For some reason, over the past couple of decades especially, the political/mainstream conversation in America went from many decades of striving to move more towards a more equal & racism-free culture to becoming more hyper-charged with racism than ever before.
It seems that for some time from the 60s forward, what led the movement in culture was the message of Dr. Martin Luther King, the message of humanism, the message of equality, the message of no longer seeing race:
“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.”
Somewhere in the last decade it became obvious there is a massive shift away from this model of thought, away from this idea that racism was a logic error to be corrected, and towards the intersectional belief that group identity is the most important factor in human life. As this message has spread like wildfire through the university system, it has led to mass delusion, masses of twenty-somethings begging for more government, and great professors like Bret Weinstein, Jordan Peterson, and Peter Boghossian under attack for not falling in lock-step with the new religion.
So, what is racism?
This seems like such an obvious point that we shouldn't even have to explore what the definition of the word is... but the misuse & misunderstanding of the word itself is one of the key issues we're seeing now.
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
1. a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2. a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles
3. racial prejudice or discrimination
1. Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
1.1 The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
You'll notice that not one of these definitions has anything to do with the institutional/systemic issues (systemic/institutional racism being its own specific term), and none of these definitions say anything about racism only being committed by people with light skin.
Where is this coming from?
I mentioned the term intersectionality above, which is a belief system based in Marxism & Post-Modernism, which holds that the character of someone is nothing more than the combination of groups that they can be classified into, and how many of those groups are "oppressed" or "oppressors." This ideology has located a strong desire for equality among the masses, and is working quite well to derail that and turn into a more Animal Farm-esque sense of "equality".
"Power is what is valued most in this belief system, not equality, not peace, not justice." Keri Smith
The pseudo-religion of intersectionality has a lot of problems with it, from its practice of redefining words in order to confuse & control people, to the fact that the standard practice of SJWs to drown out any questioning or challenges with screams and violence. The primary issue of this ideology is that it is collectivist in nature, it defines humans by groups, it posits that all the most important factors in your success in life are historical & genetic, and basically works to disempower everyone.
But you're a white male, so your "white privilege" is just making you blind!
If you've every had or observed a conversation with those in the SJW camp, you've probably heard something very similar to this, heard someone being told that the facts, history, or opinion they are espousing don't matter because of the color of their skin... Sure sounds like racism huh? This is almost always used as a character attack to keep the "left" from having to actually debate/respond to those who disagree with them.
The idea of "white privilege" is an example of the composition/division fallacy, which is defined as "Assuming that one part of something has to be applied to all, or other, parts of it; or that the whole must apply to its parts." So, when people see that the those at the top of the economic & political pyramid largely have penises & light-colored skin, it is easy to be convinced by stories that everyone with light skin and a penis must then be at the top of the economic & sociopolitical hierarchy.
The extent to which white privilege exists it is simply one of many privileges, including modern privilege, American privilege, the privilege of being born with all your limbs, intact-family privilege, etc.
Besides the fact that economic stratification has FAR more to do with health, life expectancy, education, etc. than skin color does, those who buy into this religion seem to only consider economic class when it can be viewed as a result of race/gender, and never the ways it operates as a cause of violence, oppression, and suffering.
For every Donald Trump who was born into money & power (and light skin), there are dozens of folks with light skin born into abject poverty, drug addiction, abusive families, and so on. Their "white privilege" doesn't get keep them from being born addicted to heroin or keep their parent from beating them.
To Close
There are SO many pieces of this racist, sexist, statist, anti-science, anti-free-speech, hyper-fragility movement that are absolutely ludicrous... I'm currently working on going through a LOT of the literature & talking heads from within intersectionality, as well as speaking against it, in order to put together a piece I'm calling "How to Achieve Social Justice & End Oppression." This piece will be a full-length video (~20 minutes), edited cleanly with lots of graphics and less of my face, basically taking the angle of converting SJWs into anarchists by agreeing & reaffirming the problems that are real, bringing focus to the factual data being manipulated, pointing out the fact that the state can only create more oppression, and a handful of other topics.
Basically, this post, like the "What is White Patriarchy" I did a while ago, is a STEEM exclusive, and part of my processing & venting as I dive down this rabbit hole. My goal is for the final product to avoid any defensiveness and actually appeal to SJWs... at least until they've listened long enough to absorb a few points.
A couple of the folks I've stumbled across recently and am really enjoying are Coleman Hughes, Thomas Sowell, Deborah Soh, and of course all the great anarchists, because clearly the removal of oppressive hierarchies & violent power structures from society is the way to deal with these issues. Every "white" cop who shoots an unarmed "black" kid and gets away with it is showing how wrong it is that the police are considered to not be responsible for their actions; that cop's racism would only be a person problem if he didn't have a free pass to murder people.
Finally, as just a couple quick glimpses at the clarity which Morgan Freeman sees this topic (rare for a celebrity), here is with Don Lemon on CNN briefly describing "race" and economic inequality, followed by Morgan talking to Mike Wallace (60 minutes) about how to end racism:
If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy some of these highlights of my blog:
