A city worker cleans up the street in front of a New York City government building. Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
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In the midst of the “racial reckoning” that has defined America since the brutal murder of George Floyd, American media institutions are revising their style guides. One after another, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and even Fox News have decided to capitalise the ‘b’ in the word ‘Black’, when used to refer to African-Americans. According to the NYT’s announcement, it’s because they believe this “best conveys elements of shared history and identity, and reflects our goal to be respectful of all the people and communities we cover.”
However, some outlets such as The Washington Post, CNN and Fox News have also decided, in an act of racial grammatical reciprocity, to capitalise ‘White’. The justification is that both ‘Black’ and ‘White’ denote distinct cultural identities. As the Post said of white European immigrants to the America, “these diverse ethnicities were eventually assimilated into the collective group that has had its own cultural and historical impact on the nation,” going to conclude that “as such, White should be represented with a capital W.”
Those who joyously celebrated the New York Times uppercasing ‘Black’ as an act of “liberation” (for instance, Nikole Hannah Jones, the founder of the 1619 project) were not as happy about the Washington Post’s decision. Some have referred to it as the “grammar equivalent of all lives matter”. Others argue it is outright legitimising white supremacy.
For me, it feels like the grammar equivalent of All Lives Matter.
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) July 29, 2020
But is capitalising (or not capitalising) a single letter really such a big deal? Well it may be a small symbolic action, but the fact that so much of the mainstream media is making it at the same time is not. It is taking place as part of what some have rather derisively called the “woke cultural revolution”. This also includes Robin DiAngelo’s terrible book, White Fragility, and similar tracts becoming bestsellers; white voiceover actors recusing themselves from voicing black characters; major corporations aligning themselves with radical political causes; city authorities voting to defund or even abolish police departments; and other significant developments.
We are in new territory now — and not everyone is finding the right way forward. For instance, the decision by the Washington Post and others to capitalise ‘White’ is obviously foolish, because it reifies a phantasmic unitary ‘white’ racial identity and culture, as fetishised by creepy white nationalists. In what sense do an Armenian-American from Los Angeles, an Irish-American from Boston, a New York Jew, an Appalachian, a descendant of Southern slave owners and a Palestinian immigrant share a distinct cultural identity?
There is (or was) the idea of WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) culture, which for so long held a hegemonic position — and was held up as what European immigrants had to assimilate into (if they were allowed) to be considered upstanding Americans. Of course, this ‘respectable’ idea of ‘whiteness’ was a basis for institutionalised racial oppression and violence, so no truck should be had with it.
But isn’t there an inconsistency from those who think capitalising black is an act of social justice, while capitalising white is wrong and inappropriate? By capitalising ‘Black’ aren’t you inevitably opening the door for legitimising ‘White’ identity and other forms of racialisation? After all, ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ can’t really exist without each other.
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SubscribeHaving lived through the 60s, marched for civil rights, women’s rights and for free speech in Berkeley California – having supported MLKs vision of character not color – it is so disappointing and discouraging to watch young people of today regress from the actual accomplishments of that period.
So, you have failed to inculcate in the young, the values you hold so dear?
That is what history is, cruel and unforgiving. It will not now, or ever take, “any prisoners “. Brutal, but true.
However life for most Blacks has improved immeasurably since say, that epic film “In the Heat of the Night” wouldn’t you say?
Ah, the noble Sidney Poitier!
Indeed, and the equally enigmatic Rod Steiger.
A dark hero……..that haunted deadened figure in The Pawnbroker…….
Also a very convincing Pontius Pilate I once saw on the TV, eons ago.
I will look out for that performance. The last great one I saw was David Bowie’s languidly androgynous one in Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.
And, as you would no doubt appreciate, when you see our corporations, corporate media and even the majority of our politicians support a ‘rebellious’ movement you know something doesn’t smell right.
I am worried by the new push over the past few years to ‘racialise’ the UK. I am not alone I am sure, and it’s not a particularly revolutionary statement.
Traditionally we don’t think or describe ourselves in racial terms in public discourse in the UK because – broadly speaking – nobody cares (in a good way). However it’s becoming far more common.
The tendency to give everyone a racial context has been common for some time in the US, less surprisingly given their racial issues that were atrocious within living memory, but it’s being adopted with no logical context here.
I only discovered John McWhorter about a month. A remarkably lucid and rational thinker, in my opinion.
It’s going to be about social justice as a new religion.
McWhorter is one of the excellent panellists in this recent, exhilaratingly thoughtful discussion, well worth watching to the end.
Black Intellectual Roundtable
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
This nonsense has been with us since that epic year,1966.
It was called “Black Power” then, and went on to very successfully ‘pollute’ the México City Olympic Games of 1968. Concurrently there were violent riots across the US with, it must be said, impressive ‘body counts’.
For most Black, life in the US has improved immeasurably, in the last fifty two years, “they have joined the club”.
To slightly plagiarise Marcus Tullius Cicero, they can now truly say, “Civis Americanus Sum”.
This fixation with past injustice is patently sterile, sitting on the sole of humanity, like a malignant verruca. It must be excised forthwith if we are ever to move forward.
