An Unlikely Source Triggers More Angst Over America’s Race Debate

Tal Fortgang

About a week ago, a white kid from Westchester (Tal Fortgang), made national news with a piece he penned in the Princeton Tory titled, “Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege.” (http://theprincetontory.com/main/checking-my-privilege-character-as-the-basis-of-privilege/)

He’s been lauded by some, had his essay republished in Time Magazine (http://time.com/85933/why-ill-never-apologize-for-my-white-male-privilege/) and vilified by others (http://m.thenation.com/blog/179675-no-one-cares-if-you-never-apologize-your-white-male-privilege), mainly the purveyors of the modern-day segregation of race/gender preferences.

So, THIS is what the pro-segregated standards advocates have retreated to, that "majority" males (since all existing societies are considered "patriarchal"), ethnic Chinese males in China, black males in Jamaica, ethnic Japanese males in Japan and white males in the USA derive some nebulous and ill-defined "privilege" from that majority position.

That's utter nonsense everywhere, but in the U.S. part of that "white male privilege" has been a half century of segregated standards on virtually ALL standardized exams, racial preferences that favor virtually EVERY other group over themselves AND being lectured by the truly privileged - both the recipients of those segregated standards and other assorted privileges, along with the political class," most of whom have never EARNED those positions, but merely won a variety of "popularity contests."

It’d be different IF the segregated standards of “Affirmative Action” (USA)/Positive Discrimination (UK) (depending upon how you prefer to euphemize such segregation) had existed only a decade...or maybe two, BUT five?!

Come on!

We've had a full half a century of segregated standards that are rooted NOT so much in the belief of white (and Asian) supremacy, but more aptly “black incompetence.” Today’s race-based preferences stem from the presumption that blacks (even well-off blacks from well-to-do families) cannot compete with whites and Asians, no matter what!

Regardless of how loudly SOME of its advocates howl, THAT is precisely the presumption that this modern day segregation is based on, just as surely as the pro-abortion-on-demand movement is rooted in the conviction that the poor (and ethnic minorities) will much more readily avail themselves of that  procedure than others...AND they DO! Blacks (appx. 12%) of the population account for over 35% of the abortions in America nationwide, a disparity that takes some doing. For the record, while I vehemently oppose race/gender preferences, I strongly support abortion-on-demand, at least through the 20^th week of pregnancy.

An example of how pervasive this anti-white male bias is can be seen in a recent and ongoing debate about the state of major league baseball (MLB) in America today. As many Latin and Asian players have flooded MLB, the number of black professional baseball players in MLB has sharply decreased, as has, interestingly enough, the number of white players, BUT the ONLY question being asked is, “Why are there so few American black players in MLB?”

Seriously?!

Now, I’m not a great sports aficionado. I've never had any season ticket packages for any professional sports franchise, nor even any pay-per-view sports package on cable, BUT, I follow the culture and I have never heard ANY arguments that blacks are somehow presumed better athletes than any other ethnic group and can only assume that the ONLY people who’d even make such an argument would be the SAME type of people prone to make arguments about blacks being innately less proficient cognitively. Since I won’t take such arguments seriously, I can ONLY chalk up this singular concern over the plight of blacks in MLB as indicative of the pervasive cult of anti-white bias and dark-skin privilege.

What else could it be?

ONLY in the "bizarro world" of the pro-racial preferences advocates the "privileged" are "the under-privileged." ONLY in that world is segregation (segregated standards) “fighting for racial equality.” Brainless, emotionally charged movements like those supporting segregation in the name of “equal opportunity” tend to be shameless as well.

Rare (from me) Kudos to CNN...Specifically to Chris Cuomo

CNN's Chris Cuomo

Since I have excoriated CNN (especially Carol Costello and Erin Burnett) over their coverage of racial issues (ie. the Trayvon Martin case, etc.), I HAVE TO credit CNN, especially Chris Cuomo for doing an excellent interview with the very flawed and inarticulate Cliven Bundy AND for dealing with the issue in a far LESS politically partisan and inflammatory way than many of his co-workers at CNN.

