Tuesday, August 18, 2020

TO SIGN OR NOT TO SIGN



A US Census lady knocked on my door over the weekend and asked very few questions compared to what were asked during the 2010 or 2000 census. After recording names, sexes, and birthdates of people who lived at my address on April 1st, she came to the inevitable race question which went something like: did I consider myself Hispanic? I told her I’m human; so is my wife, and that’s all she needed to know. With that she said she was all done and got up to leave.


Surprised, I asked her what the federal government would do with data about race if I had identified myself as belonging to one of its categories. She said would have had more questions if I had identified as “white.” She would have asked about ethnicities like Irish or Italian, but since I declined to racially categorize myself or my wife, she stopped. There were no questions about religion, occupation, or citizenship status — the kind of data useful to historians studying trends. Perhaps she knew I was a retired teacher, but wasn’t aware that I still work. We live in the same town and I know her and her family.



Government at all levels is obsessed with discriminating between people based on skin color or ethnicity, and has been for as long as I can remember. Decades ago I stopped cooperating. When encountering ubiquitous race questions on official forms, my habit is to draw in a box, label it “human” and put a check it. While distributing state testing forms in my public school classroom, I suggested to students that they could do the same. Many did.



Obsession with race is getting worse. At the University of Southern Maine in Portland — a state institution — president Glenn Cummings recently asked all students and faculty to sign a “Black Lives Matter Statement and Antiracism Pledge.” He intends to publish a list of everyone who signs it, and that, by process of elimination, would also become a list of those who did not sign it. Would they then be subject to sanctions or harassment?



What about students and faculty who, while recognizing historical oppression of blacks in America, disagree with BLM’s anti-capitalism or its inherent Marxism? How about those who object to a pledge by BLM’s Greater New York president Hawk Newsome that: “If this country doesn't give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it”? Or how about those who disagree with Chicago BLM organizer Ariel Atkins who said BLM rioters looting stores were justified because: “That is reparations. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”



The University of Southern Maine pledge states that:


We stand in solidarity with those who are working for justice and change. And we invite you to join us in pledging to be a practicing antiracist at the University of Southern Maine and in all aspects of your life. We believe, as Ibram Kendi writes, that "the only way to undo racism is to constantly identify it and describe it — and then dismantle it.”


Never having heard of Ibram Kendi, I did searches on him. His latest book is: How To Be An Antiracist. About it, Christopher Caldwell contends in National Review:


Anti-racists assume that the American system of politics, economics, and policing has been corrupted by racial prejudice, that such prejudice explains the entire difference in socioeconomic status between blacks and others, that the status quo must be fought and beaten, and that anyone not actively engaged in this system-changing work is a collaborator with racism, and therefore himself a legitimate target for attack.



This is dangerous rhetoric. It assumes that “systemic racism” is a real thing — that if you’re white, you were born with “white privilege,” as well as inherent racism against so-called “people of color.” If you don’t sign pledges like the one USM President Glenn Cummings urges you to sign, if you don’t kneel during the national anthem, if you don’t constantly proclaim that you’re not racist, you might as well proclaim that you are. The USM “community” will no doubt see you as such.



USM is a state institution. It’s supported by our tax dollars and it shouldn’t be pressuring its students or faculty to support political positions, much less radical-left ideologies like those espoused by Black Lives Matter. Along with almost all levels of government, USM is obsessed by race. We would all do better to insist there is only one race — the human race — and no subsidiaries exist.


9 comments:

cowboy ted said...

The USM president needs to be immediately fired. Part of my taxpaying dollars goes to the USM and I vehemently oppose the indoctrination by intimidation to sign onto a violent Marxist organization.

CaptDMO said...

On the Census (on-line) I am NOT "latin"*(certainly not latinx) white, my "ethnic" is American. About as W.A.S.P as a demographic mutt can be.
(No homo-hetero marriage question on the census?)
“Black Lives Matter Statement and Antiracism Pledge."
Well THAT was self contradictory! And what's the penalty for breaking such a pledge?
Publication. Petition? You bet! Vote? He11 no!
I'd like to think such a "pledge" would be part of the "college" letterhead, advertising, admissions form, acceptabnce letters, WITH the "current President" name irrevocably attached to it, BEFORE the tuition agreement, or employment pay package, was committed.

Cover Charge said...

I work in a three man crew. One is Latino as his parents are from Mexico, the other one is black and I am white. We all get along, make good money and none of this crap ever comes up. Maybe it is just a distraction to keep you from looking at the stock market? I think we hit new all time highs today.

