My apologies for asking this if it's already been asked, as I've not read the 100+ other responses. But I'd like to know if "race" (as opposed to unquoted-race) in America is a two-way street?

The author states how someone isn't "black" if they're not a descendant of African slaves. So is someone not "white" if they aren't descendants of European slaveowners?

To use myself as an example, my grandparents were immigrants and never owned slaves. Am I "white", or merely white? Is "white"-ness something that, unlike "black"-ness, falls automatically onto the shoulders of anyone with a certian melanin level? Or am I exempted from the blanket discussion of "white" guilt and "white" oppression, just as non-"black" blacks are?

I would genuinely like to know the author's thoughts on this, because I've never read a discussion of the "white" corollary to the "black" vs. black argument.

Since we're clearly not going to get a dialogue on the point raised here many times (to wit: does the inversion of your argument create a "white"/white dichotomy), then let me touch on something else you discuss implicity.

Specifically, let's discuss the idea of a black culture monobloc. You bring up various aspects of this overarching construct (anti-intellectual, no race mixing, etc) that indicate it is a somewhat formal institution, with an internal set of strictures and mores of its own. Further, there is a litmus test that can be applied to determine if someone is a genuine member of this social order or not.

If this is indeed the case, then whom does this culture serve? It's isn't a religiously-defined subculture, like a gathering of Hassidim in Newark. It's isn't a nationality-defined subculture, like a community of Italians in Yonkers. It isn't even a "genuinely" racially-defined culture, like a Lakota community. (I quote genuinely here because race is a specious term with no biological validity when applied to humans.)

Instead, it's a membership subculture, wherein people decide if they belong or not. Worse, it's also one where people feel free to decide whether or not others can belong. And since it lacks a genuine uniting foundation, nearly anyone can throw their weight around in that space. Even a black women with a white ex-husband. (I realise this "buyer's remorse" might be part of why you are such a overcompensatingly vehement judge of other blacks, but you must realise it means your credibility is already shot among some in your black culture).

So let me say this if your monobloc black culture indeed exists as you define it, then it's a largely useless institution that doesn't foster community, but only divisiveness. It encourages members to out-black each other and try to cast fellow members away, much like certain fundamentalist groups. And it applies standards of homogeneity, conformance, even purity, that rivals the worst white supremacists groups.

Segregating your community, and yourself, like this is archaic, even toxic. It foments alienation, with all its concommitant problems, and destroys any real gains that are realised from without. I hope the stultifying "black culture" you describe doesn't truly exist, but if it does, I encourage its members to escape and join the more authentic communities that await them.

Informative, concise, fresh, and free from sensationalism. This is what I originally subscribed for. More, please.

By this I mean that both seem to view their job primarily as just that, a job. Both have convinced themselves that they've worked long enough and hard enough to earn the promotion to President, just like the average office worker aspires to become manager.

It's really that simple, I believe. They don't see President as a job involving charisma, or public acclaim, or anything like that, but merely as the next rung up the career ladder. They figure they've carried the water for the right people for the right amount of time, and now they've earned the keys to executive washroom.

But it's not that simple, and we all know it. The only ones who don't know it are folks like Biden, who've been inside the system so long that they've normalised it as just another job.

Unfortunate or not, Biden isn't the right material for CEO/President. But he still makes an effective Manager/Senator, so let's keep him at the job he does well. The hard part is in convincing him that the job is what's right for him, rather than a case of holding him back from where he thinks he deserves to be.

they could easily fit into a Jacuzzi

Because clearly women are still useful for some post-gustatory hot-tub sexing, even if the poor dears can't handle a laser spatula.

Chef Barbie says "Tee hee, modern cooking is hard!"

...you go and publish an excellent piece like this. If only Salon could be so consistently incisive. Anyway, I'd like to chime in on the topic as well.

The system being promulgated here embodies one of the more insidious aspects of magical thinking. It shifts not just causality but also responsibility away from independent agents and creates the erroneous worldview that we alone are the actor and that all other things (whether material or spiritual) are the acted upon. It is grostequely simplistic tribal thinking in which one is incapable or unwilling to deal with complex systems of interaction and instead resorts to talismans and fetishes to bring about a magical payoff. It also discourages hard work and sacrifice in order to achieve the desired results, replacing these with what amounts to incantations. And finally it creates a false sense of rightness in those who do prosper, with the result that rather than inculcating a sense of charity towards those in less fortunate positions, it encourages an arrogance of place that further widens the gulf between people.

It is a selfish, destructive, and indeed evil system that dons the rainment of the transcendant in order to glorify the mundane.