Nathan McCall, a former Washington Post reporter now a senior lecturer in Emory University’s Dept. of African American Studies, is described by Emory as a “Race and Difference Expert.” On the basis of his Washington Post article yesterday describing the president’s recent speech to the Congressional Black Caucus gala last weekend as his “Sister Souljah moment,” I would say that his expertise is about what one would expect from a reporter or credential-free academic who has successfully climbed the “diversity” ladder.
McCall’s point is that Obama was “sending white voters coded messages” in that speech, and elsewhere, by apparently criticizing blacks for sitting around in their “bedroom slippers” and urging them to “Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying” and “put on your marching shoes” because he “expect[s] all of you to march with me and press on.”
According to McCall, there is a reason for Obama’s “coded message” to whites. “Throughout his presidency,” McCall writes, “he has been dogged by suspicions that he might somehow show bias toward African Americans.”
Suspicions that he might somehow show bias? It is arguments like this that dog “diverse” commentators with the suspicion that they show bias toward African Americans. After all, it is not a suspicion but a fact that Obama has never me a racial preference program or policy that he doesn’t support, that he has staffed his Justice Dept. with attorneys who have built their careers opposing colorblind equality and continue to do so at every opportunity.
Jessie Jackson put out a “for immediate release” on that CBC “moment” yet?
Do the crews at MSNBC/NYT/Soros trained “inquiring minds”, even bother with him?
“Code” phrases? “Context”?
I call them euphemisms and misdirection myself.
How about, “Which strained stereotypical accent is he using that day?”
*sheesh*
I have read McCall’s works and they reflect a fairly substantial animus against whites. He is not a brilliant writer but an effective one, so the reader does gain some understanding towards his plight and his mindset. I say this with caution, because the crimes of his youth are substantial and horrid (including a confession to a gang rape) and but for some luck here and there he could have been down for murder and a life sentence. He describes “the other” very well – meaning he gives insight into conduct and activities that the majority of us can only imagine, i,e., what “other people” do, and there is a certain amount of voyeuristic guilt which obtains with reading. He does not deserve a “pass” to justify racism, however.
His views on Obama sending a “coded” message do not surprise me. If anything, his works do convey the deep racial and cultural isolation of communities like his inner city Norfolk, riven by a huge Government dependent class with scant appreciation for values and life choices which tend to support success. His own narrow world view is intrinsically an oppositional one, with little chance of seeing things in a different way.
In a way, I actually support Emory’s hiring of McCall. Not many Emory students would otherwise come into contact with the real deal – a hard core ex felon, filled to the brim with racial animus, who somehow cobbled together enough will and discipline to write reasonably well and make a living. The problem is that I wonder how many Emory students, including the middle to upper middle class black kids who take his classes, are aware of the ideological baggage that he brings. It is substantial, and it is racially biased. And in the “progressive” echo chamber that passes for college campuses today, I wonder how many students really critically evaluate his work and its shortcomings, especially his racist views. Put another way, how many end up “understanding them”, but in the end reject them for their racism?
For a less racially hostile read, turn to Dwayne Betts’ a Question of Freedom, an author imprisoned for nine years at age 16 for a carjacking in Northern Virginia. He clearly has some racial baggage, but he is far more even handed than McCall. These works are worth a read, because, as Betts does relate, it is absolutely shocking at how many young black men are our prisons for outrageously long sentences. I am not sure we know why, but it does seem that no amount of diversity instruction by the Emorys of the world will solve the problem.