I was pretty surprised by Charles Blow’s latest New York Times column. He has lurched uncontrollably onto a point I have been making for decades but I suspect his conclusions differ from mine. Consider this snippet:
I have a theory about the future of America that I don’t want to come true.
It is a theory that worries me and that I have written about: that with the browning of America, white supremacy could simply be replaced by — or buffeted by — a form of “lite†supremacy, in which fairer-skin people perpetuate a modified anti-Blackness rather than eliminating it.
The racist comments revealed this week on a recording of Latino leaders in Los Angeles — three City Council members and a labor union leader — did nothing to allay those fears.
So many surprises in so short a passage! Is it possible that Mr. Blow is not aware that there is a social hierarchy within the black community and that skin tone is one of the factors in that hierarchy? Maybe it’s regional but I’ve been aware of that for three-quarters of a century. Isn’t Mr. Blow from Louisiana? I’m confident it’s true there.
And then there’s the other surprise. Is it possible that Mr. Blow does not realize that Mexicans can be racists, too?
One of the articles of faith among progressives seems to be that anti-black racism is unique to the United States. That’s not true. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy are all more racist than the United States. One of my Nigerian friends once told me that, while he had never encountered real, hardcore anti-black racism in the United States he had in Italy.
Maybe it’s just Europeans who are racists. Nope. China, Japan, and Mexico all have plenty of anti-black racism. Amazingly, they don’t even see it as racism. They’re practically where we were in the 1930s on the subject. Golliwog-type characters are still widely used in advertising, for example.
IMO there was a brief window of opportunity a half century ago to create a truly post-racial country here but it was thwarted through a combination of white segregationists, black nationalists, business interests, and progressives. Instead of mainstreaming black Americans into our economy and society, we imported tens of millions of Hispanics, mostly Mexicans, who came from countries more racist than the United States. Now we’re importing Central Americans and Asians but the story’s the same. As I have pointed out ad nauseam, while immigrants leave most of their possessions behind when they leave the Old Country, they bring their customs and political and social views, including racism.
If the objective of our approach to immigration in this country was to reduce anti-black racism, we blew it.
I was not very politically active in the 70s, the period to which you refer, but did have family who moved to Texas and later lived there briefly. I dont remember immigration being necessarily a left vs right thing. I do remember people being very open about using wetbacks for everything from lawn care to nanny care to construction and of course all kinds of agriculture. I dont remember Republicans going nuts when Reagan turned all of those immigrants into citizens. I am just misremembering since I was too involved in work?
I also think you are wrong about there being a chance. After hundreds of years being on top some white people were never going to give it up. If nothing else blacks will always make great scapegoats. On the other side, after hundreds of years of abuse some black people just arent going to forgive and forget. Also, it makes for a great excuse to avoid facing up to internal problems.
Steve
I thought that making the offer was an error, rooted in a misconception. Only about 40% of those eligible took us up on the offer, which completely substantiates my view. I suspect that if there were a rerun of “amnesty”, with an equivalent offer, an even lower percentage would become American citizens.
Theres always going to be Us vs Them, Wallons vs Flemings, Baptists vs Papists, and so on. Resolving this will require changing the way people think which the criminal and civil codes can’t do. This is more a job for the opinion shapers, who for now, find dividing more attractive.
“after hundreds of years of abuse”
Please, please, cut that shit out.
I don’t know anybody hundreds of years old, do you?
Grey Shambler: I don’t know anybody hundreds of years old, do you?
Which is why no one ever talks about the American Revolution or the Civil War or anything that happened before they were born.
If you trace your history to slavery, or if your ancestors were forced off their land, or if your father was deprived of an equal education, then it impacts you today.
Why am I not surprised that a Trump supporter would be unaware of the effects of the long term deterioration of human capital? Of how people hang on to abuse that has occurred over long periods. Anyway, let me surprise you even more. White people do it too. Ask the Irish. Jews and Arabs? Yup, they love each other. Poles and Russians? Real chums. Heck, how many Southerners have yet to get over the War of Northern Aggression? Lots more examples.
Steve
MY ancestors were serfs in the Sudetenland.
Tenant farmers in the states.
So fuck the grievances the WASP elite claim for the brown and Negroe.
I worked 50 years supporting my native family.
If I were 50 years younger I would do it again.
But I’m the racist.
Stick your arrogance up your ass.
By the way, trump’s an ass, always has been.
It’s testament to the state of the entrenched power structure in this aging country that it takes a megalomaniac ass to have the damn bullheadedness to challenge it.
How long exactly did it take after Trump left office before we were back at war? How long before the market crashed and the border became an unmanaged free for all in the hands of the most leadership-averse president-in-waiting whose only qualification is apparently her White-Adjacent diverse genetic lottery draw?
You can only attack Trump, he’s an easy target. Defend your champion, just try that.
Grey Shambler: MY ancestors were serfs in the Sudetenland.
Your ancestral past is apparently important to you for some reason.