None of which explains the predominance of whites (especially females) among the protestors. Spoilt offspring of sixties radicals I suppose.
Classic virtue signalling Shriekers, gorged on careers of blatant tokenism, now exacerbated by this mask wearing hysteria.
Spare the rod, spoil the ……..
I think you will find the gap between the wealth of African American Vs Other American households is unchanged in 30 years. They are not imagining it!
The USA was an Apartheid state until the late 60’s and not enough has been done to level up the systematic disadvantages.
Race is the wrong lens. Attack the causes of poverty and by coincidence you will disproportionately help African Americans who need the help.
But the US has been trying very hard indeed to redress these inequalities through positive discrimination since the mid sixties. Putting poor black kids through college, introducing legally enforceable job quotas and throwing vast resources at the black population to try to overcome the injustices of the past.
If you are some poor white from the rust belt who was never in receipt of such state or federal largess it must stick in your craw when after all these decades of huge programs designed to help blacks they still complain that they’re discriminated against.
Check out his accusation that Israel is an apartheid state in his response to the article on the Israeli UAE deal. All a bit low brow.
Good Afternoon Paul … The situation between Arabs and Jews is awful as it stands today. I don’t personally see how anything other than prolonged, brutal violence can be predicted in the future. The wish by most Muslims for a homeland (ouma) stretching all the way from Mauritania on the Atlantic Coast – to Mindanao, could well become a future reality. There are 1.6billion muslims. Those sympathetic to Isreal will understand the ferocity with which that nation reacts to any threat (genuine or perceived), yet such a bitter harvest of historical unforgiveness has been sowed, it is hard to predict anything other than blood, blood and more blood.
I’ve experienced first hand cultural import from the US with the current thinking. It really isn’t something I recognise as the approach being needed in the UK at all.
The approach feels all wrong. It is like using a huge sledgehammer to crack a very small nut. I fear it will have the undesirable effect of having reasonable good, fair minded people turn away even though it’s something they support and truly believe in.
Your point rings especially true in my case. I am among the “fair minded people [who] turn away even though it’s something they support and truly believe in.” In my case, I used to be an active Unitarian. Stopped going when the minister retired and my late wife was severely injured and thus unable to go virtually anywhere due to intractable pain. I was contemplating active membership again after Barbara died, but then the huge BLM banner went up on the side of the church building. So, in a real sense I did actually “turn away”. Virtue signaling is not my thing.
Same situation here, my friend. You wouldn’t happen to be in San Diego, would you? Perhaps the BLM banners are flying on UU churches across the USA. If I have to subscribe to racialist thinking in order to participate, I’d prefer to steer clear.
IMO the entire exercise is simply a trending neo-socialist/Bolshevik/Marxist/Leninist whatever-ist attempt at a power grab.
Racism isn’t the reason – racism is the pretext.
Back in the day it was ‘the workers’.
And as it was then it is being used now by the revolution as a ‘Big Tent’ consensus-building focal point.
How many people were actually against workers?
How many people do you know that are for racism?
So great swathes of Guilty Whites have launched a mea culpa olympics where the competition is fierce to win medals for Most Apologetic or Severest Self-flagellation.
They can’t surrender their positions, their rights, their freedoms fast enough.
Meanwhile the anarchists, who actually never did care about racism in the first place, stockpile the free gifts and enjoy the show while our foreign competitors such as China, eat our lunch.
So accurate and a better piece than the article itself. It’s blindingly obvious we need on both sides of the Pond a new centrist force that kicks identity politics into the stands and starts to promote sense and sanity.
A solid article, albeit one that merely echoes the content of countless podcasts etc. However, I disagree with this:
‘But real progress will only occur when the material conditions of black Americans has improved, and when laws and institutional practices that empower police to brutalise citizens have been overturned.’
No, real progress will only occur when the US public school system and the teaching unions are destroyed. School choice is needed across America, particularly urban America. In Baltimore they could not find one kid from 13 schools who could do arithmetic to the standard expected of their age.
Sadly, instead of fixing the education system they have decreed that math is a concept that embodies ‘white privilege’. It’s not going to end well…
Your last sentence reminds me of an assertion made fairly recently that ‘Western science is not Marxist enough’. ‘White mathematics’ and ‘Marxist science’ are such utter absurdities, and anyone espousing such should be certified.
True – but the 2 + 2 = 5 movement is growing, and is now being espoused by US professors of mathematics. Other educationalists over there want to remove math and STEM from the curriculum altogether because math and science are white concepts etc.
Or worse!
Yes. The american education system is busted. Poor neighbourhoods have underfunded public schools while rich neighbourhoods have well funded public schools. Unfortunately designed to lock in disadvantages.
Funding is not the issue. Locking in a monopoly based on a 1940s view of how large organizations should function is the problem. Rich areas can overcome some of those problems because involved parents can provide necessary feedback and also because private schools offer real competition.
