But of your dozen posts in this thread, that’s all you’ve done in response to anyone, is to mock them or try to pick a fight. Tell us what you think.
I’d always heard that the Miller’s tale was the best one, so please, treat us to it.
Of the 30 or 40 columns of his I’ve read to date (and I do read them) he is virtually always taking a conservative opinion. He is offered by my local newspaper as their only black columnnist, but 9 out of 10 black people are not conservative. Maybe that’s the fault of the paper, the guy certainly has a right to be conservative, but I’ve never seen him advocate on the side of black people.
You know, the majority of white males in my state vote for Republicans. Does that make me a sellout?
He may be a sellout–that is, it may be that he gave up liberal political advocacy in order to make big bucks shilling for conservatives. If you conclude that based only on his skin color, then you’re judging him by race, not as an individual. There’s a word to describe such behavior.
I probably disagree with his politics, but I’m not enough of a Klansman to blame him for being a black Republican.
Daniel
Right. What’s your point?
Well, mostly I think you’re a racist piece of shit with no intellectual integrity. Your comments about Thomas Sowell is ample evidence of the former, and everything else you’ve ever posted on the SDMB is evidence of the latter.
I don’t know where to begin. You’ve read 30 or 40 of his columns and you haven’t realized that he is, first and foremost, an economist (Ph.D. University of Chicago) with a strong conservative/libertarian bent? And what makes you think he is not advocating on the side of black people? Because his ideas on how to help black people do not fit in with the ideas of you or Sharpton or Jesse? Do you realize how racist that is? And how disrespectful it is to every black person who has a brain and is of the opinion that they are allowed to use it to form their own thoughts? And you have the nerve to insinuate that others on this board are racist!?! Now if that is the pot calling the kettle black.
Do you have something to share with people other than venom? What do you think about racism in this country and why? Ya know, people might be interested.
And while were at it, what have you got against shit? Has shit ever done anything bad to you? Are you under the misimpression that the collection of matter that makes up the poster “Miller” is, in the long term, any different than matter that makes up shit? You and I and everyone else is future worm shit. You have the opportunity to do so original thinking before you go that that state and you’ve been asked to share your thoughts. Why not?
Shit is what a healthy body gets rid of in order to remain healthy. Think on it.
Daniel
No, I was not aware he was an economist. My local newspaper presents him as a political commenator. I am aware of basic economic theory, in which a fundamental precept is that people are their own best determiners of what is in their interests. He has his. Black people as a group are the most strongly politically cohesive demographic in the country and have been for years, and not as conservatives. When the local paper has him as the only black commentator, that is unrepresentative. He has every right to be a conservative, but I still consider that to be a sellout to the black people who are struggling and have taken a stand for the rights of black people. I am fully aware that conservatives consider advocating for the rights of black people and for justice for black people as fundamentally racist because it is not color blind, and I think that is a fully disingenuous argument. Oh, and I think that Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas (especially Clarence Thomas) are sellouts too. They do nothing for black people, take advantage of affirmative action programs and then provide cover for the Republican’s agenda, which is hostile to the poor and minorities in general (that is another thread). But at least Sowell is a competent commentator. Rice was a national security advisor who didn’t know that 9/11 attacks were possible.
I’m certainly willing to consider my prejudices, and I’ve never denied that I have them. I’d like to see people have equality of opportunity, and for that to happen a lot of work needs to be done. And a fellow like Sharpton is the one pointing the way.
As much as you do?
Why should I share them with you? There are only two possible results of such an action:
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I will say something that mirrors your opinion exactly, which I can only assume will somehow net me your respect.
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I will say something you disagree with, which will get me labeled a racist.
So, trying to actually reason with you is pretty much a lose/lose situation for me. As is the situation any time someone tries to reason with the willfully irrational. Thanks, but I’m not going to waste my time. I’ll stick with the pointing and laughing, which at least provides me with some amusement. I don’t see how you’re really useful for anything else.
That’s a straw man. The argument here is that you’re considering him a sellout for not adopting your preferred political position, but you wouldn’t consider him a sellout if he were white. That is, you’re condemning him based on the color of his skin. That’s absolutely a racist position.
Advocating for the rights of black people is not a racist position. One needn’t be colorblind in order to avoid racism; people can recognize injustices done specifically to members of certain races and not be racist.
One of those injustices done to members of certain races is to require them to hold to specific political beliefs or else face censure. Again, do you consider me to be a sellout because I’m not specifically advocating for justice for white men? of course you don’t. Part of White Privilege is not being required to hold particular political opinions, and you grant me that white privilege by not calling me a sellout, whereas you WOULD call me a sellout if I were black and not holding the required political opinions.
