Ben, Candace, Tim, and Walter: Spare Me From Racism Apologists
We are what we read, I say. We’re also what we recommend that others, especially folks from a different race, read. When a born-rich, white male colleague at Cal Poly Pomona recommended that I read another black California professor Shelby Steele’s book, I knew after I read the book that my colleague was at best a racism denier and at worst an unrepentant racist (although not a white supremacist). Steele is what I call a racism apologist, a term I use for people of color like brown Dinesh D’Souza whose book ILLIBERAL EDUCATION I hate read and Richard Rodriguez whose memoir HUNGER OF MEMORY I hate taught. These public intellectuals of color make racist white folks feel better by assuring them that they’re right, and we liberals are wrong, that the real problem is not racism but affirmative action or political correctness. Walter Williams, an economics professor whose book on race one of my privileged white female students who has worked in the Peace Corps and unfortunately spent some time in Russia sent me in 2017, is a racism apologist. I found it interesting that my local paper, which I had already noticed had a more conservative opinion page than the LA TIMES, published articles by him on two consecutive Sundays and that just as I heard from my student for the first time in months (she’s a busy relatively new mother and a teacher) I was suddenly receiving negative feedback to my almost three-year-old one-star review of Williams’ book. Of course, the majority of racists and racism deniers probably don’t read, so they rely on politicians like Senator Tim Scott and Cabinet Secretary Ben Carson or media “influencers” like Candace Owens to comfort them during times like these when they’re being told that racism exists and colorblindness does not. Racism apologists are to racism deniers and racists what potato chips and chocolate are to me and wine and weed are to less sober Americans. I self-soothe with cc (chips and chocolate); racists self-soothe with ra (racism apologists).
When the former student reached out to me (and to a black friend she made during her Peace Corps days) last month, I learned that she had read Shelby Steele and Candace Owens (I didn’t realize she had written a book) as well as Walter Williams. This white woman who claims to be Libertarian (are there any liberal Libertarians?) was not an English major but took two of my classes because she liked my tell it like it is, nonconformist personality. She probably assumed I would agree with Williams’ suggestion that liberal solutions like the minimum wage hurt more than helped blacks because I said in THE BRONZE RULE that I didn’t let black students get away with using their race to excuse bad writing. I would tell them my story, which included no Head Start since it didn’t exist, no kindergarten, and an illiterate maternal grandmother, and let them know that if I could become an English professor they could pass Freshman Composition with a “C.” But she missed or misread the earlier passage in that chapter where I discussed the self-fulfilling prophecy, now called confirmation bias, saying that too many black students lived down to racist white teachers‘ low expectations of them. I guess I should have made it clear for the self-soothing racism deniers reading my book that those students probably didn’t have the advantage, the privilege, of being taught by black females during their first six years of school that I had, and that ten weeks with me could not cure thirteen or more (including nursery school or Head Start) years of being told that they are intellectually and culturally deprived because of their race, that they shouldn’t expect to do as well as white students. I set Ms. Peace Corps Libertarian, who maybe should move to Russia, straight by letting her know that seeing black folks as dysfunctional and needing help was the wrong approach, that we are the exceptional race, and her folks are the ones who need even more help than they already have gotten since they’re the ones killing people and taking opioids while we have overcome barriers and succeeded without becoming spiteful and cruel.
As soon as I set Ms. Libertarian straight, I had to mean-tweet Mr. Williams and the paper that published his first article “Please Spare Black Americans From White Liberal Paternalism.” First, I had to let Mr. Williams know, since he’s apparently still living in the 20th Century, that the Speaker of the House is a woman, and the Majority Whip is a black man. I didn’t mention the last President and the last winner of the popular vote because I didn’t want to shock him with the news that women and people of color are running the “liberal” party. He obviously thinks Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the “white paternal liberals.” Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro didn’t register with him. Then I addressed the following statement: “Nowhere else on Earth could such progress have been achieved except in the United States of America.” He was referring to how much black folks had overcome in the century and a half since slavery ended. I pointed out that we had a half-black, half-white President more than a century after slavery, but Nelson Mandela had become President of South Africa much sooner after apartheid ended. Of course, South Africa is predominantly black, but clearly the whites in South Africa didn’t pass voter suppression laws and do whatever else they had to do to prevent the majority of blacks from electing Mandela. They also didn’t exterminate so many blacks that they no longer outnumbered whites. When a Native American becomes President, then we can compare ourselves to South Africa on overcoming racism. After all, our first black President does not have any slave ancestors. His black ancestors are still in Africa. Next I addressed the following absurd statement: “The first step is to acknowledge that the civil rights struggle is over and won.” I wondered in my mean tweets if Williams missed the attacks on affirmative action in the eighties and the voter suppression that continues today. He also apparently knows nothing about the new Jim Crow, where black men and occasionally women are jailed for life for nonviolent crimes. Occasionally, they’re jailed for years without even being convicted of any crime because they can’t make bail. And he hasn’t noticed how many unarmed black people have been murdered, often by the police, without the murderer being tried, much less going to jail. The white folks who read and accept Williams’ nonsense are like the black folks on crack and the white folks on opioids. It’s not surprising that they’ve become unhinged by the BlackLivesMatter movement. They think the civil rights battle was won in the sixties or maybe in 2008 when a half-white man was elected President by a minority of white people and a large majority of people of color.
