Here’s the kernel of Sadanand Dhume’s Wall Street Journal column:
China’s authoritarian system of government, economic heft and technological prowess make it the foremost challenger to the U.S.-led international order that has underwritten global peace and prosperity for more than seven decades. At the same time, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders—some 19.3 million strong according to the Census Bureau—are America’s fastest-growing demographic group. Those who call on the U.S. to drop its criticism of China for the supposed well-being of Asian-Americans are asking Washington to enter a geopolitical boxing ring with one arm tied behind its back.
and here’s his conclusion:
In the end, America has no choice but to grapple with the threat of an authoritarian and increasingly belligerent China. But the best way to strengthen the country domestically is to reject both white supremacy and “wokeism†by striving toward a society that is race-blind, not race-obsessed.
In a country of 330 million people and growing there will always be enough evidence to support your case for practically anything. And stoking racial animosity is such a lucrative grift I expect it to continue for the foreseeable future.
Dhume, Nuland, Kristol et al are the problem. The US under their control staged a coup in Ukrainian, organized the murderous overthrow of Gaddafi, invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, suppoerted the invasion of Yemen…We, not China, are the problem. The so-called “Biden†administration is controlled by virulent war mongers, and if they cannot be stopped, we will get world war in both Europe and Asia. We are closer to a nuclear today than at any time since 1945. And, yes I remember the Cuban missile crisis. I was in college then.
Calling out systemic racism is the gift that keeps on giving for one party in particular. It’s the one who continues to divide and conquer by it’s continuous hawking of identity politics. Color, gender and class are the classifications in which this party is able to decipher who is good and deserving, versus who is bad and unfairly favored or entitled. And, for a country, whose own constitution stipulates that “all men are created equal,†this party seems intent on tearing such a tenet apart at the seams.
In the meantime, my husband and I had an early dinner today at a casual cafe our son is employed. Everyone there, employees and customers, were of different ethnicities, and they blended together in amicable conversations and fellowship without having any signs of cultural discomfort or animosity being present. It’s amazing how if you subtract out the negative social progressive rhetoric, that so often accompanies what Dems attempt to inject, one finds themselves looking at and enjoying the content of someone’s character rather than simply the color of their skin.
Characterization of people with Chinese ancestry as marginalized, disadvantaged, victimized people of color is such a recent and remarkable one that I doubt very much it has grassroots.
It looks more like professional propaganda designed to position China favorably in the American public eye.
To deflect criticism even before it can arise.
A PR campaign.
“Everyone there, employees and customers, were of different ethnicities, and they blended together in amicable conversations and fellowship without having any signs of cultural discomfort or animosity being present. “
The past 5-6 years I’ve grown to understand the cultural norms of VA, NC, SC and GA quite a bit better. To your point, black and white co-mingle in a seamless, unremarkable way. (And boy does this area have its history – the very first class my daughter took in college in Virginia was about “The War of Northern Aggressionâ€). If you want to see racial intolerance and division go to Philly, Chicago, Boston etc.
Every time I make that point a certain physician scoffs that of course a white person would feel that way. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about but certainly needs the issue.
The emerging interracial issue here is actually Hispanic/Black. Thats about jobs. Not much coverage of that as it doesn’t fit the narrative. Prepare for Hispanics to be relabeled unwoke whites in 3-2-1…..by the race baiting crowd.
Race baiting for political gain is just another example of the harmful effects of progressive thought. It’s a shame it has not been more vigorously rejected by more mainstream Democrats.
I’ve been saying that for years. It’s also about political power. Contrary to the future as imagined by some Democratic strategists, I think that increasingly blacks and Hispanics will be contesting for power in large city governments. The victors, as usual, will be white non-Hispanics.
Also, anyone who thinks there is no resentment against Asians in the black community is just ignoring the obvious.
“The past 5-6 years I’ve grown to understand the cultural norms of VA, NC, SC and GA quite a bit better. To your point, black and white co-mingle in a seamless, unremarkable way.”
I think that I have only ever heard white people say this. It was the Republican North Carolina senator who noted that he, his staffers, his sergeant major brother who noted that being black means you get treated differently. I lived in the South. Among the affluent and generally well to do I completely expect people to get along pretty well. Leave the cities, travel among the less well off and you wont get quite the same picture. Travel through the middle of Florida with a fellow officer (black), not in uniform, and if you stop to eat you don’t get served. OK, 30 years ago and I am sure it is all better now.
Oh, and in every restaurant in Philly, Chicago or Boston I also expect people of different colors and ethnicities to get along well also. Overall, race relations are better than they were in the past, but to pretend racism has disappeared is bizarre. Race baiting? Right wing media (and the billions of dollars generated) wouldnt exist without it. Of course now they are playing the victim. Nothing like the people who preached rugged individualism and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps whining about how bad they have it now.
Steve
No, racism will never disappear. There will always be opportunities there for the clever and ambitious in our society.
China is certain this is our fatal flaw. Maybe they’re spot on.
Most posts here don’t claim that racism has completely disappeared, just like “hate†continues to linger around the edges of what drives a riot, murder etc. However, the behavior that stirs the pot unnecessarily is the constant race baiting dangled in front of most issues by the Dems. Calling anybody a racist is the most frequently used verbal tool used by aggressive social progressives. It instantly slimes a person, braking any need for facts or debate – Alinsky’s influence has only grown making society more polarized, which suites the Dems strategy of achieving total power out of the rubble of a publicly fractured republic.
