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No, racism isn’t to blame for the heatwave response
One writer views the climate problem through the prism of race
Jeff Goodell, climate correspondent of Rolling Stone, alarmingly told the Guardian in an interview on Sunday that racism is “at the heart of the failure to tackle heatwaves”. What’s more, “the people most impacted by heat are not the kind of voting demographic that gets any politician nervous,” according to the writer, who can’t have been paying attention to American politics for the last 70 years, let alone the steeply declining death rate from weather events.
To a certain class of white American, everything — no matter how important or trivial — is refracted through the prism of race. Think back to 2021, when fresh-faced former presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg confidently declared that motorways were somehow racist. Robin di Angelo, meanwhile, makes a living telling off other white Americans for their “white fragility”, apparently her term for when people tell her she’s talking a load of rubbish. Denying the charge of racism, of course, only makes one’s guilt more obvious.
This discussion is almost entirely conducted by white people, in America and increasingly in the UK, and has become little more than a pious point-scoring exercise. The subject matter — climate, motorways, whatever you pluck from the air — can be bludgeoned into shape as a spurious conversation piece with which white Americans can annoy other white Americans. The ludicrousness is a key element of the debate: it is a kind of tribal goading, a ploy to annoy the out-group. “Racism is absolutely central to the Government’s failure to protect vulnerable people,” Goodell says, without offering the slightest piece of evidence to support this serious claim.
For these types, ethnic minorities become mere pieces on the board, props in a skirmish. Witness how an unimaginably vast, multifarious and incommensurable global population of billions of disparate individuals are stuffed into a tiny box marked “people of colour” and treated as a monolithic block of clients — no matter how varied they might actually be.
Of course, the moment a “person of colour” is not compliant with progressive ideology, these very same white progressives start depicting them as animals, mocking up photos of them with white faces and calling them “uncle Toms”. It’s different when the good guys do it, apparently.
The danger, as we see in the United States, comes when white people follow through and take it all seriously. They will then do anything, however stupid and counterproductive — “defunding” law enforcement, turning a blind eye to looting and shoplifting — just to spite their rival tribe. All the while, Buttigieg is gifted a billion dollars to tear up “racist” motorways. Not bad for something that doesn’t get politicians nervous, as Goodell suggests.
There is some frustration that the UK is at the back of the queue for a lucrative trade deal with America. Really, though, this is a good thing. We should go further, and cut the place off completely until Americans have sorted themselves out. The contagion of their race fixation — with its totally different and much more unpleasant history — must be resisted, and we should decolonise our own discourse from them urgently.
It’s called ‘race-baiting’ and it’s something that cynical newspaper journalists, editors and owners know will keep readers outraged and engaged with their content.
Not only is it profit-driven, but it is also motivated by cruelty and contempt for the very people they purport to champion. I’m not sure what can be done about it. There is no one group or agency that has the power to hold them accountable. It’s a form of racial propaganda far more advanced and subtle to that performed by N*z*s in the 1930s because it’s disseminated under the guise of compassion for underserved populations.
Yes, didn’t Nietzsche say something about tearing at scars long healed and then crying at the pain?
There is a lot of money to be made at keeping those wounds open.
Wait – Rolling Stone has a climate correspondent?? I won’t ask why. It doesn’t matter. Nor does it matter what “logic” lay behind the claim that racism is behind the failure to tackle heatwaves or whatever (even the proposition makes no sense, never mind the explanation behind it). Hence I have decided not to click on the Guardian link. I think I can live without knowing in the answer. Life’s really too short.
Really, though – climate change AND racism in a single article – it must be nirvana for the Guardian.
Again, 165 million people slipped into poverty because of lockdowns, mostly blacks people in Africa. Net zero will condemn even more Africans to even greater poverty.
Yes…
Maybe.
The real problem is overpopulation of Africa and other 3rd world countries.
If your population goes up 6 fold in 50 years, your GDP per capita will still be low even with rate of growth of 5%.
Lockdowns were idiotic but problems of shit countries are down to their low IQ population.
There is nothing West can do about it.
Apart from not importing this idiots.
Well done for identifying the nub of the problem – human overpopulation!
Of course everything is about race, and simultaneously it has nothing to do with uplifting minorities.
The main market for racism based politics aren’t minorities. Its upper class whites who are probably more racist underneath, have minimal non white (or lower class white) neighbours and really hate uppity minorities that don’t know their place.
The most hatred towards Indians or Israelis comes in the Guardian or BBC.
…and racism is clearly behind winter snowfalls: an obvious confirmation of white privilege.
Unfortunately, as a keen skier I have to admit that white snow is not falling as much as even 20 years ago.
It is probably all fault of Trump and Boris anyway.
Gareth Roberts is very good. Cutting and funny and on the nose. It’s almost worth looking forward to a labour government as Gareth should get more opportunity for satire and comment. Great stuff, hats off.
The last line is particularly great.
“We should go further, and cut the place off completely until Americans have sorted themselves out. The contagion of their race fixation — with its totally different and much more unpleasant history — must be resisted, and we should decolonise our own discourse from them urgently.”
Most sensible suggestion I have heard in a while
Agree, excellent article. Would recommend Woke Inc by Vivek Ramaswamy – exposes the cynicism at the heart of this bs.
Thanks for recommendation.
Absobloodylutely!
Some amusing puff. Keep the Unherd Base content
But here’s the thing – the person who goes round claiming they aren’t racist generally is.
Are you racist, Mr. Watson?
Waiting for Mr Watson to reply that he is racist, thereby proving he isn’t.
Normal people don’t “go around” talking about race at all.
And your definition of racism is what?
Maybe claiming that blacks did not contribute much to modern world?
Then pointing out that they try to flood the West while accusing white people of racism?
Do you know of any persons who go around claiming they are racist?
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