America’s Issue isn’t Race
July 19th, 2022
First things first: a quote from The Princess Bride:
“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Everything is a sell. Everything.
That includes politics.
Say you’re a democrat. You live in San Jose. You’re married with a kid. You like yoga and dog parks and tea.
What’s more likely to get you- Oliver, more excited to go out and vote?
Let’s try this one first.
“Wealth disparities and the accruing consumption of wealth by the top .01% is the catalyst for most of the outcome disparity in the U.S. We need to tax the top 1 percent more in order to fix America.”
That doesn’t get people fired up to vote.
Selling that “Yeah, it’s actually not that the other side hates you, it’s just that ultra-rich people make a lot of money, and money is power.”
Let’s try this one instead…
“Racism has been embedded systemically in the bones of the American body. Black and Brown people everywhere are under attack by the majority in America: White supremacists. Everyone who is white is inherently racist. Innocent black people get killed everyday by cops who hate them because they’re black. We need to end racism to fix America.”
Chances are- Oliver, drinking his matcha and peering into the reflective alternate reality on his iPhone screen, is more captivated by the second quote.
The truth is that both statements have some truth in them. Race and wealth both have an impact on outcomes for every American.
Here’s the issue though. Since race is such a great sell, it’s taken the lead and captured our country’s attention.
Eventually, we devolved into calling everyone who is white a white supremacist. Canceling anyone who suggests that anyone who is a minority has ever done anything wrong.
I don’t know. I don’t know when this started. Maybe I just spent too much time in liberal college campuses. I’m from a rural city. Where I’m from, my general political acumen would likely be considered as borderline socialism. In a liberal college town (reaaaaaaalllly liberal), I’m fucking Rand Paul.
What if I just said the following.
Something I figure to be reality-based and reasonable.
Black people are partly responsible for a lot of the issues within their community and culture.
As anyone who is familiar with big, liberal cities and college campuses; if you said this you would get a lot of anger, shame, and probably a label as a white supremacist.
I’ve lost my mind with this stuff. Why do we have to act this way?
It’s fucking idiotically stupid to me how this plays out.
Black culture exists.
It exists in a positive way. Everyone knows that black people compromise a disproportionately high amount of artists, musicians, athletes and creatives in America. Black culture promotes that growth and success. Obviously, there’s a plethora of Black Americans who have shaped many of the healthy systems and cultural intricacies we have in America, today.
Conversely, when you suggest that Black culture has a negative impact on Black outcomes, you immediately become racist. It’s so stupid that I don’t even want to go into it. It’s so stupid that I can’t wrap my mind around it.
This one is scary to say. I honestly feel so guilty even typing it.
There’s a spirit of defeatedness and victimization in the Black community; especially in low-income areas, that is pervasive and self-defeating.
There! There it is. 20 years ago if I made that statment, nobody would fucking blink. Today, I’d likely lose my job and reputation if I said that publicly. What has changed? (hint: nothing.)
What makes me mad is the shame and gaslighting utilized by the left to shut down and humiliate any statement that even suggests that the black community is even partly to blame.
I just think it’s funny and it also makes me so angry that BLM has become a gaslighting, cancel-culture dumpster fire. Most Americans know this is just noise.
There’s an overwhelming large contingent of uber-intelligent, well-read, ultra-educated, wealthy and influential people who subscribe to this absurd gaslighting of people who suggest that there is anything remotely negative about Black people or their culture in any capacity. Anything that suggests that yes, racial culture can influence someone in helpful and unhelpful ways.
The funny thing is that most of this influence comes from Silicon Valley. The most disconnected, wealthy and not-even-close-to-what-America-actually-is part of America. The software engineers in silicon valley are so disconnected from rural and urban America, that they forgot what life was like before they left their hometown to go to MIT for their engineering degree.
In liberal circles, even suggesting that Black culture can sway black people in unhelpful directions would be immediately labeled as white supremacy and bigotry. Any challenge to their view-set is perceived as a vote for White supremacy.
This reminds me an awful lot of historical systems that went down to be remembered as toxic and destructive, not catalyzing and momentous. Martin Luther King would hate Twitter and its cancel-culture arena for Black Lives Matter. It’s an irrelevant sidetrack that is self-defeating and makes me ashamed to say that I’ve voted Blue historically.
Here’s what another remarkable Black icon said about cancel culture and the “woke” left. He was a recent president of ours. You’ve probably heard of him.
“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff,” Mr. Obama said. “You should get over that quickly.”
“The world is messy; there are ambiguities,” he continued. “People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.”
-via the NYT
…
I trust Barack Obama. I have love for him. Reading this gave me so much relief. I have so much shame and insecurity for deep down believing these things that make me think I’m a white supremacist! I can’t explain the shame and frustration that comes with so much pressure to believe something that doesn’t make any sense! I’ve struggled with it my entire adolescent and adult life.
