Saturday, September 02, 2006
 
Spot the Straw Man
Sylvester Brown, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, writes in a cites a couple of things in the column entitled Blaming blacks is popular with some, but it's perilously naive:
    A few weeks ago, an NPR "Morning Edition" segment featured interviews with Emmy Award-winning correspondent and author Juan Williams and writer John McWhorter. Black leaders "excuse crime and poverty," said McWhorter, while Williams chided leaders who embrace the "notion of victimhood."
And:
    In his commentary last week, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert described the "indications of a culture of failure . . . boys saying it's a 'rite of passage' to go to jail . . . or kids telling other kids that if they're trying to do well in school, they're trying to 'act better than me' or 'trying to act white.'"
But watch the subtle shift to the straw man:
    This diatribe - that the black man is inherently flawed, violent and savage - is older than the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Heck, a twisted interpretation of Noah's curse on the dark-skinned descendants of his son, Ham, offered biblical rationale for dark servitude.
Brown cites his opponents who chastise individuals (leaders and boys) and a man-made, man-maintained, and (to some extent) man-chosen construct (culture) and then promptly attributes to them to an unchosen and uncontrollable factor (race). In doing so, Brown not only mischaracterizes his opponents' views, but also strips the people whom his opponents criticize for the behavior the opponents criticize.

Well-played, sir! Illogical and, if intentional, duplicitous.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:57 PM
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