Inasmuch as you’re supporting white privilege through this specific means, you are behaving in an explicitly racist fashion.
Given that I only thought on it for like thirty seconds before realizing how you metaphorically resemble shit, yes: think on it at least as much as I do.
Daniel
Just curious now. I am not color blind, though I wish I was.
…What is the definition of racist. I have some racist attitudes, I try not to let them influence me and I try to keep an open mind. I don’t consider myself or most people in this thread to be a “Racist”.
…I assume most of us have some racist attitudes. To me these are not the same. 
I am directing this at both **Bob ** & Left Hand of Dorkness. But also anyone else who cares to comment.
Jim
I haven’t named any names here. And I’m not the only one posting or reading. It’s a forum. Many people are participating. You’re not interested in my respect, and that’s fine, why should you be. But you’ve made a dozen posts in the thread and they’re just sarcastic comments. Do you think the whole thread is unconstructive? Is there a poster who has said something useful that you’d like to add to?
I think racism is a consious or unconscious attitude of making another ethnic group a “them”. And I’m not saying I never do it. Maybe people have a point about my comments of Sowell, Rice and Thomas; I don’t think so, but I’m sure as hell re-examining it when they raise it. What is the obligation of a group member whose economic position allows them to ignore the group. Neibhur’s “Moral Man and Immoral Society” sits next to my special white library chair, and he discusses the issue there and says it is perfectly natural and understandable. I disagree. I do think that individual human beings owe something to the group because we are social animals. Where to draw the line though?
Hmm…a definition of racist? I’d say that racism equals making judgements about a person or a group of persons based on their perceived race, when such judgements are not directly connected to those aspects that make up their perceived race.
For example, saying, “Black people are more likely to suffere sickle-cell anemia than white people” is not racist, because the judgement is based off the genetic makeup that is a characteristic of the perceived race of black people.
Saying, “Most professional basketball players are black” is not racist, because skin color is a characteristic of the perceived race, and that is an easily verifiable claim.
Saying, “Dude’s black, I bet he can dance like a motherfucker!” is racist, because we don’t define blackness based on dance ability (nobody thinks that Fred Astaire is black because he can dance); it’s making a judgement about someone based on race but not based on the racial definition.
Saying, “Dude’s white, he’s trying to keep me down!” is racist, because we don’t define whiteness based on desire for oppression (nobody thinks that Idi Amin is white because he hurts black people).
Is that clear?
Daniel
For the third time, I am a white male North Carolinian who advocates fairly leftist political positions. Am I a sellout to the white race?
Daniel
Calling me an Uncle Tom because I’m a conservative? Racist, or not?
Suggesting that my “friends” in the GOP laugh at me behind my back based on my ethnicity? Racist, or not?
Both of those comments were directed at me on this very board at one point. Bob, your take?
This seems to be a contradiction. Unless your saying that black people have a right to be sellouts. How very magnanimous of you. You might want to reevaluate your position that “conservative balck = sellout”. Maybe, just mabe, thay have another means to the end. Maybe even a better way.
Why, even as poorly stated as it is, is it a “fully disengenuous argument”? And if you have two sets of rules for two different races, isn’t THAT the racist position?
Are there any black conservatives who you’d consider to not be sellouts?
Yep, that right Boss. He sho’ can thinks hisself some good thoughts and writes hisself some good words. Maybe he’d be more acceptable to you if he got into rap.
Do you think her inability to foretell of two planes being flown in to the WTC is a failing as a National Security Advisor or a Black person? Or both?
Well, I gather you’re taking some time off from the Board. That should leave more time for reading. I suggest you use it. One place it seems that it couldn’t hurt is with black conservatism. Sowell is good. I’d also recommand Walter Williams. And for a more extrem view to counter the Sharptons and Jesses of the world, I suggest “Scam”, by Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson.
Wait, that’s Thomas Sowell’s position, the conservative position. Certainly you don’t agree with that! The opposing view would be equality of result, that’s the one you want.
By this point in the thread I sincerely hope you’ve decided to reavaluate your position I’d take into account also, that many that have excoriated you are are Dems and Liberals, some extremely so.
I’m not a person who would argue that, although there are people who would.
Non-white races in this country have been subjected to oppressive treatment, white people have not. Suggesting that white people are subject to racism is to have no understanding of what minorities have had to deal with. We might have to listent to some nut bellowing about how the white man is evil to his or her group, but that is more a complaint about racist oppression than it is racist oppression. Yes, it might be racist, but it’s hardly oppression of white people.
Perhaps I should be more specific. I am of Irish descent. Am I white?
This is just a test to see if you can smell a trap.
Daniel