thetennesseestar--2020-06-07--Michigan Had 17 of 25 Counties with Highest Unemployment Nationally in April

Michigan was home to 17 of the 25 counties with the highest unemployment numbers in the nation in April .
According to a database from Lansing State Journal , Cheboygan County led the nation in unemployment with a 41.2 percent unemployment rate .
Second in the nation was Mackinac County at 38.1 percent .
Three of the top five highest unemployment rates in the nation were in Michigan in April , including Roscommon County , which had an unemployment rate of 34.3 percent .
Other Michigan counties in the top 25 included : For all 17 counties , April ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ record in the last 30 years , with the exception of Mackinac County , which had a 40.3 percent unemployment rate in January 1992 .
Michigan didn ’ t have any counties in the 25 counties with the lowest unemployment numbers nationally .
Texas , Kansas , and Nebraska had the most counties with the lowest unemployment .
Michigan ’ s unemployment claims dropped to 956,418 in the week ending May 30 , compared to 985,294 claims the previous week .
Although the 956,418 figure marked the lowest unemployment claims in Michigan since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state ’ s unemployment rates were still the ninth highest in the nation .
Nationally , Friday ’ s jobs report unexpectedly showed the U.S. economy gained 2.5 million jobs in May as the unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent .
Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer lifted Michigan ’ s stay-at-home order last week , moving the state to phase four of the MI Safe Start Plan .
Retail stores were allowed to reopen on June 4 under the new phase , while bars and restaurants can open up on June 8 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to meet effective immediately .
Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star .
Follow Anthony on Twitter .
Email tips to [ email protected ] .
Photo “ Long Lines ” by Gabriel White .
CC BY-SA 2.0 .

Michigan was home to 17 of the 25 counties with the highest unemployment numbers in the nation in April.
According to a database from Lansing State Journal, Cheboygan County led the nation in unemployment with a 41.2 percent unemployment rate. Second in the nation was Mackinac County at 38.1 percent.
Three of the top five highest unemployment rates in the nation were in Michigan in April, including Roscommon County, which had an unemployment rate of 34.3 percent.
Other Michigan counties in the top 25 included:
Montmorency County: 34.2
Oscoda County: 33.2
Clare County: 32.9
Arenac County: 32.3
Charlevoix County: 32.2
Tuscola County: 32.2
Manistee County: 31.7
Wexford County: 31.5
Sanilac County: 31
Lapeer County: 30.6
Emmet County: 30.4
Lake County: 30.4
St. Joseph County: 30.3
Genesee County: 30.1
For all 17 counties, April’s unemployment numbers were the highest on record in the last 30 years, with the exception of Mackinac County, which had a 40.3 percent unemployment rate in January 1992.
Michigan didn’t have any counties in the 25 counties with the lowest unemployment numbers nationally. Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska had the most counties with the lowest unemployment.
Michigan’s unemployment claims dropped to 956,418 in the week ending May 30, compared to 985,294 claims the previous week. Although the 956,418 figure marked the lowest unemployment claims in Michigan since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s unemployment rates were still the ninth highest in the nation.
Nationally, Friday’s jobs report unexpectedly showed the U.S. economy gained 2.5 million jobs in May as the unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted Michigan’s stay-at-home order last week, moving the state to phase four of the MI Safe Start Plan. Retail stores were allowed to reopen on June 4 under the new phase, while bars and restaurants can open up on June 8. Groups of 100 or less are allowed to meet effective immediately.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Long Lines” by Gabriel White. CC BY-SA 2.0.


thetennesseestar--2020-06-07--Faced with Making Food for State Troopers, Workers Walk Out

Forced to choose between their beliefs and their jobs , four restaurant workers say , they walked out after they were threatened with being fired for refusing to help fill an order for a law enforcement agency that was policing nearby race protests .
The employees at a Columbus location of Condado Tacos , a regional Mexican chain , walked out this week over a catering order for 250 Ohio Highway Patrol officers who were working the protests of the Minnesota death of George Floyd .
Now , the modest actions by just a few workers have generated national publicity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ locations of the rapidly expanding chain , and have sparked a conversation about free expression in the workplace .
Jake Widdowson , 25 , clocked in for work Monday to learn of an order for 500 tacos for the patrol .
Widdowson opposed cooperating on the order in light of the Floyd protests and told the manager so .
Floyd , a black man who died while being restrained by police , has galvanized protesters of racism and police brutality across the country .
The protests in Columbus have brought complaints of excessive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas and batons .
“ I have been participating in the protests in Columbus , and seeing the way that police have been treating peaceful protesters , it was immediately clear that it was against my principles to be complicit in that order , ” Widdowson said in an interview .
Store managers were supportive , Widdowson and other staff members said .
Things escalated , though , when a district manager who happened to be visiting got involved , Widdowson said .
“ Tell anyone refusing to work that they are fired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as saying .
Widdowson and three other workers who also refused to help fill the order at the restaurant , which employs a diverse staff , left .
At that point , the district manager urged them to reconsider , Widdowson said .
The story made the rounds on social media as the protests happening nearby intensified .
Managers closed the location the next day , along with a second store that employs a worker who tweeted a letter to managers .
Condado did not fire the workers , a spokesperson said in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must understand that Condado Tacos is an inclusive business and that we will continue to serve everyone , including law enforcement.
” The Highway Patrol was unaware of the walkout until a news report on it appeared the next day , said Lt. Craig Cvetan , an agency spokesperson .
The patrol , he said , was “ treated with nothing but kindness and respect ” by the staffers who ended up filling their order .
There was no patrol reaction specifically to the walkout .
But state Attorney General Dave Yost , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , tweeting , “ I ’ ll miss their tacos .
I ’ ll patronize any restaurant that posts a sign outside that says ‘ Law Enforcement Welcome Here.
’ ” The restaurant held a meeting Thursday , discussing the dust-up and staff safety following the closure of the two locations , which previously were open only for delivery and takeout because of coronavirus restrictions .
The company said Friday that it plans to reopen next week .
After hearing workers ’ feedback , the chain hopes to donate to charities that support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative .
Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues .
Photo “ Condado Tacos ” by Condado Tacos .

