Although I usually avoid it, every time I’ve read Victor Davis Hanson’s florid and supercilious prose I’ve imagined him looking like a gaseous cloud, possibly a fart, wearing a bow tie and a monocle. But his National Review photo reveals that he looks like a normal human being, which goes to show you can’t judge people by what they look like.
His most recent column reveals him to be a garden variety racist, albeit one who knows big words. Ta-Nehisi Coates takes him down so I don’t have to. And may I say, this is a bit like watching Leonardo da Vinci critique Thomas Kinkade.
White men who believe the key to personal safety is avoiding black men crack me up. All kind of data say that I am more likely to be sexually assaulted by a white man than by a black one. And, frankly, I don’t remember ever being physically threatened by a black person, although there have been some white men who scared the stuffing out of me.
So, by Victor David Hanson’s logic, I should have sat my children down and told them to avoid white people. But my blue-eyed Celtic-American offspring might have found that difficult.
In other stupid news, Hunter informs us that Jennifer Rubin has declared racism in America to be solved.
“… I’ve imagined him looking like a gaseous cloud, possibly a fart, wearing a bow tie and a monocle.”
LOL!!!
But you forgot the German helmet with the spike at the crown.
And you’ve got to love how VDH tries to bring in the Democratic Party into his piece, when he describes his father who was a Democrat, as if it was today’s Democratic Party.
VDH is approaching 60 years of age. And that would have put his father’s membership in that party, right about at the time they were at their racist height. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I found out that his father, who lived in CA, supported the Dixiecrats. I don’t know that for a fact – but like I said, I wouldn’t be surprised.
And according to his Wiki bio, he’s registered as a Democrat himself.
WTF?
I suspect he does that for a purpose.
If he was a Republican neocon and racist, he’d just be another face in the crowd. But as a Democrat, he stands out.
And now people, especially in the MSM, can point to him, and say, “See, people on BOTH sides do/are____________!”
Oh, and maha, I also LOOOOOOOOOOVED this line – “… this is a bit like watching Leonardo da Vinci critique Thomas Kinkade.”
LOL II!!!!!!!!!
VDH is approaching 60? Damn, I’m older than he is.
Jennifer Rubin is truly amazing.
Has she ever done anything that supposedly justifies people paying attention to her babbling? I mean, Peggy Noonan is similarly delusional and always wrong, but was once a speechwriter for Reagan, so someone can claim she might have some shred of insider perspective. Why is it that we are continually exposed to Rubin?
VDH’s story is interesting in that it indicates the way that bad reasoning skills, passed down from generation to generation, is part of what animates the Right. His father was accosted by a gang of youths, who robbed them. His father seemed to conclude, based on no evidence, that the race of the youths was significant. So he warned Victor not to beware of gangs of youth surrounding him, but of black youths. Similarly, years later in East Palo Alto, VDH focuses on the fact that the people trying to break into his grad student apartment were black, not on the fact that they were trying to get his stuff, because he had stuff, being a grad student, and they didn’t. I guess he never heard of the Willie Sutton principle.
Until this, I’d never considered that some part of racism on the Right is an artifact of the ability they show in many areas to become completely focused on the wrong (often insignificant) thing, and to draw completely invalid conclusions from a set of facts.
I can’t even count the number of times I have been assaulted by farts wearing monocles, and you don’t hear me crying about it! I just reach for the Oust spray can, and soldier on.
You know, the National Review fired John Derbyshire for writing basically the exact same column at a different site. Now they’re publishing this? Is Derbyshire going to get his job back?
VDH’s story is interesting in that it indicates the way that bad reasoning skills, passed down from generation to generation, is part of what animates the Right.
Exactly. He takes a statistically infinitesimal number of encounters and generalizes about a whole race? Not to mention, are these really the only encounters he’s ever had with black people? I think he’s a professor in Fresno, and I know for a fact that there are black people there. How come the only black people he’s ever met were the ones who mugged him?
As far as encountering groups of young men, I’ve heard this kind of reasoning before. I remember another infinite moron, Dennis Prager, arguing that religious people are better than non-religious people because if you saw a group of young men in a dark alley, you would be much relieved to learn that they’d just come from Bible study. And I thought, well, I’d be equally relieved to learn that they’d just come from a meeting of the atheists and skeptics club.
These guys are really doing their kids a disservice with this bad advice, anyway. I can just a naive but optimistic Victor Davis Hanson stepping into an alley and coming across a group of young men who were sitting around sharpening their knives and counting big wads of cash. And thinking, “Oh, it’s OK. They’re white.”
