I like Hughes. Parham was good at first, but he went too far, almost embodying the (bad) parody of utilitarianism that Dickens creates in Hard Time, or the straight-faced argument of the Court in Lochner, which ruled a NY maximum work-week statute for bakers unconstitutional as it "infringed" on the their freedom to contract.
I would give this two likes if I could. The idea that racism is best addressed by a systematic program of reverse discrimination is not only false but pernicious. It sounds like something Vladimir Putin would concoct to make American polarization orders of magnitude worse. It reminds me of an old Firesign Theater skit where, at the end of the Civil War, the former slave Tom addresses his former masters. Tom informs them that slavery is not to end. Rather they will take turns on who gets to be masters and who gets to be slaves. And guess whose turn it is to be slaves now! Admittedly, the image of Massa slaving in the cotton fields while Tom reclines with a mint julep is an appealing one. In reality, though, something intrinsically evil is not made good by being applied to different people, not even the ones who had benefitted from that evil. Turnabout is never fair play. Of course, as an old white man I would be expected to say something like this. It is gratifying to see a young black man who agrees.
I like Hughes. Parham was good at first, but he went too far, almost embodying the (bad) parody of utilitarianism that Dickens creates in Hard Time, or the straight-faced argument of the Court in Lochner, which ruled a NY maximum work-week statute for bakers unconstitutional as it "infringed" on the their freedom to contract.
I would give this two likes if I could. The idea that racism is best addressed by a systematic program of reverse discrimination is not only false but pernicious. It sounds like something Vladimir Putin would concoct to make American polarization orders of magnitude worse. It reminds me of an old Firesign Theater skit where, at the end of the Civil War, the former slave Tom addresses his former masters. Tom informs them that slavery is not to end. Rather they will take turns on who gets to be masters and who gets to be slaves. And guess whose turn it is to be slaves now! Admittedly, the image of Massa slaving in the cotton fields while Tom reclines with a mint julep is an appealing one. In reality, though, something intrinsically evil is not made good by being applied to different people, not even the ones who had benefitted from that evil. Turnabout is never fair play. Of course, as an old white man I would be expected to say something like this. It is gratifying to see a young black man who agrees.