Welcome to Google's post-racial America!

From my Google Reader:

Of the hundreds of thousands of people who read Crooked Timber, only three of them cheered when the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research was arrested. 

Racism in America is truly dead. 

(Except for the insignificant bit of it that motivated the arrest in the first place.)

Comments

[happyfeet]

Hi. First of all I would like to say I think it is important to fight the racisms all the time everywhere. But about these particular racisms I can't but wonder if there was ever anyone more excited to be a victim of racisms than Mr. Dr. Gates. I bet for him it's like Christmas morning and accidentally getting free cable porn all rolled up into one.

[JD]

SEK - Thank you for releasing my comments.

[Rich Puchalsky]

I will correct my prior comment in one respect. I somehow mistyped "And I see *to* reason to be polite to you about it, given how you write" rather than "I see *no* reason". Racist.

And no, there's no need to go through the whole history of how openly racist appeals became replaced, under Nixon and following, with mock-populist ones that said the same thing in code. Why you troll a history blog about it?

[JD]

So, it was an asspull. Do you call everyone that does not share your particular worldview a racist, or did you save that all extra-special for me and Patterico? Still waiting on you to substantiate the vile claim that I am a racist. I would also like a list of codewords. I would also like to be able to attribute whatever meaning I wish to your words, but I will leave the dishonesty to you.

FWIW, even SEK thinks you are wrong, but keep on going ... I love a good parody as much as the next fellow.

[happyfeet]

People who have white supremacist tattoos are racists, but even them ones you can't tell over the Internet unless they post a picture. And even then sometimes the tattoos are just mock-populist and it's really a judgment call.

[JD]

I guess when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[Ahistoricality]

even SEK thinks you are wrong

Based on what?

I would also like a list of codewords.

Here's some reading: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. That's in the first dozen or so hits of a google search for "coded language of racism": next time, do your own homework.

[Rich Puchalsky]

Happyfeet is funny. You aren't a racist unless you have a white supremicist tattoo, and even then, hey -- they may not really mean it? That's like it's not really stealing unless you steal items worth at least $100,000, and then, hey -- maybe the person really needed them. But it doesn't suggest that our wonderful post-racist America is close at hand. Just erase their tattoos, or if they really want to keep them, give them a nice line of BS about how they're populist. And who cares about who's arresting whom and all that, what matters is what's in people's hearts, no, what you can *prove* is in their hearts.

I note, following Roy Edroso, that the libertarians have strangely gone missing on this one, too. Where are all the complaints about overweening police power and the invasion of one's home? Could it be that when libertarians said they were concerned about rights, they really were concerned about white people's rights? Well, yes.

[happyfeet]

...and I've seen rain and I've seen coded language of racisms that I thought would never end and also I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend but I always thought the whole thing was sort of contrived... about the coded language. And even if it was true as true, it doesn't work like you think it works and also come here and I will tell you a secret.

Academics do NOT make the world less tribal.

[JD]

AHistorical

SEK said, and I quote

"Do you agree with your commenters that Patterico and I are racists?

No, because his argument relies on the idea that you and Patrick are reacting reflexively, and I don’t believe you are. If you were, then yes, you would be racist. "

But I love this discussion. It shows how shallow, narrow-minded and closed-minded you stalwarts of Leftism and academia are.

[JD]

I am still waiting to see some actual evidence that me and Patterico are racists. Besides being in disagreement with you. Because that does not really prove what you seem to think it proves.

[Rich Puchalsky]

If SEK really said that -- what, are you quoting his Email? -- then I disagree with him. Patterico is quite smart enough to use coded appeals to racism consciously. I don't see why it has to be reflexive; he's simply following the technique that all conservative politicians use.

[Ahistoricality]

I don't think my argument relies on you reacting reflexively or unconsciously: I think you're being deliberately and consciously obtuse on the question of race to cover up the fact that you're anti-intellectual, regressive and smugly self-satisfied that you've answered all difficult questions.

[happyfeet]

JD is not racist and also Mr. Patterico is not racist. Neither of them keep a brother down cause that's not what they're about they're just making the suggestion that if we all put our heads together and get out our notes from Nurturing Dialogs class maybe we can think of ways Mr. Dr. Gates might could have handled the situation more better. Even if we limit ourselves to ideas what don't depend on having a sense of humor I bet we can come up with much that is helpful.

