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Antiracism in the Age of Woke Decadence
“Radical Chic, after all, is only radical in Style; in its heart it is part of Society and its traditions – Politics, like Rock, Pop, and Camp, has its uses” -Tom Wolfe, Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers
As Americans slowly emerge from imposed lockdowns and the state-mandated chaos of COVID, we hardly recognize the new rules we’re now subject to. But that is the plan. Fear and shame are the vehicles to a reordered emancipation masquerading as justice and equality. While the average American was concerned with the deeply felt tragedy of George Floyd’s death, the New Radical intellectuals influenced by Angela Davis, The Black Panthers, and 1970s anti-establishment counterculture preceded by the critical theories of Herbert Marcuse used it as an opportunity to mainstream their divisive agenda. Their vision is one of a utopia built by layers of race theories, consumed by a denial of human fault in the palm of absolute power. Their utopia is an abstraction of “Lord of the Flies”: from the tension between morality and immorality, groupthink and individuality, the rational and emotional, to one of racist and anti-racist, capitalist and anti-capitalist, self-determination and submission.
How can it be, after over five decades of government programs, civic organizations, and state proclamations that we are living in such a state of abject, inherent racism that it poisons the water piped through our faucets? Will this new wave of protests, endorsed by the very same government officeholders who breathlessly, severely, enforced months-long public lockdowns suddenly end the scourge of racism? Will it be the growing list of municipalities declaring racism a public health crisis that will accomplish…what, exactly? I set about to get my mind right and read Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist. I went back to the godfathers of the Frankfurt School of critical race theory (oddly all white men). What it presents is the wholly un-American interface between Marxism, cruel group victimization, and totalitarianism.
Ibram Kendi is the newly appointed director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. In his book, he details his journey as a young man into adulthood and transformation from anti-black racism, anti-white-racism, and finally to his current iteration as antiracist. He draws heavily from the influence of his parents and growing up as a child in New York City, to a young man in Manassas, Virginia. What is most striking, and most concerning, is the absolutist solutions Kendi proposes that must be done to not only end racism but to propel America progressively forward as antiracist. The concerning parallels between the radicals of the 1960s and a new generation of race-progressives is the intolerance of nuance. The dissemination of radical thought is undiluted in its insistence on emotionally bullying those who find their convictions and principles in lawn signs and bumper-stickers. The weak will join a movement where the most power is concentrated- or at least the appearance of power. And in today’s society, self-proclaimed oppression holds emotional, social, and psychological power. In Kendi’s worldview, and in the America envisioned by Angela Davis and Kimberle Crenshaw, being neutral regarding race is not enough; one must be anti-racist. Kendi writes, “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”
Racism for the cause of creating equality of outcomes is the new utopian goal. The hundreds of years of systemic racism and white supremacy – as Nikole Hannah-Jones argues in her reimagining of the founding of America in the 1619 Project makes the very foundation of America a house of cards. To follow her and her radical cohorts to the logical end, the whole thing must be burned down. And that’s what we are seeing in cities from New York to Wisconsin, Colorado, and Oregon. Kendi’s solution is presented in his book, in part
Invent or find antiracist policy that can eliminate racial inequity.
Figure out who or what group has the power to institute antiracist policy.
Disseminate and educate about the uncovered racist policy and antiracist policy correctives.
Work with sympathetic antiracist policymakers to institute the antiracist policy.
Deploy antiracist power to compel or drive from power the unsympathetic racist policymakers in order to institute the antiracist policy.
Monitor closely to ensure the antiracist policy reduces and eliminates racist inequity.
When policies fail, do not blame the people. Start over and seek out new and more effective antiracist treatments until they work.
Monitor closely to prevent new racist policies from being instituted.
Kendi goes a step further in his proposal in Politico, that “to fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution”.
So why should it matter what some academics and fringe activists say about race relations and the evil that lurks in every non-black, American heart? Because they have willing accomplices in the liberal left of American politics. The Radical Chic that Tom Wolfe wrote famously about in the 1970s is now the Woke Decadence of the Twenty-First Century.
George Floyd’s death wasn’t seen as a mere injustice to those who see the world in terms of political power. It was an opportunity. Average people who hadn’t been political are now being informed of their ‘privilege’ and being terrorized into a sincerity competition in their apologies for being born a certain skin color. People like Kendi are being launched into the mainstream by our media who use it as a joint venture in the war against President Trump. Libraries and schools are recommending books such as Kendi’s to help people ‘cure’ their guilt, even if it’s forced on them. Political commentators and politicians are making excuses for the property damage by rioters who have no interest in justice but fear the ramifications of noncompliance. Here in Minneapolis, the city council and Mayor use it to displace blame and avoid confronting the decades-long rot of liberal policies. Shame is currency and people are begging for it. It starts by not being a racist, it escalates into pledging to be antiracist. We are now at a point that if you are against ruining lives and burning buildings, you must be racist, too. Anything less than bending the knee to the mob is an automatic ticket to the guillotine.
America is complex. Americans are complex. There is more to our lives, our station, our agency, and our identity than our race. I hope we can avoid this dangerous dance with self-flagellation and ideological homogeneity that insists one’s race determines whether he is condemned for his inherent bigotry, or saved from it by a totalitarian government. There is no more efficient way to dehumanize a person and place his value on the most superficial part of his identity. But that’s what Kendi and his cohorts envision. For the past four years, unhinged, leftist hystericals have told us Trump was going to destroy the country and rebuild it in his authoritarian, dystopian vision. It turns out, they had it backward. The natural endpoint to whittling diversity outside of race and ideology is a government that monitors who has the right to their humanity based on race. Or as CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin put it in his unique fear-sensationalism, ‘There is a justified fear for American democracy.’ But what I’ve come to realize is that these weren’t warnings – they were threats. The only way out of America’s racism is a totalitarian state in which the only metric to judge each other is race. Kendi says it best himself:
“There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.’ The claim of ‘not racist’ neutrality is a mask for racism.”
