White-Bashing As A Form Of Virtue Signaling And Tribal Membership
Reihan Salam explains "the utility of white-bashing" well at The Atlantic, looking "beyond the particulars of Jeong's remarks to better understand why anti-white rhetoric is, in some communities, so commonplace as to be banal":
The people I've heard archly denounce whites have for the most part been upwardly-mobile people who've proven pretty adept at navigating elite, predominantly white spaces. A lot of them have been whites who pride themselves on their diverse social circles and their enlightened views, and who indulge in their own half-ironic white-bashing to underscore that it is their achieved identity as intelligent, worldly people that counts most, not their ascribed identity as being of recognizably European descent.
And there's more:
One reason I've been disinclined to take this sort of talk seriously in the past is that it has so often smacked of intra-white status jockeying. It is almost as though we're living through a strange sort of ethnogenesis, in which those who see themselves as (for lack of a better term) upper-whites are doing everything they can to disaffiliate themselves from those they've deemed lower-whites. Note that to be "upper" or "lower" isn't just about class status, though of course that's always hovering in the background. Rather, it is about the supposed nobility that flows from racial self-flagellation.But many of the white-bashers of my acquaintance have been highly-educated and affluent Asian American professionals. So why do they do it? What work is this usually (though not always) gentle and irony-steeped white-bashing actually performing?
Some of this is just obvious edgelord trolling: the most transgressive thing you can get away with saying without actually getting called out for it. In this sense, it's a way of establishing solidarity: All of us in this space get it, and we have nothing but disdain for those who do not. And some may well be intended as a defiant retort to bigotry.
But that doesn't exhaust the universe of possibilities. In some instances, white-bashing can actually serve as a means of ascent, especially for Asian Americans. Embracing the culture of upper-white self-flagellation can spur avowedly enlightened whites to eagerly cheer on their Asian American comrades who show (abstract, faceless, numberless) lower-white people what for. And, simultaneously, it allows Asian Americans who use the discourse to position themselves as ethnic outsiders, including those who are comfortably enmeshed in elite circles.
Gotta love the notion of Jeong as an ethnic outsider -- as a Harvard Law grad...at a time when Harvard has been accused of requiring Asian students to do 460 points better on their SAT than black students to get in.
She's a rockstar of what she would call "privilege" -- speaking the ugly, hateful, racist lingo of somebody who's been terribly oppressed.
Heh. Jes joshin', right?
She might not hate whites in the way her tweets suggest -- or maybe all that racist spew can't go on without some actual hating.
I can't know what's in somebody's mind, but I just wrote a book -- "Unfuckology" -- on how action becomes character. Hers is pretty damn ugly.
There is a fancy word for this called Casuistry.
the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions;
"Hey guys, I've heard this jive before (and probably done it myslef) and you uneducated proles don't need to worry. It's just us upper elites joshing among ourselves."
Do you think the 'uneducated proles' are going to buy this bullshit? Not likely. Most of them don't read The Atlantic, who, IIRC, fired someone for saying things much more mildly controversial but which offended Liberal Sensibilities.
No. He is soothing the ruffled feathers of his 'Uberweissmensch' fellows who are uncomfortable at being labelled racists. "You guys don't really MEAN you hate being white. You are just being really ironic."
This is an incredibly uninteresting and unpersuasive article.
Now, if this was the Atlantic of 30 years ago, they would have had an article on the dangers of being anti-nationalist during a wave of nationalistic fervor, or done an article about how tribal and national identity is actually a respectable and universal human survival trait (it is). They would have an intelligent article on how one can have a high trust homogenoeus society or a diverse society.
But this isn't the same intelligent and controversial Atlantic of 30 years ago.
Asians are anti-white bigots because Asians are generally bigots. Anyone who actually is 'cosmopolitian' and is honest knows this.
Here is the problem: power and respect is GIVEN and the Ubermensche need to gather their power by votes. They need the proles to buy their product (generally their supercillious opinions).
They are afraid because they are losing these things. There is a reason why folks like Thomas Friedman are going so gaga over totalitarian systems: they still feel they deserve power, but they won't do the dance to keep it.
FIDO at August 7, 2018 11:00 PM
Amy: She might not hate whites in the way her tweets suggest...
And I might be the Church Lady.
Patrick at August 8, 2018 12:58 AM
On the subject of Sarah Jeong, apparently making anti-white tweets is not a problem for Twitter. Satirizing anti-white tweets is another matter. T. J. Kirk (aka The Amazing Atheist) got his account suspended for this tweet:
https://twitter.com/KaiserScoopy/status/1027095388090712065
(Now Crid's about to blow his stack like Vesuvius because I probably mentioned someone else he's never heard of.)