I agree- that was the passage that I raised my eyebrows at. Poor material conditions are not confined to black americans. The answer to empowering any section of society is education. In any case the concept of the word race is beyond me. People say we are part of the human race – why not just say species and drop the race word totally. Of course historically cultures were well defined geographically but with recent fast and easy travel they have eventually broken down and merged. People who migrate and feel the need to retain their original culture do it for one of two reasons: either they do not feel safe losing it in so far as they don’t feel letting go and entering the host culture will be beneficial to them, or they want to dominate and impose their culture over the host one. But I say we are over analysing and giving it too much energy.
“There is (or was) the idea of WASP (White Anglo-Saxon
Protestant) culture, which for so long held a hegemonic position ” and
was held up as what European immigrants had to assimilate into (if they
were allowed) to be considered upstanding Americans. Of course, this
‘respectable’ idea of ‘whiteness’ was a basis for institutionalised
racial oppression and violence, so no truck should be had with it.”
Of course they were also largely responsible for creating the USA we see today. Without them, it would now look at lot more like S. America. You reckon this would be an improvement?
Or even perhaps like Africa!
No, flawed as the Plantocrats who founded the US may have been, they were educated in the very best Classical tradition.
They were attempting to found a new Roman Republic.
The question is, have they succeeded? For my money, and for good or ill, yes indeed. A very remarkable achievement would you not agree?
It was not their WASPness that made the USA. It’s constitution was was the achievement of the least Anglo saxon and protestant thinking people of that time. It was inspired by European philosophy which was Humanist.
I didn’t think it really possible to be so wrong and deluded and in denial of obvious truths in such a short post as in this.
So I must suspect that something other is the motivation.
The first sentence sets the tone of the bias in the article, how can it be a “brutal murder” when the offender has not been tried in a court of law, I thought that even policemen in the USA were innocent until proven guilty.
Talk about missing the point.
Let’s say the ‘alleged brutal murder’ then. Anyone who saw the videos and read the detailed reports can see the brutality – and the death is not in dispute.
The point of the article is that reducing these matters to race is counterproductive. We can accept that race had a huge influence in the event, but humanity is the solution. Not more racism.
The point that I am not missing is that having all the correct facts, i.e. the truth, is crucial to any judgment, what the writer stated was erroneous in the extreme, he put himself in the position of judge and jury without knowing all the facts of the case and you are totally missing the point when you think that adding “alleged” after the event with respect to an untried person being branded a murderer is acceptable, whatever the additional contents of the article.
The author seems unaware that not everyone wants “radical social transformation.” Many people, both black and white, are doing quite well and having fulfilling lives in the culture as it exists. If there is something that we should have learned by now, it’s that we must stop destroying civilization and starting over from scratch, with the excuse being that it wasn’t perfect or that not everyone was thriving. Revolutions (which is what “radical social transformation” comes down to) are violent and destructive of all that is good and worth saving. Worse, they don’t make anything better and produce a backlash that is as bloody and destructive as the “radical social transformation” that was the intended goal. How about, for a change, we carefully and thoughtfully address our problems instead of burning down the house because the toilet doesn’t flush.
Surely the best way for a society to operate is for people to rub along together.
Drawing attention to one part of society, as opposed to another part does not help; it is merely making any divisions larger.
Therefore capitalising words is divisive and hence wrong.
I totally agree that the division into groups need to stop. My children go to an International School in Milano and have friends from all over the world. They do not think in colours, since they have friends from all different ethnicities (and all Swedish-Mexican themselves). The moment we start emphasising on the colour, we are stressing differences derived from colour (which is racism), instead of stressing on socioeconomic unjust conditions because of historical systematic racism in society.
Very true. But the legacy media and some political groups have an interest in stirring up racial differences etc. It is all very evil.
Very true. It’s not just in an international school either. Our kids to go to school with others of all colours. It’s a non-issue for them. This is the norm in urban Britain.
It is deeply divisive for us all to carry on like this with stereotypes and judging everyone by their colour. As the great David Bowie sang, “Give us back our unity”
Let’s just get back to the content of our character if we must judge or categorize others.
One race: the human race.
No: one species (Homo Sapiens), several sub-species, many races. The glorious (and true) diversity of humankind.
One race: the human race divided into categories: Caucasian; Negroid; Mongoloid, to suit the natural need and impulse of people to categories in order to make sense of any situation. Your prescription is akin to denying different breeds of dogs and calling all dogs dogs. It would not make doggish sense!!!
Also, the content of character is a categorization. One cannot escape categorization in any situation. The only concern we need to ensure is the accuracy of categories.
This is a class war, disguised as a civil rights movement, waged by the ultra-rich against the masses. Arbitrary divisions along racial and sexual lines are being drawn in order to foment chaos and unrest. The government, mass media, mass education and big corporate conglomerates are all complicit in this.
Western societies are being split in two. On one side are those who see how our public and private institutions are rapidly being transformed into totalitarian engines of propaganda and mass control. Those who are alarmed by and comment on this process are lumped in with the extreme far-right in order to censor and cancel their arguments.
On the other are those who believe these institutions are fighting for their civil rights and/or sexual proclivities. They’ve been ‘educated’ into believing their degrees make them more enlightened and smarter than those without college degrees. This couldn’t be further from the truth. They have been educated into being effete and feeble-minded. Unfortunately, many of them are now in charge of important cultural institutions for a long while believed they could effect change quietly behind the scenes through NGOs, journalism and education. But then Trump and Brexit happened. The great unwashed rebelled against this vision of a future imposed upon them by their betters and began to fight back.