At first, I immediately subscribed to woke culture. At college, professors portrayed it as obvious and indisputable.
I once had a professor say the following about Black culture. (paraphrasing)
“Blaming black culture for negative outcomes in the black community is white supremacy.”
It was a fact. Some kid tried to challenge that. He was immediately met with shame and insults from many of his peers in the lecture hall.
We got tested on that stuff. The professor literally said that believing anything to the contrary was just “wrong”. It would’ve hurt my grades to even consider the contrary!!!
…
Trump sucks. But so does people implying their superior intelligence by gaslighting people they don’t know on the internet. What sucks is responding to violence with more violence and destruction. What sucks is talking down to rural white Americans who decisively have no ill-will towards black people. What sucks is suggesting that if we don’t say anything offensive (ever) about anyone for any reason at all, unless it’s about a white man, then things will get better. What sucks is suggesting that we should just change everything about our language to somehow magically fix every systemic issue in America. What sucks is being called a white supremacist when you try to assert anything that remotely challenges an opinion anyone on the left has concerning race or race-contingent issues.
I’m tired of the liberal, dick-swinging, I’m-nicer-and-more-well-read-than-you game. Nobody fucking cares! Shut up! Wake up! Life doesn’t happen on your New York Times or MSNBC newsfeed!
You’re fucking delusional.
How many fucking racist people do you actually know? I don’t know a single one. Not a single fucking person.
Yes you’ve seen them on your phone. You can also find anything on God’s green earth on your phone.
We don’t have to redefine our whole fucking language and culture and somehow magically undo every single systemic redistribution issue in the history of the world in order to fix the Black community. We don’t have to teach kids that race should separate others. That race should be a fundamental difference in how we view ourselves versus a neighbor or friend. It’s ludicrous.
And you know why no one fights back or says anything contrary to this? It’s because then you’re going to be called a fucking KKK member!!! It’s bullying! It’s gaslighting and it’s everything that Trump wants. He wants us to cancel him. He wants us to get angry and feed the machine. It’s a fucking game. Take a step back and think about if you really believe that all of the shit we are doing to “end racism” is actually effective. What the fuck are we doing here? Why can’t we confront the uncomfortable fact that Black people are partially responsible for their widespread systemic disadvantages?
I’m desperate. It’s madness. It’s exasperating. Why do we do this to ourselves? Who wins here?
To simply assert that one belief set is real and another is inherently false; especially concerning two belief sets that are both believable, is evil.
It’s wrong. I believe that deep down. It violates something. Truth matters. Truth is everything. Truth leads us. It guides me.
One of my values is to live truth. Distortion will always be inevitable. But, reality still shines through.
I’m honestly not trying to offend anyone. In fact, I’m terrified of that. I want to be accepted, I want my voice and values to be heard! I’m tired of pretending that I’m racist just because I’m white. I’m not! It’s okay to be a White person! I don’t have to feel guilty!
Take a step back. Really. A big one. A few if you need to. What is going on here? Who benefits from the concept of widespread systemic racism? Who benefits from people pitting themselves against each other?
Fucking rich people do!
The top 1 percent owns a third of the wealth in the United States.
It’s not about race. It never was. It’s always been about money.
Poor White Americans are suffering too.
Even further back, slavery didn’t happen because white people hated black people. Slavery happened because a bunch of white guys wanted to make a shit ton of money and they justified it by forcing people they had nothing in common with to work for them for free! THAT’S FUCKED UP. OBVIOUSLY.
That being said, there’s a darker, more sinister and intangible force at play here than racism.
It’s wealth.
The ultra-rich have a lot of money. Their money is always making more money. It’s the nature of capitalism. Of course you want to pass that money onto your kids! Everyone wants that. Everyone wants more money. When you earn money, you believe that you deserve it. You worked hard for it!
The difference is in the scale of the wealth transfer.
There’s a difference between passing on $100,000 or a $100,000,000 to your kids. Wealth transfers over generations. White people had all the money 250 years ago. They still have most of it because that’s what the deep rooted tree of capitalism and wealth does.
Follow. The. Money.
It’s not even evil on the Billionaires part, it’s just what happens. That’s fucked up. That’s hard to swallow. That’s a shitty sell. Fucking everything in life is! right?
“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Thanks Bill Goldman.
You can’t see wealth. Nobody walks around with a tattoo on their foreheads advertising their net worth.
You can see race. It’s right there. Everyone sees it.
Please, let yourself sit in the discomfort. It’s fucking awkward. It brings up guilt, shame, anger, resentment, frustration and sadness- every emotion is valid at any time.
So, is it really about race?
Or is it about something even more sinister and convoluted?
It’s not as fun and arousing to discuss as race. It’s more depressing. But money makes money and money is power.
The golden rule:
He who has the gold makes the rules.
