Clean & Articulate Racism

UPDATED: I realized after many hours that the end of this post was cut off - it actually disappeared. I'm writing a different ending, since I can't remember everything I wrote, and also to simply write it better.

I don't understand how a comment like this doesn't demonstrate overt racism: (via CWY)

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

The first mainstream African-American who is articulate? Bright? Clean!? What exactly did he expect - a mumbling, stupid, dirty man?

To me, an example like this shows a worse kind of racism than even simple dislike. A person who hates black people simply because they're black is a hateful jerk. A person who - in passive conversation - can show that he expects black people to be mumbling, dirty, and stupid? That's outright disgusting and ignorant.

Interestingly enough, the person who made the comment is himself a Presidential candidate: Senator Joe Biden - the Democrat from Delaware.

I've always felt that this implicit racism was far worse than any other. We have laws protecting people from being discriminated against, and the simple, hateful racism is easier to prosecute. But implicit racism? It can silently destroy people. For example, look at affirmative action: It forced universities and companies to accept (say) black people - not because they were necessarily qualified, but because they were black. It was a nice way of saying, "Hey, we don't think you could actually earn a job here, so we're going to give you one to encourage 'diversity'." How does this encourage diversity? By putting someone into a situation where they're guaranteed to fail, when they couldn't have earned the job with their own skill? And when they could have earned it, we wouldn't need affirmative action [at this point in history].

I've often found the same implicit racism in the most hypocritical of places. Firstly, among Jews: Forget the stupidity of racist beliefs, because obviously it's stupid; it doesn't even make sense in terms of some perceived gain, because racist beliefs only harm Jews, removing a natural ally on many issues, especially in the United States. (Interestingly, I found less racism overall among Jews in Israel, at least in regards to the Ethiopians or blacks in general; there, any race hatred was usually against Sefardim. On the other hand, that little bit of racism actually does result in discrimination.)

Almost more interestingly, though, is in certain areas: New York City, for example. Certain areas in other cities (parts of Cleveland, etc.). Generally, urban areas - ones which contain a high percentage of people who vote Democrat. A brilliant Democrat blogger [not sure if he doesn't want this quoted as being him] I know once agreed with this assessment and noted that where he lives in the Bronx (one of the highest Kerry-voting areas in 2004 in the country) he's heard more racism than anywhere else, much to his surprise. Democrats - who often make a big fuss over race issues - seem to be more racist than Republicans. While Republicans have their Pat Buchanans, their other crazies... those people are not in the mainstream; they are clear fringe players. But the racist Democrats don't even seem to acknowledge or realize that what they believe is completely racist - worse even than those they [properly] mock.

Notice the breakdown of most communities in New York: They are broken down by ethnicity and class. In what is supposed to be the melting pot of culture, you have "black" areas, "Chinese" areas, "Hispanic" areas... The way many of the 'liberal elite' seem to view minorities here is to 'throw money at them to help them build their communities' - as long as they don't come into ours. This also helps protect true 'old boys' networks, as connections are only made with people of the same ethnicity.

I checked the Wiki article on New York City's demographics. It doesn't really break down race by neighborhood within the city (only by borough), but The article does split up a few of the groups and casually notes the neighborhoods they live in. Quotes such as the following are not surprising, either:

Manhattan has a high degree of income disparity, with extreme wealth and pockets of poverty.

Los Angeles actually does list a few neighborhoods when it does the same, noting places such as Leimart Park (91.7% black).

Senator Biden's remarks only demonstrate what seems to be a natural belief among higher-ranking Democrats, or some Democrats in general: Minorities need our help, because they can't do it themselves. An interesting statistic, if I'm recalling correctly: There is but one black Democratic Senator, while there are two Republican Senators. 1/51 = less than 2%; 2/49 = more than 4+%. While this is a terribly small sample, it's interesting to compare it to the makeup of the two parties as a whole. About 2% of those who voted for Bush in 2004 were black; having 2 Senators is slightly more than representative. About 17% of those who voted for Kerry were black [and as a percentage of the Democratic constituency in general, blacks are even higher, as only a low percentage vote] - having just 1 Senator (instead of 8-9) seems to be a terribly unfair rate of representation. We also see a real lack of minorities at the top of the Democratic Party, with the biggest black names in the party (before Obama) being people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and even Charlie Rangel.