During these last few years we have witnessed the velvet glove of the post-liberal ‘elites’ sliding off to reveal the iron fist of mass control and totalitarianism. Trump and Brexit were NOT supposed to happen. Something went wrong and now their power is being challenged. They will fight tooth and nail to keep what authority they have even if it means violent protests, racial riots, quarantined lockdowns, and economic devastation.
As their narrative is now being challenged on all sides, they will most likely double-down on their tactics. Expect to see many more bizarre changes made to language, math, science etc.
It will likely get worse if Trump is re-elected again in November. The violent looting and racial tensions are a warning to us about what to expect if we vote the wrong way again.
Oh Yeah! And that elite are actually reptiles posing as humans! No really! Let’s get the full conspiracy out there in the open so every one can see.
The reptile slur is just a smirking leftie trope to debunk the very obvious fact that there is a global elite meeting at Davos, in the UN, EU, WHO and most blatantly behind closed doors at Bilderberg who are trying to maintain a globalist narrative at any cost. The amusing thing is they are not leftist at all, they’re just using people like you as the useful idiots to achieve their goals.
I have been thinking along these lines for a little while now. Divide and rule; it’s the oldest trick in the book. We should just ask ourselves – who is laughing all the way to the bank?
This is all very silly and has been pointed out by others rather tedious. Arguing about semantics is not really very interesting. At the end of the day we are all one race – the idea of race is divisive and should be ‘binned’. Raclal categories are not just reactionary but also just wrong. Even ethnicity is contentious as so many of us have a mixed heritage. Examples are numerous but e.g.
Barack Obama – a ‘man of colour’ but often termed black – does his white mother not count for anything?
Kamala Harris – I believe identifies as black but her mother is a Tamil Indian. Yes her father is from Jamaica but even he states that he has white Irish slave owning ancestor.
Of the police officers involved in the George Floyd killing, one was of Chinese descent and anther identified as black!
And don’t get me started on the silly ‘1619 project’. As has been stated it is MLK’s ‘character not colour’ that natters.
It is not true that there is “one race”. There is one SPECIES with many races, and that is the great, glorious, God-given diversity of humankind. And that diversity is core to both personal and national identity. To quote the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn, when accepting the Nobel prize for literature in 1970:
“In recent times it has been fashionable to talk of the levelling of nations, of the disappearance of different races in the melting pot of contemporary civilisation. I do not agree with this opinion….the disappearance of nations would have impoverished us no less than if all men had become alike, with one personality and one face. Nations are the wealth of mankind, its collective personalities; the very least of them wears its own special colours and bears within itself a special facet of divine intention”.
Ok I’ll give you that I wrote my post to quickly and conflated the two from a scientific viewpoint. However, my overall point still stands, maybe I should have just have stated:
“An increasing number of scholars and other educated people now believe that the concept of race has outlived its usefulness” Encyclopedia Britannica
I have long been convinced more by the evils of banality over the
banality of evil. This whole tedious saga seems to reflect a culture of utter
banality on a totalitarian scale; a culture which has entirely lost its way in appropriately apprehending the serious issues in the progress of civilisation.
Unfortunately the opening sentence uses an unnecessary adjective and smacks of “trial by media”…… surely an unbiased and less emotive description would be …. “the death of …..”? Keep fanning the flames and the fire will grow bigger and burn more fiercely.
Interesting to compare this essay against the very good analysis by Aris Rousinos 6 August on the rise of the civilisation state, China, Russia etc.
Where those ascending states emphasise on their cultural identity as a cohesive force that unifies the whole country.Even though there is undoubtedly a huge disparity between different factions of those countries, they still focus on their sameness.
By comparison Americans and Europeans pick themselve apart by focussing on difference between themselves. Me White, (with a capital W) you Black, therefore we are not the same. From that they see the greatest threat to their situation as the nearby “other”,the white, the black Hispanic, Irish as opposed to Italian American etc.
Chna does not need to divide in order to conquer. We are doing it to ourselves.
The worst effect of essentialising racial identity is that such essentialisation is the very basis of racial discrimination. More than that, the reason for any racialist concept is to create a justification for discrimination.
If we capitalise Black, it only follows logically that White also should be capitalised. If you create and promote an idea of a “Black” people, than you also create and justify the idea of a White people. It’s not chance that in the last decade or so white supremacist ideas have had a resurgence, it’s the logical outcome of identity politics and race theory.
I suspect that the other reason some people want to suggest these identities are coherent communities is that it allows them to imagine that there are leaders of these communities who have been empowered to speak for the group as a whole, and that is politically useful (not least for those anointed as leaders.)
Many people are “killed” who are not “murdered”. “Murder” is a legally-established action proven through due process (court trial, intent etc). Some people are killed crossing the road. Some people are killed while resisting arrest and trying to murder policemen The casual misuse of the term “murder” interchangeably with “killed” in this case presumes guilt which has not been established by due legal process. I wonder why?
