In words that still move me today, the Reverend
Doctor Martin Luther King defined racism by defining what it would look
like when an individual does not behave in a prejudiced way towards another
individual. He suggested that relating to people according to their
character rather than the colour of their skin was the way to be.
"I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons
of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an
oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
their character."
This put the onus on the individual, and rightly so, because racism is an individual choice and an individual act. Racism, where it exists, resides in the heart of the individual. Where else should we try to fight it?
Then Critical Race Theory came along.
This new model is
incompatible with MLK's message because it seeks to define racism and its impacts at the group level. To do this, it has to blame racism on white people as a whole, ignore experiences of other races who failed to be victimized, and absolve Blacks and others of any responsibility from any combination of individual choices or culture in the aggregate. Like a superhero movie script, this theory requires ample suspension of belief, and has a caricatured villain and a monolithic hero.
Never mind the old lessons our parents taught us, we are to learn a new lesson.
We are to learn that racism is to be defined in myriad new ways. We are to learn that racism is only practiced by Whites and
that most of that is directed at Blacks. We are to learn that ALL Whites
are racist and that even Whites who have neither the power to nor the
interest in oppressing others are guilty. We're not supposed to get hung up on how well
such an assertion would fit the old definition of racism.
In
the past, some Whites
(pre)judged Blacks, and now, to reach some cosmic equilibrium in time
and space, Blacks and anyone else who wants to must now be allowed
(pre)judge all Whites. We're not to point out the irony when
'enlightened' Whites
insist that they are needed to build this new framework. Indeed, if these
enlightened Whites were forced to see this irony it would undermine their opportunity
to virtue-signal or flagellate like only Leftists do.
We are now to understand that we are racist, yes, racist
if we subscribe to MLK's message. To these new 'anti-racists', MLK's simple idea is outmoded because it abstracts out race from one side or the
other. MLK's model is problematic because it could be 'misused' to define racism in forms
inconvenient to a new narrative in which racism only flows in certain
directions. To determine that misbehaviour and maltreatment can only be
'racism' when it flows in certain directions, the correctness of behaviour has to be defined in terms of race. If that feels backwards, it's because it is.
Critical Race Theory provides a bottomless well of grievance. This means that the son of former slaves doesn't have to think or do anything but feel. He doesn't have to forgive and doesn't have to disconnect the sins of the former slaveowners from the sons of former slaveowners. And thus he doesn't have to sit at the table MLK implored him to sit at.
George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Jacob Blake, Michael Brown and others were elevated to Sainthood before the truth of their crimes and personal responsibility for their own injury or death could define the narrative. In each case a preemptive double-down based on race alone (and the automatic assumption of racism) was employed. It is a signature play in the Leftist playbook and the Media have it down to a 'T'. It is perverse that men like this are hailed as paragons of the Black community while black individuals who achieve, and especially those who excel, are ignored or disparaged. For the Left, the best thing a black man can do is get himself shot why a white cop. The circumstances of such a shooting don't matter at all. The Media will do the rest.
----
Individualism destroys this model, so individualism must be destroyed first.
We
are supposed to understand that differences in individual outcomes have
nothing whatsoever to do with individual choices and the culture in
which one is steeped. (The extent to which an individual steeps themselves in any culture is a choice too.) We are supposed to understand that individuals,
especially Blacks, have no agency and that the world is a place where
white racism is hip deep and only Whites have canoes. Whites aren't
granted much agency either presumably because they might try to take steps
toward being better or to fool themselves and others into thinking that white people can be good at all. In
this new
model, Whites have a choice: admit to being mostly racist, or confirm
their absolute racism by asserting that they are not. You needn't bother trying to please these people. Your racism is unforgivable and you are irredeemable anyway. The better to keep all Whites in their place.
It's simple, really. Whiteness is a
new 'original sin'. And, like so much else about the Left, they offer
guilt without the possibility of redemption. The best a white person can do is to grovel and scrape and expend energy helping to build a racial framework that infantilizes, disenfranchises, dehumanizes and dis-empowers Blacks with a litany of excuses like candies from a PEZ dispenser.
Jews and Asians have
better lives than Whites in the West by the very same metrics these
'anti-racists' lament in the Black experience. This is an inconvenience to be
ignored lest it destroy the preferred narrative. But for baseline antisemitism accepted and even perpetuated in the same circles as these cultists, there is little talk of Jews or Asians
being the 'alpha-victimizers'. Such talk would lead to inconvenient questions about how
these groups somehow oppress Whites (and Blacks) and do so so
disproportionately.
For some, this cultish enslavement of the
mind is appealing. It is easier for some people of all races to accept
or assert 'white guilt' rather than think critically about the individual behaviour of the supposed victimizers or victims. For many,
this provides fertile soil for blame-shifting. This new-age
secular religion with its message of indelible guilt without any chance
of redemption is a real turn-off for some; and for others its a real turn-on.
Like an economy, a society is
made up of billions of interactions between individuals. These
'anti-racists' try to reason away the individual elements of these interactions
so they can instead manufacture a world view animated by the scourge of
racism. Like a hammer looking for a nail, these cultists see racism
everywhere. I fail to see the point of imagining a monster so large
that it cannot be slain by mere humans. The Left has a habit of redefining something to the point or normalizing it. (ie. rape) They overplay their hand again here by defining racism as something so insidious and intractable as to be understood as 'normal' in the human experience. Why then, should we not be tempted to throw our hands up and resign to
the 'truth' of it all? For the Left, a problem that can't be solved is a gift that keeps on giving.
The circular logic of Critical Race Theory is that it only makes sense if you are first prepared to redefine racism in a way consistent with Critical Race Theory. Otherwise, Critical Race Theory is...inescapably racist.
Critical Race Theory is a creed of hate and a framework for intolerance and paralysis. Hate and
intolerance can never do any good. Effective 'anti-racism' cannot be
built on a racist foundation like this because it only outlines blame and victimhood and engenders tribalism.
I choose to live in a
world where the teachings of MLK are not old-fashioned. I choose to
live in a world where my behaviour as an individual matters. I choose
to live in a world of grace, forgiveness and civility.
I have a
dream...
