In which I throw the full weight of my support to Jeff Goldstein
Bring it on.
Hurricane Katrina may turn out to be the catalyst that drags the previously untouchable debate over the dangers of identity politics into the harsh, cleansing light of day. Seriously, how sad is that? It takes the largest and most costly natural disaster (in terms of both American lives and property loss) of the last hundred years before it's OK to put rational discussion of race relations in America on the table?
I'll start the debate with a question:
What is up with the surname Robertson? Does the name itself suggest a tendency towards hyperbole?
First Pat makes an ass of himself calling for the assasination of Hugo Chavez.
Now Randall is claiming that black residents of New Orleans are canabilizing the corpses of flood victims?
See also Dean, and especially Bill.
UPDATE: Randall has retracted his claim of canabilism, but says, "I stand behind everything else I wrote without reservation." The eating human corpses after just three days thing was pretty sensationalist, and it was that claim that drew my attention, but the "everything else" was the really objectionable part. Apparently he still stands by it.
UPDATE: Don't miss this. "American racism in pictures"
Some people this week are saying Katrina has uncovered the underbelly of institutional racism in this country. Bring it on. I'm loaded for bear in this debate. It's high time that we stop the "soft bigotry of low expectations" leveled at minority Americans by liberal, con artist power-mongers. Damnit.
You people are celebrating the fact that this guy made the claim that Bush “doesn’t care” about Blacks?
Good.
A lot of us “wingnuts”—who you are going to find out are really classical liberals—are itching for this fight.
Turning a hurricane into a “racist” event is just what this country needs to have the conversation it’s been too afraid to have for 30 years.
Bring it on.
Hurricane Katrina may turn out to be the catalyst that drags the previously untouchable debate over the dangers of identity politics into the harsh, cleansing light of day. Seriously, how sad is that? It takes the largest and most costly natural disaster (in terms of both American lives and property loss) of the last hundred years before it's OK to put rational discussion of race relations in America on the table?
I'll start the debate with a question:
What is up with the surname Robertson? Does the name itself suggest a tendency towards hyperbole?
First Pat makes an ass of himself calling for the assasination of Hugo Chavez.
Now Randall is claiming that black residents of New Orleans are canabilizing the corpses of flood victims?
See also Dean, and especially Bill.
UPDATE: Randall has retracted his claim of canabilism, but says, "I stand behind everything else I wrote without reservation." The eating human corpses after just three days thing was pretty sensationalist, and it was that claim that drew my attention, but the "everything else" was the really objectionable part. Apparently he still stands by it.
UPDATE: Don't miss this. "American racism in pictures"
Some people this week are saying Katrina has uncovered the underbelly of institutional racism in this country. Bring it on. I'm loaded for bear in this debate. It's high time that we stop the "soft bigotry of low expectations" leveled at minority Americans by liberal, con artist power-mongers. Damnit.