Principled Perspectives: The Racism of the ‘Anti-Racists’

“Anti-racism” is the new movement. Don’t be duped by the slogan. It does not mean what it appears to mean. In reality, it is a new and particularly insidious form of racism. It is directed only at white people. And it is intended to re-mainstream racism as a means of permanently re-structuring America around the collectivist concept of racial tribalism.

The collectivist premise has lurked in America since the Founding. But it has always been subordinate to the individualism of America’s ideals. That’s why slavery was abolished. That’s why women achieved suffrage. That’s why Jim Crow was overturned. That’s why inter-racial and same-sex couples won marriage equality. And that’s why racism has been dying off since the 1960s, making the America of the 21st Century the least racist in its history.

But collectivism has regrouped, and in the last few years is back with a vengeance. Anti-Racism is a manifestation of the collectivist counter-attack. It’s basic premise is, your race is your identity, and white people are racist regardless of their opinions and actions. They can’t help it. It’s inherent in their whiteness. No matter their reason faculty, their free will, any prior efforts at introspection, reappraising, or correcting their basic premises. Regardless of how they live their lives, white people are guilty of racism against non-white people (or “people of color”), and must grovel for forgiveness and redemption from their alleged racist sins. And it’s a one-way street *.

This has nothing to do with countering white racism, such as it exists. It is all about saving racism. The very idea that a person is racist because their skin color is white is textbook racism. But that doesn’t matter to the Anti-Racists. I have a theory on why that is. But I’ll get to that later.

Examples of the racism of the Anti-Racism movement are suddenly everywhere. Take ‘Being anti-racist is a verb, so it requires action’: Don’t stop demanding racial equality — how to become a lifelong ally by Marketwatch columnist Meera Jagannathan. Despite the neutral-sounding title, the article is one-sided.

“Realize that what’s going on now is part of a long-term pattern of racial injustice, discrimination, exploitation and violence,” Paul Kivel, an educator, activist and author of the book “Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice,” told MarketWatch. “It’s really important for us to understand that we need to be always working for racial justice, whether there’s dramatic moments or not.”

This speaks for itself. “[W]orking for racial justice” applies only to white people. Everyone else gets a pass, including non-white racists. What can be more racist than that?

Jagannathan gets very specific:

You can start, of course, by understanding the history of Black-owned businesses and making the conscious decision to shop at them.

Yes, the history of black-owned businesses is one of terrible treatment. Philosopher Andrew Bernstein writes:

[T]here were many riots in which white mobs burned down black communities and killed numerous innocent blacks. In the Tulsa Race Riot of May 31-June 1, 1921, for example, a racist mob assaulted the Greenwood section of the city. Greenwood was a prosperous black neighborhood, home to many professionals and to a bustling business district known as “the Black Wall Street.” Triggered by a minor incident involving a black teenager and a white woman, a horde of whites invaded Greenwood, burned large swathes of it to the ground, looted and burned over 1200 homes, destroyed churches, a school, a library, a hospital, and numerous businesses–and killed dozens of black citizens.

But why then make a “conscious decision to shop” at black-owned business today? It might have made sense to do so in 1921, to show moral support for the business victims. But now? A responsibly self-interested consumer shops for the best product at the best price at the business with the best service. She does not consider skin color, unless she is a racist. Anti-Racist? I don’t think so.

Jagannathan lists three general principles to follow:

Continue educating yourself

“We need to educate ourselves about how racism looks and operates and what the history is, how it plays out today, and how are people of color organizing to address it,” Kivel said. “We should be turning and listening to people of color, and there’s wonderful films and books and YouTube GOOG, -0.84% clips and art and dance and music.” Race-focused book lists abound; they often include a mix of introductory texts about race and literature by Black authors. [sic]

I’m all for listening. But I want to be listened to, as well. I don’t want to be subjected to a one-sided “You are white and therefore racist, I am black and therefore a victim” diatribe that picks apart every innocent word or deed of mine. Maybe people of color need to understand that every perceived racist slight is not racist at all.

“If you’ve ever heard that a Black writer or thinker is ‘too radical,’ that’s who you should be reading right now,” she said. “Any book that is imagining a world that looks different from the one that we have, and is not just talking about things in theory, is really useful right now and will move people beyond that 101 framing, which is ‘I know that racism exists.’”

