But I think very highly of a lot of "white" people, just as I think very highly of a lot of people who would have some label other than "white". I'm neither "proud" of being white nor ashamed of it. That's because I had no say in the matter (despite what some "transracial" folks would have me believe). I can say I'm proud to be an American because I could have left the Union and renounced my citizenship. UPDATE: It IS OK to be white. [This entry has been bumped up.]
Lately media and social media SJWs have been giving way too much attention to "white" racists. Yes, they're evil and need to be exposed, but part of exposing them is to note how few and ostracized they are, and not giving them too much attention beyond that. The MSM-SJW Complex (MSC) wants a lot of people to think white racists are everywhere and powerful, and the only way to keep them from hanging everybody is through ceding more of our individual rights to Leftist power, increasing the powers and size of central government.
Hating white people or discriminating against white people based on their skin color is not supporting equality. That should be self-evident, but Leftism has warred against logic, reason, and facts in the name of feelings and breaking the people into squabbling tribal groups.
Leftists will tell you that "racism" can only be done by white people, because it requires power. Call me ignorant, but I understand racism to be thinking of race as important, especially if that is used to mistreat people of a different race. Leftists add systematic oppression as a requirement. Thus, it isn't racism if an African-American business owner tells me he or she won't hire me because I'm white. A lot of people, including some of those Leftists breathlessly tout statistical trends that indicate non-Hispanic or non-Latino white people will soon be a minority in the USA. So what happens to their definition of racism then? My guess is that they will say despite being a minority, even if surpassed in size by another group, racism will still be a white thing because whites will have supposedly retained "too much" power in our systems.
I'm convinced the best way to fight racism is to stop focusing on race and treat people as individuals, not favoring nor disfavoring someone because they would be categorized in the same racial group as you or a category you think needs help. Half a century after the Reverend/Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed a dream of treating people according to their character rather than the color of their skin, Leftist "civil rights" activists and professors now say it is racist to do that! They call it racist for me to say "There is one race: human, and someone's 'race' beyond that doesn't matter."
There's nothing wrong with celebrating and perpetuating the positive or harmless things about your ancestors or the nation in which your ancestors lived before they came to the USA, nor in appreciating those of others. Heritage can be a beautiful thing. As such, there is nothing wrong with honoring your Scandinavian ancestry, or your Anglo-Saxon ancestry, your German ancestry, etc., just as there is nothing wrong with someone honoring their Spanish ancestry, or their Cherokee ancestry, or their West African ancestry, or their Vietnamese ancestry, etc. This Union is enriched by adapting some of the traditions from various parts of the world, under the framework of E Pluribus Unum and our Constitutional focus on limited government, individual liberty, and equal rights.
There's also nothing wrong with nationalism in the sense of wanting our Union to prosper, be strong, and defend American values as well as our sovereignty, rejecting world government and uncontrolled migration into the country. There's nothing wrong with wanting a secure border and an immigration policy that benefits the American people and promotes assimilation. It is a different matter when you're a "white nationalist" who takes the stance that this Union is for "white" people at the exclusion or oppression of anyone else. That's a ridiculous stance, and even if it had merit (which it doesn't), it would be impossible to implement and would significantly weaken the country. If you don't want people who don't fall into your definition of white to be around you, go buy a really big chunk of land and live there, isolated from decent society.
That brings me to "white separatists", some of whom might be OK with that, but plenty of whom seem to want entire regions of the Union off limits to people who don't meet their definition of white. They might try to say they're not bad people because they want some areas set aside for others, but you can't be a white separatist without being a racist. You can't be any kind of separatist without being a racist. I suppose it is possible to be a white separatist without being a white supremacist, but I think usually those can go hand in hand.
White supremacists are obviously racists, as are "black" supremacists (yes, they do exist) or any one who says one "race" is superior to others, especially if they say that they should be treated differently under the law. But not all white racists are white supremacists. They're still very wrong, though. The term "white supremacist" is overused and misapplied. You don't have to be a supremacist to hate a group of people or individuals, even based on race. You don't have to be a supremacist to be a White Nationalist, often white supremacists ARE also white nationalists, and vice-versa. All of them are racists, though, and racism is wrong and destructive.