Implicit racism is worse than blatant racism in that it pushes minorities down even as it claims to be raising them up. Even as the liberal elite helps out black communities, it holds them away from truly meshing with the communities around them, encouraging black-only cultural stereotypes. The Congressional Black Caucus [solely made up of Democrats] does not allow any non-blacks to join; last year, a House Democrat wished to do so to better help his mostly black constituency, but was rejected [hat tip: BOTW, which made me wish I'd read all my e-mail before writing this piece]. Some liberals encourage calling those blacks who don't follow typical black stereotypes (such as being a Democrat) "Uncle Toms" or "Oreos".

Possibly the worst part of implicit racism among Democratic leadership is that these people make their political decisions based on their own bigoted views. These decisions negatively impact not only the very same people they are meant to help, they negatively impact everyone else who is affected by them indirectly (such as qualified white people who lose out on jobs or university slots). The time has come to fight this implicit racism as well, and the best way of doing so is by voting out or calling for the resignation of those who practice it.

I can't remember how the rest of this post originally went. It was really good, too. Argh. Blogger Beta stinks.

Happy Birthday Holy Hyrax!

We love you HH, even if you tried to bomb Ezzie's blog and destroy the JBlogosphere.

May you have a much calmer upcoming year :-)

Ad Meah v'Esrim!

Jameel & Co.

Comments Note

While the wars rage below me... a notice to all commenters: If you have a blogger ID in your profile, and switched to Beta, your email disappeared from your profile. That's just annoying, because all the comments are getting grouped by gmail according to email address... and that means they're all getting grouped together. It also means that I can't respond directly to people (which I do on occasion) by hitting reply... and it means people can't email you if they forgot your email address.

So, if you don't mind showing your e-mail address, please take 2 seconds, put your email in your profile, and zehu! Thanks!

SerandEz WILL be mine or I will destroy it

bX-vjhbsj (The Holy Hyrax Secret Error Code)

If you have tried going to blogspot blogs this morning, I'm sure you've come across this annoying error message:

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.

When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:

• Describe what you were doing when you got this error.
• Provide the following error code and additional information.

bX-vjhbsj

I've been informed by reliable sources that this is the Holy Hyrax's attempt to take over the entire JBlogosphere.

Mr. Hyrax: What do you have to say for yourself?!

We Might Crash... But That's Okay!

Flashback, first: My niece, Shoshana, is a super-cutie. When she was a toddler, she learned to say things like "but that's okay!" when something 'bad' would happen. Something fell? "It fell, but that's okay!" Something broke? "But that's okay!" While we were visiting once, I believe, she was in the process of being toilet-trained. Unfortunately, she didn't make it, as she told us: "I just made on the floor... but that's okay!"

That's the same feeling I had this Monday listening to the pilot of the plane I was on. I'd fallen asleep - not having packed yet - the night before, and Serach couldn't wake me up. I woke up the next morning with almost no time, quickly got ready and packed (good thing I didn't need to pack much), and jumped into the cab at 8:15 in the morning. I got to the airport thinking I had a good 50-minute wait until my flight... and then found out that the flight was a half hour later than I thought, so I'd rushed for nothing. Ah well. My flight plans were to fly to Chicago's O'Hare airport on Continental, with a stopover in Cleveland of about half an hour. I get on the flight, see an old friend of my father's is in first class, and sit down in my seat reading about Peyton Manning. After a few minutes, the pilot gets on the speaker:

"Well, they just discovered that there's a nice dent in the hydra blah blah blah blah. That's the back wing that stabilizes the plane and keeps it level. We think it's probably not a big deal, and as soon as the mechanic can check it out, we'll be off on our way."

