The New York Times–one of the most storied news sources in the world, the newspaper that once bragged it contained “all the news that’s fit to print”–is now actively calling for “a new black radicalism.”
And yes, “black radicalism” is exactly what it sounds like.
In the wake of the Charleston church shooting–where Dylann Roof, a young white supremacist, killed nine African-American churchgoers–New York Times writer, Chris Lebron, decided that enough is enough.
He decided that, if Americans are going to stop white-on-black violence, white people are going to have to pay. He doesn’t rule out increased violence to get his point across.
It’s not just a ludicrous idea–advocating that one race rise up and “radically” go after another is actively dangerous. Especially when it’s printed and publicized by one of the largest newspapers in the country.
Lebron defines this so-called “black radicalism” as “…not merely rationally persuading white Americans, but to intentionally unsettle and dislodge them from the comforts of white privilege.”
And when he says he plans to accomplish that radically–well, he means radically.
He doesn’t mean sit-ins or peaceful protests, like America had in the 1960s.
In fact, he argues that “blacks should not desire [Martin Luther King, Jr.’s] second coming… It seems to me that the days of sitting at the lunch counter and enduring inhumane abuses must be left to history.”
Instead of the kind of peaceful protest that attracted people of all races, made King a national legend, and helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Lebron urges something “more appropriately radical for our present moment.”
He doesn’t explicitly say what that “appropriately radical” response is. But when he asks himself whether this black radicalism can be widespread violence, he admits, “Yes, it can be.”
In Lebron’s eyes, because one white person–like Dylann Roof–was a white supremacist, the entire black community needs to rise up and break down societal convention.
No matter that African-Americans are more likely to kill African-Americans than they are to be killed by whites. And no matter that–because of the Left’s policies that have gutted black families, encouraged single-parent households, and discouraged work–African-Americans are economically falling farther and farther behind other races, even as racism continues to disappear.
Obviously, this is problematic. There’s no excuse for white supremacy–and there’s no excuse for shooting up a room of anyone, least of all Christians in a house of worship.
But, on the flip side of the coin, there’s similarly no excuse for “black radicalism” either.
America still has a long way to go to fix its societal problems, but exchanging violence against one race for violence against another? That wouldn’t do anything but lead to bloodshed, and widen the rift between whites and blacks. That seems like an obvious point–unless you’re Chris Lebron and The New York Times.
