The fact that "we all" pick and choose who we associate with based on "how comfortable " we feel around them is as old as mankind. Nothing new under the sun as it says in the bible. As Dick points out below, the political class uses the differences between us as a tool to stir the pot!
I have to disagree with Bill on one small point, based on reading his missives over the years. The illegal African refugees do not deserve to be there more than Bill. Bill got in based on legal paperwork and permission, not by jumping on a boat and sneaking in during the night. Bill has invested in the country and provides much needed work for the locals. He has commingled with the locals and acclimatized his behavior to local behavior when in France. He doesn't run crime rings, and he doesn't make his neighbors hate him (generally). This is a big difference.
Growing up in Canada, I have been surrounded by peoples of different races all of my life. I have learned that some of the most racist people that I have befriended are people of different races! I won't list them all because I don't want to change the topic of the op-ed, but there are plenty. I don't think the issue of illegals in France is race, because there have been peoples of color in France for a long time. It is more about the peoples of any colors coming into France illegally and taking advantage of the system. Does it make me racist to think this way? I say no.
You’ve made the assumption that the people Bill is referring to are illegals. I’ve seen worse behavior from white skinheads in northern California, and they were clearly not illegals.
Today was an excellent missive. However, it would have better if Bill had defined racism to provide more context for the reader and juxtaposed to his thesis i.e., personal preference, based on lived human interaction, is not racism. I believe that racism has been rinsed out of the culture post with the 1970's as the beginning of the rinse cycle. However, we still a race baiter cottage industry because it is still profitable. Early on we had the Al Sharptons with his Tawana "Iwanna" Brawley and later the precursor to DEI we have Jesse Jackson and his cooperate shake downs. More recently we have Southern Poverty Law Center manufacturering racism as there just not enough real racism left to be profitable.
According to science there is only one race of home sapiens sapiens on this planet. According to the politicians there are 5 races. Who are the racists??
That is so incredibly naive and short-sighted. Thank goodness you aren’t in charge of US foreign policy or the military. You’ll be protected, and thus free to indulge your ignorance, by better men than you.
Mr. G, So true. It's a matter of personal safety for one's self and/or one's family members, not racism. But I would say that crime is out of control in the U.S. third-world cities that comprise Third World America. I don't think so when one talks about First World America; aka the suburbs and rural/small towns.
My concern as a white male is that for many, I have no basis for opining on race. If I do so, whatever I utter is either racist, irrelevant or pandering. That effort to silence me is a far greater problem than my observations about race. Looking forward to Monday’s post.
I voted for Trump three times. My goodness, what a flawed man. I believe this war in Iran is insane. However, he did not say that I am racist just because I am white.
Bill, Bill, Bill You are getting soft. I am LMAO thinking about you worrying for three days about these three mini-terrorists. You must have just woke up. This is the same shit that everyday people see all the time. I know that you don't live in a clam shell. You have talked about the originarios down in Argentina. Let's face it, it is dog eat dog out there. It is sad, but you have to be ready to go anytime. I would tell you to stay home to stay safe, but you live in Baltimore.
Yes, Bill, welcome to the world as it is today. Your epiphany experience is the proverbial tip of the western culture denigration and moral degregation iceberg that has been underway for some time and is now blossoming into full view … even to those of us who chose the communities where they live wisely and maybe even exist in a bubble connected to the atomic world through digital intermediaries. Note how a naive France embedded this cultural dynamic in their institutions … I refer you to “The Camp of the Saints” … is this because when the money goes everything goes or does the money go because our moral foundation shifted and created the environment for it to happen?
The unlovely term 'wog' - short for golliwog - is a term of abuse that the British used to, and occasionally still do, use on black people. And I quote: 'The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like play character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. It was reproduced, both by commercial and hobby toy-makers, as a children's soft toy called the "golliwog", a portmanteau of golly and polliwog, and had great popularity worldwide, especially in the Southern United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia well into the 1970s, but have become more divisive due to their association with racial abuse.' Using the term in the UK these days would quite understandably be a jaw dropper as frankly it is both outdated and offensive (not to mention genuinely racist).
It was a marketing feature of a well known brand of marmalade until 2002, which shows quite well just how recently it has become unacceptable to use such a demeaning image of black people. And yet ironically I think it's fair to say that most white English people today would be horrified to be accused of actual 'you're inferior because you are black' racism. Perhaps that's a good feature of something that can irritate by its teeth grindingly preachiness - every advert on TV these days having either a black person, an Asian person or a gay couple to virtue signallingly demonstrate 'inclusiveness.'
I think what makes the English - of all colours - so angry about immigration (other than the propensity for immigrants to queue jump scarce resource allocation like social housing) is the sexual consent attitudes and psychological damage that the largely male influx brings with it. I do fear that it will result in a backlash.
Ahhh yes… the sacred word of the Land: “Raciiiiist!” Not a word, folks, it’s a button. You press it and thinking stops. Lights out. Curtains. Brain goes into airplane mode.
