Lumpy Racism

Charles Blow has been on a tear lately, for obvious reasons, but he raises a valid challenge in light of the heartfelt support so many have offered by risking death by COVID-19 to protest racism.

Allies, Don’t Fail Us Again

Many white people have been moved by the current movement, but how will they respond when true equality threatens their privilege?

In her book on crim law reform, Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration, NYU prawf Rachel Barkow raises a concept called “lumpy laws,” where laws are enacted to address the worst example of a crime, but are broad enough to sweep into its ambit far lesser examples that some, maybe most, would find unworthy of inclusion.

There is a similar “lumpy” problem with the current protests about racism. If the issue is black men being killed by police, then most people of good conscience will take to the streets to protest, even at risk to their own health and welfare. After all, it’s a life and death question.

But what happens when the issue starts to slide.

Many of the white liberals who supported the movement had been moved by embarrassment, moved by images of cruelty rather than the idea of genuine, equitable inclusion.

At the moment, there are many “allies,” a fashionable word with far deeper implications than mere going out to march or dancing the Macarena with Officer Friendly. Some white allies have knelt and apologized for their crimes against equality, swearing an oath to dedicate their lives to the elimination of racism. Others have adopted the religious symbolism of washing the feet of black people.

But this is happening now, at the confluence of two things: First, protests addressing the worst of racism, the killing of a human being. Second, the passion of the moment, where so many are being swept up in the protests and validation of their virtuous concern about racism. When all your friends are marching, twitting, facebooking and instragramming about racism, it’s not only easy to join in, but hard not to. If this is what everybody is doing, you want to do it too.

White allies had disappointed, once again.

But as Blow knows, the winds will shift and there will some new catastrophe that will catch the attention of the unduly passionate soon enough, and they will abandon their protests to chase down the next squirrel. But that’s only part of his challenge, maintaining focus on the problem long enough to see it through to completion.

We must make sure, make a statement, that this is a true change in the American ideology and not an activist-chic, summer street festival for people who have been cooped up for months, not able to go to school or graduate, not able to go to concerts or bars.

This is not the social justice Coachella. This is not systemic racism Woodstock. This has to be a forever commitment, even after protest eventually subsides.

He’s right. We’ve been here before, and let’s face it, the unduly passionate are the sweetest of allies until something newer, cooler, more chi chi, comes along. And then they’re gone, because that’s the nature of people who join up when its cool.

But there are other lumpy problems too.

You might be willing to risk your life to end the killing of black people by police, but are you willing to die because some white woman wore hoop earrings and corn rows? Death is huge, but is someone saying “America is the land of opportunity” just as huge? What about not enough black students getting into Harvard? Will you take a rubber bullet to the head for that? The issue of equality is a lot bigger than the worst case scenario of death, and while death got you off your butt, will you remain on your feet when the issue changes from death to hurt feelings?

But there’s more. While you may find the symbolism of kneeling and swearing an oath, or washing feet, deeply moving, does it move you enough to hand over the keys to your car or house, to give up your kid’s seat at Yale, to quit your job so a black person can sit at your desk? Will you go out today and change your Last Will and Testament so that your generational wealth isn’t passed down to your children, but to those who parents have nothing to leave them?

But we must resist efforts to simply pacify and quell, to simply stop the awful images. We must strike at the root: that the entire system operates in a way that is anti-black, that it disadvantages and even punishes blackness, that part of your privilege is built on my oppression.

We must make ourselves comfortable with the notion that for the privileged, equality will feel like oppression, and that things — legacy power, wealth accumulation, cultural influence — will not be advantaged by whiteness.

At this moment in time, there is no shortage of allies going to extremes to demonstrate their support of the fight against racism. Will it still be there tomorrow? Will it still be as passionate when it’s no longer life or death, but hurt feelings over some relatively petty outrage? Will it be zealous enough for you to take the food out of your children’s mouth so that a black child can eat it instead?

22 thoughts on “Lumpy Racism

  1. Dan

    He’s going to be disappointed for two reasons. First, as you say, the passion will die out–though it looks like the Minn. PD might well be disbanded by then. Secondly, he’s completely sold out to critical race theory, and therefore dishonest in his use of terms. Under this system, whites can never not be racist, while minorities (excuse me, “people of color”) can never be racist. “Oppression” doesn’t mean anything that any dictionary would define as oppression, it means, well, pretty much whatever they say it means, though usually if you have more than someone else, you’re oppressing that person. And so on.

