The cool racism for the postmodern hipster

Last updated on: November 13, 2016 at 7:55 pm by Dave Griffey

The cool racism for the postmodern hipster 2016-11-13T15:54:58-04:00 Dave Griffey

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White privilege. Of course it’s racism. It’s taking the complex experience that is human existence and boiling it down to skin color. It allows us to dismiss the concerns or suffering of people because of the color of their skin. That so many academics and leaders are hip to the groove just reminds us that when it came to arguing against blacks, Jews, homosexuals or others in previous eras, it was usually those same intellectuals and leaders who were leading the charge.

Sometimes we like to imagine that all of the really bad things in history came about because thugs and hayseeds with pitchforks assailed the hallowed halls of academia and centers of culture and demanded that their cowering superiors join the witch hunt. Fact is, as often as not, it was those same superiors in their positions of power and comfort who were able to move and shape the thoughts of their inferiors by channeling their anger, rage, suffering and prejudices against the right group of people. That’s often the way it has been, and it’s likely the way it will continue to be.

As I tell my boys, bigotry is the lifeblood of every civilization. Every society needs to have its ‘them’, those people who are the problem, troublemakers, bad guys. Those folks who don’t matter, who get what they have coming, who deserve the blame. It can be based on anything: lifestyle, race, religion, ideology, class, singing voice, you name it. But there has to be a them upon which to pile the sins of the world, or at least the society in question.

In our case, the presence of so many white liberals falling over themselves to advance the hip bigotry of the age shouldn’t be surprising. Seeing the way the wind is blowing, or perhaps overcompensating for deeply held prejudices and bigotry of their own, it shouldn’t come as a shock to find out they’re the first in line to say you can always tell a racist by the color of his skin, so therefore he gets what he has coming to him. It wouldn’t be something new for someone to declare his own demographic to be the problem, and by that he means everyone else in his demographic.

It’s obviously the wrong way to go. But it’s picking up steam. Because, like all things that are bad, there is always a touch of truth. Naturally it was easier for people of white, European heritage to get by in ages past while others struggled due to racism and discrimination. That doesn’t mean, even then, it was straight down skin color lines. A poor white person starving in a Hooverville was not better off than a black lawyer living in Manhattan in the 1930s just because he was white. They each may have had their problems, and they each might have suffered. The idea that the suffering of one was worse or better based on skin color, however, should set off alarms. But if human history teaches us anything, it likely won’t.

That some Catholics are jumping on the bandwagon shouldn’t surprise us. It isn’t as if people of faith have been immune to riding the crest wave of the latest prejudices in the past. And in most cases, it’s because you want to be part of that magical right side of history, which always seems right at the time, when it’s the latest that all the important people are embracing.

Like all bigotry, it’s difficult to refute those who share the view. Anyone who complains can either be seen as a hapless enabler of stale old racism, or a person in that group who is just fussing because they can’t handle the truth. But let’s face it, when you mention that white people are struggling financially or are seeing spikes in suicide, only to be answered with ‘it serves them right, they had their time’, you can bet that this is an idea, however insightful or meaningful in its origins, that won’t bode well for the future. Just like this little piece demonstrates as it struggles to look at Jewish life in light of the suffering of the Holocaust, while pondering the other side of privilege that Jews may enjoy because of their whiteness. Sure, the Nazis were wrong to accuse Jews of being the race of privilege among the struggling Germans just because they were Jewish, but perhaps in America because they are white…

See the problem?

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 the content of their character. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963

I imagine that goes for their sufferings and joys as well. For my part, I think my wife’s priest said it best. Ethnicity is a fact and can be a beautiful gift, race is an artificial construct that is itself an evil. If you’re ever confused about when it’s race or when it’s ethnicity, just ask yourself if it’s being used to celebrate a group of people, or tear them down or dismiss their sufferings. Best guess, that’s where the answer will be.

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