Published in General
I see this anti-racist track as the next escalation of leftist agenda. I think we thought that the SJW agenda could never leave the Academy and gain traction in the real world. We let it seep out and seep into every aspect of American life. Now we see the next level gain a foothold and it is even more dangerous. I’m not sure how, other than the wholesale destruction of American education, that we will stop it. COVID just might do that, but if there are other ideas, I’d like to hear them.
There is an almost ridiculous wealth of knowledge in people expressing views to the right of Kendi & Co., Kmele Foster, John McWhorter, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loundry, of course Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Bob Woodson… but they aren’t given the same opportunity nor near hero worship from MSM because they have “problematic” views. They think independently from their race, while still claiming their backgrounds and experiences as unique to their person. Same as every American does. But independent thought isn’t looked upon too kindly among the leftist elites & gatekeepers.
Nice post. Hat tip for the Tom Wolfe quote. Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers is hysterical. Sad and true, but still spot on.
Tom Wolfe was culturally & politically omnipresent. I wonder what he would think of these times…
Ibram Kendi’s proposals make the very concepts of liberty (and of democracy that enables liberty) impossible. By putting “anti-racism” at the center of everything he eliminates the possibility of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and eliminates democracy itself by eliminating the possibility of having true electoral choices, since a body of “experts” who have no accountability to the public would control who is and who is not sufficiently “anti-racist” to serve as government officials. His proposed “amendment” to the U.S. Constitution would have the effect of completely negating almost everything in that Constitution.
We see the BLM mobs physically threatening innocent bystanders who refuse to go along with BLM demands. Such mob action is likely to increase. Mr. Kendi apparently wants to make that level of bullying and targeted violence tacitly approved by the government. Force people to parrot certain words, just as they do in paradises like North Korea.
Bemusement. Lack of surprise, maybe a little sadness that people have learned nothing in 50 years. And possibly a little frustration because he’d have trouble getting his work published nowadays.
New York magazine in 2020 can’t even tolerate running Andrew Sullivan, and forced him out of of his columnist job because they couldn’t even stomach Sullivan in July saying exactly what the Democratic Party, and even The New York Times, is saying this week, because the poll numbers are showing the progressive support for the rioting is helping Trump. Wolfe’s ‘Radical Chic’ piece might make it into the New York Post today, but it would never see the light of day in his former magazine (which probably would commission a piece by some other writer to denounce Wolfe as a racist if he did manage to publish elsewhere).
Thanks Jenna! Great reading and perspective. Tom Wolfe had great insight! Anything of his you recommend?
Great post.
One of the (many) absurdities of the woke vision is that there is absolutely nothing whiter than Marxist shtick applied to contexts other than the original, failed application to class. Wokeism in the tuna on white with a Twinkie for dessert of political philosophy.
Congrats Jenna! Instapundit linked to this post.
Wow I wouldn’t have known if you didn’t tell me. Thanks!!!
Oh that made me laugh. So true!
Start with Radical Chic. And Bonfire of the Vanities (skip the terrible movie…everything Tom Hanks did after The Burbs is terrible, besides Saving Private Ryan).
Jenna, there’s a group here at Ricochet called The Instalanche Club for anyone who’s had one of their Ricochet posts linked to by major conservative sites such as Instapundit. You’re eligible so if you want to join just go there and post your acceptance.
Did you mean COVID might stop the wholesale destruction of American education? Or that COVID might allow the SJW agenda to gain even more traction?
On the one hand, I do think that COVID is having parents consider home schooling now more than ever. Not only because of all the impossible for children to comply with requirements, but also because the full agenda is out in the open with regards to how the schools are nothing more than indoctrination centers.
But the SJW liberals are totally caught up in the opportunity to become mask snitches, contact tracers, and worse.
It is not surprising that the leading entity in the contact tracing program is The Clinton Foundation, with Billy boy bragging that it will be the largest and most pervasive “public health program” ever.
Jenna, you wrote this: Kendi goes a step further in his proposal in Politico, that “to fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution”.
I think that one sentence will be giving me nightmares.
Yes! The deeper we get into this, the further the goalposts move, the longer politicians use this “emergency” to force draconian policies and allow lawless riots & ‘protests’ to persist in American streets – a double standard so egregious it’s almost criminal – the more I hope people realize this was never happening in good faith. Quite the opposite.
I hope we can wake up in time!
Thank you for such kind words!
I meant that Covid might destroy the hold the left had on education by seriously damaging the current system. Parents see what students are learning-home schooling plus hiring their own teachers is increasing. Higher education is struggling financially with students demanding they not be charged full tuition for remote learning. I don’t know what will come of all this, but we can’t continue to have our kids taught that America is to be hated.
Agree with you word for word.
So many people I know on various blogs would love to home school but as single parents or sole supporters of the household cannot afford it. It would be a good thing to have some way around this: a pod of 6 or 7 parents being able to hire a teacher on their own rather than having to quit their jobs to stay at home.
I still find it hard to believe how grateful I am that my child was raised 40 years ago. usually across our nation’s history, the situations on all levels have improved for each successive generations.
Now that is not true, for any except those in the top 5 percent of society. And after watching a documentary expose of how young adult males are spending thousands of dollars to learn from coursework how to be able to successfully drag women into bed, perhaps it is not even true for the that group. Many of the young men interviewed stated that their home did not often include the presence of an adult, and that they did not feel they’d ever been loved. (Not that any excuse allows for young people to study how to become rapists.)