A Modern Witch Trial - Racism: the charge against which there is no defense

City Journal ^ | Spring 2009 | Theodore Dalrymple

[T.L.Sink]

Men may be created equal, but not all murders are equal. Among the politically significant kind was the murder of Stephen Lawrence, a young black man, in a London suburb in April, 1993. Five or six white youths set upon Lawrence and a friend, Duwayne Brooks. One of the attackers supposedly shouted, "What, what, nigg**?" immediately before Lawrence was stabbed to death. The perpetrators escaped conviction. The police investigation into the murder was a model of incompetence of the kind that every Briton now expects of our boys in blue. But the Lawrence murder took on a wide social significance because of its racial overtones. The botched investigation became a cause celebre - the perception being that racism alone could explain the police's failure to bring the perpetrators to justice. There followed a festival of political and emotional correctness which have rarely been equalled. This year, on the tenth anniversary of the PC report, the press and criminologists are celebrating it for bringing about a "paradigm shift" in the sensitivities of British police about "diversity" - police now think about race all the time, it seems.

[T.L.Sink]

Dalrymple (his pen name) is a psychiatrist and renowned writer. He's urbane, sophisticated, and has lived in many different cultures throughout the world. But he's no abstract writer. On the contrary, his acute perceptions and experiences with such a wide variety of people in different cultural and social situations has given him a profound insight into human nature. His article explains how racism has become the invidious (and easily convenient) weapon of the PC crowd. His article must be completely READ because any attempt to adequately summarize it would be futile. But I promise that all Dalrymple aficionados will love it!

[PGalt]

I’ve read many of Dalrymple’s very fine articles. Thanks for posting another one.

[Bahbah]

I read everything of his that I come across. Thanks for the post. He is an exceptional man.

[neverdem]

No, Newt, You're the Racist

No white males need apply. No white males and dogs allowed.

[T.L.Sink]

I read the article and that jerk Hogan argues like an eight year old: “NO, YOU’RE A RACIST!” He also pulls the famous old “out of context” line that every liar resorts to when caught in a lie. As Yogi said, “Deja vu all over again.”

[PGalt]

And antiquity presents everywhere — in Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome — the spectacle of a few men molding mankind according to their whims, thanks to the prestige of force and of fraud. But this does not prove that this situation is desirable. It proves only that since men and society are capable of improvement, it is naturally to be expected that error, ignorance, despotism, slavery, and superstition should be greatest towards the origins of history. The writers quoted above were not in error when they found ancient institutions to be such, but they were in error when they offered them for the admiration and imitation of future generations. - The Error of the Socialist Writers, "The Law" - Frédéric Bastiat 1801-1850