Was Flannery O’Connor A Racist?
This content was originally published March 26, 2023. … How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor? appeared in The New Yorker on June 22, 2020. (Note the date) I had long been a fan of Mary Flannery O’Connor, and knew I could not un-read those stories.
The article begins by telling the Flannery story. Soon, a description of a movie, Flannery, yields a false note: “Erik Langkjær, a publishing sales rep O’Connor fell in love with, describes their drives in the country.” According to Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch, Mr. Langkjær was far from a boyfriend. It is another piece of the puzzle.
“I was not really in love; I simply enjoyed the company of women during my lonely travels in the South. Although Flannery was both conventional and religious, we eventually became so close that she, while the car was parked, allowed me to kiss her. At that moment, her disease revealed itself in a new way: there was no strength in her lips. I hit her teeth with my kiss, and since then I’ve thought of it as a kiss of death. … When I later read one of Flannery’s short stories, ‘Good Country People,’ I noticed that the main character was a travelling Bible salesman. I didn’t sell bibles, but I used to call my binder with the records of the publishing firm ‘my bible.’ Also, the salesman in the story is named Manley Pointer, which has an obvious erotic connotation.”
“Everything That Rises Must Converge was published in “Best American Short Stories” … O’Connor declared that it was all she had to say on “That Issue.” It wasn’t. In May, 1964, she wrote to her friend Maryat Lee, a playwright who … was ardent for civil rights.”
“About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us what it feels like to be a Negro in Harlem but he tries to tell us everything else too. M. L. King I dont think is the ages great saint but he’s at least doing what he can do & has to do. Don’t know anything about Ossie Davis except that you like him but you probably like them all. My question is usually would this person be endurable if white. If Baldwin were white nobody would stand him a minute. I prefer Cassius Clay. “If a tiger move into the room with you,” says Cassius, “and you leave, that dont mean you hate the tiger. Just means you know you and him can’t make out. Too much talk about hate.” Cassius is too good for the Moslems.” (James Baldwin probably agreed with MFO about “the Moslems.”)
“That passage, published in “The Habit of Being,” echoed a remark in a 1959 letter, also to Maryat Lee, who had suggested that Baldwin … could pay O’Connor a visit while on a subsequent reporting trip. O’Connor demurred: “No I can’t see James Baldwin in Georgia. It would cause the greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion. In New York it would be nice to meet him; here it would not. I observe the traditions of the society I feed on—it’s only fair. Might as well expect a mule to fly as me to see James Baldwin in Georgia. I have read one of his stories and it was a good one.” …
“After revising “Revelation” in early 1964, O’Connor wrote several letters to Maryat Lee. Many scholars maintain that their letters (often signed with nicknames) are a comic performance, with Lee playing the over-the-top liberal and O’Connor the dug-in gradualist, but O’Connor’s most significant remarks on race in her letters to Lee are plainly sincere. … May 3, 1964: “You know, I’m an integrationist by principle & a segregationist by taste anyway. I don’t like negroes. They all give me a pain and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them. Particularly the new kind.” Two weeks after that, she told Lee of her aversion to the “philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind.” Ravaged by lupus, she wrote Lee a note to say that she was checking into the hospital, signing it “Mrs. Turpin.” She died at home ten weeks later.”
“Fordham University hosted a symposium on O’Connor and race, supported with a grant from the author’s estate.” (The panel discussion included Karin Coonrod.) “The organizer, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell” … (who wrote) “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor” … takes up Flannery and That Issue. Proposing that O’Connor’s work is “race-haunted,” she applies techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory …” In other words, The Flannery O’Connor Trust gave money to Fordham University, so they could examine MFO, using “techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory.” There is something deeply rotten about this. … RARIFOC includes this: “Drawing on critical whiteness studies, Chapter 1 interrogates the concepts of race and whiteness O’Connor inherited and analyzes the ways in which O’Connor critiques the unjust racial practices of the South in her stories and other writings yet unconsciously upholds them.”
Perhaps this cancellation business is what MFO foresaw in a 1963 letter to Betty Hester. MFO mentions her disdain for Eudora Welty’s “Where is the Voice Coming From?” … “What I hate most is its being in the New Yorker and all of the stupid Yankee liberals smacking their lips over typical life in the dear old dirty Southland.”
Eudora Welty is not the only author MFO did not like. MFO wrote to Maryat Lee on 31 May 60. “I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoyevsky.”
