Blackpeopleloveus.com
Perhaps I will
comment on this site at length at a later date. I do find it amusing, though probably not for the reasons the site proprietors intended. A particularly interesting part of the site was the
"serious" page, a set of links to organizations that reflect the real views of black people. I have to say that this set of links piqued my interest. You see, the point of the site was to skewer the patronizing attitudes of guilty white liberals and puncture incorrect generalizations about blacks. This is a goal that I'm personally quite sympathetic to. In the interests of contributing to the issues raised on the site, I humbly suggest that the following links be added to their list:
FBI Uniform Crime Reports
WSJ Statement on IQ
The Color of Meritocracy
Taboo : Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It
Affirmative Action: Two Standards, one for Blacks and one for Whites
and, last but not least:
Distinguishing Black Syntax:
The issue of whether blacks can be distinguished from whites by the sound of their voices alone came to national attention during the recent O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles...Mr. Cochran angrily explained the basis of his objection:
You can't tell by somebody's voice whether they sounded black. . . . I resent that is a racist statement. . . . this statement about whether he sounds black or white is racist and I resent it and that is why I stood and objected. And I think it is totally improper in America at this time in 1995 we have to hear and endure this.
However, as linguist John McWhorter has noted in a recent book:
In fact, however, Cochran got away with murder on that one . . . most Americans, and especially black ones, can almost always tell that a person is black even on the phone, and even when the speaker is using standard English sentences.
PS - Speaking seriously, I recognize that the compilation of this list could be viewed as inflammatory if presented without context. But it is meant as a response to the charges brought by the blackpeopleloveus.com site. It's one thing to remain quiet about unpleasant truths when both parties agree that the topic is too controversial to discuss. It's quite another to stand by when baseless accusations of bias are tossed around. We cannot deem the topic to be
Mokita.