The Business of Being Offended...Race War in Obama’s America...

The Business of Being Offended

The race-hustling industry exploits the “Redskins” issue.

By Thomas Sowell
 
Bob Costas is one of the premier sportscasters and a very smart guy, so it was somewhat surprising to see him join the chorus of those decrying the fact that the owner of the Washington Redskins is resisting pressures to change the name of his football team.

The argument is that American Indians are offended by the name, though there is no compelling evidence that most American Indians are worked up about it. Nor is there any evidence that anyone intended the name to be insulting, either this team or any number of other sports teams that have called themselves some variation of the name “Indians.”

After all, neither individuals nor teams give themselves names that they consider insulting, whether they are calling themselves Indians, Vikings, or the Fighting Irish.
Nevertheless, Dartmouth, Stanford, and other colleges that once called their teams Indians succumbed to the politically correct pressures and changed their names. But that is no reason why the Washington Redskins should succumb to those pressures.

Among the reasons why they should not is the fact that being offended is one of the tactics of a race-hustling industry that is doing more harm to Indians and other minorities than any name is likely to do. Some people are in the business of being offended, just as Campbell is in the business of making soup.

Shelby Steele’s best-selling book White Guilt provides sharp insights into the many counterproductive consequences of white guilt that can be exploited by race hustlers, to the detriment of blacks and whites alike. The sports-team gambit is just one of many.

So long as the race industry — the Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons, and their counterparts in various minorities — can get political or financial mileage out of being offended, they are going to be offended. The only thing that will put a stop to this racket is refusing to be taken in by it or intimidated by it.

Looked at in isolation, Bob Costas’s opinion about the names of sports teams is one that reasonable people might agree or disagree with. But, unfortunately, this issue is not something that exists in isolation. It is part of a whole grievance-generating campaign that poisons race relations. That campaign is conducted not only by the race industry but also by all too many in the media and in the education system, from elementary schools to the universities.

Young blacks are especially susceptible to the message that all their problems are caused by white people — and that white society is never going to give them a chance. In short, they are primed to resent and hate individuals they have never seen before and who have never done them harm.

During the same week when Bob Costas was criticizing the name “Washington Redskins,” the New York Daily News reported an incident in which a gang of young blacks attacked a white couple in a car, beating the man severely and dragging the woman out of the car by her hair down to the pavement, and beating her as well — all the while shouting racist obscenities.

Episodes like this have occurred repeatedly, in dozens of cities, all across the country. The only thing missing in this particular episode were public assurances from police authorities and the mayor that race had nothing to do with what happened. Such dishonest assurances have been common in the wake of such plainly racist attacks. Officials in various cities are obviously trying to keep the lid on this incipient race war.

But you cannot keep the lid on forever. In 1961, James B. Conant’s book Slums and Suburbs warned that “social dynamite” was accumulating in American cities. Just a few years later, ghetto riots erupted all across the country.

Social dynamite can accumulate among whites as well as among blacks. White extremist hate groups already exist, though they are a fringe, as the Nazis were once a disdained fringe in Germany. It was the people’s loss of confidence in the respectable institutions of society that gave the Nazis their chance for power.

The blind and dishonest political correctness of our media and educational institutions on racial issues today can eventually forfeit the confidence of Americans and give similar extremist groups their chance to ignite a race war in the United States. And once a race war starts, it can be virtually impossible to stop.

http://m.nationalreview.com/article/361952/business-being-offended-thomas-sowell

Race War in Obama’s America

By Allen West on October 25, 2013

I hold Thomas Sowell in very high esteem because he’s willing to focus on issues which the mainstream media does not and will not report on. In this most recent case, it’s black mob violence against whites.

In fact, Sowell fears we are on the verge of a race war:

Initial skirmishes in that race war have already begun and have in fact been going on for some years. But public officials pretend that it is not happening, and the mainstream media seldom publish it at all, except in ways that conceal what is really taking place.

For American society, a dangerous polarization has set in. Signs of this polarization over the years include opposite reactions between blacks and whites to verdicts in the O.J. Simpson murder case, the “rape” charges against Duke University students, and trials resulting from the beating of Rodney King and the death of Trayvon Martin.

More dangerous than these highly publicized episodes over the years are innumerable organized and unprovoked physical attacks on whites by young black gangs in shopping malls, on beaches and in other public places all across the country today.

Are we on the verge of war? I hope not, but just this past week in Brooklyn a white couple was attacked, dragged from their car and beaten by a black mob. The fatal beating of 86-year old World War II veteran Delbert Benton in Spokane, Washington by two black males was inexcusable. Just two days ago in the greater Boston area, a 24-year-old white female teacher was brutally killed by a 14-year-old black male. Earlier this year, in my home state of Georgia, two teenage black males shot a baby in the face, after shooting the mother.

And where is the non-stop coverage? At least author Colin Flaherty is tackling this issue in his new book, “White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Race Riots to America.”

This week we learned the unemployment rate for those in the 16-24 age group is 15 percent, but the unemployment rate for black teens in America is almost 40 percent.

Consider the plight of our inner cities like Detroit – they’re beginning to resemble combat zones. We were supposed to be living in a post-racial America since we elected the first “African-American” president. That’s hardly the case.

http://allenbwest.com/2013/10/race-war-obamas-america/