On Refusing to Let Others Pull Your Strings

Originally posted on March 9, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog. 

Randall Kennedy:

A student read a sentence in class from James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time: “You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a ni**er."

Airing the N-word caused a commotion. The professor leading the class, Philip Adamo, asked the students if they felt it was appropriate to voice the word Baldwin had written. In doing so, Adamo repeated the word. Later, he sent to the class two essays on the politics of the N-word. The next day, some students asked Adamo to leave the classroom while they discussed the lingering controversy. They were joined by other students who were not enrolled in the course. He complied with their request. Later, after a flurry of emails in which Adamo continued to try to explain himself, the university removed him from the course. He has since been suspended, pending the outcome of a formal review.

This dispiriting farce discredits those who have played a role in it and undermines Augsburg’s claim to be a serious institution of higher learning. (…)

This is not a case of a professor calling someone “ni**er.” This is a case of a professor exploring the thinking and expression of a writer who voiced the word to challenge racism. This is not a case of a professor negligently throwing about a term that’s long been deployed to terrorize, shame, and denigrate African-Americans. This is a case of a professor who, attentive to the sensibilities of his students, sought to encourage reflection about their anxieties and beliefs.

Book link and emphasis added by me.

I share this piece because it reminds me of the time when I pointed out that hurling racial epithets at white people is equally as disgusting and that I don’t use any of those words. The response I got was revealing.

“We don’t care if you do,” said many white persons.

What that response reveals is a blatant refusal to be shamed or made to feel “less than” by others.

It is otherwise known as confidence.

Some might call it “white privilege,” but that would imply that only whites are capable of this type of personal agency and that we of the darker races can’t help but be triggered whenever another tries to make us feel bad about who we are.

I call B.S. Each sentient adult not encumbered by physical, mental or emotional pathology is fully capable of refusing to be shamed and, therefore angered, by another.

Equality is often a choice. And, since anyone who uses racial epithets — and not in an educational manner — is trying to manipulate his/her target into an emotional response, the emotionally mature target can choose not to get angry.

After all, why should I care if someone who hates me calls me the n-word?

But getting to that point takes practice and work — namely, working on one’s inner self. Most don’t get that far and are content to remain emotional puppets.

It’s easier to allow one’s strings to be pulled by the wannabe puppeteers.

Your choice.

(Thanks to Instapundit)

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Two Kingdoms Offer Protection to Their Children

Disclaimer: I'm biased towards this Kingdom.

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*****

Compare and contrast.

In this post, I opined that the Devil is not only the progenitor of lies, also the architect of all that is false.

God is building His kingdom, and so the [Devil] is building his.

This adversary does deal in simple falsehoods, but those aren’t his most lethal weapons. He is an imitator of his enemy, God, and therefore, his deceptions are high, wide, deep, broad, complex—and, long-term.

These types of deceptions are four-dimensional at the very least; they are his weapons of mass destruction.

If you take everything you know about the God of the Bible, you'll notice the Devil -- and his servants -- will always try to copy those things. But the parodies will always be a far inferior and will, ultimately, be a curse.

Case in point coming.

In Psalm 91:1-2 (KJV), David observed that

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

The implication is that if a person trusts in God and everything that entails, that God, in turn will protect that person. (Pertinent note: a person's core self is his/her spirit and soul and, in this Psalm, God offers conditional protection to a person's dwelling. While you're wearing it, your physical body is the dwelling of your spirit and soul. This is important to remember.)

Robert Spencer points to a milestone on the highway of postmodernism -- a building in the parody kingdom.

The Orlando Weekly’s Xander Peters frames the story this way: “Orange County middle school teacher has an incredibly racist Twitter account.” According to Peters, this teacher “retweeted an anti-Muslim post by Identify [sic] Evropa, a white supremacist group that aims to create a white ethnostate.”

Neither the Orlando Weekly nor the Orlando Sentinel, which also covered the story of this “racist” teacher, shows you a photo of the offender. That is probably because the accused “racist” and “white supremacist” teacher, Sundai Brown, is a black woman.

