On September 2, 2017, John Hawkins posted an article on townhall.com, a conservative website of news and editorials. In this piece, “Liberals Don’t Get To Have It Both Ways With White Americans,” Hawkins points out that commentators and politicians who repeatedly call all Caucasians “white supremacists” can hardly expect those same people to continue to support their agenda. From the last week alone, Hawkins gives us numerous examples of this broad-brush approach to white people, including commentators on Twitter who hoped that Hurricane Harvey would “cleanse” Texas of white people. (Apparently, those who wrote such comments failed to note that 1) whites are a minority in Houston and 2) hurricanes, unlike certain human beings, don’t discriminate in terms of dealing death and destruction.)
Much as I appreciate Mr. Hawkins’ points, I think he failed to get to the heart of the matter. Racism essentially means judging someone by the color of their skin, lumping that person into a group of people with similar levels of melanin, and then declaring those in your own group a superior “race”.
So how is it that the people making the comments about whites are not themselves racist? If you write articles like “Straight White Men Are The Root Of Our Problems” or “Polite White People Are Useless,” if you propose banning white students for a day from their own campus, if you offer college courses on the evils committed by white people, if you look at someone like me—an aging white male—and instantly judge me by that criteria alone, how are you not a racist?
And don’t try to wiggle out of this by accusing me of reverse racism. Racism is racism. Those who decry reverse racism because "whites are privileged" need to visit the back roads of Front Royal, Virginia, the flatlands of Eastern North Carolina, the hollows of the Smoky Mountains, the trailer parks of Western Georgia, and a thousand other places in this country. I guarantee you won’t see much privilege in those places.
In fact, I will go a step farther. If you take pride in your race, if you think you’re a hot shot because you’re white, black, brown, or any other color, then in my eyes you’re an idiot. That, or you've bought into your own propaganda. Being proud of your complexion is like being proud of the color of your eyes or the density of your hair. Hey, you were born that way. You had nothing to do with it.
Tell me about your heritage, and I will listen. Tell me who you are, and I will listen. Tell me about your ambitions and what you love, and I will listen. But tell me you are proud because you are white or black or whatever, and I am stone-deaf.
Maybe one day we will realize there is only one race.
The human race.
Until that day.
So how is it that the people making the comments about whites are not themselves racist? If you write articles like “Straight White Men Are The Root Of Our Problems” or “Polite White People Are Useless,” if you propose banning white students for a day from their own campus, if you offer college courses on the evils committed by white people, if you look at someone like me—an aging white male—and instantly judge me by that criteria alone, how are you not a racist?
And don’t try to wiggle out of this by accusing me of reverse racism. Racism is racism. Those who decry reverse racism because "whites are privileged" need to visit the back roads of Front Royal, Virginia, the flatlands of Eastern North Carolina, the hollows of the Smoky Mountains, the trailer parks of Western Georgia, and a thousand other places in this country. I guarantee you won’t see much privilege in those places.
In fact, I will go a step farther. If you take pride in your race, if you think you’re a hot shot because you’re white, black, brown, or any other color, then in my eyes you’re an idiot. That, or you've bought into your own propaganda. Being proud of your complexion is like being proud of the color of your eyes or the density of your hair. Hey, you were born that way. You had nothing to do with it.
Tell me about your heritage, and I will listen. Tell me who you are, and I will listen. Tell me about your ambitions and what you love, and I will listen. But tell me you are proud because you are white or black or whatever, and I am stone-deaf.
Maybe one day we will realize there is only one race.
The human race.
Until that day.