Critical Race Theory
Critical race theory is a theoretical Marxist leaning framework that assumes as a fact that individuals are oppressed or are the oppressor based on their skin color. So progressives use the leftist paradigms of critical race theory to share their ideas about racism. Unfortunately, most college graduates with training in the humanities and social sciences lack the vocabulary to talk about racism and prejudice. They don’t understand the intellectual roots of the language of real racism, and think that it’s the only way to talk about racism is by using the framework of “systemic racism” and “white privilege.” As such, questioning their ideas amounts to tacit support of racism and makes you a racist. If you disagree with their philosophical framework, then you are by default against fighting racism or deny that racism even exists.
And if you push back on the use of terms such as “power structure” or “systemic racism,” you are likewise accused. This is damaging on two levels. First, it effectively “cancels” any meaningful conversation about racism and race. Second, it creates a chasm between well-meaning people who most likely agree racism is bad, but disagree on the best way to address it. That many progressives sincerely believe their ideas are superior isn’t the problem. The problem is that they want to limit your freedom to oppose them.
As a result topics of “White Privilege” and “White Supremacy” have come to be a politically motivated part of our political national discourse. But the idea of white privilege and white supremacy is “demeaning to both whites and blacks. It suggests that principles such as individualism, hard work, objectivity, respect for authority, the traditional family structure, and the written tradition belong to ‘white culture’ and are therefore foreign to folks with black or brown skin.” I think “White Guilt” would probably more correctly describe the feelings of elite whites in America who are convinced their successes in life are the direct result of so called “White Privilege.”
As Economics professor and columnist Walter Williams (who is black) wrote, “According to some academic intellectuals, whites enjoy advantages that nonwhites do not. They earn higher income and reside in better housing, and their children go to better schools and achieve more. Based on that idea, Asian Americans have more white privilege than white people. And, on a personal note, my daughter has more white privilege than probably 95% of white Americans.”
Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and whose father was African American, said that “the contemporary civil rights movement under the banner of ‘Black Lives Matter’ was deeply unserious, catering to an old form of victimization that has accomplished nothing to lift up black people. Steele went on to explain that this African-American dependency emerged out of white Americans desperately seeking to prove themselves as non-racist. “White Americans live under this accusation that they’re not racist. They need to prove that they’re not racist. In order to prove that you’re not racist, you need to take over the fate of black people and say, go with us, we’ll engineer you into the future. We’ll engineer you into equality,” Steele said. “Life doesn’t work like that. We have to engineer ourselves. Period. There is no other way.”
Labeling our society as racist is actually demeaning to black people in general. Black columnist Delano Squires gets it exactly right. “Any political philosophy that says black people are powerless victims of society’s institutions and systems who require white people to use their autonomy, agency, and privilege to uplift blacks is held down by the black intelligentsia’s unique view of white supremacy,” he writes. “Suggesting whites have a greater capacity for moral reasoning, emotional regulation, and reasoned decision-making than blacks is a paternalistic and infantilizing impulse that should be rejected completely.”
Joe Biden revealed the truth of his convictions, that all Blacks have to think the same, when he said, “Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.” Of course the government should do its job of protecting constitutional rights. But black people should simply be left alone as opposed to being smothered by the by the misguided belief, inspired by white guilt, that Blacks need to have their hands held in order to achieve equality. Biden also said “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” That statement, by the way, is profoundly racist. The truth is, contrary to what Biden evidently believes, Blacks actually do have the ability to think for themselves.