When victimhood becomes social currency, the legitimate complaints become difficult to sort from the exaggerated or fabricated. When I was woke and feminist, I saw these slights everywhere; I merely had to go looking for something to interpret in the worst way possible. I fear racist incidents will go the way of MeToo - we went too far in the opposite direction to unreason.
I've been waiting all my adult life for this charade to end. The phrase 'black fatigue' is long long overdue.
Way back in the mid 80s, a co-worker whose parents were professors took me to task for stating what I thought was obvious: blacks commit a high amount of crime proportionate to their population. She lived on the South Side of Chicago no less!
Anyway -- it's narcissism. On both sides. The perennial black victim is an opportunist. The progressive gas lighter is an opportunist.
There is a knee-jerk reaction in the so-called 'black community' to label expectations, facts, and accountability 'racist.' They've been running on this forever, and it's not helping them -- or anyone.
Years ago, when threatened with a knifing by a black student over a grade (because you know, white people want to keep the black man down), and the administration looked the other way, I saw the handwriting on the wall.
If we want a two-tiered justice system, where some people can attack innocents for racial reasons and get by with it -- we're doomed.
The ravaging this has done to our educational system is going to take decades to clean up and reform.
I recall a bizarre incident at my first job, about 25 years ago. I worked at a fish market in an affluent suburb outside a majority-black big city.
One day, two black women came into the fish market, looking for a type of fish we didn't normally stock. My wonderful boss politely noted that we didn't stock that type of fish because it never sold well for us. This is a fish market in an affluent area, so we sold things like wild sockeye salmon and sushi-grade tuna. These two ladies were looking for a rather cheap fish (I think it was whiting, but doesn't matter). My boss politely suggested that a couple nearby fish markets in the city usually stocked the fish. Disappointed, the pair left.
Here's the weird part - moments later, they return and one of the women approaches the counter in our (thankfully) empty market and tells my boss, "we decided what you said was racist." We were both flabbergasted. He apologizes, but states he was simply trying to be helpful and was unsure what part of his behavior was offensive. She insists that because he directed her to other markets *who were known to stock what she was looking for* this was racist. My boss reiterated that he was simply trying to help her find the kind of fish she was looking for and reiterated that we didn't stock it, simply because it didn't sell.
All these years later, I suppose it was because the other markets were black-owned businesses in a predominantly black city, that she interpreted this as some sort of 'go back where you came from?' The lengths to which people will go to see bad intent sometimes is just staggering.
Pretty sure the sentence:
What happens when the supply of racism outstrips the demand?
Should have demand and supply swapped.
Thanks! What happens when the supply of racism outstrips the demand? You have actual racism, I guess, with all of its negative externalities.
Thanks for taking the time to note the correction.
When victimhood becomes social currency, the legitimate complaints become difficult to sort from the exaggerated or fabricated. When I was woke and feminist, I saw these slights everywhere; I merely had to go looking for something to interpret in the worst way possible. I fear racist incidents will go the way of MeToo - we went too far in the opposite direction to unreason.
Great essay!
I've been waiting all my adult life for this charade to end. The phrase 'black fatigue' is long long overdue.
Way back in the mid 80s, a co-worker whose parents were professors took me to task for stating what I thought was obvious: blacks commit a high amount of crime proportionate to their population. She lived on the South Side of Chicago no less!
Anyway -- it's narcissism. On both sides. The perennial black victim is an opportunist. The progressive gas lighter is an opportunist.
There is a knee-jerk reaction in the so-called 'black community' to label expectations, facts, and accountability 'racist.' They've been running on this forever, and it's not helping them -- or anyone.
Years ago, when threatened with a knifing by a black student over a grade (because you know, white people want to keep the black man down), and the administration looked the other way, I saw the handwriting on the wall.
If we want a two-tiered justice system, where some people can attack innocents for racial reasons and get by with it -- we're doomed.
The ravaging this has done to our educational system is going to take decades to clean up and reform.
I recall a bizarre incident at my first job, about 25 years ago. I worked at a fish market in an affluent suburb outside a majority-black big city.
One day, two black women came into the fish market, looking for a type of fish we didn't normally stock. My wonderful boss politely noted that we didn't stock that type of fish because it never sold well for us. This is a fish market in an affluent area, so we sold things like wild sockeye salmon and sushi-grade tuna. These two ladies were looking for a rather cheap fish (I think it was whiting, but doesn't matter). My boss politely suggested that a couple nearby fish markets in the city usually stocked the fish. Disappointed, the pair left.
Here's the weird part - moments later, they return and one of the women approaches the counter in our (thankfully) empty market and tells my boss, "we decided what you said was racist." We were both flabbergasted. He apologizes, but states he was simply trying to be helpful and was unsure what part of his behavior was offensive. She insists that because he directed her to other markets *who were known to stock what she was looking for* this was racist. My boss reiterated that he was simply trying to help her find the kind of fish she was looking for and reiterated that we didn't stock it, simply because it didn't sell.
All these years later, I suppose it was because the other markets were black-owned businesses in a predominantly black city, that she interpreted this as some sort of 'go back where you came from?' The lengths to which people will go to see bad intent sometimes is just staggering.
"Racism" is just a catch-all phrase that leftists use to gain leverage in society. It doesn't actually mean anything.
Angel Reese was not the source of the racism claim. It was some random online account which makes the investigation by the WNBA even dumber.