Here is a good clip of a good portion of that interview;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmc5koVpQXM

I believe Chris Cuomo went out of his way to be fair and even-handed with an obviously inarticulate man. He did NOT look to bait Bundy into digging an even deeper hole and even appeared to look to understand Bundy’s concerns over what he saw as federal overreach. Cuomo delivered a very “fair and balanced” interview of a highly controversial man. It was certainly a much more fair and unbiased report than any of those done on MSNBC and FNC. In fact, Chris Cuomo even defended FNC host Sean Hannity, as "a friend," who he's certain shares none of Bundy's racial views.

Bundy, to his great detriment, has allowed his poorly articulated and archaic racial views to overshadow a legitimate state’s rights and federal overreach issue.

THAT (Bundy’s reckless racial commentary), is not the national media’s fault.

Its ultra-partisan way of handling it certainly IS!

That is why Chris Cuomo stands out, today, as a beacon of non-partisanship.

Many paternalistic bigots have attempted to use Cliven Bundy’s grossly inarticulate words to (1) undermine his very real issues with federal overreach and land management abuse, via high fees and senseless regulations and (2) to tar those who supported those legitimate issues as “racists,” for having defended Bundy’s views on federal overreach.

Many of these paternalists have likened Bundy’s racial views to those of the critics of the existing American welfare/dependency state. Indeed legislators like Paul Ryan, Scott Walker and others HAVE rightly note that the existing welfare/dependency state “breeds dysfunction.” That is as sad, as it is true, BUT it is also undeniable. I've been to hundreds of fires and many hundreds more emergencies in urban housing projects (mostly in the South Bronx). The stairwells and elevators in ALL those buildings reek of urine. Drug deals and sexual encounters regularly go on in those enclosed stairwells. The marauders, the violently dysfunctional control those areas. Others live in abject terror. Many people born into those areas DO get an education and good jobs and LEAVE those areas.

However, the idea that the paternalists seem to posit; that there’s very little difference between the population (and their behaviors) in any given urban housing project and that of any up-scale suburban neighborhood is naively ignorant.

Poverty, like LIFE itself doesn’t just “happen to us.” We make things happen, we bring BOTH the good and the bad into our own lives. Just as specific human qualities and actions bring about prosperity (innovation, ambition, focus, delaying gratification, planning, etc.), specific human qualities and activities bring about poverty (recklessness, irresponsibility, poor impulse control, the inability to delay gratification, substance abuse, illiteracy, etc.).

Cliven Bundy may well be an inarticulate, “hick,” at least in the eyes of many urban elites, who’ve harped on what they’ve called his “nostalgia for chattel slavery,” BUT interestingly enough, one of Bundy’s black supporters (Jason Bullock) seemed to paint a very different picture of the old codger; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCto_bGIT2o

What counts the most, how poorly or well one articulates their sentiments, or how well they treat others? Many people who say all the right things, never act in accordance with their own words. Hell, con-men and sociopaths ALWAYS say the right things and practice coming across as “good & decent,” even “caring and empathetic.” We put weight on people’s words at our own peril. It SEEMS that Jason Bullock attempts to convey that Bundy’s actions appear to belie his words.

Bundy’s plight SHOULD bring to light federal policies that abuse individual ranchers via escalating fees and senseless regulations. His unilateral actions (NOT paying fees that other ranchers are forced to pay) were illegal, but the federal policies themselves seem to have been poorly implemented, probably abusive, even potentially immoral.

There are legitimate issues around government overreach and federal land abuse here, and seeking to bury those legitimate issues beneath an avalanche of trumped up racial outrage is patently dishonest.

Many years ago, a College classmate of mine said, “Almost everyone derives at least some of their income from government today. We have an army of local, state and federal officials, from educators, to police, to workers in a vast array of government agencies, private contractors who pave roads FOR the government, workers in private Corporations that have huge government contracts, farmers and ranchers who get government subsidies, etc., so WHY do so many of us (especially so many military and former military...GOVERNMENT WORKERS) fear the growth of government so much?”

