Letters to the Editor
jkroger1
Published Letters: 4
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Where are the people of color?
[Read the article: The sexiest man living!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fun article. But where are the Latino men? The Asian men? The Black men (besides the well-chosen James Blake)? Are we not sexy?
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How can we stop this?
[Read the article: Lawbreaking telecoms still conniving to obtain immunity from Congress]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What's the best course of action to put pressure on the Senate in order to stop this? I want to take action. What do I do?
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Instapunk's List
[Read the article: One of Instapundit's favorite blogs speaks on race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One can, of course, replace Instapunk's list of "niggers" with a comparable list of fallen white ministers, politicians and celebrities -- or with members of any race, for that matter. Thus, his list might have read like this: Ted Haggard, Britney Spears, Robert Downey Jr., Duke Cunningham, David Vitter, etc.
But we don't think to group white people in this manner. When Ted Haggard uses drugs and sleeps with a prostitute, nobody thinks to suggest that it has something to do with his race. And when Duke Cunningham accepts bribes, nobody says it happened because he's white. This is, of course, the correct approach -- their problems don't, in fact, have anything to do with their race. But when a black person does something offensive, it's immediately attributed to his blackness.
This is also apparent in what is perhaps the most remarkable thing about Instapunk's list: its diversity. There are, it seems, many ways to be a nigger. A black man is a nigger if he breaks the law by using drugs (Barry) or sexually assaulting someone (Tyson); if he is a corrupt politician (Jefferson); or if he's completely law abiding, but says bad things about America (Wright, Farrakan). Consider this: Aside from the fact that they're all black men, what do Wright, Iverson, Farrakan, Barry, and Jefferson all have in common? I, for one, am unable to come up with an underlying similarity not related to their race -- just as I can't think of what Britney Spears and Duke Cunningham have in common.
But, of course, Instapunk's deeper problem with these individuals isn't in their ultimate actions, it's in the fact that they do these actions in a way that's somehow "black." Thus, when he complains of the black males that he says he sees every day, he doesn't identify a single bad activity that they engage in; they're niggers simply because of how they dress. They wear their pants around their knees, so of course he "wants to smack them" and can't help but think of the N-word.
It is this underlying fear of black men's "blackness" -- in any form and regardless of the actions associated with the individual -- that has been, and continues to be, so easily exploited by the right. As Obama pointed out in his speech, it cemented the Reagan coalition and it allowed for the Republican Southern strategy. And, it seems, it is alive and well now.
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The "tightening"
[Read the article: Dick Morris: Obama might still have a small chance to win]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While the national numbers are tightening some, as Glenn points out, the key state numbers are not. There's a simple explanation for this. Obama has pulled back some of his national and cable spending and is spending instead on the key swing states: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/28/195458/51/608/645181.