If you haven't come across City Journal yet, you must check it out, and not merely because I have a commentary just posted today in their current online edition. City Journal is a print quarterly of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute. It has been called "the best magazine in America" by Peggy Noonan, and "the bible of the new urbanism" by the Daily Telegraph. (More background on the publication here). I urge you to click on over to the City Journal main page where you can read articles from the Autumn 2005 edition on systemic dysfunction in New Orleans; the role of Mexican consulates in aiding and abetting illegal immigration; the Supreme Court's eminent domain ruling; Theodore Dalrymple's "The Suicide Bombers Among Us;" and Stephen Malanga's, "The Conspiracy Against The Taxpayer: Why Public Servants Live Better Than The Rest Of Us."
City Journal is an indispensable source for anyone interested in combatting the insidious liberal orthodoxy which tends to permeate America's cities, many of its state capitals, and much of its media. One more thing City Journal is doing right (and daily newspapers in Seattle and elsewhere should take the hint) is providing prominent links to blog posts which link to, and comment upon, their articles. (You'll see their links to specific blog posts, from bloggers across the country, in the far right hand column of the City Journal main page).
My own City Journal contribution today is an "Eye On The News" commentary, titled "Thugs On Parade: Why Do White Liberals Accept The "Gangsta" Persona As a Perfectly Legitimate Expression of Black Culture?"
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 10, 2005 12:33 PM | Email ThisI think that a large part of the liberal blind eye to thug culture is that they willingly exploit any statistically lower performing minority as voting blocks toward their ends.
Posted by: Jeff B. on November 10, 2005 03:03 PMThat's BS, Matt, every word of it. You haven't demonstrated a thing. You're just making stuff up. Just another right-wing fraud, posing as some kind of "thoughtful commentator."
"Thug culture" is marketed unendingly on mass media, so that they can sell advertising and make a buck. What's "liberal" about that? It's just business.
Where's the conservative outrage at the mass marketers of the thug and pimp culture? Nonexistent. Instead, bash the liberals. It's all the liberals' fault.
You're a fraud, Matt, and not even a good one. But hey, stir up the dummies, yeah.
Posted by: Ivan on November 10, 2005 03:29 PMLeigh M
Portland
PS -- John Ross has other good info on his site.
The question is less who's selling this crud (in a free market economy somebody always will) and more who's buying it, and failing to ask the right questions about it.
It may provoke frothing indignation on your part, but it is liberals who continue to excuse underclass behavior and its cultural underpinnings, and who instead, pin all the blame on corporations, whites, and "institutional racism."
You're still peddling a 1971 agenda.
Posted by: Matt Rosenberg on November 10, 2005 04:15 PMMuch of the criticism conservative social observation earns is precisely because it is, in its own way, just as blind to its bias as the "politically correct."
Posted by: headless lucy on November 10, 2005 04:40 PMIs Ivan a racist ? Seems like that is a definite possibility, based on the shrillness of his response. There is the big lie that evolved in the '60's that Democrats brought on civil rights legislation - which is BS. The Republicans in congress were the ones who passed it, under a Democrap President.
There is alot of misplaced anger (in my mind) by blacks toward Republicans and conservatives, who have really tried to encourage self-sufficiency, while the left has tried to encourage the welfare/nanny state that they buy into that is doing noone any favors. The breakdown of the family, encouraged by the welfare/nanny state has led to the Gangsta stuff in the inner cities- which is their substitute for the families which are broken. One of these days, maybe there will be a national dialog about this - but the conservatives will have to bring it on.
Posted by: KS on November 10, 2005 11:16 PMGood for you, Al. Wouldn't want that for MY daughters, either.
Posted by: Realist on November 10, 2005 11:22 PMGrow up! The latest polls and election results dictate that the average voter is on to your tactics. If you want to thank anyone for the modest amount of control exerted on these negative youth images you can thak Tipper Gore.
Posted by: headless lucy on November 11, 2005 08:31 AM