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Blow Blows It Again

You don?t have to read this. Really. I completely understand, and even sympathize with, the judgment that life is too short to spend even a few Sunday minutes considering the entirely pedestrian, predictable Charles M. Blow pontificating yet again about race in the New York Times. (My most recent Blow by Blow discussion, citing several earlier ones, was here.)

In his current attempt to ?Rescue the Race Debate? from those of us who think racial discrimination is wrong, regardless of the color or ethnicity of its victims, Blow thinks it relevant to trumpet a study designed to ?detect hidden racial biases? that ?found that a whopping three-quarters of whites have an implicit pro-white/anti-black bias, while 40 percent of blacks had a pro-black/anti-white bias....?

I have always thought that ferreting out ?hidden racial biases? was a luxury best put off until after we?ve eliminated actual and overt racial discrimination, but let?s let that go. What?s interesting about Blow (insofar as anything is) is that he?s a consumate and constant racial calculator, always measuring and re-measuring the volume of discrimination and the color of its victims.

What concerns him is not what principle or value discrimination offends but only the identity of its victims. And not its individual victims, mind you (Blow has no interest in individuals), but race-wide victims. Thus his frustration that whites (he blindly sees no Asian victims) have the effrontery to claim that these days they are victims, too.

The argument of these whites minimizes the victimization of others while magnifying their own victimization. While their argument may hold for some individuals, when you look at blacks writ large, the argument falls apart.

He can?t seem to comprehend the fact that many people ? and not all of them either white or victims ? simply believe that individuals ? neither blacks nor whites ?write large? ? believe they and others have a right to be treated ?without regard? to their race.

Full post as published by Discriminations on November 21, 2010 (boomark / email).