The NEW YORK TIMES GIFT GUIDE FOR ALL YOUR MINORITY FRIENDS
My latest at PJ Media column is up and its about the New York Times and the queerly (archaic form) fascinating section in their holiday gift guide headlined “Of Color” and featuring gift ideas for minorities.
How 1950’s of them.
Indeed, my original title was “The New York Times Gift Guide for All Your Negro Friends” but that was scrubbed for reasons unknown. I thought that the use of the archaic form to describe African Americans was apropos considering the subject matter:
Do you have a a Negro friend and are you having trouble finding just the right gift to get him dancing and singing on Christmas Day?
Well, the New York Times has come up with one of the great ideas of the 1950s: a holiday gift guide for the colored folk.
You’ve probably struggled with what to give your doorman, or valet, or housemaid as an appropriate present. You want something not too expensive but something they can really use. This colored folk gift guide takes the worry out of your holiday shopping for servants and others who are complexion-challenged.
Don’t let the fact that this is the year 2009 fool you. The Times is just a little late, that’s all. A good idea is a good idea no matter what decade — or century — it is conceived. And when you think about it, the idea of giving our many-hued minorities their very own catalog of special gifts chosen with them in mind is probably long past due. After all, it’s been a few years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, and many lunch counters actually don’t mind serving non-whites.
Thank God we have the New York Times to help us measure racial progress in this country.
What is interesting about the guide is that it features gift ideas for many different shades of off-white. Not only Negroes will benefit from this ultra-modern idea, but the Latins, the Wogs, and even our friends from the inscrutable Orient can be inspired by these exotic and race-specific selections. It’s like taking a trip through an international bazaar — or getting in a time machine and traveling back to the good old days when everyone knew their place and Macy’s didn’t feature Kwanza displays.
As Ed Driscoll, points out on his blog, we have basically come full circle as far as racia attitudes in America is concerned:
Why be amazed? Elite colleges, with faculties that skew far to the left have been promoting the functional equivalent of “Separate But Equal” graduations and dorms for years - we first wrote about the latter topic (linking to a piece by Joanne Jacobs, former San Jose Mecury columnist turned author and pioneering edu-blogger) during the first year of our blog, back in 2002. Boston talk radio host Michael Graham wrote Redneck Nation, which looked at similar trends in 2001. As he said:
“In 1948, Strom Thurmond was a politician obsessed with race. The modern American liberal is obsessed with race. Strom Thurmond thought schools and courts should treat citizens differently based on their skin color. Liberal supporters of, among other things, race-based admissions policies and hate-crime laws agree. Strom promoted the “multicultural” view that institutions like Jim Crow and segregation might appear irrational or unjust to outside agitators, but they were a perfect fit with southern culture.”
As is the current multicultural mania a perfect fit for modern liberal America. Not quite “separate but equal,” however. There is a current of thought that “authentic” racially-based constructs are superior to white society because past oppression has granted minorities an elevated moral position. The Times “Of Color” section in their gift guide is perfectly logical when seen in this light; separate, superior, and deserving.
Believing this nonsense allows for scathing personal attacks on minorities who don’t toe the line when it comes to their own cocooned racial group’s agenda. The fact that a lot of this criticism is blatantly racist in character is not surprising. Those white liberals who believe they occupy the same moral high ground as their oppressed minority brethren due to their “enlightened” views on race feel enabled to charge racial apostates with a form of treason in the most vitriolic ways.
And, of course, whites who disagree with them on everything from affirmative action to issues involving the confederate flag are racists. Any discussion of race with many on the left must begin by accepting their definitions, their notions of history, their ideas of what constitutes “racism.” Otherwise, the conversation is cut short rather rudely by those liberals accusing anyone who questions their moral authority to judge these matters as racist.
Is it any wonder there is little productive conversation about race in America?
No doubt many on the left would disagree with this analysis. Such is to be expected from those whose self-awareness on this issue is totally lacking. It’s hard to come down from the mountain, difficult to stop waving the bloody shirt on the battlements when genuine debate might reveal fatal flaws in one’s views on race.
And the biggest flaw is the arrogant notion that falsely identifying with the oppressed gives one the singular moral right to determine the legitimacy of another’s views.
