On the Surface, I Can Agree-In OPP, Not So According to the Righties
Apr 13, 2015 07:55:05 #
Race relations in America have never been better
BY DAN HANNAN | APRIL 13, 2015 | 5:00 AM
Photo - Flowers and stones are placed near the scene where Walter Scott was k**led by a North Charleston, S.C., police officer Saturday. (AP Photo)
Flowers and stones are placed near the scene where Walter Scott was k**led by a North Charleston,...
One hundred fifty years ago, Robert E. Lee surrendered. The defeated general was already becoming a legend and, that day, he looked it. His gray uniform was buttoned to the throat, and the April sun caught his magnificent silver beard, high boots and jeweled sword-hilt.
This was the man who had, extraordinarily, been offered the command of both sides' armies; and who, though he disliked s***ery and was cool about secession, could not in the end bring himself to draw his blade against Virginia.
Ulysses S. Grant, understandably in awe of his adversary, treated him with exaggerated civility. Instead of asking for Lee's sword at the end of the meeting, Grant raised his hat to the older man, who wearily returned the gesture before going off to break the bad news to his dev**ed soldiers.
That scene at Appomattox was so correct that it can tempt us into the error of believing that the Civil War was an essentially gentlemanly affair, a regrettable disagreement about sovereignty that somehow escalated. In fact, it was by far the nastiest and bloodiest conflict Americans have fought, and can justly be called the first modern war a monstrous precursor to the Battle of the Somme, whose centenary, by coincidence, we also mark this month.
Behind Lee, with that great hat in his hand, stood bootless, bloodied, beaten men. Their families had been through the horrors of total war pillage, starvation, sexual assault. Unless we make an effort to recapture those miseries, we struggle to understand the racial tragedies that followed.
Civil wars have a way of fixing politics for generations to come. Only at the last Irish general e******n did the two-party system based on the opposed factions from their civil war of the early 1920s finally break apart. In Spain, whose own civil war came in 1936, the breakdown is happening only now.
And so it was in the former Confederacy. Policies that in almost any other circumstance would have been intolerable were perpetuated out of a twisted sense that, somehow, the fallen were being honored, the carpetbaggers posthumously snubbed.
Inevitably, there was a reaction. Many Americans felt in their bones that segregation, like s***ery, betrayed the republic. They became so angry so understandably and justifiably angry that they, like their opponents, began to see everything in terms of race. Anti-r****m became the strongest card in their deck, trumping free speech, free contract and free association. Indeed, simply to invoke these traditional freedoms as Rand Paul did four years ago when, in moderate and reasonable language, he questioned whether the best way to end racial discrimination was through the full force of federal law is to invite accusations of bigotry.
The rage is understandable; but it's out of date. Let me say something which, while statistically true, is so at odds with the media narrative that I wonder whether I'd have the courage to say it if I were an American rather than a British politician.
Race relations in the United States have never been better.
Yes, that's right. On every measure from opinion polls to racially motivated murders and assaults Americans under Barack Obama are the most color-blind generation.
How, you might ask, can I assert such a thing when we have just seen the abominable shooting of Walter Scott, to say nothing of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin and the rest? How can I even think it when I look at the continuing racial discrepancies in everything from rates of college entry to rates of incarceration?
It is human nature to pay more attention to immediate events than remote ones. The shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop is a big story precisely because racial violence, being rare, has a greater power to shock now than it once had.
Its most hideous manifestation, lynching, was the first to go: From over 150 such murders a year in the 1880s to 80 in the 1900s, 20 in the 1920s and zero by the 1960s. The civil rights movement represented not the initiation but the culmination of a change in attitudes.
Remaining forms of discrimination first by state agencies and then by corporate bodies were outlawed in the 1950s and 1960s, and later reintroduced in the form of affirmative action. Racially motivated murders and assaults have also fallen sharply, as has every measure of r****t public attitudes ("Would you be content if your daughter married someone from a different race?" "Would you move if a different ethnic group were the majority on your street?" etc.).
I never lived through segregation. I understand why those who did might be overly ready to see a racial angle where none exists. I'm prepared to overlook some aspects of political correctness as an overshoot irksome, for sure, but better than a world where American citizens were denied justice because of their physiognomy.
What I find harder to overlook is the pervasive, determined pessimism about race. Americans have twice now elected a mixed-race president, which strikes me as a pretty handy indicator that attitudes have shifted since LBJ's day. The time may even be approaching when America can discard affirmative action programs and, as an eloquent fellow once put it, judge people by the contents of their characters.
It's not just Appomattox which seems to belong to a different age; it's Selma, too. I appreciate that after so long, it can be hard to let go. But, 150 years on, the aftershocks of that abominable conflict have finally shuddered to a halt. The promise of the Constitution has been met. The system works.
Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MEP.
BY DAN HANNAN | APRIL 13, 2015 | 5:00 AM
Photo - Flowers and stones are placed near the scene where Walter Scott was k**led by a North Charleston, S.C., police officer Saturday. (AP Photo)
Flowers and stones are placed near the scene where Walter Scott was k**led by a North Charleston,...
One hundred fifty years ago, Robert E. Lee surrendered. The defeated general was already becoming a legend and, that day, he looked it. His gray uniform was buttoned to the throat, and the April sun caught his magnificent silver beard, high boots and jeweled sword-hilt.
This was the man who had, extraordinarily, been offered the command of both sides' armies; and who, though he disliked s***ery and was cool about secession, could not in the end bring himself to draw his blade against Virginia.
Ulysses S. Grant, understandably in awe of his adversary, treated him with exaggerated civility. Instead of asking for Lee's sword at the end of the meeting, Grant raised his hat to the older man, who wearily returned the gesture before going off to break the bad news to his dev**ed soldiers.
That scene at Appomattox was so correct that it can tempt us into the error of believing that the Civil War was an essentially gentlemanly affair, a regrettable disagreement about sovereignty that somehow escalated. In fact, it was by far the nastiest and bloodiest conflict Americans have fought, and can justly be called the first modern war a monstrous precursor to the Battle of the Somme, whose centenary, by coincidence, we also mark this month.
Behind Lee, with that great hat in his hand, stood bootless, bloodied, beaten men. Their families had been through the horrors of total war pillage, starvation, sexual assault. Unless we make an effort to recapture those miseries, we struggle to understand the racial tragedies that followed.
Civil wars have a way of fixing politics for generations to come. Only at the last Irish general e******n did the two-party system based on the opposed factions from their civil war of the early 1920s finally break apart. In Spain, whose own civil war came in 1936, the breakdown is happening only now.
And so it was in the former Confederacy. Policies that in almost any other circumstance would have been intolerable were perpetuated out of a twisted sense that, somehow, the fallen were being honored, the carpetbaggers posthumously snubbed.
Inevitably, there was a reaction. Many Americans felt in their bones that segregation, like s***ery, betrayed the republic. They became so angry so understandably and justifiably angry that they, like their opponents, began to see everything in terms of race. Anti-r****m became the strongest card in their deck, trumping free speech, free contract and free association. Indeed, simply to invoke these traditional freedoms as Rand Paul did four years ago when, in moderate and reasonable language, he questioned whether the best way to end racial discrimination was through the full force of federal law is to invite accusations of bigotry.
The rage is understandable; but it's out of date. Let me say something which, while statistically true, is so at odds with the media narrative that I wonder whether I'd have the courage to say it if I were an American rather than a British politician.
Race relations in the United States have never been better.
Yes, that's right. On every measure from opinion polls to racially motivated murders and assaults Americans under Barack Obama are the most color-blind generation.
How, you might ask, can I assert such a thing when we have just seen the abominable shooting of Walter Scott, to say nothing of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin and the rest? How can I even think it when I look at the continuing racial discrepancies in everything from rates of college entry to rates of incarceration?
It is human nature to pay more attention to immediate events than remote ones. The shooting of an unarmed black man by a white cop is a big story precisely because racial violence, being rare, has a greater power to shock now than it once had.
Its most hideous manifestation, lynching, was the first to go: From over 150 such murders a year in the 1880s to 80 in the 1900s, 20 in the 1920s and zero by the 1960s. The civil rights movement represented not the initiation but the culmination of a change in attitudes.
Remaining forms of discrimination first by state agencies and then by corporate bodies were outlawed in the 1950s and 1960s, and later reintroduced in the form of affirmative action. Racially motivated murders and assaults have also fallen sharply, as has every measure of r****t public attitudes ("Would you be content if your daughter married someone from a different race?" "Would you move if a different ethnic group were the majority on your street?" etc.).
I never lived through segregation. I understand why those who did might be overly ready to see a racial angle where none exists. I'm prepared to overlook some aspects of political correctness as an overshoot irksome, for sure, but better than a world where American citizens were denied justice because of their physiognomy.
What I find harder to overlook is the pervasive, determined pessimism about race. Americans have twice now elected a mixed-race president, which strikes me as a pretty handy indicator that attitudes have shifted since LBJ's day. The time may even be approaching when America can discard affirmative action programs and, as an eloquent fellow once put it, judge people by the contents of their characters.
It's not just Appomattox which seems to belong to a different age; it's Selma, too. I appreciate that after so long, it can be hard to let go. But, 150 years on, the aftershocks of that abominable conflict have finally shuddered to a halt. The promise of the Constitution has been met. The system works.
Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MEP.
Apr 13, 2015 08:07:48 #
Boo_Boo
Loc: Jellystone
Sorry... I do not agree. I think race relations in the US have not just declined but have significantly taken a nose dive. In fact, I wwould say that it is worse than in the 60s.
And speaking of Scott. News out this morning http://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-officer-michael-slager-more-charges-shooting-walter-scott/
"SC officers may face more charges after fatal shooting
Despite quick action in charging South Carolina Officer Michael Slager in the shooting death of Walter Scott, there are still lingering questions about whether other officers on the scene did everything they could to save Scott's life.
The scrutiny comes amid newly discovered audio from Slager's dash camera and now South Carolina officials are considering more charges, reports CBS News correspondent Vicente Arenas.
"By the time you get home, it'd probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts of what happened," one officer said.
"Okay," the officer, who appears to be Slager, responded.
"You know once the adrenalin quits pumpin' and stuff," the other officer said.
"It's pumpin'," the officer who appears to be Slager, responded.
"Oh yeah. Oh yeah," the other officer said.
More than a week later, questions continue to mount over whether other officers at the scene gave full accounts of what happened to Scott.
"It's not about black and white. It's about right and wrong," The Rev. Al Sharpton said.
Some of the attention is focused on Clarence Habersham, a black officer who arrived shortly after the shooting. In a police report, Habersham wrote that he had "attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds" and by helping to direct the emergency response.
But critics say nearly four minutes of cell phone video indicates he did little to help Scott and left out critical information in his report.
At a vigil Sunday, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said the tape seemed to backup Habersham's account.
"I saw him standing next to the body," Summey said. "I also saw him pull up his shirt, put pressure on some of the wounds."
Saturday, hundreds attended Scott's funeral; family and friends surrounding his f**g-draped casket.
The scene where the father of four was gunned down is now the site of a growing memorial in his honor.
When asked what was going through his mind at the memorial, Chief Eddie Driggers said he needed some space.
"I think it's emotional for everybody," Driggers said.
A preliminary hearing for Slager could take place within the next two to three weeks and an indictment is expected as early as next month.
.
And speaking of Scott. News out this morning http://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-officer-michael-slager-more-charges-shooting-walter-scott/
"SC officers may face more charges after fatal shooting
Despite quick action in charging South Carolina Officer Michael Slager in the shooting death of Walter Scott, there are still lingering questions about whether other officers on the scene did everything they could to save Scott's life.
The scrutiny comes amid newly discovered audio from Slager's dash camera and now South Carolina officials are considering more charges, reports CBS News correspondent Vicente Arenas.
"By the time you get home, it'd probably be a good idea to kind of jot down your thoughts of what happened," one officer said.
"Okay," the officer, who appears to be Slager, responded.
"You know once the adrenalin quits pumpin' and stuff," the other officer said.
"It's pumpin'," the officer who appears to be Slager, responded.
"Oh yeah. Oh yeah," the other officer said.
More than a week later, questions continue to mount over whether other officers at the scene gave full accounts of what happened to Scott.
"It's not about black and white. It's about right and wrong," The Rev. Al Sharpton said.
Some of the attention is focused on Clarence Habersham, a black officer who arrived shortly after the shooting. In a police report, Habersham wrote that he had "attempted to render aid to the victim by applying pressure to the gunshot wounds" and by helping to direct the emergency response.
But critics say nearly four minutes of cell phone video indicates he did little to help Scott and left out critical information in his report.
At a vigil Sunday, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said the tape seemed to backup Habersham's account.
"I saw him standing next to the body," Summey said. "I also saw him pull up his shirt, put pressure on some of the wounds."
Saturday, hundreds attended Scott's funeral; family and friends surrounding his f**g-draped casket.
The scene where the father of four was gunned down is now the site of a growing memorial in his honor.
When asked what was going through his mind at the memorial, Chief Eddie Driggers said he needed some space.
"I think it's emotional for everybody," Driggers said.
A preliminary hearing for Slager could take place within the next two to three weeks and an indictment is expected as early as next month.
.
KHH1 wrote:
Race relations in America have never been better b... (show quote)
Apr 13, 2015 08:18:50 #
Pennylynn wrote:
Sorry... I do not agree. I think race relations i... (show quote)
I don't think the right wants better race relations...they need something else to blame Obama for......good race relations is a positive....cannot have that on Obama's watch....the right wants to portray their thinking as that of America as a whole...but we know better..
Apr 13, 2015 08:28:13 #
Boo_Boo
Loc: Jellystone
Actually, I think that the average person, right and left want better relations. But, I think that there are organizers that have an agenda and both sides are falling into place and equally participating. We have stopped talking to each other because we are told that b****s do not like w****s and w****s do not like b****s. Indeed, the issues with the police has done nothing to ease the relationship and the over involvement from the WH has actually made things worse. Unless we get firmer leadership in the WH we are headed for tough times. Obama's handling of this is reminiscent of Buchanan. And this proves, history repeats itself.
