Victor Davis Hanson on unchecked racial tribalism
The incomparable Hanson points out the rise of what he calls “racial tribalism” on the part of a growing number of affluent and successful black people.
It’s not just identification with blacks as a group, either. It’s this:
Here is actor Jamie Foxx joking recently about his new movie role: “I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?” Reverse white and black in the relevant ways and even a comedian would hear national outrage. Instead, his hip “Saturday Night Live” audience even gave Foxx applause.
Race-obsessed comedian Chris Rock tweeted on the Fourth of July, “Happy white peoples (sic) independence day …”
Actor Samuel L. Jackson, in a recent interview, sounded about as unapologetically reactionary as you can get: “I voted for Barack because he was black. … I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years.”
No one in Hollywood used to be more admired than Morgan Freeman, who once lectured interviewers on the need to transcend race. Not now, in the new age of racial regression. Freeman has accused Obama critics and the Tea Party of being racists. He went on to editorialize on Obama’s racial bloodlines: “Barack had a mama, and she was white ”“ very white, American, Kansas, middle of America … America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet.”
Freeman’s racial-purity obsessions were echoed on the CNN website, where an ad for the network’s recent special report on race included a crude quote from three teen poets: “Black enough to be a n—–. White enough to be a good one.”
…ESPN sports commentator Rob Parker blasted Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III last week for admirably stating that he did not wish to be defined by his race rather than by his character: “He’s black, he does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause.” Parker added: “He’s not one of us. He’s kind of black, but he’s not really like the kind of guy you really want to hang out with.” (ESPN suspended Parker for his remarks.)
Unfortunately, the new racialist derangement is not confined to sports and entertainment. The Rev. Joseph Lowery — who gave the benediction at President Obama’s first inauguration — sounded as venomous as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a speech that Lowery delivered to a black congregation shortly before this year’s election: “I don’t know what kind of a n—– wouldn’t vote with a black man running.” Lowery reportedly preceded that rant by stating that when he was younger, he believed that all whites were going to hell, but now he merely believes that most of them are. And in his 2009 inauguration prayer, Lowery ended with his hopes for a future day when “white will embrace what is right.”
None of this should be any surprise. As Hanson also points out, Obama and his AG Holder have fostered some of it by various remarks (as has “put y’all back in chains” VP Biden). But I contend that, although they have all acted as releasers for these sorts of sentiments, the real culprits (as Hanson also points out) are those educators who have taught over and over in the last few decades that racism is only racism when practiced by white people, and that black people are eternally and forever their innocent victims.
One of the hopes of Barack Obama’s election as president was that there would be some sort of racial healing as a result. How’s that working out for ya? Not very well. And perhaps I’ve missed it, but has Obama ever denounced racist remarks uttered by a black person towards whites? The only time I can recall—and in this his hand was forced—was when he threw former mentor Reverend Wright under the bus in order to get elected in 2008.
Black Americans would do well to recognize the “Tutsi slaughter Hutu slaughter Tutsi” redistributive and retributive change cycles. There are other examples, which should motivate them to judge individuals by the content of their character, rather than by the color of their skin, including Swaziland:
The Human Development Cost of the King of Swaziland’s Lifestyle and his “Bevy” of Wives
South Africa:
South Africa fears new wave of violence against foreigners
The so-called “civil rights” leaders are not doing anyone any favors by denigrating individual dignity and supporting “pro-choice” or selective policies.
When will the time come when we will end the pretense of referring to provacateurs, propagandizers, indoctrinators, and NEA shills as educators? There’s no more call for good will.
Twenty years ago, when I was college age, we aspired to color-blindness. Now, if you google “colorblind racism” you’ll get over a million hits, starting with various ways to bash on conservatives for being racist.
Why does the left not get it? Yeah, people come in different colors …. so what? There was a time some decades ago when my life would have been different if my last name were O’Brien vs. Cantorelli vs. Kwiatkowsky vs. Adams, but we’ve moved past old ethnic prejudices so effectively that Gen Y kids don’t even understand that they used to be pervasive. Thanks to the left, I am starting to wonder if we are ever going to be able to get past racism.
Over the last several years, it’s become a debate forum cliche that the first person to bring race into a debate are the left of center. Welcome to 2012 – if you’re not obsessed with skin color, you’re a racist!
Obama has made race relations worse, but he is not the only villain, nor even the chief villain.
In my lifetime blacks have gone from being a group that was despised, mocked, and denigrated to one that cannot be openly criticized or held accountable for its problems without being denounced as a bigot. White liberals and civil rights lobbies perpetually excuse or try to explain away every failure of the black community–from violent crime to poor academic performance–as somehow a failure of a malevolent white society or a systemic and permanent racism.
