I can set you up. It’s one of the most wild, ruggedly beautiful places in the lower 48 states.
The airports closest to where I grew up are in Missoula MT or Idaho Falls- both a 3 hr drive away. Boise is a 5 hr drive but through a very beautiful area.
I am glad you have brought up the entertainment biz in all of this, they never get enough credit for profiting off these stereotypes, they do it will all minorities but black people are their gold mine for sure, the more they debase themselves the better it is for a very corporate business that is run by very wealthy people, many who are white, often left in their politics and full of some kind of savior complex. You will rarely see minorities in any real authority in that business they are best when they are on stage or screen doing what they are told or cleaning up someone's messes in very low wage entry level jobs. If minorities don't do either of these things they make these people very uncomfortable and will be punished accordingly, often that is through some kind of humiliation and termination.
Sort of a catch 22. If they don't do the job they'll be blacklisted, so they hold their nose and do the job. Then Hollywood preaches the evils of racism and stereotypes to us, while they still don't write or produce quality movies for actors of various ethnicities.
Very true. And the same can be said of any demonized group (or person). While it behoves us all to avoid judgement based on other than personal experience, it is difficult to avoid filing the negative stereotypes we pick up in media in our subconscious. Let's all step up our game.
The black community is being exploited by the people selling those images. Some of those people are white liberals selling racism. Some of them are white racists selling racism. . But some of them are within the black community, and they are profiting from trauma too, exploiting suffering for monetary gain. The image problem is real, because the trauma is real and pervasive, particularly in the inner cities. Im not black. As an American, and as a human being, I’d like to see the dysfunction in our society improved. I’d like to see the racial animus that has been stoked in the last 20 years tamped down. But there are forces that rely upon division and discord to make money and gain political power. They also enable criminality and destructive personal choices.It’s difficult to fix these things while the government and Left encourages them, and while popular culture glorifies bad behavior.
You hit the nail on the head regarding those who are enabling criminal and destructive conduct. You'd think that if these do-gooders really wanted to help the disadvantaged, they would be showing them a path to avoid that disadvantage in the first place, rather than demanding that everyone else cater to the consequences of that disadvantage.
The “do-gooders”, as you call them, are distinguished by their sanctimonious morally superior attitude, which is a large part of what gratifies them. Generally these are so called progressives. Their only goal, is not equality or anti-racism, its power. Those are just covers for their desire to have a collectivist, statist society.,Those are political tools. They don’t view the groups they purport to save as equals. They see them as subordinate players in the morality play they are starring in and directing. And when people in the group no longer wish to be cast in that role, the progressives get angry, because they believe they know better than everybody else.
They don’t actually believe in the groups they purport to build up. They grift off those groups and then when the group is no longer useful to their ultimate goal of total control and power, they toss the group aside. That’s what they’ve done to the working class, women, heterosexuals, now Jews. And I believe they will do it to American black people too with illegal immigrants and Islamists. You have to be very careful when somebody tells you they are there to save you. You have to save yourself.
Well said.
Though not American nor live there, not white nor western, I have watched a few US TV shows of recent vintage that featured black main characters. They stood tall and proud; and after an episode or two, you no longer are aware of their colour but rather focussed on their portrayed characters. It strikes me the goal of BLM and CRT is to encourage victimisation. It’s good to know there are critical thinkers such as yourself and the authors you cited, plus more, who are boldly and bravely speaking the truth.
Thank you for your observation from afar. Not sure what those who believe in BLM and CRT are seeing, or what their end game is but I and others know there are people like yourself who can see the truth we try to share,.
Include the likes of Joy Reid, Sunny Hostin and Don Lemon who preach constantly about “the legacy of slavery” and marginalization of black and brown people as though Jim Crow still exists. I highly recommend the films Uncle Tom and Uncle Tom 2. Also follow Chad O. Jackson on YouTube and social media. Chad was featured in the first film and was involved in the production of the second.
I know I saw Uncle Tom but I don’t think I saw UT2. I’ll check out Mr. Jackson. Thank you.
Great phrase and like the other porn industry there is a lot of money to be made. Decades ago I walked out of an educational event sponsored by NOW. I knew whatever it was they stood for, it wasn't for me. Recently, an attorney organization has been seeking candidates to head various specialty sections. The application includes a request to explain the obstacles one has faced and how they were overcome. An event I looked forward to attending on litigation updates is going to review the ##metoo in retrospect. I won't be attending any function with the organization, and wish I could get my money back. Ironically, the Critical Theorists (grandfathers to CRT) weren't wrong with their view that everything becomes commodified under a capitalist system. Unfortunately, their solution of destroying culture, especially the family, pushed commodification into every crevice of our lives.
Before COVID, my wife and I hosted parties for Swarthies, where my stepson brought other scholarship students from Swarthmore who had no place to go for the holidays. We did not mind that when things got loud and intense, that the group broke up with the younger people gaming in the living room, mumbling about the older folks and the rest of us remaining at the long tables, sipping bourbon, single malt, or tea and eating multiple slices of pies.
Then came the killing of George Floyd and the refrigerator trucks parked outside nursing homes when the morgues overflowed and could take no more bodies.
