Comments on: …oh, and about the harvard law student and her “racist” email

By: Esmi

Esmi — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:53:01 +0000

I know I’m probably a bit late ( I just now happened across this site) and I haven’t read through all the comments (there’s a lot) but I just wanted to say, as someone of afro Caribbean descent, reading about disenfranchised black Americans always brings me back to something my grandfather told me when I was in my “I hate America phase” (circa 2002): “u try growing up knowing that the colour of your skin would mean that you didn’t get the same opportunities as everyone else.” It was merely his response to my refusal to accompany a black American guest of ours to the movie (due to my utter disgust of his “Americaness”) but it stuck with me and would be remembered often later in my life when I would attend college in the US. I never realised how hard it was being black in America. don’t get me wrong its not a bed of roses in the Caribbean and “colourism” has lead to many a disenfranchised youth, but growing up the people in power, the smart, the rich, the famous, were mostly black like me. I saw black men on my money as well as my television and after slavery was over, our oppressors left.

By: ollyohMBAJD

ollyohMBAJD — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:55:35 +0000

As a lawyer myself, I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. F*ck that b*tch. We have more important things to do than argue with a fool.

By: CeCe

CeCe — Sat, 15 May 2010 20:09:20 +0000

I Concur 100%…LEARN WHAT? May be if we put her to task to explain that then find herself on ther other side of the realm.

By: ND

ND — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:09:10 +0000

“sh*t, there isn�t even any conclusive evidence that race itself actually exists.”

Righ. Genetically, race is so hard to define it’s meaningless. There could be some particular group of Africans that were stupid and it wouldn’t mean a damn thing about people the next country over, or even the next town over. There’s too much variation within each ‘race’, and it’s ridiculous genetically to define groups by skin color, like we do socially.

By: Tiyah

Tiyah — Sat, 08 May 2010 17:59:31 +0000

Great post. The first thing that sticks out to me is the notion of whites as a control group. This is what makes the whole argument racist (or more specifically, white supremacist) to me. If this were truly about genetic difference and intellectual capacity, wouldn’t that include unbiased analysis? Given the examples she cited, I am surprised that the “model minority” wasn’t mentioned, as Asian students are often believed to be smarter and more resourceful (and make excellent study partners, just saying).

Its sad that so many in our society are still set on establishing a hierarchy- particularly white folks trying to establish dominance and put us on the bottom. Will we ever get past this? Obama probably represents an outlier or some extraordinary example. Is this part of the backlash response to Obama’s presidency, like whites just can’t help themselves from taking us down a notch (ya’ll ain’t really smart, don’t start feeling yourselves too much. This will never happen again, science sez!)

I also have to ask, with this preoccupation (which is centuries old) is there some practical goal in mind? If Blacks are just naturally less intelligent, regardless of condition or status, what are the policy prescriptions? Perhaps grace suggest we should go back to largely segregated school systems (oh wait…) and pay no attention to cries of inequality. After all, why bother if they stupid anyway?

By: AnonyMiss

AnonyMiss — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:34:07 +0000

this is upsetting, to say the least.

By: Things I think you should have read this week 5.7.2010 | Life in the Middle Lane

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:50:54 +0000

[...] the reasons S. Grace is a fool from a�white feminist point of view and here�s a article from a�black male point of view. Be sure to stick around for the comments on each, as they are [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:31:31 +0000

Why are people — African Americans and others — so willing to engage discussions of African exceptionalism and African inferiority nowadays?

One of my favorite quotes is from a Moms Mabley stand-up routine — ‘If you don’t know when someone’s spitting in your face,’ she said, ‘I don’t care whatever else you think you know.’

These are not innocent attempts to settle nagging questions. These sorts of ‘questions’ are bald-faced insults that too many African Americans allow to run on unchecked because of their own unwarranted questions about their personal mental chops, and because of their misplaced attempts to blend in and seem reasonable, thoughtful, ‘cultured,’ and not violent and savage like the Africans on the evening news.

The best response to this chick was the one tested and tossed early on in the OP — ‘shut the fuck up, you stupid cave b*tch.’ The rest of the is-it-or-isn’t-it hamlet routine, for so many reasons others have already noted, is utter fucking bullshit.

By: Lurker^nth

Lurker^nth — Thu, 06 May 2010 04:40:28 +0000

Who said something about persecuting her for her ideas? I don’t think she should be hung. However, I absolutely think her clerkship should be at stake. Absolutely.

By: Lawstudent

Lawstudent — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:26:31 +0000

Like I said before… I’m not sure the details are as clear as you think. The entire story seems a bit far-fetched, someone remembered an email from 6 months before and was like I’ll show her? If the other person was a classmate, I doubt it seriously, unless they were troubled from the beginning with the email. Even if taken your facts as true, the conversation must have been one where others did not agree with her views and she wanted to get her point across one more time. And as for another comment you made earlier, Federal Clerkships are not internships and are one of the most prestigious positions a post grad can receive, they many times write the opinions you read for cases. To have a clerkship opens many other opportunities and is not something that should be taken lightly. I saw something about freedom of speech and like someone replied before, it only applies to government action unless someone has taken the position in which they act as the government, neither which is the case here, so that doesn’t apply. If you say something crazy, it might show up again, many employers check twitter, facebook, etc. obviously it is to check and make sure the people they hire aren’t doing and saying ridiculous things because it is important how you portray yourself to others. So, even if she did get in a fight, she should know better than to send such a “well-thought” email to a “group of friends” because it could show up again and it did.