What about Black Lives Matter? The best defense of BLM I've see is that it is really "Black Lives Matter, Too" and that it's like saying "Save the Rainforest!" The person saying "Save the Rainforest!" is not saying "To Hell with every other place in the world." The problem is, the premise I've heard several times (that this is about black people being unjustly killed because they are black, especially by police officers) is flawed, as are some of the tactics. I'm not going to argue every single high-profile case, other than pointing out that Michael Brown was justifiably shot and killed, even as President Obama's Justice Department found. There can be individual cases in which a racist cop murders an African American without it being an indication of a systemic attack on African Americans. The data does not support the charge that African Americans are being unjustly killed in higher numbers by police or white people, or "white Hispanics". Any tactic that involves blocking traffic, vandalism or arson, looting or any other theft, violence, or denigrating law enforcement in general is a problematic tactic. For Black Lives to Matter, all lives must matter. If we really care about Black Lives, we'll fight the disproportionate slaughter of black babies before they can even be born. The bottom line here is saying "Black Lives Matter" or "White Lives Matter" is divisive and unhelpful. The same goes for "White Power" and "White Pride" and sporting swastikas and other Nazi symbolism. More people were murdered under Soviet/communist symbols though, and those should also be rejected by anyone who wants to be respected and taken seriously. Socialism should be rejected, too, whether it has "democratic" or "national" before it or not.
The Left tries to portray all dissent as racist (or otherwise bigoted). Of course they try to paint support for border control and opposition to shamnesty for illegal aliens as racism. While some people with these positions might be racist, most aren't. There's nothing inherently racist about having such positions, which are far different from the white nationalism and white separatism mentioned above. We're not calling for segregation, or removing/relocating people based on skin color or ethnicity. We simply want to protect ALL Americans and our guests, including legal immigrants, visitors, and the recently naturalized, regardless of national origin, ethnicity, or skin color. Our immigration policy should benefit the Union and the American people.
Dennis Prager says the USA is the least racist country of any size and diversity. Leftists vehemently object to such a statement, likely because they rely on minority groups thinking of themselves as victims in need Big Government protections and activist representation because all white people are biased, privileged racists. There are far bigger problems than racism facing minority groups. Broken (especially fatherless) homes, crime, and deficient public schools with no realistic alternative (thanks to Democrat opposition to school choice) are just a few of many far bigger problems.
We've come a long way. But what about our history? Well, judging the dead of centuries past by today's SJW standards will render everyone condemned. MLK and Rosa Parks and Loving and so many others were not without their own flaws and sins, and they held beliefs today's Leftists would call bigoted. Does that mean we should condemn them and remove tributes to them from public places and pressure private property owners to do the same? Certainly not.
The "white people" and "white Americans" of today are not uniquely evil or responsible for past sins. And those of the past, including those who colonized and settled the country and those who owned and traded people as slaves, whose names and likenesses and good works should not be expunged from the public square along with their sins, were not doing anything that is historically unusual and unique to Europeans, and nor have Europeans ever been monolithic. Europe has never been unified. To pretend the British, Spanish, and the Italians are the same in a way that the Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese aren't is ridiculous.
What was unusual is giving conquered indigenous people sovereign reservations. What was unusual was having a war to end slavery. It's funny, though, how "progressives" today seem to think it is fine for a well-to-do African American to have most of his earnings forcibly confiscated.
And regardless of skin color, people can still become wealthy in the USA. People of Asian ancestry have historically faced appalling discrimination, and yet now, as a group, they are often seen as "too successful" and so limits were placed on things like how many students of Asian ancestry would be admitted to state universities, and you rarely hear about people in that group being disproportionately impacted by negative indicators. Did whitey stop being racist against Asians and Asian-Americans while retaining racism against African and Latino Americans? Or is something else going on?
People are very unlikely to spend much time in relative poverty as adults if they complete a high school level education, avoid crime and substance abuse, get a job, and marry before becoming parents. These are things that are in control of the individual; Neo-Nazis or Klansmen have no say in the matter. It is far more likely that people are keeping themselves down than any racist is. Over and over again, we have seen that "hate crimes" such as verbal/written threats, nooses, or spraypainted swastikas or slurs are not the work of white racists, but rather disturbed or agenda-driven persons of a a minority group, usually the one supposedly being targeted.
It is a tragic mistake to ascribe everything you don't like to racism or some other -ism. Some people just don't like people in general, or just don't like you (not your color), and life can be unfair. People in minority groups would be surprised to find that some of the things that have happened to them that they ascribe to racism have always happened to white people.
