I’m sometimes asked by people who know me why I’m so intransigent toward liberals. (Actually, they don’t put it in those terms; what they ask is, “Why do you have to be such a jerk on Facebook?”) I often don’t know how to answer them…and then along comes a reminder of how idiotic liberals can get.There was a small dust-up this week in the proud city of Columbia, MO (my current place of residence). It appears that the police department was asking the city government to purchase an armored vehicle for its use; Columbia has a population of 100,000+, and some neighborhoods are better than others, so this wouldn’t exactly be an idle investment. Anyway, for whatever reason someone in the city’s Police Officers Association decided to strengthen their case by posting an appeal on their Facebook page.
Here is the wording they used:
CPD wants a new armored vehicle. Partly b/c when you drive up in one, people surrender and come out of the house. BUT….if CPD rolled up in the new Mercedes 6x16, you KNOW all the boys in the hood would come running out the house – just to admire your ride! I say we ride up in style.I don’t really get the humor and the grammar leaves a bit to be desired, but whatever. Worse pitches have been made, I’m sure. I only heard about this, though, because of the “controversy” that arose over the post. The Association quickly drew attacks because their statement was apparently—wait for it—racist. The Huffington Post (because why not) put the “story” up on their front page as an example of bad race relations among cops, and our dear mayor denounced it as “breathtaking racial insensitivity that cannot be tolerated,” further demanding a formal apology from the group.
Grrrrrr.
Okay, first off, this is not racist. I don’t know the feelings of these police officers, and I don’t care. It’s what they said that matters, not how they feel, and what they said isn’t racist. I did a quick info check; Columbia is maybe 11% black, and it’s not like they’re all either lower-class or the ones committing the crimes. And there was zero insinuation from these cops that that was the case. I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but “the hood” is hardly a single-race category, and using the phrase does not automatically imply a black neighborhood. So I’m not even going to suggest that maybe they could have “chosen better language.” You know who’s at fault? The left-wingers at HuffPo, in the city government, and elsewhere who decided they were talking about black people.
More broadly, I wish to make a point about society in general. There are many things wrong with the world today, which I’m sure I don’t need to tell you guys. But if I could name one that really irks me above most others, it’s this paranoia we have about not hurting other people’s feelings. Truth is, I don’t think the race-baiters on the Left are really responsible for this or similar so-called controversies. These things happen because there’s a larger group of people who buy into oppression theory, multiculturalism, and whatever else that wing cooks up, and overreact to everything that might conceivably be construed as racist or sexist or homophobic or otherwise intolerant. These people—mayors, school board members, public advocacy groups—are enablers, and practically every lawsuit or instance of hand-wringing you can think of happens because of them, not because of the initial agitators.
I’d like to think I’ve correctly identified the problem. Even so, that doesn’t mean I know what to do about it. I would say, though, that you can’t really wage a “campaign” against these people. Rather, I think it’s more a matter of just refusing to play their game from the outset. If you say something that you know you don’t mean anything by, but someone says you’re being insensitive against whoever, reply with “Shut up, no I’m not.” Or better yet, “Who cares?” And no, I can’t say I always practice what I preach (in this or other matters). But maybe if more people start acting this way, those enablers will think twice before making reflexive denunciations like this one against the police. I guess what I’m saying is, this country needs more people who are just callous, unfeeling jackasses.
Note: As for the requested armored vehicle, that issue was tabled at the last city council meeting, held just after all this made the news. They’ll deny that the two are connected, but surely some felt they couldn’t just grant the request after all this came out. So a few shrill cries of racism against a group not even an active part of the police department trump a request for official equipment. Nice.
I'm not a big reader of Huffpo, but I imagine it was a similar readership model as Big Hollywood. Namely closely scanning the internet for quotes guaranteed to infuriate their customer base in order to give them their daily political anger endorphin hit.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I find the real J.O. in your story as the idiot mayor. I see two possible reasons for his grandstanding on such slim premises.
1. Your town electorate is a heavy Democrat lean.
2. He wants to knock the police department/union down a peg or two in the face of upcoming union pay/perk negotiations.
If number one isn't true, then I'd go with 2. Or perhaps I've just watched too much "House of Cards" lately. :)
K, in all honesty, I would not have heard about this if the local news hadn't broadcast it. As for HuffPo, let me tell you, there were some real winners in the comments section. One woman actually stood up for the cops and got called a racist; she identified herself as black, after which it was suggested she must have mental problems. It was nice of them to encapsulate liberalism's response to opposition like that, I thought.
