(Normal service – i.e. prose – will be resumed promptly. I promised a follow-up poem about its being too easy to rebut the race scammers – or ‘race hustlers’ as is, I believe, the US term. Here it is.)
ADVICE TO A CAMPUS RADICAL
When true statements are uttered by those you despise,
It’s not logical (nor helpful, narrative-wise)
To shout “racist”, as if hearers will not realise
That from true factual statements do not follow lies.Don’t unwittingly justify what you oppose,
by discarding all logic for wokeness, like those
intellectuals lacking in intellect who
‘prove’ some true facts are racist (so racism’s true?).When exam results don’t match what you want them to,
When too few of the prize winners have the ‘right’ hue,
Do not claim that it’s racist to add two and two:
“Mathematics is racist!” says “Racism’s true”.If school discipline policies are colour-blind
and offender percentage results in each kind
are unequal, don’t say that is racist to do:
saying “colour-blind’s racist” says “racism’s true”.That slavery is ancient, you should not deny,
Nor that blacks sold the blacks that white traders did buy,
Nor that one culture banned it and forced others to,
Nor that these truths aren’t racist (else racism’s true).Falsifiable claims enforced by a loud few
Do not silence the minds whose mouths dare not argue;
Best let doubters weed errors in free speech review.
Don’t say free speech is racist; free speech finds what’s true.Sadly, say what I like about freedom of speech.
How ‘respect’ means first hearing the viewpoint of each,
And how more diverse thoughts could expand your thought’s reach,
Your thought is: we listen, while you alone teach.When you welcome illegals, but back of the queue
Is where you put the Copt, Venezuelan or Jew
(anti-‘Zionist’ immigrants being welcome too)
It appears that some racism’s OK by you.Know from false ideologies, falsehood derives:
You’ll be spreading the hatred, you claiming the lives.
If you war against truths then you will evil do,
For no truth can be racist – else racism’s true.
OK, I think it may be a good time to have a chat about… rhythm.
I can’t find an error in scansion. This has a strong flavor of Kipling, which may be why I like it. The humble lyricist tips his hat and nominates Niall Kilmartin as Samizdata’s Poet Laureate.
llater,
llamas
Good catch in a fun poem!
Tying together two threads, Julie near Chicago earlier pointed out the Center of the American Experiment – a Minnesota group for which I WILL vouch – whose Katherine Kersten did the yoeman’s work in bringing this particular topic to public attention.
(John Hinderaker, the Powerline writer cited in this passage, is the chair of the CAE.)
Yay for my homeboys!
llamas (August 28, 2019 at 3:35 pm) you are a little (only a little, I hope) too kind to say there is not a single error in the scansion. AFAICS, the de-de-DAH (times 4) rhythm goes with the natural word stress almost everywhere (I think) but there are three exceptions, one intended, one fairly natural and one a genuine failure of mine to get perfect combination. In
it is intentional to break the rhythm and have a short line – the only one in the poem – so one can equally-emphasise the first three words in
By contrast, slavery is not pronounced slaVERy but it can naturally be pronounced with equal stresses, so it is no poetic device, but natural enough, to read that line
(It helps that it’s the first line of its verse.)
However, there is nothing I can say to defend the last stress in
You just have to read argue equally-stressed and do the best you can. A better poet would have postponed publishing till he had recast the line. Mea Culpa.
Ideally, of course, a poem reads so naturally that the thought expressed in the poem, not the poem itself, becomes the focus of discussion. 🙂 So I appreciate bobby b’s comment.
The paradox you point out in the last line of several verses of your poem reminded me of a post of mine from a couple of years ago that I shall take the liberty of quoting:
This article on PC bias in the field of criminology has some examples of the kind of “truth is racist” dogmas that demonstrate the logical (and, crime being an emotive subject, emotional) concerns of my poem (h/t instapundit).
Some years ago – early 90’s – as a new lawyer working for a judge, I was on a committee (as an amanuensis) amending and updating my state’s Rules of Criminal Procedure. These are the rules which govern how criminal cases are handled throughout their court existence.
The sentiment from on high – our state’s Governor and legislators – was for us to be mindful that “all of the experts” were convinced that our society imprisoned people too easily, and for too long. We were to keep that thought in mind as we honed the rules.
The sentiments from everyone in those rooms who had ever been connected with the criminal justice system – prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers – was the opposite. It was too hard to put bad people away, and the sentences were generally too light. 2% of the population was making life miserable for the other 98%, and our “modern” application of criminology was forcing us to release them too soon. James Q. Wilson hadn’t written his books yet, but when he did, they mirrored what we all were thinking.
But we couldn’t say that publicly. Oh, my, no.
Heather McDonald, in her works through City Journal, was one of the first to begin to write such things – Wright and Delisi carried her torch further in this article – but one still sees people – even people running this blog – making the charge that the USA imprisons too many.
As a former defense attorney, I’ll say that we imprison too few, for too short a time. Not a very libertarian position, I know, but when theory conflicts with actual direct experience, theory has to give way.
Correction: I just pulled down my copy of Crime and Human Nature. 1985. So he had written his books by then – I just hadn’t seen them yet. Oops.
bobby, how could you write such a thing?!! The very sturdiest and most devastating weapon we have against the evils that trouble every step of our journey through the jungle of Reality is this pithy little principle beloved of all intelligent people over the age of 6 1/2:
This is the rule that shows how much the Great Frog loves us: He/it/she has sent it to us as a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Use it wisely, well, and often. You will sleep much better at night (unless you’re sleeping under the pergola when it collapses).