The Effective Racist
“Everyone is racist.”
But are all racists equal? The direction in the US has been to make even more and more insults, slights, harassment and petty outrages to be included in racism. This has taken the form of triggers and microaggressions whose remedies are politically correct speech and ‘safe spaces’. The goal is zero-tolerance of any trace of racism. The aim is to sensitize individuals to this and then come up with solutions. All very noble sounding. These solutions will deliver attention, influence, money and votes to their originators. The redefinition of racism to ever more sensitive levels and calls for a national discussion (now at full blast on Twitter) satisfying the interests of experts and others who would rescue victims of this abuse. This agenda has worked. We have reached new levels of racial sensitivity. Everybody talks about it all the time. Now that we have been trained to notice micgroaggression, real aggression like ‘go back where you came from’ must be pure unadulterated non-dogwhistle straight up Nazi quality racism, right? Probably not.
Since I have this bad habit of being an a self-proclaimed expert and a writer, I have yet to rid myself of the compulsion I have to write answers to questions I’d rather not be asked. But there it is. I keep thinking that if I explain things one more way, then it will be impossible for people not to come to better understanding. But I think most Americans think that it is racially impossible to think about race outside of what their racial identity dictates, or at least they behave as if that’s the case for everyone except their saintly Aunt Betsy and the dead martyrs.
So everything is racist. But is it six pounds of racism? I’ve come up with a two dimensional chart that you are smart enough to figure out yourself. Have you ever seen anything like this before? Here’s the other thing by the way, that Charlottesville thing was many months ago. Since then there have been about 50 ordinary murders per day in this great country of ours. Just some perspective.
Two Dimensions of Racial Offense & Effect
So are the racists doing their jobs? Well that rather depends upon whether you are a minimum wage, entry-level non-skilled racist or a successful hedge-fund billionaire racist in the 1%. But, hey it’s late on a Sunday night and I really don’t want to engage in any more extended metaphors.
What does a top-notch effective racist actually want?
Firstly. A racist is absolutely sold on the premise of racialism. That there is purity in races and something very close to speciation in homo sapiens. That people can be bred for lower or higher intelligence and a host of other things. Needless to say this hokum of the most specious psuedo-scientific bodewash, but hey, so are many of the miracle diets sold on QVC. It doesn’t stop that economy. Secondly, the racist believes something must be done about it. IE, the races are different therefore there must be consequences, and if there are no consequences then somebody ought to get busy creating some. Anyone who thinks a moment must know, that given the reverence given MLK in this nation, one-off acts of racist tyranny will not work out in the long term. So laws must be changed so that the aims of a serious racist can be sustainable in America.
Racial identification at all times
Separation of the races
No interracial marriage or sex
No racial integration in schools
Separate types of citizenship by race
Separate kinds of punishments for crimes by race
It seems to me that these six questions are very simple to ask in order to determine if anyone identified as a racist should be considered to have a serious racist agenda. It also stands to reason that it would be relatively easy to measure the degree to which these goals are being met, legally or otherwise. If we fall to the standard of “I know racism when I see it”, let’s be honest, aren’t we going to defer to the testimony of people whose racial identity alone suggests that they know what they’re talking about? That’s a double standard. Here then is a single standard. Six questions, suggestive of analytics, that can be asked and answered any time the subject comes up and accusations arise.
I think it is important to recognize the necessity of evaluating the law in relation to society. America has world class anti-discrimination laws. The Civil Right Acts of this country were used as a template for writing the new constitution of South Africa. If our society is anti-racist, how much further do we need to criminalize ever smaller acts of racism? In any political calculation aimed at changing the law and enforcing that law, we must balance safety against liberty. Is every airline passenger a terrorist? What if we had a TSA searching everyone for microaggessions?
Racist destruction doesn’t magically happen simply because people say racist things any more than men were put on the moon because millions of people were inspired by a speech. There has to be a program and consistent work must be done. There must be trial and error, measurement and correction, process and principle. Without such things very little progress can be made in any endeavor. So let’s measure things, shall we? I hope this cognitive tool works. And I hope in the future I hear people saying, “OK he’s racist, but is he an effective racist with serious racist goals?”
At least do two dimensions of analysis. It’s not all black and white.