As we've seen from the small demonstrations that get way too much attention (and have been denounced by President Trump, who has repeatedly denounced racists and racism), there are still white racists. There always will be, this side of eternity. But they are marginalized, ostracized, and rejected, including by the vast majority of conservatives and Republicans. Even if someone harbors a bias or prejudice, what matters is how they behave. If they behave towards people of other groups with the same respect and civility as those they consider to be in their own group, then what is the problem? Their sinful heart is between them and the Lord. Their behavior is what matters from a societal standpoint.
I don't know of any white racist or white supremacist groups that aren't fostering antisemitism, but then again so are many other groups, even many that claim to be liberal or progressive. Anyone who claims to be a Christian or the Bible as authority is being contradictory if they ignore that Jesus was, and is a Jew. Many of this earliest disciples were Jews. Nobody can have a scholarly understanding of the New Testament without studying ancient Jewish scripture, history, and culture. Only convoluted delusions can get around that. However, antisemitism isn't wrong because Jesus is a Jew, it is wrong because it is prejudice and failing to treat people as individuals. Also, anyone who thinks President Trump is on-board with antisemitism is lying or deluded. His grandchildren are Jewish, his daughter Ivanka is now Jewish, and he's close to her and her husband, plus he's elevated people who are Jewish in his businesses.
If racists or anti-Semites have been emboldened lately, it hasn't been by President Trump, but rather by irresponsible activists and media personalities who falsely claim Trump and his voters are in league with such people. The overwhelming majority of people who voted for Trump despise racism.
What we need is respect, civility, and true tolerance for everyone who recognizes the rights of all Americans. Acting racists should not be tolerated in the sense that we should hold them accountable for their unacceptable bigotry. Provided they don't actually attack anyone or their property, we can't lock them up (nor should we instigate physical attacks on them), but we can do a lot to cut them out of our lives and shun them. Racists "of color" shouldn't get a pass, either. Trying to excuse anti-white racism today and plans for, or fantasies of, "revenge" against white people today by tying it to injustices of other people, especially white people of the past, is wrong and should be called out as such, and rejected.
We don't live in the past. We live today. Each and every human being, regardless of ancestry, has inherent worth and all Americans should be treated equally under the law based on what they do, not what others do or did long ago. We should treat each other as individuals and regard someone by their character and their merits, not their skin color or eye shape. Let's not limit ourselves or limit others with prejudice or a victim mentality.
Lately media and social media SJWs have been giving way too much attention to "white" racists. Yes, they're evil and need to be exposed, but part of exposing them is to note how few and ostracized they are, and not giving them too much attention beyond that. The MSM-SJW Complex (MSC) wants a lot of people to think white racists are everywhere and powerful, and the only way to keep them from hanging everybody is through ceding more of our individual rights to Leftist power, increasing the powers and size of central government.
Hating white people or discriminating against white people based on their skin color is not supporting equality. That should be self-evident, but Leftism has warred against logic, reason, and facts in the name of feelings and breaking the people into squabbling tribal groups.
Leftists will tell you that "racism" can only be done by white people, because it requires power. Call me ignorant, but I understand racism to be thinking of race as important, especially if that is used to mistreat people of a different race. Leftists add systematic oppression as a requirement. Thus, it isn't racism if an African-American business owner tells me he or she won't hire me because I'm white. A lot of people, including some of those Leftists breathlessly tout statistical trends that indicate non-Hispanic or non-Latino white people will soon be a minority in the USA. So what happens to their definition of racism then? My guess is that they will say despite being a minority, even if surpassed in size by another group, racism will still be a white thing because whites will have supposedly retained "too much" power in our systems.
I'm convinced the best way to fight racism is to stop focusing on race and treat people as individuals, not favoring nor disfavoring someone because they would be categorized in the same racial group as you or a category you think needs help. Half a century after the Reverend/Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed a dream of treating people according to their character rather than the color of their skin, Leftist "civil rights" activists and professors now say it is racist to do that! They call it racist for me to say "There is one race: human, and someone's 'race' beyond that doesn't matter."
There's nothing wrong with celebrating and perpetuating the positive or harmless things about your ancestors or the nation in which your ancestors lived before they came to the USA, nor in appreciating those of others. Heritage can be a beautiful thing. As such, there is nothing wrong with honoring your Scandinavian ancestry, or your Anglo-Saxon ancestry, your German ancestry, etc., just as there is nothing wrong with someone honoring their Spanish ancestry, or their Cherokee ancestry, or their West African ancestry, or their Vietnamese ancestry, etc. This Union is enriched by adapting some of the traditions from various parts of the world, under the framework of E Pluribus Unum and our Constitutional focus on limited government, individual liberty, and equal rights.
