* All throughout 2012 I convinced myself the polls must be biased. It was a cute theory that explained a lot and turned out to be 100% wrong. A simpler explanation of the polls and election results is that we are rapidly approaching (or whizzed past without realizing) the point where the Democrats efforts to elect a new people have made the Democrats the permanent ruling party. Kind of like Sovier Russia but at least there you could understand what their end game was. Here the PC crazy train has no brakes.
* I think while undergraduate affirmative action works mostly the way you’d expect it to (i.e., it puts black students in schools that are too competitive for them, but the colleges are still mostly grabbing the best black students they can get), affirmative action at other levels is actually more irrational still. I’ve seen quite weak students get into top grad schools because they knew how to talk the intersectionality lingo just right, while strong students, if they applied to fields like literature where there’s a fair amount of black applicants, struck out because they made the mistake of acting like they wanted to study Dostoevsky and Kipling instead of comic books and Chimamanda Adichie.
Coates was a quite good magazine journalist, within his narrow beat- his 2007 Cosby article and 2008 Michele Obama article were both fine, and I even liked Fear of a Black President. But there was an enormous pent-up desire for an authentically black public intellectual who said the things people wanted to hear- no wishy washy Glenn Loury or John McWhorter or Roland Fryer. (It was a lot like how Piketty became a #1 bestseller with a quite boring book saying the same thing as any number of magazine articles about inequality, simply because he was an Official Economist saying it.) All the better that Coates was a college dropout, and one from West Baltimore at that- the one ghetto neighborhood in America that, thanks to the Wire, every Goodthinking journalist in America knows well.
(A lot of the Ta-Nehisi Coates phenomenon of 2009-2015 was about how he related to other journalists. I think if you hang out on Twitter you realize there are twelve quadrillion journalists and would-be journalists all sweating each other, terrified that they’re going to get fired, jealous of every big “piece” that comes out but anxious to be seen as praising it, and so on. Ta-Nehisi Coates is, well, “like crack” to that precise demographic; he’s black and authentic when they’re white and all went to Vassar or Brown; he reads long books about distant history while they are all hysterical about the news of the last minute; he writes lyrically and is willing to make calls and interview sources while they all use the same jokey Vox/Buzzfeed/Slate lexicon, short sentences and do most of their interviewing by e-mail; he had a convivial (and then hagiographic) relationship with his blog readers and commenters while they are constantly shouted down by thousands of angry anonymous comments. Undoubtedly, he also offers something to the broader culture, but you have to see him as a choice of other journalists first (in a time when, due to the changing economics of media, journalists have more readers but less money and security than ever before.) The last piece is that he was unusual among journalists in talking with historians, and his blog had a lot of historians commenting for a while; it gave him a particular cheering section within academia that could expand rapidly.)
* What I find fascinating about Sotomayor invoking “the talk” is the sheer cluelessness (alternatively, patronizing lecturing tone) of such recitation. If Sotomayor feels especially ‘put out’ by the existence of “the talk,” it might behoove her to know (white) parents have been raising their children to conduct themselves with propriety when in public and to show respect for police officers (authority figures, adults), so there is no need for “the talk” as it is built in to their upbringing and character.
Perhaps the Latina is not so wise after all.
* Coates is a fucking retard and so is the wise Latina. Only reason they are where they are is their race. They know it, everyone knows it. And this is what we have, retarded intellects all over the courts, schools and ruling class. Puppetheads of color doing the bad-guys’ bidding. Those bastards were brilliant using the morons against us.
* I just saw a video of a speech made by Stephen Miller introducing Trump that was pretty remarkable in its clarity and power. (I generally hate listening to speeches, but this one easily kept my full attention.)
I of course wish Trump himself possessed the same level of focus and sharpness in his speeches, but you get what you get. Obviously nobody would be listening to Stephen Miller if there were no Donald Trump.
* Steve, Shows what a lean source of black references Sotomayor has when she quotes Teh Genius Coates , James Baldwin and W.E.B. DuBois in a legal ruling. There were no pertinent quotes from James Brown, or Little Richard or more currently Lil Wayne? And seeing she is Latino, no Latino sources? Thurgood Marshall would cry with shame.
* The reason most cops act like jerks is because basically they are vulnerable and they want to be in control of the situation and not have anyone question their authority. And they pretty much treat everyone the same way.
As cops get older and more experienced they start to get better cues about the people they are dealing with and that’s where you get the more laid back type cops, once they have you typed as OK. I would bet that 90% of the needless shootings by cops are by guys or gals who haven’t been doing it long enough to feel secure in what they are doing.
For this reason the best way to deal with a police officer is to let him know he is in charge. Call him officer or sir, keep your hands in plain sight, bow your head, comply with commands, no sudden movements, engage in non-hostile dialog. That can change the interaction right there. Even if you have a point however it’s advisable not to talk too much during a stop. They can’t process all of that when they are trying to process you and the environment, and if they get overloaded they will get a threat feeling and turn into a jerk again.
I know most of the local cops where I live so I never have a problem with them. Out of state, if I see an officer doing something I will approach slowly, call him officer, and ask if he needs assistance. Never any problem there, either.
You are right that if black kids are always “taught” that the cops are out to get them they are likely to go into any stop by a police officer with a big chip on their shoulder. And that can get bad really quick.
* It’s amazing how much you can defuse a tense situation with the police with a simple yes sir/no sir or a yes ma’am/no ma’am. Of course it is hard for those with low-impulse control to use this kind of behavior.
* I never got “the talk” in one sitting, but had a father who more effectively dropped his pearls of wisdom along the way. Upon seeing a guy in an overcoat in July, “anyone wearing that much coat in summer is crazy, carrying a sawed-off, most likely both.” Entering an eatery, “never sit up front, sit further back, along the wall if possible, to view the whole room. Know all your exits. Someone looks all antsy before walking in, be ready to book.” “Never go to a bar where you know no one, good way to get your self beat or at the least robbed, at least overcharged by the bartender. Only go with someone known there.” “Going to a ball game or concert with your buddies? What if they ditch you? Pin $100 in your shorts and you can hail a cab home or put up in a hotel for the night and phone for a ride in the morning.”
Cops? Assume bad and corrupt until they prove otherwise. They all have one name: Officer. Some are jerks out of the fun of it, others because they’re as scared as you. The street is no place to dispute a ticket. Court is, and find a lawyer as crooked as the judge.
He didn’t push the stupid people in stupid places doing stupid things, or nothing good happens after 10 p.m. memes, just never get under the influence in strange places so you can keep your wits sharp and cut out when the going gets weird and the weird turn pro (again, the $100 Get out of Dodge money in your undies for the cab to the Holiday Inn). And when walking through ghettoes, stand tall and look everyone in the eye. They’ll think you’re a cop, nuts, or both, and not horse with you.