KHH1 wrote:
I don't think the right wants better race relations...they need something else to blame Obama for......good race relations is a positive....cannot have that on Obama's watch....the right wants to portray their thinking as that of America as a whole...but we know better..
Apr 13, 2015 08:45:51 #
Coos Bay Tom
Loc: coos bay oregon
KHH1 wrote:
I look at OPP as somewhat of a poll and I have concluded that unfortunately the majority of the right have r****m in their hearts and minds. I have seen "nappy headed" as a comment dozens of times. "you belong in Africa" directed at me and I am not Black.The new one is being absolutely r****t and saying "you are r****t" when called on it. Rand Paul does not believe buisineses should serve B****s if they don't want to The president is despised by many just because he is Black not just for his policys.. Black lives do matter yet Rightys blame all the bad things that happen to B****s on B****s and call them l**ters wanting an excuse to do so when protests turn ugly because of the blindness and deafness and the don't care attitude of the majority. It is appalling and I know the bigots will come after me after this posting. I don't care. I am not out to impress them. It will just reinforce what I just wrote.I don't think the right wants better race relations...they need something else to blame Obama for......good race relations is a positive....cannot have that on Obama's watch....the right wants to portray their thinking as that of America as a whole...but we know better..
Apr 13, 2015 08:46:27 #
Pennylynn wrote:
Actually, I think that the average person, right a... (show quote)
No...the right and left have stopped talking because the right are rigid in their thinking...but we talk to each other on the left.....big-time..
Apr 13, 2015 08:52:44 #
Coos Bay Tom wrote:
I look at OPP as somewhat of a poll and I have con... (show quote)
The non-r****t declaration that they displayed unity by not responding to it told me all I need to know....it was just a stinking gesture and they could not even pull themselves to embrace that...not one of them...speaks volumes.....but no one cares...they are the "lost tribe" for real......
Apr 13, 2015 09:01:04 #
Coos Bay Tom
Loc: coos bay oregon
KHH1 wrote:
I wonder if God is crying.The non-r****t declaration that they displayed unity by not responding to it told me all I need to know....it was just a stinking gesture and they could not even pull themselves to embrace that...not one of them...speaks volumes.....but no one cares...they are the "lost tribe" for real......
Apr 13, 2015 09:06:49 #
KHH1 wrote:
I don't think the right wants better race relations...they need something else to blame Obama for......good race relations is a positive....cannot have that on Obama's watch....the right wants to portray their thinking as that of America as a whole...but we know better..
This may be the biggest bulls**t statement you have made yet KHH1! Man, are you ever out of touch with reality...absolutely pathetic.
Apr 13, 2015 09:09:35 #
Coos Bay Tom
Loc: coos bay oregon
JMHO wrote:
Dunno Your'e the one who lives in outer Mongolia.This may be the biggest bulls**t statement you have made yet KHH1! Man, are you ever out of touch with reality...absolutely pathetic.
Apr 13, 2015 09:14:07 #
Coos Bay Tom wrote:
I look at OPP as somewhat of a poll and I have con... (show quote)
You have only heard these terms from a couple OPP posters. So, stop trying to label the rest of us as r****ts. The real r****ts on OPP are KHH1, and the majority of you l*****ts. It is you l*****ts that say we only dislike Obama because he is black...because that is all you've got. We dislike Obama because he is incompetent, a narcissist who can never admit he is wrong, a pathological liar, a sociopath, a hypocrite, an elitist, and down right the worst president in U.S. history, and his record proves it. Now, where in that description did I refer to him as black? Get a life, all you l*****t r****ts!
Apr 13, 2015 09:14:51 #
Coos Bay Tom wrote:
Dunno Your'e the one who lives in outer Mongolia.
Your typical stupid comment.
Apr 13, 2015 09:25:09 #
Coos Bay Tom
Loc: coos bay oregon
JMHO wrote:
Why thankyou. You are true to form. Glad to see you are feeling well and up early. Have a great day bashing all those libtards and the i***tic statements they make.Your typical stupid comment.
:thumbup:
Apr 13, 2015 09:28:01 #
Coos Bay Tom wrote:
I look at OPP as somewhat of a poll and I have con... (show quote)
You do not have to be black to be a coon
Apr 13, 2015 09:34:33 #
Coos Bay Tom
Loc: coos bay oregon
ghostgotcha wrote:
You don't have to be White to be a r****t either. Christians real Christians do not use racial epithets. God is watchingYou do not have to be black to be a coon
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