On Martin Peretz’ ‘the Cheapness of Life’ - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Andrew and Jack Shafer’s reminiscence over the legacy of Martin Peretz, and quasi-defense of his bigotry, motivated me to do some of my own reflecting. To the present business, there is no actual defense of the statement “Muslim life is cheap, particularly to Muslims.” African-Americans are overrepresented among both the perpetrators and victims of homicide. And yet had a writer for The New Republic, in the midst of asserting that blacks should not enjoy constitutional protection, argued that “Black life is cheap, particularly to blacks,” and then doubled down on the assertion, I don’t think we’d be having this debate—emphasis on “think.”
On close reading, neither Andrew nor Jack are offering a defense so much as they are changing the subject. The question at hand is something along the lines of, “Does Martin Peretz exhibit a pattern of bigotry?” Andrew and Jack, instead, are addressing a question along the lines of “Is Martin Peretz a great journalist?” With respect for both Andrew and Jack, this is obfuscation. Ty Cobb was both a great baseball player and a bigot. The notion that we must choose between the two, that one mitigates the other, that good people don’t do deplorable things, that deplorable people don’t great things, emanates from our own inability to understand that bigotry is not strictly the preserve of orcs.
