Posted on 08/15/2019 7:28:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If the news is any indication, Democrats and the progressive left generally have virtually nothing left in their political arsenal except for claims that their opponents are "racists" and "white supremacists." This pointless strategy -- evidence of Democrats' desperation -- is doomed to failure, for at least two reasons.
First, the word "racist" has become so overused and contorted that it no longer has any meaning. The term used to refer to someone who believed that his or her race was superior to others, and who behaved accordingly. But as the number of actual racists dwindled in the past few decades, those whose careers depend upon the existence of racist boogeymen (leftists in politics, the media, Hollywood and academia, most notably) had to devise a new definition. They now speak in terms of "systemic" or "institutional" racism. By condemning every institution that has been established by human beings characterized as "white" (more on that in a moment) as systemically racist, it's now possible to condemn as "racist" every person who has ever benefitted from those institutions. Thus, if you have been educated in the American educational system; borrowed or invested money in our financial system; purchased property; or worked your way up the American corporate ladder, then you become a racist.
It's tactically clever in that it no longer depends upon the existence of anyone who actually holds racist views (although those people certainly exist). But it's also a political Molotov cocktail with a very short fuse. People may not love being called out for things they have actually done. But they resent like hell being accused of things they haven't done, especially when they're simultaneously told that there's nothing they can do to remove the stain, or that they cannot take credit for their own achievements.
Authors like Tal Fortgang and J.D. Vance reveal the views of those who reject the notion of "white privilege." In 2014, Fortgang wrote an essay for The Princeton Tory that went viral. Titled "Why I Will Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege," Fortgang described his Jewish family's losses during the Holocaust, their escape to America and their penurious existence as immigrants here. Fortgang argues forcefully that his accomplishments are not the product of "privilege" but of hard work and difficult sacrifice.
Vance's bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, paints a bleak portrait of life in the rural Appalachia of his youth, where "white" Americans suffer with poverty, substance abuse, unemployment, broken homes and despair at levels that rival those of inner-city slums. The subjects of Vance's book would be shocked to learn they enjoy a "privilege" that America's black middle and upper-middle classes somehow don't.
In fact, the concept of "whiteness" (which the wokest of the woke are constantly apologizing for in the latest attempt at virtue signaling) is a fiction and a uniquely American creation. It started by describing people from Western Europe but soon expanded to include people from Eastern Europe. And people in South America who came from anywhere in Europe. And some people in the Middle East if they speak a European language.
But anyone who spends significant time in Europe knows that Europeans do not consider Hungarians to be identical to the Irish. Nor is being German synonymous with being Portuguese, and nor do Greeks get confused with Norwegians.
The point is that Europeans from these countries, and dozens of others, have relocated here and intermarried. Our children are blends of ethnicities. In my own case, I am a combination of German, Irish, French, Scottish and a small amount of Choctaw. (Insert Elizabeth Warren joke here ...).
Not only are Americans with different (and multiple) ethnicities intermarrying but those of identifiable "races" are as well. According to a Pew Research study published in 2017, the percentage of newlyweds married to someone of a different race has been on a steady increase since the Supreme Court struck down miscegenation laws in 1967. One in 6 are now married to someone of a different race or ethnicity. Blacks and whites are more likely to marry outside their race than are Asians or Hispanics, but even among the latter two groups, the numbers are substantially higher for those born in the United States and with more than a high school education.
If these trends continue (and there is every indication that they will), how long before racial designations are as meaningless as ethnic identification is now? When Mom's parents are African American and white, and Dad's parents are Indian and Japanese, what "race" are their children?
Even the racial designations we use now are malleable and indistinct. When Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012, the man who shot him -- George Zimmerman -- was infamously referred to as a "white Hispanic." Applications for admission and employment now routinely permit applicants to choose multiple racial identifiers.
"Racism" has become a sloppy catchall accusation and an excuse to shut down argument. Race itself -- often argued to be merely a social construct as it is -- is an increasingly meaningless term, except to those who want to foment anger and resentment.