Can you think of ways Mr. Dr. Gates might could have handled the situation more better? Let's dialog!

[JD]

Rich - I still await your evidence that led you to the conclusion that Patterico and I are racists. Surely there is much evidence that led to to level such a serious accusation. And, make no mistake about it, that is a serious accusation. I cannot imagine you would make that based on us having a different opinion from your wise and learned one. So, again, I ask. What evidence led you to this conclusion. Thank you, in advance, for your anticipated cooperation.

[JD]

Rich - If? You think I made up a quote from SEK and then posted it on his own site? He said that at Patterico's, where he had the stones to defend himself, unlike yourself, cowardly hiding here making baseless vile accusations against people based on nothing other than your hatred for people that do not agree with you. You are a caricature. You exemplify all that is wrong with your side of the aisle. You hate hate hate yet project your hate onto others.

[happyfeet]

Mr. Dr. Gates is a lot not wanting to let this little crisis go to waste I think but I'm not sure why Mr. Puchalsky thinks there's room on that train for him too. It's opportunism and it makes sense for Mr. Dr. Gates to make a big production calling everybody racists but for Mr. Puchalsky here I don't get it cause nobody gets points for NOT being racist. Except sometimes on tv if it's a very special episode. Not in real life though.

[Fritz]

Exhibit 1: SEK accuses caricature artist Genn of racism in his depiction of Sonia Sotomayor.

Exhibit 2: I point out that cartoonist Pedro X. Molina's depiction isn't all that different.

Exhibit 3: Silence.

SEK likes to throw around accusations of racism but it's really all style, no substance. I think it's probably more emotive than intellectual. Calling something or someone racist is like saying that you really, really hate them.

Of course, silence isn't all bad. You should give him credit, he didn't respond with all that "coded racism" nonsense.

It should also be noted that with regards to Rich Puchalsky, this is the substance of an e-mail sent to me by SEK:

Just wanted to say that while I disagree with you, it's nice to have someone to disagree with again. Pat tried it for a while, but didn't like how my regular commenter Rich responded to him. So I'll tell you what I told him: ignore Rich. You know what he's going to say, but because he's such a valuable contributer to non-political threads -- there aren't two people in the world who know more about science fiction-type texts written circa 1900 -- I'm not about to ban him. But Pat being Pat, he can't let an argument go unchallenged, so now he emails me responses to what I write. You may choose to do that soon too, but I'm telling you, if you just let Rich's words flow like water off a duck's back, everything'll be cool. If you can't -- and in all honesty, I'm like Pat in this respect, which is why I used to guest-post at a very prominent conservative blog (which shall remain nameless) just so I could engage people I disagreed with -- you're more than welcome to respond, as Pat does, by email. As a teacher, I'm more interested in fostering productive debate than hammering home some point I'd take issue with if someone had flattened me with it. But the internet being the internet, some otherwise constructive debates can't happen constructively because, well, the internet's the internet.

How does accusing someone of racism in such a way that there is no possible response foster debate?

[Ahistoricality]

I went over to Patterico's site and, scanning down to find the comments JD cited, I noticed something very interesting. In the post itself, the phrase "high-on-himself" has been removed from the sentence which, according to JD, originally read: "It appears to be a high-on-himself Harvard professor inappropriately screaming “RACISM!!” combined with an offended cop who got high on his own authority and sense of outrage, and made an inappropriate arrest."

So, going back to our earlier points, I suggest that this is evidence that Patterico believes there's something wrong with his phrasing, and has -- silently -- corrected it. JD, on the other hand, has been hung out to dry, valiantly defending the honor of someone who edits posts without noting changes or acknowledging error.

[JD]

LIE

Viewed with the aid of this information, this does not appear to be a case of a racist police officer, as claimed by Scott Eric Kaufman. It appears to be a high-on-himself Harvard professor inappropriately screaming “RACISM!!” combined with an offended cop who got high on his own authority and sense of outrage, and made an inappropriate arrest.