There's also nothing wrong with nationalism in the sense of wanting our Union to prosper, be strong, and defend American values as well as our sovereignty, rejecting world government and uncontrolled migration into the country. There's nothing wrong with wanting a secure border and an immigration policy that benefits the American people and promotes assimilation. It is a different matter when you're a "white nationalist" who takes the stance that this Union is for "white" people at the exclusion or oppression of anyone else. That's a ridiculous stance, and even if it had merit (which it doesn't), it would be impossible to implement and would significantly weaken the country. If you don't want people who don't fall into your definition of white to be around you, go buy a really big chunk of land and live there, isolated from decent society.
That brings me to "white separatists", some of whom might be OK with that, but plenty of whom seem to want entire regions of the Union off limits to people who don't meet their definition of white. They might try to say they're not bad people because they want some areas set aside for others, but you can't be a white separatist without being a racist. You can't be any kind of separatist without being a racist. I suppose it is possible to be a white separatist without being a white supremacist, but I think usually those can go hand in hand.
White supremacists are obviously racists, as are "black" supremacists (yes, they do exist) or any one who says one "race" is superior to others, especially if they say that they should be treated differently under the law. But not all white racists are white supremacists. They're still very wrong, though. The term "white supremacist" is overused and misapplied. You don't have to be a supremacist to hate a group of people or individuals, even based on race. You don't have to be a supremacist to be a White Nationalist, often white supremacists ARE also white nationalists, and vice-versa. All of them are racists, though, and racism is wrong and destructive.
What about Black Lives Matter? The best defense of BLM I've see is that it is really "Black Lives Matter, Too" and that it's like saying "Save the Rainforest!" The person saying "Save the Rainforest!" is not saying "To Hell with every other place in the world." The problem is, the premise I've heard several times (that this is about black people being unjustly killed because they are black, especially by police officers) is flawed, as are some of the tactics. I'm not going to argue every single high-profile case, other than pointing out that Michael Brown was justifiably shot and killed, even as President Obama's Justice Department found. There can be individual cases in which a racist cop murders an African American without it being an indication of a systemic attack on African Americans. The data does not support the charge that African Americans are being unjustly killed in higher numbers by police or white people, or "white Hispanics". Any tactic that involves blocking traffic, vandalism or arson, looting or any other theft, violence, or denigrating law enforcement in general is a problematic tactic. For Black Lives to Matter, all lives must matter. If we really care about Black Lives, we'll fight the disproportionate slaughter of black babies before they can even be born. The bottom line here is saying "Black Lives Matter" or "White Lives Matter" is divisive and unhelpful. The same goes for "White Power" and "White Pride" and sporting swastikas and other Nazi symbolism. More people were murdered under Soviet/communist symbols though, and those should also be rejected by anyone who wants to be respected and taken seriously. Socialism should be rejected, too, whether it has "democratic" or "national" before it or not.
The Left tries to portray all dissent as racist (or otherwise bigoted). Of course they try to paint support for border control and opposition to shamnesty for illegal aliens as racism. While some people with these positions might be racist, most aren't. There's nothing inherently racist about having such positions, which are far different from the white nationalism and white separatism mentioned above. We're not calling for segregation, or removing/relocating people based on skin color or ethnicity. We simply want to protect ALL Americans and our guests, including legal immigrants, visitors, and the recently naturalized, regardless of national origin, ethnicity, or skin color. Our immigration policy should benefit the Union and the American people.
Dennis Prager says the USA is the least racist country of any size and diversity. Leftists vehemently object to such a statement, likely because they rely on minority groups thinking of themselves as victims in need Big Government protections and activist representation because all white people are biased, privileged racists. There are far bigger problems than racism facing minority groups. Broken (especially fatherless) homes, crime, and deficient public schools with no realistic alternative (thanks to Democrat opposition to school choice) are just a few of many far bigger problems.
We've come a long way. But what about our history? Well, judging the dead of centuries past by today's SJW standards will render everyone condemned. MLK and Rosa Parks and Loving and so many others were not without their own flaws and sins, and they held beliefs today's Leftists would call bigoted. Does that mean we should condemn them and remove tributes to them from public places and pressure private property owners to do the same? Certainly not.
