Embracing "racism"

A weird thing happened on a recent afternoon walk in the section of my neighborhood that is half local industry, half residential:

I passed a black guy straddling his bike on the sidewalk. He was wearing a grey wife beater and had well-built arms and thick fingers. He did not seem to be in an anxious rush to get anywhere, but his eyes were still narrowed crossly, in what may have been his resting facial expression. As I walked past him, I explicitly thought something innocuous like, 'oh but he is a black guy, so whatever....'

Further down the street I passed a more handsome version of myself: a man with a nicer build and wearing nicer clothes. We did not make eye contact--he was zoned out listening to his earbuds—but for the first time in my life I did not feel animosity or jealousy or inadequate self-consciousness as I compared myself to this man's alleged money and objective good looks…instead I felt an inexplicable camaraderie, as a finer reflection of me.

Another man walked a few paces behind him. He was older, somewhere in his fifties, overweight, with thin, grey hair. Possibly on a lunch break, his baggy t-shirt was dusty and rumpled, his fingers and forearms covered in work dust. Although he was not listening to earbuds, we did not make eye contact, but I still knowingly studied his lips and face, and detected a faint, peaceful smile, at once familiar and comforting….with his wise, wistful eyes focused straight ahead, he seemed to be saying something to me, like, ‘I know how you feel…everything is going to be fine…’

But why?

I’ve seen—and worked—with thousands of fat, loud, white blue-collar men in my lifetime, known—and despised--thousands of white douchey yuppies in my lifetime. (I don’t mean to brag, but I am neither type.) What made this moment special was this unpredictable pleasant new feeling of being associated with these average strangers as a fellow average, straight, white man.

My neighborhood is mostly Muslims and Hispanics, with a light sprinkling of blacks and whites. 60 years ago, whites were the neighborhood’s only ethnic group, subdivided by various European nationalities; ‘American’ was the uniting common denominator among them. Today, whites are the undisputed minority, and trending towards extinction as childless yuppies and aging second-generation families that never fled for the suburbs make up the majority white population in my neighborhood. New white families, if they exist, are the smallest minority.

Muslims and Hispanics (and their large families) are not American. They may be American by an unfortunate technical, legal definition, but they identify first as Muslim and Hispanic. They are not culturally American, and can never be truly American, just as I can never be truly Lebanese or Ecuadorian. (Blacks may be American, but they are not white, and their differences in culture are just as noticeable as that of Hispanics and Muslims.)

It is in this context as a minority in my native land that I find a new appreciation for the undeniable primal comfort I feel when around people that resemble me, a comfort I took for granted when growing up in my racially homogenous town. I took for granted that my city—and my country—are the same as my hometown.

‘White Power’ is cringe, but it is not evil. It is normal for any racial or ethnic group to be proud of their ancestry and heritage. (So long as they do not destroy others for being other.) As I recognized myself for being ‘just another straight, white male’ I felt a humble pride, satisfied and grateful for the circumstances and fortunes of my ancestry, heritage, and (once great) nation.

Furthermore, seeing men that looked like me in my own neighborhood, and looked like what I would become (fat, old, mediocre) inspired me to reach this white standard of normal, a standard that for so long I felt guilty for having the privilege of attaining. Without realizing it, these normal white men set an example of hope for me, that I too could be satisfied, proud to be an average white man.

But just as quickly as I felt this swoon of average white male pride did I lose it when I spotted an emaciated douchebag with shoulder length pink and black hair, too old to be wearing a graphic tee of his favorite band, and too pale to be wearing cutoff jean shorts, with the undeveloped arms and legs of a middle school twerp and covered with ugly, alternating tribal and cursive tattoos. ‘Pathetic faggot’ I thought with explicit venom. 'What is he compensating for?' (He was probably Jewish.)

Unsolicited Advice 11

In keeping with recent trends of racism...

DEAR AMY: I am a retired college professor who did years of research about American slavery and slaveholders. 

I own a set of very racist 19th-century books that were part of my research. 

It is now time for me to reduce the size of my library, but I am afraid to sell these books because, given the mood in our country today and the rise of white supremacy, I’m afraid these books will be bought by people who will be reinforced in their racist ideologies. 

