Ideological Bigotry Part XXIII–Bob Herbert’s Racial Temper Tantrum
Bob Herbert of the Jayson Blair Times has just thrown another one of his racial temper tantrums.
As usual, he is accusing a white Republican of being a racist. After all, Bob Herbert is an expert on the subject, given that he is the biggest race-baiter in the country not named Reverend.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle African-American.
His newest screed is entitled “Fanning the flames of racial tensions.”
I thought it was his autobiography, but apparently he does not own a mirror.
I will not be linking to the column because I do not link to garbage.
(This is a reflection of the column itself. I am not referring to Mr. Herbert himself as garbage. Actually, crew political correctness. I have changed my mind, and am referring to him, the column, and the Jayson Blair Times itself.)
So what has Bob Herbert acting like himself today?
He is disappointed in Mayor Mike Bloomberg for fanning racial tensions.
First he freely admits that on the overall issue of reduced racial tensions, Mayor Bloomberg has been very good. So what changed? How could an entire two terms of being good on an issue be undone by one incident?
Did Mayor bloomberg say something inappropriate? No.
Did he do something inappropriate? No.
He sat in a room where Rudy Giuliani spoke.
Rudy Giuliani stated that if Mike Bloomberg were to not be reelected, New York City would revert back to the way it was before Giuliani became Mayor. Giuliani also said, “and you know what I mean.”
Now Bob Herbert is able to decode Giuliani’s language using special racial grievance rabbit ears. It is like the equivalent of a dog whistle, where only bigoted charlatans can hear the sounds that are non-existent to non-bigoted human beings.
Now I know some people feel that using vanilla extract instead of chocolate extract when baking a cake means that nothing has changed since 1863, and that Selma, Alabama somehow applies. For clear thinkers, let me again give America some basic facts about race. Please feel free to take notes.
Race is about a multi-syllabic word known as pigmentation. Pigmentation is a function of what scientists of all races call melanin content. Race is not an attitude, a feeling, or an experience. Going to the planetarium is an experience. Being black means being born to black people that at some point had intercourse. I know this is mindboggling, but stay with me. It also works the same way for other races.
There is nothing in the racial composition of any human being that makes them inferior or superior to any other race. Therefore, people of all races can do a good or bad job at whatever they do for a living.
From 1989 to 1993, New York City was run by David Dinkins. He was a good, decent man that did a terrible job as Mayor. He was not tough enough for the job. He was so lightly regarded that when he picked up a megaphone to try and calm racial tensions by yelling “increase the peace” (a very decent gesture by a decent man), somebody in the crowd through a bottle at his head.
(Liberals only laugh when objects are thrown at Republicans. The bottle thrower should have been beaten and arrested. The action was unacceptable, and the lack of follow up showed Dinkins’s weakness. Nobody would have been dumb enough to throw a bottle Giuliani.)
From 1993 to 2001, Rudy Giuliani turned New York City around. He was one of the best chief executives in the history of any government. Yes, he was that good. I know. I lived in New York during his first term.
Now at no time did it matter that Dinkins was black and Giuliani was white. It did not matter to me. It matters to Bob Herbert. You see, black Mayors have failed in New York City, Washington, DC, and Detroit. Bob Herbert is still blaming Ronald Reagan.
Yet did they fail because they were black? No. They failed because they were liberals.
This is not about race. It is about ideology.
Bob Herbert can’t stand that a white Republican defeated a black liberal. Bob Herbert can’t stand that all the bile in the world will not change the fact that a liberal did a lousy job running a city, and a conservative came in and fixed it.
Rudy Giuliani cut taxes and cracked down on crime. That is what a Mayor is supposed to do. David Dinkins failed to do this.
So when Giuliani talks about New Yorkers not wanting to go back to the days before 1993, it is a reference to failed solutions that nearly destroyed the city. No amount of verbal bomb-throwing by the Jayson Blair Times will alter the fact that New Yorkers could care less about race. Like Americans everywhere, they want results.
Now I know Bob Herbert wants to party like it’s 1989, but for most New Yorkers, the city was dying. Rudy Giuliani revived Gotham City.
