Constructive Conversations

Courtesy of Vlad Tepes, we have the following brief interview of author Harry Stein by Canada's op-ed jewel of the airwaves, Michael Coren:

We could use a Michael Coren or two below the 49th parallel, wouldn't you say?

Needless to say, no constructive conversation about race and the problems that correlate with it can occur as long as the mere suggestion that such a conversation is desirable evokes immediate cries of "racism!" and thunderous denunciations of the suggester. Even though the denouncers and racism-shouters constitute a minority of the American people, they are a vociferous and powerful minority: powerful enough to strip a man of his livelihood, his family and friends, and in some cases even his life.

To me, the most interesting aspect of the matter is the "doublethink" part: that left-liberals can maintain piously that "there's really no such thing as race" while vociferously supporting "affirmative action" laws and programs premised on race. (There's also the advice given in this now-famous piece, which virtually every Caucasian-American parent will give to his children as soon as they get their hands on the car keys, but which liberals stoutly maintain is itself proof of its author's innate racism.)

At the outset, what matters are correlations, not causes. Correlations are the mandatory starting point for remediation and/or investigation. Whatever causes an investigation might settle on, the correlations point toward the locus of required action for study and eventual remediation. If violent criminality, or drug abuse, or fatherlessness -- take your pick; any of these or several other race-correlated problems will serve -- is a far more severe problem among Negroes than among Caucasians, then it's clear that something that directly affects persons of the Negro race, quite possibly some public policy, is exacerbating the problem for that demographic.

But none of this will be possible as long as men of good will are generally inhibited from addressing such matters openly.

Yes: I've ranted quite openly on this subject before. More than once, in fact. But how many Americans not already convinced of the need to address such matters were listening at the time?