"Racist Subculture" Is A Dog Whistle

WSJ editorial board: "There’s no doubt that a racist subculture exists in America and is spread on social media." https://t.co/DDRQ90j1Dl

— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) May 16, 2022

I'm going to put the WSJ editorial board in the "I just wouldn't want my daughter to marry one" camp of American racism, until further notice. Mind, my thesis is that all Americans are racists: we grow up being told race matters, and I don't mean in the "black lives matter/blue lives matter/all live matter" sense.

I mean we exist in a culture that explicitly and implicitly categorizes people by race and ethnicity, and so we have to identify "Hispanics" and "Latinos/as/x" and "Asian," which further breaks down into Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. etc.  

There is a value in this, I understand that, too.  My auto mechanic, who I've been using for nearly 30 years, is Vietnamese.  I think.  He works in what is now a new "Korea town" in Houston.  They say so themselves, the business owners in that area.  They have a large billboard proudly proclaiming it.  I like it, understand.  There is an Asian Indian population here, with enough Hindus to have built a large Hindu temple that looks like it was dropped in Houston from somewhere in India.  We have Vietnamese serving crawdads cajun style because they ate similarly in Vietnam, and they're making their mark on BBQ, too. 

There's Polish food (restaurants, I mean), and Thai and Vietnamese noodle shops, and...well, you get the idea, all within shouting distance of where I sit.  I try not to think of these people in terms of race, but I can't help but do it with African-Americans (I used that term deliberately, to show my age.  In my lifetime the accepted term went rapidly from "Negro" to "black" to "African-American" to....again, you get the idea.)  I think in terms of race:  black, "Mexican" (which actually means mestizo.  I mean, have you seen Patti Jinich?), "Asian", "Indian" (Asian Indian; not many Native Americans around here).  I do it because I was raised to do it.  And from those classifications comes hierarchies, like day follows sunrise.  Am I a racist?  Well, yeah, I recognize my weaknesses.  Do I hate people based on race?  No, I don't.  Do I still treat them differently, based on race?  Yeah, I'm sure I do.

If you go back to "Othello," he is a Moor (i.e., black) because this makes him a complete outsider to Ventian (and European) society.  He needs to be in order to be the dupe who falls for Iago's every lie.  That's not just Othello's character, it's his isolation in European culture.  It's clear from Shakespeare's treatment that 19th century racism is still centuries away.  But when I assigned that play, even if I explained this, my students couldn't help but see Othello's story in racial terms.  That's not in the story; that's what they bring to the story.   Does that make them racist?  They wouldn't think so; they would think they were spotting racism in the other characters.  But racism is complete anachronism in Shakespeare's play. If you see it there, it's because you bring it there.  Othello is naive in ways even the pure and virtuous (to the point of being inhuman) Desdemona is not.  She is not fooled by Iago, although she never accuses him, either.  Othello is sucked in for the very reason that he doesn't imagine the perfidy of a European court.  You can understand Roderigo and Cassio; in Shakespeare's day, leaders were worthy of their position by virtue of their character.  Cassio and Roderigo are not the leaders Othello is supposed to be, or the Duke.  So they are a bit more vulnerable to Iago's lies (Roderigo, lower down the ladder, more than Cassio).  Othello's failure is partly character (the tragic flaw), but partly expected: he's not the creature of court that Iago and Desdemona are.  How can he be?  He's from another culture entirely.

That's how Shakespeare sees the matter.  In America we divide culture based on race:  Jews, even, but also Asians and "Mexicans" and blacks.  But black American culture, especially, is a culture that understands white culture (and think about how recent that concept is!) because it is constantly looking at it from the outside.  Black culture understands white culture better than most whites do.  And blacks see that a great deal of white culture, is racist.

Re-read Dr. King's letter from jail.  He addresses white churches who will not speak up for racial justice, who will not acknowledge the evils of racism, who will not see the laws and the many ways white culture and people assert dominance over non-whites in America.  You want to know what CRT is in sum and simple terms?  It's there in Dr. King's letter.  We may not all be afraid of CRT being taught in elementary school, but we still prefer to remember only Dr. King's dream, and not the reality he so often limned.

It's not a "subculture."  It is the culture. When Bakari Sellers says:

But until Republicans, face it, this country -- and let's be extremely clear -- white folk in this country combat racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, bigotry -- until we have that conversation, nothing else matters."

Racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, bigotry--and why does he say "white folk in this country" have to combat those things?  Well, because black lives matter; but you can't say that without upsetting people, and the people most likely to be upset?  White people.  News reports claim baby formula is being shipped to the border to feed infants held in federal custody, and the people outraged by this news and screaming about it on FoxNews or in the halls of Congress?  White people.  When there is a mass shooting based on "replacement theory," who does the shooting?  A white man.  Who does he fear is being "replaced"?  White people.

When people get upset beause "CRT" is being taught in schools, and it's making children feel "guilty," who is afraid of the guilt?  White people.  Who is afraid of what they think CRT is?  White people.

It's not a sub-culture.  It is the culture.  Because the culture is still controlled and defined and understood in terms of:  white people.

We have met the enemy, and he is us.  Especially if the enemy is racism, and "us" is white people.