    He has plenty of allies on the “cops shouldn’t kill people without a damn good reason” thing, even if many of them will get distracted by a squirrel, and even if most of them recognize that it’s a problem for people of all races, not only black people. He has far fewer (though sadly, far too many) in his Marxist vision for the country.

    1. SHG Post author

      I’m not a fan of critical theory, and even less of its Orwellian rhetoric, but for those who buy into it, they would do well to consider where it inexorably leads and need to decide whether that’s where they want to end up.

  2. Bartleby

    “[D]oes it move you enough to hand over the keys to your car or house, to give up your kid’s seat at Yale, to quit your job so a black person can sit at your desk? Will you go out today and change your Last Will and Testament so that your generational wealth isn’t passed down to your children, but to those who parents have nothing to leave them.”

    I think you hit here on the endgame for Charles Blow and his identitarian ilk. One of the central demands from BLM and other such groups tends to be phrased as “redistribution of wealth” or “reparations” to black people for their “labor.” Usually it’s nestled in amongst other demands so it doesn’t stand out as much, but it always strikes me as the most extreme one.

    I wonder how far Blow et al. will eventually go to obtain these material benefits. They have learned they can Prosperity Gospel money out of the pockets of those who feel the most racial guilt, but I doubt words and guilt-tripping will be enough to get most Americans to part with their money.

    Perhaps this is why you see their versions of historically-revised scripture—the 1619 Project and racial theory children’s books, for instance—getting pushed to younger and younger kids. Start early enough with the next generation, and who knows what they’ll be willing to fork over after their parents are gone.

    1. SHG Post author

      The other day, a black woman twitted that if white people wanted to prove they weren’t racist, they should venmo her money. I wonder how much she got?

  3. B. McLeod

    As demands to defund and abolish police departments spread across the country, many of Blow’s sunshine allies will realize the “protests” were not about George Floyd. As this realization dawns upon them, they will begin to fade away, embarrassed to have been taken in by a simplistic slogan.

    1. SHG Post author

      Will they? You have a lot of faith in people’s ability to eventually realize things. I never knew you were such an idealist.

      1. B. McLeod

        Biden came out today publicly rejecting the call to defund police departments. Pelosi has been “noncommittal”. The ringmasters of The Big Tent are already pushing Blow’s lot to the back benches. With the nomination and a 14-point lead in the polls, Biden doesn’t need the votes of the defunding crowd (and after all, Blow can’t back Trump, so he can be pretty much taken for granted).

  4. John Barleycorn

    “Will it be zealous enough for you to take the food out of your children’s mouth so that a black child can eat it instead?”

    Really?

    If you must start nipping on the rhubarb rabbit hole rhetoric wine while whining at least drink a bottle or two and come up with an original thought to pacify the paradigm.

    Yeah, perhaps an apagogical argument on your part but really?!

  5. Jake

    Generational wealth? Seats at Yale? You might want to think a little bit harder about who is and isn’t out there eating CS gas and flashbangs. Spoiler alert: It ain’t the people who read Robb Report. Fortunately, one doesn’t need to go to Yale to know solidarity fermenting below the top tax bracket is very frightening to those watching from the luxury boxes.

      1. Jake

        The political process is a grift. Sober people don’t take to the streets and risk their lives if they believe they can affect change by merely participating in democratic elections.

    1. Yaleski Bill

      What are you talking about? John Kerry took my place at Yale, and I told him to his face. I said, “Mr. Kerry, I coulda been you! I coulda married tErEsA.” (True story.)

  6. Erik H

    I expect the same “change needs to happen all at once” overreach, too.

    Quite a few liberal white folks might give up 1% of their race-differential income; maybe they’d be OK with their white kids losing 1% of their job or college prospects; maybe they’d give up 1% of just about anything. After all, 1% stings but doesn’t injure.

    And over time, it works. Do that every year for 100 years and the difference is gone.

    But try to get it done in 10 years; 5 years, or “right now,” and you’re not going to get many takers. Who wants to give up 10%; 20%; much less 100%, all at once?

  7. rxc

    He is basically calling for “leveling down”. I think this has been tried in the past, in several different countries/cultures, and it has not worked very well. Once they cut off the tops of the very tallest, most obviously privileged trees, someone will get a better ruler and start to measure the trees that are still standing, to see if any of them stick out. And the process will continue till every tree is leveled down to the ground.

    1. SHG Post author

      This is where some people would scream “Harrison Bergeron,” but others find that too much of a literary reference. And yet, I don’t see that having anything to do with what he’s saying here. In fact, I think that’s got more to do with you than him (or me).

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