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Whites and the Next Racial Clash in America
Time ^ | 12/05/03 | JACK E. WHITE

Posted on 12/05/2003 5:44:11 PM PST by freedom44

According to political scientist Carol M. Swain's unsettling new book, "The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration," the U.S. is on the brink of an explosion of white "tribalism" that could trigger unprecedented levels of racial antagonism and an epidemic of violence. The underlying cause: a swelling "white nationalist" movement fueled by simmering resentment of affirmative action programs like those used by the University of Michigan. "The book is a wake-up call to warn people that we're following a dangerous course by pushing identity politics and multi-culturalism," explains the Vanderbilt law school professor. "There's nothing special about the U.S. that says we couldn't have ethnic cleansing and violence here like in Bosnia or Rwanda."

It's shocking to hear such a dire prophesy from a scholar like Swain, who is rapidly establishing herself as one of the leaders of a new, increasingly vocal neoconservative brand of black political analysis that rejects affirmative action and reparations for slavery and holds blacks responsible for their own uplift. Until recently, most left-leaning black theorists derided her as a hopeless optimist. Her previous book, "Black Faces, Black Interests," ruffled many black politicians by dismissing their fear that a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the use of race in the creation of majority black congressional districts would be a disaster. Instead, Swain predicted, the ruling actually would be good for African Americans. As she foresaw, even in the Deep South strong black candidates were capable of winning enough support from whites to prevail in districts where black voters were outnumbered. She also argued that disbursing blacks into mostly-white districts could make it easier for liberal Democrats to compete with conservative Republicans by building multi-racial coalitions. Blacks "need more representation of their liberal views of policy than they need people who look like them" in Congress, Swain contended. Anyone looking at the toothlessness of the Congressional Black Caucus in the Republican-dominated House would find it difficult to disagree.

But, as Swain says, she "turned from a Pollyanna into a Cassandra" as her research into a book criticizing racial preferences made her aware of the spread of what she calls "the new white nationalism," a form of racial extremism more dangerous than the Ku Klux Klan because of its veneer of erudition and mastery of the Internet. Groups such as former Klansman David Duke's National Organization for European American Rights and the National Association of White People eschew the discredited notion of white supremacy. Indeed, they don't claim that whites are superior to anyone else and may even be inferior to Asians.

Instead they push the notion over websites, in publications such as Jared Taylor's "American Renaissance " magazine and through on-campus recruiting drives that all racial groups have unique interests and the god-given right to fulfill their destiny. They see themselves, as Swain has written, as "defenders of the legitimate civil rights of white people against what they allege are a host of racial double standards." In short, that affirmative action has made whites the most discriminated-against group in the country and that it can only get worse as a tide of immigrants transforms the U.S. from a white nation into a rickety Third World republic. The language white nationalists use to promote their insights is stunningly familiar to anyone who has listened to black nationalists like Louis Farrakhan — but that's not surprising, since the white nationalists appropriated it. As Swain observes, "the multicultural left has provided a language that works very well for whites who want to push white-identity politics," says Swain. "They say that if it's good for blacks to celebrate their heritage, it's good for whites to celebrate theirs."

What concerns Swain the most is such groups now seem to be finding an audience among mainstream whites whose gripes about racial preferences and high crime rates among blacks have been tuned out by white liberal politicians. Though she has no proof that the membership of such groups is mushrooming, their influence is being felt widely. Indeed, some of the rhetoric used by white nationalists is indistinguishable from the verbiage used by President Bush in his assault on the "quotas" supposedly used by the University of Michigan. "If we keep going down this road, it's going to increasingly pit racial groups against each other," she warns. "Some white people, who are otherwise good people, who don't hate blacks, are going to be pushed into the arms of these extremists if we don't change course."