I call that, “The HAPPY Slave narrative.” People like that classmate simply embrace the universal slavery to the state that Libertarians and many Conservatives reflexively question.

What troubles me is the abject close-mindedness of those who don’t question the “happy slave narrative.” WHY? I should say, what motivates people to simply accept the idea of a universal slavery to the state as inevitable? I can’t respect that view, but that’s just me, I guess.

Today, I laud Chris Cuomo for being a straight shooter on a very controversial issue and in dealing with an inarticulate and non-media savvy individual without baiting and abusing him. It may be unfortunate that that stands out as a “rare decency,” on the part of the national media, but for better, or worse, it does stand out as exactly that.

Mr. Louis’ VERY Biased Assessment

(Errol Louis)

In Mr. Errol Louis’ Op-Ed Victory Over Bias, a Long Time Coming, the actual FACTS about the FDNY’s entrance exams were conveniently omitted. For instance, the fact that these exams have long been calibrated to grade-school (7^th & 8^th grade) reading levels, for a job requiring a minimum of a H.S. diploma and ostensibly a 12^th grade reading level at minimum.

Fact is these exams have long been set BELOW even the bare minimum standards required for this job. Mr. Louis quotes a blatantly biased judge, who claims, “The city did not take sufficient measures to ensure that better performers on its examinations would actually be better firefighters.” When all that these most basic exams have tested for is a desire to minimally prepare for exams with questions like one showing four views of a traditional gauge (¼, ½, ¾ and full) and asking, “Which indicates half full”? The same opponents of the Civil Service Merit System have assailed questions directly related to firefighting as “too job specific, requiring a knowledge of firefighting principles an applicant shouldn’t be expected to be familiar with,” even when such questions merely ask for information already supplied in the referenced essay.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, Errol Louis, as well as Mayor de Blasio have all expressed the view that “New York City’s workforce should look like New York City.” In that case, the ONE glaring disparity in New York City’s workforce the gross over-representation of non-Latino blacks (23% of NYC’s population and 36% of its Municipal workforce...a staggering 58% above their numbers in New York City’s population; http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4038/the-whitest-city-agencies#.Uy4bR_ldVHa) must be addressed, ESPECIALLY considering that so many of the largest discrepancies exist in agencies where objective criteria (like basic exams) are absent. That discrepancy is made all the more distressing because of the appearance of special (political) considerations, which smacks of the old, corrupt political patronage system.

In a city that is rapidly becoming more Asian and Hispanic, overlooking the singularly most glaring ethnic disparity in New York City’s Municipal workforce - the gross over-representation of non-Latino blacks, the ONLY ethnic group with numbers greater than 10% of their portion of the City’s population represented in New York City’s municipal workforce – is a very big deal.

Yet More “Affluenza”?

(Robert Richards IV)

A du Pont family heir who pleaded guilty nearly six years ago to raping his 3 year-old daughter never spent a day behind bars because a Delaware judge ruled he “would not fare well” in prison, court records show.

Robert Richards IV, an heir to the du Pont fortune, admitted to performing sex acts on his 3-year-old daughter for two years.

After failing a polygraph test, he later admitted to abusing the little girl. Richards allegedly also told investigators “he was ill and that he needed medical treatment,” the lawsuit said.

He was subsequently sentenced to eight years of probation and community service because a Delaware judge said he “would not fare well” in prison.

Richards was first charged with two counts of second-degree rape, which would have come with a mandatory 20-year jail sentence. However, he pled down to fourth-degree rape, which does not carry a mandatory sentence.

Officials have managed to keep the case away from the public spotlight until this month — when his ex-wife, Tracy Richards, filed a lawsuit seeking compensatory and punitive damages for abusing their daughter and son.

Brendan J. O’Neill, a Delaware public defender, said that the ruling may prompt the public to be skeptical of “how a person with great wealth may be treated by the system.” (No kidding).

