An Open Letter to the White Right

[anitram]

Can be read in full here:

Tim Wise ? An Open Letter to the White Right, On the Occasion of Your Recent, Successful Temper Tantrum

I know, you think you’ve taken “your country back” with this election — and of course you have always thought it was yours for the taking, cuz that’s what we white folks are bred to believe, that it’s ours, and how dare anyone else say otherwise — but you are wrong.

You have won a small battle in a larger war the meaning of which you do not remotely understand.

...

It is coming, and soon.

This isn’t hubris. It isn’t ideology. It is not wishful thinking.

It is math.

Not even advanced math. Just simple, basic, like 3rd grade math.

The kind of math that proves how your kind — mostly older white folks beholden to an absurd, inaccurate, nostalgic fantasy of what America used to be like — are dying.

...

And in the pantheon of American history, conservative old white people have pretty much always been the bad guys, the keepers of the hegemonic and reactionary flame, the folks unwilling to share the category of American with others on equal terms.

Fine, keep it up. It doesn’t matter.

Because you’re on the endangered list.

And unlike, say, the bald eagle or some exotic species of muskrat, you are not worth saving.

In forty years or so, maybe fewer, there won’t be any more white people around who actually remember that Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Opie-Taylor-Down-at-the-Fishing Hole cornpone bullshit that you hold so near and dear to your heart.

There won’t be any more white folks around who think the 1950s were the good old days, because there won’t be any more white folks around who actually remember them, and so therefore, we’ll be able to teach about them accurately and honestly, without hurting your precious feelings, or those of the so-called “greatest generation” — a bunch whose white contingent was top-heavy with ethical miscreants who helped save the world from fascism only to return home and oppose the ending of it here, by doing nothing to lift a finger on behalf of the civil rights struggle.

It’s OK. Because in about forty years, half the country will be black or brown. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Nothing, Senõr Tancredo.

Nothing, Senõra Angle, or Senõra Brewer, or Senõr Beck.

Loy tiene muy mal, hijo de Puta.

And by then you will have gone all in as a white nationalist movement — hell you’ve all but done that now — thus guaranteeing that the folks of color, and even a decent size minority of us white folks will be able to crush you, election after election, from the Presidency on down to the 8th grade student council.

...

We just have to be patient.

And wait for you to pass into that good night, first politically, and then, well…

Do you hear it?

The sound of your empire dying? Your nation, as you knew it, ending, permanently?

Thoughts?

I personally don't care for his style (too histrionic IMO), but I think the substance of what he is saying is true.

Especially on social issues - something like gay marriage, for example, is an inevitability, and so long as the Right wants to align itself with this losing cause, it will continue to alienate new generations of voters who no have grown up without the prejudices of their parents. And those voters, over the next several decades will age and become older and will form the voting block, which they as youth, do not.

The American right is on the wrong side of just about every social issue, and they think that they can continue to be this way with impunity. They are virulently anti-immigrant, their message has inherently failed with nearly every minority community and they don't seem to care or ask themselves why. They do so at their own peril.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Reads a bit like a bitter, mean spirited 8th grade breakup letter. The guy needs to grow up

 

[anitram]

^

I hear that kids break up over texts these days...

 

[financeguy]

I personally don't care for his style (too histrionic IMO), but I think the substance of what he is saying is true.

I was thinking about this stuff recently. Largely agree with your post, to the extent that the Tea Party movement seems to consist of a bunch of angry white people ranting, some of whom have really nothing in particular to be angry apart from losing a few percentage points in their retirement pensions recently but seem to have deep seated issues regarding something or other that no-one can quite put their finger on (plausibly, dreams of a faded past that most of them are either too young or too senile to remember - but I really have no idea), and some of whom have very genuine reasons to be angry but have been asleep for quite a few years, and have not really done any proper analysis or research and are too lazy to do any for themselves, so they just latch on to the latest demagague - Glen Beck or whover the flavour of the month is - in the hope he will solve their problems for them so they don't have to do any thinking.

That said, as a broader and more general point, I cannot accept the liberal line that all critiques of multiculturalism are at core motivated by racism or cultural superiority.

