Just in time to capitalize on the race hysteria in America comes a new book entitled “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, who directs the antiracist center at American University in Washington, D.C.
I have not read the book, but I did see an interview with Mr. Kendi, who said some interesting things about the “new” social culture in the USA.
In his chat with a reporter, the author sets himself up as a definer of what is racist. “When someone says to me they’re not racist, my typical response is – what does it mean to be not racist?” Mr. Kendi said.
“I don’t know what a not racist is, other than someone who is denying their own racism. This denial is the heartbeat of racism itself.”
Wow, that’s quite the high bar. If you don’t think you are racist, that opinion proves you’re racist. Check, please.
Think about this. You can no longer defend yourself against charges of racism because your denial is racist. Same thing with denying accusations from a woman, as Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas did. If you say you’re innocent, then you are attacking women.
This is the “trap.”
If you watch TV news, and I hope you limit that, you know the left is branding an increasing number of opinions as racist. For example, if you oppose illegal immigration, you get the r-word label. Same thing if you support tough criminal penalties for drug dealers. And Ibram Kendi takes it a step further. If you are not actively involved in “combating climate change,” you guessed it, you are committing a racist act.
Says Kendi: “Climate scientists have found that the effects of climate change are harsher on the Global south, which is primarily populated by people of color. So to do nothing about climate change, or to support policies that are driving climate change, is to be racist…”
So by that thinking filling your car with gas is a racist action. Who knew?
This kind of racism litmus test is impossible to pass, and that’s the idea. The far-left cadres are setting up their opposition. If you oppose liberal policies, which have recently failed dramatically in places like Venezuela and San Francisco, you are a very bad person who must be marginalized or even shunned.
When you think about it, the “trap” is a brilliant piece of propaganda that the mass media has enthusiastically embraced and uses as a stone axe against anyone who dares to disagree with liberal orthodoxy. This is on display nightly during the leftist cable news programs.
There is no counter to the “trap” on TV, or college campuses, or on the editorial pages of the radical left newspapers. In our new politically correct culture, there is no room for respectful debate. And, anyway, “we don’t talk to racists.”
Again, quite an impressive totalitarian play. Of course by just saying that – I’m a racist.
Horrifying doesn’t even begin to cover it.