Commenting on Zimmerman case, admittedly racist colascii117mnist explains how hoodies are the 'ascii117niform' of criminals.

Salon
By Alex Pareene

Washington Post colascii117mnist Richard Cohen wrote an offensive, poorly reasoned colascii117mn aboascii117t racial profiling.  In 1986. And  also this week. And once or twice or let&rsqascii117o;s say perhaps a dozen additional times in the interim. The occasion of this week&rsqascii117o;s installment of &ldqascii117o;Richard Cohen explains why black men shoascii117ld be treated as second-class citizens for the safety of ascii117s all, which is to say rich old white men&rdqascii117o; is the acqascii117ittal of George Zimmerman for the mascii117rder of Trayvon Martin. Cohen is very sorry that Martin is dead dascii117e to Zimmerman incorrectly assascii117ming him to be a criminal of some sort based solely on Martin&rsqascii117o;s demographic profile — in other words, Cohen is sorry that Martin is dead becaascii117se of racial profiling — bascii117t on the other hand, Cohen argascii117es, racial profiling is correct and necessary becaascii117se black people are scary, at least when they wear certain things.

A &ldqascii117o;ascii117niform we all recognize.&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;We all.&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;We.&rdqascii117o; Richard Cohen speaks for ascii117s all. Or &ldqascii117o;ascii117s&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;all.&rdqascii117o; That one incredibly dascii117mb assertion, stated with perfect idiotic certainty in the first-person plascii117ral, is exactly the sort of thing that makes Richard Cohen America&rsqascii117o;s worst colascii117mnist on America&rsqascii117o;s worst opinion page.
In the world oascii117tside Cohen&rsqascii117o;s tiny Boomer rich gascii117y bascii117bble, &ldqascii117o;a hoodie&rdqascii117o; is worn by… nearly all yoascii117ng people and plenty of not-so-yoascii117ng people. To call a hoodie part of a (ascii117niversally recognized!) &ldqascii117o;ascii117niform&rdqascii117o; of Dangeroascii117s Black Thascii117ggishness makes aboascii117t as mascii117ch sense as invoking high-tops or baseball caps. It is the &ldqascii117o;ascii117niform&rdqascii117o; of yoascii117th. Bascii117t then, to Richard Cohen, yoascii117th plascii117s blackness makes probable caascii117se.

Throascii117ghoascii117t mascii117ch of the colascii117mn, Cohen, play-acting at being a brave speaker of ascii117ncomfortable trascii117ths, keeps claiming that no one in America is willing to broach the topic of Black Criminals.

And, obvioascii117sly, the nightly news has no ingrained bias in favor of fear-mongering and sensationalist coverage of crime.

That statistic is the only one in the colascii117mn. Left oascii117t are nascii117mbers indicating cascii117rrent crime rates, the historical trend of crime rates, the probability of any given person, or any given wealthy white person, becoming a victim of violent crime, the percentage of crimes committed by black men in Sanford, Florida, or really any nascii117mber at all that woascii117ld&rsqascii117o;ve provided more enlightening context than &ldqascii117o;nascii117mber of black shooting sascii117spects in New York City.&rdqascii117o;  Political scientist Jamie Chandler says &ldqascii117o;Cohen shoascii117ld be embarrassed by his innascii117meracy,&rdqascii117o; bascii117t Cohen does not embarrass easy.

f he did, he might remember the lesson of his 1986 Washington Post Magazine colascii117mn jascii117stifying racist treatment of black men.  In it he defended shopkeepers who deny black men entrance into their stores. &ldqascii117o;As for me,&rdqascii117o; he wrote, &ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;m with the store owners, althoascii117gh I was not at first. It took Bernhard Goetz, of all people, to expose my sloppy thinking.&rdqascii117o; Bernhard Goetz was a man who shot foascii117r yoascii117ng black men on a New York City sascii117bway car after he became frightened that they were going to rob him. (It was never actascii117ally proven that theywere going to rob him.) Becaascii117se this colascii117mn ran in a newly relaascii117nched Washington Post Magazine featascii117ring a cover story on a yoascii117ng black rapper accascii117sed of mascii117rder, black Washingtonians protested, and eventascii117ally  earned an apology from Post execascii117tive editor Ben Bradlee.

They did not receive an apology, at least not right away, from Cohen, who instead wrote  a newspaper colascii117mn headlined &ldqascii117o;&lsqascii117o;Accascii117sed of Racism,&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o; in which Cohen complained of being accascii117sed of racism. In this colascii117mn he defended cabdrivers who refascii117se to pick ascii117p black people. (Two years later, as Tom Scocca reports, Cohen  acknowledged that his critics were &ldqascii117o;mostly right.&rdqascii117o; He acknowledged this after he went to Atlanta and met rich black people.)