“On July 28, 1964, Flannery wrote her last letter. This note to Maryat Lee, written in a “shaky, nearly illegible hand” … is in response to an anonymous crank call Lee received and reveals O’Connor’s deep concern for her friend’s well being: “Cowards can be just as vicious as those who declare themselves – more so. Dont take any romantic attitude toward that call. Be properly scared and go on doing what you have to do, but take the necessary precautions. And call the police. That might be a lead for them. Dont know when I’ll send those stories. I’ve felt too bad to type them. Cheers, Tarfunk” MFO died August 3, 1964 at Baldwin County Hospital.
We don’t know what MFO read by James Baldwin. It might include a 1962 piece in The New Yorker, Letter from a Region in My Mind. Included in those 22,147 words is this gem: “But white Americans do not believe in death, and this is why the darkness of my skin so intimidates them.” This might be a good time to remember the words of Alice Walker: “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
Ms. Walker is included in Flannery. “Alice Walker tells of living “across the way” from the farmhouse during her teens, not knowing that a writer lived there: “It was one of my brothers who took milk from her place to the creamery in town. When we drove into Milledgeville, the cows that we saw on the hillside going into town would have been the cows of the O’Connors.” Ms. Walker, who was well aware of MFO’s racial attitudes, adds “She also cast spells and worked magic with the written word. The magic, the wit, and the mystery of Flannery O’Connor I know I will always love.”
A lot of what TNY says is about taking MFO seriously, in spite of her racial attitudes. This is where I differ. I am a cracker who likes to enjoy stories, not take them seriously. As a Georgia native, I am well aware of the many “shades of gray” produced by a black and white society. Racism is not a yes/no binary. MFO, and her racial attitudes, wrote great stories. To paraphrase Alice Walker, take what you need, and let whiteness studies and critical race theory rot. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in February 1940. “Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer. Creek County, Oklahoma.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
White Privilege Is
This content was published March 13, 2015. … As with so many blogging misadventures, it started with a tweet. @BougieBlackGurl “White privilege is when White people like Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski & Bill Kristol blame Black people for Whites being racist.”
Let us break this down. Since I do not watch tv, this is going to be tough. This has something to do with a handful of OU fratbois. They had the bad judgement to be video recorded singing the n-word, among other delicacies, on a train. Some “White people” went on a tv show, and made a connection between rap music and the fratboi video. When BBG gets her hands on it, we have “…blame Black people for Whites being racist.”
Since when do three talking air heads speak for 254m white people? Ok, so someone with pale skin said something dumb on tv. Now, you have the latest definition of “White privilege.” At what point do the concepts of privilege and racism cease to mean anything?
The seminal tweet was sent out two days ago. By now, it is probably obsolete. In those two days, the national debt increased by an estimated $2.6b. An estimated 13 metric tons of Global Carbon Emissions joined the atmosphere. There are many other issues more important than the singing of idiot fratbois, but not as much fun to talk about.
The figure on the national debt is based on an article at Forbes magazine. The title: Stop And Smell The Roses: Final 2014 Federal Deficit Fell … Big Time. The figure quoted above is based on the lower of the two numbers in this quote. “As the report shows, the actual 2014 deficit was $483 billion, $3 billion less than what the Congressional Budget Office estimated a week ago. For the record, $483 billion is $197 billion below the almost $680 billion deficit recorded in 2013. It’s also $930 billion, that is, close to $1 trillion, less than the largely recession-caused $1.4 trillion deficit in 2009.” As Malcolm X said “”If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress.” Malcolm X will make another appearance in this post.
Bougie Black Girl does not promote herself as a statistician or scientist. “I’m a African American woman who loves to empower Black women” Her twitter product today is mostly concerned with Creflo Dollar, who is certainly a worthy target.
The fun starts at her website. Get Your Malcolm X with a cameo appearance from Martin Luther King Jr. prepaid Mastercard/Visa cards · 30 Light skin Privileges Light Skin Blacks have that Dark Skin Blacks Don’t · UPDATE!!! Two White QVC hosts mock a Black Woman’s natural hair and humiliate her on TV. (Video) … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The social media picture was taken January 11, 1956. “Peachtree Street”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Slavery And Global Warming
This content was originally posted March 11, 2012. … Have you ever wondered why your ancestors owned other human beings? How can you justify something this cruel? In an NPR interview to promote 1861: The Civil War Awakening, author Adam Goodheart has an answer.
“But I think we think of it differently when we realize that the value of slave property, some $4 billion, enormous amount of money in 1861, represented actually more money than the value of all of the industry and all of the railroads in the entire United States combined. So for Southern planters to simply one day liberate all of that property would have been like asking people today to simply overnight give up their stock portfolios, give up their IRAs.”
