The War On Bullshit

Tuning into talk radio can sometimes be a mind-numbing task that significantly lowers one’s IQ, but I occasionally throw myself in front of the train and risk my intellect to see what folks out there are talking about. Unfortunately, when I turned my radio on this morning, people were talking about why black Americans should just “get over it.” The caller apparently believed that since slavery ended, everything is now hunky-dory and the black community has no reason to talk about it anymore. I realize it can be hard for gun-totin’, deer-huntin’ rednecks with Confederate flags flying in their pickup trucks to understand, so I put together a little list of why African-Americans don’t just get over it:

1. Holocaust survivors get Israel, while freed slaves get sharecropping.

I’m not going to bother with the stale, old argument about which was worse, the Holocaust or American slavery. I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two – one was genocide, while the other was 400 years of stripping human beings of their rights and using them as farm animals. However, the response to the two would sure as hell piss me off as a black man.

Let’s get this straight. The Jews get a national homeland, stolen from the Arab people who had lived there for centuries, while the freed slaves got sharecropping and debt slavery on the same plantations where they had toiled as slaves. I realize the two happened in two totally different times with two totally different social consciousnesses, but I can damn sure see why this might tick off your average African-American.

2. Decent education is less available to people in majority black communities.

In the South, slaves were rarely allowed to read – this is a common tactic for keeping slaves. Keep them ignorant and afraid, and they will follow commands. Unfortunately, this did not die with slavery. White, privileged Americans tried for the next 100 years to keep black people ignorant.

First, we segregated our schools to keep those terrible, awful black kids from mingling with our ‘wiser’ race. This was a fine method for ensuring that education for both ethnicities was anything but fair and equal. Integration presented challenges for those who wanted to keep holding black people back, but clever redistricting often sent all the kids from majority black neighborhoods to a vastly different school setting then their white counterparts. This still happens today, everywhere from inner-city New York City to the rural south.

Furthermore, there is quite a bit of evidence that kids learn better from teachers of their own race, as they have more upon which to relate to their teachers. That’s a real tough goal when the vast majority of teachers are white. This is part of a vicious cycle, unfortunately. White people on average receive a better education, and thus they are more apt to become teachers, only exacerbating the situation.

3. White people in the workforce still earn more, on average, than their black coworkers.

According to information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, white workers earn more cash for their work than African-Americans. This could be the result of less-qualified minority workers, but I’d say see reason number 2 for information on why this may be the case.

4. Black men still make up the largest number of American prison inmates.

A 2003 Bureau of Justice census reported roughly 46% of prison inmates are black men. I’ve often heard the argument that “maybe they commit more crime.” Sure, that’s probably true. Once again, see item 2. A lack of education often leads to a life of crime.

5. And finally… RACISM STILL EXISTS.

The Jasper, Texas incident happened in only 1998, for a recent high-profile hate crime. For a more personal account, there are towns in my home-state of Louisiana where black men are warned to not be pulled over if they drive through because they will be harassed, searched, and given excessive fines by the local law enforcement. A particularly telling case of present-day racism, also from my home-state, is the Jena 6 incident, where six African-American teens were given excessive charges, as adults, for a fight with a white classmate.

Conclusion

I would not argue that racism still exists in the way it did even twenty years ago, even here in the south. Nor would I argue that African-Americans should be revolting, or overthrowing the bonds of white oppression. But to suggest black people should just “get over it” is ludicrous. Nor should Jews “get over” the Holocaust. Does this mean they should be constantly angry at the so-called “white race” over these injustices? Of course not. But getting over it implies forgetting what has happened and no longer discussing these injustices, and it is never a good thing to forget the evils of the past. We can remember the injustices of the past without carrying a burden of hate and bitterness, and we can prevent future injustice by discussing the errors of human history. The darkest times in human history should be remembered better than the golden days. Otherwise, we’re bound to repeat the same old mistakes, again and again.

The politically disgruntled and critical are often criticized as being negative and cynical, so for this week, I’ve decided to take a (semi)-positive look at the presidential election cycle – in particular, a glance at McCain’s environmentalism, however sporadically it may manifest itself. A true testament to the failed policies of past conservatives like Bush Sr. and Jr. is the sudden concern of Sen. John McCain on global climate change. In case you have not heard, McCain has for some time marketed himself as an environmental protector and an advocate for reducing carbon emissions in the United States.

It’s a great day in the United States when we’ve become liberal enough that a candidate from our conservative wing concerns himself with environmentalism, rather than the tired debate against environmentalists. Sure, I’ve got my problems with McCain – anyone who says he’ll stay in a war for the next two centuries has a few screws that need tightening – but it is inspiring to liberals to hear a conservative candidate for the presidency pledge to protect the environment, perhaps as much so as it is to have the first legitimate minority candidate nominated to represent the Democrats.