What race is she supposedly attacking? Jihad terror and Islamization. Islam, as any sane person knows, is not a race, and Muslims are not of a single race, but of all races. But the Orlando Weekly and Orlando Sentinel are out to destroy Sundai Brown’s career and livelihood, for the crime of opposing jihad violence and the spread of Sharia to non-Muslim countries. They have targeted her because she reportedly tweeted that “imans [sic] worldwide instruct muslims to invade western countries, outbreed them, overthrow governments, kill infidels and implement sharia law.”

Understand this: Ms. Brown, is, under the chaotic laws of Leftism, a "white supremacist." Under that law, a white supremacist is anyone who openly disagrees with any idea, anyone, or any group that the Organized Left (OL) takes under its wing of protection. Also, understand this: the OL can confer, withdraw favor on an idea, person, or group at any time for any reason.

The OL also takes these privileges to itself:

• Promotion of one idea/person/group over another, regardless of previous status. Black people used to be the OL's faired-haired boys and girls, if you'll pardon the irony. But now, the OL has demoted black people in its hierarchy of "children."  have been displaced by Muslims, illegal aliens, and women.

• Denunciation of heretics. As is demonstrated by the treatment of Ms. Brown, any member of one of the protected groups who "attacks" one of the groups higher that his/hers, will be publicly denounced, shamed, and, if possible, driven to financial ruin.

• The OL can and will promote an idea, then denounce it later; often seconds later.

That list is far from exhaustive.

Thus are the foundations on which a person/group takes refuge under the wing of protection offered by Leftism ever shifting and, ultimately, unreliable. Those foundations are composed of the sand on which postmodernism -- a kingdom of lies -- are built. This is a "perfect" counterpoint to the solid foundation that God provides.

Is it harsh to say that Leftism is of the Devil? Yes, it is. Harshness is often necessary. 

And here's something else that the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the Devil have in common: you can die -- be removed from your present dwelling place -- due to reliance on either.

Where the situations diverge: what comes after that.

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Out of Africa: Watermelon (UPDATE)

A brand-new firefighter has been let go because of a gift he presented to his new firehouse.

DETROIT (WJBK) - Earlier this month, 41-year-old Robert Pattison [a white man] went to introduce himself to his fellow firefighters at Engine 55 at Joy and Southfield in Detroit. Second Battallion [sic] Chief Shawn McCarty calls it a tradition for firefighters. 

"It's not mandatory, it's voluntary," he says. "You come in bearing gifts. The usual gift is doughnuts, but you are allowed to bring whatever you want to bring in." 

And Pattison, a probationary firefighter, decided to bring a watermelon wrapped in a pink ribbon. We're told some African-American firefighters were instantly offended, since 90 percent of the people who work at Engine 55 are black.(…) 

Fire Commissioner Eric Jones says the Fenton native was officially discharged. 

In a statement Jones says: "There is zero tolerance for discriminatory behavior inside the Detroit Fire Department. On Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, at Engine 55, a trial firefighter (probationary employee) engaged in unsatisfactory work behavior which was deemed offensive and racially insensitive to members of the Detroit Fire Department.

My personal experience with watermelon and white people: whenever both have been in the same vicinity at the same time, I've had to ponder bogarting my way into the fray in order to get a slice before it’s all gone. But, I digress.

A friend of a friend posted a link on how watermelon stereotypes have morphed in America over a relatively short period of time, but I figure that the original reason for the association is this:

The watermelon is a flowering plant thought to have originated in southern Africa, where it is found growing wild. It reaches maximum genetic diversity there, with sweet, bland and bitter forms. In the 19th century, Alphonse de Candolle considered the watermelon to be indigenous to tropical Africa. Citrullus colocynthis is often considered to be a wild ancestor of the watermelon and is now found native in north and west Africa. However, it has been suggested on the basis of chloroplast DNA investigations that the cultivated and wild watermelon diverged independently from a common ancestor, possibly C. ecirrhosus from Namibia.

Like our ancestors, watermelon was, no doubt, part of the cargo. However, I suggest that, instead of worrying about the shame that watermelon association has induced in black Americans, we should embrace it as one of the good things brought to America and one of the few things on which most Americans -- most anyone -- can agree: watermelon is tasty and healthy.

Kenyan farmer Geoffrey Ndung'u tends to his crop. Cite.