Mr. Goodheart compares it to the situation today with fossil fuels. “Many of us recognize that in burning fossil fuels we’re doing something terrible for the planet, we’re doing something terrible for future generations. And yet in order to give this up would mean sort of unraveling so much of the fabric of our daily lives, sacrificing so much, becoming these sort of radical eccentrics riding bicycles everywhere, that we continue somewhat guiltily to participate in the system. And that’s something that I use as a comparison to slavery, that many Americans in the North, and even I believe sort of secretly in the South, felt a sense of guilt, felt a sense of shame, that knew that the slave system was wrong but were simply addicted to slavery and couldn’t give it up. “
When the economic pressure is there, people will find a way to justify their actions. Slavery was justified in a number of ways. Today, there are people who deny the ill effects of using fossil fuels, and they have an eager audience. The payback for the environmental horror is in the future. This is similar to the way people today are paying … with racial turmoil … for slavery. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken August 24, 1951. ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
James Baldwin And The Magic Word
This content was originally published September 10. 2013. … In the spring of 1963, KQED filmed a show, “Take this hammer, featuring James Arthur Baldwin. The snippet in the video seems to have been the last three minutes of the show. Here is a transcript. Mr. Baldwin discusses a six letter insult. The n-word is more about the speaker, than the spoken of. A 2010 blogger had this to say:
“I’ve often felt that people’s projections of me are oftentimes just that – their projections. However, Baldwin’s ending sums up a solution to this perfectly: “But you still think, I gather, that the n****r is necessary. Well he’s unnecessary to me – he must be necessary to you. Well, I’m going to give your problem back to you…you’re the n****r, baby…not me.”
It is now 2026. (All discussions of race must mention the year.) The TV show was sixty three years ago. A few things have changed. To many white people, overt expressions of racism are seen as bad manners. The n-word is taboo in polite company. The overall attitudes may not have changed, but most white people are careful how they say things.
Mr. Baldwin offered an insight into who the user of this nasty word was really talking about. Now, there is another six letter word being casually tossed about these days. It starts with R, where the other ends with R. What would happen if you took Mr. Baldwin’s talk, and substituted racist for the other six letter word? It is an interesting way to look at things. What follows is not a perfect fit, and may be offensive to some. A few times, it is very close to the truth.
“Who is the racist? Well I know this … and anybody who has tried to live knows this. What you say about somebody else, anybody else, reveals you. What I think of you as being is dictated by my own necessities, my own psychology, my own fears … and desires. I’m not describing you when I talk about you … I’m describing me.
Now, here in this country, we got somebody called a racist. It doesn’t in such terms, I beg you to remark, exist in any other country in the world. We have invented the racist. I didn’t invent him, white people invented him. I’ve always known, I had to know by the time I was seventeen years old, what you were describing was not me and what you were afraid of was not me. It had to be something else. You had invented it so it had to be something you were afraid of, and you invested me with it. … I have always known that I am not a racist … but if I am not the racist … and if it is true that your invention reveals you … then who is the racist?
I am not the victim here. I know one thing from another. I know that I was born, am gonna suffer and gonna die. And the only way that you can get through life is to know the worst things about it. I know that a person is more important than anything else. Anything else. I’ve learned this because I’ve had to learn it. But you still think, I gather, that the racist is necessary. Well he’s not necessary to me, so he must be necessary to you. So I give you your problem back. You’re the racist baby, it isn’t me.”
Chamblee54 has discussed Mr. Baldwin before. 071222 100722 032623 Pictures today are from Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken November 11, 1954. “Roxy Theatre, Atlanta, African American entrance ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
All Caps Comic Sans
This content was published February 19, 2015. … The story starts on twitter. @chescaleigh #Oscars2015 voter finds Selma cast wearing #ICantBreathe shirts to their film premiere “offensive” #OscarsSoWhite @chescaleigh Apparently protesting police brutality is offensive? But this same #Oscars2015 voter loved American Sniper soooo that says it all @ShaunKing I said it when Lebron wore it & I’ll say it re: the SELMA cast, if this shirt offends you, you are probably racist.
Evidently, the cast of the movie “Selma” wanted to make a statement, or get publicity for the movie, or both. They wore t shirts to an event. The shirts say “I CANT BREATHE,” in all caps comic sans letters, with no apostrophe. This refers to something said by Eric Garner.
The t-shirt clad cast is posing in the “hands up don’t shoot” pose. This gesture became popular after Micheal Brown was killed. Many people find it unlikely that Mr. Brown made this gesture.
The Hollywood Reporter posted a story, Oscar Voter Reveals Brutally Honest Ballot: “There’s No Art to ‘Selma,'” ‘Boyhood’ “Uneven.” An oscar voter went into great detail about the different categories she was voting on. She liked “American Sniper” because it made a lot of money. This is important to the movie industry. If you want to send a message, call Western Union.
