The DLC's Failed Southern Strategy and Understanding Southern Society

[JDPriestly]

7. From what I read on this board, most Black people do not understand the extent to which

having the "right" that is in the view of racists, the racist view on race is a matter of achieving standing and self-respect for the racists.

We have to shift that view, that social understanding.

Please tell me if I am wrong what you see as the problem with racism and the solutions to it.

Because I have been asking DUers who are Black to explain that to me, and I have not received any answers that make sense to me.

I think that the unbounded cruelty that we see in some of the videos of racist police officers abusing their Black victims is a very frightening indication about deep problems in our society.

That anger is focused on Black victims, but it cannot possibly be related in fact to the simple color of a person's skin. So how can it be explained.

Telling white people to stop it does not seem to work.

We have a lot of laws in place to prevent the brutality. They don't seem to work.

We have anti-discrimination laws. They don't work.

What is the answer?

If I am wrong, I would like to know more about why I am wrong and what is right.

I do not pretend that my analysis is perfect or even right. But I hope that it sets off a discussion beyond just the "you are wrong," and "that is a racist analysis."

Blacks and whites have been trying to improve race relations in our country for decades now and we have come a long way, but we are still in big trouble on this issue.

I would love to read your understanding of the issue of racism.

I mean that sincerely. So far, the statements I have read on DU have not seemed to really grasp it to me.

Again, I think that the problem with racism is that white racists find their sense of social place in the organization of their society to depend on viewing Black people and other people of color as beneath them on the social ladder.

If that view of their sense of social place could be changed, then we could at least drastically reduce racism.

I say that because I remember that I had a lower place in the social pyramid in the South by virtue of being a Yankee. My Jewish friends also had a lower place by virtue of being Jewish.

So it is in my view the existence of that pyramid in the South which is more defined than it is elsewhere in the country that makes it so difficult to lose racist attitudes.

I'm sorry if that offends DUers, but I think that when we have a problem in our country that is as severe as the problem of racism is that we should not censor our attempts to get to the causes of them and perhaps even find a cure.

I will be interested in hearing your thoughts on the issues I am raising.

If I am wrong and am shown where I am wrong in my thinking, I will be the first to admit it. But just saying I am wrong without backing it up with a good explanation as to why is insufficient somehow.