Only condemning racism from one race is itself racist. It is racist to only repudiate racism by white people, but to overlook it from other ethnicities.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s all well and good to denounce Nazi flags and salutes. I totally support such denouncing. And yes, racism is ugly and antithetical to the Christian gospel. Thank you to the countless pastors and celebrity preachers all over America for directing fire and brimstone squarely at White Supremacists last Sunday. Genesis tells us God created man in his image. It never says God made white man closer to his image. It never says Africans or Asians are inherently less deserving of dignity, respect, and love than Europeans.
But why is my Facebook news feed exploding in righteous indignation over racism in Charlottesville when it was and is relatively tepid in decrying egregious, repeated, nationwide examples of black supremacy from Black Lives Matter and The New Black Panther Party?
No, wait. I’m not being clear. It isn’t just that my Facebook feed has been tepid in denouncing Black Lives Matter. I still have friends and family who won’t talk to me because I criticized that group. They won’t talk with me even though many BLM demonstrations have been radically far-Left, anti-cop, and overtly racist. Yes, a lot of folks agreed with my criticism. But almost all of them did so either quietly or privately.
Fearing they too would be accused of racism, most Americans have been extremely reluctant to openly decry the violence and destruction in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Dallas.
Does Denouncing Non-White Racism Mean You’re a Racist?
If anyone unfriends me after what happened in Charlottesville last week, I could see it being because of this article. I could see being unfriended because I’m saying something which has become very radical. Namely, racism by other ethnicities is just as evil as racism by white people. In today’s upside-down world, I have learned the hard way. Saying such fundamentally obvious and principled things comes at a cost.
Nevertheless, the top priority of American society must become holding those accountable who are committing actual violence against other human beings, regardless of race. What’s more, the stats almost certainly would not place White Supremacists at the top of such a list, even factoring in one lunatic driving his car into a crowd of Antifa thugs last week in Charlottesville.
Yet somehow White Supremacists have made it to the top of society’s list, and I believe this is for one simple fact. White Supremacists are white. We have been conditioned as a people to only recognize white racism. Moreover, we have been conditioned to hate and detest that prejudice utterly and with every fiber of our being as the evilest thing imaginable.
Nevertheless, as I read the headlines and memes and social media feeds the past couple of days, one thing is certain. A great many people seem incapable of recognizing racism unless it comes from white people. Or even if they recognize non-white racism, they are reluctant to call it out publicly for fear of being called racists. And that is a tragic sort of irony. As it turns out, only seeing racism when it comes from white people is actually itself racist.
Anti-Racism With Ulterior Motives
But what’s this I hear? President Trump has been roundly condemned for not having immediately and with enough specificity denounced White Supremacy in Charlottesville. He was supposedly too vague denouncing groups promoting hate on all sides.
But there’s at least one major problem with criticizing him for that. To oppose actual racism from one group on principle, you have to condemn racism from any and all other groups too. You can’t cherry-pick which racism you’re against and which you’ll turn a blind eye to. You can’t, that is, unless you’re maybe not actually against racism itself.
This leads me to my next observation. All or nearly all of the dog-piling on Trump regarding Charlottesville has absolutely zero to do with racism. Rather, it has everything to do with hating Trump for political reasons. The radical Left, mainstream media, and Never Trump Republicans are leaving no stone un-turned. In their relentless campaign to either drive Trump from office or else neuter his agenda, Charlottesville is being seized on with mindless fervor in hopes it will be the last straw.
Just so, you need to recognize the coordinated effort to remove Confederate statues and flags as part of a larger Leftist campaign. The removal of these statues isn’t really about racism, per se – not really. Rather, as President Trump accurately pointed out in his press conferences this week, the next demand will be removal of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson monuments. Thereafter Progressives will demand we abandon the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Lastly they will call for a total overthrow of America’s entire political tradition.
And just what will they replace that tradition with, you may ask? The answer is simple: Marxism.
Consistency in Condemning Racism Means an Equally Passionate Response to Black and Brown Racism As White
If you truly believe all races are equal, prove it by treating all racism with equal fury and disgust. And prove your respect for black and brown Americans by not skirting the issue when racist groups claiming to represent their interests are hurting people and destroying property. To not do so implies what? Do we not think non-white racists could bear the criticism? And if so, isn’t that a kind of racism too? Do we not think non-white racists could understand or bear the rebuke? Or do we suppose they are somehow less accountable for their racism than a white person would be?
Let’s try to be consistent, folks. That’s all I’m saying. It’s all well and good to go after some vague monolith like “White Supremacy” when nobody’s disputing that overt white racism is evil. There’s no political cost. It doesn’t require any great courage to espouse such a position in today’s America.
What would require courage, however, would be condemning racism from ethnic minorities in the U.S. It would require courage to loudly denounce groups like BLM and La Raza (literally, “the race”). It would require courage to prioritize prosecution of groups and individuals which threaten violence and destruction of property, or are and have been actually carrying out such threats. Finally, it would require courage to prosecute such people even though the vast majority happen to be on the radical, increasingly militant Left.
To do otherwise is to condemn little pockets of racism while acquiescing to vast swaths of it. And as it turns out, that is actually itself a rather racist thing to do.