But that's okay! Ugh. After about another hour or so of waiting, I realized there was no chance I was going to make my connecting flight, so I went up and asked them about it. They had no problem switching me to another airline... and on a direct flight! I realize now I could have/should have asked about getting put on a plane to Milwaukee, but they probably can only put me to where they have me listed as going.

I get on the United flight, and... United sucks. Their seats are so cramped it's ridiculous. Continental is easily the best "big" airline out there, close to Southwest overall, with JetBlue and Midwest Express well ahead of them. United? Near the bottom. No wonder they were in bankruptcy a couple of years ago. Anyways... my friend picked me up from O'Hare, we stopped at "The Yeshiva" (is that like The Ohio State University? L'havdil!), and I saw Elianna's future father-in-law, who I don't think I've seen since before we were both married. [Sorry, everybody. This kid is that cute, and his dad called it as soon as Elianna was born.]

Then, of course, came the all-important Burger Buddy at Ken's Diner, where we saw the most amazing thing...

WARNING: Skip the rest of this post if you couldn't care less about poker. I'll continue writing about my trip in the next post. Thank you for your patience.

Quick setup: One guy has an 8-9 suited (diamonds); another guy has A-something, and a woman has Q-Q. The flop comes: 10d, Jd, Qc. The woman has a set (three of a kind) of Queens... but the guy has a straight already. He bets immediately, the other guy folds, and she calls (or raises and he calls, I don't remember). The turn comes: 10. She's just made a boat (full house). He bets, she raises, he hesitates. He probably thinks she's got a higher straight or something, and that a diamond will give it to him anyway; in reality, she's got a 98% chance of winning the hand. He calls.

The river comes: 7 of diamonds. There was only ONE card in the deck that could save him, and this was it. He now has a straight flush... and she probably thinks he only made his flush. She probably thinks that she can take a ton of chips from this guy, who thinks his flush is good, when she has a full house. He bets a lot - she goes all-in. (Assuming I'm remembering all of this correctly. He calls IMMEDIATELY. She flips over her queens, already realizing that he's got it. "I can't believe that 7 of diamonds fell", she mutters, and she takes a nice, long break from the table (she had more chips than he did, so she wasn't knocked out). The most amazing hand I've ever seen.

Bigger & Better

I'm planning on writing more about my trip to Chicago/Milwaukee later, but one important aspect to start: Hamburgers. I think that the next time I hear some dumb NYer (or even Serach) question, "What's the difference? A burger is a burger!", I'll probably deck them (unless it's Serach). [Sometimes it is said about pizza, too.] Let's explain - not all burgers are created equal.

When I go down the block to Kosher Deluxe, and order a burger, I get a 1/4 inch high (if that) slab of meat with a diameter of maybe 3.5 inches. This little piece of "meat" has been steamed or something of the sort for a few minutes, and really has little taste (and KD's burgers aren't even that bad). Meanwhile, when I was in Ken's Diner in Skokie yesterday, I ordered their famous Burger Buddy. This hunk of meat is closer to 5 inches across, 1/2 an inch thick (or more), and was grilled - and has TASTE. Many people (generally NYers, whose restaurants don't need quality food to keep themselves in business - speed is more important) don't seem to understand the difference between the two. Not only that, in New York, you have to overpay for your not-so-filling-or-enjoyable meal; in the Midwest in general, you get a whole lot of food for a really small amount of cash.

As with most comparisons of the Midwest and New York, the food you get in the Midwest is both bigger and better than what they're serving up here. It's high time we started expecting more value for our money in the tri-state area, don't you think?

Pobody ever needs to be Nerfect...

We're all perfectionists. I'm not talking about the kind whose sock drawer is color coded or who addresses envelopes using a ruler. No, it's deeper than that. We all want perfection out of our lives and out of ourselves. To live the dream life, without troubles or annoyances or whiny children or rainy days. Those of us who believe in a Creator and Sustainer reluctantly give up the notion of control over the circumstances life brings us. And sooner or later, hopefully, we find solace in knowing there is no such thing as happenstance.

