NBU: ‘White Guilt?’ by Bernard Chapin , 4/28/08

Nothing is more fraudulent than calls for a “dialogue on race.” Those who issue such calls are usually quick to cry “racism” at any frank criticism. They are almost invariably seeking a monologue on race, to which others are supposed to listen. - Thomas Sowell

During Barack Obama’s tremendously overrated “speech on race” - delivered in Philadelphia on March 18th 2008 - the media-gilded candidate referred to the resentment some whites feel in regards to welfare and affirmative action. He noted that “these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company.”

No doubt he was correct in his assumptions, yet the level of resentment to which he speaks is barely discernable in comparison to the palpable hate a bevy of leftist [anti] liberals have in relation to those Caucasian peers who disavow white guilt. It infuriates them that some of us refuse to partake in their toxic obsession with race and never suffer from the concomitant sense of shame that such a fascination produces.

Their queer bitterness and anger came to mind the other day after I attempted to emulate Senator Obama by starting a “national conversation on race” of my own. I got more of a response than I anticipated, and it is not the first time I have tasted the indignation of outraged white guiltists.

Generally, those who question the utility of their “Submit Today for Tomorrow…You’ll Submit Again” approach to life are duly greeted with a torrent of isms. The racist label is the one most often heard. It is emoted whenever a guilt monger grasps that whoever he or she is lecturing lacks the sufficient level of appreciation for their sanctimonious crusade of self-obliteration.

Refuseniks rightly fail their test of purity because we do not possess the guiltist’s pathological preoccupation with race. That their “all race all the time” worldview is something they hold in common with the Black Panthers and the Aryan Brotherhood is an eventuality that the media does not care to illuminate.

To the afflicted, the person eschewing white guilt has wandered off the masochist reservation and no punishment for them is too severe in light of their transgression. According to the egregious edicts of political correctness, every white person is responsible for the evils of slavery and Jim Crow by virtue of their being born—even if they happened to move here via Gdansk or Moldova.

Shelby Steele exquisitely explained this truth in his magnificent book on the subject: “The great power of white guilt comes from the fact that it functions by stigma, like racism itself. Whites and American institutions are stigmatized as racist until they prove otherwise.”

If you disagree and regard race as being a superficial human characteristic then you are condemned as being a racist. It’s kind of similar to the way that a person with no interest in finance, investing, real estate, currency markets and making money provides observers with irrefutable evidence that he has an overwhelming desire to get rich.

Abuse wise, racist is only an entry point. Depending on the particular peevishness and stability of the PC enforcer more names—revolving around sexism, classism, homophobia, etc.—will be tossed out. Ironically, just as they are in the midst of assaulting one’s diversity, they might convey astonishment over their foe’s dearth of sensitivity and tolerance.

No matter what they utter all invective is fallacious. In most historical circumstances, wondering aloud about whether one should feel guilt over a wrong never committed in relation to those personally unharmed would be a reasonable contention, but not so today.

The fact is most whites (and most blacks as well) have not committed any crimes over the course of their lives. The overwhelming majority of us are neither segregationists nor oppressors. We just want to live in peace and blacks feel the same way.

Blacks want to be treated as equals as opposed to constructs in some mutated victimology game of risk. I have had numerous conversations with black associates regarding history and group culpability. I have found them to be far more appreciative of my opinions than white guiltists.

People are people...period. Blacks are every bit as human as everyone else. As a result one has to wonder about the shame-based left. What does it say for their knowledge of homo sapiens that they believe a person’s complexion has a significant amount to do with their personality and moral goodness? One’s skin color is…well, it’s only skin deep.

The real conflict in this nation is not interracial it’s intra-racial. If we could only evolve to the point in which a large plurality of Caucasians ceased in depicting their peers as racists—which then wrongly convinces millions of “people of color” that their worst fears may be true—then we probably would all get along.

Equality results when Caucasians see “the other” and say to themselves, “There’s a human being just like me,” which is what most of us do at present. Juxtapose this with the guiltist’s sinister reaction. An onus-monger will spy a dark-skinned person and exclaim, “There’s a black person!” Remind me again who the divisive elements in society are.

America’s acceptance of political correctness has brought about the peculiar condition wherein a white person becomes “part of the problem” if he regards his peers as equals rather than as Manifestations of Holy Pigmentation.

Let me contradict this view energetically and state, in the language of Barackbanality, that it is those who repudiate white guilt who are the solution. Indeed, we are the one’s the entire nation has been waiting for. Let us stand together and clear the names of ourselves and our ancestors.

Of course, it is easier to say than to do. Politicians are vested in white guilt and it fuels the entire Democratic Party infrastructure. Moreover, the negative mindset it produces in the acolyte is what made a substance challenged Illinois senator into “rockstar” over the course of just a few months.

The media habitually spreads disinformation on behalf of their in house nominee, Mr. Obama. Indeed, they portray him as being a healer and a uniter despite his having a 2007 voting record that places him further to the left than anyone else in the chamber.

Guiltists have more than political reasons for wanting Obama to win, however. Supporting him makes them feel good about themselves. Extolling [read: fabricating] his virtues and wearing his apparel affixes a “look mom, I’m really not a racist” emblem upon their breasts.

Your average Obama-hope-atron considers his devotion to the secular saint a mechanism by which to purify himself. The heinous allegations he sallies against his racial conspecifics makes him feel morally superior to both relatives and associates.

Unfortunately, white guiltists are the only ones who benefit from the toxin they slather over our polity. Mr. Steele elaborates: “…that no black problem—whether high crime rates, poor academic performance, or high illegitimacy rates—could be defined as largely a black responsibility, because it was an injustice to make victims responsible for their own problems.”

The institutionalization of shame reduces blacks to the status of inferiors who are not capable of independent action. The condescension of white guiltists relegates blacks to a lower plane of humanity by insisting that their lives are predetermined and that they must not be held accountable for the choices they make. To the perpetual apologist, character is a white thing.

The message that “the system” is against them and that individuals are no match for “oppression,” “the man,” or “institutional racism” is far from empowering; all it manages to do is foster a pervasive sense of futility. No matter what blacks do, there is never a shortage of pseudo-liberal elitists to attribute negative outcomes—but not positive ones—to forces beyond their control.

In the final analysis, the only misdeed of which most whites are personally culpable is that we have allowed the forces of irrationality to silence us again and again. White guiltists are the enemy of every American. We must speak out against them in the name of history, individuality, truth, justice, and equality.

As a word of advice to the submission merchant, if you really want to “help” our nation then you should start by healing yourself. Please desist in projecting the racism that you alone exhibit onto the backs of your brothers and sisters.

Bernard Chapin

1) As a libertarian-conservative I’ve never understood why we continue to publicly call leftists “liberals.” Statism is anti-individual, anti-liberty, and there’s nothing “liberal” about desiring the government to run your life along with everyone else’s. I asked Dinesh D’Souza about this and he provided me with an interesting answer.
2) Steele, Shelby. White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. (New York: HarperCollins, 2006). P. 27.
3) Please note that “people of color” is a perfectly acceptable PC phrase to use; whereas, altering its order slightly results in two words whose usage equates one with Bull Connor and George Wallace. Jay Nordlinger first identified this odd phenomenon years ago.
4) Steele, 55