The
Left’s Most Recent Cudgel
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 7/11/20
Nothing
is currently hurting race relations more than the unfortunate expression,
“white privilege.” What is the goal of those who incessantly throw the term
around? Is it to improve race relations or to achieve a diabolical political
goal by assigning guilt? The answer to this question is obvious and its
repercussions are damaging, dangerous, and supremely unfair.
Damaging
because the expression creates a ready-made wall that ends conversation before
it starts. Dangerous because accusatory finger pointing doesn’t ever resolve
conflict, particularly regarding race. It only pours gasoline on the fire. It’s
unfair because it paints with the broadest of brushes. “White privilege” refers
to all whites. Presumptuously it argues that because of their skin color, all
whites possess an automatic asset. Tell that to the poor whites who lived up and
down the gravel road I lived on during my boyhood. Indeed, poverty or near
poverty was the basis of the commonality between whites and blacks. A weird
bond, perhaps, but a bond still. Maybe that’s why, even though segregation was
the established order, we didn’t always act like it. We labored, laughed, and
struggled together.
Living
only two miles away from my family, the black, respected Josh Crudup was better
off than many whites and not because of government largesse but because he
worked himself half to death with his childless wife on their beloved little
farm. Were he alive I guarantee you he would be taking sides with Ben Carson,
Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, Burgess Owens, and the many non-prominent blacks
who understand the subterfuge behind “white privilege.”
“White
privilege” didn’t emerge from common usage. Most etymologists point to W.E.B.
du Bois, the black socialist of the early 20th century who
occasionally used the phrase. The fluid term’s more recent come-back can be
attributed to the Black Lives Matter organization that has hurled the two words
in our collective face.
With
its “white privilege” cudgel, BLM is setting back the successful work of Martin
Luther King, particularly his method of peaceful protest. At the only King
Rally I ever attended – in support of King’s cause – I observed order,
solemnity, and dead-eye focus. I heard woeful songs that addressed the purpose
at hand, eloquent speeches that evoked emotion, thought and action. And I heard
sincere prayers. Compare this approach and its undeniable results
(desegregation, the Civil Rights Act, a black president) to what we are getting
from BLM in the streets today.
The
difference in the two shows that the radical left is not interested in justice,
but chaos. Corporate heads are absolutely blind to this. Are they listening to
what BLM’s leaders are saying about police and the constitution? With the
Democrat Party wrapped securely around its fingers, BLM gets a pass for
dishonoring King’s legacy. King was a minister. Christian precepts undergirded
his every speech: “Love your enemies!” he would bellow. “Forgive the white
man!” he urged more than once. This is neither the approach nor the philosophy
of the hate group, BLM.
And
oh, the embarrassing cowardice that “white privilege” shaming has revealed. NFL Quarterback Drew Brees took a strong
stand against kneeling during the national anthem only to apologize … how many
times now? Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy wore a t-shirt with “One American
News” (a conservative cable network) on it and was criticized. For his great
sin, pointed out by one of his young team members (yes, these days the pot
commands the potter), Gundy asked for a $1 million pay cut. Oklahoma State’s Athletic
Director stated he believed Gundy had been “awakened” to what was right. Let’s
pray that Gundy can still feed his family.
Not to be outdone, NFL
commissioner Roger Goodell, also doing an about-face, has announced that all
NFL teams will play the black national anthem at all games during week 1 of the
2020 season. Supposedly two national anthems will bring racial unity. Could we
say these feel good measures have become “systemic”?
The
“white privilege” cry is also condescending. To blacks because it presumes blacks
can never be whole unless fawning whites like Brees, Gundy, and Goodell repent
for being white. To whites because it serves as a cudgel for the left to beat
them into compliance. Truth is it deepens our division.
I
witnessed and fought against true racial subjugation. (Ask my wife if I weep
whenever it’s brought up.) That’s why I reject radical groups with ulterior
motives and outlandish political “solutions.”
It’s time to speak out against BLM. They are socialist radicals. Listen to what
they’re saying. Their two-letter expression is merely a ploy and, incredibly,
many cowardly elites are falling for it.
Roger Hines
7/7/20
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