Sunday, September 6, 2009

They Took Me Out Of Context -Van Jones


Mr. Van Jones is right. His comments seem slightly less objectionable when the context is expanded. Perhaps with even broader context his point would become clear but for the life of me I can't understand what he is saying. He clearly is making a black/white comparison of some kind. Black kids have all kinds of positive roll models and white kids do not? Is that one point? Is that true? Black kids have a superior support system to white kids? What is his point?

One thing this broader context did for me (over the shorter clip we see on TV) is clarify that Mr. Van Jones seems not to be implying any superiority/inferiority based on a genetic racial level. I will say using school shootings is a poor selection. Statistically few school shootings occur. Would not one suspect the perpetrators would come from the majority population? Unless of course school shootings had a cultural base as does suicide bombings. Maybe we should background check the school shooters for a lutefisk connection. (My Norwegian background surfacing.)

If this were the only problem Mr. Van Jones had, we could over look it. Sadly his history is far richer.

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