October 27, 2005

I think we can safely stipulate that Andrew Sullivan, champion of the Bell Curve, is probably the last person who should be denouncing something as "racist", no matter how ugly or detestable the post in question may have been. Even so, Dr. Sullivan got it wrong. An African-American blogger who calls his foes "Toms" and photoshops them to look like minstrels may have all the subtlety of a beerfart in a crowded elevator, but he can be no more called a racist than a Jewish blogger who labels his ideological adversaries as "self-hating Jews" or "objectively pro-terrorist" can be labeled "anti-Semitic". Buffoonish? Yes. Racist? That's a bit of a stretch....

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