Don’t #BlackOut the Facts…

The unjust death of George Floyd as many now know, has sparked intense protests and many violent riots. Sadly, while the nation has come together to collectively condemn the officer who abused his power and is now charged with murder, many have taken the opportunity to exploit this injustice by using it as an excuse to create mayhem and loot  even black businesses! For those who support the more violent rioting, what does taking a flat screen TV out of Target or an expensive purse have to do with honoring George Floyd? What does destroying whole communities including black ones do for the black community? And not to mention the double standard as usual for the Left, why does one black life matter but not another, such as the murder of retired officer David Dorn whose killing was live streamed as he lay dying on a sidewalk. Has anyone in the midst of their call for the blood of police ever think about all the black officers who are putting their lives on the line for our protection? We can all come together to demand accountability for the death of George Floyd and others, but to exploit tragedies by rioting, calling for violence and death against police officers, and cherry picking whose life matters enough to talk about only hurts the cause. What is supposed to be about unity, accountability and basic rights for all has been made into yet another partisan agenda.

However, moments like these also give opportunities for a discussion on important topics like race. Believe it or not, there is one aspect of the protests that I was inspired by: Not in that I personally agreed with the content of what they were saying, but I’ve noticed some on social media are using a “blackout” protest to not simply put up a black square in their social media profiles, but give resources to learn more deeply about the issues (as they see them, of course) and highlight black voices (from their side exclusively). While I don’t agree with the messages they’re spreading through who and what they cite as learning tools, I thought why not do a conservative version of their far left leaning one? They want to highlight black far left voices? Why not highlight black conservative voices too? They want to spread more incendiary articles on how whites are the supreme oppressors? Why not highlight resources that debunk many of the Left’s myths on race and society? So I present to you my own list of things to educate yourself on in the midst of this chaos:

People to Know

Burgess Owens

Candace Owens

Robert Woodson

Thomas Sowell

Walter Williams

Read

Being a Racist is Easy Today by Walter Williams

Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation by Candace Owens

Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell

Demonizing White Men by Walter Williams

Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell

The Myth of Systemic Police Racism

The New Racism by Walter Williams

The Shameful Blackout of Thomas, Sowell and Williams

Rotten Education isn’t Preordained by Walter Williams

Unpacking Peggy McIntosh’s Knapsack

 Follow

@RealCandaceO

@DiamondandSilk

@thecjpearson

@w_terrence

@ThomasSowell

Watch

The Candace Owens Show

PragerU

Learn About

The 1776 Project Founded by Robert Woodson

Unbiased statistics on white on black shootings by police:

Police Violence against Black Men Is Rare

Don’t Blame Police Racism for America’s Violence Epidemic

 

Oh, and one more thing: Whatever happened to that oh so deadly virus which warranted months of shutdowns huddled in our homes and destroying the economy? 😉

What other resources would you recommend? Comment below!

A PSA by A Lady of Reason: Fear is a More Dangerous Thing to Spread…

By now much of the world had heard of the recent coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe. What started off in Wuhan, China has now spread across many countries, including Italy, Iran, and South Korea as some of the hardest hit. Now with Italy on lock down, many events cancelled, people quarantined, it seems like the whole world is coming to a standstill! Of course, it is better to take proactive steps to control the rapid spread and contain it before it escalates further. It is also important to know just how virulent this particular virus is and who is most at risk. We can’t down play the severity of the situation at hand here or abroad. In this globalized world we have shown it’s only one flight away from an international issue.

However, what may be even more dangerous is the high risk of fear mongering and misinformation that comes with this situation. Just because something is a problem, we can’t feasibly just put the world on hold. Yes, we should make reasonable adjustments that the evidence shows has a significant decrease in risk and strong justification. People who have symptoms should get tested and the sick self-quarantined. Some moderate social distancing for those who have been exposed to somewhere or someone with the virus is reasonable.

The trouble begins when we go overboard. “An abundance of caution” can go too far as well… Shutting down places where there are populations with low risk to contract the virus, younger and healthy individuals is not as needed as of now. The news cycle constantly playing up hysteria and panic to get their ratings does nothing except exploit a novel situation. The CDC says right now the virus affects the elderly and those with preexisting health problems and respiratory issues the most, and others are most likely to get more mainstream cold or flu symptoms, but not the more deadly version. In essence, for most of the young healthy population, this is not too different from the seasonal flus that have gone around or the common cold. Data from the CDC also indicates that the vast majority of fatalities are in elderly people which of course is worrisome to many who are elderly and care about an elderly loved one, but for those out and about the most, it’s not like the black death! Not to mention, we weathered other storms of this kind; SARS, H1N1 flu, etc…. and the country survived and didn’t go into doomsday mode or have all of the country dead or dying. Nor is this COVID-19 virus all that novel:

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can infect people and then spread between people such as with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and now with this new virus (named SARS-CoV-2). (CDC.gov)

This is just a newer strain coming out that we need to build up an immunity to. Also as of now, the CDC gives a clearer picture of the risk for the average American.