A desire to associate with people of largely one's own race, or even, dare I say it, to celebrate and/or commemorate the best achievements of one's particular race (can anyone seriously argue that the best classical music ever created has largely emanated from mid Europe? Can anyone seriously argue that the best athletes in the world largely hail from the African continent? Can anyone seriously argue that Iran's human rights are superior to ours?) is not necessarily racist, but frankly, simple human nature, for better or worse - though many of the people making pro-separatism arguments seem to be racists and as a moderate conservative I do not want to be associated with these types.

I worry about multiculturalism, if it is about respecting differences, then fine, but in practice it seems to me somewhat akin to a process of distilling fine whiskey into inferior brands, so what we end up with is not taking the best of each culture, but the most bland and mediocre. Hence, I dunno, Pop Idol. Or maybe Islamic-friendly versions of McDonalds.

 

[Jive Turkey]

^

I hear that kids break up over texts these days...

hehehe

 

[Canadiens1131]

Although the tone of the letter is a little childish as Jive Turkey points out, it still hits home with that very true statistic - that within our lifetime the minorities in the United States will be the majority.

Time marches on, and the US will become a better place for minorities, gays, and stoners.

Maybe if we really, really try hard, maybe it will even be a country where the lower and middle class are no longer deluded into thinking that the right wing cares or will do anything to further their interests.

 

[martha]

The American right is on the wrong side of just about every social issue

And always has been.

 

[The_Pac_Mule]

And always has been.

I forgot, abraham lincoln was a liberal!

 

[Diemen]

Right, because Abraham Lincoln would fit right in with current right-wing values.

 

[BVS]

I forgot, abraham lincoln was a liberal!

Was he trying to maintain status quo or move back to a previous time?

This is the kind of backwards logic that you and Glenn Beck types try to apply to historical figures that really illustrates how desperate you all are to apply your thinking to others and how truly horrible you all are at context.

 

[martha]

I forgot, abraham lincoln was a liberal!

Are you talking Republican or right wing?

 

[Canadiens1131]

This is the kind of backwards logic that you and Glenn Beck types try to apply to historical figures that really illustrates how desperate you all are to apply your thinking to others and how truly horrible you all are at context.

I love how they're also writing Thomas Jefferson out of history books and denouncing him, since his writing doesn't really jive with the current big business-loving political right. That and he enjoyed a little brown sugar on the side.

WE MUST PRESERVE THE VALUES OF OUR FOUNDING FATHERS (except Thomas Jefferson).

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

*Whistles an extremely low whistle* Damn. That was...wow.

You’re like the bad guy in every horror movie ever made, who gets shot five times, or stabbed ten, or blown up twice, and who will eventually pass — even if it takes four sequels to make it happen — but who in the meantime keeps coming back around, grabbing at our ankles as we walk by, we having been mistakenly convinced that you were finally dead this time.

I kind of liked this analogy, I have to say .

Yes, the style is most definitely over the top. And financeguy's post was quite a good response to the article-I can't say I disagree with his statements.

But there's no doubt that the author is right on a lot of what he says in there. With each new generation comes natural progressive ideas, an acceptance of things that previous ones don't want to understand or were taught to believe were wrong. So as insanely frustrating as the setbacks in certain movements are, I do hold comfort that the tide is slowly changing and that in 10 years, hell, maybe even 5 years, we'll see a drastic difference in the way things are. I know of the success other people throughout history have had, and that's why I remain optimistic about whatever struggles are currently going on.

And then everyone will sit there seeing, for instance, gays getting married, just as they saw blacks and whites hanging out together on completely equal footing, or women in the workplace, or whatever, and wonder just what exactly the big deal really was. And those that refuse to change with the times will have to lay in the beds they've made and find some way to deal with their issues surrounding this stuff, whatever they may be.

Despite the dramatics, a fascinating read nonetheless. The guy has guts, I'll say that much, at least.

Angela

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I forgot, abraham lincoln was a liberal!

you do realise that what was considered a republican back in the 1860s is nothing like the republican party now, right? that democrats were the ones who would've been considered right-wing? back then, democrats favoured states' rights, lower taxes, etc.

 

[diamond]

Timeless Core Republican Values > attempted weak kneed revisionist histories.

 

[coolian2]

Timeless Core Republican Values > attempted weak kneed revisionist histories.

=*

 

[BVS]

Timeless Core Republican Values > attempted weak kneed revisionist histories.

The definition of social conservatism is keeping the status quo. There is nothing revisionists about that, therefore they have never been on the right side of history when it comes to equality or social issues.

