Tom Matlack can’t understand why nobody is talking about racism.
Warren Buffet released his tax returns yesterday, confirming that he paid 17% federal income tax (he paid $7 million on $40 million of income), and called on other billionaires to do the same in an effort to show that the #OccupyWallStreet folks are right: the rich should pay more. President Obama is pushing his millionaire tax with no chance that it will actually become law as an election year ploy. And a pizza billionaire is leading the race for the Republican Presidential nomination on the promise that he will throw out the tax code, do away with the IRS and impose a 9% income, corporate, and sales tax across the board.
For the first time it’s a real possibility that we will have a Presidential election pitting one African American man against another. Yet employment of black males over 20 stands at 56.9% (yes that means almost half don’t have jobs) according to the most recent national jobs report. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics are were more than 846,000 black men in prison, making up 40.2 percent of all inmates in the system. That’s more than the number of black men enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War. Isn’t this a tax on manhood based on color?
And neither Obama nor Cain has made addressing racism a part of their platform.
Have we all just gone completely insane? South Africa is beginning to look like a racially progressive country compared to the United States.
Seems to me we need a Presidential candidate who is actually black, no matter what the color of his skin. And that’s from a white venture capitalist that is just dying to throw out the tax code and start over.
–photo Stuck in customs
“Maybe I should stop pushing this topic. Maybe as a white man it’s not my place.” You’ve got that right, Tom. Whenever a white man whines about the plight of the black man in America, it’s never his place to speak if he’s going to do anything except blame all problems in the black community on historical oppression and the “systemic white racism” that still exists today. You’ve already overstepped your bounds by writing that black men can control their own destinies in the comments here. US drug policy is a problem for everyone, not just blacks. The reason our… Read more »
I am suprised no body has ever made the direct connection between , white people , the government and black men. In a white legal system where white law makers make laws in the absence of black men. Black men would continue to suffer. Like Thomas Jefferson said the black man doesn’t see danger until it is impossible for him to avoid, we are not a planning race until we become better planners,take our futures into our hands, get involved in laws passed about us. Stand together and against institutionalized racism, am afraid our condition will not change.No black president… Read more »
There has already been a movie about that anti-racist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXRjmyJFzrU
1. People of Color have astronomical birthrates
2. whites have below eplacmeent level birthrates.
People of color will soon run America and the while world. Justice will be done and white men will soon see what it means to live in a fair society.
Let’s assume you are right that institutional racism is the cause of the plight among blacks in this country. What would be the better message to blacks– should you tell them that you are the victims of extreme historical injustices that should be but wont be remedied. And that what the white man has, has been built upon the backs of slaves. Or should they be told: yes, there are historical grievances. But there is no direct remedy. The only remedy is to stop whining, educate yourself and your children and bring them up in a culture that promotes the… Read more »
Do you really think no one is talking about race except one white venture capitalist? I dare say that plenty of people are talking about race, and they’re doing it far more cogently than in this poorly constructed essay. One place to begin listening to men talking about race would be on the website of Cornel West and Tavis Smiley’s Poverty Tour. (http://www.povertytour.smileyandwest.com/) When you’re done there, you might Google the phrase “institutional racism,” as this seems to be what your argument is actually about, rather than a “tax on manhood based on race.”
Jackie and Steve I really can’t control racist comments made here or anywhere else for that matter. I guess believing that black men are all criminals proves my point that we can’t have a real discussion about race in this country without resorting to profound racism. My own frustration this morning was realizing that we might very well have two African American competing for the Presidency (admitting that Cain is probably a long shot despite the polls) and yet our country is falling apart right along racial lines. I focus a lot on prison because I have spent a good… Read more »
Tom, you’re not a good “white” man; you’re a good man. Goodness doesn’t have a color, and Steve made this clear when he wrote that he sees you as a husband, a father, an entrepreneur and a writer. Your whiteness is as incidental as my blackness, and if we continue to be crazy–and ballsy–enough to publicly discuss the stuff that makes lesser men squirm, together we will change the world, whether it wants to be changed or not.
Your parents did it during the civil rights movement, you’re doing it right now.
JFB
You know how I feel about this, Tom. I agree wholeheartedly with Jackie. I think you write about what you need to write about. The hard thing is that you are seeing just how deep and intractable the problem is. It won’t respond to love, logic, or even the lessons of history. So all you can do is tell the truth about the situation. It will make people uncomfortable. It will cost you friends and supporters, I guarantee you. People will call you horrible names and say that you are a traitor to your race. It’s what happens. You are… Read more »
Thanks Steve and Jackie. Yeah, Steve you are exactly right. I guess that was the sinking feeling I had all day.
