I was ruminating all this week, after last week’s post on the practice of ‘othering’ and how common it seems of late that that white people (that is, those of us who are on the paler end of the skin-color spectrum and whose ancestors originated somewhere north of the Mediterranean and west of the Urals) are the piñata of choice among a wide swath of lefty academics, and certain media and political personalities. Last week it was the lefty librarian blogger getting her pantyhose in a twist about all those books by white people in academic libraries, this week it’s students at an Oakland HS (of course – Oakland/SF) demanding that murals of George Washington be painted over, a couple of months ago it was a rather nasty bigot named Sarah Jeong landing a cushy gig at the so-called newspaper of record, in spite of a series of tweets that would have seen any writer of pallor and masculinity reduced to waiting tables and driving for Uber. And now it appears that such concepts as a rule of law, assumption of innocence, conventional good manners and even timeliness are now held to be proof of the iniquity of whiteness. Why should this be so, and why now?

The first reason, and probably the one which is the most widely spread, even among people who are themselves white is that it is currently fashionable. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that a lot of people will do, say, and affect witless things, and wear really, really stupid and unflattering clothes and hairstyles for no better reason than that they believe them to be of the current fashion. Mullets. Polyester leisure suits. White lipstick. Disco. Need I elaborate further? White bashing is currently fashionable.

The second reason – and the one even more reminiscent of a coterie of bitchy middle school girls – is that it is actually fun for that coterie to bully and abuse an individual, or a group who can’t or won’t fight back against a mob intent on hounding them out of school, the public sphere, or even out of life. It’s fun to pile on, to heckle and humiliate, to impress your pals with your vicious wit and wokeness. It’s fun to be part of the mob and go out hurting the ‘other’ – and don’t even try arguing otherwise. You’ll be arguing against human history.

A third reason for white bashing – and this I think is the fallback reason for certain academics and politicians of color, or part-color, or anyway, their non-whiteness – is that by tearing down that which has been accomplished by white Europeans and Americans, they are relieved of any responsibility to accomplish anything themselves. So – erase the American founding fathers, demote western philosophical thought, abolish western technology, smudge away creativity and wealth – and you and where your ancestors came from don’t look to so pathetic, hapless and barbaric, measured against them.
Finally – and I think that this is the reason for only a small, yet malignant minority – there is the pursuit of power, power gained in the chaos which follows upon trashing a society, pushing it beyond sustainability. Wreck the place, bring it all crashing down, and then loot the ruins and live in comfort, behind high walls, or even a pleasant compound in a foreign country. Encourage and facilitate distrust, racial hatred, and eventually civil unrest which would crash a modern democracy? Any tool to hand is attractive to someone like George Soros, to someone who would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven.
Your thoughts? Discuss as you wish.