ReplyDeleteBoth of your suppositions are correct. Number 1 definitely is, at least; I don't have definitive proof about Number 2, but from the digging around I did, I suspect that's true as well. I don't know the mayor, but again, I see no evidence against your statement. :-/
Anh, anh, anh, Anonymous. This ain't a spamming ground for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one, T-Rav. The phrase "boys in the hood" is a pretty direct reference to the 1991 film Boyz N the Hood which was precisely about a poor, crime-ridden black neighborhood, namely South Central LA. The expression isn't just black, it's blackity-black-black-blacka-black.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying the cop is a racist, but he certainly wasn't smart about his choice of words. He could have said something like "gangbanger" instead that isn't so overtly racial. Not that he should constantly have to think about things like that. To craft a metaphor, if a woman shouldn't have to worry about her dress for fear of sexual assault, neither should any person have to dress up their language for fear of media assault.
The real problem is that the race-hustling industry is looking for signs of racism everywhere when probably only inarticulateness exists. Journalists and politicians adept at massaging and parsing terms come to the assumption that everyone has that talent. They foll themselves that if they can conceal their own prejudices in garrulous language then they don't exist, therefore anyone tripping over the words they diligently avoid must be so bigoted as to be unable to hide it.
sounds like they needed to be sent to bed with their paci(fier) - waah waaah waaah
ReplyDeleteYou all miss the biggest point about this. Why does a police station require a military assault vehicle? Has there been a outbreak of civil war and I wasn't notified? Or do you like the possibility that the Police could soon be getting the capability to resist military might?
ReplyDeleteOn racist thing, boys in the hood is racist, but try, your replacement phrase is also suspect. It has Hispanic connotations as well.
tryanmax, you can disagree if you want, but "gangbanger" is just as likely to get someone called on the carpet. As for the movie reference: That was over twenty years ago. How many people do you think really know what that phrase indicates? Because I sure didn't.
ReplyDeleteLook, if this was a majority-minority city or neighborhood, things might be different. But frankly, this is a section of the country where ghettos are just likely to be white as black or Hispanic, and whatever stereotypes might exist about "black hoodlums" apply to all races in practice. And people like the mayor should know that. The farthest he was justified in going was saying that it might not have been the smartest phrase to use, and leave it at that.
rla, my thoughts exactly.
ReplyDeleteRav - I think the comment and the intent was probably racist, and out of line for a cop to post on FB, especially if it was a quasi-official page vs. an individual page. Either way, internet social media has a way of biting people in the ass for things they post without thinking.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it's kind of funny "IF" we were in a place where we could actually joke about our heritage. Huffpo, like most liberal media is solidly socialist/democrat party. So there is no doubt a situation like this one will purposely be blown out of proportion, because perpetuating hate is good for politics in their eyes.
Joel, virtually any term suggesting criminality is suspect in the eyes of the leftist media, which clearly assumes all criminals are minorities. That's not the point. The point is "boys in the hood" is easily identifiable by average people as a reference to blacks and blacks alone. The idea that "gangbanger" is specifically Hispanic is news to me.
ReplyDeleteJoel, I don't know why specifically they want it, and in an age of armor-piercing rounds and other anti-cop weapons, I'd be lying if I said I was worried about it.
ReplyDeleteI deny that either term is racist. Maybe for some people, they mean something specific, but I don't know anyone--especially my age or younger--who is specifically referring to blacks with "boys in the hood" or Hispanics with "gangbanger." Here's a great idea: How about we start placing the burden of proof on the people making these claims, rather than the people being accused of racism or whatever?
Jed, I think it's kinda dumb and out-of-line to make appeals of this nature through social media. That much I agree with. And hey, if we can joke about the past, that's great too.
ReplyDeleteBut again, I think it's ridiculous that one turn of phrase can make someone a racist. And the intent is something we shouldn't even try to speculate on.
T-Rav, my point isn't that there are magic words that won't get people called out on the carpet. Like I said to Joel, liberals assume that any term indicative of criminality applies to minorities. That should be called out. At the same time, if one wants to be called out, there are expressions that make it much more likely--and "boys in the hood" is one of them.
ReplyDeleteOn the point that Boyz N the Hood is a 20+ year old movie, if you are being genuine that you had no conception of the movie, then you are proof of the common liberal assertion that conservatives are out of the mainstream. I was only ten when the movie came out, so you can rest assured it was not on my radar at the time. But it has since been deemed culturally relevant. It is still frequently discussed, referenced, and imitated. It's no Titanic to be sure, but knowing nothing about BntH would be like not knowing the twist in The Crying Game (which I incidentally have never seen, but I still know).