Tom, Who the hell said that *all black men* are criminals? You are being very dishonest and stutltifying the conversation that you claim to want to foster. I am not saying that all black men are criminals. Just that there is a larger amount of criminality that blacks have to contend with in their communities. Just setting criminals aside, this very observable fact harms the black community as crime is a certain tax. But when you talk about the various taxes that black male prisoners are paying, you completely ignore the tax that criminals foist on their communities. At it’s… Read more »
GLP: I do believe that men of all colors have an ability to control their own destiny. I also believe that for some the deck is stacked against them. If you happen to be born into Haiti you are unlikely to win a Rhodes Scholarship. You might but the odds are very long. If you are born black in America, and poor as many are, you chances of going to college and getting a good job are slim. Yes, there are some who do. But most don’t and can’t. Do I call that institutional racism. Yes. Do I call it… Read more »
It’s funny how coming up as a poor white with neither parent having a college degree or pushing me into education, or having friends that literally had mostly single-parent homes, parents that were serious junkies, no money, a general anti-social ambiance and non-productive malaise and yet none that come to mind ever wound up doing serious prison sentences or doing serious time.
One might argue that the failure isn’t our education system, but with poor parenting, along with a societyal mindset that excuses the bad behavior of many and chooses to claim that people murder, rape, steal, etc, not because they are bad people or because they see some perverse incentive in doing so, but because of racism, poverty, yadda yadda yadda. By the way, one could argue easily that this has more to do with feminism (AKA: the reason why GMP exists) and the deification of single mothers. What percentage of prisoners are products of single moms? Last stat I read… Read more »
“Maybe as a white man it’s not my place.” Tommy, Do you realize this statement makes you look like a typical white liberal fool? As if you’re constant emoting wasn’t enough, now we have to suffer through your saying white people shouldn’t talk about race because “it’s not their place.” Who do you think really has issues with talking “honestly” about race? In my experience, it tends to be white liberals with feelings of guilt and blacks who blame racism for all their problems. I’m against affirmative action . . . that gets me called a racist. I believe that… Read more »
Tom, I always hear that black people are more criminal and more violent and more dangerous than whites. I will say that a look at the information on incarceration in this country shows that most black men who are in prison are there because of non-violent drug offenses. That has more to do with the “war on drugs” and the simply fact that a white kid on drugs “made a mistake” and needs treatment and his black counterpart is a dangerous criminal. I appreciate you engaging people in this debate. But please understand that a lot of people are intellectually… Read more »
I’m utterly flabbergasted about the turn this conversation has taken. “Black people commit disproportionate levels of crime, black men to adhere to the stereotypical black male role – which, for many, includes a life of crime, an anti-education bent, sexual recklessness, and counter-cultural feelings, black men suffer the most from buying into anti-intellectualism (because it is effeminate) and also move towards criminal endeavors (because it affirms their masculinity).” And yet we wonder aloud why no one wants to discuss race. I earnestly suggest talking TO a black man–like myself, for example–instead of ABOUT them, as an attempt to understand the… Read more »
Jackie, You want to have an honest discussion about race, but you don’t want to deal with the salient facts surrounding that discussion. Why is it OK to posit mens shortcomings on various other posts on this site, but it is somehow racist to focus on certain aspects of particular ethnic and racial groups that may also lead to less optimal outcomes? Why is my acknowledging what many in the black community talk about – from Bill Cosby on to black pastors and many other black people – somehow racist or a caricature of black men? I’m not trying to… Read more »
a study published in the American Journal of Sociology AJS Volume 109 Number 3 (November 2003) by Angela Behrens and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota, and Jeff Manza of Northwestern University actually present historical argument behind institutionalized racial disparity in criminal sentencing, and their insidious reasons: “Disproportionate criminal punishment of nonwhites constitutes, in part, a reaction to perceived racial threat. The most common formulation traces racial threat to economic relationships between racial (or ethnic) groups. Levels of racial hostility may therefore be greater in places where a dominant group has higher levels of economic marginality. The racial composition… Read more »
Jackie,
This is not a study. It’s an ideological opinion by a couple of liberals who want to blame all the problems of the black community on whites.
Best,
The Dude
As I have said here many times, there is no “male privilege.” White men followed closely by white women are the only ones who enjoy any privilege. Black men (not women) are at the very bottom of the privilege wrung, which is why so many feminist positions, viewpoints, and policies are so racist and discriminatory.
Tom, Are you really making the case that the U.S. and South Africa are a fair comparison when a serious candidate for the Presidency is a black man born in the South and who has worked his way into a position of wealth and power. His story qualifies him, like few others, to offer a critique of those who stand on the sidelines and complain about their plight. If we are to make serious progress in the conversation about race and economy, then a good beginning place is to take a serious look within and claim responsibility for some part… Read more »
I am saying that we ought to be able to talk about race much more bluntly than apparently we are able. I don’t think it’s a genetic predisposition that causes 43% of inmates to be black and nearly half black men to be without work. I think its a society where we don’t talk about race at all.