He cracked down on the squeegee guys. Some of them were black. Bob Herbert threw a tantrum. 15 years later, he is still lobbing racial grenades, because he cannot accept that there is nothing in a man with darker pigmentation that guarantees electoral success.
We are now in an era where a black man can become President. Yet in the end, the only thing that matters are results.
Bob Herbert does not want equality. He wants lifelong employment for black politicians regardless of how dreadful their policies may be.
This is not justice or equality. It is an insult to every black person that succeeded in America not because of their skin, but because of this nation.
I would introduce Bob Herbert to Dr. Condoleeza Rice or Chairman Michael Steele, but then I would have to be in a room with Bob Herbert.
Sorry Bob. People like you (Yeah, “You people,” that being racial grievance phonies) need to stop throwing racial temper tantrums.
Bob Herbert needs a timeout. Somebody get him a pacifier and some milk.
Make sure it is chocolate milk so he does not accuse me of racism.
eric
October 26th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Well, Herbert’s always going on about this kind of stuff. I think he, like our good host here, missed the real point: Giuliani and Bloomberg are probably not the main reasons crime went down in NYC since the early ninties. If Giuliani and Bloomberg were the main reasons, then only NYC would have seen crime go down, or at least it would have been among a few cities with similar management. But that was not the case. Crime, and a host of other social ills, declined EVERYWHERE in the 1990’s. By our good host’s logic, then Bill Clinton was the main reason crime went down throught the whole country! But that would be silly. Yes, Giuliani and Clinton, with programs like COPS, and Community Policing, did probably contribute to the great diminishment of crime, but why did crime go down everywhere - and so much? Some say it was the economy, but the economy for the working and underclasses, where most criminals eminate (though I would argue there are just as many professional class criminals, but they just don’t get caught, and when they do, they can afford fancy lawyers and so get off where most of us would do hard time), did not significantly improve at any time in the last thirty years. Some say it was the police state, but all relevent studies show that our penal system only creates worse criminality and greater recitivism. So what was it?
It’s so obvious even an embryo could see it: Abortion. There’s no way that it can be a coincidence that exactly one generation post-RvW crime began a precipitous drop everywhere throughout the country. So rather than race-baiting, or accusing others of race-baiting, what Herbert should have pointed out is that Giuliani’s braggadocio is probably misplaced. He did not bring down crime as much as society simply produced less criminals.
Oh, and one more thing - our good host seems quite at ease with his own over-sensitive identity politics, yet when others do it, he complains vociferously. Glass houses, Tygrrrr. Glass houses.
JMJ
October 26th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Jersey, even if you are right about the effects of abortion (and that theory has been debunked), did Roe versus Wade liberate the Fulton fish market, end mob domination of construction and retake Times Square from the hookers? It is correct that crime fell in most US cities in the 90s – due in part to 1993 crime bill, the Assault Weapons Ban and the substantial increase in median incomes during the Clinton years. However, it went down much further and faster in New York City and that was due to Giuliani’s support for, and Bratton’s implementation of, Zero Tolerance Policing (as well as a unwillingness to pander to Sharpton et al).
That aside, although Bob Herbert is clearly rabble rousing, I think Giuliani did misstep. It might be unfair but, his comments could be perceived by some as dog whistling. In contrast had Giuliani simply said “Bloomberg’s opponent is weak on law and order” there would have been no way he could have be misunderstood. This is a pity, since not only was Giuliani a far better mayor than the technocratic Bloomberg (having Bloomberg succeed Giuliani is like replacing Batman with Bruce Wayne) but Giuliani still has a lot to contribute on the national stage.
The Republican Party needs someone with stature, the ability to connect with urban and suburban voters and the credibility (and interest) on foreign policy that Romney, Palin and Gingrich lack. Indeed, with McCain yesterday’s news, Lieberman (sadly) silent and Graham marginalised, there are very few people on either side of the aisle who can make the case for a continued presence in Afghanistan and a strong response to Iran. Indeed, Giuliani is one of the few politicians who could (if he wished) challenge Obama on a third party ticket in 2012.
One thing that would be very interesting to read would be host’s take on the healthcare debate – especially in terms of the Congressional process rather than the merits of particular bills. I’ve noticed that the GOP has largely gone silent on healthcare reform and the amount of coverage of the debate in the Republican leaning media (WSJ, NRO etc) has declined. Is this a recognition that passage is inevitable or part of a deliberate strategy to wait until a final version of the bill is presented to the Senate?