The fact that some people call others racist too often does not mean there is no racism and no systemic racism. I generally don’t call people racist and avoid the topic. Dont really see the point. But when you look at the numbers and talk with minorities it is pretty clear it still is problem. Everyone behaving nicely in restaurants doesn’t mean it is gone.
steve, I agree with you that racism still exists. It’s not hard to find. But I also agree with Grey Shambler: to some degree racism will always be with us. I’m not saying that your objective is to blot racism out completely but there are those whose is. They will be disappointed.
However, “talking to minorities” is not a guaranteed way of gauging the racism of the society. When you are sensitized with respect to racism you will see it even when there’s no racism there to be seen. As a friend of mine once put it two people can do the same things and have the same things happen but have different experiences.
I continue to be skeptical that there’s anything actionable about “systemic racism”.
All of that having been said, I do my level best to treat each person with kindness, consideration, and respect. That’s all I can do.
The issue isn’t whether racism or prejudice exists. Only fools debate that. The issue is cognizance that it exists among and between myriad groups. There is no purity – white, black, Hispanic, Jew, Catholic etc etc.
However, some have successfully convinced fools that its a white only issue. If one really wants to deal with the issue, and not just leverage the issue – WTFU.
.
That was explained to me almost a half century ago. As the line goes, whites have power. Racism doesn’t just consist of bigotry against one race or another but in bigotry + power.
My own view is that just because some whites have power doesn’t mean that all whites have power.
“However, “talking to minorities†is not a guaranteed way of gauging the racism of the society.”
Kind of odd that you would take the time to point this out, which is for to true, yet not challenge Drew and jan who proved that there is no significant racism because everyone was nice to each other in some restaurants. Anyway, the reason you talk with people is that it helps to confirm and give a fuller story to the numbers we have. We know that the police stop black people when driving much more often. They search the cars more often, yet they find contraband only at the same rate as when they search cars stopped with white people driving. So someone bothered to talk with the North Carolina senator and he said he was stopped 7 times in one year. I doubt I have been stopped that many times in my life and I almost always drive fast. You also get to hear about the stuff that does not show up in studies.
“you will see it even when there’s no racism there to be seen.”
Good point, but then I would bet there are at least as many people inclined to not see racism even when it does exist.
“The issue is cognizance that it exists among and between myriad groups. ”
Sure, but who suffers any negative effects from it. How many times have you been late to a meeting because the police stopped you because you were driving a Porsche. How many hospitals would turn you and your wife away from delivering a baby because of your color?
So the big fear is that some black people are going to get jobs or get admitted to top schools just because they are black and fewer white kids wont get into those schools or get jobs. I dont think the numbers are there to show that this is well substantiated, and it was certainly well tolerated when it went the other way. Look at the whining on this site. For 50 years minorities are well under represented on TV commercials. They get over represented for a year or two and it is the end of the world.
“My own view is that just because some whites have power doesn’t mean that all whites have power.”
True, but the whites who do have power use it, and historically they used it against minorities. They now use it against minorities AND poor white people.
Steve
Steve
That’s certainly not my “big fear”. I have two. First, I’m concerned that a handful of black activists will get cushy six-figure jobs, basically to keep them quiet, while most blacks are stuck without prospects and increasingly convinced they’re being abused.
My other concern is that we will be encouraged to discard what has made the U. S. great and the most egalitarian multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-confessional society in the world in favor of installing an elite that depends on a continually changing set of standards to maintain their power and wealth.
I would bet there are at least as many people inclined to not see racism even when it does exist.
And that’s probably how black peoples see you.
You’re white, and as much as you hate it you can’t scrape it off.
Guilty by birth.
I’m sure that many do. But I’ve had experiences that many white folk have not. As a kid I played with black kids. As a young adult I worked with a mostly black crew. I was invited to parties in which I was the only white boy. I was invited into their homes. We socialized. We worshipped in the same church together. My inclination is to see black people as people.
But you’re right. People pre-judge others on superficial grounds all of the time.
People of all ethnicities make “racist†comments or commit racist acts. However, because of the political correctness exercised today, many comments once considered benign are now easily construed as racist, giving oxygen to claims of systemic racism infecting this country
The label of racism, though, seems to fall mainly on one race, like an emblazoned “scarlet letter,†no matter how times, laws, and sentiments have changed for the better. Such corrosive judgments do little to help ameliorate harm done in the past, nor heal wounds created by this harm in the future.
What I find unyieldingly simplistic, from those stuck on white vs black racism, is how black and white their thinking is. If one points out how societal acceptance or equality has improved, anecdotally or otherwise, this is airbrushed as naive. “Niceness†and congeniality in social settings is thus projected as artificial, irrelevant, and therefore doesn’t count. So, what behavior does make the grade of legitimacy? Basically, it seems the recounting, even amplification, of racial attitudes, injustices common in the past – that are increasingly frowned upon today – but are nevertheless highlighted as the “norm†by the social justice crowd and those card-carrying identity politics people.
What I wonder is how can anything change, or move forward, if people persist in clinging to past grievances, using color to identify who is a victim or not, and then punishing those born today for those grievances?