But he defended the judge’s decision (of course...he IS a defense attorney), saying sometimes people need help more than they deserve to be punished. Apparently they tend to “need HELP,” rather than punishment, especially when they’re rich!

“It’s an extremely rare circumstance that prison serves the inmate well. Prison is to punish, to segregate the offender from society, and the notion that prison serves people well hasn’t proven to be true in most circumstances.” Actually, quite the reverse, given that the ONLY thing that removes the predilection toward violence and sexual abuse is “aging out” (the offender getting too old to be a predator) prison warehousing is actually very effective in that regard.

But now Richard’s ex-wife is seeking justice by suing him for assault, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress on his two children, the lawsuit claims that while taking another lie detector test in 2010, Richards allegedly told the examiner he began to sexually abuse his son in 2005 — when the boy was 19 months old.

Better living through chemistry...my ass.

Kobe Bryant Suffers "Blacklash"

In an interview with Ben McGrath for the March issue of The New Yorker, McGrath asked about Bryant’s reaction to the Miami Heat’s show of hoodied solidarity with Trayvon Martin last year, to which Kobe Bryant responded, "I won’t react to something just because I'm supposed to, because I'm an African-American," Bryant said. "That argument doesn’t make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we've progressed as a society? Well, if we've progressed as a society then don’t jump to somebody's defense just because they're African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won’t assert myself.”

That simple response that merely repudiated a mindless group-think, has brought the wrath of liberal blacks down upon Kobe Bryant.

Roland Martin the dopey newser whose tweet ("If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!") two years ago (February, 2012) got him suspended from CNN, responded to Bryant’s, statement with, “Remember when @JimBrownNFL32 took heat for blasting @kobebryant? Jim knew what he was talking about. Kobe is clueless about #TrayvonMartin.”

AND

“Let's just call it what it is: @kobebryant went to the Michael Jordan School of Don't Say Jack, Don't Do Jack. Just Cash Checks. Man, please”

A piece at The Urban Daily slammed Bryant for being a "jerk," adding, "Over the span of Kobe Bryant‘s career...we’ve seen him do and say some very smug, cavalier and even cornball things at times but the comments that he made regarding the Miami Heat’s support after Trayvon Martin was killed...by far takes the cake!"

The term "cornball" is often used to disparage blacks for "acting white."

Career criminal and freshly minted “activist” Najee Ali, director of the little known Project Islamic H.O.P.E., angrily called for a boycott of Bryant; "African American youth should no longer buy Bryant’s jerseys or shoes and should boycott all products he endorses."

Interesting enough, Kobe Bryant had already tweeted, “Travon Martin was wronged THATS my opinion and thats what I believe the FACTS showed. The system did not work #myopinion #tweetURthoughts”

It’s said, that you’re known by who your friends are, BUT who your enemies are says a lot about a person as well...and right now, Kobe Bryant’s enemies are making him look very good.

New York’s Loss Appears to be Alabama’s Gain

Just a month after Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) said “extreme conservatives” who are “right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay,” have “no place in the state of New York,” at least one entity is taking him at his word.

On February 17^th, 2014 Remington, one of the world’s largest gun manufacturers, joined Gov. Robert Bentley (R) of Alabama to announce they’re bringing over 2,000 jobs to Alabama.

The company is viewing the move into Alabama as an expansion, but it will likely impact their Ilion, NY plant as well. The New York facility currently employees around 1,200 people. It is expected to stay open, but with a reduced workforce.

The company recently stated that, “The demand for Remington products has skyrocketed recently, for obvious reasons, so they need to increase their production capacity. They will be expanding their research capabilities with the Alabama plant, too.”

The initial estimated impact on Alabama’s economy will be roughly $87 million.

According to Remington’s website, the company designs, produces and sells sporting goods products for the hunting and shooting sports markets, as well as military, government and law enforcement markets. Founded in 1816 in upstate New York, the Company is one of the nation’s oldest continuously operating manufacturers. Remington is the only U.S. manufacturer of both firearms and ammunition products and one of the largest domestic producers of shotguns and rifles. The Company distributes its products throughout the U.S. and in over 55 foreign countries.

