Liberté, égalité, fraternité – But Not For You

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by Glenn R. Geist

There’s an interesting narrative in the July 10th New Yorker: Shakespeare’s Cure for Xenophobia in which the author mentions the withdrawal of a research assistant job offer by a professor who asserted that it was because he was Jewish and there were too many of them in the Ivy League school already.

CNN reported recently that an Airbnb “host” was punished for turning away a Chinese American guest for being “Asian”

“I wouldn’t rent to u if u were the last person on earth. One word says it all. Asian. It’s why we have trump, and I will not allow this country to be told what to do by foreigners.”

Telling such stories often raises the ire of self-titled Liberals these days as does any suggestion that racism exists outside the boundaries of the approved dialectics. Watch what happens if you assert that Lakota Lives Matter or that being Chinese doesn’t expose you to suspicion and prejudice and of course, college admission quotas. It doesn’t matter how many generations worth of American you are, it’s always “where were you born” and too often: “you speak American very well.”

Back in the 1990s some local police officers in my Illinois town protested to the FBI that they were being required to stop and hassle non-Caucasian drivers headed to the business district, whether they worked or lived there or not. Has that gone away? I don’t know but when a black, female Florida State’s Attorney was pulled over this week for no apparent reason it made headlines as well it should have, but you don’t hear as much about what I know still goes on.

READ: Truth is Always the First Casualty of War

If you’re of apparent European ancestry, it’s rather rare for people who just met you to ask where you were born. My wife gets asked constantly. She acts as though she were resigned to it, but it annoys me greatly. After all she’s a Midwesterner by birth and accent. She has been stopped by police and suspicious people in airports who basically want to hear her voice. We were even pulled over on the highway in New Mexico for no other purpose than to ask where she was born.

According to the numbers I see, the ethnic group most prone to random stops and harassment and even being shot by police are Native Americans. Having mentioned this several times and having been instantly and viciously labelled as a racist I have to wonder if our national solipsism epidemic has engulfed what used to be an appeal to humanism, human rights and the self-evident rights of man etched into the hard surface of American life. Equal rights, equal protection but some are more equal than others and some aren’t equal at all.

It’s not as though I no longer support liberté, égalité et fraternité along with our French friends, I just don’t support those who want to make that apply only to certain people, while labeling all other people as having undesirable racial characteristics.

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Glenn Geist

Glenn Geist lives in South Florida and wastes most of his time boating, writing, complaining and talking on the radio
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Rory Lee
6 years ago

I’m 84 and I remember US always being for money, more money, and even more money. That buys equality in the USofA.

Reply to  Glenn Geist
6 years ago

“Racism is about all of us.” You are right Glenn, and I regret my cavalier remark. After spending a lifetime in law enforcement one tends to become cynical about virtually everything, and respect is reserved for the few, when it should be for the many.

6 years ago

You might find some interesting information at FBI.gov/Table 43, Uniform Crime Statistics. This breaks down crime in the US by gender, race, and etc., if you are interested. Unfortunately there is yet no data base up and running that tracks deadly force by police, but one is being worked on as I write this.

Phuong Li
6 years ago

I’m from Vietnam. and i get sidelong glances, but not questioned by cops, I think not. I feel it badly at the times when earing out and shopping. It makes me sad.

6 years ago

‘turning away a Chinese American guest for being “Asian”’

maybe he was a dog lover and thought the chap was Korean? 😉

Reply to  Neil Bamforth
6 years ago

Lol. Then again, not all Koreans eat dog. Still funny though.

Admin
6 years ago

Liberty, equality, brotherhood. We haven’t had those particular dynamics in America for generations.

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