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I came across today a movie trailer today which is/was The American Society of Magical Negroes. It really showed me how much the elite black class is grifting. The story apparently revolves around black people using magical powers to keep white people from chimping out and attacking black people. I'm not going to sit here and say black don't have grievances in America and against whites, but I don't think this whole type of thinking helps blacks. It makes it clear to me (and many other instances obviously) that the black elite and black academics define themselves against whiteness. Like they can't imagine blackness without white people in America. An America with no racism against blacks isn't possible to them, and the DEI and all that kind of stuff is necessary to keep them safe. This leaves many kinds of positions for more or less grifting that are basically only open to blacks and leave them a position to cry about racism and also benefit from it handsomely in terms of salary.
Working in Silicon Valley has given me the opportunity to work with a bunch of Nigerians that make insane salaries and live luxurious lifestyles. One thing I've noticed from them is that they don't think about the black/white distinction the same way. At my current company, the director of security is a Nigerian and half of the staff is Nigerian. Obviously they are hiring their own ethnics at a preferable rate, but I haven't seen one of them be part of the "Black at XYZ Company" groups or really care about that. They actually seem to be pretty happy with the current state of affairs in the US an have integrated pretty well.
I'm going to sound like a boomer conservative here, but it seems to me black elites in America seem obsessed with keeping the race divide front and center and their bloated salaries are a direct benefit to them. I don't think that black performance or lack thereof has anything to do with racism. I've never met a single normie person that is anti-black and hates them. I myself am pretty racist and HBD minded and I don't hate blacks at all. I find ghetto criminal blacks to be a nuisance and I don't like that, but even I would have to admit the vast majority of blacks are just normal people who want to live their lives and be happy. When I lived in Chicago, other than a few really unsafe areas I didn't mind walking around majority black neighborhoods.
It seems to me that there is an elite black class that was raised on the Civil Rights movement that can't move on. Their world view of racism is hopelessly outdated and most people would be fine hiring blacks and living near them. However, as currently constructed there is an elite black class that wants the status quo because they benefit from it Being a civil rights activist and a socila justice advocate is beneficial for these people instead of telling blacks they can succeed or fail on their own merits and to just be normal Americans.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with there being a substantial rent-seeking black leadership/sinecure class, and that this isn’t in any way unprecedented(ancien regime France had a vast class of people who enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle for doing nothing, as do gulf Arab countries today), and that these people are a net negative to the community.
But, I think it’s worth pointing out that normie blacks don’t look up to these people, they look up to celebrities. Obviously cribbing celebrities is a bad idea for the general public even with celebrities that are generally decent role models(eg the NFL players that get a kissy face article every year about being a family man who serves as a deacon in his church and personally sponsors a food kitchen), because most people are not celebrities. The conservative solution to this is to hold up Ben Carson and Herman Cain instead, which is predictably not going to work. And the liberal solution is to try to make it about racism, which is basically a non-problem.
I want to say that it's actually not bad if you have the elites of your society freed from labor to actually do the work of being elites. It's a natural specialization and a good thing both for the elites and the people they administer. Pretty much every successful empire has this going on. You don't want the people making the big decisions to get lost in the petty details. For everyone's sake.
The real problem is that these people want this status without doing the work or having the abilities required of an elite class, let alone any love for the people, loyalty to the nation or what have you.
Were this black american pseudo-nobility mostly made of Clarence Thomases, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
This mentality also finds itself at home with privileged, white and entitled libertarians who want to enact a world where the market solves all problems, and you think you can do away with politics entirely. It's a worldview that says I have no obligations to others, if I can get rich nobody should bother me. It's quite striking how much they idealize the worldview that animates the underclasses and third world countries of the rest of the planet.
Libertarianism does not say you have no obligations to others. This is a ridiculous strawman.
(It does say that your obligations to others are limited, which bleeding-heart liberalism and progressivism do not, but that, as they say, is a "feature")
Is it? I got blasted pretty hard every time I introduced the concept to PCM. Humor aside, you got better quality political discussion there then you did in actual political subreddits. Maybe not to someone like you who has a more sophisticated understanding of it. But to the rebellious young adults who protested Jesus in the household and found their new Bible in "Man, State and Economy" with an Internet connection, they 'absolutely' think that, and will explicitly tell you as much.
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Have you read any of Bryan Caplan waxing about his "beautiful bubble"?
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Yes. He calls the world outside “dreary, insipid, ugly, boring, wrong, and wicked”, but adds that “Trying to reform it is largely futile” and implies he has no obligation to waste his efforts.
By declaring effort largely futile, he makes it clear any predictably unsuccessful attempts would be mere signaling of “caring” without real effect.
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Sure, community organizers not needing a day job is a sign of societal wealth more than anything, but these people don’t do anything to help their communities, they just stoke racial tensions and grift.
That's because a money grab will always be easier and more gainful to an opportunist, than putting in the hard work of being productive and trying to align incentives in your community.
Pointing out the problems of the people you're surrounded by and live amongst never earns you any friends, but only contempt. Telling people there is no magic bullet to solve their issues, you have to stop being an entitled single mother, you have to go to school, you have to keep your house in order, you have to conduct yourself morally and be an upstanding citizen is a recipe for making enemies with the people you're trying to help. People don't want to hear it. And this is no different with almost any other negative social feedback loop out there. If I get on the podium in a presidential debate and say I'm not going to solve all your problems. This is a generational issue. It took us half a century just to get where we are currently and will take decades to give what my constituencies what they are asking for. Now vote for me. Do people think that'll happen? No. They'll settle for a liar who makes false promises and delivers mediocre outcomes.
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That's a pretty bold statement.
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