Dakota Beacon

 Note the title quotations. What follows is a commentary on an  essay written by Norman Podhoretz, editor of "Commentary" magazine, in the  May 2013 issue. In the article he discusses his bold essay by that title on  race written fifty years ago. His original essay and current discussion are  well worth the read.
 
 Race is one of the most difficult topics for Americans to  discuss. Typically, any discussion of racism, especially formal  presentations found in government, corporate and academic institutions  quickly drift into sanctimonious clichés of a politically correct variety.   In other words, they are short on honesty.
 
 Podhoretz's essay first appeared in "Commentary" in February  1963 and has been reprinted elsewhere with permission many times over the  years. He never sought to update, edit or revise it because he regards it as  a "fully realized" piece of writing achieving an existence independent of  the author.
 
 Inspiration for Podhoretz's essay is a story in itself. It was  his friend, black novelist James Baldwin, who gave Podhoretz the idea and  encouragement to write "My Negro Problem--and Ours."
 
 Consider key excerpts from his essay on race. Writing from his  personal experience, "And so for a long time I was puzzled to think that  Jews were supposed to be rich when the only Jews I knew were poor, and that  Negroes were supposed to be persecuted when it was the Negroes who were  doing the only persecuting I knew about -- and doing it, moreover, to  me....[W]hen my older sister joined a left-wing youth organization, I  remember my astonishment at hearing her passionately denounce my father for
 thinking that Jews were worse off than Negroes. To me, at the age of twelve,  it seemed very clear that Negroes were better off than Jews -- indeed, than  all whites....[I]n my world it was the whites, the Italians and Jews, who  feared the Negroes, not the other way around."
 
 And again, "Baldwin tells us that one of the reasons Negroes  hate the white man is that the white man refuses to look a him: the Negro  knows that in white eyes all Negroes are alike; they are faceless and
 therefore not altogether human....What Baldwin does not tell us, however, is  that the principle of facelessness is a two-way street and can operate in  both directions with no difficulty at all....To the Negroes, my white skin  was enough to define me as the enemy, and in a war it is only the uniform
 that counts and not the person.
 
 "So with the mechanism of projection that the psychologists talk  about: it works in both directions at once. There is no question that the  psychologists are right about what the Negro represents symbolically to the  white man. For me as a child the life lived on the other side of the playground...seemed the very embodiment of the values of the street -- free,  independent, reckless,....What mainly counted for me about Negro kids of my  own age was that they were 'bad boys.' There were plenty of bad boys among  the whites -- This was, after all, a neighborhood with a long tradition of  crime as a career open to aspiring talents -- but the Negroes were bad...in  a way that...made one feel inadequate....But most important of all, they  were tough; beautifully, enviably tough, not giving a damn for anyone or  anything....[T]o hell with the whole of the adult world that held us in its  grip and that we never had the courage to rebel against...."

 
 In his current commentary on his original essay, Podhoretz  corrects those who try to misinterpret his original essay. "It pains me to  think that [my essay] may have played a part...in this kind of thing. For
 the almost complete abdication of black responsibility and commensurately  total dependence on government engendered by so obsessive and exclusive a  fixation on white racism as the root of all racial evils has been nothing  short of calamitous. It has spawned attitudes and policies that have
 undermined the very habits and behaviors that are essential to the  achievement of independence and self-respect, and it has thereby helped  consign three generations of black kids to the underclass while contributing  to immiseration of countless black lives.
 
 "It has also had the indirect consequence of fostering thuggery  and aggression. In 1963, the stories I told about my own childhood  experience...were very shocking to most white liberals. In their eyes blacks  were all long-suffering and noble victims...."
 
 As Podhoretz points out in his current article, his essay is as  bold and pertinent today as it was in 1963. This is how Podhoretz sees race.  He is effective because he gives voice to what many people know intuitively.
 
 Excerpts do not do justice to Podhoretz's essay or his later  discussion. But they do serve to provoke thought and discussion. Seek them  out. They're both on the internet.
 
 
 
 Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or
 bnt@midstatetel.com.