Brian said...

Bingo. Your anecdotal evidence of your three man crew proves that such trivialities as George Floyd and what-not are just "distractions" from what really matters...the elitist money gamblings of the Stock Market. As Tom says, it is "dangerous" to consider the notion that systemic racism and white privilege exists. Yes, it is "dangerous" to think in ways other than our wanna-be dictator and the rich and powerful want us to think. Because revolutions are "dangerous"! We should all instead think "kumbaya" thoughts and imagine that we are all just one race, the human race. It is mere coincidence that blacks are dying at a startling disproportionate rate from Covid than whites...thinking otherwise is dangerous.

Hey gang, are we all in on the "Birther Redux" with Kamala Harris? It's not the slightest bit racist to keep insisting that all your colored rivals may not have been born in the good ol' USA, right? And don't forget, when the pampered rich little brat loses....MAIL IN BALLOTS!!! Take to the streets!!!!!!

Brian said...

And now the wack job in the oval office is entertaining other wing-nut conspiracies to go along with his birther nonsense. QAnon! Yep, even after a new report from West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center details violence related to the group and warns how dangerous and complicated fighting it will be.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889kgp/terrorism-experts-say-qanon-conspiracy-theory-a-threat-to-national-security

So stop any whining about BLM. Your president praises a threat to national security. The dopey president is happy that they like him! Of course they like him, they are as crazy as he is! Do we need more gullible dummies storming pizzerias with semi-automatics trying to break up Hillary's satanic sex ring?

This is how desperate poor Donald is...,pandering to whatever group that supports him, be it white supremacists or wackos that spread malevolent fairy tales.

What a breath of fresh air is on the way after this election!

Greg Vander Veer said...

it is so strange to me that a white person like Tom doesn't see the irony in spending so much time on saying that racism doesn't exist. He spends so much time trying to prove himself right that he must have very little time to actually listen with an open heart to the vast majority of black people in this country. Their opinion on being Black in America is 1000 times more valid than your opinion of being Black in America, Tom.

Kafir said...

America is a very racist country. After all, it twice elected a black community organizer as president who is now worth $40 million. That pales in comparison to Oprah $3.5b, Kanye $3.2, MJ $2.2b, Tiger $1.7b, Mayweather $785m, Shaq $735m, LeBron $480m, etc. Most people don’t know businessmen Robert Smith (Vista Equity) or Robert Johnson (BET) who are also black billionaires.

Of course, those examples don’t dismiss the racism that exists in our country or any other. However, no country in the world provides more opportunity to blacks or other minorities than this one. Most of the country has fallen into the BLM scam whose organizers are all committed Marxist activists who have been agitating for socialism/communism for decades.

I have a movement I’d like to start. It’ll be called LIM (Look in the Mirror). If you are economically, educationally or socially challenged in this country don’t blame whitey or the government. Get off your ass, work hard, get a solid education and obey the law as most successful people have no matter what their ethnicity.

Brian said...

If you can't campaign honestly then just blatantly lie to your base of sheep. The RNC convention is a joke of misleading statements, exaggerations and outright lies:


“Joe Biden has embraced the left’s insane mission to defund” the police.
— Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the minority whip

This is a lie. Biden has not embraced the “defund the police” movement. On the contrary, he has repeatedly said that he does not support defunding the police.


“Biden has pledged to defund the police and take away your cherished Second Amendment.”
— Eric Trump

Another scare tactic lie....he is learning from daddy.


“My father on the other hand, delivered the largest tax cuts in American history.”
— Eric Trump

Again a blatant lie.


President Trump “has built an administration with an unprecedented number of women in leadership roles.”
— Melania Trump, the first lady

A lie.


“President Trump became the first president to talk about the importance of religious freedom at the United Nations, giving hope to people of faith around the world.”
— Melania Trump, first lady

She lies like her husband. Other presidents, including Obama, have done this as well.


“The Biden-Harris vision for America leaves no room for people of faith.”
— Cissie Graham Lynch, a granddaughter of Billy Graham

A moronic lie.

And on and on........Trump even has the gall to chide Biden for, of all things, nepotism!! Surreal.




cowboy ted said...

I called the Univ. of So. Maine today and spoke to a representative from the president's office. The kind lady stated that Mr. Cummins is not asking students to sign a pledge nor will a list of non-signers be produced. Again, this is what I was told. I am interested in learning if I was lied to or not.