Daily Kos, condensed the story to three juicy sentences. “But if the movie isn’t that good, am I supposed to vote for it just because it has black people in it? I’ve got to tell you, having the cast show up in T-shirts saying “I can’t breathe” [at their New York premiere] — I thought that stuff was offensive. Did they want to be known for making the best movie of the year or for stirring up shit?”
I am tough to offend, and easy to annoy. To have a grandstanding movie cast exploit a human tragedy is annoying. To have an internet facility call this pose “coming together in solidarity,” and call those who disagree racist, is distasteful. At what point does the word racist cease to have any meaning?
While researching this story, I found this. “Unfortunately, students were not given the opportunity to hear any of Dr. King’s … speeches in the film. That is because the film doesn’t include any direct quotes from the brilliant orator. … Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches are copyrighted, and filmmakers could not use his words in the movie without fear of being sued. Dr. King’s family owns the rights … and are famously litigious.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Edwin Rosskam took the social media picture in April 1941. “Children in front of moving picture theater, Easter Sunday matinee, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Racists Got Racist
This content was published January 21, 2023. … The story below is a repost from 2015. Looking back from 2023, this piece feels quaint. It appeared on Gawker. The G-blog has been through tough times, but continues to hang in there. Today’s headline: Drake Brags About Exclusive Toilet Access
“#blacklivesmatter took a dairy inclusive turn this weekend. New York City was the scene when #BlackLivesMatter Protesters Hit Whites Where It Truly Hurts: Brunch “… a group of about three dozen demonstrators … hitting such quiche-and-mimosa joints … When they arrived, they began reading the names of black Americans killed by police to diners. … As is to be expected when such a sacred institution is so callously attacked, the protests sparked lots of fervent tweeting. … End Cultural Marxism @genophilia It’s fine for blacks to loot, rob, rape and kill whites, but if whites complain about it, now that’s racist. #blackbrunchnyc #ferguson”
The original chamblee54 post has more text, which is not necessary for today’s edition. The gawker original features the type of purple prose that is less fashionable today: “It’s hard to imagine a funnier needling tactic. People are reacting viscerally to the idea that diners were targeted as racists simply for enjoying a Sunday morning meal—and if they had been subject to any discomfort beyond five awkward minutes, they’d have a legitimate complaint. But it’s just brunch, and as soon as you complain about it, you get to the heart of the issue: while some people are out there wondering whether a trigger-happy cop might decide to gun them down today, you just want to finish your capers and lox in peace.” Pictures for this bit of social justice nostalgia are from Georgia State University Library The social media picture was taken July 2, 1942. Governor Eugene Talmadge Experiment Station; Griffin, Georgia; SHEEP ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
If I Were A Poor Black Kid
This content was published December 12, 2023. … There is a fuss going on about an article at Forbes magazine, If I Was A Poor Black Kid. I was reading a facebook discussion of the article, and decided I wanted to read the original. I googled white guy writing about being a poor black kid for freakin’ FORBES, and the fun began.
Angry Black Lady Chronicles tells of the day when her (white) mother took a day off, from her job as a copy editor, to get young ABL enrolled in a tougher math class. Greg Laden’s Blog chimes in with Forbes’ Gene Marks Needs To Check His Priv. The last line says it all … “Or, as in your case, not so smart but privileged.”
If you want to read the denunciations of the Forbes article, open your eyes and take a look. You might want to hurry up. Soon, there will be another article, somewhere, that people don’t like. Maybe you can talk about the War on Christmas. This is an example of Christian Privilege gone awry. It is a safe bet that many of the poor black kids are Christians. Maybe one form of privilege will outweigh another. Or people will learn about a grain of salt.
It is ironic that the piece was published in Forbes. Malcolm Forbes was fond of saying that he was loaded with “sheer ability, spelled i-n-h-e-r-i-t-a-n-c-e.” The elder Forbes had a lavish lifestyle, with Elizabeth Taylor as a beard. His son, Steve Forbes, (Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr.) was quoted as saying “My father once spent $5 million on a birthday party for himself in Tangiers. Why can’t I spend a few more running for President?”.
This feature was originally published in 2011 It was a simpler time. Pictures today are from the Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 4, 1947. “Capital Theater Ernest Tubb personal appearance. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Are My Racial Attitudes Your Business?
I was living my life when I saw something on facebook: “And another thing: if you are going to claim NOT to be racist, I feel like you should familiarize yourself with some contemporary writings and definitions of racism, not just what Mirriam Webster says.” The first reaction was to ignore this. If you reply to a comment about racism on facebook, you are asking for trouble. Life is too short to be wasting time on such unpleasantness.
