“During the Katrina debacle, images of thousands of impoverished blacks jammed into the New Orleans Superdome brought the scandalous reality of black poverty back into view. But the moment passed.”

Oh, that’s good. Where as a few years ago we mught have actually CARED that thousands of poor black people were discriminated against and forced to live in squalor with no help from the government, now we can all just say, “well, that sucks,” and move on with life. Gee, thanks, terrorists!

The phrase and concept of “personal responsibility” in and of itself does not mean that, no. But in American politics and society “personal responsibility” is code for “society doesn’t owe you anything.” Since Kamiya is the executive editor of a news site, there is no way that he does not know this. The concept of “personal responsibility” that I’m criticizing is how it exists in the American vernacular today.

And the phrase “no longer willing to simply give every knucklehead in the ‘hood a free pass because of “structural racism.”” isn’t offensive on its own? Because I’m pretty sure that referring to the very large number of black men in America who end up dropping out of school/going to jail etc. because of the shitty hand that life has dealt them “knuckheads” and laughing off the phrase “structural racism” by putting it in quotation marks is pretty damn offensive. The sentence would have worked perfectly fine, by the way (though I would still disagree with it), if it didn’t include those quotation marks. And there is no reason to include them unless you’re trying to undermine the idea that it exists.

First, I’m gonna have to go ahead and agree that race disappeared for a period of time after 9/11 insofar as the black vs. white with latinos on the fringe dynamic turned into everyone vs. them dynamic. To be Arab in America right after 9/11 was like living in fear of your life. I didn’t know until post 9/11 that when I don’t shave, I would end up getting a shitload of doubletakes and nervous looks at the airport. That Arabs were completely discriminated against post-9/11 by ALL races meant that race disappeared in the sense that America repolarized into everyone vs. anyone with a shaggy beard, dark skin, and/or a turban.

I kind of get what Kamiya is saying with Obama, but he’s off base in that the reason America (read white America), embraces Obama is because he’s “opted out of the dance”(whatever the hell that means). It’s more in the same vein why many African-Americans don’t embrace him is he’s African, not African-American. Obama didn’t “opt out” because you can’t opt out of your skin color and origins. Matter of fact, many African immigrants are highly eager to assimilate into America and go on to higher education, often at the expense of disassociation with African-Americans.

Also, I dont know if you’re ripping Kamiya or middle class blacks for picking up the “white Republican crap” that is the whole pulling yourselves up by your bootstraps deal, but such a mentality is extremely necessary for conditions to improve, and such a mentality is not mutually exclusive with an understanding that white privilege and the covert racism pervasive in our institutions is a harsh reality. Personal responsibility does not equal “level playing field” by any means, though I understand what you mean when you refer to American politics; the two party system is the most excellent polarizing mechanism I have ever seen.

“The real point of the values answer is not that middle-class blacks are turning against “blackness,” whatever that is: It’s that they are insisting that they have the right to create their own signifiers of blackness. And it’s that middle-class blacks — who suffer from white discrimination that is in part a response to black underclass behavior, and who are far more likely to be the victims of black criminals than whites are — are no longer willing to simply give every knucklehead in the ‘hood a free pass because of “structural racism.”

That statement in and of itself shouldn’t be offensive; it’s true. There’s no moral value placed on it because it’s just a statement of whats happening; his judgment of it being a good thing afterwards an awfully controversial thing to say, especially coming from someone who isn’t African-American. Personally, I don’t want to touch that one.

And yeah, the race disappearing thing is just bullshit. In general, I think Kamiya makes a couple of good points but his writing sucks; he uses idiotic catch phrases and borderline prejudicial analogies while making points that require delicacy. I read the Kamiya article and the rebuttal, plus both the articles on NPR based on the Pew Polls, and I’m left with my head spinning. No simple answers.

That’s my favorite part. Racism, y’see, isn’t the fault of whites–oh nooooo, God forbid whites take responsibility for their behavior and privilege–it’s the fault of those bad black poor people! Shame on them for forcing whites to be racist!

But of course, let us not consider for even a moment whether or not the actions of black poor people might just possibly be at all affected by a racist power structure.