Forced to choose between their beliefs and their jobs, four restaurant workers say, they walked out after they were threatened with being fired for refusing to help fill an order for a law enforcement agency that was policing nearby race protests.
The employees at a Columbus location of Condado Tacos, a regional Mexican chain, walked out this week over a catering order for 250 Ohio Highway Patrol officers who were working the protests of the Minnesota death of George Floyd.
Now, the modest actions by just a few workers have generated national publicity that led managers to temporarily shutter two locations of the rapidly expanding chain, and have sparked a conversation about free expression in the workplace.
Jake Widdowson, 25, clocked in for work Monday to learn of an order for 500 tacos for the patrol.
Widdowson opposed cooperating on the order in light of the Floyd protests and told the manager so.
Floyd, a black man who died while being restrained by police, has galvanized protesters of racism and police brutality across the country. The protests in Columbus have brought complaints of excessive force, including the use of tear gas and batons.
“I have been participating in the protests in Columbus, and seeing the way that police have been treating peaceful protesters, it was immediately clear that it was against my principles to be complicit in that order,” Widdowson said in an interview.
Store managers were supportive, Widdowson and other staff members said. Things escalated, though, when a district manager who happened to be visiting got involved, Widdowson said.
“Tell anyone refusing to work that they are fired,” Widdowson quoted the district manager as saying.
Widdowson and three other workers who also refused to help fill the order at the restaurant, which employs a diverse staff, left. At that point, the district manager urged them to reconsider, Widdowson said.
The story made the rounds on social media as the protests happening nearby intensified. Managers closed the location the next day, along with a second store that employs a worker who tweeted a letter to managers.
Condado did not fire the workers, a spokesperson said in a written statement, but staff “must understand that Condado Tacos is an inclusive business and that we will continue to serve everyone, including law enforcement.”
The Highway Patrol was unaware of the walkout until a news report on it appeared the next day, said Lt. Craig Cvetan, an agency spokesperson.
The patrol, he said, was “treated with nothing but kindness and respect” by the staffers who ended up filling their order. There was no patrol reaction specifically to the walkout.
But state Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, did not stifle himself, tweeting, “I’ll miss their tacos. I’ll patronize any restaurant that posts a sign outside that says ‘Law Enforcement Welcome Here.’”
The restaurant held a meeting Thursday, discussing the dust-up and staff safety following the closure of the two locations, which previously were open only for delivery and takeout because of coronavirus restrictions.
The company said Friday that it plans to reopen next week.
After hearing workers’ feedback, the chain hopes to donate to charities that support criminal justice and fight racism, Widdowson said.
– – –
Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Photo “Condado Tacos” by Condado Tacos.


thetennesseestar--2020-06-07--Annie Glenn Remembered as Fighter Who Cared About Others

COLUMBUS , Ohio ( AP ) — Mourners praised Annie Glenn on Saturday as a dogged fighter for those with speech disorders , a source of support for her astronaut husband and a hero in her own right .
Glenn , wife of the late John Glenn , died May 19 at 100 of complications from COVID-19 .
She had been living in a nursing home near St. Paul , Minnesota , to be nearer to her daughter , Lyn .
During a virtual memorial service , son David said after his mother overcame her lifelong stutter , she struck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was making up for lost time .
“ Through all of her life , the most prominent characteristic that my mother embodied , as far as I ’ m concerned , was how she loved and cared about others , ” he said in a remote broadcast .
“ Annie treated everyone as this amazing surprise standing in front of her , ” recalled journalist Connie Schultz , who said many overlook the heroism required of her as she sent her husband into space .
The Glenns were married for 73 years at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death in 2016 .
He was the first American to orbit the Earth , as well as a military hero and Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio .
He often attributed his accomplishments to Annie ’ s strength and support .
Schultz , who contributed to the service alongside her husband , Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown , said Glenn provided her tips on how to be a political spouse .
When Schultz lamented to Glenn , for example , that political consultants seemed to either see a wife as “ a prop or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ Well , then , be a problem.
” Rev .
Amy Miracle , pastor of of Broad Street Presbyterian Church , said it is difficult to imagine that such a well-lived life as Annie Glenn ’ s ended amid a pandemic .
But she said Glenn did not really die alone .
“ God was with Annie , holding her hand , whispering her name , ” she said .
“ Where else would God be ?
” Julie Carr Smyth reports for The Associated Press .

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Mourners praised Annie Glenn on Saturday as a dogged fighter for those with speech disorders, a source of support for her astronaut husband and a hero in her own right.
Glenn, wife of the late John Glenn, died May 19 at 100 of complications from COVID-19. She had been living in a nursing home near St. Paul, Minnesota, to be nearer to her daughter, Lyn.
During a virtual memorial service, son David said after his mother overcame her lifelong stutter, she struck up so many conversations it seemed she was making up for lost time.
“Through all of her life, the most prominent characteristic that my mother embodied, as far as I’m concerned, was how she loved and cared about others,” he said in a remote broadcast.
“Annie treated everyone as this amazing surprise standing in front of her,” recalled journalist Connie Schultz, who said many overlook the heroism required of her as she sent her husband into space.
The Glenns were married for 73 years at the time of John Glenn’s death in 2016. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, as well as a military hero and Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio. He often attributed his accomplishments to Annie’s strength and support.
Schultz, who contributed to the service alongside her husband, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, said Glenn provided her tips on how to be a political spouse.
When Schultz lamented to Glenn, for example, that political consultants seemed to either see a wife as “a prop or a problem,” Glenn told Schultz: “Well, then, be a problem.”
Rev. Amy Miracle, pastor of of Broad Street Presbyterian Church, said it is difficult to imagine that such a well-lived life as Annie Glenn’s ended amid a pandemic. But she said Glenn did not really die alone.
“God was with Annie, holding her hand, whispering her name,” she said. “Where else would God be?”
– – –
Julie Carr Smyth reports for The Associated Press.


thetennesseestar--2020-06-07--Conservative Journalist Banned from Gov. Walz’s Press Briefings Without Explanation

