Identity Politics Are Race Hatred In A Che Shirt
...Or in a hemp hairshirt for the white people who practice them -- maybe because they believe in them, but maybe also as a form of virtue signaling or a way to be on the side that seems "cool."
David French writes at NRO:
I can't recall the first time I heard the phrase "white male" hissed as if it were some form of particularly vile insult. I know it happened in law school, where it was used as a short-hand way of saying that I should be silent, that my views were not welcome. Over time, I learned that, to a certain set of people, there was something positively wrong with being white. "We" were the great privileged oppressors of history. And "we" were the great privileged oppressors of the present.Our law schools are, in many ways, incubators for the identity politics that dominate the social-justice Left. For those soaked in progressive identity politics, skin color was a stand-in for virtue. It was impossible for a black person to be racist; it was impossible for a white person not to be. Any in-depth discussion of history had to acknowledge past injustice.
Here's the problem: Progressives don't like to admit this, but identity politics work as the mirror image of white supremacy -- compressing the extraordinarily rich and complex histories of nations, continents, and cultures into one characteristic: skin color. For the white supremacist, white people are natural-born victors. For the identity-politics leftist, white people are natural-born predators.
...But actual history belies the stereotypes. To take just one hot-button example, the history of slavery since the colonial era is not just a history of Europeans and white Americans enslaving Africans. It's of Africans enslaving Africans, of Africans enslaving Europeans, and of Arabs enslaving Africans (and that's just a partial summary). Yes, brown people enslaved white people by the millions: Should Americans of North African or Turkish descent check their privilege and believe their wealth was built on plunder?
It's also highly insulting to smart, talented people "of color" to shove them into the victim slot -- forcing them to be judged by their skin color as somehow needing more of a leg up.
Also, what divides children from opportunity is poverty, not skin color. Poor kids -- of any color -- should be the ones we help attend college. Yet, it's kids of the "right" color that get the help or the most help.
And let's be honest about a big reason for growing up in poverty -- single parenthood. Growing up with just a single mother instead of a family is another big divider from opportunity and from the stability a kid needs for "self-regulation" and other essential personality traits. But fixing that is more complex than just blaming white men, and it involves no glory for Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or any of the Mini-Als and Mini-Jesse's coming up.
French has a good point here:
There is nothing wrong with being white. There is nothing right with being white. And there is something bizarre about being proud of past accomplishments (or repentant of past failures) based merely on sharing a skin tone with unrelated prior generations. It is far more enriching -- and humbling -- to learn of our own individual histories.I prefer to speak in terms not of pride, but of gratitude. How can I be "proud" that my relatives came over on the Mayflower and stood with Washington at Valley Forge? I had nothing to do with those achievements and would be hard-pressed to demonstrate the same courage. Instead, I'm grateful -- deeply grateful. And I'm grateful also for the history of my nation and culture -- a nation that through great effort and enormous sacrifice cultivated and preserved principles of individual liberty and human freedom that have benefited billions of human souls.
He's right. And I realize it's how I see those in my family. I'm amazed at how my great grandfather came over from some peasant shithole in Eastern Europe, collected metal scrap from the trash in Detroit, supporting his family and sending my grandpa to Wayne State University, where he became a doctor, serving families around him in Detroit.
When I think of this, and think of the hardships some people have -- of any color -- like those who need to work in fields, picking vegetables, I think I'm a little bit silly to be complainypants about my work week, which for some time, has been without end.
(I'm writing my next book for my publisher, plus writing a big talk I'm giving in November, and writing my column, which is science-based and takes a fuckton of time -- and I'm grateful as hell that I get to do these things.)
via @stevestuwill
I refuse to take credit or blame for something others have done. If that offends you, it's your problem, not mine.
I categorize those who categorize me. If white male is more than a description to you, I have a whole card catalogue of terms for you, none flattering. You really want to remain a person, so let's not go there. It's more likely that you want something from me, than for me to want or need anything from you.