TV has also played a major role in exacerbating race relations. In commercials, the white man is always the dummy; on crime shows he is usually the criminal. In the news, black-on-white crime tends to be played down, and the far less common white-on-black crime is sensationalized and portrayed as an endemic problem in America (e.g., the Duke lacrosse scandal).
The result, though perhaps not the intent, of this political grandstanding and media distortion of reality is to promote endless grievance on the part of blacks and a simmering resentment on the part of whites. The message of Martin Luther King, Jr., is fading rapidly. Does anybody care?
Outside of Democrat Party politics and policies — there is virtually no white-on-black crime — especially violent crime.
=======
Thirty-five some years ago I came upon a PhD thesis which data-mined the Kansas City criminal database — this was at a time when such a thing was brand new.
As a condition of his access, he was required to keep secret every manner of specific detail.
However, sweeping across all of the solved cases he was shocked to discover that the overwhelming number of murder victims were Black — as were their murderers.
Further, that the victims were almost uniformly warned/ threatened before the act — by the perp, himself — usually.
The murder victim was normally a very bad fellow, long known to the cops and FBI; seen by all to be a player in drug distribution.
When he screened for race vs race he didn’t have a single White on Black violent crime. It was always Black on Black followed distantly by Black on White.
No other ethnicities were significant in the database.
The other shocker was just how many unsolved gunshot murders there were: up towards 40%. In these cases, the cops assumed that they were contract-hits or semi-pros since the victims were known drug players.
It all read like Untouchables scripts from Desilu Productions. The predominant source of violent crime was due to drug and whore mongering.
=========
That was quite a shift in Black morality, for seventy-years earlier Black Americans were under-represented on the crime rolls.
It is a tabooed topic: What happened.
n.n Says:
“Black Americans would do well to recognize the “Tutsi slaughter Hutu slaughter Tutsi””
Sowell makes an interesting point on the subject. It is not a retelling of the ‘if you really feared them you wouldn’t be talking like that’. It’s closer to; if you knew any history of warfare you wouldn’t really talk that way about euros. They’re pretty good at the whole organised violence / war thing when it is called for. You’ll probably loose.
}}} (ESPN suspended Parker for his remarks.)
If a white man had made the exact same “racially inverted” statement, would he have hit the pavement so hard and fast he would have bounced?
Can you spell “Duh”?
I knew you could. Racism even when it comes to punishments.
}}} without being denounced as a bigot.
Sure you can. If you’re black and do that, you get denounced as an “oreo”. Just ask Bill Cosby.
the far less common white-on-black crime is sensationalized and portrayed as an endemic problem in America (e.g., the Duke lacrosse scandal).
LOL, have we forgotten poooor, poor poor Twayvon Martin so soon?
:oD
Igot.
Yeah. Cosby’s been keeping his head down recently, hasn’t he?
}}} They’re pretty good at the whole organised violence / war thing when it is called for.
Yep. We’re naturals at it. If we don’t self-constrain ourselves (as has been done in pretty much every war since WWII), the enemy is fucked.
the far less common white-on-black crime is sensationalized and portrayed as an endemic problem in America (e.g., the Duke lacrosse scandal)
IGotBupkis:
And then we found out that from the Peruvian side of his family, Zimmerman was 1/8 black in addition to the Quechua/Native American contribution from Peru…..
Narrative, what narrative?
Another dirty little secret is that a sizable portion of the “black middle class” exists only because of affirmative action laws. There are a lot of people working in government and corporate jobs who are simply not qualified to do the work, but are essentially untouchable. Often the job descriptions have to be dumbed down to their level.
This also gives those black employees entirely unearned and undeserved power over whites.
thomass Says:
December 21st, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Victor Davis Hanson has written a whole book about that: Carnage and Culture
Race is used as a weapon by people who cannot persuade others by argument. It should be painfully obvious by now that racism only rears its ugly head from the mouths of these morally smug poseurs.
thomass:
I’m appealing to people’s better nature. Not white. Not black.
Blacks kill blacks. Whites kill blacks. Blacks kill whites. Everyone exploits everyone else until they don’t. The circle of degeneracy is complete. Judging people by the color of their skin does not improve your chance of survival. It does not demonstrate skill to predict your chance of survival.
I missed one: Whites kill whites. Now the circle of degeneracy is complete.