I agree with trynamax, that the use of the term "hood" implies black and it was really stupid to say this because people would hear it as the police talking about blacks.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Joel. There is no reason police departments need these things. Officer safety is one thing, but there comes a point where you switch from officer safety to just becoming a quasi military organization. And the push in the past decade to make sure all police departments are getting increasingly militarized gear and SWAT teams is not a good trend.
tryanmax, but your own admission that you've never heard of "gangbanger" as a reference to Hispanics shows that this terminology is far less agreed upon than you seem to think it is. Call me out of the mainstream all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that one can use the phrase "boys in the hood" and not mean anything racial by it. Am I saying there's no possibility that the cops in question are racist? Nope. I don't know them. Which is precisely my point. Given the legacy of race relations in America, if you're going to make such a serious and emotionally-laden charge as racism, you'd better have the evidence to back it up, for everyone's sakes. These four words strung together? Doesn't wash.
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, let me simplify what I've been saying:
ReplyDeleteIs it right to parse words in order to turn everything into a race issue? No.
Are there words to be avoided if you don't want them made into a race issue? Yes.
Please refer to my sexual assault analogy. Ideally, a person can wear or say whatever they like without being attacked. However, because provocative dress or language tends to draw those sort of consequences, then people are wise to avoid them. Am I making sense?
I'm not particularly sympathetic to fools, so I find no protagonist in the CPD story.
tryanmax, I think that's a good way to put it. It is not right that people assume racism from the use of words that haven't been historically seen as meant to cause offense (like the n-word), but the fact is that people will take offense to certain things. So the best policy is to avoid saying those things.
ReplyDeleteThat said, often times, the identity politics people are simply looking for something to find offense about. In those situations, you have the advantage because they sound like lunatics when they are parsing normal words. But there are certain things that are pretty well recognized as danger zones and it's best to avoid those.
FYI, if anybody is curious about just what this guy was talking about, HERE is the Mercedes 6x6 off-roader. (I don't know how you typo "6x16" but that's the only explanation.) Pretty sweet!
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I understand what you're saying perfectly. I simply reject the idea that "boys in the hood" is one of those phrases you're talking about; and a lot of other people would too. Your main idea about danger words and phrases, I have no issue with.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Mercedes 6x6 (and I just transcribed what was in the original post, so don't blame me for "6x16"), I agree, it does look fairly awesome. :-)
Folks, I have to hit the road; I'll get to the other comments later.
ReplyDeleteRE: "boys in the hood" by itself, maybe not. But throw in the concepts of the police, police intimidation (an armored vehicle alone makes people surrender), and "the boys" checking out your ride--which just happens to be the new thing most likely to make an Escalade look like a Prius--and this guy was wandering dangerously close to suggesting the cops roll up in a pickup loaded with watermelon.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, by referencing the Escalade I am engaging in racial stereotypism.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, here's why I don't like this whole stereotyping claim. Some time ago, my sister, whose boyfriend is black, happened to mention that his family liked to eat at Popeye's quite a bit. It has a reputation as a restaurant for black people, but that's okay; they have good food, incidentally. Anyway, at Christmas we were eating and she remarked that his family was having some issues with their dinner and wouldn't be able to eat until late afternoon. Me, thinking back to that earlier comment: "Are they gonna eat at Popeye's or something?" "Wow. That's racist."
ReplyDeleteShe wasn't being serious, and it's not like these two things are totally comparable. I bring it up because a) what sounds like racist stereotyping is often not even slightly intended as such, and b) context matters. You shouldn't claim out of hand that something is racist, even if it sounds racist to you.
And look, it's not like I'm downplaying racism as a thing. I have seen more real racism as an adolescent than most of these yahoos probably ever have, and so wild accusations like these get my dander up. If you're going to say something or someone is a racist, you'd better have a darned good reason for saying so.
T-Rav, I totally get what you're saying, and I agree that people should always give each other the benefit of the doubt, BUT that isn't the world, so it isn't especially shocking when people do the very opposite. What IS shocking, is how people like this CPD guy just stumble into it and everyone acts surprised when human nature pops up.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying the charge of racism is legit. All I am saying is that this guy was careless with his words. The response would have been totally foreseeable to most people. Maybe it didn't occur to him that "boys in the hood" in the context of a police raid might seem at all racist, but I feel there is a clear case that it should have. For that reason, I don't see any reason to defend him.
Now, going back to my earlier suggestion, if he had used a different term, like "gangbangers," I'd be all over defending this guy, b/c despite the fact that lefties like to assert that any derogation suggests minorities, that's just not true. I actually stand to make my point arguing that "gangbangers" is not inherently black or Hispanic or Martian. But defending CPD guy's words only stands to make me look obtuse at best.
The boys in the hood are always hard
ReplyDeleteYou come talkin that trash, we'll pull ya card
Knowin' nutin in life vut to be legit'
Dont quote me boy coz I aint said $#!+
Short version: I agree, context does matter. And CPD guy's comment in broader context doesn't seem any better.
ReplyDeleteLiberals get their knickers in a wad over everything. I try not to even notice them anymore. So how are things in the Worker's Enclave of Central Missouri..? Many of us in out-state Missouri view Columbia as a drain on resources.
ReplyDelete