I sometimes joke that the only place where I, a German, can go and talk about ‘Negroes’ is a black barber shop I sometimes frequent. I think this whole idea of ‘multiculturalism’ is on the retreat but Universities just as the NYT are the last to notice. However, I think opposition to affirmative action is very different than supporting the confederate flag. The later is a racist symbol. That’s as if I would wear a swastika because our German soldiers fought bravely in WWII (they did). It’s still a racist symbol.
Comment by funny man — 12/11/2009 @ 9:31 am
Agreed, Rick. Liberal white cultural elites are afraid to have a frank discussion on race because they might have to face the conservative truth that white people really are awesome.
I love it when you write about race.
The fact that you missed the point doesn’t surprise me. The idea that your analysis has any basis in reality only proves my point. Do you really believe that’s what I said? Of course not. But you feel morally superior due to your enlightened views on race that you can say that I was actually writing that “white people are awesome” and feel that you’ve won any argument before we’ve even started.
ed.
Comment by Chuck Tucson — 12/11/2009 @ 10:23 am
I didnt miss the point. Every time you write about race it’s the same thing. Liberals are too afraid to admit the truth, because they’ll lose their stranglehold on minority voters. Got it.
Where do write the word “fear” or “afraid?” Where do I hint at it? Where can you point to in the piece where any reasonable person can say I am accusing the left of being afraid to “admit the truth.” What truth? I offer no counter to the left’s views on race. Nor do I even mention a political dimension.
So yes, you missed the point while doing your usual idiotic job of reading crap into what I write that isn’t there except in your fevered imagination.
ed.
Comment by Chuck Tucson — 12/11/2009 @ 11:03 am
There is a legitimite place for ethnic-centric sentiments- notice the mawkish sentimentality of the Irish diaspora, or the Italian-American clubs, and so forth.
So in that light, I can see a place for African themed articles. But Rick’s point is correct in that ethnic tribalism is dangerous stuff, whether it is meant to be exclusive or not.
The American genius is to see us as individuals, not tribes, and the more we can subsume ethnic identity to the national identity, the better.
Comment by Liberty60 — 12/11/2009 @ 11:12 am
Yes indeed, let us see each other as individuals and as American citizens, with the responsibilities and obligations that citizenship implies.
Once ethnic group-think and group action in involved we are steered down paths we cannot support in all conscience as American citizens. Affirmative Action is an example, as is Reparations for Black Slavery, or the blackmail of corporations by the Rainbow Coalition headed by Jessie Jackson. The preachings of Reverend White and many ACORN activities appear to be in this class too.
But it isn’t just black group-think and group actions that is a worry, witness CAIR, for instance!
When the Left tries to coopt the ethnic group-think or group actions of blacks or other ethnic or religious groups for their own nefarious purposes we see a demonstration of yet another hypocritical facet of their cynicism and immorality.
I am reminded of Rousseau’s admonition that if society must have factions, let there be many, many of them, so that their impact on the collective will is spread all over the political and social lot–none to be too, too dominant.
Sounds like a good idea. One that we Americans appear to practice by default, if not by deliberate plan.
Comment by mannning — 12/11/2009 @ 11:59 am
Manning-
I agree with your criticisms of many ethnic advocacy groups- it becomes tribalism pure and simple.
I wouldn’t accept that somehow the Left managed to corner the market, though- when I hear people bawling that they are “losing our country” or see a pair of white hands crumpling a notice that says the job went to a minority- that too is the dog whistle of Our Tribe.
Comment by Liberty60 — 12/11/2009 @ 1:21 pm
Thanks for hipping me to the minority gift buying advice. Since I live in bitter-clinger country there are no Negro friends or neighbors to buy gifts for. But if I did I sure wouldn’t want to commit a post-racial faux pas by giving one a bottle of Ripple. Again, excellent advice from the NYT. A real community service. Yep.
Comment by CZ — 12/11/2009 @ 2:27 pm
I agree that no faction has a corner on stupidity–left or right. It is a matter of degree, with the greater seemingly falling on the left, from my perspective, although the far, far right has some real one-tune imbeciles too. We had some snake worshippers in Tennessee that founded themselves on a somewhat obscure Bible passage. Talking about forked tongues…!
Comment by mannning — 12/11/2009 @ 10:27 pm
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