Kyndyll wrote:
“There was a time some decades ago when my life would have been different if my last name were O’Brien vs. Cantorelli vs. Kwiatkowsky vs. Adams, but we’ve moved past old ethnic prejudices so effectively that Gen Y kids don’t even understand that they used to be pervasive.”
Many years ago there was a TV commercial which featured the following lyrics:
I have a little friend,
His name ends with a “ski”
And this is what my father said
As I sat on his knee:
A ski, a witz, an off or cu
When added to a name,
Just teaches us the family
Or town from which it came.
A name like Thomas Jefferson
In some lands o’er the sea
Would not be Thomas Jefferson,
But Thomas Jefferski.
Or Jefferwitz, or Jefferoff or maybe Jeffercu,
So do not let a ski, a witz or off seem strange to you.
I feel the same towards every name
No matter how it ends,
‘Cause people with the strangest names
Can be the best of friends!
According to this, the lyricist was Irving Caesar:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/nyregion/12fyi.html
I’m with you on the idea that it is the “educators”, and they are often professors, who have created this problem and I do think it is a problem. Critical race theory is the foundational thinking behind this and anti-white white people like Tim Wise come to mind as culprits. He came here to Metro State in Denver, spoke to an auditorium filled mostly with young people and the show was free. It was a show because he is not a serious public intellectual but is hawking a seriously deranged form of thinking that targets whites as “privileged” haters or racists. Each and every one with little exception.
BTW, I am not white, though I have passed for such. My mother is American Indian, from a reserve in Canada (Blackfoot) and my dad is Hispano from Taos New Mexico. He is “white” in terms of his race, history and culture, but that is in Spanish Colonial terms. Any way, I am saying this from the perspective of someone who “should” be joining in the anti-white hate and I am not. I see it as counterproductive to people who are non-white (that’s most of the planet any way) and — I see it as hateful. Bashing white people will not get anyone any where and hate is hate.
It is “in” for white people on the left to emulate Tim Wise’s attitudes and ideas. He is Jewish and some detractors claim he is not therefore “white” — it is all about context… I find him distasteful as you can tell I am sure. He is anti-American to the extreme degree also and a lot of this critical race theory is mainly a shill for extreme Marxism and anti-Americanism. And, again, the worst thing in a way is that these attitudes do NOT help “people of color”. (I hate that neo-Marxist term by the way, but — to make my point…) These attitudes are destructive to all involved.
People kill people. Same as it ever was. However, in our current culture, blacks kill blacks predominates. Once in a blue moon some nut job slaughters children. And this means I should surrender my firearms? WTF!
“Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option.” — Cuomo
I am a member of a tribe, my tribe is composed of my family and friends. My tribe will not accept confiscation or mandatory anything. Fold it five ways Mario.
My thoughts immediately on reading Foxx’s relishing of killing white people in his movie role: “This guy is a Nazi. Yeah, I know he’s black, but it doesn’t matter one tiny bit: Like the Nazis, he’s infused by the thought of murdering people on account of their race. A Nazi who happens to be black-skinned, but a Nazi all the same.”
Kyndyll,
“Twenty years ago, when I was college age, we aspired to color-blindness. Now, if you google ‘colorblind racism’ you’ll get over a million hits,…”
The game you can’t win except by total capitulation, isn’t it? The Marxist Left is determined to reverse and paraphrase that old Democrat hobbit’s slogan, effectively saying, “Race-hustling today, race-hustling tomorrow, race-hustling forever!”
For my part, I now view any accusation of being “racist” as a badge of honor, and as a call to double down on the “offense” I’m being accused of.
Steve,
“Race is used as a weapon by people who cannot persuade others by argument.”
Quoted for truth. The race card is Marxist-speak for what their Islamic allies render as “Infidel, submit to our rule!”
n.n,
“Everyone exploits everyone else until they don’t. The circle of degeneracy is complete.”
The bit in the Bible about humans being evil in their inclination from the get-go (they can resist that inclination, but anyone who doesn’t will gravitate toward evil by nature) is appropriately written right before the regeneration of the entire human race by Noah and his sons, warning us that it’s a human universal, applicable to all without exception. More categorical a denial of the Progressivist doctrine of the Noble Savage (that some races are naturally free of humanity’s moral maladies) cannot be found.
We are genetically programmed for tribalism. Tibalism worked for hunter-gatherers. It’s been since people began settling in cities that the idea of individual rights and worth have come to the forefront. The ancient Greeks had some ideas about individualism and the rights of individuals. Jesus preached about the dignity of every individual. Martin Luther believed each church member had a right to know the Bible and have a one on one relationship with God. A few other milestones along the way have been the Magna Carta, separation of church and state, Adam Smith’s writings, the U.S. Constitution, the Civil War, etc.
