Colin Flaherty’s White Girl Bleed a Lot is an underground book that has gotten its fair share of mainstream attention, mainly due to its alleged evil racist racial racism.
So naturally, I HAD to check it out. And having done that, I can safely say that the book is not written in hateful tones, nor can it be considered truly racist unless you’re of the opinion that “hate facts” are inherently evil. For while it’s subtitle does proclaim that the book discusses the return of racial violence to America, it’s not written as the virulent, anti-black diatribe that a casual glance would have you think. Rather, I feel it is written with the intent of objectively pointing out two very real (but seldom discussed) phenomena: the high amount of anti-white hate crimes and discrimination, as well as the media’s running interference for said crimes. I feel that Flaherty’s writing is implicitly about what I have explicitly advocated in articles such as this: If you want to fix the situation, and perhaps make it so the races can live in some semblance of harmony, you have to point out the collective wrongdoings of a group, because only then will that bad behavior stop.
After the foreword, which explains the title as an offhand remark from a black woman at the Milwaukee State Fair’s infamous “Beat Whitey Night”, the first several chapters deal with either racial violence in one particular city, or racial violence against a particular group—as I have alluded to in my own writing, Asians and Hispanics are targeted in racial violence almost as much as white people are. Intertwined in these chapters is the information that I personally found the most interesting—the blatant cover-ups and excuse making by the media on behalf of the rioters or violent criminals!
Humorously, Flaherty defines the media pattern as “they didn’t do it…but here’s why they did it”. An example of this can be seen in the wake of a series of flash mob attacks in Philadelphia—people in public fora obviously noticed the races of those involved, and the media’s response was to wory about the “destructive tone” of these comments rather than the destructive rioting: “It’s sad people didn’t recognize the true nature of the violence. It’s young people, not black people.” Shortly thereafter, our betters told us that “the reason blacks rioted is because the state cut money for prisons and education”.
Combine this softball approach with the hiring of, shall we say, urban political activists that sympathize with the rioters (“we understand the need to blow off steam”, Chapter 1: Philadelphia Syndrome) and you have a surefire recipe for an ongoing problem.
The pattern of denial, and then making excuses for the thing continues with discussion of the Knockout Game being played in St. Louis against both white and Asian people, notable highlights include the chief of police going on record saying “white people don’t know how to act around black people”, and that after the game spread to Alabama, Crimson Tide fans were upset about their players being kicked off the team for playing the Knockout Game, because winning football games is more important than public safety.
The crime reports go on for a while, but it’s Chapter 10 where I feel the book really gets interesting—namely, it asks the question “If this is going on so much, why don’t we hear about it?” The simple reason is you’re not allowed to report it, and the bulk of the rest of the book discusses media obfuscation of the crime problem.
As Melissa Harris Perry of MSNBC admits, they go out of their way to not report it because it’ll make black people look bad on the whole. “The idea is that people will look at these communities and say ‘How terrible they are’, we know the violence inflicted on black men by police so we don’t report it”. Other major news networks (notably CBS) admit to doing the same, when they’re not attacking whistleblowers such as Flaherty (notably Salon).
A ray of hope comes from what Flahety refers to as “voices of sanity”: black writers who admit to this problem and urge their fellows to improve their lot. Jesse Lee Peterson says that black people are encouraged to hate whites, racism isn’t the problem, and personal failings are the problem. “White people need to get over their fear of being called racist”.
Similarly, Abdul Hakim Shabazz: “It’s time for some tough love. The criminal element consists mostly of young black men. Some will call me an Uncle Tom because I speak the truth. Decent citizens, whether white or black, should not have to live in fear.”
And that is largely where the book leaves off—I have long pointed to the fact that dysfunctional populations can improve themselves collectively with enough effort, and have even said that if the Irish in 19th century America were treated with kid gloves like blacks are in 21st century America, we would likely still have a big dysfunctional Hibernian underclass. A lesson that the presumably Irish Colin Flaherty knew all too well when writing this book.
Highly recommended.
You can buy White Girl Bleed A Lot here