I couldn’t agree more. I had a difficult time reading beyond the appalling assertion that George Floyd died as a result of murder when there appears to be strong evidence that the man’s death was largely of his own doing. I wouldn’t assert that either cause – murder or health complications from drug overdose – is definitively true, but even if some police culpability is proven in a court of law, it is doubtful that a reasonable jury could call this unfortunate event a death by murder. It’s outrageous how low the standards for journalism have become.
I couldn’t agree more, what an irritating essay. Does any of this matter one iota?
Here we are on the cusp of war with the great Satan, China, and yet we are indulging in sanctimonious navel gazing like this.
This whole racial charade is the work of white, self hating cretins who revel in bitterness and spite. They should be ignored forthwith, there is much more important work afoot.
Debates about language are no longer a specialist academic subject because the graduates of that academia have now taken control of all the MSM and cultural and educational institutions, and putting into practice what they learned about the foundational importance of language to affect social change, and anyone not paying attention is at risk of losing their livelihood for using the wrong word.
Whenever I read or hear of this race that race this social class or that social class I truly feel despair . We are all human , it is ourselves , the ones who need to integrate with each other . Then stop the fratching & frawling about who is more important or who is not .
What I see these days is a personal decision to be different , apart from from the majority and the endless conniving spouting of those seeking to feel important using class & race as the forming tools. It’s what’s inside the skin & head that makes the person not the skin colour nor the race .
Hallelujah!!
The widespread, unquestioning and enduring acceptance of the current ‘race’ paradigm is a major part of the problem.
If you accept the existence of ‘a black race’ or ‘Asian race’ then you must automatically assume that there is also ‘a white race’.
Of course there is no such thing as any of them ‘scientifically speaking’ in specific terms of race, and those that perpetuate this broadest of broadbrush fallacies either do so out of naivety, a perceived need to be simplistic to ‘prove’ a point or, dare I say it, as a means to their own usually ‘impure’ selfish ends.
That is not to deny that there is discrimination on the basis of someone’s skin colour and that, as a result, there aren’t negative socioeconomic consequences from doing so (which is really at the heart of this), but the perpetuation of the simplistic ‘race myth’ effectively and insidiously backs everyone into a corner, often invites dodgy contrived alliances and forces them to defend what is basically a false, insoluble, eternally divisive position.
Well said.
Some see inequality and want to correct it. Some see inequality and want to reverse it. BLM don’t want equality, they just want to turn the tables
I agree, their rhetoric smacks of revenge.
When Karmala Harris is described as being black, will the description be capitalised? She has no common history or identity with African-Americans. Nor has Barack Obama for that matter.
If so, is Nikki Haley black or Black? And Bobby Jindal? Collin Powell?
Interesting but it misses what I think is a key point. Defining individuals by race (or ethnicity) was happening well before the “woke” culture came up. in the late 60’s: Enoch Powell could say that “in this country in 15 or 20 years’ time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.” This was said by a member of the then dominant culture. Now the boot is moving, so to speak, from a white foot to a brown foot, and the talk about ethnic/racial groups remain. This article seems to say that “racialism” is there because woke culture has invented it. This is simply untrue – it was there well before.
Your point about Enoch Powell’s thinking is valid, but you must have noticed that this kind of attitude has become much less common in Britain since Powell’s time, and that has been a good thing.
Now it seems there is a real risk that racialised thinking will make a comeback.
True, things are worsening again – but I think that the urge, or propensity, to put people into boxes may well be part of our long-term heritage. We are social animals, and what appeared different was seen as threatening, when we competed with other tribes – for want of a better word.
As a classical pianist I love the music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and others. I also enjoy listening to music by Faithless, Nile Rodgers and Aretha Franklin. Am I now awarded the title/label of an anti-white, pro-black modernist, revisionist? I’ve spent my adult life playing music by Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky. Does this mean I will be accused of being anti-west or pro-Putin in the future?
When written so bluntly this seems preposterous, but I’m not so sure … I am proud to have African, Chinese, German, Dutch, French, Mexican, Muslim and Jewish friends. I love them all dearly, however should one of their ethnic or socio-economic community (a violent drug addict and convicted rapist) overdose on an amphetamine and die horribly in public, my reaction would be merciful, but certainly not be to start kneeling down and paying homage whenever in the presence of another representative group member. Reacting to whatever propaganda spin is put on this sort of incident, without taking the trouble to do proper research, is simply to embarrass oneself (no matter how well-intentioned).
What I am trying to share is that people are people …… We have ALL sinned and we have ALL been sinned against.
I love listening to the dance-music hailing from countries like Chad, Niger & Mauritania (parts of which still allow legalised slavery and FGM). Am I now forthwith to be declared Christian-hating, pro-Islamist, pro slavery or pro FGM (which I am certainly not)??
We are not as far away from this kind of knee-jerk, stereotyping identity politics as it would seem, as we are now enjoying the luxury of reflective thought and the comfort of an easy chair thinking calmly about this subject.
Learning the language of a person from another community, is one of the most beautiful compliments one can pay that person. Most people can learn a language, just as in infancy we all did from our parents.