A conservative journalist has sued Gov .
Tim Walz ’ s administration after he was barred from participating in the governor ’ s daily press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic .
According to the lawsuit , Scott Johnson , an attorney and writer for PowerLine , was allowed to participate in the daily briefings until April 27 , when he was suddenly “ excluded from all future daily briefings without explanation.
” The lawsuit was filed against Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm and the Minnesota Department of Health ( MDH ) in the U.S. District Court for the District @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Mr. Johnson asked a question that possibly exposed problems with the MDH ’ s strategy for combating the COVID-19 outbreak .
MDH emails show that this question was ‘ flagged ’ for further discussion between MDH staff and the Governor ’ s staff .
Mr. Johnson was thereafter excluded from all future daily briefings without explanation , ” states the lawsuit .
Officials with the MDH have refused to tell Johnson why he was excluded from the press briefings .
In fact , they have ignored four emails and three phone calls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ The MDH ’ s decision to exclude Mr. Johnson was a form of content and viewpoint-based discrimination that infringes upon his First Amendment rights as an individual and as a member of the press , ” the complaint alleges .
The closest thing to an explanation for Johnson ’ s exclusion was provided to Washington Free Beacon reporter Collin Anderson , who was told that access to the briefings is limited “ only to professional journalists.
” “ The alleged lack of credentials or professional journalist status as a basis for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ line is plainly pretext and can not be squared with the facts or MDH ’ s own conduct between April 10 and April 27 , 2020 with respect to Mr. Johnson ’ s access , ” the lawsuit states in response .
Johnson also pointed out in a recent post on PowerLine that he has “ been accredited as a reporter by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota , ” where his case is pending .
Additionally , Anderson was told that the daily briefings are “ coordinated by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than the MDH on the days when Walz participates .
“ The events typically attract about 50 reporters , but when the governor joins them – as he often does -access to the briefings becomes more restricted .
Health officials told Johnson that on those days the governor ’ s office controls attendance and instructed him to contact Walz ’ s office for access , according to correspondence reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon , ” Anderson said .
The lawsuit states that the decision to exclude Johnson “ has significantly hampered his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including preventing him from asking questions and receiving answers live , and from receiving written responses to his questions following the daily briefing.
” The complaint seeks the immediate restoration of his access to the press briefings , a declaration that his exclusion was “ unconstitutional , ” and damages in excess of $ 50,000 .
“ I draw the following inferences .
My exclusion from the MDH briefings comes after consultation with Gov .
Walz ’ s office .
They didn ’ t like the question ( s ) I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ post about his case .
“ They knew not to put the reason for my exclusion in writing and have withheld it from me because it is unflattering to Gov .
Walz .
It would not make him look good.
” The full lawsuit can be viewed below : Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star .
Follow Anthony on Twitter .
Email tips to [ email protected ] .
Photo “ Scott Johnson ” by theconservador .

A conservative journalist has sued Gov. Tim Walz’s administration after he was barred from participating in the governor’s daily press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the lawsuit, Scott Johnson, an attorney and writer for PowerLine, was allowed to participate in the daily briefings until April 27, when he was suddenly “excluded from all future daily briefings without explanation.”
The lawsuit was filed against Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
“On April 27, Mr. Johnson asked a question that possibly exposed problems with the MDH’s strategy for combating the COVID-19 outbreak. MDH emails show that this question was ‘flagged’ for further discussion between MDH staff and the Governor’s staff. Mr. Johnson was thereafter excluded from all future daily briefings without explanation,” states the lawsuit.
Officials with the MDH have refused to tell Johnson why he was excluded from the press briefings. In fact, they have ignored four emails and three phone calls seeking an explanation, the lawsuit reveals.
“The MDH’s decision to exclude Mr. Johnson was a form of content and viewpoint-based discrimination that infringes upon his First Amendment rights as an individual and as a member of the press,” the complaint alleges.
The closest thing to an explanation for Johnson’s exclusion was provided to Washington Free Beacon reporter Collin Anderson, who was told that access to the briefings is limited “only to professional journalists.”
“The alleged lack of credentials or professional journalist status as a basis for excluding Mr. Johnson from the MDH conference line is plainly pretext and cannot be squared with the facts or MDH’s own conduct between April 10 and April 27, 2020 with respect to Mr. Johnson’s access,” the lawsuit states in response.
Johnson also pointed out in a recent post on PowerLine that he has “been accredited as a reporter by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota,” where his case is pending.
Additionally, Anderson was told that the daily briefings are “coordinated by the governor’s communications office” rather than the MDH on the days when Walz participates.
“The events typically attract about 50 reporters, but when the governor joins them – as he often does -access to the briefings becomes more restricted. Health officials told Johnson that on those days the governor’s office controls attendance and instructed him to contact Walz’s office for access, according to correspondence reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon,” Anderson said.
The lawsuit states that the decision to exclude Johnson “has significantly hampered his ability to cover the MDH daily briefings, including preventing him from asking questions and receiving answers live, and from receiving written responses to his questions following the daily briefing.”
The complaint seeks the immediate restoration of his access to the press briefings, a declaration that his exclusion was “unconstitutional,” and damages in excess of $50,000.
“I draw the following inferences. My exclusion from the MDH briefings comes after consultation with Gov. Walz’s office. They didn’t like the question(s) I was asking,” Johnson wrote in another post about his case. “They knew not to put the reason for my exclusion in writing and have withheld it from me because it is unflattering to Gov. Walz. It would not make him look good.”
The full lawsuit can be viewed below:
– – –
Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Scott Johnson” by theconservador.


thetennesseestar--2020-06-07--Lamar Alexander Discusses When and How Colleges Can Reopen Safely

Senate Health and Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander ( R-Tennessee ) this week said “ the question for administrators of 6,000 colleges and universities is not whether to reopen in August , but how to do it safely.
” Alexander made his remarks during this week ’ s Senate Health and Education Committee hearing — “ COVID-19 : Going Back to College Safely ” — which featured college and university presidents discussing their work to help students go back to school in the fall as safely as possible .
According to a press release , topics included the following : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the virus or have been exposed to it • Coordination and discussions with state and local public health officials “ President Trump and Congress should not be telling the California State University System that it must open its classes in person , or telling Notre Dame it can not —or telling UT-Knoxville that it must test everyone on the campus or telling Brown University that it can not .
Colleges themselves , not Washington D.C. , should make those decisions , ” Alexander said , according to a press release .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with about 90 presidents of Tennessee ’ s 127 institutions of higher education , and almost all of them are planning to resume in-person classes in the fall , but they want governments to create liability protection against being sued if a student becomes sick .
All roads back to college lead through testing .
The availability of widespread testing will allow colleges to track and isolate students who have the virus or have been exposed to it , so the rest of the student body doesn ’ t have to be quarantined.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the disease — it builds confidence that the campus is safe , Alexander said .
He then quoted U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir , who said we will have 40-50 million tests available per month by September .
That is four to five times today ’ s number—and today ’ s number is twice as many as any other country , Alexander said .
Alexander said each state submits a monthly plan to the federal government outlining testing supplies and needs .
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Email tips to [ email protected ]

