I'll be first in line

From Rottentomatoes.com, people can't pay enough for a film that revels in the killing of whites:

In a record setting deal ($17.5 million), Fox Searchlight has acquired the rights to the controversially-titled* slave rebellion biopic The Birth of a Nation. (*The Birth of a Nation was also the title of the 1915 D.W. Griffith film about the founding of the Ku Klux Klan). Nate Parker produced, directed, wrote, and stars in The Birth of a Nation as Nat Turner, the slave who led a rebellion in Virginia in 1831. Even though Fox Searchlight set a record with their $17.5 million winning bid, they actually were not the highest bidders, as both Netflix and producer Byron Allen reportedly submitted larger bids of $20 million each. 

From the Gaurdian's review:

When the revolt does come – a rebellion that saw five dozen slave owners and their families killed – Parker doesn’t leave anything to the imagination. Heads are crushed, stoved in and chopped off. Bodies are burned, teeth are broken. It’s a cathartic blood-letting that recalls the huff and puff of Braveheart, but instead of Mel Gibson splattering the English, it’s Parker hacking at the slave owners.

Black attitudes on race relations

The Survey of Chicago African Americans is a random sample of more than 700 people. Respondents were asked a number of questions about race relations.

Percent agreeing

"Is it more important - one, for schools in Black neighborhoods
to hire Black teachers OR two, for these schools to select the
most competent teachers regardless of race?"

Select the most competent 90.6

"Is it more important - one, for Blacks to build good relations
with Whites OR two, for Blacks to build pride and respect
for themselves, even if it means causing tension between Blacks
and Whites?

Build good relations 52.2

"Is it more important - one, to promote Black culture as a
separate culture OR two, to emphasize what Americans have
in common?

Emphasize common culture 75.1

"Is it more important - one, to help those who are worse off,
regardless of their color OR two, to concentrate on helping
Blacks?

Help regardless of color 93.1

"Is it more important - one, to promote racial harmony between
Blacks and Whites OR two, for Blacks to fight for their rights,
even if it means creating tension between Blacks and Whites?"

Promote racial harmony 68.1

"As things now stand, is it more important to - one, treat
Blacks and whites the same OR two, to first overcome the
effects of past discrimination?

Treat Blacks and Whites the same 62.7

"To make real progress in achieving equality, is it better for Blacks - one, to work together with whites OR two, to work together mostly with other Blacks?

Work together with whites? 83.7

"In general, do you think it's better for people of different
races - one, to keep to themselves as much as possible OR
two, to live and work together so they can learn to understand
each other?"

Live and work together 98.7

Blacks should always vote for Black candidates when
they run for an elected office?"

Agree (strongly or somewhat) 19.2

"Blacks are better off living with other Blacks in Black neighborhoods rather than living with whites?"

Agree (strongly or somewhat) 18.4

"Black people should shop in stores owned by other Blacks whenever possible?"
 
Agree (strongly or somewhat) 59.5

"Blacks should have control over the economy
in mostly Black communities?"

Agree (strongly or somewhat) 62.2

"African wise men who lived hundreds of years
ago do not get enough credit for their contributions to
modern science?"

Agree (strongly or somewhat) 84.3

"The Ancient Greek philosophers copied many
ideas from Black philosophers who lived in Egypt?"

Agree (strongly or somewhat) 75.1

 
The numbers indicate that most blacks want to be integrated with whites, but they do not feel that they are respected as much as they should be. They are not equal to whites in business so they are willing to abandon color blindness when it comes to buying from black businesses and having blacks control business in their own neighborhoods.

The large number of blacks who do not feel they get enough credit for their scholarly and scientific achievements reveals their desperation to feel intellectually equal to whites.  Mythical black philosophers are invented who are smarter than those thieving Greeks--Plato and Aristotle. George Washington Carver has not been given his proper place next to Isaac Newton. The psychological hang-up that needs to be treated is not white prejudice but the black inferiority complex.

How about some reality therapy? To all black folks: 1) don't focus so much on the assessment of groups; focus on yourself as an individual; and 2) if you're going to focus on groups, relax--music, singing, dancing, sports and charisma aren't enough? Do you have to be good at everything?

Jared Taylor on transcending race

Jared Taylor has a new book on white identity. I look forward to reading it.

In the highlights of his ad, he claims that only whites have a desire to transcend race. The Detroit Area Study asked people (sample size = 378): "Generally speaking, do you favor full racial separation, integration in some areas of life, or full integration of the races?"

Sixty-five percent of whites want full integration. So Taylor seems to be right about whites. But what a about blacks? Seventy-two percent want full integration. That doesn't sound like "whites are the only race..." People don't always act as if they want to transcend race, but Taylor also makes claims about aspirations.

