As IF Times

Source: KING: Dear White America, which form of protest do you prefer? – NY Daily News

The fact that the author separates people as being part of “White America” already tells you something about his mindset.  But he is mistaken if he thinks that “White America” which includes everyone, including blacks, monolithically trounces the “rights” of “Black America”.  Objective studies have shown that the police are as statistically likely to shoot a non black person as a black person during contentious arrests.

According to the linked study above compiled by the Washington Post, no beacon of conservatism, objective statistics show a much different truth than the Kaepernicks and their ilk would have you believe.  Put simply, blacks disproportionately commit larger shares of violent crime.  The most telling illustration of this is from very recent history.  In August of this year, Chicago recorded 90 homicides ,a new and unenviable record for that city.  This has nothing to do with police killings or oppressive behavior by law enforcement.  It’s not the Irish or the Italians fighting turf wars.  This is gang and drug related violence and typically black on black crime.

This phenomenon is repeated in cities all over the United States from Baltimore to Cleveland to Philadelphia to New York.  When violence occurs in those black sub communities, the police are required to step in to address it.  It is not systemic persecution of blacks as the Kaepernicks of the world profess.

While Kaepernick’s recent hairdo evokes the ’70’s, in 21st century America, systemic racism has all but been wiped out by advances in laws and attitudes during the past 50 years.  The only people insisting that the great racial divide still exists are those that can politically benefit.  There is no job or position that is off limits for a person of color.  In the case of blacks, they have attained the pinnacle of success in every field from entertainment, to sports to business, to politics, perhaps even disproportionately so.  If a guy with as little talent as Kanye West can be a star, there can’t be any barriers to success.   The oppression and racism narrative doesn’t fit, except by those hoping to exploit the people who believe it.

Guys like Kaepernick may think that they’re taking a principled stand on an issue and of course, they have that right.  But his ignorance of the facts makes him just another stooge in the narrative that the racists want to perpetuate.  It’s not being black that is dangerous to one’s life…it’s being a criminal.  Rather than blaming others as they’ve been programmed to do by political opportunists over the years, blacks need to push back into their communities and set examples and pass on the opportunities that they themselves have grasped.  Be Michael Jordan, not Kanye West; be Jerry Rice, not Aaron Hernandez.  White or Black America only exists in the minds of deluded perpetual victims.

Source: The Creator Of ‘Blackish’ Doesn’t Want To Talk About Diversity

Finally, someone gets it.  Hollywood is the font of what eventually becomes the pop in pop culture.  They’ve always enjoyed the role of being shapers of opinions and creators of reality out of mostly fantasy.  From the early days, TV shows portrayed the idyllic American family in shows such as Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons and Father Knows Best to name a few.  Much of the narrative and accepted norms of American culture were shaped by such shows.

In reality, the squeaky clean lives portrayed by most of these Wasp-y scenarios likely didn’t necessarily reflect the experience of the average viewer.  Westerns were also a big part of pop culture in those days and undoubtedly they were also stylized romantic depictions of the cowboy life.  But in most cases, the stories revolved around characters and situations linked to otherwise normal people.  Characters exhibited many of the bedrock values of American culture; unimpeachable honesty, strength, resilience and bravery.  Those values came to represent Americans worldwide regardless of the actual reality.  People globally embraced these ‘American values’ portrayed in entertainment because there was an aspirational aspect about them and likely different than their native experiences.

Somewhere along the way in recent years, the stories took a back seat to the background as the hurty feely sensitive crowd started to require characters that aligned with some idealized quotient of demographic representation.   In efforts to eradicate perceived stereotypes of races, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme.  As an example, it’s hard to find any cop show on television today which doesn’t feature a black supervising officer.  When and if  Asians are portrayed at all, they are typically doctors or Kung Fu experts…or both.

When stories specifically revolve around the day to day angst about being a minority, the entertainment value collapses and the show resembles a social studies class at Berkeley.  Nobody enjoys a sanctimonious lecture disguised as  entertainment…think Al Gore and Michael Moore. More importantly, one note shows are boring…think Al Gore and Michael Moore.

Far from being inclusive, the balkanization of race as portrayed by socially ‘responsible’ television shows serves only to exaggerate differences in people rather than to portray their stories as…just stories.  The obsessive need to be inclusive ironically creates more division as stereotypes become reinforced and caricatured, probably the opposite of the intent.    The laudable aspect of American culture as portrayed by entertainment was that color and race were not explicitly played up.  They were about themes and about “us” as in the royal “us” which includes everyone. Now it’s popular to showcase “us” and “them” with the implication that the audience will identify with a featured clique.  This is not entertainment and it is not art.  It is the dulling of the edge of creativity that artists are always railing for.  They are forcing stories to be told only through a certain acceptable prism.  It’s as if someone were forced to submit a financial report via the medium of interpretive dance.  We don’t want lectures. We want entertainment.