Yea, well, what does “a world that looks different from the one that we have” look like? Is it a more individualist--capitalist--world, or a more collectivist--criminal socialist--world?

2. Talk to your friends and family — and speak up when you witness racism.

Good advice. I am an individualist, by conscious philosophical choice. I have long been speaking up against collectivism, which intrinsically pits me against racism, a manifestation of collectivism.

[B]ecome a “racial equity advocate.” That means holding people accountable for their actions and statements about inequality at the dinner table, in your friend group and at work, he said. Don’t let racist statements go unchecked.

“Part of the fundamental way you know you’re an advocate is if you speak up and speak out when the group that’s being vilified is not present or when they cannot help themselves,” Ray said. “If you don’t say anything, you’re letting that racist statement ride, and it’s assumed that you support it even if you don’t. You have to purposely say something about it.”

Pushing back with responses like, “I actually don’t agree with that,” “I’m not sure if that’s true,” or “I’m not sure if we should be talking about people like that” can go a long way, especially if there are other people observing, he said.

Exactly. Silence in the face of an assault on one of your ideals implies approval. But:

You can also be an advocate in public. Notice a pattern of Black customers at your local restaurant not being served or only being seated in the back corner? Ask for the manager or write a letter to the head of the company later. See someone being mistreated by the police or others? Record video of the encounter. “Without mobile phones, we wouldn’t know what happened to George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Christian Cooper,” Ray said.

Before you become a busybody, you’d better make damn sure that you have evidence. I am utterly intolerant of racism. And I will always counter-speak against it. I also make sure that equality is properly conceptualized as political, not economic. Part of the problem is that racism is too often “seen” where race is not the issue. Just because a black person is mistreated by police doesn’t mean it is racially motivated or even an example of mistreatment. Maybe the “pattern” you see is an illusion or a manifestation of your own biases. If you don’t know the whole context, you’d best stay out of it. Assuming that the black person is a victim of racism because he’s black, and the white person is guilty of racism because he’s white, is textbook racism. Besides, is smacks of condescension to assume a black person can’t speak for himself.

3. Promote equality at work

Take ownership and responsibility for trying to positively change the culture of your workplace, said Laura Morgan Roberts, a professor of practice at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who has researched and consulted on diversity.

Be on the lookout for microaggressions, listen for stereotypical comments disparaging a person’s qualifications, and “call out that flawed assumption or characterization” in the moment, she said.

Be proactive to ensure that people of color are included in meetings and important decisions, Roberts added; if you notice your Black coworker was left off an impromptu Zoom ZM, -3.14% meeting invite, take the extra step to loop them in. When a coworker of color does really well on a project or makes an important contribution to the team, shine a light on their accomplishments.

Again, one-sided. Shouldn’t all coworkers be recognized for their accomplishments, regardless of racial characteristics. And what does it mean to be “on the lookout for microaggressions”? Maybe it means, as Matt Welsh writes, “a wave of firings, resignations, and castigations over purportedly harmful words, deeds, and sometimes costumes.” Turning us all into busybody race-conscious spies is multiplying injustice, not tamping down racism. This was just the warning contained in a Harper’s joint letter:

"It is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions [microaggressions?] of speech and thought," the signatories contend. "More troubling still, institutional leaders, in a spirit of panicked damage control, are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms."

My emphasis. Exactly. What if the actual victim is the alleged microaggressor, rather than the imagined target?

4. Leverage your money, time and clout

Support and volunteer with grassroots organizations led by people of color that are “organizing for systematic change for racial justice at an institutional level,” Kivel said, and addressing issues such as housing, jobs, education and health care.

Why does the color of a person’s skin, rather than the content of the organization’s ideas, matter? I am a donor to the Ayn Rand Institute, a leading and uncompromising intellectual proponent of individualism. Promoting individualism will do more to combat racism than anything proposed in this article, because racism is collectivism and individualism is the antipode of collectivism. Supporting only “organizations led by people of color”, assuming their agenda is actually anti-racist. What if their “systemic change” is collectivist and statist? But there’s another hint of the underlying motive behind Anti-Racism--the reference to “housing, jobs, education and health care.” How are they to be “addressed”? Through more government involvement in those fields--which means more socialism--which means more collectivism. That’s not genuine anti-racism.