It's the desire to reach self-perfection where we sometimes go wrong. I don't mean to say that striving to become the best we can be is always a bad thing. It means we are "B'nei Aliyah," or people who are always striving for improvement. It's the trademark of a Jew- he's never happy staying stagnant. We just need to make sure we don't so get caught up focusing on the goal that we forget how to get there.

The other day I had a discussion with someone about this. She said, "We're not aiming at perfection, we're aiming at progress."

How often do we feel like giving up simply because we haven't yet reached our goal? Do we really expect things to change overnight? Or, in our quest for complete perfection, are we unwilling to accept each small step as a milestone?

"My davening (prayer) was terrible today; I had barely any kavannah (concentration) during Shemona Esray, it’s almost as if I didn’t daven."

"I cheated on my diet yesterday. That's it, I may as well give up completely and indulge in the chocolate mousse left over from Shabbos. "

“Gosh, I’m such a bad teacher. My student pushed my buttons and I reacted improperly by lecturing her. I’ll never make an effective educator.”

Do any of these internal dialogues ring a bell? It doesn't have to be these - it can be about a struggling friendship, a tension with a spouse or coworker, or a difficulty dealing with a child or student. Maybe it's the frustration with a Middah (character trait) that needs fixing or a skill which is yet to be mastered. Whatever the specifics, one thing is similar: focusing on the setbacks will inhibit us from reaching success.

Nobody watches a baby taking his first halting steps and says, “Well, she wasn’t very smooth, and she fell after a few steps, so she may as well just stick to crawling forever.” That’s pure idiocy. With practice, and quite a few falls flat on her tush, (and a lot of kisses and encouragement from the overprotective parents), she’ll walk. Oh, she may be 12 months old, or 18 months, or may even be delayed until age 2, but she’ll make it.

Consider those mental conversations above. True, the final goal has not been reached. True, you may have fallen flat on your tush. But look back- did you take one shaky step, or even five or six? Look at the progress, not at the setback.

Yeah. Davening today was a tad on the pathetic side. But... I did show some emotion during the Bracha (blessing) for health, as I begged G-d to send a cure to a sick girl I know. That may not be perfection, but… it's progress!

Okay, I’m not in total self control when it comes to leftover chocolate mousse. But... last night at a vort (engagement party) I did turn down the delicious sweet table and chose to eat only from the fruit platters. I’m not walking gracefully yet, but I’m taking a tiny step.

I did make a pretty bad mistake today with my student. But… everyone makes mistakes, and through my errors I’m learning about my field. I gave a great lesson and my students really grasped the material. Nobody became an experienced teacher overnight. I’m working hard - I should give myself some credit.

Any situation- the struggling friendship or marriage; the difficult child or coworker; the underdeveloped skill, behavior, or personality trait- can all be made easier through changing our perspective. It takes work to re-teach yourself to choose positive thoughts. But it’s worth it in the long run. And when you get stuck, remember those words of wisdom, and aim for progress, not perfection. After all, Pobody's Nerfect.

Express? Not Really

SaraK is right - the express bus is only worth it if you're going when there's no traffic anyway... otherwise, it's not so express. I didn't feel like standing on a crowded bus or subway today, so I took the (more expensive) "express" bus this morning. It took me 20 minutes longer to get to work than the regular bus/subway combo. At least I got 15 minutes of sleep...

Guest Post from the Cubicle King II

Slogans That Really Annoy Me

I was walking through the office today and I saw a box from a certain Donut establishment that said "America Runs on Dunkin' ". In addition there is an athletic looking caricature of a runner that appears above this slogan.

I have a question for all you geniuses out there. When was the last time you saw anyone who frequents a donut shop run anywhere? I know Dunkin' Donuts sells coffee and perhaps that is what they are really referring to, but I think it is a little pretentious of a Donut shop to be saying that any country runs off its deepfried nourishment.

Then to add insult to injury they use a fitness caricature above this asinine slogan. Between you and me we know dunking donuts is responsible for a lot more people keeling over than running.