But the thought engine had been kickstarted, and continued to idle in the background. When I pulled into the Kroger parking lot, the idea hit full force. Maybe it is none of your business.
Some people say that white people are not affected by racism. If this is the case, then why should the racial attitudes of a white person affect another white person? If a person treats you fairly, do you really need to know this person’s attitudes about race?
The fbf ex-fbf does not say what the context of this claim is. Did anyone ask you whether or not you were a racist? If not, are you assuming that they are interested? Maybe someone assumed the listener was interested. Maybe the proper response to look bored, and say TMI.
The comment mentioned “contemporary writings and definitions of racism.” Who are the people who set themselves up as arbiters about what we should think about race? What are the qualifications? Who asked them what they thought? How do we know that these people are dependable?.
Maybe the answer is to show compassion and kindness to your neighbor, and don’t worry about their racial attitudes. If you are proud of your racial attitudes, please refrain from boasting. Not everyone is interested. … This commentary was originally posted November 1, 2012. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in November 1941. “Mr. Parkie Armour, FSA borrower, Edonton Road, Greene County, Georgia” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Ta-Nehisi Coates Will Not Go Away
This content was published October 8, 2024. … The Message is a new book by Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates. The publishing game requires TPC to promote his book, which he is doing with gusto. It turns out this literary product is critical of Israel. Some things you are not allowed to say out loud.
One noteworthy appearance was on CBS Mornings. Tony Dokoupil gave TPC a rude greeting: “I have to say … the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” Later, Mr. Dokoupil inadvertently says something many of Israel’s neighbors might agree with: “Why does any of Israel exist? What a horrific place, committing horrific acts on a daily basis.”
Part of the problem is the high profile TPC has enjoyed as an anti-racist celebrity. Over the last few years, many “woke” people have heaped praise on the man. At the same time, more than a few people were annoyed with TPC. Saagar Enjeti had some strong comments about TPC on Breaking Points recently. What the star-making machine builds up, the star-making machine tears down.
Chamblee54 has written about TPC several times. one two three In a video about the six-letter word, TPC asserts “When you’re white in this country, you’re taught that everything belongs to you. You think you have a right to everything.”
The progressive movement in America has fought against racism, inequality, injustice, etc, for a long time. If you can look past the hypocrisy and vulgar noise, you can see some value in these efforts. Unfortunately, Israel violates many of these values in its dealings with Palestinians. This contradiction is difficult for the left to deal with.
TPC is saying things that make progressives nervous. Israel treats Palestinians horribly. The hypocrisy of the platitude spouting left is on display. Shooting the messenger is always an option.
This content was published October 12, 2024. … Today is October 12, 2024, 371 days after October 7, 2023. This week, the major point of discussion is The Message, (TM) a book by Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates. Why is a book more important than the hostages, the Palestinian/Lebanese suffering, etc, etc? TM bashing is an excellent distraction from the life/death issues here.
There are three quotes in my weekly notes. The concept here is a Saturday morning brain drop, centered around these quotes. If you want to know more, Google is there. Sometimes. Many internet gateways appear to have a pro-Israel bias. Google, for example, has an office in Tel Aviv. “Being in Israel, for lunch the Googlers can choose from three amazing restaurants, for non-kosher, kosher dairy and kosher meat.”
“Why does any of Israel exist? What a horrific place, committing horrific acts on a daily basis.” This out-of-context quote says what many people are feeling now. @tonydokoupil was interrogating TPC, on a book tour visit to CBS Mornings. Author interviews are usually boring events, and get little notice. Mr. Dokoupil, for some reason, decided to make a stink about TM, which was critical of Israel’s conduct in the West Bank.
I don’t know how major publishing works. A book is written. The process of getting from the author to the public takes time. It is not uncommon for something to have been written for a year before the book tour. It is highly probable that TM was written well before 10/7. The Israel portion of TM is about the West Bank, not Gaza. Now, the haters are making an issue about TM not mentioning 10/7. You should never let a good talking point go to waste, even if it is basically irrelevant. TM was not intended as a comprehensive history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Full Disclosure. I have not read TM, despite the best efforts of CBS Mornings. What I say here is based on what I have heard. I imagine that many more people will read TM as a result of this media event, and the twitterstorm that followed. If TM had come out, and received polite comments on tv shows, it would be forgotten by now. Hasbara® has given TM truckloads of attention. Of course, when you talk about TM, you don’t talk about the starving human shields children in Gaza, or the murdered human shields children in Lebanon. It is more fun to talk about how TPC is not giving context, about Gaza, when he writes about the suffering human shields population of the West Bank.