Senate Health and Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) this week said “the question for administrators of 6,000 colleges and universities is not whether to reopen in August, but how to do it safely.”
Alexander made his remarks during this week’s Senate Health and Education Committee hearing — “COVID-19: Going Back to College Safely” — which featured college and university presidents discussing their work to help students go back to school in the fall as safely as possible.
According to a press release, topics included the following:
• Strategies for COVID-19 diagnostic and serology testing
• Plans to isolate students discovered to have the virus or have been exposed to it
• Implementation of social distancing guidelines
• Coordination and discussions with state and local public health officials
“President Trump and Congress should not be telling the California State University System that it must open its classes in person, or telling Notre Dame it cannot—or telling UT-Knoxville that it must test everyone on the campus or telling Brown University that it cannot. Colleges themselves, not Washington D.C., should make those decisions,” Alexander said, according to a press release.
“I recently was on a phone call with about 90 presidents of Tennessee’s 127 institutions of higher education, and almost all of them are planning to resume in-person classes in the fall, but they want governments to create liability protection against being sued if a student becomes sick. All roads back to college lead through testing. The availability of widespread testing will allow colleges to track and isolate students who have the virus or have been exposed to it, so the rest of the student body doesn’t have to be quarantined.”
Widespread testing not only helps contain the disease — it builds confidence that the campus is safe, Alexander said. He then quoted U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir, who said we will have 40-50 million tests available per month by September. That is four to five times today’s number—and today’s number is twice as many as any other country, Alexander said.
Alexander said each state submits a monthly plan to the federal government outlining testing supplies and needs.
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected]


thetennesseestar--2020-06-08--Metro Councilman Glover and Nashville Business Owner Call for More Time for the Budget

NASHVILLE , Tennessee – Metro Councilman-at-Large Steve Glover and owner of Peg Leg Porker , Carey Pringle , called for at least another week to review the city ’ s budget for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year .
Glover has been outspoken about Mayor Cooper ’ s 32 percent proposed property tax increase , and native Nashvillian Pringle made news when he shared his scathing letter to Mayor Cooper and the Metro Council about the proposed property tax increase .
To a gathering Saturday of about 100 people on the deck of the barbecue restaurant located in downtown ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his substitute budget .
Both he and Pringle said , equally important , citizens deserve more time to review all options to Mayor Cooper ’ s version of the fiscal year 2021 budget .
Mayor Cooper introduced his budget in April , which includes a 5 percent spending increase over the current year , even though he estimated there to be shortfalls of $ 215.8 million this year and $ 280.7 million next year .
To make up for the shortfalls and the increased spending , Mayor Cooper ’ s budget includes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rate from $ 3.15 to $ 4.15 .
Before going over the highlights of his substitute budget , Glover pointed toward the flag and reminded attendees that it was 76 years ago that Americans stormed the shores of Normandy on D-Day and asked for a moment of silence .
When it comes to the budget , Glover said that he believed that nothing should be taken off the table and that every option available should be looked at .
He pointed out that the city “ stinks ” at both money management @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well as land management , referencing properties that were purchased with bonds but never turned into anything .
Glover revealed that during a recent meeting between the two , the Mayor told Glover that with the budget , “ We have to be fair.
” Glover said he took the Mayor ’ s comments to heart , such that his proposal includes cuts and out of the box thinking so that the burden doesn ’ t fall entirely on the back of property owners .
After offering brief explanations of some of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Glover advised that the budget does not have to be passed until June 30 at 11:59 p.m .
In other words , said Glover , the process should not be rushed through with a vote this Tuesday , June 9 .
If a substitute budget is not passed by a majority vote of 21 Council members , the Mayor ’ s proposed budget with its increased spending and 32 percent property tax increase automatically goes into effect for July 1 .
Glover is aware of other Council members who have prepared substitute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council members can not get together to discuss them except in public meetings .
Since the nearly 11-hour meeting last Tuesday was consumed by calls to defund the police during the public hearing portion , Council members did not work on the budget .
A handout that Glover provided to attendees included proposed reductions to the budget : Staff savings through various options – $ 35 million Other reductions – $ 47 million Potential COVID replacement – $ 10 to $ 20 million Glover explained that the Council can not demand furloughs or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cut money to the departments , leaving the departments to decide how to deal with the reductions .
He took $ 10 million out of the Barnes Fund which goes toward affordable housing , because it is “ operational money ” or cash , when the city otherwise has land available .
Glover said he doesn ’ t want to turn his back on affordable housing , but his proposal will utilize city land to accomplish the same objective more efficiently and productively while creating recurring revenue for the city .
Glover ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of other funding , including employees ’ step pay , Community Education , Opportunity Now and Nashville Grad for a total of $ 7 to $ 12 million .
The employee step increase is something that Glover said was negotiated at the time of hiring and goes to the lowest paid employees who won ’ t be getting a cost of living adjustment .
To offset the shortfalls and the restoration of funding , Glover proposes : After offering a detailed example of the amount of tax dollars that Pringle would keep in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tax rate in conjunction with an increased wheel tax , Glover offered , “ Last time I checked , you manage your money a whole lot better than government manages your money.
” One of the other reasons Glover has included a wheel tax increase is because he can sunset it on a specific date and he can also pull the proposal if the 32 percent property tax increase progresses .
With regard to the Nashville ’ s property tax rate being promoted as being historically low , Glover explained that is true @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a historical high .
To demonstrate the impact of the property values , Pringle compared his barbecue business to that of the Rendezvous restaurant in downtown Memphis , which the Peg Leg Porker is modeled after .
In all aspects , the two are the exact same type of business from being downtown , close to the convention center and about the same square footage , except that the Rendezvous has been around for 70 years and has three times the revenue , said Pringle .
While the Memphis property tax rate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is $ 3.15 , the Rendezvous pays $ 18,000 a year in property tax while Peg Leg Porker pays $ 55,000 .
If Mayor Cooper ’ s 32 percent property tax increase goes into effect , Pringle ’ s property taxes will go up to over $ 72,000 a year .
That $ 6,000 per month , Pringle said , is just for him to operate his business downtown and doesn ’ t include his mortgage , debt service or cost of goods .
Glover made the point that Nashville ’ s property @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Tennessee ’ s metropolitan counties with higher rates , is not competing against Knox , Hamilton or Shelby County .
Rather , Glover said , Nashville/Davidson County is competing against the other middle Tennessee counties .
Meanwhile , Glover ’ s $ 0.31 or 10 percent property tax increase will put the rate at $ 3.46 or $ 3.46 , which keeps Nashville/Davidson County competitive with the average $ 3.38 property tax rate of the adjoining middle Tennessee counties .
That competitiveness will help keep builders and contractors building and selling homes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintains .
On the other hand , “ If we raise taxes so drastically , people will exit and magnify the problem , and we all lose in the long run , ” said Glover .
Glover concluded with next steps , telling attendees that they need to reach out to their Council members and tell them that they need to spend more time considering all options .
He also suggested that Council members be told that they should consider the morale of the employees who work for all Nashvillians and to care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , state and country as much as their constituents do .
Pointing out that this doesn ’ t have anything to do with the flavor of political beliefs , Glover said this is a local issue that affects pocket books on a daily basis .
As such , Glover said it is owed to every person to do what is right , and what is right is to spend the extra time – another seven days – to discuss all options and combine for an alternate budget .
The entire event can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ senior reporter at The Tennessee Star .

