Gaslighting, Systemic Racism Edition

"Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment, often evoking in them cognitive dissonance and other changes including low self-esteem."

As we all "know" the United States of America is infected by "systemic racism". This is a monstrous, demonstrable lie in the service of a failed narrative.

What is systemic racism?

According to Wikipedia,

"Institutional racism (also known as systemic racism) is a form of racism that is embedded as normal practice within society or an organisation. It can lead to such issues as discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, and education, among other issues." (Emphasis added)

Due to the wave of violence engulfing American cities inspired by our putative racist sins I decided to use two metrics to test the validity of the systemic racism charge. One measures political power the other police power.

How many Black mayors are there in the USA? 130. Must be mayors of little, mostly Black enclaves right? After all, Systemic Racism!

There are some of those, Hillsborough, AL for example. Population 550.

And then there are these;

Atlanta GA, Baltimore MD, Baton Rouge LA, Birmingham AL, Buffalo NY, Chicago IL, Dallas TX, Denver CO, Houston TX, Kansas City MO, Jackson MS, Little Rock AR, Montgomery AL, Newark NJ, New Orleans LA, Richmond VA, Rochester NY, San Francisco CA, and Washington DC.

"In the last quarter of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st, African Americans increasingly became involved in all levels of local government. During the 1970s cities like Tallahassee, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington DC and New Orleans elected their first black mayors. By the beginning of the 21st century, following the arrivals of African American mayors in cities like Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, Seattle, Denver, St Louis, Rochester, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, San Francisco and Houston, the elections of black Americans ceased to be newsworthy." (Emphasis added)

Systemic racism at work. Right.

It is the complete failure of these elected Black officials to change the life trajectory of inner city Blacks after 50 years of their dominance that led to the need for cover.

Voila! White privilege. Systemic racism. Black Lives Matter. Rampant violence and destruction. All in the cause of diverting attention from the abject and complete failure of Black mayors of major cities(all of whom are Democrats) to prove the left's thesis that if only they were in charge Black lives would be improved.

Known positive impact on their Black communities? ZERO.

Abject and complete failure of the narrative.

An adjunct of "if Blacks are in charge Black people's lives and prospects would improve" was the notion that if there were more Black cops and fewer racist white ones Black people's lives and prospects would improve.

Useful data is hard to come by for this metric. About 12% of the nation's cops are Black. That is about the same proportion that Blacks make up of the nation's population. Given the current addiction to ensuring that Blacks have proportionate representation in all things everywhere, except the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL (just kidding), Rap Music, Hip Hop Music, Black Churches and the governing bodies of any Black majority county, city or town, that ought to be Ok. Black people make up about 14% of our nation's population. Apparently it is not.

There does not appear to be any list of Black Chiefs of Police in the USA.

I do know that the police chiefs of  Baltimore MD, Chicago IL, Dallas TX, Detroit MI, Oakland CA, Portland OR, Phoenix AZ, Richmond VA, and San Francisco CA are Black. No doubt there are others. I got tired of looking.

Known positive impact on their Black communities. ZERO.

Abject and complete failure of the narrative.

The most powerful, most generous, most productive country in the history of mankind is being tortured in an effort to cover up a failed narrative. The Wizard of OZ is applauding.

Affirmative Action

As I shake my head in confusion at the policy decisions being made in the name of equality I tend to make predictions. I often wonder if my predictions will be accurate.

Men in the ladies' room? An obviously terrible idea fraught with entirely predictable danger.

ObamaCare? An idea so bad it is impossible to understand how anyone with a brain could think it a good idea.

Abandoning, for whatever high-minded set of ideals, the incredibly successful criminal law and policing regimes of the past twenty-five years, is an astonishingly stupid idea. Crime rates are a fraction of what they were in the 1990's. No, we have not accomplished this by incarcerating an entire race of people. Any guesses as to what happens now?

Treating college students like precious snowflakes in order to cushion them from the devastating blow of hearing something they find insulting.

The list goes on and on. Most of them are so obviously wrongheaded to me because they defy human nature. I described my thoughts on human nature here (scroll to the 2nd post).

I often wonder whether my analyses are correct and look for evidence that they are, or not, in an effort to stay honest and avoid confirmation bias.

I am joined by multitudes in concluding that Affirmative Action programs in higher education were always a bad idea. Some people knew just how counter-productive they
would be from the start. One man predicted, in 1969, exactly where we would find ourselves as a result of installing Affirmative Action programs. His name was Macklin Fleming and at the time he wrote his incredibly prescient letter he was a Justice on the California Court of Appeals.

He was writing the Dean of Yale Law School (his alma mater) about the school's announced intention to admit 38 black students who could not qualify under the school's normal standards.

The letters between the Dean and Fleming, as well as analysis can be found here .

I will share some excerpts taken from the link.

"If in a given class the great majority of the black students are at the bottom of the class, this factor is bound to instill, unconsciously at least, some sense of intellectual superiority among the white students and some sense of intellectual inferiority among the black students... The fact remains that black and white students will be exposed to each other under circumstances in which demonstrated intellectual superiority rests with the whites.

...No one can be expected to accept an inferior status willingly. The black students, unable to compete on even terms in the study of law, inevitably will seek other means to achieve recognition and self-expression. This is likely to take two forms. First, agitation to change the environment from one in which they are unable to compete to one in which they can. Demands will be made for elimination of competition, reduction in standards of performance, adoption of courses of study which do not require intensive legal analysis, and recognition for academic credit of sociological activities which have only an indirect relationship to legal training. Second, it seems probable that this group will seek personal satisfaction and public recognition by aggressive conduct, which, although ostensibly directed at external injustices and problems, will in fact be primarily motivated by the psychological needs of the members of the group to overcome feelings of inferiority caused by lack of success in their studies. Since the common denominator of the group of students with lower qualifications is one of race this aggressive expression will undoubtedly take the form of racial demands–the employment of faculty on the basis of race, a marking system based on race, the establishment of a black curriculum and a black law journal, an increase in black financial aid, and a rule against expulsion of black students who fail to satisfy minimum academic standards."

Exactly what has occurred. Re-segregation. It is inconceivable to me that a large number of people, including those promoting the policy, were not able to see its short comings and pitfalls. They subscribed to it anyway.

Their complacency was probably a combination of fear of being judged racist and the "hope" that their good intentions would usher in their desired result. "Hope" as we all know, is not a strategy. Human nature, while ameliorable, in my opinion, simply cannot be ignored. Ignoring it is just a short-cut to ensuring its assertion and the failure of the  preferred policy.