I know they can get the books in other ways (if they knew about them), and I don’t believe in burning books. I have offered them to several libraries but to no avail. I am very worried about what to do. 

Concerned Ph.D.

Wow...if this is what worries you, you are watching too much CNN.

You have a good heart, but a gay heart. What do you really expect these white supremecists to do with this material? Masturbate?

It is as illogical to believe that white supremacists would find this type of material arousing as it is that they would find it useful.

For the sake of argument, let us suppose that white supremecists are a threat to this nation’s black population. You are concerned that innocent blacks are going to be the subject of violence by racist terror groups. They are planning terrorist attacks on housing projects, night clubs, black owned businesses in black owned neighborhoods. What could this historical information possibly provide them from a standpoint of the logistics of a terror attack? 

If that is what you are truly worried about then give the books to the FBI, or the local police so they can laugh at you/donate/burn the books.

If all you care about is people being reinforced in their racist ideologies you’ve done enough harm by teaching history for 30+ years. People will cherry pick what they want from history, and burning your books will not undo that facet of the human condition. People will always think what they want.

More Racist Tweets

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Racist Tweets

In the interest of clicks, I am going to write about the Racist Tweet, explain how it is not racist, as well as how it only really matters to the media.

It is my aspiration to be a moderate that does not read the news, so that is the approach I will be attempting.

As someone who does not read the news or follow politics, as far as I can tell, the timeline of this controversy is as follows: Nancy Pelosi criticized Alex Cortes about something, maybe tweeting instead of focusing on passing legislation, something like that. The point is that the Democrats are tired of Progressives and attempting to separate themselves. Alex Cortes tweeted back something snarky. President Trump inserted himself into the digital boxing ring without provocation because he does stuff like that and always has. He made a statement (without tagging anyone) to the extent of ‘if you hate this country so much you should leave.’ He never mentioned race; the Congresswomen did because they are obsessed with race. Nancy Pelosi came to their defense probably because these Congresswomen have a very loud following. (The actual size of this loud following is debatable.) Yesterday, Trump was talking about manufacturing at a press conference somewhere when some screechy journalists interrupted his speech to ask him about White Supremacy. Today, these Congresswomen surprised no one when they said they want to impeach the ‘WH occupant.’

Politics is supposed to be boring, not stupid. This story is not for the C-SPAN watcher. This story is for stupid people who don’t read news stories about the government that most affects their lives: the local government. It is for the people that read headlines instead of history books and think that makes them informed, or ‘woke’. It is for milennial social media addicts whose only interest in politics are the Congresswomen who act more like clout chasing social media influencers than elected leaders. (Nancy Pelosi made a good point there.) It focuses on petty infighting between nationally known politicians and the mean things they say to one another. It is reality TV. (Remember only the President was an actual reality TV star.) It isn’t politics, it is just political.

For instance, these Congresswomen have convinced themselves that they care about the plight of migrants. They demonstrate this by complaining on social media. If they really cared about migrants they would avoid politics altogether; politics is notorious for taking too long. They could be saintly and selfless in their quest to save migrants, and do the dirty work that the media purposefully ignores. Instead they chase clout by making inflammatory remarks comparing the border centers to concentration camps. That only demonstrates that they hate America for humanely and reasonably enforcing its laws.

The President tells them that they should leave if they hate America so much, and they call him racist because they are a different race (and party. and ideology) than he is. His tweet made no mention of race! At worst, he implied that places like Somalia are poorly run, to be as generous as possible.

The media is doing a very good job if a couple of no-name Congresswomen from across the country become household names for one day. It means that people are watching and listening to them; they are getting paid and controlling minds. Such idiotic name calling is media bait, and every one of the politicians involved in this internet flame war know this! Trump only became involved in this Democratic scuffle because he knows this. It helped him win the presidency after all. All politicians chase clout like YouTubers. It is a job requirement.

Alex Cortez, Donald Trump and Ilan Omar are just characters in the minds of people with lives of their own. The media exploits this simulated familiarity and turns a tweet into news. The media needs to report on something.

Even underground political junkies with YouTube followings will talk about how this tweet exchange is going to change the political landscape. Us normal citizens will have to wait over a year to see how. Let’s all pay attention to something else in the meantime.