White Culture

American Presidents have to explain why Black people haven't prospered. Their first theory was that Black people haven't done better because they are biologically inferior.  When that theory eventually faded, because it was stupid,  a second theory was developed: Black people are biological equals, but they have an inferior culture. According got this theory, the legacy of slavery is that Black people have dysfunctional families, lazy workers, a lack of interest in education, etc. 

Also the Sioux had an inferior culture, and their children needed to be made White and so on. That once seemed self-evident.

Brown vs. the  Board of Education took the cultural supremacy  theory seriously. The goal of public education--as the Warren court saw it--was to move Black children out of Black culture and into White culture. And the way to do that was desegregation, seating Black kids next to White kids in classrooms. Juxtaposition would do the trick.

The court meant well. Many people of color agreed with its approach at the time. Today the assumption that White culture is the best culture of all strikes some scholars as an overreach. What we call "White culture" draws on the achievements of Mesopotamia, Peru, Rome, China, Egypt, Mexico, Greece, Austria, India and so on. White people in different places have different cultures, and the same is true for Black people, the Chinese, the Arabs, etc. The explicit claim by Warren that an all-Black school must necessarily be inferior to an integrated school is founded on racism (and underfunding Black schools). 

I'm committed to integration and intermarriage. I was delighted last week to learn that my granddaughter is 1% Nigerian. But I learned from reading Ibram X. Kendi that the Warren court conclusion that separate cannot be equal was based on unwarranted assumptions about the superiority of the so-called White culture. Think again.

Raising a Child

Racism and sexism are hard to talk about, but if you want to end a friendship, your best chance is to differ on child-rearing principles. 

The most truthful comment I can make is that no matter which system you follow, there will be bad consequences. 

In a recent article (THE NEW YORKER, Jan 29, 2018) Adam Gopnik quoted Alexander Herzen: “Because children grow up, we think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child.“  One part of life (the early years ) is not inferior to other parts or preparation for other parts. It’s there to be lived a day at a time. Make them good years, a day at a time. Also do a little preparation. 

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Oakbutt

The problem is that many people these days confuse our local old folks hamlet of Oakmont with a somewhat related business called Oakmont Senior Living. (I'm not sure where either gets the "mont." It's flat-land out there.) 

"Oakmont" is not a good name, people. It's bland and not distinctive--Oakmonts exist in great numbers. The name is not worth a squabble  In fact, in Sonoma County the name conjures up a well-known history of crabby old farts trying to ban bicycles and all sports that include moving balls. That's why I suggest that the hamlet members call a meeting and change the name to Oakbutt. Oakbutt is memorable and reminiscent of constipation, the area's most common health problem other than death.

Counterpart

The Trump White House seems confused. The right hand doesn’t know what the far right hand is doing. They're getting paranoid. Meanwhile on television there are many series that are based on one paranoid theory or another.  I don’t want to watch them, but I sometimes allow myself to choose one (and one only) to try out. I am currently following COUNTERPART on STARZ, and I find it fascinating. It's a doppelgänger plot. 

Something for Nothing

Politics runs on emotion rather than reason, which is, I suppose, common knowledge. Everything we do runs on emotion. We make our choices.

CHIP funding had run out last week. Children were beginning to die.

Over the weekend the Republicans and Democrats in the senate struck a deal. The Democrats got medical funding for 8 million poor kids (of all races), a billion medical dollars for Puerto Rico and more. The Republicans got three extra weeks to come up with a budget. Not settled in this deal was DACA . (No one brought up the fate of the other 90% of Latinos without papers, older people—they can expect merciless persecution.) The Republicans, President Chaos and my favorite politicians of the left have called this deal a GOP triumph.

I’m no longer a Democrat, but I have a major emotional commitment to funding medical care for 8 million poor kids, so the Democrats made headway with me. They got something important (CHIP) in exchange for a patch of time. But getting something for nothing wasn’t satisfying. No heads rolled. A one-sided deal does not satisfy the need to fight symbolically to the end. (?)

The Bones of Our System

Last week my granddaughter asked why we didn’t like Donald Trump. We didn’t really answer her. I suppose no one wanted to upset someone that young.  

American history is packed with bad Presidents, most of them chosen to provide quicker service for the 1%. Many Presidents have had sex with hookers, held down people of color, fought stupid wars, denied children needed medicine and misled voters. Trump is different. He’s added a new element.

Trump isn’t taking us back to the eras of Nixon or Hoover or Andrew Jackson. He resembles more ancient, weirder characters we’ve read about (and forgotten) from deeper in our sordid human history, nutty rulers-in-chaos like the Roman Emperor Nero, who murdered his mother, executed his first wife, etc. Like Trump, Nero loved real estate and burned Rome (most but not all historians say) to make room for a golden mansion and 300 acres of garden. Like Trump, Nero bought golden replicas of himself. Nero coped with the outcry by blaming Christians and burning them. He kicked another pregnant wife to death. The Roman Senate eventually revolted, and Nero ran until cornered and then had his secretary kill him, lacking even the courage of a Hitler. 

Trump lacks courage and lacks much of what makes us human. He’s leaked his own wild chaos into our system. We have no way to predict what this looney will do next, nor does he. But his thrashing about has made the brittle bones of the American system more visible. 

Stormy Daniels

I have no idea which sexual positions President George Washington favored, and let’s keep it that way. Besides, Washington, supposedly the man who could not tell a lie, would seem unrelated to a subhuman Donald Trump. It's bad luck to mention them in the same paragraph.   

It’s my misfortune that Stormy Daniels, porn star, once said that Trump in bed was “textbook generic.” Apparently Trump told her that she closely resembled one of his daughters, the one he later claimed he’d like to date, the daughter Steve Bannon claimed was as “dumb as a brick.” So I credit the President with a little imagination.

The Size of President Lardbottom

Trump's constant lying seems to be contagious. Yesterday two senators went on TV and obviously lied about the shithole incident, a department head with a Scandinavian name pretended not to know that Norwegians are White and a medical doctor’s report on Trump’s health smelled like a man-sized pile of cat poop.

First, the doctor told us that Trump is 75 inches tall, but when Trump stands next to someone 75 inches tall on television, Trump is several inches shorter. I figure he was 74 inches tall in his youth, and then his enormous bum dragged him down an inch in old age. 

Second, and even more obvious, the doctor listed Trump’s weight as (I think) 238 pounds, just one pound short of the obese classification for someone two inches taller than Trump actually is. That means Trump and I weigh the same, give or take a pound or two. I am three inches shorter than Trump and half as wide. That blob must weigh 300 pounds with his high black socks on. Even Trump's government doctor—a naval officer, I think—is lying for the balmy creep, which is disgusting. 

Resistance Is Futile

There’s a debate going on between those who believe in assimilation (the melting pot) and those who believe in identity politics, except that nearly everyone is on the same side. The Right opposes assimilation for racist reasons. The Left opposes assimilation because why should everyone act like White people?

I agree with everyone else in defending identity politics. Meanwhile, when it’s time for lunch, I eat more salsa than ketchup. I’m not entirely loyal to my European identity. I love potatoes, corn, tomatoes, Lima beans, chocolate and vanilla, none of which were developed in Europe. I eat sushi, for God's sake. I admire Beyonce and the old Chuck Berry songs and the athletic women and men who represent America in the Summer Olympics. I can't stop watching Black comics and the Warriors. I voted for Obama in the primaries. I try to support my identity group, but it might be the case that resistance is futile.