The west IS becoming better at this. I wish there was more time to study foreign languages, because becoming fluent in another tongue is significantly more than accomplishing mastery of different vocal sounds, it represents the growing understanding of a whole new way of looking at the world. The world is such a wondrous big place. We still know so little of it’s miracles. There are so many different ways of knowing it, seeing it, loving & respecting one another within it.
Mortal life on this earth – in this time is short. The enrichment of a few billionaires and a few trillionaires from waging war, at the expense of one million shattered families can never be anything other than obscene, despicable and wrong.
Far better (in my humble opinion) to deliberately empower others, demonstrating a growing understanding of their way of seeing the world, than simply seeking to dominate others and (in many cases) compell those others to see the world only OUR way, become subordinate only to OUR interests, speak only OUR language. The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is power!! He or She who seeks to become a better Jew – a better Muslim – a better Sri Lankan – a better African – a better Eskimo – A better Indonesian – a better Christian – a better Hindu or even a better citizen after following a life of crime ……. are all the same person. No better … No worse … The same.
It’s a long read (Unherd should pay you for this one!), but wise, calm and loving words, thank you!
Groups of people will always use ethnicity, nationality, culture, religion etc. to differentiate themselves from others. This is normal.
The ‘woke’ crowd says that “race is a social construction” but they act exactly like the far-right race essentialists they so despise. They both claim that a person’s race determines the fundamental unchangeable characteristics that make them who they are as people.
When the de Angelo woman (I can’t recall her first name atm) who wrote ‘White Fragility’ says white people are inherently racist and there is nothing they can do about it, that is race essentialism. When various mouthpieces of the ‘woke’ left say that white people, particularly white men, oppress black people just by being born, that is race essentialism.
I concede that, for the time being anyway, they aren’t as extreme in their racism as their counterparts on the neo-Nazi right but they have far more influence than far-right racists who, in Anglophone countries, are largely relegated to the lunatic fringe.
But aggressively encouraging people to divide themselves along racial and gender lines is playing with fire. History speaks for itself here. I also find it quite amazing that ‘woke’ identity politics, which are very much rooted in a cultural neurosis that is peculiar to the United States, have been adopted wholesale even in countries like Sweden that don’t have a history of slavery or colonialism or an ‘underclass’ belonging almost exclusively to a minority ethnic group. It’s all very strange.
The widespread appeal of a reactionary and anti-rational ideology suggests that something has gone awry in western society. Instead of futilely trying to wish away the idea of ‘race’ or ethnic variations, it makes more sense to try and figure out why a divisive, dysfunctional and bleakideology like ‘woke’ intersectionalism has become so attractive to many people in the west. I haven’t read or heard much discussion about this. Most of the time it’s “omg these ‘woke’ people sure are crazy to hate on our awesome western civilization like this!”
Maybe it’s time to accept that this is a cultural phenomenon and a pretty clear sign that contemporary western society isn’t living up to its potential. Individualizing it, or endlessly parsing questions like “what does race really mean?”, are diversions that can only lead back to square one.
Very interesting and insightful reading, particularly this segment:
“…the prize is not symbolic concession, but radical social transformation. The former is easy and superficial; the latter is hard and substantive.”
That sums up how much the left have given up on genuine change in favour of cosmetic change. Very depressing.
At the heart of many stories, heroes transcend the beliefs that have boxed them in — tribalism not the least of which. “It is a fetter on the social development of human beings and their flourishing.” Exactly! Thank you.
Leftists’ racism is the consequence of their stupidity. They can no more ban STEM and intellect in general than they can ban wasps or force us to buy their stupid ice cream. Bear in mind the huge parts of the world that regard them with either bemused indifference – China/SE Asia/Sub Saharan Africa excepting RSA/South&Central America OR outright hostility – Russia/East Europe/Middle East and Muslim Africa. Wokists and Burn Loot Murder are no more a threat globally than their predecessors the KKK, Enoch Powell, BNP etc. They are an irritant in UK/USA like Jane Fonda, Hippies or Black Bloc stone throwers. Lets not give them attention they do not merit. Like racist movements of yore they’ll fade out in due course.
Race is anti-scientific and reactionary? And I hear biological sex is a social construct – and even mathematics (surely geography is up for grabs). And the Emperor has such beautiful clothes. Why do you fear race when it is deep in our limbic system to recognise it? Rather than fight our biology, better to be aware of our natural biases so we can celebrate the incredible diversity and richness of humanity. Please, dear gods, no dismal grey neo-Marxist world for me – vive la différence! (although perhaps without Robespierre)
“…America is portrayed as a mosaic of different volks (or races) each existing in their own unique universe with particular histories, values and volkgeist which must be ‘respected’ and not transgressed against.”
Really? Does all the denunciation of “whiteness”, “white fragility”, “white supremacy” and so on and so forth really suggest that the identity of white people is being “respected” and “not transgressed against”?