Current risk assessment:

• For the majority of people, the immediate risk of being exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low. There is not widespread circulation in most communities in the United States.
• People in places where ongoing community spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been reported are at elevated risk of exposure, with increase in risk dependent on the location.
• Healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19 are at elevated risk of exposure.
• Close contacts of persons with COVID-19 also are at elevated risk of exposure.
• Travelers returning from affected international locations where community spread is occurring also are at elevated risk of exposure, with increase in risk dependent on location.

And yet everywhere is shutting down and cancelling out of fear as if this were a higher risk and more deadly. I don’t remember the Ebola epidemic a few years back shutting down the country. It was mostly contained in Africa, however there were people suspected to carry it or have it come to the US. Believe me, those viruses have far higher mortality rates! Again, I don’t deny there is a need for enhanced cautionary measures. It’s all about a response proportional to the facts, not mainstream news hysteria and “what if” panic. America right now is a lower risk for most people, so most people should be able to still live their lives and not be panicked into going into plastic bubbles! Wash your hands thoroughly, be careful what you touch, keep clear of those who appear sick, be aware of your personal risk (ex. travel, age, health etc.) and such. But don’t stop living your life out of fear. We’re nowhere near that yet. We never have been in our history. This is not Ebola, or the bubonic plague we’re talking about here! This is a variation of a common type of virus we encounter every year. We also must look at some of the countries hit harder. Places like Korea, China, Iran and such have less than stellar medical care and living standards. Of course any disease will be more severe with less resources, technology and ways to stop it like in underdeveloped countries. Even in Europe, their public “free” healthcare system wasn’t great to start with before this! Our resources may be stretched, but theirs I’m sure is beyond the breaking point. That factor cannot be overlooked too in judging the true threat this disease poses to us here in the US.

Overall, the enhanced fear mongering does nothing to do actual help, and only creates unnecessary hurdles in our lives. Yes, this is a new virus, but new does not mean more deadly or harmful than many we encounter far more frequently and take for granted. Think of the flu that comes out as a new strain each season. Compared to COVID-19, the flu kills far more people globally than this has. And as far as risk goes, the flu also targets the elderly and infirm more than healthy young individuals. Yet people take the flu for granted and downplay its threat to our health. Why? Why isn’t there a huge campaign each year to shut down everything due to a new flu strain every flu season? My guess is it’s simply not new anymore, thus we habituated to the idea of it. We fear what is new, what is novel. However we have been in similar predicaments in previous years and made it out. Ironically, the fear over this has spread far more prolifically than the actual disease!

Could it get worse? Anything is possible and I don’t have a crystal ball nor some magical guarantee, but until it actually does, let’s just live our lives like we always have. My elderly grandmother who of course I’m concerned about, is living her life as usual and has the perspective that she must do the things she loves while she still can. Someday she won’t be able to but for now she can, so she does. We all can learn from that attitude. This may get worse. We may have to have more restrictions on our lives because of this. But for now, let’s do what we can, until we can’t. Go to work, go to class, go out to dinner, go shopping, go run errands, go have fun… We as a country have weathered two world wars, a depression, terror attacks, other pandemics and such in our history and have always pulled through as a nation. Who says we can’t weather this storm too? This won’t last forever!

One last major point to add that has to be mentioned: The politicization over this virus has reached an all new low of unethical agendas! Leftists going so far as to wish coronavirus on Trump supporters by deliberately infecting a Trump rally is beyond disgusting! I can only hope more sane Liberals can be big enough to condemn that too, however much they dislike Trump. Also, blaming Trump for the virus, calling for him to take action and when he does, condemn him for it only blocks his efforts to stop the spread. Quarantining those cruise ships then recommending that diseased people not be let into the ports is harsh, but wise. Why should we risk thousands of lives onshore until we can properly control their reentry? A few severe cases and fatalities are tragic, but it’s the lesser of the two evils compared to hundreds or thousands more. I must say too any fear mongering by the Right also is wrong, but I haven’t seen it like how Leftist sources are playing up the hysteria. Funny coincidence this is around election time too 😉 This needs to be a bipartisan issue, as the virus does not vote red or blue. Using Coronavirus as a political propaganda tool is beyond unethical! It’s time we call out the mass hysteria, panic and propaganda!

Resources:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html

“I’m Just One Person”: The Response to Collective Guilt Demanded by The Left

A concept the Left likes to tout around and try to enforce is the idea that so called “privileged” individuals benefit from a wider system that is made for them, to the exclusion and oppression of others. The most common examples being race and gender, which I will focus on mainly as there is much to say on them. This “system” of oppression over women and racial minorities is the explanation for why they can’t seem to achieve in life or have that “American Dream” of hard work and related to that, why whites, men and especially white men, can’t actually take credit for their achievements! In other words, anything they achieve in life is not due to their own personal efforts, but to the wider “system”.