Patrick at August 8, 2018 1:42 AM
Sux toob white
Crid at August 8, 2018 2:18 AM
They never met a phony virtue that they didn't want to signal.
Snoopy at August 8, 2018 6:43 AM
It is a trap: if you want to be a Leftist you have embraced the whole concept of group identity and oppressor vs oppressed. If you are white you are by definition part of the "oppressor" class and the only way out is to denounce yourself, which is just insane.
cc at August 8, 2018 11:17 AM
Sarah Jeong should put her money where her mouth is, if she truly thinks her life would have been better without all those privileged racist white guys dying to keep her country of birth clear of communism she should move to North Korea and let us all know how much better her life is
lujlp at August 8, 2018 1:22 PM
"If you are white you are by definition part of the "oppressor" class and the only way out is to denounce yourself, which is just insane."
They aren't denouncing themselves; it's a class thing. They are separating themselves from the "deplorables". I have no doubt that Sarah Jeong would happily grant sexual favors to an ultra-high-status leftist white guy, if she thought it would elevate her status. And then, when said white guy got called out by some other woman on #Metoo grounds, she'd make excuses for him. We've seen this movie.
Jeong strikes me as more of a free-form hater, anyway. She's perpetually angry at anyone and anything, because she wasn't born a princess with armies of slaves at her disposal. The unfairness of it all!
Cousin Dave at August 8, 2018 1:52 PM
Not indicative of anything in particular, but the Korean War was the first war in which the US armed forces were mostly integrated. Truman issued the integration order in 1948. So, it wasn't just "racist white people" who fought and died on the Korean peninsular.
Jesse L. Brown, the US Navy's first black aviator in October 1948, died at Chosin Reservoir when he was unable to parachute from his crippled F4U and crash-landed successfully. He was unable to escape the plane due to injuries to himself and damage to the plane. His white wingman crash-landed near him and attempted to extricate Brown from the wreckage but Brown died of his injuries.
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It occurs to me that something is getting lost in this debate. There is a difference between "white people are so weird" and "let's kill all the white people!"
Jeong crossed that line. Christian Lander did not.
Conan the Grammarian at August 8, 2018 2:20 PM
Same BART crime, same BART station!
Nothing yet from Anne Hathaway about white privilege.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at August 8, 2018 3:28 PM
It's like "White Feminism", if you disagree with someone on anything involving feminism they will call you a "White feminist" no matter what race you are.
NicoleK at August 8, 2018 10:48 PM
Like I said earlier, white doesn't have much to do with skin color. Or ancestry. Or culture even. I've seen that same thing NicoleK. You can be anywhere from albino to nut brown to mocha and you are still 'white'. So the US being 'a majority white nation' doesn't have much meaning.
'Middle class' is pretty similar. In the US middle class means you have a job. Doesn't have anything to do with how much you get paid or income distributions or anything else. You get a paycheck, bam, you are middle class. Making $5k/year or $5M/year doesn't matter. Still middle class.
And Conan, it is nice to know according to Christian Lander none of us icky people in flyover states are white. Not enough film festivals and too much Jesus I guess.
Ben at August 9, 2018 8:49 AM
So, Chicago or St. Louis have no hipsters?
Lander's book and blog were done with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Leong's tweets were not. Let's not lose the ability to laugh at ourselves.
Conan the Grammarian at August 9, 2018 1:57 PM
I met a guy from East Africa at a party once. He owned several convenience stores in town and was doing quite well for himself. We discussed American culture at one point and he said one thing that confused him when he got to America was that everyone claimed to be middle class, even the obviously poor and uneducated.
By the way, if you want a smug and pretentious, but still fun, read on class in America, this book is one curmudgeon's attempt to wade into America's class system. The New York Times has some fun reviewing it here.
Conan the Grammarian at August 10, 2018 7:22 AM
Not enough of them apparently. Since 90% of white people go to film festivals and hate Jesus.
Mostly I was going off again about how fluid the term white is. You can be an albino and not count and you can have skin the color of the night sky and still be white. So claiming anyone with a neckbeard is white and only whites have neckbeards works for me. It is as good of an arbitrary distinction as any.
Ben at August 10, 2018 7:55 AM
Unfortunately, since we don't have a good system of class distinction in America, "white" has become synonymous with "middle class," as in "acting white." Sadly, "black" has become synonymous with rap, thuggery, misogyny, poverty, illegitimacy, and educational underachievement. There is a black middle class, and a white underclass, but you'd never know it from listening to politicians and activists.
Conan the Grammarian at August 10, 2018 11:13 AM
I feel that idiot signalling would be a better description; as in "I'm a very useful idiot."
Jay Dee at August 10, 2018 11:27 AM
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