White lies matter.

 Chris Christie and his friends running for the republican nomination to be president are doing their best to pander to the angry white male vote.

It's actually kind of pathetic to watch. These seemingly smart people choosing to be on the wrong side of history.

Chris Christie, who would do best to take the NYT editorial board's advice, told the Black Lives Matter (BLM) folks not to call and ask him for a meeting.  This man is clearly a legend in his own mind. Why would the BLM people want to meet with him? What's he going to do? Give them tips on how to shut down a bridge?

Donald Trump declared that if he was the president of the University of  Missouri he would put all those ungrateful Negroes benefiting from the white man's education in their place. I was paraphrasing but that was the gist of it. He called the protesters "disgusting" and, in true Trump fashion, talked about himself in the third person while telling us all how tough he would be on them.

"'I think the two people that resigned are weak, ineffective people...... referring to University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, who both announced on Monday that they would step aside under pressure. "I think that when they resigned, they set something in motion that's gonna be a disaster for the next long period of time."'

Or, maybe just maybe racial relations will get better on college campuses across the country and we will become a better country as a result of it.

Of course, not to be outdone, Ben Carson (Mr. Black Lie himself)jumped into the fray. Ben, in order to impress all the right- wing voters in the republican primary, had to jig harder than anyone in the house ever jigged before. True to form he declared that as a country we are actually becoming too tolerant and the behavior of the protesters--- who are putting their safety and college careers on the line---- is "infantile".

This all fits into a narrative being pushed by the republican candidates: White people, you need to vote for me, because I am the only one who will stand up to this attack on our way of life.

Jamelle Bouie writing for Slate magazine wrote about this phenomenon at length.  And, as is often the case with Mr. Bouie, he was spot on.

"~~~GOP presidential contenders blaming Black Lives Matter for crime a desperate attempt to frighten white voters into supporting them.~~~ "....Long-term trends can obscure short-term variations,however,and there’s contested evidence that we’re in the middle of a violent crime spike,sparked by a so-called Ferguson effect where less aggressive policing—fueled by “Black Lives Matter” protests—encourages criminals.“Cities across the nation are seeing a startling rise in murders after years of declines,” [NYT] in a story on the rising murder rate in Milwaukee. Critics say this is overblown...Bruce Frederick—..at the Vera Institute of Justice—notes that of the 20 most populous U.S. cities for which there’s public data,only three experienced a “statistically reliable increase” in homicide rates. For the rest,“the observed increases could have occurred by chance alone.”If there is a new trend,we need more data.The same goes for the “Ferguson effect”;there’s no evidence that less policing has produced more violent crime...." But humans are built to see patterns in unrelated events,and the crime increase—plus a rash of high-profile shootings aimed at police officers—has brought new partisan attacks on Black Lives Matter,even while 2015 stands as an unusually safe year for police officers,so far.“In the last six years under President Obama,we’ve seen a rise in anti-police rhetoric,” wrote Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in an op-ed last week,citing “demonstrations and chants where people describe police as ‘pigs’ and call for them to be ‘fried like bacon.’” Walker was referring to a small group of protesters in Minnesota who by all accounts are unrepresentative of the larger movement.Still,their actions came in the wake of a brutal attack on a Texas police officer,Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth,who was shot 15 times at a gas station near Houston.And as such,it was fuel for Walker’s charge,as well as for claims from Fox News and other conservative outlets that Black Lives Matter is a “hate group.”...."

I don't think that Black Lives Matter is a "hate group". But I can think of another group that is very close to being one.

*Pic from blacklivesmatter.com