Neutral Names

For John, BLUF:  I don't think we have fully worked out the melting pot, but the Western Hemisphere may be ahead of the Eastern.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"RNC Chair Demands (And Receives) Apology From Ebony Editor For Attack On African-American Staffer".

This is from the Truth Revolt, which talks about Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus demanding an apology from Ebony Magazine "not just for making assumptions about his race but more importantly for dismissing black Republicans and the validity of their opinions in public discourse."

Then over at Da Tech Guy blog we have this take on the incident.  "What That Ebony Mag-RNC Thing Was Really About" by Juliette Ochieng (AKA baldilocks).

This week’s racial controversy involved Ebony Magazine senior editor Jamilah Lemieux and RNC staffer Raffi Williams—son of Fox News commentator Juan Williams.  When you’re reading the conversation, stop seeing red and try to see green.

I think baldilocks has a point.  We make (or miss) clues about people, often based on names and physical appearance.  We need to do better.

To sum it up, Law Professor Ann Althouse looks at a New Yorker article titled "The Fourth Quarter, Kobe Bryant confronts a long—and possibly painful—goodbye."  Per the Althouse blog the article is by Ben McGrath, and contains this paragraph (on page 45 of a piece that goes from 38 to 49):

When I brought up LeBron James posting online a photo of the Heat players dressed in hoodies, with their heads bowed, in solidarity with Trayvon Martin, as political expression, Bryant seemed nonplussed.  "I won't react to something just because I'm supposed to, because I'm African-American," he said.  "That argument doesn't make sense to me.  So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American, we immediately come to his defense?  Yet you want to talk about how far we've progressed as a society?  Well, if we've progressed as a society, then you don't jump to somebody's defense just because they're African-American.  You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right?  So I won't assert myself."

I think that Mr Kobe Bryant is on to something.

Regards  —  Cliff