Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:08 pm
A recent CNN and Kaiser Family Foundation poll looked at rising racial tensions in the United States, and found that not only minorities, but whites, are recognizing a worsening in racial strife – whites (67%), blacks (65%) and Latinos (55%).
Don’t imagine that the white folks necessarily see it the same way minorities like Hispanics and blacks see it, however. We’re seeing white folks thinking they are the victims of racism. And you know – or can guess – what that means.
The Rise of the White Identity Movement
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We have already seen the Christian Identity lunatic fringe, which the ADL identifies as “Anti-Semitic, racist, anti-government, conspiratorial.” There doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between the two, other than the focus on being white, and, impossibly, being victims in a country that is still heavily slanted in favor of white males because all the rules are made by white males.
The glue that holds these groups together is the idea that if you’re not white, you’re not one of Sarah Palin’s “real” Americans.
CNN quotes Steve Sailer, “who writes for Unz Review and Taki’s Magazine, both started by alumni of The American Conservative,” as saying:
“I don’t see that stopping when Obama is no longer president. I can imagine a white president like Hillary [Clinton] upping the ante because she doesn’t have the benefit of being black.”
So having a woman president is somehow going to make racial tensions worse. And being black is somehow a benefit. Talk about false premises, folks. It is important to note here that Sailer believes Trump represents a return to freedom of expression after “the Obama ice age of political correctness” (note: we call this “civility”).
CNN observes that, “Sailer says Clinton will need to talk more about racial grievances to attract minority voters because she can’t count on the strong black support that Obama enjoyed,” and that Democrats have decided to build a coalition of “fringe” groups by demonizing people who “have rightful reasons for representing the core of Middle America.”
So white people have “rightful reasons” for representing the core of Middle America. Well sure, white Europeans settled Middle America, and the rest of North America. But the people who have “rightful reasons” for representing Middle America are Native Americans, the folks white people displaced.
Looked at from the point of view of waves of immigration, Sailer’s premise is without any foundation in logic. The land belonged to Native Americans, who were displaced by white Europeans, who are being displaced by others, including blacks and Hispanics. If Sailer wants to get into a debate over who has “rightful reasons,” he might as well pack his bag now and move back to the Old World.
At least until a thawed out Neanderthal demands his country back.
The Absurdity of a “White Backlash”
Yet Sailer is warning us of a “white backlash”:
“It’s become more acceptable for people to insult whites, especially white men. You’re seeing more and more whites starting to develop a certain amount of white identity.”
Indeed. BREXIT has been correctly seen as a result of white identity politics. Conservatives can reject the facts and be damned. Look, I understand Scandinavian-American identity, or Italian-American identity or Polish-American identity and so forth, but “white American”? We call that racism.
So according to Sailer, it’s not just white people who are the victims of racism, but especially white men. This is a guy who likes to post whines like “In this century, who has ever gotten ahead by demanding fair play for the majority?”
By definition, the majority has set the standard for what is fair play. Because majority. Obviously, minorities have not been in a position to demand fair play. Look what happens when they do: Donald Trump. And Steve Sailer lamenting about “The Irresistible Mood Music of Minoritarianism.”
Really? The “recent trans rights mania” is to be understood as “minoritarianism uber alles“?
Whatever.
Everything is in favor of white men in this country. Literally everything. But poor Sailer sees himself as a victim. People are just hating on him.
Why would CNN talk to a guy like this about race relations? Good question. Why does CNN obsess over missing airplanes and hire Donald Trump’s heavily biased former campaign manager?
I am a white guy. I get that whites males are seeing white privilege go the way of the buffalo. But that’s only a problem if you don’t see non-whites as your equal.
If everybody human being in the U.S. is a person – and both the Constitution and science agree they are (as one study explains, “A person is the kind of entity that has the moral right to make its own life-choices”) – then why should any one group have a privileged status?
And why, especially, should the majority have a privileged status? Sailer certainly realizes, since the idea terrifies him, that whites are not long for that majority status. If blacks, or say, Hispanics are the majority, is he still going to be campaigning for privilege for the majority? Or is he suddenly going to become a minority rights champion?
You can probably guess the answer. Because this isn’t about rights. It’s about racism. It’s about fear of the constructed other, the rejection of the idea that all of us are equal, and as Thomas Jefferson wrote, echoing other Enlightenment thinkers, “endowed with certain unalienable rights.”
There is a lot of Fox News talk of a post-racial era and conservatives complain that Obama brought racism back, when in fact, racism never left. It is that very racism that Donald Trump has brought to the fore and that is powering his campaign right now.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