That you start your column with this nonsense undermines everything you say from the start. George Floyd was not only not “brutally murdered”, he was not even murdered; not only not “murdered”, he was not even killed. George Floyd died the way he lived: a junkie criminal. He died of an overdose of fentanyl that he had freely taken of his own volition. The footage of his death”I will not pretend that it was a ‘tragic’ death”shows that he was already experiencing respiratory failure caused by his drug-taking before the police had laid a finger on him. The death of George Floyd was the long-coming quasi-suicide of a worthless piece of scum who had blighted his community for long enough.
And in turn the material conditions of black Americans will only improve once they stop raising their children in single-parent households, stop fetishising gangsta culture, stop cashing welfare cheques, stop drug-dealing and prostitution, stop committing violent crimes that send their men to jail. But instead of encouraging black Americans to better themselves, you join in the worship of the junkie criminal George Floyd. This is the man who you and your ilk hold up as a paragon for your community: the drug abuse, the drug dealing, the pornographic career, the hardened criminality, the misogynistic violence, the children he abandoned, the broken homes he left behind. George Floyd is indeed a synecdoche of why black Americans continue to fail while other non-white Americans flourish, but not for the reasons you want to believe.
Black Americans are not brutalised by police by virtue of their race. It only appears that way because black Americans are so disproportionately violent and criminal, as all statistics prove. Black-on-white violence runs at a rate 9 times greater than white-on-black violence. If any race is the victim of widespread brutality in America, it is their long-suffering white community. Male Americans similarly commit a huge disproportion of violent crime and are thus more often the “victims” of police force, but we are able to talk about that without ludicrously pretending that the police are somehow biased against male Americans.
I can’t help thinking that much as we may wish race or ‘colour’ not to matter it is, nevertheless, one of the principal lines along which in-group preferences/tribal loyalties are drawn. Add to that people’s capacity to perceive racism even where it isn’t and I see no possibility whatsoever of this issue ever being solved. In fact it is likely to deteriorate as societies become more ethnically mixed, … Sorry to say.
Brilliant essay, simply brilliant.
Leonard’s essay is just a total waste of space. Are we really expected to delve into the philological implications of spelling certain words with an upper case or lower case letter ? How superficial, and irrelevant can you get ? This article gives no new insights, it simply perpetuates the usual memes of racial identity according to skin colour and the life-long universal excuse of “victim-hood” for the failure of a broad class of society to learn and progress.
I don’t think you can have read this article very closely – Leonard is arguing the opposite of the view that such gestures as word capitalisation are important, and against racial identity based on skin colour. Unfortunately even on UnHerd we seem to now regularly have the culture war phenomenon whereby people are ‘primed’ to argue vociferously against what something they think someone is saying, rather than what s/he actually is.
I thought the explanation of using “Black” instead of “black” was very good and we do, as he points out, say “Asian” and “Jew”. “Black” is also shorter than the oxymoron “African American” or the hopelessly vague “person of colour”.
Asian and Jew are proper nouns, so are capitalised. Black and white are common nouns, so are not
Yes, me too. But surely if we accept that, we must equally use a capital for White, lest we all start becoming Black Supremacists – no solution for our supposed “white supremacy”.
Well said, not only in content but also tone. A pleasure to read.
Native Americans?
Agree, Ralph; a truly enlightened society is one that doesn’t refer to people by the obvious colour of their skin, nor attributes features to them that are then associated with that designation. All very primitive indeed.
Partially agree with this, but I think too much is made (by all commenters on this subject) of the different elements that make up the Black and w(W)hite categories. Yes, there are recent African and Caribbean immigrants that haven’t assimilated into the dominant Black culture. And yes, there are many strains of whiteness in America. But the author for some reason dismisses the predominant WASP culture as somehow uniquely racist and therefore not relevant. But WASPs were no more racist than white immigrants, so that’s an odd objection. Anyone can list hundreds of things that are emblematic of both Black and white culture, and by white they would mean the WASP culture that has defined America forever. And it’s no longer ethnically restricted to Anglo Saxons. Most Irish, German, Scottish and Scandinavian immigrants have long since completely assimilated into it, as have many Southern Europeans. That culture, often referred to pejoratively in reference to mayo and white bread, should be referred to as White. And when referencing those predominant Black and White cultures, it seems appropriate to capitalize both. And when referencing something uniquely Italian American or Afro Caribbean, capitalize those as well. This is a long way of saying that there is an obvious Black and White culture in this country that probably should be capitalized.
Round and round the verbal angst over black issues continue. Racism and all the views of vested interest’s have in promoting the subject by forcing issues that I suspect to the vast majority of people are divorced from in their daily lives.
However, I happily provoke the media and mindless cretins who need the attention to incandescence by referring to ‘people’.
Just to help the the agitators, activists, and the all to familiar bandwagon screamers – ‘people’ are those most of us meet and get along with quite well thank you. The colour, religion, and culture are nothing compared to how someone behaves and conduct themselves.
Boy, the writer is not going to be happy when he finds that there was no “Brutal Murder of George Floyd” and the courts find the same.
That said, we will never find a non-racist world if we keep focusing on the race of anyone.
The best we can do is to make using race to determine the value of anyone in a legal way, illegal.
From that, over the next few hundred years race will become a non-issue. Provided of course the individuals chose not to make it an issue.
