elected him because he is soft, slow,nand nonthreatening, and they believednthat he could calm the black militantsnand bring New York racial peace. Hisnblack supporters, however, particularlynin militant Brooklyn, voted for Dinkinsnin order to get a lot of goodies from thenNew York government. These goodiesnhave not been forthcoming. Anothernproblem is that Dinkins and his blacknadvisers, coming from the relativelyngenteel old politics of Harlem, havennever understood the militant andnfiercely antiwhite mood of blacknBrooklyn. As a result, Dinkins hasnawakened to find that two sets ofnmilitants who give him fits are now inncharge in Brooklyn. Sonny Carson,nconvicted kidnapper and proud haternof all whites, is the Grand Old Man ofnthe Korean boycott, while The TerriblenTrio, lawyers C. Vernon Mason andnAlton Maddox, and the self-ordainedn”Reverend” Al Sharpton, responsiblenfor the Tawana Brawley “rape” hoax innupstate New York, keep threateningnracial conflict if, for example, any allegednwhite murderers of blacks arennot duly convicted in court. Indeed,nStephen Murphy, the tough white defensenlawyer for the eventually acquittednyouth Keith Mondello, allegednBensonhurst murderer, receivednmany death threats from angry blacks.nWhen Mayor Dinkins duly followednthe white line by calling for peace andnharmony and denouncing racial boycotts,nthe beefy Mason charged Dinkinsnwith racial treachery and withn”wearing too many yarmulkes” and appointingn”too many Jews” in his administration.nMeanwhile, Brooklyn blacks havenbegun random assaults against Vietnamesen(well, after all, don’t they allnlook alike?), thereby bringing other,nAsian groups (most of whom hate eachnothers’ guts) into the fray in sheernself-defense.nIncensed at black racism, a blacknteacher at Brooklyn’s Erasmus HallnHigh School, Fred McCray, led 30nblack youths into the Korean FamilynRed Apple store — site of the Februarynincident — to cross the angry, snarlingnpicket line and patronize the store.nMcCray proclaimed that “unity meansnlove.” For his pains, McCray and hisnfamily received death threats, leadingnhim to request a transfer from thenschool.nRevolutions tend to leave their pioneersnbehind, and so an interestingnphenomenon of this accelerating racenconflict is what has happened to ancouple of venerable, streetwise, IrishnCatholic left-populist writers prominentnin the New York press: JimmynBreslin and Pete Hamill. Even afterndecades of championing liberal causesnand bleeding for the poor and thenoppressed, Breslin and Hamill havennever quite absorbed the idea thatnwhite males are per se guilty for all thenevils of mankind. Pete Hamill nevernhad quite his old enthusiasm for thenblack masses after the famous blackngang-rape and assault of a white ladyninvestment banker in Central Park lastnyear. And Breslin, in early May of thisnyear, reacted vehemently and in typicallyncolorful language to an impertinentnmessage sent on inter-office electronicnmail by a fellow Newsdaynreporter, Korean-American Ji-YeonnMary Yuh. Breslin had written a humorousncolumn protesting that hisnwife, who is prominent in liberal Democraticncircles and now high up in thenDinkins administration, was neglectingnher wifely chores in pursuit of hernpolitical career. It was in the classicnspirit of Henny Youngman’s “Take mynwife — please!” but Miss Yuh, who likenall professional anti-sexists and antiracistsnlacks appreciation for high wit,ndenounced Jimmy’s column as viciouslyn”sexist.” Breslin, enraged, rushedninto the press room at Newsday andndenounced Miss Yuh as a “slant-eyedn. . . yellow cur,” further making whatnthe New York Times cautiously referrednto as “an obscene anatomicalnreference.”nOh the fuss and feathers! The venerablenBreslin had not realized that thencountry had glided quickly into thentyranny of Left-Puritanism, and petitionsnby Newsday reporters and writersnangrily demanded Breslin’s head. Thenthought police were hard at workncracking down on “hate crime.”nDidn’t they know about the roughand-tumblenof the pressroom, andnabout the great tradition of The FrontnPage, and didn’t they realize thatnstreetwise Jimmy could not be expectednto react in the now-approved style ofna “sensitive” young househusband?nBreslin made the required apology tonMiss Yuh, but there were some Inquisitorsnwho felt that Jimmy’s repentancenlacked the requisite degree of abasement,nand sure enough Jimmy had thengall to go on the notorious HowardnStern radio talk-show and to laugh offnthe entire incident. (Stern is the king ofnObnoxious Radio in New York, innwhich the host functions as the lightningnrod for suppressed racist-sexists innhis listening area.) Well, that tore it,nand Newsday promptly suspendednBreslin without his munificent pay forntwo weeks. The Hate Police had gottennat least a pound of flesh, and so theynpronounced themselves satisfied, albeitngrumbling about the fact that a couplenof years ago a Newsday editor notnenjoying the prominence of a Breslinnwas overheard making racist remarks atna cocktail party and was promptly fired.nCleady that’s what the Hate Squadnreally wanted, and the editor of thenPortland Oregonian spoke for them allnby canceling the offender’s columnnpermanently. Apparently, in our freenand democratic America, a hundrednflowers may bloom and a thousandnarguments contend, but anyone whonA Periodical of Rare Qualitynand Literary InterestnSend now for a freensample copy of this newnsmall quarterly. Insightfulnessays m the ‘Tiumane letters”ntraoition, sharp satire, andngenuine poetry make ThenShakespeherian Rag anconsistent delight. AnnualnSubscription rates: $10.00nwithin the U. S., $16.00nfrom abroad.nQ Please send me a free samplencopy of The Shakespeherian Rag.nCrrY/STATE/ZIPnnnThe Shakespeherian RaenP. O. Box442001/Lawrence,KS 66044nISSN 1045-7593nSEPTEMBER 1990/43n