With so many other major gun manufacturers fleeing stricter gun control states, the fear in NY is that Remington and the thousands of much needed Upstate jobs it creates, could ultimately relocate entirely out of NY.

Elections and policies do have their consequences.

A Nation of Aging Civil Servants

I am an aging Civil Servant. I spent two decades fighting fires in the South Bronx...and it was fun. Business was good, especially during “the crack epidemic,” and the pay was decent and the benefits superior (unlimited non-line-of-duty medical leave, 3/4s of your pay for life for those who retire on “disability,” etc.). It wasn’t a bad life, all told.

Since those days, I’ve moved on to the Hazmat world where the compensation is even better and as I close in on “aging out,” I often wonder how long America can sustain the bad bets it’s made since FDR signed the 37 page Social Security in August of 1937.

Today, Medicaid IS insolvent and Medicare is slated for insolvency by 2026, and Social Security is generously scheduled for insolvency by 2033, although Rachel Greszler of Heritage makes the case for a much earlier demise for Social Security (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/06/history-suggests-social-security-insolvency-is-coming-sooner-than-projected).

America’s public sector pensions are an iceberg looming over Titanic America. Many Municipalities large and small are now spending MORE tax revenues on retired public servants than they are on active police, teachers and firefighters. According to the Empire Center, New York’s total unfunded liability for public-sector retiree health insurance comes to nearly $250 billion...RIGHT NOW (http://www.empirecenter.org/special-reports/2010/10/icebergahead101310.cfm)!

Moreover, while private sector compensation packages for executives have long come under fire (and rightly so), excessive compensation for public officials tend to fly under the radar, probably due in large part to the incestuous connection between media and government.

Recently New York City’s brand new Public Advocate Letitia James asserted that the city’s top library officials are paid too much. That assessment probably came as a result of stories like this one about Queens Library head, Tom Gallante’s near $400,000/year take (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-library-head-grilled-391g-salary-article-1.1603749). Brooklyn’s library head makes $333,000/year, while the New York Public Library head makes $711,000. (According to the New York Public Library’s tax filings for 2011, then-president Paul LeClerc’s base compensation was $334,914, and his total compensation reached $802,482.) In other cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, top library officials made $290,000 and $191,000 respectively, said James.

In the many small suburbs of Long Island and Upstate, School District Superintendents rake in up to half a MILLION dollars per year (http://nypost.com/2012/11/14/suburban-ny-school-districts-paying-500000-plus-to-superintendents/).

ALL of this is economically unsustainable absent a great surge in private sector growth that has so far eluded the USA along with its Western European counterparts.

The future, for America’s taxpayers looks bleak. According to economists Robert Novy-Marx and Josh Rauh, state and local taxes would have to increase by $1,385 per household immediately to make good the pension promises to state and local workers, including firefighters and cops. That's not going to happen given all the other demands on taxpayers. Default, in this case, is the proper word for cities and states using bankruptcy to repudiate their pension obligations.

A half decade ago, when the economy was humming, a common estimate held that federal taxes would have to rise 50% immediately to fully fund entitlement programs. Today, a 50% tax increase wouldn’t even meet the government's current, never mind future obligations.

In his first post-election (2012) press conference that he doesn't want any proposals that "sock it to the middle class." He must know better. A long-term socking, or SOAKING is exactly what's coming to the middle class, which must pay for the benefits it consumes.

With private sector defined benefits (traditional pensions) mostly gone, with Detroit and many smaller Municipalities simply defaulting on their pension obligations (and with Chicago considering the same) and even the Military’s vaunted pension benefits being scaled back retroactively, how can any public sector pensioners be optimistic?

We seem inevitably headed to an age of higher taxes, coupled with fewer services as a government that has over-promised for far too long ultimately has to make good on its fundamental obligations.

So, where is the “good news”? Given that, we all die in the end, there probably isn’t all that much good news. In fact, it seems that for Baby Boomers especially, it appears that the forecast is for more pain before the sun inevitably sets.