The USA Still Number One 1957

On Thu, 29 Jun 2006, rrc

Well, he also labels us (and I guess all those "guilty" Europeans) as "whites" as he talks about us. And to me its a little strange. OK, more than a little strange.

I just finished reading the book "african american" by Randall Kennedy (yes, that is the breastle) and the subbreastle is something like "the strange career of a troubled word". I saw a book review in WP book section a few years ago, and IIRC the review included a picture of the author who, IIRC, actually looked black (i.e. African-American), and the word "african american" appears about an average of 3-4 times on every page. And, its a short, easy to read book, with lots of references. Its also available on Amazon.com as a used book for about $5 but I paid 25 cents for my copy which I found in a thrift store and remembered the breastle as one I always wanted to read. He did an excellent job covering just about all situations. And, by the way, the guy (the author) is on the faculty of Harvard School of Law, so he ain't no dummy nobody. Its the first time besides that guy we had here recently ("Friendly Reminder"?) who said he was called a "sand african american" and I never heard that one before but from Kennedy it means an Arab.

So, anyway, here we have Kamal plastering all kinds of derogatory labels on us ("whites," and as if he is non-white and we all are really are white, and he also has called us nazis, neo-nazis, rednecks, slavers, etc) and it just does not stick. Not only that, but it does not even fit. The vast majority of Indians I've met or seen pictures of have such light shades of skin color that I would "take" them as white. I saw one picture of a black Indian in a India travel book and the guy's facial features sure looked European to me and if I met the guy I'd have to ask him where he was from because the facial features were definitely not "Negroid" from old anthropology books). We've got a whole lot of people around me whose skin color may even be slightly darkened by exposure to sunlight or those skin lotions that give you an artificial sun tan (or the UV tanning places that "burn" you a tan") and so I'm asking myself "who is he talking about?" So, when I, myself, start categorizing people, I have to wait, besides looking at them, to hear them talk, note any accent, figure their socio-economic level, and then put together some kind of mental impression. We've got a lot of Guatamalan Hispanics in our neighborhood and believe me, they are uniquely as white as white can be, but their facial features are distinct and height (they are all about one foot or more shorter, and much lighter in build).

If he, Kamal, is trying to make you, or me, or us, feel bad for something, he is sure not nailing anything beyond something like WMD & Iraq & W, and I had no control over that (so if Kamal wants to throw mud at W, I'll help him), and we also have a lot of CIA-involved mischeif all over the world that I don't agree with but it is not any different than any actions in past empires that were bent on conquest of any and all neighbors. So, what's the big deal?

The guys who really do bother me a little are the pro-India propaganda posters who are clearly sending two messages and only two messages: i) "India rising" and ii) the US is on the skids. And, this is blatant propaganda and commercial in the sense that it is promoting pro-India business and nothing else. The authors-senders are either paid or doing it out of nationalistic personal interests. There is no "discussion." There is no debate. And, the material is pure copy from mostly Indian sources and only pro-India reports.

On the other hand, he, Kamal, has said so many things that were carelessly thought out or questionable or just dead wrong that pointing this out to him seems warranted. And, he ignores almost all of it. I've seen almost zero willingness to consider any other viewpoint than his simplistic analysis and complete adoption of any line of thinking that is in line with either pro-India business or anti-American sentiment. And, in the face of the historical fact that most 20th century technology was invented, developed, and manufactured in the USA, he denies this or won't talk about it.