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.

Obama's Legacy

Biden held an online fundraiser yesterday featuring an appearance by President Obama.

Perhaps you saw the video clip of Biden, apparently forgetting the questions were prerecorded and apparently unable to assimilate that info, which was on the screen in front of all of us, attempting to engage the questioner in conversation. I can't find it now but will keep looking. Hilarious.

This one is also a hoot. Another Biden word salad. Obama's face is interesting as he tries to unpack the salad.

But that is not the point of this post.

I mentioned in my previous post the concept of "failing upward". Other than John Kerry and Hillary Clinton there is, in my opinion, no better example of this malign trend than Barack Hussein Obama.

After doing nothing notable, as far as I know, as an Illinois State Senator he managed to get himself elected to the U.S. Senate where, as far as I know, he did...nothing notable other than run for President.

He won. That is the one apparent exception to my "failing upward" indictment. It is a huge one.

One would not be unreasonable to assume that given such an enormous accomplishment good or great things would follow. One would be wrong, unfortunately. That one success was an aberration.

He had 8 years to work towards improving race relations in this country. Eight long and squandered years.

All he did was make them worse, as all polls during his tenure showed.

His legacy is Antifa, BLM, riots, arson, looting and shooting.

If he had a conscience he would be begging our forgiveness for the absolutely awful legacy that he owns.

Looking For Answers In All The Wrong Places

Rogue cops, white or black or brown or yellow, are not an existential threat to Black Americans. They exist, but in numbers so tiny that while they are a threat to individuals of all colors they simply are not the reason in any part, large or small, that millions of Black Americans live in squalid conditions in big city Black communities. Nor do they contribute in any meaningful way to the carnage that occurs daily in big city Black communities across the America.

White Supremacists are not an existential threat to Black Americans. They also exist, but in numbers so small that while they can represent a threat to individual Black Americans and other Americans of color (and some of us who are considered "white"), they do not contribute in any meaningful way to the carnage that occurs daily in big city Black communities across America.

Racists exist in America, but a combination of laws and social ostracizing has rendered them toothless. They can hate all they want but are powerless to meaningfully affect the lives of  Black Americans or any of the other routinely hated groups of Americans. We have forced them to hate privately and quietly. A very welcome achievement.

The existential threat to Black Americans is actually Black Americans and the politicians for whom they vote.

Baltimore, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, D.C. are all run by Democrats and have been for decades. Black Americans vote, almost exclusively, for Democrats.

With the exception of Minneapolis, all have had Black run administrations, on and off, for years. What do the millions of Black Americans have to show for their fealty to Democrats and their own racist voting patterns? Addiction, black on black crime and murder by the 10's of thousands, cultural collapse and poverty.

What we are seeing in the streets is a massive attempt at legerdemain, gaslighting and yet another attempt to blame the problems on anyone and anything other than those responsible, themselves. An all too human failing.

I proposed a plan to rescue the Black community in 2015 .

That it was not acted upon is not surprising considering that I have not earned much of an audience for my policy prescriptions. Perhaps my suggestion was simply no good. Always a possibility. It is instructive to read though, considering we are, once again, being victimized by the same "victims" we were five years ago and for the same "reasons".

As I wrote in  another 2015 post,

" Ugly, racialist movements like "Black Lives Matter" only serve to make those of us who believed in the fight for equality cringe and stand down. Apparently nothing is enough so why bother."

Black Lives Matter, Again

I have written about the BLM movement before . I have also proposed a way to address the real problems that plague so many in the black community .

Today, through Instapundit.com, I came across this bit of nonsense. It includes this hilariously self-righteous self-parody:

"I think there are several police officers who are good people."

Several? Wow, how thoughtful of you. There are more than 900,000 law enforcement officers in the USA. Nice to know that "several...are good people".

How does any publication allow such a spectacularly stupid sentence to appear in print?

I don't know.

Black Lives Matter. Problem solved.

Steven Hayward at powerlineblog.com reminds us today of a timely Chris Rock video. He also reminds us that in today's America it would probably not be made, unfortunately. Enjoy.