People don’t debate anymore. No, no, they release vocabulary like tear gas.
Somebody mentions immigration, and suddenly…psssshhh…out comes the “R” word, rolling across the cobblestones like a linguistic landmine.
You got a problem with policy?
You’re racist.
You got a question about data?
Racist.
You blink too hard during a speech?
Buddy, that’s ocular racism.
Meanwhile, the actual chaos? Three people get ventilated over a parking spot, and the Media, “Let’s not focus on the shooter… let’s focus on the tone of the parking structure.”
That’s CBS for you:
Where language is a muzzle, and reality gets put on mute.
Wow! What a time to be alive… or dead… whatever this is.
You got neighborhoods where people feel safe, neighborhoods where they don’t…and the solution is: “Let’s abolish noticing.” Yeah, great plan, Einstein with a taser.
You know, I was thinking about New York, seems like a nice place, if you don’t think. Zohran Mamdani, very popular guy, mostly because nobody’s allowed to dislike him without being diagnosed with… uh… attitude racism.
And reading this missive…
Very confusing. It says everybody has preferences, but if you say you have preferences, that makes you a racist.
So I guess the ideal citizen is a guy who walks into a restaurant and says, “I’ll take… whatever you give me… I have no standards… I’m morally pure and deeply unhappy.” That’s their hero.
And the whole redlining thing,
They’re like, “Banks avoided bad loans, that must be evil.” Yeah, banks are famous for avoiding money. That’s like saying a dog refused bacon because he was worried about cholesterol.
And the Mayor, He’s standing up there, telling everyone, “We’re all the same… differences don’t matter,” which is funny, because if you treated everyone the same, they’d arrest you for insufficient nuance. Nice place, though, if you like walking on eggshells that scream at you.
The fact that "we all" pick and choose who we associate with based on "how comfortable " we feel around them is as old as mankind. Nothing new under the sun as it says in the bible. As Dick points out below, the political class uses the differences between us as a tool to stir the pot!
Jim Marshall
I have to disagree with Bill on one small point, based on reading his missives over the years. The illegal African refugees do not deserve to be there more than Bill. Bill got in based on legal paperwork and permission, not by jumping on a boat and sneaking in during the night. Bill has invested in the country and provides much needed work for the locals. He has commingled with the locals and acclimatized his behavior to local behavior when in France. He doesn't run crime rings, and he doesn't make his neighbors hate him (generally). This is a big difference.
Growing up in Canada, I have been surrounded by peoples of different races all of my life. I have learned that some of the most racist people that I have befriended are people of different races! I won't list them all because I don't want to change the topic of the op-ed, but there are plenty. I don't think the issue of illegals in France is race, because there have been peoples of color in France for a long time. It is more about the peoples of any colors coming into France illegally and taking advantage of the system. Does it make me racist to think this way? I say no.
You’ve made the assumption that the people Bill is referring to are illegals. I’ve seen worse behavior from white skinheads in northern California, and they were clearly not illegals.
Today was an excellent missive. However, it would have better if Bill had defined racism to provide more context for the reader and juxtaposed to his thesis i.e., personal preference, based on lived human interaction, is not racism. I believe that racism has been rinsed out of the culture post with the 1970's as the beginning of the rinse cycle. However, we still a race baiter cottage industry because it is still profitable. Early on we had the Al Sharptons with his Tawana "Iwanna" Brawley and later the precursor to DEI we have Jesse Jackson and his cooperate shake downs. More recently we have Southern Poverty Law Center manufacturering racism as there just not enough real racism left to be profitable.
So very true.
According to science there is only one race of home sapiens sapiens on this planet. According to the politicians there are 5 races. Who are the racists??
We are a vicious species. We have been killing each other since recorded time.
We even kill what we eat. Our current president recently murdered the leader of a nation no threat to us.
The ready capacity to hate and harm is part of everyone's being.
Only common sense, a disposition to decency, fear of consequences and the world's many religions ameliorate our intrinsic nature to kill
“…a nation no threat to us.”
That is so incredibly naive and short-sighted. Thank goodness you aren’t in charge of US foreign policy or the military. You’ll be protected, and thus free to indulge your ignorance, by better men than you.
Mr. G, So true. It's a matter of personal safety for one's self and/or one's family members, not racism. But I would say that crime is out of control in the U.S. third-world cities that comprise Third World America. I don't think so when one talks about First World America; aka the suburbs and rural/small towns.
My concern as a white male is that for many, I have no basis for opining on race. If I do so, whatever I utter is either racist, irrelevant or pandering. That effort to silence me is a far greater problem than my observations about race. Looking forward to Monday’s post.
I voted for Trump three times. My goodness, what a flawed man. I believe this war in Iran is insane. However, he did not say that I am racist just because I am white.
Redlining has been replaced by bailouts....make the loans, realize defaults, start a panic, receive a bailout. Rinse, repeat.