Tribes are always more important than the individual members. Thus, any group that wants a strong, all pervasive central government is driven by tribal instinct. Only the Anglosphere has developed the institutions and customs that raise the dignity of the individual to an important place in society. Look around the world. Sub-Saharan Africa, which is mostly black, is still governed by tribalism. Just this morning I read of one Kenyan tribe attacking another. 160 people dead and a village burned – all motivated by tribalsm; more black on black violence.
The march toward a world where the worth of each individual is accepted and tolerance is the norm is at war with our tribal instincts. Islam and Marxism are two typical tribal movements that are at war with the rights and value of the individual.
There are good parts of tribal organization, which we need to retain. Banding together for the common defense is a good thing. As is the importance of the family unit as a means to reproduce and train the offspring necessary to carry on the nation. Both of these good aspects of tribalism are under attack from the Marxists. Moreover, the purpose of these useful tribal customs seems only dimly grasped by far too many people here in the U.S. In fact, too many people have not given these issues much though at all.
Anyone who promotes conflict and division over differences; whether it be of skin color, religion, diet, family constructs, sexual orientation, or many other personal chacteristics; is basically reverting to tribal instincts and is an enemy of individual rights and dignity.
J.J. formerly Jimmy J.,
“Islam and Marxism are two typical tribal movements that are at war with the rights and value of the individual.”
No, they’re both anti-tribal, anti-national forms of imperialism. Marxism wants to melt all tribes into a “Citizens of the World” blob (their claim to “celebrate diversity” is just an anti-Western ploy; they don’t mind, for example, a Zimbabwe racially cleansed of white people), and Islam subsumes all its believers under an Arabocentric culture with its orientation toward the black meteorite.
I don’t view history and politics through the prism of genetic determinism, but ethnicity is a different matter. There are other ways of maintaining national cohesion than genetic homogeneity, but multiculturalism is an insidious plot that pushes nations to give up their national cohesion, no matter what it’s based on.
Some people say the American people have never had a stab at national cohesion. I don’t agree: If you could just take all the Hansons among whites, the Sowells among blacks, the Malkins among Asians, the Michael Ramirezes among Hispanics and the Sheldon Adelsons among Jews, you’d have a coherent American nation based on the founding values of the United States–industriousness, self-reliance and the like. But those are very big ifs, and now they’ve turned wholly theoretical, thanks to the treasonous Marxist policy of “Divide and conquer” where the various groupings in America have been pitted against one another.
On the face of it, the European nations as well as the Jewish nation (in Israel) seem to have better odds because their national definitions aren’t based on ideals (or not solely on ideals, at any rate), but on ethnically real definitions. The Marxists are well aware of this, which is why, instead of trying the “Divide and conquer” ploy as in America, they have opted for trying at a demographic assault from without: The hordes of immigrant-colonists swamping Europe, and the call for the Jewish State to let millions of Arabs inside as “redress” (the Phakestinian “Right of Return”). Where in America the Marxist-owned media celebrates tribal hatred (except in the case of whites), it decries “tribalism” in Europe and Israel (except for Arab tribalism… hmmm, I sense a pattern here).
Tribalism isn’t the issue, nor is race; the issue is national cohesion and the Marxist/Islamic assault on it. It’s time to lay off all the red herrings and see the nature of the enemy for what it is. It’s time to understand: Islam is imperialism, Marxism is treason.
ziontruth said, “Some people say the American people have never had a stab at national cohesion. I don’t agree: If you could just take all the Hansons among whites, the Sowells among blacks, the Malkins among Asians, the Michael Ramirezes among Hispanics and the Sheldon Adelsons among Jews, you’d have a coherent American nation based on the founding values of the United States–industriousness, self-reliance and the like.”
The people you name are among those who see that a society that promotes individual freedom and dignity provides a better chance for pursuing happiness than a centralized, authoritarian government or religion. There have always been people who are opposed to freedom. That’s why the realization of individual rights and freedom are so recent and so fragile. An awful lot of people are still attracted to the idea that they belong to a tribe that will look after their needs. (How about the 2012 U.S. election?) What they don’t realize (or maybe welcome) is that they will become powerless to change their situation as central authority dictates every facet of their lives.
Tribalism is deep in our bones. Just spend an afternoon at a sporting event. What you see there cannot be explained in any rational sort of way. IMO, it goes back to tribal instincts.
I agree that with the Marxists the “issue” is never the real issue. The real issue is always their desire for power to create a super tribe that is composed of members who are all equal(ly miserable). They believe it will be utopia.