Race and ethnicity among Hispanics

As a follow-up to the last post, I calculated how warmly Hispanics of three different races (white, black, other) felt towards generic whites, blacks, and Hispanics (sample sizes = at least 200).

Overall, Hispanics are the best liked group (not surprising); blacks are the least liked. This is the same pattern we saw in the last post with all races.  

White Hispanics like Hispanics better than they like whites. They like their Latinness more than their whiteness. People usually like their whatever-elseness more than being white if they have a choice. You distance yourself from whiteness if you can. Whites also like their own race the least (the difference is very big). I suspect that while they describe their race as white, many answer the closeness-to-whites question thinking of whites as "Anglos." 

Black Hispanics like blacks better than Hispanics. They like their blackness more than their Latinness. Black trumps Latino in the race/ethnic hierarchy.

Other-race Hispanics like whites more than blacks, but the means for both are low. They like Hispanics much more than either blacks or whites. The 2.5 point gap between the mean closeness towards blacks and that towards Hispanics is huge. 

White Americans like Chinese Americans more than the reverse

There has been a lot of Internet buzz about the white UCLA student who complained about Asian student behavior on campus.  She has been trashed as a hater, and OneSTDV wrote about it on his blog.

Whites get called haters for anything and everything, but how do they actually stack up against Asians?

The GSS asked a sample of Americans how warmly they feel towards: 1) whites, and 2) Asians. Answers ranged from "not at all close" (1) to "very close" (9).  The mean for whites towards Asians is 6.25. The mean of Chinese Americans towards whites is 5.58, and it's 6.52 for Japanese people. The white and Japanese means are not significantly different, but whites like the Chinese significantly more than the reverse.

NAMs desire respect, whites seek to be liked

Here is the conclusion of an interesting study reported in the August issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:

Pervasive representations of Blacks and Latinos as unintelligent and of Whites as racist may give rise to divergent impression management goals in interracial interactions. We present studies showing that in interracial interactions racial minorities seek to be respected and seen as competent more than Whites do, whereas Whites seek to be liked and seen as moral more than racial minorities do.

The phenomenon of the "black angel"

From City Journal:

The first signs of the spiritual zeal that would eventually play a significant part in Obama’s election came not from Washington or Chicago but from Hollywood. Our moviemakers are adept at measuring the zeitgeist of the nation—of its liberal half, anyway—and are a powerful force in shaping it. And for more than a decade, they’ve been churning out what critics call “black-angel” movies. These films feature a white protagonist guided to enlightenment by a black character, usually of divine or supernatural origin or, at the very least, in touch with spiritual experiences that the main character lacks. With the black angel’s help, the white hero finds salvation.

The genre includes, to name just a few, The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000), in which Will Smith—playing a caddie who is really, the film hints, God—restores Matt Damon’s golf game and love life; Bruce Almighty (2003), in which Morgan Freeman, as God, bestows his powers on a manic Jim Carrey; and the awful What Dreams May Come (1998), in which Cuba Gooding, Jr. is a wise soul guiding Robin Williams through the afterlife. These movies have been numerous enough, David Sterritt points out in the Christian Science Monitor, to confuse TV’s buffoonish Homer Simpson: in one episode, “Homer mistook a black man in a white suit for an angelic visitor, all because (according to his embarrassed wife) he’d been seeing too many movies lately.”

Far and away the best of the black-angel films is Frank Darabont’s The Green Mile (1999), based on a novel by Stephen King, whose knack for setting his finger on the cultural pulse has made him a multimillionaire. The basso profundo Michael Clarke Duncan plays John Coffey (note the initials), a gigantic black man wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of two little girls in Depression-era Louisiana and sentenced to death; Tom Hanks plays Paul Edgecomb, a prison guard who discovers that Coffey is not only innocent but also a Christlike miracle worker. Coffey’s laying-on of hands restores a dead mouse to life, cures Edgecomb of a bladder infection, and heals the warden’s wife’s brain cancer. Shortly before he is executed—the jeering of the girls’ anguished parents and the weeping of the prison guards who know the truth recall the account of the Crucifixion in Luke—Coffey has this exchange with a tortured Edgecomb:

Edgecomb. Tell me what you want me to do. You want me to take you out of here? Just let you run away? See how far you could get?

Coffey. Why would you do such a foolish thing?

Edgecomb. On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I—did I kill one of His true miracles—what am I going to say? That it was my job? . . .

Coffey. You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done. . . . I want it to be over and done with. I do. . . . I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day.