We don’t talk effectively about race – whether bluntly or not. And it is not part of the discourse of national, or local, decision-makers, that’s for sure. But comparing the United States to South Africa is hyperbolic at best.
What pisses me off is that people tend to dismiss Herman Cain, when he insists that people should take responsibility for their own lives, because he is now wealthy – as if his wealth has completely abrogated his heritage or history.
Agree with you here Roger. Herman Cain should have been the aspirational goal for young black men – not Obama. What did Obama do? He is most known for being a community organizer. But it is much easier for a black man to become a community organizer than a CEO of a major corporation. Along with Obama, what other leading lights are held up as goals for young black men to aspire to? Jay Z, Puff Daddy, Lebron James, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama. Those are safe aspirational goals for blacks because by being an entertainer or something of a countercultural… Read more »
Cain is a simple-minded right wing wacko and is unlikely to get elected based on his 9-9-9 when people in states with no sales tax or low sales or state income tax learn that suddenly they are going to go from low or no tax to 9 or even 18 percent tax.
Eric, I agree that Cain doesn’t stand a chance. He came busting out of the gates with an extreme proposal because he never thought he’d be a frontrunner. He exceeded his own expectations. But the support behind Obama stemmed mostly from his being black. It wasn’t as if voters liked his policies so much more than Hillary’s or anyone else’s. A large contingent of the Democratic base were inspired by Obama. My contention is that blacks (and white liberals) could also be inspired by Cain, but they won’t be because Cain operates within a system which they don’t want to… Read more »
Tom, You are aware that black people commit disproportionate levels of crime in this country right? You’re acting as if blacks are being imprisoned for no good reason. Also, the minimum wage helps displace black labor. Since blacks tend to have lower levels of education, like all relatively lower-skilled workers they are pushed out of the labor market. Since this site has gone racial over the past couple of months, perhaps it is time for a piece aimed directly at black men, discussing the desire on the part of many black men to adhere to the stereotypical black male role… Read more »
I’ll agree with this. Mainstream black masculinity is pretty severely counter-productive to society. But it’s important to remember that it is also a response to institutionalized racism.
Brandon,
It is *completely* a response to institutionalized racism? Black people aren’t at all responsible for their own outcomes?
40% of all inmates in America are black. And they’ve broken laws passed by a white legislature. A legislature that says using/selling crack (the “black” drug) is a more serious offense than using/selling cocaine (the “white” drug); and a judicial system that is far more likely to convict a black man over a white man for the same crime, etc. And aside from the institutionalized racism dilemma, there is a bigger sociological question of what is considered proper for this particular cultural group. If the messages I’ve received my ENTIRE LIFE about masculinity from my family and neighborhood include objectifying… Read more »
Brandon, I’ll grant that there is a disparity in the drug levels and the commensurate punishments that tends to fall heaviest on blacks, but there is also the fact that black men commit murder, rape, robbery, and other violent offenses at much higher rates than their population representation would predict. So I take it that what you are saying is that there should be a collective effort from both sides to try to fix blacks’ “problems”, but instead the lion’s share of literature on this subject only attacks the issue of white racism and hardly ever discusses black peoples’ responsibility… Read more »
Further, the Good Men Project has devoted itself to telling men, in general, that the scripts they’ve bought into over the course of their lives are leading them down wrong paths.
Pretty much everything this site has ever published has been nothing but affirmations of the script that has been force fed down our throats for most of our lives. What exactly in this article for example is contrary to the mainstream?
Certainly, everyone should take responsibility for their own actions; however, you simply cannot expect there to be no negative consequences and repercussions form being discriminated against for hundreds of years.
I don’t think Cain stands a chance of getting the republican nomination. The last time they tried to play for a “minority” vote, they put Palin on the card, and it backfired. Cain can’t speak about racism because he doesn’t believe it exists, and Obama won’t speak on it because he’s trying to live in a meritocracy. For all of the vitriol said about the POTUS, I actually wish someone would admit they didn’t like him because he’s black.
JFB
I’m all for meritocracy but at the moment that seems far from the American system I am seeing.
Well, evidently Cain doesn’t think racism still actually hurts anyone in this country, according to his statements in a CNN interview last weekend, so I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for him to address the problems racism still presents in the lives of people of color in this country. His I-made-it-so-you-all-must-be-able-to-too attitude really infuriates me; I’m all for racial uplift, but not at the expense of recognizing the ways institutionalized systems of race-, gender-, and sexuality-based oppressions that are still very much affecting people’s daily lives and chances of success.
Source:http://www.mediaite.com/tv/herman-cain-on-cnn-i-dont-believe-racism-holds-anybody-back-in-a-big-way-today/