First Blog

  In case you haven't noticed, racism is rampant in America, in fact everywhere. What is remarkable is that the tag “racism” has been applied to almost every activity. Whatever you do, whatever you think, you can be charged as a racist. Here’s a list of racism types from only a few minutes of searching. None of these are made up, and there are many more. • Systemic/Institutional • Environmental • Institutional • Individual • Internalized • Interpersonal • Everyday • Scientific • Micro-aggression • Corporate • Sports • Religious (aka discrimination) • Educational • Structural • White privilege I used to think being fair and reasonable to everyone was acceptable, but I guess not. 

“Why police reform is so hard?”  This is the content of a essay from The Conversation website ( http://theconversation.com ).  It is akin to the old chestnut, “Are you still beating your wife?”  The very statement assumes the conclusion.  In the police case, the statement assumes the police need reforming, and that it is not only difficult but nearly impossible.  Always, we see more training is the prescription to correct these egregious offenses. What has happened is that police now live on the defensive.  Pro-active policing is feared by the probability of racist accusations. Crowd control is diminished by the probability of being charged with brutality.  Domestic disturbance interventions are diminished by the possibility of  excessive force charges.  The perpetrators make their charges with the simple goal of making their case tried in the press – usually against law enforcement.   The result is always that more sensit...

Politicabobia - fear of politics* Simplicitivism - theory that the simple is often the best approach**   O ne needs to be careful with "ism" and “ phobia ” words. They often have loose meanings, strict meanings, and sometimes multiple meanings. In almost every endeavor, psychology, philosophy, science, biology, and the full list of topics, there are many, hundreds if not thousands. In politics, they are easy to apply. The are effective conveying to the listener what is personally imagined. Their greatest application comprise a form of demagoguery, whether through concern or fear.   We have communism, conservativism, progressivism, liberalism, racism, feminism, environmentalism, anarchism, nationalism, capitalism, colonialism, nationalism, and socialism, to name a few.   Of course, there is the anti -version of each.   Where an “ism” is not appropriate, the alternative “phobia” is used such as in homophobia and islamophobia, where cut away is any vesti...

Racism is big these days.  When in doubt, call your opponent a racist.  It seems to work every time.  The classic forms have a color value, black, brown, red, and yellow.  In fact, racism has grown in scope.  Now we see systemic racism (police), implicit racism (employment), media racism (communications), symbolic racism (narrative) and implied racism (political).  Don’t forget compound forms such as implicit xxx racism, where xxx is a color.  Occasionally, when the term racism wilts from overuse, the word bias is temporarily substituted.  I really cannot see any end of it, no matter what policies are enacted, and no matter who is elected.  As long as there are votes to be gained under the branding by racism, it lives. Any group feeling itself suffering from racism becomes a voting block, among the most cherished commodities in election politics.  Have no fear whatever, academics and politicians will create n...