The sub-heading to his piece states:
“Young black males are at greater risk from their peers than from the police or white civilians.”
Is that correct or not?
Jest askin’!
David Duff: Victor Davis Hanson is white, so you’re off topic. But just for fun, ask me if I’m at greater risk of assault from white men or black men. Here’s a hint:
Here’s another hint: Unless you are an albino, I’m probably whiter than you are. Now, ask my why I should run screaming from black men and not white men?
The data say I’m at much greater risk of being assaulted by a white man than a black man. Further, though I currently live in a racially diverse community — my apartment building houses every skin color known to mankind, I’m sure — I have never been personally threatened or physically harmed by a nonwhite person. And I’m 61, so I’ve been around the block a couple of times. The only times in my life I’ve ever felt in physical danger from another human was from belligerent (or drunk) white men.
So, I ask again, why am I supposed to run screaming from African Americans and not white Americans? Jest askin’.
Update: Here’s some more data for you, chumpy.
Victor Davis Hanson’s screed was about how he had to warn his children to stay away from black people. But if any of the kids are ever murdered, the odds are very large the murderer will be white, not black. I don’t know about the UK, but violent crime here tends to be between people of the same race.
So, to answer your original question — yes, young black men are more likely to be harmed by other young black men, just as I’m more likely to be harmed by a white man (and it’s more likely a man than a woman). However, that misses the central point of the Martin-Zimmerman controversy, which was not that a black youth had been killed by a (mostly) white man, but that a black youth had been killed, and more than a month went by, and the police weren’t even investigating what happened and clearly had no intention of seeking an indictment, even though the shooter’s story had holes you could drive a truck through. Now, since you obviously are a racist, you are too pig-headed to comprehend why that’s a big deal, but it’s a big deal to a lot of us. See, for example, “Conservatives Still Don’t Understand The Trayvon Martin Story” from April 2012.
Wow, somebody’s out and he’s proud!
It sure doesn’t take much to flush a racist from his hole anymore, does it? “Jest” sayin.
joan,
You don’t have to flush them from their holes anymore.
They’re not only ready to stick their heads up like Prairie Dogs – they’re eager!
I’ll tell you I would be FAR more worried if I was approached by 1) George Zimmerman or 2) anybody psycho enough (of any race or gender) to look like he or she was “packing”, than I would be by the average black dude. I am sure most people feel the same way.
BTW: Thomas Kinkade was just misquoted. They thought he said “I am a painter of light”, but, what he really said is “I am a ‘painter ‘Lite”.
Rubin has declared racism in America to be solved.
Of course it is. The modern scared of black folk conservative doesn’t discriminate because of color, it’s just that they are inferior. There’s some blacks that made it, so it’s got nothing to do with me? Isn’t our president black? See problem solved.
Thank you for your reply to my perfectly simple question although why it took quite so many paragraphs when the reply could have been a simple ‘yes’ I do not know!
Also, why would you, and some of your readers, assume that I am a “racist” on the basis of a question concerning black on black crime? Am I to assume that black on black crime is a subject never to be raised in polite society?
Jest askin’ – again!
I knew what the crime data said. I live here. I’ve lived here a long time, more than 60 years. I also know something about the living and social conditions that cause the crime data, which is why the data taken out of context doesn’t prove anything.
I write longer answers because the truth is complicated. A social psychologist I once knew defined bigotry as a strategy for reserving cognitive resources. People like you, who dismiss the context and complexities and make simplistic judgments, are nearly always bigots. Or stupid. But I repeat myself.
As someone who has lived here all my life, and who lived with legal segregation as a child, I know white bigotry when I see it. I’ve been listening to white bigots all my life. I can spot a white bigot a mile off. And you, sir, are exhibiting every symptom. Everything you’ve written is the same old tired crap bigots always say. You aren’t even original.
Good bye. As we say here in the colonies, don’t let the door hit your butt on your way out.
Also, why would you, and some of your readers, assume that I am a “racist†on the basis of a question concerning black on black crime?
Because you’re perpetrating racist justifications under the guise of sincerity. If you’d stop to reason, the answers that you seek would be apparent to you and there would be no need to ask the questions that you ask.
I couldn’t let a post on Victor Davis Hanson pass without linking to this epic takedown authored by Bob Bateman.
Introduction
Round 1: Cannae
Round 2: Poitiers
Oops! One more: Conclusion.
I can spot a white bigot a mile off.
Some of my best friends are black! 🙂