“Exactly a year ago, when thousands of Hamas militants crossed Israel’s border … I knew little about Israel and had no opinion about the long running conflict there.” Konstantin Vadimovich Kisin/Константин Вадимович Кисин is a youtuber. He put out a video last week, Why I’m Off the Fence About Israel’s War. The quote above is the first thing he said. I have had many arguments over Israel over the last 45 years. It must be nice to only hear Hasbara® now.
The KVK video is an exercise in logic abuse. He tries to explain apples by talking about bananas. KVK compares 10/7 to a Mexican attack on America’s southern border. Now, if terroristas were planning to storm El Paso … looking for Kinky Friedman’s anal sphinctor … American forces would know all about it, and kill everybody before they got their feet wet. Many people wonder why Israel allowed Hamas to get past their wall, but that is another subject.
”I believe the logic of this is impenetrable.” KVK inserts this bizarre comment, before going on a strawman safari. KVK offers four “justifications” for 10/7, and “debunks” them. You will have to watch the video to see what I mean. Never mind that not everyone uses these arguments. Never mind that they are not intended to “justify” 10/7, but rather to denounce the wholesale slaughter of Palestinians/Lebanese women and children. Never mind that many of the 10/7 casualties were killed by @IDF. The “Hannibal Directive” was not mentioned in any of last week’s noise.
That’s enough for one post. Like TM, this is one man’s perspective, not an context encyclopedia. If you want to hear more, you know where to look. … Big Media (BM) continues to have a symbiotic relationship with TPC. After the recent death of Charles James Kirk, TPC got a lot of attention for a spat with Ezra Klein. … The tragedy in Gaza continues, after a brief ceasefire. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in November 1939. In the Mississippi Delta. There is an ever-increasing number of Chinese grocerymen and merchants. Leland, Mississippi.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Pre-K Anti-Racism
The facebook meme interrupted the cheerful October apathy. The meme was about an article, My 2-Year-Old Doesn’t Seem to Care About Being Anti-Racist. The colorful graphic did not have a link to the story, so I googled the title. Soon, there were lots of options for Pre-K social justice education.
The headline story was on Slate. The format is the anxious letter to an advice columnist. The subtitle was “Have we screwed up somehow?”
“Dear Care and Feeding, My husband and I (we’re white) have a 2-year-old daughter and are doing our very best to be anti-racist parents. We’re making sure she has lots of multiracial dolls, only consumes books and TV shows with diverse characters, has no problematic Halloween costumes, and so on. But when we try to discuss issues like structural racism, intersectionality, or White fragility, she doesn’t seem at all interested. She often walks away, asks for a cookie, or even falls asleep! Have we screwed up somehow? Has society’s disdain for the perspectives of marginalized people already infected her? How do we get her to appreciate the urgency of the conversation around deconstructing white supremacy? — Anti-Racist Mom.”
This is where the free story ends. “The rest of this article is only for Slate Plus members. Sign up to get more Care and Feeding every week. For just $35 for your first year, you’ll also get…”
Some of the results are boring. Anti-Racism for Kids … Is most notable for this observation: “ ‘I don’t know that I’d sit down with a 3-year-old and say, ‘Let’s talk about racism,’ says Dr. Schonfeld.”
6 easy ways … hits on a persistent theme in woke literature. “As humans, we are hard-wired to identify with members of our own community, which is why we will never live in a post-racial society. So-called color-blindness as a parenting strategy amounts to complicity in the problem.” Somehow, being color blind is seen as a bad thing. Whatever.
The dependably woke Washington Post populates their paywall with What white parents get wrong about raising antiracist kids … “One of the biggest misconceptions white parents have is that their children don’t notice race unless it is pointed out to them. The underlying assumption is that children only become racist if they are taught to be. In fact, research clearly shows the opposite: Kids develop racial prejudice unless their parents or teachers directly engage with them about it.”
In her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, “Spelman College psychologist Beverly Tatum writes that “cultural racism — the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of Whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color — is like a smog in the air. Sometimes it is so thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent, but always, day in and day out, we are breathing it in.”
“So kids breathe this racially charged air … and if their parents and teachers don’t help to explain to them what race means (and what it doesn’t), kids start to create their own narratives. They often infer that racial hierarchies exist because of innate differences between people of different races and so start to believe that whites are privileged because they are inherently better and smarter.”