The writer or director of a black-angel film recognizes the unspeakable injustices once perpetrated by his country on black people; he wants to be forgiven the sins of his fathers. If he is simply a comedian, he makes Bruce Almighty, casting a black man as God in a sort of lighthearted flattery. If his waters run deeper, he understands that no plum role can atone for the crimes that weigh on him. Instinctively, he realizes what thinkers from Aristotle to Marcel Mauss have known: that whenever a gift is given, the prestige of the giver increases and that of the recipient declines. So he tells a story in which a black man gives the greatest gift of all, suffering—like Jesus in Christian theology—for others’ sins, in fact demanding to suffer, and by demanding, forgiving. White America is pardoned its wrongs, while black America, by pardoning, is elevated to godhood.
 
Are these movies ultimately condescending to blacks? After all, the white protagonist, the person who will be saved or damned according to his decisions, is invariably more interesting than the serene black angel hovering nearby. Indeed, the condescension, if such it is, is a cinematic version of affirmative action—a denial to blacks of Everyman’s struggle for salvation; a magnanimous extension to them of paradise.

One year since Obama's election, blacks are MORE pessimistic about race relations

Here's a Gallup graph displaying trends in the belief that problems between blacks and whites will eventually be worked out. The main thing that jumps out at me is that as blacks have made unprecedented gains--the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the implementation and institutionalization of affirmative action programs; the rise of the black middle class; the dramatic decline in white racism; enhanced penalties for hates crimes; a black President--the belief among blacks that they will finally get a fair shake in America has tended to decline. Perversely, progress has bred pessimism.

I wish I could say I was surprised that black faith in the system dropped 8 points (from 50 to 42 percent) since President Obama was elected. My guess is that most blacks identify very strongly with Obama. His success is their success, and when they see angry whites at tea parties and town hall meetings, they interpret it as hate directed toward them. And why wouldn't you believe the worst when whites like Jimmy Carter tell you that you are right? If race gets ugly at some point (I should say uglier) in the future--and God knows I hope it doesn't go that way--people like Jimmy Carter will have blood on their hands.  The reality is racial goodwill, but blinded by their hatred of white conservatives, all they see is racism.

Turning to another graph, I was a bit surprised how many Americans--black and white--feel that racism against whites is widespread. Forty-six percent of whites and an impressive 39 percent of blacks feel that way, and both estimates are up from last year. I'm not sure what blacks are thinking of--perhaps they know blacks who do not like whites--but I imagine whites are thinking of affirmative action. Believing that anti-white racism is prevalent has got to make many whites angry. It's no secret that injustice sets people off.  If Republicans had two brain cells, they would make more of this issue.

NAMs don't trust: Hispanics and especially blacks tend to be suspicious people. According to the GSS, 40% of all Americans say that people can generally be trusted, but only 17% of blacks, 24% of Mex-Ams, and 16% of Puerto Ricans feel that way. Many of them are quick to think that someone is taking advantage of them; that someone is discriminating against them. Now, this could be due to their experience in America. Being dominated by another people could easily lead to distrust. Or it could be an ethnic trait.

The World Values Survey asked people all around the world the same question. Thirty percent of all respondents agreed that most people can be trusted. Here are the percentages who agreed in countries with high percentages of blacks or Hispanics:


Percent who say people can be trusted

Dominican Republic 26.4
Nigeria 22.1
South Africa 19.1
Zimbabwe 11.9
Tanzania 8.1
Uganda 7.6


Mexico 28.9
Chile 22.5
Argentina 20.3
Venezuela 14.8
El Salvador 14.6
Puerto Rico 12.4
Columbia 10.8
Peru 8.2

All black and Latino countries sampled have below-average numbers. Now, some might explain this lack of trust as the legacy of colonialism or a reaction to exploitative social conditions, but whatever the case, it seems to be a widespread, reliable characteristic. This does not bode well for long-term race relations in America. Trust is an essential ingredient for a thriving society.

Are race relations improving? Even on the road, I can't resist analyzing data. My sense is that blacks as a group have developed more positive attitudes about whites in recent years, but with preachers like Wright still going strong, maybe I'm mistaken.

The GSS asked blacks how close they felt to white, with answers ranging from "not at all" (0) through "not one way or the other" (5) to "very close" (9). Here are the means:


Mean closeness score

1996 5.65
2006 6.00

Blacks lean on the positive side, and have moved one-sixth of a standard deviation farther in that direction in the past decade. Maybe black views have softened since the times of Rodney King, O.J., and Farrakhan.

And while we're at it, how about whites toward blacks?


Mean closeness score

1996 5.10
2006 5.50

Whites are more neutral, but have moved in the positive direction as well--about one-fifth of a standard deviation.