Bobo's big brain - heraldblog

Bobo's big brain

David Brooks, always the master of searching out evidence to support his foregone conclusions, has jumped the shark. There is no place this "conservative" legend of the New York Times op-ed page can go from here but down. Today, he takes aside all those rudderless albeit brilliant 18-year-olds (you know, the one not getting their legs blown off in Iraq), and shares with them the secret to success. Two words: cultural geography.

It's a field that hardly exists, Bobo tells us, because multiculturalist university professors use their mind bending rays to prevent decent people from asking sensible questions:
This is the line of inquiry that is now impolite to pursue. The gospel of multiculturalism preaches that all groups and cultures are equally wonderful. There are a certain number of close-minded thugs, especially on university campuses, who accuse anybody who asks intelligent questions about groups and enduring traits of being racist or sexist. The economists and scientists tend to assume that material factors drive history - resources and brain chemistry - because that's what they can measure and count.

But none of this helps explain a crucial feature of our time: while global economies are converging, cultures are diverging, and the widening cultural differences are leading us into a period of conflict, inequality and segmentation.
Actually, multiculturalism teaches that all cultures serve a purpose. It also teaches that by understanding and appreciating other cultures, we can all hope to get along peacefully, rather than blowing up skyscrapers and invading each other's countries. But that's a fine point not worthy of Brooks's big ole brain.

Brooks then makes the leap from insipid to vapid with this observation:
If you look just around the United States you find amazing cultural segmentation. We in America have been "globalized" (meaning economically integrated) for centuries, and yet far from converging into some homogeneous culture, we are actually diverging into lifestyle segments. The music, news, magazine and television markets have all segmented, so there are fewer cultural unifiers like Life Magazine or Walter Cronkite.
There's a simple economic reason for America's cultural segmentation, David. It's called marketing. Advertisers prefer to spend their advertising budgets on people who are most likely to buy their products. That's why you see arthritis medication ads during the nightly news, which draws an older audience, and not on Dawson's Creek, which is watched primarily by 18-year-olds with really big brains.

I tried reading the rest of the article, but it made my head hurt. Sorry I posted the link.

LaShawn Barber's identity crisis

I can't believe she said this:
A non-white, third-world influx of illegal aliens is bad for America any way you package it. Unlike European immigrants who came to the U.S. to assimilate into society, Mexicans have little interest in adopting the culture or the language.
I'm thinking some bloggers should draw straws, and the loser has to tell LaShawn that she's black.

Native American sports team mascots

Andrew Cline at the American Specator takes the NCAA to task for "racial paternalism". The NCAA's offense? Banning 18 colleges and universities from using Native American nicknames.

Now this has always been a touchy subject for me. Not because I'm native American, unless one defines third-generation French Alsacian as Native American. And not touchy because I get off on the Tomahawk chop. Which I don't. I guess I've had mixed feelings about using Native American imagery since Marquette University dumped the kick-ass Warriors for the limp-noodley Golden Eagles.

So I asked a friend of mine, a fellow Marquette alum, journalist and Native American, to explain it all to my white brain. Here's what she wrote:
I find the opinions of non-Native Americans interesting when it comes to the sports mascot issue. If you could separate mascots from the behavior they generate from fans, then the author of the commentary might have a point. The sad truth is that too often Native American mascots are accompanied by ridiculous stereotypes of Native culture that is insulting, insensitive and offensive -- especially among the fans of professional teams.

It wasn't always this way. I grew up in Tomah, home of the Tomah Indians. There was a sense of pride in Native American heritage. There was no tomahawk chop or ridiculing of culture. If all teams truly had this regard, I don't think there would be nearly as much opposition.

At the heart of this need to characterize Native Americans as emblems of team spirit is to keep them in the American psyche as figures of the past. When you combine that with the fact that schools don't teach accurate Native American history in our educational system, and the fact that Native Americans are largely ignored by the mainstream media, it gives mainstream America the sense that Native people are relics and don't have much value beyond giving ball teams a nickname.

I'm not one of those Native Americans that are particularly hurt by the images. But some Native American children are hurt and ashamed over having their culture diminished through foolish behavior and overpriced merchandise (that doesn't go toward improving the lives of Native people).

These are things that the author of the commentary cannot possibly understand. I usually ignore comments from people that say: What's the big deal? Or: They're just being overly sensitive. Those folks can't possibly understand, and it's not my job to try to get them to step outside themselves and really explore what it might be like for those that are disenfranchised.
That's about right.

11.8.05 15:24

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To date 3 Comment(s) TrackBack-URL

(11.8.05 17:54)
Posting the link is okay. But you probably should have referenced "The OC" as Dawson's Creek has been out of production for a few years now.
Astute article (yours, not Brooks's), though.

(11.8.05 19:28)
Thanks for the hipness update. Never watched Dawson's Creek.

(12.8.05 01:04)
Not a problem.
Wonder if LaShawn has one of those special "whitening" mirrors.