Swain thinks there's only one way out of this bind: recognizing that whites have "legitimate" beefs about race that should be openly debated by politicians and scholars. She also believes we should immediately do away with racial preferences in university admissions, hiring and government contracts that not only fuel white resentment but send the message to blacks that they can't meet the same standards as everyone else. Swain's detractors say such steps amount to no more than a cowardly capitulation to racism, but she won't back down because she does not believe that blacks need the crutch provided by race-conscious policies. For Swain, a deeply devout evangelical Christian, such beliefs are not academic. Now 49, she went from being a high school drop-out and single mother in rural Virginia to a Ph.d and a chair at a leading university. "Somehow, we've got to embrace an American national identity that pulls us together instead of dividing us into warring camps," says Swain, "perhaps through a renewed emphasis on the Judeo-Christian idea of a common creator and the brotherhood of man." It's an old-fashioned idea that could prevent Swain's troubling predictions from coming true.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bookreview; carolswain; newwhitenationalism; preferences
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To: Travis McGee
I see lots of pride in cultural roots in America, pride in distant roots, but the Tap Root tends to be America itself. IMHO
21 posted on 12/05/2003 6:01:52 PM PST by mylife
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To: freedom44
There's little doubt that many white people feel threatened and angry about structural advantages given to minorities under the guise of "diversity" and with the blessing of government.

But there will never be ethnic cleansing or a race war in America. That only happens in the absence of strong government, or when a racist government takes over.

Most of us get along with Americans of every color.

22 posted on 12/05/2003 6:06:09 PM PST by Dog Gone
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To: freedom44
All I know is that if some black guy says "I believe in looking out for black people, and advancing the cause of black people" the media, the politicians and the universities all fawn and grovel and say "how wonderful, what a caring man". If some Mexican guy says "Viva la raza, power to the Mexican people" the media, the politicians and the universities all cry "yes, that's wonderful, it's such a good thing you believe that way".

Then if some white guy says "I believe in looking out for the interests of white people" the media, the politicians and the universities all scream "hatemonger! Racist! NAZI! You must be punished! You must be silenced! You are EVIL!" Then the forces of all of those institutions are directed against the heretic, and they are destroyed in any number of ways, personally, professionally and politically. If they don't wise up and shut up quick they usually end up in jail.

It's disgusting, it's craven, and it makes me sick. It also makes me believe, as Ms. Swain does, that it will eventually lead to events spiraling out of control. Some flames are harder to light than others, but once lit they take a LONG time to cool off.
23 posted on 12/05/2003 6:06:31 PM PST by Elliott Jackalope (We send our kids to Iraq to fight for them, and they send our jobs to India. Now THAT'S gratitude!)
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To: freedom44
The underlying cause: a swelling "white nationalist" movement fueled by simmering resentment of affirmative action programs like those used by the University of Michigan.

Wait a minute.

The Liberals have been telling us all these years affirmative action was going to fix the wrongs of racism in this country.

Besides, what do they expect with "multiculturalism"? You can't have a both this concept and a "melting pot"!

24 posted on 12/05/2003 6:07:01 PM PST by Gritty ("Christianity has been a proponent, not an opponent, of reason and tolerance"-Chuck Colson)
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To: mylife
With the exception of the fact that the US is "the worlds melting pot"

If you will allow me, that may have been true as recently as 35 to 40 years ago, and still is to some degree for immigrants, but the rise of the "hyphenated-American" syndrome if nothing else indicates a waning of the "melting pot" concept.

And with that safely out of the way, may I invoke the clear superiority of the Scottish-American over our nearest-of-kin, the Irish-American (given that nobody can seem to locate the Pictish-American)? *\;-)

I thought not.

Dean garaidh agus le meas,
Eala

25 posted on 12/05/2003 6:08:41 PM PST by Eala (Sacrificing tagline fame for... TRAD ANGLICAN RESOURCE PAGE: http://eala.freeservers.com/anglican)
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To: freedom44
Somewhere in here must be buried the idea that race-based quotas, like college admissions, aren't doing *anybody* any favors.

