"Hard Truths" From Hillary On Race

On Wednesday Hillary Clinton called for a national conversation confronting the "hard truths" about race, guns and violence.

On Saturday in San Francisco, Hillary said "Let's be honest" about race. She is hardly the first politician to preface her prevarications with that phrase, but her shamelessness remains unsurprising.

“Our problem is not all kooks and Klansmen. It’s also the cruel joke that goes unchallenged. It’s the offhand comment about not wanting those people in the neighborhood,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Let’s be honest, for a lot of well meaning, open-minded white people, the sight of a young black man in a hoodie still evokes a twinge of fear.”

Groan - the shadow of fear that afflicts whites. Again? 

First, maybe she was thinking of Jesse Jackson. Or many cabbies.

Secondly, Obama was quick to throw his own grandmother under the bus to personalize this point when he made it during the 2008 campaign.

So why doesn't Hillary confront some hard truths and be honest with us? Surely she considers herself to be a "well meaning, open-minded" white person. Does she also feel that twinge of fear she is comfortable ascribing to many of the rest of us? Or have her decades within a Secret Service protective bubble inured her to the possibility of street crime?

And call me classist, but how many "well meaning, open-minded" white people feel a twinge of fear when they see a young white man with jeans, a denim jacket, prison tats, and the rest of the Hell's Angels / Justified crystal meth look? Hmm, does Hillary realize that a tattoo can adversely impact one's professional prospects? Dare I wonder, if a person presents himself in a way that suggests he has rejected some mainstream norms, is it fair to wonder whether he holds a mainstream view on non-violence to random strangers?

And does context count? Speaking for myself, if I see either a young black man in a hoodie or a Hells Angel wanna-be on the not-so-mean streets of my suburban enclave, that person is out of place and more of a cause for concern than the typical dogwalker or middle-aged jogger I have learned to expect. But in Central Park on a Sunday afternoon? That's what makes New York the greatest city in the world.

I am sure Hillary would love to expand on her thoughts here, and continue her lecture on why "lots" of the rest of us are racist haters.

Comments

[Jack The Trans-Former]

Primo.

The view from our room window in Boston.

[MarkO]

Hillary's statements could never be hearsay. They are not offered for the truth of the matter asserted.

She was fired from the Watergate Committee for corruption and flunked the bar exam. This is the best we can find?

[Jack The Trans-Former]

What do you mean "we", kemo sabay?

[DebinNC]

HC should be asked to explain why 2 black males would shoot 9 people, including a baby attending a block party in West Philadelphia last night.

[Michael (fpa Patriot4Freedom)]

Funny, I didn't think Hill-LIAR-y was interested in telling *any* kind of truth . . .

[Captain Hate]

Let's be honest about how Rodham has enabled her predator husband.

[Cecil Turner]

a young white man with jeans, a denim jacket, prison tats, and the rest of the Hell's Angels / Justified crystal meth look?

The funniest part of that is, Dewey Crowe, the stereotypical redneck hillbilly Klan wannabe isn't even American:

Damon Herriman was born on March 31, 1970 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

And sorry to be a naysayer to Hillary, but the hard truth is that African Americans commit >50% of the murders in this country--and more grievance politics will just make things worse, not better . . . press accounts suggesting otherwise notwithstanding.

[Cispigmented Heteronormative Microagressive Ignatz]

Hillary must be feeling guilty about all those lamps she's chucked at the nation's first black president.
There's black blood on her liver spotted hands.

[lyle]

I'd like to see the census data on ethnicity, income and crime in Chappaqua. Maybe Her Highness can enlighten us rubes. Well...this rube, anyway.

[narciso]

did not know that Cecil, actually Charles Murray, had more to say in his previous book 'Falling Apart, re both Beevis and his counterparts in Baltimore and St. Louis,

[narciso]

well even his premise is wrong, although not as blinkered as suggested,

http://therightscoop.com/no-karl-rove-did-not-call-for-the-repeal-of-the-2nd-amendment-this-morning/

[maryrose]

Dowd s articltie in the NYt tells of Hils dilemma wrt TPP
The comments are almost 80 percent against Hil
The Times is all out of love with Hillary

[Beasts of England]

It's super-dooper nice to spend all afternoon on the water with my daughters and come in with the whole back nine left at the US Open!

And a 64 from Adam Scott? On that course? Woot!

[Gentlejim]

Jordan Spieth is spectacular. What a putt on 16.

[Kurt]

The last time I heard a comment about someone "not wanting those people moving into the neighborhood," it was 10 years ago. But it gets better: the speaker was a far-left artist who lived in a rural community and didn't want to see any of the local (white) Baptists move in next door.