In the aftermath of the 911 terrorist attacks, the American lexicon expanded to include “stovepiping,” an information science term used to explain how government agencies had created separate intelligence-related data bases that were not being shared among law enforcement, and thus endangered American security.
Post hoc, everyone realized the danger of rigidly compartmentalizing information. We all knew that truth and informed action result only when relevant ideas climb in the ring together and engage in a knock-down, drag-out fight within the public discourse arena. To remedy the stovepiping problem, talking heads advised security analysts to “connect the dots,” meaning, of course, that information should be culled from multiple sources, juxtaposed, and honestly evaluated—a suggestion so obvious that even Barack Obama endorsed the practice so long as the resulting information did not undermine his Machiavellian ends.
On the other hand, Barack Obama always has stovepiped the elements of his racial identity, separating the black half of his being from the white, dragging out the white portion only when he needed to do so. You recall, for instance, that Barack first got into hot water during the 2008 presidential election by denigrating working-class Caucasians by suggesting that "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." and then distributed a political ad showing himself surrounded by his white mother, grandmother, and grandfather.
Obama’s stovepiping is one example of a general form of racial irrationality rampant within contemporary American culture—an irrationality that permits black and white raceketeers to separate racially related information mostly in the service of a pro-black agenda.
Switch on your radio or television and you will find multiple examples of racial stovepiping. For instance, I recently heard a news report lamenting the fact that the black unemployment rate currently stands at 16.7%, its highest rate since 1984. From time to time the piece said or strongly implied that the black rate was disgraceful and an example of American racism.
Certainly, everyone should be sympathetic to any group suffering unemployment. But let’s add another data point: black underachievement. When expedient to raise support for increasing inner-city school budgets, we hear that African Americans have a shamefully low 57% graduation rate. Data point number three: communities with the least educated workforce have the highest rates of unemployment.
Let’s help raceketeers connect the dots. Black unemployment is a direct result of insufficient black educational commitment. The racial storm troopers should spend their time facilitating African American education and other training rather than searching for cultural scapegoats.
Racialized thinking is a dead end strategy that benefits no one—least of all black people.
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