In her video and interview, an angry Jones suggested inequality in the US was such that African-Americans were “that poor” and “that broke” that the only way they could obtain the things that the rest of society “flaunt and flash” is to smash a window and “get what they need”. Wilkinson did not challenge Jones on whether this matched the evidence of arson, vandalism and the looting of smart TVs, sporting equipment, guitars and even works of art.
Instead, Wilkinson asked what Jones might say to “people who do recognise the very real need for change” but have “difficulty getting past the violence that they see and the looting that they see”. Apparently, those of us who draw the line at violence and looting need wise counsel.
In her viral video rant, Jones argued the social contract was broken and “as far as I’m concerned they can burn this bitch to the ground (gesturing to her Atlanta neighbourhood) and it still wouldn’t be enough — and they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge”. The conversation was about as reassuring as a home invasion, but from Wilkinson’s tone and demeanour you would have thought she was sitting at the feet of Martin Luther King Jr.
“I have to say personally Kimberly,” said Wilkinson, “watching your video and really listening for the last couple of weeks, I’ve never really understood the white privilege that I’ve grown up with, as much as I do now. What can people like me do, who’ve never really understood but do now?” What a stellar question — what can Mosman millionaires do to overcome their white privilege and support revolution in the US?
Yesterday, @Lisa_Wilkinson spoke to a powerful a new voice in the fight for equality in America. A woman who has lit up the internet - Kimberly Jones.
— The Project (@theprojecttv) June 14, 2020
Full video: https://t.co/ZyBkqusqhe pic.twitter.com/Mro6lZoWcl
Just when you think the flailing moral compass of our virtue-signalling political/media class could not take them any further from community standards, they stretch the bounds of credulity. The people Robert Manne once self-described as the “permanent oppositional moral political community” seem happy to surrender reason or core values so long as it allows them to appear on the fashionable side of a debate.
It is a perverse media culture that rewards brainlessly subversive content such as this while ignoring any attempt at serious debate. Sure, to weigh in sensibly on these issues invites social media abuse, but what is the point of being in the news media if not to discuss reality?
In most Australian media you will not find references to African-American conservative Candace Owens or African-American civil rights lawyer and critic of Black Lives Matter Leo Terrell, or anyone else providing nuance or challenging a simplistic narrative. This is a great pity because while the ructions in the US are significant enough, the same movement has been replicated and transposed onto our indigenous issues.
ICYMI: @CornelWest refusing to get into a fair minded discussion with me on @seanhannity @FoxNews. #DefundPolice #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/V0KmWtTvTv
— TheLeoTerrell (@TheLeoTerrell) June 10, 2020
Here, we heard about The Footy Show’s serial attention seeker, Sam Newman, losing his job over crudely provocative comments but missed out on a proper discussion on the unpalatable reality he raised. As Owens has pointed out, George Floyd was a convicted criminal who had been imprisoned many times, including serving five years for an offence that involved threatening a woman at gunpoint.
“He was a criminal and just because he was a criminal does not mean he deserved to die at the knee of a police officer but I am not going to be part of this broken black culture that always wants to martyr criminals,” said Owens. Repeatedly pointing out that none of Floyd’s history excused the police behaviour, and demanding that justice be served against those officers, Owens used this horrible episode to focus on the inherent problem of high crime rates in African-American communities. “We don’t do personal responsibility in our communities, we only blame white people,” she said.
Nobody cared that George Floyd pressed a gun to a black woman.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 18, 2020
Nobody cares that Rashard Brooks beat a black woman.
For defending those women, I’ve had black men threaten to assault me & call me a whore.
Black culture is broken and it’s time we STOP blaming white people. https://t.co/1J7rqyc7eq
This crucial debate is being played out in a fascinating academic exchange that was universally ignored in US media. An anonymous University of California Berkeley history professor, claiming to be a “person of colour”, has written a devastating critique of the department’s “univariate” consideration of race issues.
The letter complains that the university view is simplistic: “The problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration of white supremacy and white systemic racism into American brains, souls and institutions.” And, it argues, rather than foster debate and inquiry, the university has a position that excludes research and arguments by contrarian academics, including from within the “black community” such as Thomas Sowell and Wilfred Reilly.
Civil rights used to be about treating everyone the same. But today some people are so used to special treatment that equal treatment is considered to be discrimination.
— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) June 18, 2020
“They are intelligent scholars who reject a narrative that strips black people of agency and systematically externalises the problems of the black community onto outsiders,” argues the anonymous professor.
It is a brilliant letter, verified by other professors. It makes the point that Martin Luther King Jr would “likely be called an Uncle Tom” if he spoke on campus today. “The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people,” the professor writes. “There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims … Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution. Please look into your hearts and see how monstrously bigoted this formulation truly is.”
Tellingly, the point of the letter was proven in the response from Berkeley’s history department, which said it could not confirm the letter’s veracity but offered a view nonetheless: “We condemn this letter: it goes against our values as a department and our commitment to equity and inclusion.”
This is not satire — this is the elimination of meaningful debate in real time.
Pro-Israel lobbyists fail in contempt bid over Lattouf case
A group of pro-Israel lobbyists who campaigned for Antoinette Lattouf’s dismissal from the ABC have failed in their bid to have the Nine newspapers prosecuted for contempt of court.
ABC’s frequent flyer: Chairman’s booming travel bill revealed
Kim Williams spent almost eight times as much in his first 14 months in the top job as his predecessor Ita Buttrose did in over two-and-a-half years, it has emerged.
Last Sunday week, after a puerile discussion about “how breasts work”, Network Ten’s The Project turned its focus to the police violence, Black Lives Matter and racial discrimination issues tearing the US apart. Lisa Wilkinson interviewed African-American activist Kimberly Jones, who had become, as they say, a social media sensation because of what Wilkinson called a “stunningly eloquent” video in a “brutally honest voice”.