Given the market for lawyers, gratuitous offence is the last thing those students should be giving. I've yet to see a resume that says "won't work for a white male."
MarkD at May 19, 2016 6:32 AM
I've ranted here before about how artificial "white" as an ethnicity is; it's a polyglot of many Western and Eastern European ethnicities. Within my lifetime, these were still thought of as separate identities. You weren't "white"; you were Italian or Scottish or German (Saxon or Bavarian or Prussian etc. if you were hard core), and so on. The categorization of "white" is an appropriation of a virtuous thing, which is that after WWII many Americans of European background decide to discard their prior ethnicities and describe themselves as simply American. They implemented the concept that while most nations are based on a tribe (or a fusion of tribes), America is based on an idea. They lived that. And the Left saw their virtue and regarded it as a weakness to be exploited.
I'm grateful to my grandfather, who worked all of his adult life in a cotton mill to provide for my father and his siblings. I'm grateful to my father, who after serving in Korea, went to college and broke into the aerospace industry when it would have been a lot easier to just go back home and take a job in the steel mill. I'm grateful to my mother, who married a guy from the wrong side of the tracks, against her family's wishes, because she saw the potential in him. None of this had anything to do with skin color or hair color or shoe size or anything like that. It had to do with what they made of themselves as human beings.
Cousin Dave at May 19, 2016 7:11 AM
That's a great point, Cousin Dave. I love hearing your family history -- and your perspective on it: "None of this had anything to do with skin color or hair color or shoe size or anything like that. It had to do with what they made of themselves as human beings."
Amy Alkon at May 19, 2016 7:53 AM
I have a group of conservative friends. It would be assumed that they are racist, but when Charles Payne (black financial advisor on Fox Business) comes on, they love the guy. Why? They love people that are sensible, informed, rational, no matter who they are.
A point about racism: assume that racism exists to some small extent. Whatever disadvantage that gives one, like the anti-jewish stuff Amy had to endure, one is better off working extra hard and being disciplined compared to spending time in jail. The response of anger and giving up at one's disadvantages leads to a worse outcome. Most people have some sort of disadvantage. Some very smart people have no social skills. Some very nice people are ugly or short or fat. What matters is what you do with what you have.
The idea that advantaged people are actively trying to keep minorities down is simply crazy by the way. Most prejudice is minor and subconscious. The overt legal restrictions of Jim Crow are almost entirely gone. Why did those laws even exist? Because not enough white people were discriminating and therefore blacks and other minorities (it was never just about blacks, but also Jews and Chinese and and and) were getting ahead, getting jobs, going to school. So activists (many of them progressives) got these laws passed to protect society from those they deemed to be undesirable.
Craig Loehle at May 19, 2016 8:16 AM
I share pride in my ancestor's accomplishments. My family is responsible for some of the first math text books in the US. But that pride is derived from cultural similarities rather than genetic ones. Trace my line back and you find it is nerds all the way down. It is pride in helping to maintain that culture of nerdship. I expect my sister has different views.
Ben at May 19, 2016 11:11 AM
Go ahead, call me a racist. I will be happy to oblige. Or call me a sexist chauvinist, also happy to oblige. So f*ck you.
See how this works?
Jay R at May 19, 2016 1:55 PM
"Many black women may be unaware that a new religion has been created exclusively for them, but because black power is feared in America it has gotten very little mainstream media coverage.
This new religion is called Black Syientology."
It gets worse.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 19, 2016 5:27 PM
There is a huge difference between who liberals call/think is racist and who everyone else does.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/july_2013/more_americans_view_blacks_as_racist_than_whites_hispanics
Joe J at May 19, 2016 5:32 PM
If some SJW hissed "white male" at me, l would reply, "That's right. Don't wear it out, bitch!"
mpetrie98 at May 20, 2016 12:33 PM
Successful and black?
Watch out your kids don't forget that being black means being angry!
You'd have to be a Hollywood writer to make that up.
Oh, wait. He is.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 20, 2016 8:50 PM
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