The geniuses who came up with this advertising are shameless. They must be related to the people at FOX who run commercials that say "The moment you have been waiting for all year..................Yes, American Idol is back" Like I have been standing in time square with wearable billboard that says I have been waiting all year for a crappy reality show with talent less tone deaf contestants.

I think it is time we took a stand against such advertising that insults our intelligence, or at least run away from it.

If you have any slogans that get under your skin, please post them here and provide an explanation why.

~ Cubicle King

Hulk Does Kosher

(Hat tip: Lauren) Personally, I think that this does a really nice job of explaining a few points about kashrus and other Orthodox practices. Hogan's family really went out of their way to be considerate to their neighbors, too.

Medical Ethics

Chana has R' Willig's speech on genetic screening. So good, even R' Gil linked to it. ;)

Starting a Rumor? Hmmmm

Has anyone noticed the blogs are kind of dead lately? Ezzie hasn't been posting much. And you know he's busy (or sick) if he is not posting at least three times a day about god-knows-what. GH was peaking with his battles with R' Maroof, and now, nothing. Shifra probably poped a disk in her back while laughing and still hasen't managed to get up to post anything and Jameel..., well, Jameel is Jameel. (Maybe everyone is just hiding from the big bad New Blogger boogie man). So what can we mortals do to get the blogs jumping up a bit? To put some life into it!

Ladies and gentlmen, I see only one solution to this dilema. Everyone knows that controversy is what gets the most hits, therefore, I suggest starting a good ol' fashion rumor. Yup, nothing gets the folks more riled up then innocent gossip. It doesn't have to be anything mean-spirited. Even something like Jameel painting his toenails would do just nicely. I leave it up to you to discuss this on the thread or to chastise me for this horrible idea.

EVIL

Blogger is evil, and has defeated me. This is just another step in Google's plan of world domination - I'm telling you.

I just got back from a quick trip to the land of cold, beer, and cheese(heads) via the Windy City, with a stopover in the most cursed sports city in the world on the way back... and I had an awesome time, but I think I may have the same stomach virus Serach does. More on all that later (except the virus, which y'all probably don't want to hear about).

Holding Out

I see Blogger is finally forcing people to upgrade to the "new" Blogger... I shall hold out at least another couple of days if I can! In the meantime, enjoy this excellent article by R' Yakov Horowitz that was just in Mishpacha. I think his analogy is perfect.

Reality Check

A very close friend of mine (GS) told me some terribly sad news last Saturday night, and I had no clue how to react. I didn't understand what he was telling me well enough to react, to be honest. I had called him to see about going together to a friend's engagement party, and he seriously thought about going, despite the bad news. [A testament to his incredible strength and care for others - I have a lot of amazing friends, thank God, and yet few can match GS in terms of having someone to count on when one really, really needs it.] In the end, he felt he shouldn't go, so I got a ride with another good friend of ours, Moshe. One of the first things Moshe asked me was if I had heard the news from the friend - I admitted that while I had, I didn't quite understand it all that well; as it is Moshe's area of expertise, he explained it to me as best as he could.

Last night, I spoke to my friend again. This time, I could be of somewhat greater help; I could listen and understand what he was saying, to some extent. What I didn't understand, I had Moshe explain to me just now. I can't really write more on the subject - anything else that needs to be said (that can be said in this forum) was already written by Moshe. Please read his post, and daven for our close friend Aliza Rachel bas Liba Yenta.

Excerpt:

However, later that same day one of my closest friends (GS) called me with some terrible news. His wife was diagnosed with a severe form of cancer. Because this particular cancer is my field of expertise and research, we spent some time discussing the dreadful situation. My friend told me how suddenly everything in his life was put in perspective. He didn’t care about the people who owed him money. His job meant nothing. All he cared about was his wife and her health.

Talking to GS was and is painful. He and his wife (Aliza Rachel bas Liba Yenta) are going through something nobody should ever have to endure. The physical and emotional pain is heart-wrenching. At the same time, GS is my inspiration. He is strong and optimistic. Talking to him makes me realize how precious life really is. It forces me to understand how fortunate I am to have so many things in life and how wrong it is for me to complain about the little things about which I am far too quick to whine.

