Getting Over Ourselves

You are out of your mind, Paul!

Too much learning is driving you insane!

Acts 26:24

When all of your advisers heave their plastic

At your feet, to convince you of your pain

Trying to prove that your conclusions should be more drastic

Won't you come see me, Queen Jane

Bob Dylan, 1965

"White Guilt" is an insidious elixir that courses unquestioned through the veins of our universities, and it is a phenomena I have witnessed first hand. There is a certain logic to it, since "whites", just as any other group (whether they think of themselves as a group or not), surely have much reason for guilt, being human beings and all.

But what is at work here is not a call for historical awareness or overdue confession. It is, rather, and ethos of self-loathing that, in its obsession with atoning for racism, has created a new racism all its own.

There seems a reflexive impulse by white academics, charged with shaping the minds of the future, to assume the worst about folks with white skin. This is portrayed as some sort of manifestly necessary reckoning, but it merely re enforces the worldviews that it claims to aim to eradicate.

Consider an ideology that labels me guilty, that labels my achievements as ill-gained, that judges my skills and whatever advantages I may enjoy as corrupt and illegitimate, all based solely on the color of my skin. Now, how exactly is that not racism?

I don't think of myself as a white man. I think of myself as a human being. And, being an advocate of the irreducible cornerstone of civilization itself, I treat each human being as I would want to be treated by them. It really is as simple as that.

But White Guilters would tell you that such a worldview on my part would be illegitimate and self-deluding, since treating all of God's children the same would imply that "racism doesn't exist, which is just plain wrong."

Consider the self-perpetuating and self-immolating logic of that approach. Gandhi coined the word "satyagraha", which means something like "living as if". He lived "as if" he could stand down the British Empire. And he did it. I live as if all of my fellow human beings are equal in the sight of God and equal in my sight as well. But some would tell me that I cannot feel that way.

Why must I feel White Guilt if I don't identify myself as a White Man? Should I feel guilty for Hitler? Should I claim some credit for curing Polio? After all, that was done by a White Man. Should I feel personally guilty for White Man's enslavement of blacks? Should I claim personal credit for White Man's liberation of blacks? Should a black man shoulder blame for the black men who sold their black brothers to the White Man? Where does it end?

There is a tendency by the White Guilters to put the United States, and "White Culture", in the worst possible light. The military, for example, is seen as a rapacious poacher of ghetto youth, rather than the most egalitarian and meritocratic institution in the nation.

There is duality in everything, of course. Great songwriters can be terrible fathers. Great lovers can be terrible spouses. Great speakers can be terrible writers. Great civilizations can do terrible things. But that is an irreducible part of the human condition, not something to be exploited for collective flagellation of masses of innocent people.

The United States is the least racist country in the world. Consider that for a moment. How can I say such a thing? Well, count the numbers of countries that advocate and voluntarily maintain such diverse citizenries. How many? 1? 5? 10? Not very many. And how many of those countries are 200 year old democracies with a 200 year old constitution and zero coup d'etats? Get my drift?

We are the only society in the world that opens our doors to such a diverse array of people. Our crimes, mistakes, and arrogance are legion and well-documented, by myself among countless others, but they are only half of our duality. Tupac wrote "I Get Around", but he also wrote "Keep Ya Head Up."

Justice and equity are works in progress; they are fantasies toward which human beings, being human beings, will never stop advancing. Part of the process, however, must be to not measure ourselves against an ideal that never has existed. We must aim for it, yes, but we must not tear ourselves down as castigation for having failed to reach it. After all, we're only human.