Some of this material is by “experts.” There are probably people who disagree with these observations, and a lot of exceptions to the rules. I know next to nothing about raising children, and am a bad person to have opinions here. Still, I shake his head at this: “Looking for a way to talk about race with your preschooler? Try baking. Crack open a white egg and then a brown egg, and show your kid how they’re the same inside. Or you can present your child with two gifts—one wrapped in ribbons and glitter, another in crinkled newspaper. Fill the sparkly one with dirt and the other with a shiny bracelet. Then get the conversation going: ‘Can you really judge what’s inside by the outside?'”
Or this. “White- centeredness is not the reality of [the white child’s] world, but he is under the illusion that it is. It is thus impossible for him to deal accurately or adequately with the universe of human and social relationships.” If you were to substitute black for white here, someone would call you racist. And they would be correct. Sweeping generalization, based on skin color, usually are.
The last result on page one is an NPR interview with children’s author Renee Watson, and Ibram X. Kendi. “I want to go back to “Hair Love.” I think it’s important to bring in books that allow readers to see black people living their everyday lives. We don’t want to teach children that black pain and struggle is the only part of black life. But I also think it’s important to just let young people see that black people live lives. And they do their hair. And they play outside. And they have fun and that is an important part of the conversation, too.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in January 1941. “Steelworkers in beer parlor. Ambridge, Pennsylvania” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Scarlet R
This content was originally posted October 4, 2016. … Bloggingheads.tv released a chat with Glenn Loury and John McWhorter. With the election 35 days away, there was lots of talk about Donald and Hillary. It only took 1:44, to learn what is expected. The assignment is to call DJT a racist, and lament what a terrible thing that is. This is political discourse in 2016.
At 3:28, there was an aha moment. The line was that DJT, instead of an orange haired ogre, was really just a seventh grade bully. When I was in seventh grade, there was a mean person who gave him problems. This individual is now a facebook friend, and regularly posts memes supporting DJT. I like to know what the “other side” thinks. Ignoring the memes is always an option.
At 9:22, the importance of identifying racism in others is stressed. This is said to totally justify the appeal of DJT. Once you call someone a racist, you no longer have to work to understand their motives. When the scarlet R is super glued to somebody, that is all you need to know.
The Scarlet Letter is the rip roaring tale of Hester Prynne. She got caught fooling around, and had the scarlet A, for adultery, pinned to her chest. It was pinned to her chest, and she could see who did the pinning. In today’s “woke” world, the scarlet R, for racist, is super glued to the back of the terrible person. The person never knows who gave them this dreaded, irrevocable, label.
At 21:28, John tells an amusing story. He was talking to a well meaning white woman, said to be helpful in selling more books. At some point, the woman felt obligated to say that “we don’t like to talk about race.” John was too polite to laugh in her face.
The truth is that talking about race is the new national pastime. Does anyone listen? In all that talk, is anything worthwhile said? These questions are considered rude, and probably racist.
At 31:09, John said the n word. It is not known whether it ended with -er, or with -a. Since John is a POC, he has permission. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Dorothea Lange took the social media picture in November 1938. “Sunday morning, Kern County, California. Many Texans, Oklahomans, Arkansans are settling in this county. Their cultures and forms of religious expression are being transferred with them” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
One More Chat About Racism
It was a typical morning. Work on pictures, and listen to audio product. I was tired of youtube suggestions, and chose to listen to RISK. The first story is a South Asian lady, Nimisha, going to have lunch with her Jewish mother in law, Elaine. The two ladies have an uneasy relationship. Before the wedding, Elaine asked David, her son, if Nimisha was black. (Did David have a black girlfriend before this?) Nimisha was upset when she heard about this. Now Nimisha was going to have lunch with a RAY-SISST. It is not known if Nimisha ever called Elaine a racist to her face.
I am tired of hearing people referred to as racist. Since there were plenty of other shows to listen to, I turned off the story. A few minutes later, I wondered what I was missing, and turned on the story again. Soon enough, Nimisha complained about going to lunch with a RAY-SISST again. I pushed forward, and listened to the next story. It was about an experience at an AA meeting in Los Angeles. I wanted to share the story with a friend in the AA program. Here is the email I sent with the link.
This is a link to a story. It is an AA war story. It starts at 20 minutes. There is another story here. The first story in this show is about an Indian lady, who does not like her Jewish mother in law. At ten minutes into the show, the bride says “I am going to have to spend the day with a racist.” At this point, I turned off the show in anger. I am sensitive to the term racist, for perfectly obvious reasons. I did not want to listen to the rest of the show. When I decided to send you the link, I had to listen to the part of the show around the 20 minute mark, so I could know when the war story started. I set the timer for 18 minutes, and listened to the end of the mother in law story. There is a twist in the story, and everyone is friends now. The bride says “I am ashamed of reducing her to her racism.”