The Conservative Response

That being said, conservatives don’t seem to feel the same way. The purveyor of Republican propaganda, Rush Limbaugh, has gone on frequent tirades about the insanity of environmentalism. Conservative talk-show hosts have described climate change as a hoax and environmentalism as a mental disorder. Even the liberals are critical of his statements. After all, it’s hard to believe a candidate speaking in favor of environmentalism when that same candidate has a terrible 24 percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters. Which brings me to my next point…

The Problem: Politics or Conviction?

Unfortunately, as inspiring as it may be, it’s pure politics. Let’s keep in mind what McCain is trying to do here: be elected President. We should take his promises to protect the environment with a grain of salt. As George W. Bush focused on education, and southern Democrats are pro-life and vote to protect the Second Amendment, politicians have begun to realize they must attach themselves to at least one of the other side’s issues to be elected. How else would a candidate dupe the moderate Democrats into voting for a Republican this time around?

So, ye of the moderately liberal leaning, keep this in mind when you cast your ballots in November. Sure, McCain may institute his cap-and-trade policy to reduce carbon emissions, but when it really comes down to it, with whom will he side? If you want a history lesson, look at McCain in the mid-90s, when he sided with conservatives in undercutting the Environmental Protection Agency. If our next President is the esteemed Arizona Senator, don’t be surprised when he sides with big business over the Sierra Club.

Ben Stein, of Ferris Bueller fame, has finally done something to make me forget how much I enjoyed his droning hilarity in that film. He has brought so-called intelligent design to the forefront of public conversation once more, reviving one of the most widely-accepted hoaxes in the history of mankind.

This latest bit of nonsense is called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and features Stein interviewing a host of supposed academics and scientists, disgruntled because they are ostracized from academics because of their belief in a concept called ‘intelligent design,’ which, despite its name, is a theory featuring very little intelligence. Theatres showing the film are scarce (thankfully), so I have yet to see the documentary, but that’s not my concern for this week. My concern is intelligent design, and this notion that Stein and his fans have that this is somehow a valid theory worthy of merit or even consideration, when the truth is, the so-called academics who believe in it should be ostracized and laughed at. Let’s look at this ‘theory’ a little closer.

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution
Intelligent design is the belief that the development of life on Earth was guided by some intelligent being, rather than being governed by the random processes of inheritance, mutation, and natural selection. It is based strongly in a belief that god, or some incarnation of it, created the universe and has guided the development of mankind and, indeed, all species of animal on Earth. This is in opposition with the currently accepted theory of species development: neo-Darwinian evolution.

I’m going to go ahead and dumb this down, so you biologists out there, just keep quiet as I put things in layman’s terms. To the neo-Darwinian scientists, things happen something like this: cells randomly mutate all the time. Sometimes those mutations end up favorable to the life-form (i.e. beans gaining a resistance to a certain bug), and thus that life-form is able to reproduce more offspring and pass on that trait. In the same way, organisms which develop unfavorable mutations die out before they can reproduce, thus killing those bad genes off.

Theory vs. Bullshit
Neo-Darwinian evolution is what one calls a scientific ‘theory.’ Now, in common lingo, a theory can be just about any conjecture or opinion. In science, however, a theory is a testable prediction of natural phenomenon based on observable facts.

Neo-Darwinian evolution, for instance, is a theory to predict how new life-forms develop from old ones, based on facts from the fossil record and much of the work done in genetics and geological research. It is testable by looking at the fossils of connected species, and in fact, some of the more extraordinary research being done actually shows the evolution of quick-growing bacteria in action.

Here’s where we get to the big pile of smelly bullshit: intelligent design. Proponents of this theory say there’s nothing to explain where life began, and they argue that there are too many coincidences and improbabilities for evolution to occur randomly. While it is true that we have little evidence supporting any theories of how life began, deifying our own ignorance and calling it ‘god’ is not a scientific solution.

Intelligent design proponents try to replace all that is unknown with some vague deity. This does not create a valid scientific theory. This is superstition masked as science; theology pretending to be biology. God cannot be tested, seen, heard, or even smelled. To the scientist, it does not exist, as there is absolutely no evidence to support its existence.

Expelled for no Intelligence
Stein’s documentary makes the argument that academics who subscribe to intelligent design have been unfairly treated: ridiculed, not taken seriously, and even fired. I argue that they were treated fairly; they were laughed at as academics for believing in superstition.

The biologist who argues, despite all evidence to the contrary, that leprechauns are real would be laughed at. He would be ridiculed out of any legitimate conference. Why is intelligent design somehow worthy of merit, despite its basis in myth and superstition? If belief in intelligent design is accepted as science, we may as well begin teaching classes on dragons, proposing theories about the evolution of unicorns, and offering majors in Chupacabra Studies.

So, for those of you fooled by Stein’s documentary, just keep in mind what a theory is in science. Don’t accept this unfalsifiable nonsense as fact, for there is no intelligence in intelligent design. See it for what it is: superstition masquerading as biology.