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Metro Councilman-at-Large Steve Glover and owner of Peg Leg Porker, Carey Bringle, called for at least another week to review the city’s budget for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year.
Glover has been outspoken about Mayor Cooper’s 32 percent proposed property tax increase, and native Nashvillian Pringle made news when he shared his scathing letter to Mayor Cooper and the Metro Council about the proposed property tax increase.
To a gathering Saturday of about 100 people on the deck of the barbecue restaurant located in downtown’s Gulch area, Glover introduced the highlights of his substitute budget. Both he and Bringle said, equally important, citizens deserve more time to review all options to Mayor Cooper’s version of the fiscal year 2021 budget.
Mayor Cooper introduced his budget in April, which includes a 5 percent spending increase over the current year, even though he estimated there to be shortfalls of $215.8 million this year and $280.7 million next year.
To make up for the shortfalls and the increased spending, Mayor Cooper’s budget includes a 32 percent property tax increase taking the rate from $3.15 to $4.15.
Before going over the highlights of his substitute budget, Glover pointed toward the flag and reminded attendees that it was 76 years ago that Americans stormed the shores of Normandy on D-Day and asked for a moment of silence.
When it comes to the budget, Glover said that he believed that nothing should be taken off the table and that every option available should be looked at.
He pointed out that the city “stinks” at both money management, alluding to the balance sheet, as well as land management, referencing properties that were purchased with bonds but never turned into anything.
Glover revealed that during a recent meeting between the two, the Mayor told Glover that with the budget, “We have to be fair.”
Glover said he took the Mayor’s comments to heart, such that his proposal includes cuts and out of the box thinking so that the burden doesn’t fall entirely on the back of property owners.
After offering brief explanations of some of the idiosyncrasies of the Metro Nashville charter, Glover advised that the budget does not have to be passed until June 30 at 11:59 p.m.
In other words, said Glover, the process should not be rushed through with a vote this Tuesday, June 9.
If a substitute budget is not passed by a majority vote of 21 Council members, the Mayor’s proposed budget with its increased spending and 32 percent property tax increase automatically goes into effect for July 1.
Glover is aware of other Council members who have prepared substitute budgets, but under Sunshine Laws, Council members cannot get together to discuss them except in public meetings. Since the nearly 11-hour meeting last Tuesday was consumed by calls to defund the police during the public hearing portion, Council members did not work on the budget.
A handout that Glover provided to attendees included proposed reductions to the budget:
Staff savings through various options – $35 million
Other reductions – $47 million
Potential COVID replacement – $10 to $20 million
Glover explained that the Council cannot demand furloughs or layoffs of city employees, but can cut money to the departments, leaving the departments to decide how to deal with the reductions.
He took $10 million out of the Barnes Fund which goes toward affordable housing, because it is “operational money” or cash, when the city otherwise has land available.
Glover said he doesn’t want to turn his back on affordable housing, but his proposal will utilize city land to accomplish the same objective more efficiently and productively while creating recurring revenue for the city.
Glover’s proposal also calls for the restoration of other funding, including employees’ step pay, Community Education, Opportunity Now and Nashville Grad for a total of $7 to $12 million.
The employee step increase is something that Glover said was negotiated at the time of hiring and goes to the lowest paid employees who won’t be getting a cost of living adjustment.
To offset the shortfalls and the restoration of funding, Glover proposes:
Property tax increase of $0.31 or 10 percent – $101.5 million
Wheel tax – $35 million
Land management – $125 million
After offering a detailed example of the amount of tax dollars that Bringle would keep in his pocket by paying the lower property tax rate in conjunction with an increased wheel tax, Glover offered, “Last time I checked, you manage your money a whole lot better than government manages your money.”
One of the other reasons Glover has included a wheel tax increase is because he can sunset it on a specific date and he can also pull the proposal if the 32 percent property tax increase progresses.
With regard to the Nashville’s property tax rate being promoted as being historically low, Glover explained that is true, but the property values are also at a historical high.
To demonstrate the impact of the property values, Bringle compared his barbecue business to that of the Rendezvous restaurant in downtown Memphis, which the Peg Leg Porker is modeled after.
In all aspects, the two are the exact same type of business from being downtown, close to the convention center and about the same square footage, except that the Rendezvous has been around for 70 years and has three times the revenue, said Pringle.
While the Memphis property tax rate is $7.25 and Nashville’s is $3.15, the Rendezvous pays $18,000 a year in property tax while Peg Leg Porker pays $55,000.
If Mayor Cooper’s 32 percent property tax increase goes into effect, Bringle’s property taxes will go up to over $72,000 a year.
That $6,000 per month, Bringle said, is just for him to operate his business downtown and doesn’t include his mortgage, debt service or cost of goods.
Glover made the point that Nashville’s property tax rate, which the Mayor compares to Tennessee’s metropolitan counties with higher rates, is not competing against Knox, Hamilton or Shelby County.
Rather, Glover said, Nashville/Davidson County is competing against the other middle Tennessee counties.
Meanwhile, Glover’s $0.31 or 10 percent property tax increase will put the rate at $3.46 or $3.46, which keeps Nashville/Davidson County competitive with the average $3.38 property tax rate of the adjoining middle Tennessee counties.
That competitiveness will help keep builders and contractors building and selling homes as well as renting apartments, Glover maintains.
On the other hand, “If we raise taxes so drastically, people will exit and magnify the problem, and we all lose in the long run,” said Glover.
Glover concluded with next steps, telling attendees that they need to reach out to their Council members and tell them that they need to spend more time considering all options.
He also suggested that Council members be told that they should consider the morale of the employees who work for all Nashvillians and to care about taxpayers’ money, the city, state and country as much as their constituents do.
Pointing out that this doesn’t have anything to do with the flavor of political beliefs, Glover said this is a local issue that affects pocket books on a daily basis.
As such, Glover said it is owed to every person to do what is right, and what is right is to spend the extra time – another seven days – to discuss all options and combine for an alternate budget.
The entire event can be watched here:
—
Laura Baigert is a senior reporter at The Tennessee Star.


