Thursday, December 17, 2020

Leftist support for White Supremacist arguments

There are three views about the USA founding.

1. Egalitarian. The founders wanted universal equal rights for everyone, even if they were hypocrites in their personal lives.

2. White supremacist. "We the People" really meant We White Men, and the USA is still White Supremacist today.

3. Compromise. The Constitution is silent on slavery because it was a compromise between free and slave states.

Argument (1) is based on the Declaration of Independence saying "All Men are created equal", and has long been promoted by Republicans.

Argument (2) is made today by the NY Times 1619 Project, which said that the Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery of Negroes. Also by those who complain about the supposed murder of George Floyd. It was also articulated in the Dred Scott decision, perhaps the Supreme Court's most famous decision.

Argument (3) is what I remember from history books.

I am not sure this issue can be resolved. I thought that it was resolved by the Civil War, but apparently not.

Here is a new book, carrying on the race wars, as reviewed in the NY Times:

In “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America,” Ijeoma Oluo punches up rather than down, reckoning culturally, politically and historically with white men. ...

Oluo argues that all of us, “regardless of demographic, have played a part in upholding white supremacy.” ...

Yet, she insists, invoking pandemics, mass shootings, the climate crisis, economic recession and war: “White manhood is on a suicide mission.”

I think she is complaining that average White men are still superior to Black men and women.

I heard someone on the radio say that no defends what was done to George Floyd. In a way, that is true. I cannot find any public person who says that the cops were innocent, or justified.

On the other hand, I cannot find any public person who can explain what the cops did wrong, or what the cops should have done. Someone might say that the cop should have should more sympathy before the camera, or not put a knee to the neck, or tried to get medical assistance. But Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose. He was resisting arrest. The cops did arrange for medical assistance. The knee did not contribute to Floyd's death, as far as anyone knows.

Los Angeles now promises not to prosecute perps for resisting arrest. Would such a policy in Minneapolis have saved Floyd? I doubt it, but we shall soon seen if that policy causes more or fewer deaths.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo want to ban symbols of White supremacy. That could include the American flag, depending on how you interpret history.

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