 

[PhilsFan]

Timeless Core Republican Values > attempted weak kneed revisionist histories.

Do you have any actual substance behind that? I'd like to hear it.

 

[UberBeaver]

Bitter, angry people will always be bitter, angry people. No worries, the right won't go away. They'll just find new groups to identify with and hate on.

 

[nathan1977]

The article in question seems to be nothing but sour grapes (and, frankly, it reads bitter and angry). Threatening your opponent isn't necessarily going to win you any points.

There are plenty of sensible conservatives out there, as well as plenty of sensible liberals. It is the ability of those people to get together and pass legislation that doesn't go off the cliff ideologically one way or the other that will keep the country moving forward in a sane, reasonable direction.

The vast majority of Americans sit squarely in the middle on a lot of issues. I think this election is and should serve as a reminder of that to both parties, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

 

[diamond]

Do you have any actual substance behind that? I'd like to hear it.

*sigh*

Republicanism in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[coolian2]

Do you have any actual substance behind that? I'd like to hear it.

so to answer your question, nope he doesn't.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Republicanism in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You've deluded yourself into thinking the current Republicans or the Tea Party care about any of that?

Good luck with 'vilifying corruption' in our modern day PAC-funded political climate. It's not even corruption when lobbying is built into the system.

The reason I stray Democrat more than Republican is because I know that at the federal level, most Republicans do not give a shit about you nor your individual rights.

Arizona is the Florida of the southwest...where delusional old white people and deadbeat dads flee to to be insulated from reality. Enjoy.

 

[yolland]

I'm always skeptical of appeals to the inevitability of "progress" as generations and demographics change. Reconstruction collapsed into Jim Crow despite 620,000 young men having paid with their lives to resolve the underlying conflict once and for all. Jews in late 19th-century Europe thought that democracy and access to civic participation would allow them to realize the security promised by Emancipation; they were wrong. Reproductive rights remain a bitterly contested and divisive issue here after several decades. The "browning of America" doesn't mean future immigrants will be protected from xenophobia, no matter what their skin color is; it just means the fearmongering narratives will be subtly different. And who's got the money will continue to matter just as much, if not more, as who's got the numbers. These aren't reasons for cynical passivity, they're reasons for continuing to fight for principles and social visions greater than whichever present conflicts you happen to hold a very personal stake in.

Wise is a Southern Jew from Memphis who cut his teeth organizing against David Duke's candidacy in Louisiana in the early 90s. I get where he's coming from, and I think many of his writings on white privilege and the hollowness of most appeals to "colorblindness" are spot on. But yeah, he can get a little shrill sometimes, and he's probably a bit too pugilistic to make it with mainstream liberals.

 

[PhilsFan]

*sigh*

Republicanism in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I did not ask you to provide evidence that you can use Google, I asked what substance you had. By substance, I meant defining what you believe "timeless core Republican ideals" are.

 

[UberBeaver]

I asked what substance you had.

lol.

 

[PhilsFan]

Peyote?

 

[UberBeaver]

I was more laughing at the concept that there would be any elaboration on his original post, really.

 

[PhilsFan]

Well, that was kind of the point. Him posting a link to fucking Wikipedia spoke volumes.

 

[hiphop]

can anyone seriously argue that the best classical music ever created has largely emanated from mid Europe?

Well, having studied musicology I can argue that Indian classical music, scales and polyrhythms (Ragas, Tablas) are at least as complicated as the European classical music (which isn´t polyrhythmic at all). Of course, our ears are used to the system that has dominated since 17th century (major and minor keys) so it sounds beautiful and "normal, natural" to our ears, but it may seem different to someone who grew up with Indian classical music. The best..? I don´t know.. many world-class musicians have deep respect for music from other parts of the world and it isn´t necessary to be "the best". The minor/ major system is just the one we´re used to; and of course it dominates most pop music too (of course, we need to mention the influence of blues scales here).

Also, middle European classical music had a "problem" in all the 20th century, if you look at the scales of new music, Berg, Schoenberg, etc. and not at neoclassicism. Most great "classical" composers, from Bach to Beethoven (who both were´nt that classical - Bach was Baroque whereas Beethoven, unlinke Mozart and Haydn who were typical classical musicians, was on the verge of Romanticism with his dramatic symphonies) wanted to break borders and create something new, harmonically.