Marco Rubio gets it, John McWhorter does not.

"This is a legitimate issue," Rubio said. "It is a fact that in the African-American community around this country there has been, for a number of years now, a growing resentment toward the way law enforcement and the criminal justice system interacts with the community. It is particularly endemic among young African-American males — that in some communities in this country have a much higher chance of interacting with criminal justice than higher education. We do need to face this. It is a serious problem in this country."

Rubio also gave a personal anecdote: "I have one friend in particular who's been stopped in the last 18 months eight to nine different times. Never got a ticket for being stopped — just stopped. If that happened to me, after eight or nine times, I'd be wondering what's going on here. I'd be upset about it. So would anybody else." [Source] 

Five stars for Marco Rubio for taking the time to understand the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and speaking in a thoughtful and instructive way about it.

If only some of his colleagues running for president could be as thoughtful and not just throw red black meat to their base to score brownie points when it comes to this issue. 

Contrast what Rubio is saying to the words of John McWhorter.

McWhorter's knee jerk essay about the BLM movement is a classic example of what is wrong with this debate. He focuses on the obvious problem of black on black crime within the community and by doing that he tries to downplay a very real problem that is one of the factors that contribute to black pain and suffering: The misconduct of those in authority  

Of course he will get a lot of shine because he happens to be black. People like McWhorter who like to say that we are the problem is the kind of Negro that America loves. 

Memo to McWhorter: Most of the people in the BLM movement (or those who support it) are quite aware of the problems within the black community, and they have been trying to do something about it for years. It is not impossible to bring attention to police misconduct and black on black violence at the same time.

"Black Lives Matter has become Exhibit A in this ideological conflict. Make no mistake, I admire Black Lives Matter. I’m just worried about it. I have never seen America getting closer to not just “talking about,” but actually doing something about, the relationship between black men and the cops. If there is one thing I have learned in 15 years of writing about and thinking about race, it is that this problem is the main one keeping America from getting past race. I was not offended by BLM’s conduct toward Bernie Sanders, quite frankly. And I consider the riposte “All Lives Matter” almost willfully uncomprehending of the issues that face us.

However, the way our smart people are covering Black Lives Matter, and some of the assumptions of the group itself, are bubble gum on our shoes. A movement cannot make a real difference in 2015 by pretending that it’s still 1965.

Here’s the problem. The going notion for anyone left of, roughly, the old New Republic is that disapproval of Black Lives Matter must come from “racism.” Charles Blow put this best, recently:

“Discomfort with Black Lives Matter is, on some level and to some degree, a discomfort with blackness itself.”

But this, even with the careful hedges, is a hasty, and even lazy, reading of the issue. I imagine there are some people out there who don’t like BLM because it’s black people making noise. But what disturbs a great many—and I highly suspect many more—people about the philosophical underpinnings of BLM is that black people in poor neighborhoods are in vastly more danger of being killed by young black men than by the occasional bad cop.

“Our demand is simple: Stop killing us,” the movement says—while people `````nationwide look on and see, especially during the summers, tragic epidemics of black-on-black homicides and maimings in one city after another. But America wonders: What about “Let’s stop killing each other”?
This year alone, in Chicago almost 80 percent of the people killed have been black. In Baltimore the figure is 216 black people versus 11 white, in Philadelphia 200 black people versus 44 white. Most by other black people....." And blah blah blah....

McWhorter falls into the old house Negro trap of seeking approval and acceptance from the majority population in our fight for social justice. When he says "while people nationwide look on and see" the people killed in places like Baltimore, Chicago and Philly, he is basically saying that we are to blame for all those killings and we have no authority to speak out until we get our house in order. Forgetting, of course, that those "people looking on" are the reason our house is out of order in the first place.

"The problem is not an America blind to racism, or even an America that thinks racism is solely the n-word, cross-burnings, and housing covenants. The problem is, I hate to say, a progressive ideology on race that confuses performance with action."

Sorry John, but if we followed your lead there would be no action at all.

*Pic from twitter.

Dropping dem g's.

You all know by now that I can chase the big R with the best of em. But not everything calls for a racism alert. Take for instance this latest story concerning his O ness:

The Associated Press’s report on President Barack’s Obama’s Saturday speech to the Congressional Black Caucus drew scrutiny from a prominent journalist for foregoing journalistic practices that normally dictate that quotes should be cleaned up by writers and editors.

“Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do,” AP’s Mark Smith quoted the president as saying to the CBC.

MSNBC’s “Up w/ Chris Hayes” dove into the issue Sunday, and journalist and MSNBC contributor Karen Hunter took issue with the literal transcription used, rather than ironing out the president’s slangy pronunciations.

“I think it’s inherently racist to do something like that,” Hunter said, to the protests of New Republic writer John McWhorter, who argued the AP report was more accurate than other outlets that cleaned the quotes up.
To that Hunter said, “for them to do that in a publication, you know what it is … I teach a journalism class and I tell my students to fix people’s grammar because you don’t want them to sound ignorant.”

Smith said he normally cleans up quotes but in this case thought the president made a point of “dropping Gs.” He told Mediaite “I believe I was respecting his intent in this.”

A standards and production editor told Yahoo! that though the AP Stylebook cautions against using spellings that depict informal pronunciations, in the CBC story the reporter (Smith) thought it “appropriate to convey a particular touch that President Obama appeared to be intentionally making use of.

The headlines for the AP story differed depending on which publication was using the story, it seems some editors were aware of the brewing controversy. The Washington Times cleaned up the quote and went with “Obama to blacks: ‘Stop complaining’ and fight,” though the story still contained the dropped g’s. The Huffington Post chose Smith’s phrasing: “Obama tells blacks to 'stop complainin' and fight.” [Story] 

Sorry, my racism censors aren't picking up anything.  I respect Ms. Hunter, but the president was the one leaving off his g's. She should be blaming the president not the journalist who reported what he said.

So stop the presses; I agree with John McWhorter on this one.

I get what his O ness was doing. My daddy actually taught homiletics to theology students. But Honestly, I never liked politicians who use a particular type of cadence or dialect to fit in with a different audience. I suppose that they all do it, but it doesn't make it right. O does it all the time when he is speaking to his cousins. It's as if he is at a Sunday morning revival meeting and he is the preacher making an altar call. I guess everyone wants to sound like Martin. The thing is,though,brother Martin actually was a preacher.

Finally, I see that Andy Rooney is leaving 60 Minutes after all these years. Folks, let's be honest with ourselves; the miserable old coot should have left 20 years ago.  

"Threadjack" me.

*

I wanted to blog about this Scottsboro Boys musical playing on Broadway, (*see pic) and John McWhorter's recent comments about it, but I really don't have time------ I am in the middle of my holiday travels.

Anyway, go ahead and jack this thread. You can comment on that McWhorter article if you like, and you can tell me what you are thankful for this turkey season.

I know what I am thankful for: Folks like you who come to the fields to read what a very opinionated brotha has to say. I learn from each and every one of you, and I always appreciate the company.

Have a happy holiday and don't eat too much. Remember, spring is just around the corner. :)