George Zimmerman’s acquittal continues to outrage those who wanted his trial to be a show trial “about” some pet cause. Rod Dreher excerpts, and then riffs at some length on, a comment by Richard Cohen (Racism vs. Reality) and the insultingly disingenuous response of Matt Yglesias.
I’ve been toying lately with the idea of mental triage. We cannot give our full attention to the full palette of possibilities that theoretically lie before us at every decision of every day, let alone tease out the consequences to ourselves and others, near- and long-term, of each alternative.
One area in which I’ve done mental triage is religion. When I was cornered by my principles into repudiating my former Evangelicalism and then Calvinism, I realized I had to give Roman Catholicism a look as well as the Orthodoxy that had enthralled me by then. I did, and after finding nothing to compel me from an Orthodox path that seemed both true and helpful, I respectfully rejected Rome – holding in the back of my mind a theoretical possibility of yet one more epiphany that would change my mind and acknowledging that many arguments for Orthodoxy vs. Calvinism are equally good arguments for Rome vs. Calvinism.
As Dreher puts it, with explicit reference to race:
What I struggle with is knowing when “profiling” — racial, gender, sartorial, whatever — is common sense, and when it is unreasonable. Profiling is always prejudicial, in that you are making a judgment without having sufficient knowledge of a person’s individual character. But we cannot all know everything; we have to rely on prejudice to get through the day. What is the difference between commonsense, prudential pre-judgment, and flat-out bigotry? When is it okay to profile, by which I mean when is it morally right, or at least morally tolerable, to notice patterns and make pre-judgments based on them? Why is it right in college admissions and hiring to reduce individuals to their race or gender?
I tend to think that frank racism has almost disappeared from the U.S. Few remain who would argue, even in a whisper among intimates, that white folks are per se better than black folks. We’ve elected a black man as President now, twice. An educated African-American who speaks standard English and “dresses for success” may even find doors opened more readily than a similarly-qualified white person.
But we stereotype, profile – triage, in my preferred term, though I’ll accept “stereotype” as well. As I recall, Jesse Jackson once acknowledged doing the same (although he put it, as I recall, in terms of two groups of young black men approaching on a dark street at night, one carrying Bibles and talking excitedly about Jesus, the other – well, conforming to a less wholesome stereotype).
I don’t think stereotyping (or whatever you want to call it) is going to go away until nobody conforms to any stereotype, and that day, in the impossible event that it should arrive, would not be one that I’d welcome. I think my poor introvert head would explode at all the decisions that would have to become conscious and, indeed, might become impossible (as singularities defy analogy and analysis).
Dreher also links this Youtube video of of a couple of shopkeepers who apparently like to rest their airheads on “vagina pillows.”
I don’t think I’m likely to be tuning in IFC for this.
Eugene Volokh expostulates on stand your ground versus duty to retreat, and it would appear that Florida is not all that retrograde.
Ellen Judith Reich, a Reform Jewish woman, tells how she came to be prolife: “I opened my eyes.”
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“The remarks made in this essay do not represent scholarly research. They are intended as topical stimulations for conversation among intelligent and informed people.” (Gerhart Niemeyer)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 