The "white people" and "white Americans" of today are not uniquely evil or responsible for past sins. And those of the past, including those who colonized and settled the country and those who owned and traded people as slaves, whose names and likenesses and good works should not be expunged from the public square along with their sins, were not doing anything that is historically unusual and unique to Europeans, and nor have Europeans ever been monolithic. Europe has never been unified. To pretend the British, Spanish, and the Italians are the same in a way that the Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese aren't is ridiculous.
What was unusual is giving conquered indigenous people sovereign reservations. What was unusual was having a war to end slavery. It's funny, though, how "progressives" today seem to think it is fine for a well-to-do African American to have most of his earnings forcibly confiscated.
And regardless of skin color, people can still become wealthy in the USA. People of Asian ancestry have historically faced appalling discrimination, and yet now, as a group, they are often seen as "too successful" and so limits were placed on things like how many students of Asian ancestry would be admitted to state universities, and you rarely hear about people in that group being disproportionately impacted by negative indicators. Did whitey stop being racist against Asians and Asian-Americans while retaining racism against African and Latino Americans? Or is something else going on?
People are very unlikely to spend much time in relative poverty as adults if they complete a high school level education, avoid crime and substance abuse, get a job, and marry before becoming parents. These are things that are in control of the individual; Neo-Nazis or Klansmen have no say in the matter. It is far more likely that people are keeping themselves down than any racist is. Over and over again, we have seen that "hate crimes" such as verbal/written threats, nooses, or spraypainted swastikas or slurs are not the work of white racists, but rather disturbed or agenda-driven persons of a a minority group, usually the one supposedly being targeted.
It is a tragic mistake to ascribe everything you don't like to racism or some other -ism. Some people just don't like people in general, or just don't like you (not your color), and life can be unfair. People in minority groups would be surprised to find that some of the things that have happened to them that they ascribe to racism have always happened to white people.
As we've seen from the small demonstrations that get way too much attention (and have been denounced by President Trump, who has repeatedly denounced racists and racism), there are still white racists. There always will be, this side of eternity. But they are marginalized, ostracized, and rejected, including by the vast majority of conservatives and Republicans. Even if someone harbors a bias or prejudice, what matters is how they behave. If they behave towards people of other groups with the same respect and civility as those they consider to be in their own group, then what is the problem? Their sinful heart is between them and the Lord. Their behavior is what matters from a societal standpoint.
I don't know of any white racist or white supremacist groups that aren't fostering antisemitism, but then again so are many other groups, even many that claim to be liberal or progressive. Anyone who claims to be a Christian or the Bible as authority is being contradictory if they ignore that Jesus was, and is a Jew. Many of this earliest disciples were Jews. Nobody can have a scholarly understanding of the New Testament without studying ancient Jewish scripture, history, and culture. Only convoluted delusions can get around that. However, antisemitism isn't wrong because Jesus is a Jew, it is wrong because it is prejudice and failing to treat people as individuals. Also, anyone who thinks President Trump is on-board with antisemitism is lying or deluded. His grandchildren are Jewish, his daughter Ivanka is now Jewish, and he's close to her and her husband, plus he's elevated people who are Jewish in his businesses.
If racists or anti-Semites have been emboldened lately, it hasn't been by President Trump, but rather by irresponsible activists and media personalities who falsely claim Trump and his voters are in league with such people. The overwhelming majority of people who voted for Trump despise racism.
What we need is respect, civility, and true tolerance for everyone who recognizes the rights of all Americans. Acting racists should not be tolerated in the sense that we should hold them accountable for their unacceptable bigotry. Provided they don't actually attack anyone or their property, we can't lock them up (nor should we instigate physical attacks on them), but we can do a lot to cut them out of our lives and shun them. Racists "of color" shouldn't get a pass, either. Trying to excuse anti-white racism today and plans for, or fantasies of, "revenge" against white people today by tying it to injustices of other people, especially white people of the past, is wrong and should be called out as such, and rejected.
We don't live in the past. We live today. Each and every human being, regardless of ancestry, has inherent worth and all Americans should be treated equally under the law based on what they do, not what others do or did long ago. We should treat each other as individuals and regard someone by their character and their merits, not their skin color or eye shape. Let's not limit ourselves or limit others with prejudice or a victim mentality.
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