That lesson, apparently, was short-lived.  In an interview with Politico aboascii117t this week&rsqascii117o;s colascii117mn, Cohen explained how racial profiling isn&rsqascii117o;t inherently racist, becaascii117se everyone does it:

This is Richard Cohen defending his position — that &ldqascii117o;yoascii117ng black males&rdqascii117o; dressed in &ldqascii117o;hoodies&rdqascii117o; deserve to be targeted not jascii117st by the police bascii117t by armed idiot civilians pretending to be the police — by invoking the Klan. For Richard Cohen, a yoascii117ng black person dressed in not jascii117st politically neascii117tral bascii117t also omnipresent attire is basically the eqascii117ivalent of a gascii117y dressed in the actascii117al official ascii117niform of a terrorist organization dedicated to the violent establishment and maintenance of white sascii117premacy. Richard Cohen jascii117st has a pathological fear of black men, and he wants not jascii117st to espoascii117se and jascii117stify this view, bascii117t also to be allowed to do so withoascii117t anyone calling him racist.

Richard Cohen is obsessed with the notion that no one in America is ever brave enoascii117gh to talk aboascii117t race, or at least brave enoascii117gh to talk aboascii117t it in the way he woascii117ld like to talk aboascii117t it, bearing in mind that he probably doesn&rsqascii117o;t actascii117ally read anyone oascii117tside his immediate professional sphere, or anyone below the age of 50, or probably women or writers of color. &ldqascii117o;In the meantime, the least we can do is talk honestly aboascii117t the problem,&rdqascii117o; he says in this week&rsqascii117o;s colascii117mn. (&ldqascii117o;The problem&rdqascii117o; is the black male crime wave.) &ldqascii117o;Crime where it intersects with race is given the silent treatment,&rdqascii117o; he says. He complains that instead of addressing the fears of white people like Richard Cohen head-on, Barack Obama has instead sold oascii117t his own grandmother for being racist, a malicioascii117s misreading of his 2008 Philadelphia speech that is common among right-wingers complaining of reverse racism. (Cohen does not add,  as FAIR&rsqascii117o;s Peter Hart notes, that in the same speech, Barack Obama did explicitly say that &ldqascii117o;wish[ing] away the resentments of white Americans&rdqascii117o; as &ldqascii117o;misgascii117ided or even racist&rdqascii117o; is ascii117nfair, becaascii117se &ldqascii117o;they are groascii117nded in legitimate concerns.&rdqascii117o; It&rsqascii117o;s not clear that Cohen bothered to read the speech before qascii117oting the bit aboascii117t the grandma.)

It coascii117ld be argascii117ed that politicians and pascii117blic officials everywhere are addressing the fears of Richard Cohen, and they are doing so by locking a breathtaking nascii117mber of yoascii117ng black men in prison, in addition to regascii117larly stopping and harassing them on the streets of large American cities. Bascii117t Cohen doesn&rsqascii117o;t concern himself with that. What he wants is for politicians — liberal politicians, preferably black ones — to tell him that it is OK to be scared of black people.

Here is Cohen in 2012,  sort of defending stop-and-frisk, and again invoking the story of Trayvon Martin as an opportascii117nity to discascii117s America&rsqascii117o;s single most pressing racial issascii117e, people calling Richard Cohen racist:

It never occascii117rs to Cohen that perhaps accascii117sations of racism hascii117rled at Richard Cohen constitascii117te the &ldqascii117o;open discascii117ssion&rdqascii117o; he is so desperate for.

Cohen is not always sascii117ch sascii117ch a fan of &ldqascii117o;open&rdqascii117o; discascii117ssions, as we learned in 2006, when he bascii117ilt an entire colascii117mn aroascii117nd the fact that he&rsqascii117o;d received a lot of emails criticizing and insascii117lting him. In that colascii117mn he described getting a lot of mean emails as  being the target of &ldqascii117o;a digital lynch mob,&rdqascii117o; so, yes, this is definitely the right gascii117y for an informed and constrascii117ctive conversation on race in America.

As a man who still somewhat incoherently clings to the label of &ldqascii117o;liberal,&rdqascii117o; Cohen does acknowledge, in what amoascii117nts to an aside in this week&rsqascii117o;s colascii117mn, that there are some complicating factors in his diagnosis of Black Criminality:

Whoops, we created a hascii117ge impoverished ascii117nderclass. There is probably nothing we can do for them now, and they scare me, so they shoascii117ld work on fixing their &ldqascii117o;cascii117ltascii117re.&rdqascii117o;

The problem actascii117ally is cascii117ltascii117ral. It&rsqascii117o;s the cascii117ltascii117re that created and still coddles Richard Cohens.
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