Shame is powerful, obviously. And it’s much easier to inflict it than to free oneself from it. But, hopefully, this tiny bit of knowledge is more even more powerful.

UPDATE: Rank-and-file black Detroit firefighters stand up for Patti(n)son.

But Tuesday a social media post by Tadarius Spearman stuck up for Pattinson, including a group photo of him with other African-American firefighters.

"Just want to let everyone know he's a real amazing dude and it was all good intentions," he wrote. "And our entire class (is) supporting him in this. Especially us African-Americans and that's all that needs to be said. Stay up brother. #DFD

Well done, gentlemen.

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Uncle Tom's Autopsy

The illiterate reference to Uncle Tom has now been expanded to former Muslims.

It’s now 2017 – a “current year” factoid always thrown in our face by progressives – and the forcefulness by which the political left and fundamentalist Muslims utilise the phrases “house Muslim” or “uncle Tom” to shame those who don’t conform is not just abundant, it is growing. 

I have a pretty thick skin. I hear these things every day. I feel ashamed, not of who I am, but of my fellow human beings who find it appropriate to race-shame someone, or religion-shame them. 

I’m told every day, perhaps even several times a day, that I’m a “coconut”, or I hear sardonic expressions of how “proud my parents must be” of me. It’s fine, I can take it. When it comes from Muslims I put this down to envy. The green-eyed monster and the green, Arab-clad flags co-ordinate well together.

The rest is well worth the read, but I want to reiterate some concepts which the verbal shaming of dissidents indicates.

First: as the writer points out, Uncle Tom was the hero of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. That his moniker has been perverted to mean something undesirable is a perfect example of Coconut Treatment: the character of Uncle Tom has been sliced open and has had his innards hollowed out. Into that shell, the present-day caricature of “Uncle Tom” has been inserted, the shell glued back together, and the corpse reanimated.

Zombie Uncle Tom, if you will.

Secondly: any wielders of the perverted Uncle Tom epithet betray their own personal inferiority complex and, most especially, their suspicions that the group to which they belong is inferior to whites, especially to white men. They project their own existential shame onto the dissident.

In other words, they want you to feel as bad about yourself as they do about themselves.

However, in the case of ex-Muslims, I’d say that if the worst thing they have to experience is a Twitter-shaming, one might thank his/her blessings.

But, we all know that this is the least of their worries.

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Steve Harvey, Talladega College, and the Shame Mob

Like NFL great Jim Brown did a few weeks back, Steve Harvey meets with President-elect Trump. And a marching band from Talladega College (AL)--a historically black college--raises well more than enough money for its amenities during a scheduled appearance for the Inauguration next week.

Meanwhile, the racial epithets against Harvey and Talladega’s president, Dr. Billy Hawkins, fly freely, from black people, of course.

Having been the target of such epithets from the same source, I'd like to describe how that kind of verbal attack looks from this target’s point of view.

I’ve talked about shame mongers before and, of course, the Internet is overrun by them. The trick to resisting them is to realize that shame is the only weapon they’re wielding. They have nothing else. And if one is immune to their form of shaming--name-calling--reading it is like watching a toddler throw a fit, only funnier.

So, while Harvey tries to use his celebrity for something selfless and useful and while the Talladega College marching band gets the world stage to show off the results of its hard work and school spirit, think of their detractors as the latter sit behind their cell phones and sling names like “coon” and “Uncle Tom”[i] in between posting their twerking and ghetto fight videos.

Think of their impotence.

Certainly Harvey was openly pro-Clinton and I wouldn't doubt that Dr. Hawkins and the most of band members old enough to vote were as well. But what they have already done and will do in the face of not getting what they wanted shows the type of people they are. They know the source of their power and that power does not come from sitting on the couch and slinging insults at others or even from the president of the United States.

As the woman said, ain't nobody got time for that.

And, as for Trump, a Facebook friend of mine pointed out that if he hadn't met with any Americans who are black, he'd be called a racist.

It never pays to consider the shame mob. They're only good for amusement--as a cat might be amused by a mouse.

Meanwhile, the band marches and plays on.

[i] I love how those who use the term 'Uncle Tom' as an epithet out themselves as illiterate. It’s like a boomerang.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

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