Bill, Bill, Bill You are getting soft. I am LMAO thinking about you worrying for three days about these three mini-terrorists. You must have just woke up. This is the same shit that everyday people see all the time. I know that you don't live in a clam shell. You have talked about the originarios down in Argentina. Let's face it, it is dog eat dog out there. It is sad, but you have to be ready to go anytime. I would tell you to stay home to stay safe, but you live in Baltimore.
All I can say it's a damned good thing Muslims aren't racist...
🤣
Mankind is tribal. Period. We hang with members of the tribe and repulse other tribes. Don’t matter where or which tribes. It’s universal
I feel compelled to comment but I'm afraid I may not be able to figure out a constructive set of words that will not be construed as racist.
Being called racist is just one man's opinion which doesn't count for much.
...really?
And who should care if one is labeled racist?
But the racist labeling one so...
😂😂😂😂
Yes, Bill, welcome to the world as it is today. Your epiphany experience is the proverbial tip of the western culture denigration and moral degregation iceberg that has been underway for some time and is now blossoming into full view … even to those of us who chose the communities where they live wisely and maybe even exist in a bubble connected to the atomic world through digital intermediaries. Note how a naive France embedded this cultural dynamic in their institutions … I refer you to “The Camp of the Saints” … is this because when the money goes everything goes or does the money go because our moral foundation shifted and created the environment for it to happen?
The charge of ‘racism’ only effectively applies to white people. Hence, it cannot be racism but just AWA … Anti White Anything!!
And, the problem is not so much the non-whites taking advantage of the term racist but the whites within fuelling this BS!!
"Birds of a feather flock together."
The unlovely term 'wog' - short for golliwog - is a term of abuse that the British used to, and occasionally still do, use on black people. And I quote: 'The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like play character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. It was reproduced, both by commercial and hobby toy-makers, as a children's soft toy called the "golliwog", a portmanteau of golly and polliwog, and had great popularity worldwide, especially in the Southern United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia well into the 1970s, but have become more divisive due to their association with racial abuse.' Using the term in the UK these days would quite understandably be a jaw dropper as frankly it is both outdated and offensive (not to mention genuinely racist).
It was a marketing feature of a well known brand of marmalade until 2002, which shows quite well just how recently it has become unacceptable to use such a demeaning image of black people. And yet ironically I think it's fair to say that most white English people today would be horrified to be accused of actual 'you're inferior because you are black' racism. Perhaps that's a good feature of something that can irritate by its teeth grindingly preachiness - every advert on TV these days having either a black person, an Asian person or a gay couple to virtue signallingly demonstrate 'inclusiveness.'
I think what makes the English - of all colours - so angry about immigration (other than the propensity for immigrants to queue jump scarce resource allocation like social housing) is the sexual consent attitudes and psychological damage that the largely male influx brings with it. I do fear that it will result in a backlash.
Ahhh yes… the sacred word of the Land: “Raciiiiist!” Not a word, folks, it’s a button. You press it and thinking stops. Lights out. Curtains. Brain goes into airplane mode.
People don’t debate anymore. No, no, they release vocabulary like tear gas.
Somebody mentions immigration, and suddenly…psssshhh…out comes the “R” word, rolling across the cobblestones like a linguistic landmine.
You got a problem with policy?
You’re racist.
You got a question about data?
Racist.
You blink too hard during a speech?
Buddy, that’s ocular racism.
Meanwhile, the actual chaos? Three people get ventilated over a parking spot, and the Media, “Let’s not focus on the shooter… let’s focus on the tone of the parking structure.”
That’s CBS for you:
Where language is a muzzle, and reality gets put on mute.
Wow! What a time to be alive… or dead… whatever this is.
You got neighborhoods where people feel safe, neighborhoods where they don’t…and the solution is: “Let’s abolish noticing.” Yeah, great plan, Einstein with a taser.
You know, I was thinking about New York, seems like a nice place, if you don’t think. Zohran Mamdani, very popular guy, mostly because nobody’s allowed to dislike him without being diagnosed with… uh… attitude racism.
And reading this missive…
Very confusing. It says everybody has preferences, but if you say you have preferences, that makes you a racist.
So I guess the ideal citizen is a guy who walks into a restaurant and says, “I’ll take… whatever you give me… I have no standards… I’m morally pure and deeply unhappy.” That’s their hero.
And the whole redlining thing,
They’re like, “Banks avoided bad loans, that must be evil.” Yeah, banks are famous for avoiding money. That’s like saying a dog refused bacon because he was worried about cholesterol.
And the Mayor, He’s standing up there, telling everyone, “We’re all the same… differences don’t matter,” which is funny, because if you treated everyone the same, they’d arrest you for insufficient nuance. Nice place, though, if you like walking on eggshells that scream at you.
The immigrant, who is a naturalized US citizen, is from Ethiopia.