thetennesseestar--2020-06-08--Commentary: ‘Racism, Inc’ Is a Weapon of Mass Destruction

For the last couple of months , your inbox , like mine , has been awash in nauseating communiqués from every school , club , or business you had carelessly entrusted with your email address .
“ Stay safe , ” they urged – and stay home .
A great plague is upon the land , and we must all respond with displays of ritual purification and groveling obedience .
Shows of obedience were critical , as was the virtue-signaling that accompanied them .
People were shamed for appearing in public without a mask or for walking too close to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an extraordinary display of communal insanity .
Suddenly , almost overnight , those communiqués vanished , replaced by others , no less nauseating .
There are new items on the menu of virtue-signaling and ritual abasement .
Now the theme is not a novel respiratory virus , but a spiritual virus : the virus of supposed “ systemic ” or “ institutional ” “ racism ” and police brutality .
A day or two ago Uber emailed me to announce that it “ stands with the Black community ” – how nice for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ institutional racism , and the police violence it gives rise to.
” The Yale Club of New York let it be known that it “ unequivocally condemns racism , violence , and social injustice in our society.
” Unequivocally !
Meanwhile , the Harvard Club chimed in about its “ broken ” heart because of “ racism , injustice , and violence.
” Many politicians have signed up for this chorus , taking their cue from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who decried the “ stain .
.
.
of fundamental , institutional racism.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the catalyst for this emetic display of meaningless verbiage was the unfortunate death of George Floyd , a black man and career criminal , who expired while being arrested by the police in Minneapolis .
Much obloquy – to say nothing of a second-degree murder charge – has been directed at Officer Derek Chauvin , one of four police officers involved with the arrest , for his rough restraint of Floyd .
Chauvin , who is white , pinned a handcuffed Floyd to the ground , kneeling on his neck .
Was that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maybe he died because his serious heart condition was fatally aggravated by the Fentanyl and methamphetamine he had ingested .
In any event , the death of Floyd , excruciatingly captured by an amateur video that went viral , was the spark that excited not only the explosion of hand-wringing about supposed “ systemic racism ” among the police and in American society at large , but also the nationwide wave of protests , violent riots , and even calls to defund or disband the police .
As I have noted elsewhere , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ riots .
Rather , they are an attack on civilization itself .
In essence , they are a reprise of the antinomian radicalism that swept the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s , with Antifa and Black Lives Matter standing in for the SDS , the Weather Underground , and the Black Panthers .
Now as then , histrionic rhetoric ran far ahead of reality .
America was not a racist country in 1968 .
Nor is it one now .
As Heather Mac Donald has shown , the charge that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racism ” is a divisive myth .
In 2018 , Blacks were responsible for 53 percent of the homicides and 60 percent of the robberies in the United States , though they represent only 13 percent of the population .
“ Police shootings , ” Mac Donald observed , “ are not the reason that blacks die of homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined ; criminal violence is.
” But reality counts for little in the disorienting echo chamber of political correctness .
In those surreal environs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ social construction ” but also , when politically convenient , an inescapable and essential reality .
“ Racial equality ” is demanded even as “ whiteness ” is declared an irredeemably existential liability .
Which is it , equality or a new race-based hierarchy ?
It is worth stepping back to ask what is it about the term “ racism ” that silences conversation and sends an anticipatory shudder of delight down the spines of politically correct vigilantes of virtue .
Like the word “ heretic ” in an earlier age , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ word .
Its primary effect is not to describe but to intimidate , ostracize , and silence .
What semantic significance it may command is overshadowed by its use as a negative epithet .
Once successfully applied to a person or practice , a sort of secular damnation , or at least excommunication , ensues .
Seldom is there any appeal , let alone absolution .
Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit , said St. Mark , can not be forgiven .
Racism is the eternal , the unforgivable , sin of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ malum .
Those successfully accused of racism are beyond the pale , cast out into the place of fletus et stridor dentium .
Exactly why this should be takes us into deep waters .
I do not pretend to have the answer .
This much is clear , however : The deployment of power always attracts acolytes and entrepreneurs .
So it is no surprise that a thriving cottage industry has grown up around accusations of racism .
We might call the resulting enterprise “ Racism , Inc. ” There is no shortage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On college campuses ( but not only on college campuses , as a look at our city streets these last weeks remind us ) , the bludgeon of “ racism ” is a popular and effective instrument of moral one-upmanship and social control , not to mention intellectual conformity and economic blackmail .
A full exploration of this phenomenon would fill a book , maybe several .
A diligent student might start by drawing on Norman Cohn ’ s analysis , in The Pursuit of the Millennium , of collective madness , especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher virtue , in various medieval heresies .
Given the prominence of “ racism ” in today ’ s lexicon of moral opprobrium , it is curious that the word itself is of very recent vintage .
Indeed , it is a neologism so recent that it does not appear in the 1971 Oxford English Dictionary .
The Supplement to my edition of the OED ( printed in 1961 ) introduces “ racialism ” – the “ tendency to racial feeling ; antagonism between different races of men ” – but fails to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ racism.
” ( A later edition managed to turn up an instance of the word from the early 1930s . )
Perhaps that fact is itself evidence of a particularly insidious form of racism – all the more insidious because unacknowledged .
Or perhaps that fact , along with the recentness of the word in any currency , suggests that there is something artificial , manufactured , or even cynically manipulative about the tort it describes .
Doubtless , there are spokesmen for both alternatives .
Another oddity : Racism , Inc. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say , “ all animals are equal , but some are more equal than others.
” I well remember a bulletin from a professor at Texas Christian University : Are you outraged and disgusted by this blatantly racist invitation ?
Of course , you are .
Though given that it issued from an institution with the words “ Texas ” and “ Christian ” in its name , perhaps you are not surprised .
What else can you expect from so tainted a source ?
Except , that is not exactly how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did offer an invitation to some , and only some , of his students , and the invitation was race-based .
But the original email extended the invitation not to white students , but to “ STUDENTS OF COLOR ONLY.
” Do you find that your feelings of outrage and disgust are noticeably diminished ?
Are you busy searching for an explanation , an extenuation , an excuse ?
Just asking .
Back in 1970 , Daniel Patrick Moynihan , then serving as a domestic advisor to President Nixon , wrote a memorandum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ [ A ] great deal of the crime , the fire setting , the rampant school violence , and other such phenomenon in the black community have become quasi politicized , ” Moynihan noted .
“ Hatred – revenge – against whites is now an acceptable excuse for doing what might have been done anyway.
” Noting the great economic and social strides that blacks had made in recent decades , Moynihan suggested that : Moynihan was a liberal who came to despair of what had become of liberalism .
Much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and gargantuanly expensive – social programs enacted to end poverty and lift blacks into the middle class and self-sufficiency had backfired by creating an enormous apparatus of government dependency .
As James Q. Wilson observed , the War on Poverty did not end poverty , it institutionalized it by providing incentives for infantilization .
Commenting on Moynihan ’ s legacy , the social critic Fred Siegel noted that Moynihan ’ s advocacy of liberal openness “ was blocked by an architecture of indignation built not on evidence , as Moynihan understood it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ poetic truths , ’ which insist , among other things , on the persistence of racial repression .
The new shape-shifting structures of micro-oppression ( and microaggression ) guarantee explanations for why blacks are still held back by white subjugation , even as the symbols of that oppression – such as ‘ hands up , don ’ t shoot ’ – have to be manufactured out of whole cloth.
” How it is that racism got installed as the crime of crimes is a deep question which is unanswerable not least because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a question , at least not in any of those institutions supposedly devoted to ferreting out the truth .
Nevertheless , the noxious activities of Racism , Inc.—from the shake-down tactics of Black Lives Matter and Antifa to the academic sport of manufacturing racist incidents on campus—remind us of a profound observation made by the philosopher Sidney Hook .
“ As morally offensive as is the expression of racism wherever it is found , ” Hook wrote : Hook wrote that several decades ago .
We have yet to catch up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ publisher of The New Criterion and the president and publisher of Encounter Books .
He is the author and editor of many books , including The Fortunes of Permanence : Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia ( St. Augustine ’ s Press ) , The Rape of the Masters ( Encounter ) , Lives of the Mind : The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse ( Ivan R. Dee ) , and Art ’ s Prospect : The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity ( Ivan @ @ @ @