The Swarthies dispersed, with some never to return or keep in contact. In our mixed community, it was difficult to jump start the conversations again. But in sports bars, the Phillies, Fliers and Sixers gave us something to watch in silence until the ads gave us space to talk. At first, old men sharing stories about exaggerated prowess or simply the shared anxiety of living longer than we expected. Then, the holidays came and broke the boredom of too many old men complaining. Wives, kids, and grandkids showed up. It became easier to talk about sport and race across the barriers of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and age. No miracles are expected, but it is a start. If only the performance of the Philadelphia sports teams can give us something to collectively cheer about.
Cecil, clearly every nationality can be viewed through a myopic lens and a caricature of any culture can be made. For example as a caricature I suspect most German Americans do not want to be viewed as Jack booted, pickelhaube wearing people. The problem, as I see it, is that entertainment and media has embraced the caricature and made it real. One can assume that most people of any culture are not reflected in the costume portrayed. Sadly however entertainment and media make it seem ubiquitous and then theater becomes life.
Yes the same could apply to the Japanese, the Irish and everyone in between. The media makes them into caricatures that become believable by the uninformed. Although Hollywood and the corrupt media preach DEI and end racisms now, they are the biggest pusher of trauma porn for many ethnicities. It's not about ending racism or creating a more diverse society, it's all about making more and more money for themselves.
I personally believe that there is a pervasive, cynical effort to keep black Americans in a constant state of paranoia and frustration, which will lead to destructive behaviour. This will allow society's do-gooders to recycle the problem of racism and maintain a healthy supply of victims, so as to justify continuing their revolution. This includes the ideologues who are fixated on inducing white guilt and so therefore need a constant supply of black suffering. Sadly, there are many black Americans who are intoxicated with this desire to be seen as perpetually wronged victims, including those who take pride in destructive and criminal behaviour as a form of vengeance against American society. This is the poisonous atmosphere that I felt duty-bound to leave. I hate the herd mentality and I hate victimhood politics. It's true that the media profits from this cynical poison, and of course, there are the usual racial bigots who enjoy finding any justification for their reprehensible views. That being said, Americans watch far too much television and consume far too much social media from an increasingly young age. I very much wonder if 50-90% of this racial perception issue could be cured simply by switching off the idiot box and turning off the smartphone.
Reading a book, actually communicating with someone of a different ethnicity, visiting a city or state the media claims is racist. Do your own research and think for yourself. We are lazy and social media has made us lazier. We get our information from click-bait, Facebook, and cable news and run with it. Thinking critically is not allowed. You either run with the herd or get left on the curb. I'm happy on the curb.
"Sadly, there are many black Americans who are intoxicated with this desire to be seen as perpetually wronged victims, including those who take pride in destructive and criminal behaviour as a form of vengeance against American society."
I love this truth you wrote, even though I wish they weren't true. There are times when you could remove black from the sentence and it would still be accurate.
I grew up in Central Idaho. There’s a specific culture in the Northern Rockies. The highest value is being a hard worker and being honorable to your word. Any black person who visited or lived there would be judged by those characteristics just like everyone else. If you could get up at dawn every morning and buck haybales for the cows, you would gain utmost respect from virtually everyone in town.
The first black person that lived year round in my hometown was the Catholic priest. No one ever stopped going to church or spoke ill of him. Ever.
Now the media is specifically going after white rural people and creating caricatures of them. I believe that it would be very easy to find common grounds with white rural people if you were to visit anywhere and just say you are worried about the racial divide and want to understand each other more. You would be treated very well.
I enjoy towns such as yours because everyone is respectful of everyone and you can tell everyone are hard workers. Some of the best people I met lived in Bangor, ME. No racial divide, no nonsense, at least back in the 70's. The media does their job well. Those who live in the south are always shown as illiterate red-necks who live in trailer parks. Farmer and hard working Americans who live in the mid-west and west are portrayed as out of touch with reality, illiterate racist, farmers. I've never been to Idaho but I think I'd like to visit there some day.
Interestingly, in all the time I lived there, the only prejudices I heard expressed were against Californians and environmentalists. The “Californians” were well-off white people from California who bought land in the area -which drove up property values so people local people couldn’t afford to buy- and also acted arrogant and looked down on working class people.
I don’t live there now but if you ever visit Central Idaho, message me and I can set you up. It’s one of the most wild, ruggedly beautiful places in the lower 48 states.
What city would you fly into?
The airports closest to where I grew up are in Missoula MT or Idaho Falls- both a 3 hr drive away. Boise is a 5 hr drive but through a very beautiful area.
I am glad you have brought up the entertainment biz in all of this, they never get enough credit for profiting off these stereotypes, they do it will all minorities but black people are their gold mine for sure, the more they debase themselves the better it is for a very corporate business that is run by very wealthy people, many who are white, often left in their politics and full of some kind of savior complex. You will rarely see minorities in any real authority in that business they are best when they are on stage or screen doing what they are told or cleaning up someone's messes in very low wage entry level jobs. If minorities don't do either of these things they make these people very uncomfortable and will be punished accordingly, often that is through some kind of humiliation and termination.
Sort of a catch 22. If they don't do the job they'll be blacklisted, so they hold their nose and do the job. Then Hollywood preaches the evils of racism and stereotypes to us, while they still don't write or produce quality movies for actors of various ethnicities.
Pretty much, and no one calls them out for it despite how obvious it is to anyone with a pulse.
Bravo, Cecil - and not for the first time.
My response is too long for this comment balloon, but it can be found here:
smashwords.com/books/view/1184004
All the best to you, sir.
ZL