There was an article posted here recently about a college, I think the Univ of Texas, that announced that it was not going to consider race at all in admissions.

If I were a black college-bound kid, it would seem to me that a degree from the Univ of Texas would then be somewhat *more* valuable to me than would be even a degree from Stanford, or some other college that commits to admitting minorities by quota, even when they don't perform to the "usual" minimum qualifications.

I'd then be able to say that I made it on my own, without any pandering "help".
26 posted on 12/05/2003 6:09:15 PM PST by Ramius
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To: freedom44
Nah. Whites are optimists; we figure it'll all work out, somehow, because it always has. Non-whites aren't optimists because for them it hasn't worked out all that well. But you can't compare what optimists and non-optimists will do.
27 posted on 12/05/2003 6:10:02 PM PST by Grut
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To: freedom44
"There's nothing special about the U.S. that says we couldn't have ethnic cleansing and violence here like in Bosnia or Rwanda."

Yes, actually, there is something special about the U.S., unique in fact, that will prevent this. It's called the Second Amendment. Where one group is armed and another not, then you have that sort of problem.

28 posted on 12/05/2003 6:10:13 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: freedom44
Smart woman. Great article.
29 posted on 12/05/2003 6:10:57 PM PST by xrp
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To: freedom44
And this is newsworthy why? Because a black woman wrote it?

If a white person wrote this exact same article he would have been fired at the very least.

30 posted on 12/05/2003 6:11:30 PM PST by expatguy
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To: freedom44
Many of us have sensed the same!! People can only be pushed so far -- especially the grass roots citizens of the USA!!
31 posted on 12/05/2003 6:12:28 PM PST by RAY
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To: Travis McGee
The melting pot was a better concept.

Liberals have attempted to turn it more into a tossed salad. Sure, it's all mixed together, but the ingredients still keep their own identity. This is not better.

The "melting pot" doesn't have to mean even that cultures and the history of ancestors are wiped out. My own family were mainly Norwegian immigrants and they held onto family traditions for all the generations until now, but they made a decision to learn english, to become citizens, and to become Americans and adopt an American culture.

None of that means they had to stop making lefse.
32 posted on 12/05/2003 6:16:17 PM PST by Ramius
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To: freedom44
Cleansing of the black leadership by black citizens perhaps. (when they discover how badly they've been lied to and used by said leadership.)


33 posted on 12/05/2003 6:17:32 PM PST by Air Assault (Got Jesus?)
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To: mylife
"the pendulum is swinging toward center again."

I agree. The last thing we need right now is for white folks to start becoming victims.
34 posted on 12/05/2003 6:18:11 PM PST by Arpege92
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To: Eala
may I invoke the clear superiority of the Scottish-American over our nearest-of-kin, the Irish-American (given that nobody can seem to locate the Pictish-American)? *\;-) I thought not. Dean garaidh agus le meas, Eala

Pogue mahone ommadawn!(SP?) 'scuse me celt! (proud irish) LOL! ;^)

35 posted on 12/05/2003 6:18:34 PM PST by mylife
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To: mylife; Travis McGee
the melting pot is a myth, it was barely true when all the immigrants were European.

Now...MTV to the contrary, it's more like a mulligan stew...simmering.

Blowback from race based preference and illegal immigration amongst other bs.
36 posted on 12/05/2003 6:18:58 PM PST by wardaddy ("either the arabs are at your throat, or at your feet")
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To: Kay Soze
I think that me!
37 posted on 12/05/2003 6:20:29 PM PST by bulldogs
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To: freedom44
for later
38 posted on 12/05/2003 6:21:50 PM PST by luckydevi
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To: mylife
I agree, and wish it were so again.

IMHO, race hustlers who work to divide the American house against itself are the worst of scum.

39 posted on 12/05/2003 6:22:51 PM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Ramius
The melting pot was the American ideal. The race hustlers who broke it are trying to bring our nation down for their own ulterior motives.
40 posted on 12/05/2003 6:24:58 PM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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