by Roger Kimball
For the last couple of months, your inbox, like mine, has been awash in nauseating communiqués from every school, club, or business you had carelessly entrusted with your email address. “Stay safe,” they urged – and stay home. A great plague is upon the land, and we must all respond with displays of ritual purification and groveling obedience. Shows of obedience were critical, as was the virtue-signaling that accompanied them. People were shamed for appearing in public without a mask or for walking too close to other people. The whole thing was an extraordinary display of communal insanity.
Suddenly, almost overnight, those communiqués vanished, replaced by others, no less nauseating. There are new items on the menu of virtue-signaling and ritual abasement. Now the theme is not a novel respiratory virus, but a spiritual virus: the virus of supposed “systemic” or “institutional” “racism” and police brutality.
A day or two ago Uber emailed me to announce that it “stands with the Black community” – how nice for them – and that it deplores “institutional racism, and the police violence it gives rise to.” The Yale Club of New York let it be known that it “unequivocally condemns racism, violence, and social injustice in our society.” Unequivocally! Meanwhile, the Harvard Club chimed in about its “broken” heart because of “racism, injustice, and violence.” Many politicians have signed up for this chorus, taking their cue from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who decried the “stain . . . of fundamental, institutional racism.”
As all the world knows, the catalyst for this emetic display of meaningless verbiage was the unfortunate death of George Floyd, a black man and career criminal, who expired while being arrested by the police in Minneapolis. Much obloquy – to say nothing of a second-degree murder charge – has been directed at Officer Derek Chauvin, one of four police officers involved with the arrest, for his rough restraint of Floyd. Chauvin, who is white, pinned a handcuffed Floyd to the ground, kneeling on his neck. Was that what killed Floyd? Maybe. But maybe he died because his serious heart condition was fatally aggravated by the Fentanyl and methamphetamine he had ingested.
In any event, the death of Floyd, excruciatingly captured by an amateur video that went viral, was the spark that excited not only the explosion of hand-wringing about supposed “systemic racism” among the police and in American society at large, but also the nationwide wave of protests, violent riots, and even calls to defund or disband the police.
As I have noted elsewhere, the destructive mob riots are not race riots. Rather, they are an attack on civilization itself. In essence, they are a reprise of the antinomian radicalism that swept the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with Antifa and Black Lives Matter standing in for the SDS, the Weather Underground, and the Black Panthers.
Now as then, histrionic rhetoric ran far ahead of reality. America was not a racist country in 1968. Nor is it one now. As Heather Mac Donald has shown, the charge that the police are guilty of “systemic racism” is a divisive myth. In 2018, Blacks were responsible for 53 percent of the homicides and 60 percent of the robberies in the United States, though they represent only 13 percent of the population. “Police shootings,” Mac Donald observed, “are not the reason that blacks die of homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined; criminal violence is.”
How it is that racism got installed as the crime of crimes is a deep question which is unanswerable not least because we cannot even pose it seriously as a question . . .
But reality counts for little in the disorienting echo chamber of political correctness. In those surreal environs, “race” is simultaneously merely a “social construction” but also, when politically convenient, an inescapable and essential reality. “Racial equality” is demanded even as “whiteness” is declared an irredeemably existential liability. Which is it, equality or a new race-based hierarchy?
It is worth stepping back to ask what is it about the term “racism” that silences conversation and sends an anticipatory shudder of delight down the spines of politically correct vigilantes of virtue. Like the word “heretic” in an earlier age, “racism” is more weapon than word. Its primary effect is not to describe but to intimidate, ostracize, and silence. What semantic significance it may command is overshadowed by its use as a negative epithet. Once successfully applied to a person or practice, a sort of secular damnation, or at least excommunication, ensues. Seldom is there any appeal, let alone absolution. Those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, said St. Mark, cannot be forgiven. Racism is the eternal, the unforgivable, sin of our age. It is our summum malum. Those successfully accused of racism are beyond the pale, cast out into the place of fletus et stridor dentium. Exactly why this should be takes us into deep waters. I do not pretend to have the answer.
This much is clear, however: The deployment of power always attracts acolytes and entrepreneurs. So it is no surprise that a thriving cottage industry has grown up around accusations of racism. We might call the resulting enterprise “Racism, Inc.” There is no shortage of workers on that assembly line. On college campuses (but not only on college campuses, as a look at our city streets these last weeks remind us), the bludgeon of “racism” is a popular and effective instrument of moral one-upmanship and social control, not to mention intellectual conformity and economic blackmail.
A full exploration of this phenomenon would fill a book, maybe several. A diligent student might start by drawing on Norman Cohn’s analysis, in The Pursuit of the Millennium, of collective madness, especially the shared conviction of spiritual election and higher virtue, in various medieval heresies.