Will people find reasons to mistrust and discriminate against those who are "different"? Probably for as long as there are human beings. But "race" is just one of many, many things that make Person A different from Person B. It doesn't merit the attention it gets today.
It's time to put the terms "race" and "racist" to rest.
Race exists. The thought it should matter should not. The innate nature of man is tribalism.
Only for light spectrum.
For anything else, it goes black.
Would it be mean to add “homo” in there as well?
Not much, see every American city.
Yes, race exists. There are only 3, really.
I see it as the same as dog breeds. “Race” is just another way of saying “breed”.
No, but your genetics do.
RE: Not much, see every American city.
I’m still not convinced that it is INHERENT in the black race. CULTURE is involved.
Put black kids in good, Christian families where moral values and the virtue of hard work and discipline are taught and we will see how they do, but not until.
Take it up with Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray.
I always used to write Caucasian when I filled out the census, because that it what my husband told me to do. He said it means white, until I started to write Human instead one or two censuses ago. I thought at first they sure would complain about it, but I didn't get any bitching.
Every one should just write down human. We are after all not dogs or cats
LOL, that’s a good one
RE: Take it up with Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray.
I’ve read their book, THE BELL CURVE.
I agree with their OBSERVATION, but NOT their INTERPRETATION.
Love it. Great suggestion.
It doesn't bother me, either. That's because I think about race less than I think about rutabaga. It stuns me that there is a large segment of the population who dwell on it.
Then you and I shall agree to disagree.
Race exists at the genetic level.
Gene expression produces recognizably distinct human populations.
Populations are different based on genes. For millennia populations were largely isolated and henceforth became distinct population groups. It would be impossible for different populations in different environments to be exactly the same.
To deny race is to deny genetics. To deny race is to deny science. To deny race is to deny reality.
Race is an undeniable scientific fact.
If you want to argue race shouldn't matter or we should ignore race or race we shouldn't use to judge people, that's a different issue.
Pretending race doesn't exist or race is a social construct is a foolish game of wanting something to be true which isn't true.
People who talk about 'diversity' are often the ones who deny the reality of race. In regards to humans, race is diversity.
The implication that recognizing observable traits is somehow inherently wrong is inherently insulting to the people being patronized by the boasting humanists.
Consider the point made in the footnote that I linked in that post.
“Call me ‘whatever’ I just don’t care if your feelings are hurt or you think it’s unfair. I get to choose!!”
I recently got back in Genealogy on daily basis, with the DNA and other newer computer driven aids.
In a little over 2+years, I have gone from less than a 1000 documented ancestors to close to 30,000.
Common themes are/were:
Wanting to practice our religion as we desired, not as dictated by royalty of fiat. A few ancestors were hung, burnt alive or beheaded for daring to do that. One male ancestor was sent to New Jersey as punishment.
Family being the social centers with a few friends.
Deciding where we wanted to live not being told where to go.
Deciding who to work for or to be in our own business.
Along this trail of ancestor life, I ended up with 3% African DNA and 97% UK, Ireland/Scotland and western Europe DNA.
We have over 200 documented American Natives in our family with no DNA.
Basically good and peaceful ancestors except for those who fought the Brits and killed them in two wars.. In reality, those were basically civil wars between Brits here and Brits and their hired goons from the old country.
If there were no such thing as race you wouldn’t have diseases that are almost entirely confined to a single ethnicity, like sickle cell anemia and Tay-Sachs. There are substantial differences between the ethnic groups in rates of occurrence of cystic fibrosis, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, obesity, myopia, and schizophrenia.
How many white people have you seen with keloids?
If there were no races you wouldn’t have such disparate groupings of blood types. American Indians are almost all Type O and next to none are A or B. 41 to 48% of white Europeans are Type A but only 28% of sub-Saharan Africans are A. 10-20% of whites are Type B but 34% of sub-Saharan Africans. East Asians are mostly Type B and Australids are almost entirely Type A.
Despite it having become politically incorrect to acknowledge it, the science is still there.
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