It is fascinating to see how white liberals are responding to the protests and the quest for racial equality. They are long on sermons but short on remedies, though that doesn’t mean they have nothing to say. They do. It’s just that their ideas are either tired or amount to nothing more than grandstanding. Their intellectual universe is small, as well as silly.
On June 5, the Human Rights Campaign, which is a pro-homosexual organization, decided to jump on the racial justice bandwagon—even though this issue has nothing to do with its mission—by enlisting “more than 100 prominent faith leaders” condemning President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
They did a really good job of that, but unfortunately the one thing this crowd lacked was diversity: almost all the signatories (most of whom no one ever heard of) were mainline Protestants. There were two nuns, two rabbis, one Mormon and one Muslim. There is greater diversity in a laundromat.
What is their plan of action? They don’t have one. They said they will do “everything in our power for the defense of Black lives.” That was it.
Ben & Jerry’s sells ice cream. It also sells the idea that we are a racist society. Here’s what it wants to do about it: 1) the president must disavow white supremacy (not Antifa) 2) we need a commission to study slavery and segregation 3) we need a national task force to end racial violence 4) we need to reinvigorate the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
More declarations, more commissions, more studies, more laws—that’s the totality of their plan of action. They forgot to add workshops and break-out sessions. They accomplish a lot.
McDonald’s sells hamburgers. Recently it also sold the idea that white people are promoting the “systemic oppression” of black people. It knows something about this subject. In January of this year it was sued by black executives over “systematic” racial discrimination.
Sr. Joan Chittister is one liberal who does have an action plan. “Every family, every white person in the country, needs to reach out and make a black friend.” What if that black person is pro-Trump? Would he count?
Kirsten Powers is suffering from the pangs of white guilt. Her prescription for racial justice is for every white person—they are all racists—to repent. She gets the ball rolling. “I’ll start: I repent for my lack of action. I repent for my lack of urgency. I repent for not listening more. I repent for lacking humility.” Instead of repenting for “my lack of action,” she should tell us exactly what actions she will now take. She never does, settling for breast beating.
Powers is not alone in professing her sins in public. In Bethesda, Maryland a huge crowd of white people, mostly young women, recently fell to their knees in an outdoor ceremony purging themselves of their “white privileged” status. On command, they said in unison such things as, “I will use my voice in the most uplifting way possible,” and “And do everything in my power to educate my community.”
This was nothing more than a grand display of self-righteousness. These rich white people—only the wealthy live in Bethesda—feel morally superior to the rest of us. Their meaningless public gestures do absolutely nothing to improve the conditions of blacks. It’s all about them.
White liberals have created many of the problems facing African Americans. It was they who promoted the welfare state in the 1960s—at a time of declining unemployment and poverty—inviting fathers to abandon their families. It is they who condemn black families to inner-city public schools and work against school choice. It is they who want to disable the police force and empty the jails, allowing crime to spike in black neighborhoods.
No one should take white liberals seriously unless they have some skin in the game. They should begin by liquidating their assets, selling their investments and emptying their bank accounts. Then they should “make a black friend” by giving their money to minority-owned business owners whose stores have been destroyed by white terrorists in the name of racial equality. It’s time for them to pony up and stop with the moralizing.