Patriotic Terrorism

Heh. (Hat tip: Augusto)

Stopping Terrorists

My father recently asked me if I wanted to receive e-mails that a medic he knows in Iraq sends out, so I figured why not. I can't say I read them all, but I skim them here and there, and often find interesting tidbits. It's definitely fascinating reading everything from a soldier's perspective - and very different. In one of the e-mails from this week was this piece and I thought it really said a lot:

Yesterdays bombings in Baghdad were nearly averted by our guys. We got intelligence telling us who and where the SVBED's (suicide car bombs) were going, but missed them by 5 minutes.

Today we had more intelligence and not only caught the bomber (before he could act,) but we caught one of the top terrorists in Iraq. High fives all around as we looked for the next target.

Now, obviously, this is just one pair of stories, but I thought it showed a couple of major developments:

• 1) The soldiers are actually getting intelligence that could help them stop attacks.
• 2) They're getting the intelligence with enough time to have a chance at stopping some of the attacks.

Obviously both of these aspects are huge, but I think they point to a lot of other successes. The US and Iraqi forces seem to finally be developing an intelligence net from within the terrorists' cells, which is a major key to stopping attacks. Not only that, but the intelligence is good - good enough to not only find out about imminent attacks, but to nab certain high-ranking terrorists and actually get warnings out [hopefully] without sacrificing the sources. It also seems to be becoming common, which is another huge plus. One of the major [and I think proper] knocks on the US invasion of Iraq was that they weren't prepared well enough for the aftermath in terms of terrorist attacks. This has two aspects: Firstly, they did not seem to have enough manpower to really keep the attacks to a minimum, which was reinforced by the second issue, lack of intelligence they had on - and within - the enemy they were to face.

I have always held the belief that no matter the outcome, the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do. I believe that overall, much of it was actually handled properly: The invasion was incredibly successful, the development of the Iraqi government has gone incredibly well [a democratic government that is actually governing this quickly is astounding], and the infrastructure and economic development of Iraq are strong. Polls of Iraqis show a country that is far more optimistic about its future than the perceptions of Americans regarding Iraq from 6,000 miles away based on what they see and hear in the news. The flaws are the inability to stop the terrible attacks that continually threaten to break down the government there... but perhaps we're finally turning a corner with these intelligence sources and the extra manpower that President Bush plans on sending over.

People seem to forget that before all of this started, everyone was told very clearly "This is going to take a long time - years and years, possibly over a decade or more." We're not even at four years and people have been panicking for over two of them! Some things take a long time to develop - whether they be a new government, the ideas of freedom and democracy in a region that has never experienced them, intelligence sources, or a deeper understanding of what we're really facing. Some of these can even take years. It is high time we actually let things develop and stopped crying that not everything has gone perfectly - there were mistakes, and those need to be corrected. That doesn't mean the whole project was wrong or that it can't be successful in the future, it just means that we need to keep working hard at fixing the problem, not throw up our hands and walk away.

Changes take time. Big changes take even more time. We're finally hitting the point in time where we can see some important changes taking place... now how about letting some more time pass so we can see just how big these changes really are.

Helping

I've been pointing to this blog a lot recently, because I think it's important... and she just wrote a detailed post explaining (more about) herself and her blog. Read her post. Excerpt: [emphasis added]

8. What can we do to help?

• Visit my blog. :)
• Read.
• Leave comments, preferably not anything judgmental or mean.
• Share with others.
• Practice sensitivity.
• Encourage rabbis to be aware of congregants with "invisible pain."
• Be willing to talk about emotional disorders within the Jewish community.
• Be willing to reach out to people in your own community who might need it.
• Brainstorm ways for your own community to keep people from falling through the cracks.

On an unrelated note, I really liked this post by Mrs. Balabusta.

Don't Worry

A Simple Jew has one of my favorite quotes. While it is obviously difficult for many, this is something that has helped me greatly the more I've been able to do it.