Given the prominence of “racism” in today’s lexicon of moral opprobrium, it is curious that the word itself is of very recent vintage. Indeed, it is a neologism so recent that it does not appear in the 1971 Oxford English Dictionary. The Supplement to my edition of the OED (printed in 1961) introduces “racialism” – the “tendency to racial feeling; antagonism between different races of men” – but fails to provide an equivalent of our multipurpose imprecation “racism.” (A later edition managed to turn up an instance of the word from the early 1930s.) Perhaps that fact is itself evidence of a particularly insidious form of racism – all the more insidious because unacknowledged.
Or perhaps that fact, along with the recentness of the word in any currency, suggests that there is something artificial, manufactured, or even cynically manipulative about the tort it describes. Doubtless, there are spokesmen for both alternatives.
Another oddity: Racism, Inc. manufactures only one-way ratchets. That is to say, “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” I well remember a bulletin from a professor at Texas Christian University:
At the beginning of the semester, I usually like to invite all my white students to get together and discuss the challenges they may face. . . . However, the time slipped by and I didn’t get a chance. So, I would like to ask if you are interested in a get together on Monday afternoon. We can also discuss the exam that is coming up. I don’t mind if this would turn out to be a study session for my WHITE STUDENTS ONLY.
Are you outraged and disgusted by this blatantly racist invitation? Of course, you are. Though given that it issued from an institution with the words “Texas” and “Christian” in its name, perhaps you are not surprised. What else can you expect from so tainted a source?
Except, that is not exactly how the bulletin read. The professor really did offer an invitation to some, and only some, of his students, and the invitation was race-based. But the original email extended the invitation not to white students, but to “STUDENTS OF COLOR ONLY.” Do you find that your feelings of outrage and disgust are noticeably diminished? Are you busy searching for an explanation, an extenuation, an excuse? Just asking.
Back in 1970, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then serving as a domestic advisor to President Nixon, wrote a memorandum about race relations in the United States. “[A] great deal of the crime, the fire setting, the rampant school violence, and other such phenomenon in the black community have become quasi politicized,” Moynihan noted. “Hatred – revenge – against whites is now an acceptable excuse for doing what might have been done anyway.” Noting the great economic and social strides that blacks had made in recent decades, Moynihan suggested that:
The time may have come when the issue of race could benefit from a period of “benign neglect.” The subject has been too much talked about. The forum has been too much taken over to hysterics, paranoids, and boodlers on all sides. We may need a period in which Negro progress continues and racial rhetoric fades. The administration can help bring this about by paying close attention to such progress—as we are doing—while seeking to avoid situations in which extremists of either race are given opportunities for martyrdom, heroics, histrionics or whatever.
Moynihan was a liberal who came to despair of what had become of liberalism. Much to his chagrin, the gargantuan – and gargantuanly expensive – social programs enacted to end poverty and lift blacks into the middle class and self-sufficiency had backfired by creating an enormous apparatus of government dependency.
As James Q. Wilson observed, the War on Poverty did not end poverty, it institutionalized it by providing incentives for infantilization. Commenting on Moynihan’s legacy, the social critic Fred Siegel noted that Moynihan’s advocacy of liberal openness “was blocked by an architecture of indignation built not on evidence, as Moynihan understood it, but rather on what Shelby Steele calls ‘poetic truths,’ which insist, among other things, on the persistence of racial repression. The new shape-shifting structures of micro-oppression (and microaggression) guarantee explanations for why blacks are still held back by white subjugation, even as the symbols of that oppression – such as ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ – have to be manufactured out of whole cloth.”
How it is that racism got installed as the crime of crimes is a deep question which is unanswerable not least because we cannot even pose it seriously as a question, at least not in any of those institutions supposedly devoted to ferreting out the truth. Nevertheless, the noxious activities of Racism, Inc.—from the shake-down tactics of Black Lives Matter and Antifa to the academic sport of manufacturing racist incidents on campus—remind us of a profound observation made by the philosopher Sidney Hook.
“As morally offensive as is the expression of racism wherever it is found,” Hook wrote:
a false charge of racism is equally offensive, perhaps even more so, because the consequences of a false charge of racism enable an authentic racist to conceal his racism by exploiting the loose way the term is used to cover up his actions. The same is true of a false charge of sexism or anti-Semitism. This is the lesson we should all have learned from the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Because of his false and irresponsible charges of communism against liberals, socialists, and others among his critics, many communists and agents of communist influence sought to pass themselves off as Jeffersonian democrats or merely idealistic tenured radicals reformers.
Hook wrote that several decades ago. We have yet to catch up to it.
– – –
Roger Kimball is editor and publisher of The New Criterion and the president and publisher of Encounter Books. He is the author and editor of many books, including The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (St. Augustine’s Press), The Rape of the Masters (Encounter), Lives of the Mind: The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse (Ivan R. Dee), and Art’s Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity (Ivan R. Dee).