racism

Chris Knight's avatar

Of all things 1984-ish, this story about Nineteen Eighty-Four itself might be the most 1984 in the history of anything.

Image from the motion picture Nineteen Eighty-Four

Out of all the books that have ever been published, George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (I prefer to spell it out like that when referring to the book or movie instead of shortening it to its numerical equivalent) is the one screaming most against attaching an advisory before reading.  It doesn’t need anything so ridiculous.  Nineteen Eighty-Four speaks for itself, from the first sentence on through the final four words.
I wonder if people like Dolen Perkins-Valdez have ever bothered to try to understand what Orwell was conveying, what his underlying message was, when he first wrote his classic novel about totalitarianism and absolute control of the human spirit.  Perkins-Valdez is the one who has composed a new foreward to Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Chris Knight's avatar

The Western Journal is a Christian news and commentary website that I’ve respected for a number of years now.  And I am very honored that they have published my first article for it.  Hopefully, one of many more to come.

The article is in regard to a VERY ridiculous lawsuit that fast-food giant McDonald’s has been hit with, for $10 billion in damages.  Seems that the owner of The Weather Channel is honked off that Mickey-D’s won’t run much advertising aimed at minorities on his channels.  So first it was restaurants like McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken which were blasted for targeting minorities with commercials for unhealthy food.  Now McDonald’s is getting hauled to court for not targeting minorities hard enough.

Well, you can read the full article here.  And I can’t thank The Western Journal nearly enough for taking me aboard 🙂

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Chris Knight's avatar

Several years ago I went to hear James Earl Jones give a lecture. He
said something I will never forget. “Who am I? Obviously, I am partly
African descent.” But then he added “I am also part Cherokee. And
also part Irish. Who am I?” Jones elaborated that he was a person of
many ethnic backgrounds, and that “it is not right to call me an
African-American.” It was more important to be simply an American, with
all of the nuances that come with that.

I think of my own racial
background. I am part English, part Scotch, part Irish… and also
1/16 part Cherokee. My great great grandfather and his two brothers
walked all the way from Oklahoma Territory to Patrick Springs, Virginia.
Several years later my maternal grandmother was born. I’ll always
find that fascinating (and who knows, maybe Jones and I are distant
relatives!).

But those...

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Chris Knight's avatar
This might upset some people. I can understand. Bear with me here though…

In 1828 the United States Congress passed what came to be called “the
Tariff of Abominations”. It was meant to protect northern industry.
Instead it inflicted enormous harm on southern manufacturing and
agriculture, especially the cotton industry. And no place was more hit
by the consequences of the tariff than South Carolina.

This led
to the Nullification Crisis of 1832. South Carolina declared that the
Tariff of 1828 did not apply to within its borders. It effectively set
the state of South Carolina against the United States of America.
Fortunately cooler heads eventually prevailed, a new tariff was approved
to South Carolina’s satisfaction, and everyone was happy.

But think about it: the American Civil War could well have broken out thirty years earlier.

I believe that civil war was going to happen regardless. It was
inevitable. In

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Chris Knight's avatar

A thought that occurred tonight:

The notion of “racial justice” is a wrong one.  The problem is that to have any kind of justice at all there must be a baseline standard against which to compare and contrast and ultimately judge.  “Racial justice” does not really possess that.  Which race is the standard?  Black, white, Hispanic, Polynesian, Brazilian… what?

I will posit that “racial justice” introduces far more problems than it solves.  It elicits and encourages envy and anger.  Sometimes wildly misplaced envy and anger.  And we are seeing the fruit of that anger right now.

Yet obviously there is an issue.  There has been one and always will be so long as human nature endures.

If “racial justice” is the wrong idea to pursue, then I would suggest “racial neutrality”.  Which is much more open ended and challenging.  Racial neutrality emphasizes that all races are equal across the board, ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

The News & Record in Greensboro – the region’s largest newspaper – has a story on the front page of today’s edition about last night’s resolution by the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners to restore the Confederate Soldiers Monument in downtown Reidsville (see earlier post here).

For some reason or another Joe Gamm – the reporter who wrote the story – chose to include the following in his article…

“After a court approved replacing the monument, vandals spray-painted the words ‘Monument is coming back’ on an auto body shop run by an African American businessman who outspokenly opposed returning the statue to its original spot.”

Could somebody please explain to me: What does the above reference by Mr. Gamm have anything… anything at all… to do with what happened to the Confederate monument from the time of the accident in 2011 up ’til today?

Because I can’t find ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Yes, I realize that this post might bother some people. But I’m going to say it anyway…

A few minutes ago I published my review of Django Unchained. A movie that some have condemned as being “insensitive”, “racist”, “offensive”, and too many other epithets that are wildly, wildly wrong.

I will not only stand by what I’ve written about Django Unchained – that it’s not a film about slavery or even race at all but instead an epic quest to find one’s lost love – but I dare say that those who want to be upset about this movie… well, they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

I thought we as a people were beyond this already. Apparently not and Django Unchained is proving it. That there are some who apparently can’t be happy unless they’ve something to unfairly harp-on about being “racist” or whatever. Spike Lee ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

I’ve a number of criteria for judging whether a news agency is reputable or not. Usually it’s a long-term process of determination but lately it’s become much, much easier for me.

Wanna know why?

It’s real simple: any news outlet that cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as a reputable source of information, gets a honkin’ HUGE demerit and damn near an unforgivable one.

I first heard of ethnic warfare whore Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center fifteen years ago, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Dees was pimpin’ himself on most of the news channels, claiming his Southern Poverty Law Center was warning the feds way in advance about “the militias movement”. ‘Twas enough to make me wonder who this twit was. Since then I’ve discovered that he’s not much more than the worst sort of perpetual pest: the kind that demands everyone see a ...

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