October 27th, 2009 at 12:10 am
“Jersey, even if you are right about the effects of abortion (and that theory has been debunked),”
Debunked? By whom?
“did Roe versus Wade liberate the Fulton fish market, end mob domination of construction and retake Times Square from the hookers?”
First of all, the vast majority of crime in NYC had nothing whatsoever to do with Times Square or the friggin’ Fulton Fish Market, so obviously you know nothing of NYC. Secondly, I did give some credit to Giuliani and Clinton for cleaning up the streets, but I’m saying that was just a small part of the change we saw in the ninties.
“However, it went down much further and faster in New York City and that was due to Giuliani’s support for, and Bratton’s implementation of, Zero Tolerance Policing (as well as a unwillingness to pander to Sharpton et al).”
No. That’s wrong. It went down precipitously EVERYWHERE throughout the nation. Check the stats.
“This is a pity, since not only was Giuliani a far better mayor than the technocratic Bloomberg (having Bloomberg succeed Giuliani is like replacing Batman with Bruce Wayne) but Giuliani still has a lot to contribute on the national stage.”
Bloomberg is ten times the mayor Giuliani could ever hope to be. If Bloomberg was running against Giuliani right now, he’d beat the heck out of him. Giuliani - the man who once endorced Mario Cuomo - has sold his political sould to the idiotic Right. There’s no coming back from that in NYC.
“The Republican Party needs someone with stature, the ability to connect with urban and suburban voters and the credibility (and interest) on foreign policy that Romney, Palin and Gingrich lack.”
Romney is a stooge, and even Republican voters know that. Palin is a moron, and even Republican voters have had enough of that. Gingrich is something out of a Kafka novel, and even… well,… Republicans don’t know Kafka, but I think they get the point.
As for healthcare, the GOP is screwed. The opt-in/out option is Medicare all over again - the GOP can’t kill what the people want. Come twenty years or so from now, the GOP will be defending the Public Option for their own political advantage just as they are playing Medicare today. They know their base - too stupid to remember that the GOP was against the Medicare program from the very get-go.
JMJ
October 27th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Eric- I need to make a comment on this section of your blog, because if I don’t I will be doing a disservice to whoever is reading your uneducated rant revolving around race and politics:
“Race is about a multi-syllabic word known as pigmentation. Pigmentation is a function of what scientists of all races call melanin content. Race is not an attitude, a feeling, or an experience. Going to the planetarium is an experience. Being black means being born to black people that at some point had intercourse. I know this is mindboggling, but stay with me. It also works the same way for other races.”
“There is nothing in the racial composition of any human being that makes them inferior or superior to any other race. Therefore, people of all races can do a good or bad job at whatever they do for a living.”
Race is about much more than pigmentation, and calling it merely a multi-syllabic word is ignorant of the society in which we all live. Race, in this world, where the norm is the white, heterosexual male, IS an experience. Yes, someone is born black to black people: thank you, captain obvious. However, if you know anything about culture and identity theory, you would know that race is socially constructed and thus becomes an experience that goes far beyond melanin content. I could be humorous and reference Steve Martin in his famous film, The Jerk, but this discussion deserves more than that. To think that race is a superficial and purely exterior quality is an uneducated, unscholarly, and uninformed translation of what race really means.
You’re right: “here is nothing in the racial composition of any human being that makes them inferior or superior to any other race.” HOWEVER, the way that our society forms meaning around race is what does, indeed, place one race above or below another.
You are also right when you say “therefore, people of all races can do a good or bad job at whatever they do for a living.” HOWEVER, people of minority races have more negative stereotypes to disprove before they can get there. Because the unfair and prejudiced ways we classify and construct race in our culture, racial minorities have to prove their worth, not because they are less capable by any means, but because they weren’t born into the societal norm we have all created and legitimate everyday.
Our society uses communicative styles and the point of view from our white, heterosexual male centers and disenfranchises everyone that falls short of the center, making it that much harder for them to be successful. And this in no way can exclude the realm of politics.