However, paradoxically, it seems to the Left, this “system” can also only work one way. For example, any criticism of minority communities is unjust because the larger forces, “the system” at work, is to blame, not individual choices. However why then is it the individual’s fault when talking about white people? The argument white people are complicit in a system of racial oppression and are each personally racist simply for having more privilege is just like arguing that poverty in minority communities is their personal fault despite a biased system outside any individual’s control. Or look at how men are told too, that they are responsible for benefiting from a system designed to put them on top and women second class citizens. However one cannot help being born male! Just because historically men as a group may have enacted systems barring women from achieving more, each individual man born in this era had zero personal part to play in the history of women’s oppression.

White individuals living today had absolutely no part to play in the racist atrocities of our past. They did not personally own slaves. Personally attend lynch mobs. Personally take land away from indigenous peoples or exploit them. Personally vote for segregation or internment camps as those living now would have not been born or of voting age. These events happened decades, several generations, even centuries before they were born. Before their grandparents were even born for some historical events! The vast majority of men around now had absolutely no part to play in barring women from entering the workforce or achieving outside the home. Many men raise their daughters to be strong independent women and treat their wives as their equals. Certainly none alive today barred women from getting the vote!

The “system” is supposedly some uncontrolled force of its own impacting both the oppressed and benefiting the oppressors outside any one individual’s control to stop or change it. So why does it seem like the onus for changing this almost all powerful system on people who were simply born into it themselves? Just because white men are the “oppressors” benefiting from this alleged system, doesn’t mean they have the power to control it on an individual scale! It’s not often thought of this way, but one has as much control over being born white or male as one does being born an oppressed minority or a woman. Being born into a legacy of being the historical oppressor does not make one an oppressor by default! At least not in terms of moral responsibility. Yes, any part of an oppressive unfair system in society needs change, but to demand someone change it simply because they were born as its beneficiary is as unfair as making someone live under its thumb simply for who they were born as. The people who should be changing it are not one group. If we want change as a society, the whole society must be a part of that change. Our leaders. The people who are affected by it and have a stake in the issue such as the “oppressed” groups. Those who benefit but repudiate the unfairness of it. Plenty of whites have fought for racial equality side by side with minorities. Plenty of men fight for equality for women. There is no issue with that at all.

The problem is in the idea that the onus to change the system is on someone simply because they were born a certain race or gender but have not actually done anything tangible to oppress anyone else on a personal level. Put more simply, just because something unfair was done overall by a wider group, doesn’t mean one single individual is morally responsible for that wrongdoing. The moral onus to stop unfairness is on those being unfair. For example, it can easily be argued former slave owners morally owe reparations to those they enslaved. However does any non-slave owner owe reparations for slavery a distant ancestor, or even more broadly someone of their race was a part of 200 years ago?

A man who never personally oppressed women, stopped women from moving up in their careers, never treated a woman poorly or abused one, or stole an opportunity that was rightfully a woman’s has no moral responsibility for men who do and men who did. A white person who never treated another person as less than, oppressed them, stole any opportunity from them, or thought they were less of a human being deserving of respect and dignity due to race is not morally responsible for any wider systems of racism in society. Now the Left would come back and say, “but these issues are not about individuals and their actions but wider systematic issues.” and yeah, I can understand what they are trying to argue but they made it about individuals when they decided white people and men need to take moral responsibility for the privileges they were simply born into but never actually stole from anyone through their own actions.

These ideas about personal moral responsibility for a wider system sadly have taken hold on many white people and men who are genuinely not racist or sexist people and reject their unearned privileges and even actively fight alongside others against the alleged “system” benefiting them in the name of greater moral good. This leads to an idea akin to Original Sin where being born a white or male is cause for some form of collective guilt for inheriting privilege and a legacy of being designated as an oppressor. However, my response to that is: But I’m only one person. 

As an individual, I have no control over a wider social system. I only am able to control my own actions. So the questions I need to ask myself are not “How have I benefited from privileges I didn’t earn?” or “How am I complicit in a system I can’t control?” but “How have I treated those around me?” “How do I make sure I’m being fair and equitable?”, “How do I treat those who look different than me?” That’s all I can control! How I act. How I treat others.

You are not a racist for simply being white in (an alleged) system geared for whites and passively benefiting simply due to your race at birth. Your actions make you racist or not, not your whiteness. You are not a misogynist for simply being born a man in a society (allegedly) geared towards men in a similar light. The onus can’t be just on one person to change an entire society! And certainly one individual can’t be asked to feel moral guilt over something they were never personally a part of creating!

Not to mention, we all have unearned privileges in life. Why is “privilege” such a dirty word? Even if it’s not racial or gender privileges, having a good family, friends, SES, health, etc… are privileges that can be unearned but given to us through our lot in life. I also believe while we should take a moment to reflect on them and be thankful and not take them for granted, we shouldn’t feel guilt simply for having better luck than the next guy. We can’t “do it all” so to speak.

So while I would love to have the power to take away all the inequality, racism, sexism, injustice etc… in the world, the Left needs to remember:

I am just one person!