Living in Liberal World means never having to admit you’re bat guano insane
What Chris Rock got wrong: “Nice†white people perpetuate white supremacy
This past week, Chris Rock noted in an interview that although racism remained a real and persistent problem, he was glad to see that America is now producing the nicest white people in its history.
Perhaps. But if so, this only suggests the pitiable limits of niceness and its utter irrelevance for the production of something approaching justice, or for that matter even insight. And if so, it may merely signify how far we had to come out of the pit of whatever one takes the opposite of nice to be: mean, nasty, cruel, selfish, and so on. In short, it’s pretty thin gruel in the pantheon of praise, however sincerely Rock may have meant it.
One can be perfectly nice, after all, and still fail to see that which is right before you, staring at you from the computer screen as you watch Eric Garner killed on the streets of Staten Island with an illegal chokehold. The officer who applied that pressure to Garner’s neck might himself be “nice†in the sense that he is kind to old people, babies and animals. Likewise, the grand jury that decided yesterday not to indict him for any crime might well have been filled with nice people, who send get-well cards to sick friends and relatives, participate in Secret Santa at work and volunteer at the local food bank. And what of it? Their niceness did not, clearly, provide them with the gift of comprehension, as they managed to watch an officer kill a man who posed no threat to him whatsoever—no reaching for his gun, even in some paranoid fever dream, no charging him like a bull, or as Darren Wilson put it to justify his killing of Mike Brown, like “a demon.†Their niceness came laced with nothing so helpful as empathy as they watched a man choked to death, gasping for air, all because he had been selling loose cigarettes on the street and dared to tell the officers to leave him alone when they decided to harass him for that most serious of crimes.
Of course, not one thing in that paragraph denotes any sort of racism, any type of white supremacism, just people who wanted to follow The Law rather than their feelings. And, in Liberal World, feelings are apparently king. Just to be clear, I think that the Grand Jury failed in their duty, and should have forwarded charges to a jury trial. But, then, I wasn’t in the GJ room. Nor were other people.
Nor do the mentioned issues of John Crawford nor Tamir Rice show racism, just bad decisions.
In fact, I’m starting to wonder if nice might actually be the problem.
Nice is like a set of noise canceling headphones, which disallows those possessed of it from hearing the cries of others suffering under the weight of injustice. Nice is precious, nice is content, and nice does not want to hear of pain. Niceness cannot brook anguish because anguish disturbs the sleep of the just.
Nice is like one of those aromatherapy masks you can get at a day spa. It slips right over the eyes and lulls you into a state of relaxation with the pleasant aroma of lavender. Nice is a soothing massage, a warm cup of tea, or Enya.
But…
Nice is the enemy of justice because to raise one’s voice against oppression is to be instantly pegged as not nice, as disruptive, as unruly, as dangerous. To block traffic, or interfere with the all-important Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center is not nice. To interrupt the symphony orchestra in St. Louis, or the drunken revelry of nice white baseball fans at a Cardinals game is not nice. To signify sympathy for a murdered young man in Ferguson, with even a gesture as simple as raising one’s hands as you come out of the tunnel before the football game is not nice. It is, to some—who would rather just watch black men entertain them with a few nice interceptions—worthy of punishment, or professional discipline. How dare they, say the nice white people who paid good money to see black men play gladiator for the glory of the hometown team.
So, um, er, if you act like a jerk, putting other people’s lives in danger (remember the freakout of the lane closures blamed on Chris Christie, and how it was falsely claimed that a woman died because an ambulance was delayed? How many emergency service vehicles were blocked by these protesters?), damage property, etc, then you are part of the solution, you are simpatico with Justice, so, you can’t be a white supremacist.
In short, and though I know it won’t strike you as, well, nice: fuck nice. And if you’re more disturbed about my language here than the death of black men at the hands of police, then know that you are the problem, and you’ve made it clear what side you’re on. It will not be forgotten.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Was it nice that the people marching for Ferguson were greeted by fried chicken watermelon and a confederate flag!
