Blacks and Hispanics pay no social price for their chrstianity--though of course this may be for the simple reason that they vote right. If rednecks "voted right" would they be accepted as well, or would they still be villains?
Similarly, the redneckphobic urban intellectual types have no problems with the "charming" super-rational belief systems of "indigenous pipples." They would never think of taking a picture of some tribesman who believed doing so would "steal his soul," but they delight forcing the "redneck" to accept homosexuality. They claim to believe that "all cultures are equal" but obviously believe that "redneck" culture is inferior to every other culture on earth.
Many years ago I purchased and read The Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad. This book isn't perfect. The author is apparently an atheist (and thus his ideology is as groundless as that of his opponents) and the book is full of obscenities and racial slurs. He also evinces a mild but noticeable anti-British (pro-Irish) and anti-Israel prejudice. His thesis is that the poor of various ethnicities have been turned against each other by the master class as a strategy of divide-and-conquer. Once upon a time this would have had him classified as left wing. But nowadays, simply defending "rednecks" is right wing in and of itself.
But nevertheless there are layers to this prejudice (anti-rural/southern by wealthy urban elites) that simply defy any and every convention. And these can't be addressed without addressing the two ethnic communities that appear to be at each other's throat.
Let's look at American Blacks. They aren't aliens or recent immigrants. They've been here for almost four hundred years. In fact, one could say that they stand second in line to Anglo-Saxons as the Americans. Yet now they have been transformed into an angry, alien horde that refuses to look at anything other than its own narrow economic interests. They worship like hillbillies but they might as well be secular humanists in their concerns. Do they believe in "gay rights?" Evolution? The documentary hypothesis? If so, how can they claim to be in rebellion against Europe? Isn't rationalistic humanism the most European ideology in history? I must confess that I am flummoxed and have been for a long time. I live in the rural South with Black people and I must confess that I don't understand them at all. They don't seem aware of any issues under the sun other than those having to do with race and poverty. Nothing else exists for them.
But are they really so different from the hated "rednecks?" Other than in their concerns and in how they vote they seem just like us. Why do they hate us so much? Why do elite urban intellectuals who despise rural Southern whites practically worship Blacks as superhuman beings sent to earth to bring about "social justice?" What is the secret of the alliance between these two communities (lefty intellectuals and grass roots Blacks)? I have often in the past used professional wrestling as a metaphor for this alliance because, like the "heel" wrestlers, Blacks and effete urban whites shouldn't have anything in common. They should be hostile to one another. But they are not. Their alliance is apparently unbreakable. I almost wonder if the introduction into public schools of explicity "Black" chrstianity would even be objected to by liberals.
Similarly, the poor rural Southern whites are themselves a mixed bag. Sometimes it seems the right idealizes rural Southern whites just as leftist intellectual idealize Blacks, but the sad fact is that the white South was solidly Democrat for a hundred years. Together with urban Northern Catholics they formed one of the two original Democrat voting blocs. And to this day there are plenty of "good old boy" yellow dog Democrats left. Some conservatives may not be aware of this, but I assure you all it is true. Not to mention that if Southern Blacks hadn't been treated like garbage for so long when they were still Bible-thumpers we might not be in this mess today. And how many are aware of the poor Southern white populist tradition--William Jennings Bryan and Huey P. Long? Yet so-called "socialists" despise these men because their socialism would have benefited the wrong people. And lest it be forgotten, the white South was an integral member of the original New Deal coalition.
None of this makes any sense. I find myself hated by "intellectuals" who supposedly don't hate anyone, and who prove it by hating me, because I am allegedly hatred incarnated.
I'm going to close by saying something absolutely outrageous. But the fact that two communities allegedly share the same religion nevertheless hate and despise each other so much tells us an awful lot. How many rural white and urban Black chrstians worship a "gxd" created in their own image rather than the Objective G-d Who created us all? This is an old problem of chrstianity, going way back to Greeks and Latins (and Copts and Jacobites and Armenians and Assyrians). Perhaps it's comes with a belief in the incarnation.
At any rate, it is obvious to me that there is no line that American Blacks will not cross to stay Democrat. They and their preachers will justify every abomination. And the fact that this community is not alien but among the very oldest of Americans makes the whole thing triply disturbing. Something is wrong here. And it's not anything new. There's been something wrong all along or this would have never happened.
I didn't used to be a bigot. But I must confess that I'm having a terribly hard time fighting against that temptation now, and I'm afraid it's only going to get harder and harder to resist.
The redneck reference. rmlew, as a half urban, half northcentral approaching a couple centuries rural person, there's an anti rural bias, rural folk are rubes. In the north they vote the right way more often, but the bias is there. If you're suggesting the bias is a function of traditional values being more a function of rural rather than urban values, I won't disagree. Though I do think it's more a function of religiousity.
Grievance politics, clearly it's a potent political force. But I'd disconnect it from minorities. Who I doubt are functioning in any minority oriented interest accepting and advocating assistance, and freebies. It's self interest which majorities participate in as well.
I wouldn't in any way define it as idolitry, but Judaism doesn't equate with contemporary American liberalism. I'd be hard pressed to think of a secular political movement it equates with for a couple millenia.
ZC, what you describe a hatred between coreligionists, I recognize not yours, based on race is sad. I'm at a loss as to any cause other than secular political differences. Hatred still being hatred.
Politically, I do think the rural/urban divide is obvious from the maps, doubters can spend a couple minutes drilling down to congressional districts. Urban districts are blue.