I materially agree with Andrew Sullivan’s take on the Whoopi Goldberg kerfuffle:
In my view, racism is first and foremost a human impulse: it can infect anyone, of any race, at any time. Tribal identity goes very, very deep, and resisting it requires work. It’s also true that, over time, systems emerge which institutionalize racism — slavery, segregation, the legal restriction to certain professions, the denial of religious freedom, bans on intermarriage, Jim Crow, affirmative action etc. Those systems do indeed need dismantling (and have indeed been dismantled in America) if we are to move forward together.
But in a multicultural, multiracial society as complex as ours, the cross currents, the nuances and the complexities — especially in a population becoming more diverse and inter-married than ever — simply cannot be reduced to “always-oppressor/white†and “always-oppressed/black.†There is good and bad, racist and antiracist, in every human soul and in every demographic group. When you ignore that fundamental truth, you end up where we are: missing so much of complicated human reality that you actually excuse the Nazis — yes, the Nazis — for their racism.
I do have a few quibbles, however. I think he’s conflating bigotry and racism. They aren’t the same. All racism is bigotry but not all bigotry is racism. In addition to bigotry with respect to race, there’s bigotry with respect to religion, economic status, ethnicity, and sexual orientation as Andrew must certainly have experienced, just to name a few. I myself have experienced bigotry on account of my race and on account of my religion. Believe it or not I experience bigotry with respect to my religion on practically a daily basis.
And I don’t think that many recognize it but the notion that blacks in the U. S. uniquely experience bigotry on account of their race goes back a long time—at least fifty years which is when the tenets of critical race theory and those that inform DEI were first explained to my by a black friend. I suspect they’re an outgrowth of black nationalism or at least interwoven with it.
I absolutely agree that “All racism is bigotry but not all bigotry is racism” and would be shocked if Andrew Sullivan disagreed. But, in the context of Whoopi Goldberg’s perfectly understandable comments, the Jews are many things and, in some constructions, that includes a race. As I often note, one can be simultaneously an atheist and a Jew but not an atheist and a Baptist.
I’m surprised that you “experience bigotry with respect to my religion on practically a daily basis.” I gather that you’re a High Church Protestant, possibly Lutheran? I’d think that pretty mainstream in Chicago.
I’m a Roman Catholic. I first experienced bigotry against Catholics 50 years ago and the Internet is absolutely saturated with it.
As far as Ms. Goldberg’s comments go, I think the reaction has been highly exaggerated but she should have known better. The View is in the exaggerated reaction business. When you’re standing in the rain you should expect to get wet.
That said I think that she shouldn’t have been suspended (let alone fired) for just that reason.
I should add that if people are not aware that there is a strong anti-Jewish strain in black thought they should be. I had Jewish friends back in the 60s who lost their businesses which were targeted for destruction during the riots back then. It’s actually quite similar to the increase in anti-Asian violence over the last couple of years. The relationship is that the stores in black neighborhoods that were owned by Jews are now owned by Asians. I guess that makes them oppressors in today’s calculus.
Makes sense, Dave.
My take on the Goldberg thing is much the same as Sullivan’s: she’s just not a deep thinker. And “The View” is a show where ignoramuses offer their opinions on things they’re ignorant about to the ignorant, so surely ABC couldn’t have been surprised.
Definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed but this is the kind of thing I think you expect most people to know. I guess you never go wrong assuming people can be more stupid than expected.
Steve
Hanlon’s razor: “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”.