Yes, It's All About RaceBy Matthew YglesiasConservative commentators like George Will like to portray their outrage over the Ricci case as a principled stance in favor of racial blindness, writing of "the predictable price of failing to simply insist that government cannot take cognizance of race." But looking at the record quickly reveals that Will, like most conservatives, rarely if ever bemoans instances of racial discrimination against nonwhites. They oppose racial classifications for the specific reason that they fear such classifications are being used to disadvantage white people, and seek to advance this pro-white agenda through, among other things, activist judging.Conservative and liberal judges alike overturn previous decisions. Unlike conservative judges, however, liberal judges don't lie to themselves or others about being activists.
Yglesias continues:
This judging is all, in some sense, "activist" and all involves overturning the will of democratically elected legislators. The difference is not in the means but the ends. Liberal cases seek to advance the rights of racial minorities, women, gays, etc., Conservative jurists have sought to advance the interests of white people, corporations, gun owners, and perpetrators of domestic violence. As a theoretical matter, there seems to be a clearer case for the use of judicial review to protect the interests of traditionally disenfranchised groups who may not be able to use the political process to defend their legitimate claims. (Admittedly, wife-beaters may face this same problem.) But if conservatives don't see it that way, they're certainly entitled to articulate their alternative vision of a judiciary that heroically wields the 14th Amendment to protect America's overburdened corporate executives from the will of the people.Comment: A lot of racial issues have bubbled up to the surface recently. For example:
Limbaugh: Indians = "redskins," "clowns"Teabaggers support racial imageryOne incident/week in Rapid CityObama: Blacks are more American?Last gasps of the Class of '94Racist "jokes" are no jokesBuchanan: US "built by white folks"Therefore, the message behind these incidents bears repeating. For the most part, conservatives don't care about racial discrimination or the plight of nonwhite minorities. What they care about is protecting their
white privilege.
For more on the subject, see
Klansmen, Neo-Nazis, and Christian Patriots and
Highlights of the US Report to the UN on Racism.
2 comments:
George Will, unlike Buchanan, is in the mainstream of the conservative movement. So it is very fair to associate Will's views with conservatism.
What is lacking is a middle ground: those who completely oppose all forms of racial discrimination. I can't recall the last instance of running into one of those on the national scene. But I do remember a Mother Jones article years ago in which they spoke out against the racist behavior that is often mandated by affirmative action (as well as the usual anti-minority discrimination that Mother Jones and other liberals so well oppose).
Yes white privilege exists, that must be why impoverished Russian immigrants have to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet. The klan is actually very anti-white as evidenced by their loooong history of attacking Jews (anyone who thinks only Blacks were lynched needs to google 'Leo Frank'), Catholics, White immigrants, White homosexuals etc.
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