William Faulkner |
04-26-2005 01:13 PM |
Quote:
Originally posted by bilmore
Were I to pull out the racism card so soon, I would likely do it anon also. We are, at base, cowardly people, aren't we?
|
You misunderstand, my flightless friend. From the WSJ's august pages, the author's condemnations extend to both Southern whites and blacks, and do not necessarily attribute the culture of the former to the trials and tribulations of the latter.
My response, which I attempted to make exceedingly brief, is to the author's conflation of observations and statistics about Southern culture and its inhabitants with a conclusion that this state of affairs causes lagging achievement among blacks.
What are we to make of this? The author's description of Southern culture (for both races) as one prone to "higher levels of violence and sexual promiscuity" is certainly an interesting one, as is his rather wry observation that our culture has its "own way of talking, not only in the pronunciation of particular words but also in a loud, dramatic style of oratory with vivid imagery, repetitive phrases and repetitive cadences." How "fairly valid and dry," indeed.
His thesis that whites' and blacks' relative rates of economic success be tethered to their success in escaping from the purgatory of Southern culture is an interesting one, but I am far from convinced that the connection is more than a correlation, and in the meantime I take umbrage at the author's rather dismal characterizations, as applied to both groups.
You, in the meantime, appear convinced that I am "pulling out the race card," and apparently see no connection between a post commenting on Southern culture and a moniker dedicated to a Southern author. The "coward" comment was added, presumably, just for kicks. Your assessments of the intentions and meanings of those who post here remains unrivaled.
Your patella tendon is working as well as ever. You would do well to question what triggered it here.
Sincerely,
Wm. Faulkner
|