David, Elaine, and Nimisha went to a deli in New York. Nimisha (who seems to have other entitlement issues) is militantly vegetarian, and not pleased with the deli. At one point, Elaine orders a sandwich “bigger than her fist,” and starts to, accidentally, spit bits of meat in Nimisha’s face. Next, Nimisha looks at Elaine, who has tears in her eyes. Elaine thanks Nimisha for coming to lunch. Nimisha looks at her hand, which has an engagement ring once owned by Elaine. Nimisha realizes that Elaine is more than her comment about race, and is actually a pretty good lady. End of story. Elaine is much more than a racist, she is the mother of David.
The real fun starts when I post the email to RISK! Podcast Fans Discussion Group on facebook. People are proud of calling *others* racist. When you suggest that this is not a good idea, they get angry. WAAAAA!!! He said I can’t say wassist!!! WAAAA!!! I have heard the r-word many times. I was not in the mood to hear a vegetarian princess repeat that slur about her mother in law.
As you may imagine, the facebook conversation got ugly. The 2018 post has TLDR quotes from this discussion. When people want to be seen as fighting racism, they behave badly. “The behavior described in the story was racist. I don’t know you or your circumstances, but your words so far seem to imply that you’re more offended by the word “racist” than actual racism.”
“you’re more offended by the word “racist” than actual racism.” This is a common comment in social justice discussions. “Imagine it happening all the time, simply because of the color of your skin. What you’re experiencing right now is *nothing* compared to what people of color experience daily.” The simple truth is that two wrongs do not make a right. Insulting a white person, by calling them racist, will have little impact on creating economic opportunity, or curtailing police brutality. Saying racist is merely a couple of kids on the playground swapping insults. To pretend otherwise, to confuse name calling for effective social justice action, is an exercise in self delusion.
People in discussions about racist/racism often feel the need to demonstrate their distaste for racism. Usually it is without being asked. People just assume they need to signal virtue, and are offended if someone abstains. “Being racist is wrong. Full stop. I’m not sure if we’re on the same page about that, but in case my thoughts weren’t clear, there they are.”
When you challenge the performative nature of racist citing, you can expect feedback. “I don’t understand this post. But i fully support the continued and loud-mouthed calling out and labeling of racists wherever they be, regardless of some feathers getting ruffled. Had the protagonist of this story been correct in her assumption, i wouldn’t be holding it against her. In this case she made an assumption and was corrected by facts, but i certainly don’t hold the using of that term against her.” ” “ritual condemnation of racism” is a funny way to put it, as if condemning such is a kind of bigotry. It’s not a “performance” when I condemn it. Um… I MEAN it.”
Why are people, mostly white, so eager to demonstrate their distaste for what they perceive as racism? This virtue signalling is to be loud, and must be seen and heard by others. Maybe this virtue signalling is not done for the benefit of others. Maybe the white savior is trying to reassure themself that they are not racist. They are like the homophobe who badmouths gays to cover up for his own repressed homosexual desires. Is the white savior a closet racist?
The problem with anti-racism was published by chamblee54 a few years ago, when a dark skinned man was POTUS. It discusses the closet racist concept, and other ways in which anti-racism is detrimental to society. After a 2014 repost, chamblee54 received a remarkable bit of confirmation. An anonymous commenter, speaking from an .edu address, said “why don’t you get your white sheets and come out.” Since this comment was made by a white cis male (the last time I had contact with them), it might not be appropriate to respond “I am so sorry that you felt racially targeted by me. Can you please help me understand what I did to make you feel that way?”
I made one last comment in the facebook thread. It is unlikely that he changed any minds. The concept that the word racist is offensive to human beings, and should be used with caution, is alien to many people. It might be compared to telling a person sixty years ago that saying the n-word is a bad idea. Here is the closing comment. “There is going to be a blog post about this discussion, which will answer a few of those questions. Or, and this is more likely, merely raise more. I have known many, many POC. Friends, enemies, good people, terrible people, and a thousand levels in between. In the end, it is my experience. I don’t even understand it myself. I cannot expect someone who reads a facebook thread to understand my life. I just get tired of the promiscuous, boastful, performative use of the r word. Nothing good comes of it.”
In typical blogger fashion, I gave two links. “This post Are my attitudes about race any of your business, might help explain a bit of this.” “Here is another post that might help, James Baldwin and the six letter word. (This post makes an amusing connection between the n-word, and the r-word. The words of James Baldwin were used, perhaps in a way the author would not have intended.) … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Esther Bubley took the social media picture in September 1943. “A Greyhound bus that has been stopped while the driver fills the water tank at a gas station on the road between Gettysburg and Pennsylvania” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
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