Why can’t the victims just be nicer. ??????
If only blacks acted nicer everything would be better
I mean why should they be upset over other people flying Confederate flags. ??????
The 13th Amendment to our Constitution was enacted in December 1865. Unfortunately, outlawing involuntary servitude of primarily Black Americans did not end discrimination. Black Americans continued to face discrimination in employment, public education, health care, public accommodations, policing/justice, voting rights, housing, in fact, it’s difficult to find an aspect of American life where Black Americans did not suffer frank discrimination.
In the 1950s and 1960s America experienced a mini-revolution and at the height of the Civil Rights Movement resulted in the codification of policies in the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Black Americans were not guaranteed the right to vote until 50 years ago.
Today, Black American households make significantly less income than white households, have much less wealth than white households; Black Americans are arrested at a higher rate than whites for crimes that are committed at the same rate; Black Americans are incarcerated at a much higher rate and for longer intervals than whites for the same crimes. And the trend in all these statistics are not good for Black Americans.
And now, Black Americans are angry because cops are killing them on video without consequence.
Racism in the USA is a fact
Assumptions and judgements are made based upon race
That cop in Ferguson described the victim as a black demon
Do you think that was racist?
I
I agree that liberals are racists if that is what you are saying.
Assumptions and judgements are made on a variety of factors. That is not to excuse racists, but it is clear that liberals are far more racist than conservatives.
Wilson made no such statement.
Why is it that racist liberals feel compelled to lie?
“Cops are killing them on video without consequence.” Well if it’s ruled justifiable, then of course there will be no consequence. “Black households make less than white households.” Which in no way proves racism. Many, if not most black households, are comprised of only one live-in parent, so of course they’re going to have less income. Duh. But that’s a cultural and individual choice problem, not racism. Do those black families have the same amount of education as the white families they’re being compared to? The mystery continues on why they have less incme. Black high school graduation rates are much less than whites. Still more mystery. A few facts J missed-Blacks accounted for about 52% of all homicides, while having only 14% of the population. 93% of blacks are killed by other blacks. Black gang rate is 35%, again, while only having 14% of the population.
Actually, I have to disagree a bit, JL. It does show racism. Racism from Democrats, whose policies have kept so many Blacks down. They were the party which supported slavery. No Democrats voted for the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Then they supported the KKK. Then segregation and Jim Crow. Then mostly being against integration of the military, the 1957 and 1964 civil rights acts. Not too mention all the other civil rights bills passed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. What the Democrats did is just switched from overt racism to a subversive strategy of getting blacks as dependent as possible on government to secure their votes.
Another fact J missed was that far more young black men are killed by other young black men than by police officers. Oddly enough, no one marches about those killings.
As for police officers, ever hear of David Smith? He was killed after a man took his service weapon and shot him with it. J also probably doesn’t know that if someone manages to take an officer’s gun from them there’s an 80% probability they’ll be shot with their own side-arm.
Which tends to explain why Wilson used deadly force when Brown charged him.
And most murdered white people are murdered by whites, which causes no outrage except when the STATE tries to take legal action against a criminal (Cliven Bundy), when white men line up with semi-automatic weapons.
The STATE is killing Black men without due process. If the Black protestors had shown up in Ferguson armed with semi-automatic weapons do you think the police would have resolved the situation by quietly leaving?
I’m sorry to hear about the murder of Officer Smith, but his case is unrelated to Mr. Brown’s. It’s clear that the crazed Clark assaulted Officer Smith and took his weapon and shot him with it, but that does not imply that Brown tried to take Wilson’s gun. It’s also not clear that Brown “charged” Wilson. As an aside – it was hard to find the information, as it wasn’t in any of the conservative blogs about the Officer Smith murder – but his killer, James Clark, was a white man.
The witnesses and the evidence say that Brown tried to take Wilson’s gun and charged Wilson. No need for “implying” anything.