Race is “anti-scientific” and “anti-humanist”? Being aware of race is one of the most human things there is, and we’re not going to get rid of this primordial instinct deep within our limbic systems in a few short Woke decades. It is much safer that we recognise our natural biases so that we can work more effectively and consciously to bring equality and understanding among all races. Of course, if we are now saying biological sex is a social construct, and even maths too, then why not say race is also a social construct? And let’s add geography – after all, without geography there would be no races.
Why does this writer fear race? I celebrate the incredible diversity and richness of all races and cultures in this world. Vive la différence – and let’s stop pretending the Emperor has such beautiful clothes.
There are two quick points to make: I don’t know any Palestinians who would identify themselves as ‘white’; even the term white is ridiulous when pink would be more accurate label.
How many Black descendents of slaves does this moron think could trace their ancestry back further than many ‘whites’? It may have escaped his notice that not only were recorded birth certificates not issued but tens of thousands of births were the result of rape by slave owners. On top of that tens of thousands of black children once reaching adulthood could be wrenched from their families and sold on to other slave plantations.
It beggars belief that something this superficial passes for thought.
Spot on. I like the ‘pink’ bit. I am a portrait artist and of course disagree with you on the pink skin bit. The whole black and white skin issue is plain stupid. I say to everyone, just observe your own hand. If anyone can qualify the colours in that small area of skin please, please let me know:-) Of course I also use graphite to draw as well so black and white is not an issue. It becomes shades of grey. Oh! well I guess the activist’s and journalist’s won’t agree so I’ll just potter off to my easel.
Black people have no clue what actual racism is today. For those of us who are white who worked to help promote equality, at numerous costs to us and never get a “thank you” because of the lack of character of black people who complain about racism against them, today. Black racists are the biggest racism offenders as well as white liberals. History needs to be returned to schools in the truthful version and not the egotistical and black racist as well as feminazi fake version of history.
WASP – is it not Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Protestant?
Race is “anti-scientific” and “anti-humanist”? Being aware of race is one of the most human things there is, and we’re not going to get rid of this primordial instinct deep within our limbic systems in a few short Woke decades. It is much safer that we recognise our natural biases so that we can work more effectively and consciously to bring equality and understanding among all races. Of course, if we are now saying biological sex is a social construct, and even maths too, then why not say race is also a social construct? And let’s add geography – after all, without geography there would be no races.
Why do people fear the concept of race? Let’s celebrate the incredible diversity and richness of all races and cultures in this world. Vive la différence – and let’s stop pretending the Emperor has such beautiful clothes.
I think it is awareness of tribe, not race as categorised by skin colour, that is the primordial instinct of which you speak. As such it is therefore a social construct and is unstable.
The evolutionary purpose is said to be to allow us to bond into groups or teams in order to solve problems, find food, or protect from danger. So it could be a country or a town or a generation or a shared religion, instead of skin colour, that forms the in crowd. (Biological sex is clearly a material fact though, but lets leave that aside for now).
[Unherd Ed: I have posted this 4 times now – to no avail. We all know there is no way any reasonable person could justify censoring this, so I presume it’s your algorithm (or more sinisterly, authorial interference). Either way, this is worrying. Thanks]
Race is “anti-scientific” and “anti-humanist”? Being aware of race is one of the most human things there is, and we’re not going to get rid of this primordial instinct deep within our limbic systems in a few short Woke decades. It is much safer that we recognise our natural biases so that we can work more effectively and consciously to bring equality and understanding among all races. Of course, if we are now saying biological sex is a social construct, and even maths too, then why not say race is also a social construct? And let’s add geography – after all, without geography there would be no races.
Why do people fear the concept of race? Let’s celebrate the incredible diversity and richness of all races and cultures in this world. Vive la différence – and let’s stop pretending the Emperor has such beautiful clothes.
The answer is a return to scientific sanity. Classify people in accordance with reality:
Caucasian; Negroid; Mongoloid. (A fourth category would be mixed-race.)
Nothing could be more direct and simpler. The original article creates confusion by merging the characteristics of racial origin with nationalities.
Race is “anti-scientific” and “anti-humanist”? Being aware of race is one of the most human things there is, and we’re not going to get rid of this primordial instinct deep within our limbic systems in a few short Woke decades. It is much safer that we recognise our natural biases so that we can work more effectively and consciously to bring equality and understanding among all races. Of course, if we are now saying biological sex is a social construct, and even maths too, then why not say race is also a social construct? And let’s add geography – after all, without geography there would be no races.
Why do people fear the concept of race? Let’s celebrate the incredible diversity and richness of all races and cultures in this world. Vive la différence – and let’s stop pretending the Emperor has such beautiful clothes.
Unherd: why is one of my comments repeatedly refused on this article while others of mine are not? My language is completely respectful, and the ideas therein, though controversial in the woke world, are pretty standard fare among these pages. Are you man or machine who is making these seemingly arbitrary decisions? It’s so gaslighting. So damnably frustrating and time-wasting. Although the perverse side of me is somehow enjoying posting the same comment every day, seeing if it will ever make it on.
Postlude: My comment was accepted after a week and 5 attempts. Mysterious stuff…..