5. Use your power to influence systems

[B]ecome a “racial equity broker,” meaning you advocate for racially equitable and transparent policies in spaces like your workplace, place of worship, homeowners’ association and kids’ school. “You’re interrogating the rules, policies, practices and laws that are in place that govern what you do,” he said.

“Speaking as a white person in those kinds of public settings, whether it’s a school-board meeting or a city-council meeting, does carry weight,” Kivel said.

America had a long and painful experience with race-based law. It is called Jim Crow, the lingering effects of which many people of color are still paying the price for. Yet, shockingly, we get an alleged anti-racist seemingly issueing a call to embed race considerations into “the rules, policies, practices and laws”. This is not progressive. It is regressive. Rules (and laws) should be “color blind”, not “racially equitable”--that is, they should be individually equitable, in their design and enforcement, meaning enforced equally regardless of skin color.

It’s certainly true that through most of American history, especially during the Jim Crow era, American society, contrary to its principles, has been dominated by racism of whites against blacks. But you don’t fight racism with a different form of racism.

White racism has been dying off since the 1960s. This new high-brow racism seeks to re-mainstream racism, making color tribalism a normal part of society. I’m not buying into this “anti-racism” fraud. Why? Number six pulls it all together.

6. Vote

“It’s important to think about who we vote for and that we support candidates of color — not indiscriminately [how nice], because we care about what they stand for [and] what their politics are,” Kivel said. He urged voting for candidates who are working toward goals like affordable housing, health care for everyone and safe communities. Consider candidates’ stances, behavior and past records on racism, he added: “Are they going to take us toward racial justice, or are they going to entrench us further in division?”

Get that? If your not for government imposing “affordable housing” and “health care for everyone,” you are a racist. ** The Anti-Racist movement is apparently geared toward the political agenda of the socialists, and that may be the underlying agenda of the racism of the ‘Anti-Racists’. Why? Consider the logic of the connection. Racism and socialism spring from the same philosophical root -- collectivism. Therefore, to advance socialism is to obliterate America’s Founding principle, individualism. Put simply, the socialists need to save racism to save collectivism, for the sake of replacing the remnants of capitalism, which springs from individualism, with socialism. If you doubt that, note how Anti-Racism is always tied to some socialist political agenda.

* [Ayn Rand exposed this fraud half a century ago. “Today,” Rand observed, “racism is regarded as a crime if practiced by a majority—but as an inalienable right if practiced by a minority.” This double standard has reached a fever pitch in 2020: The majority whites are condemned, whether any particular individual is a racist or not, while racists of any other color faction get a full moral pass.]

** [It may also be that Jagannathan doesn’t believe people of color are capable of succeeding in a free market capitalist economy. That’s a variation on the same condescending line peddled by defenders of slavery, and which Abolitionist Frederick Douglass forcefully condemned in his famous speech WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH THE SLAVES IF EMANCIPATED?. In 1862, Douglass' said

Our answer is, do nothing with them; mind your business, and let them mind theirs. Your doing with them is their greatest misfortune. They have been undone by your doings, and all they now ask, and really have need of at your hands, is just to let them alone. They suffer by every interference, and succeed best by being let alone. The Negro should have been let alone in Africa—let alone when the pirates and robbers offered him for sale in our Christian slave markets— (more cruel and inhuman than the Mohammedan slave markets)—let alone by courts, judges, politicians, legislators and slavedrivers—let alone altogether, and assured that they were thus to be let alone forever, and that they must now make their own way in the world, just the same as any and every other variety of the human family. As colored men, we only ask to be allowed to do with ourselves, subject only to the same great laws for the welfare of human society which apply to other men, Jews, Gentiles, Barbarian, Sythian. Let us stand upon our own legs, work with our own hands, and eat bread in the sweat of our own brows. When you, our white fellow countrymen, have attempted to do anything for us, it has generally been to deprive us of some right, power or privilege which you yourself would die before you would submit to have taken from you.]

Principled Perspectives

Sunday, August 16, 2020

The Racism of the ‘Anti-Racists’

No comments:

Quotes I Like