Although I don’t waste my time communicating with Ben Carson, who I suspect is as crazy as Donald Trump, I’ve also mean-tweeted and/or commented on the ridiculous statements of racism apologists Candace Owens and Senator Tim Scott. After saying that he had been racially profiled by police seven times, Scott claimed there was no racism. Actually, although he seems sensible, he may also be crazy, so I probably shouldn’t waste my time trying to school him. I haven’t heard his explanation of why cops would profile him if racism doesn’t exist because there is no logical explanation. Scott is racially profiled because he’s a dark-skinned black man, and what has happened to him proves that racism still exists in America. Scott’s allowing himself to be used to write a so-called police reform bill that included no significant reform is the kind of racism apologist act that gives bigots like Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump cover.
Since she doesn’t hold a political office and only really foolish people would consider her an intellectual, Candace Owens is probably less dangerous than Carson, Scott, and Williams. However, she testified at a Congressional hearing on race, and several racism deniers, including Ms. Libertarian, have mentioned her to me. I had fun with Ms. Candace after watching part of a video where she declared that she could not support George Floyd because he’d been in jail and claimed that Shelby Steele had planted some ideas in her head. First, I let her know that Mr. Floyd doesn’t need her support because he’s dead. I told the clueless Ms. Candace that dead people don’t need our support; maybe their families and friends do, but they don’t. Then I told her how to read. She must read critically and not allow writers to “plant ideas” in her head. Finally, after teaching her a brief lesson on criminal justice and racism, I gave her a list of books to read, starting with THE NEW JIM CROW, which explains why so many black men are in jail.
White racists have always relied on “submissive” black folks to give them cover, to tell them that they’re good masters and that the other black folks are lazy, ungrateful criminals. These race traitors have at times, like during slavery, been spies who would inform on slaves planning to run away or revolt. The “real” Uncle Tom was not one of those race traitors. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s protagonist was a humble servant, but he actually died helping two black female slaves to escape. I should probably stop using his name in vain when I attack the racism apologist in the Supreme Court—Judge Thomas. I should call him Uncle Clarence instead of Uncle Thomas. He, Uncle Ben, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Candace will continue to soothe white folks who want to believe that the problem with black folks is they’ve been given too much free stuff, that white liberals are the real racists who have ruined black folks with their “paternal” socio-economic programs, and that black folks who are in jail or who are murdered by cops should be blamed for their fates.
I’ve said in the past that racism deniers are worse than white supremacists because the white supremacists are honest about their racism. But worse than white racism deniers are black (brown and yellow) racism apologists. These race traitors make money and gain power by telling the racist white folks what they want to hear, by denigrating their own people and giving cover to whites who are oppressing and even killing them. Because I’m not a race traitor, I usually try to avoid attacking my own people, but I make one major exception. I will attack racism apologists. I want to spare the world from them.
RIP, John Lewis. You were never a racism apologist!
When the former student reached out to me (and to a black friend she made during her Peace Corps days) last month, I learned that she had read Shelby Steele and Candace Owens (I didn’t realize she had written a book) as well as Walter Williams. This white woman who claims to be Libertarian (are there any liberal Libertarians?) was not an English major but took two of my classes because she liked my tell it like it is, nonconformist personality. She probably assumed I would agree with Williams’ suggestion that liberal solutions like the minimum wage hurt more than helped blacks because I said in THE BRONZE RULE that I didn’t let black students get away with using their race to excuse bad writing. I would tell them my story, which included no Head Start since it didn’t exist, no kindergarten, and an illiterate maternal grandmother, and let them know that if I could become an English professor they could pass Freshman Composition with a “C.” But she missed or misread the earlier passage in that chapter where I discussed the self-fulfilling prophecy, now called confirmation bias, saying that too many black students lived down to racist white teachers‘ low expectations of them. I guess I should have made it clear for the self-soothing racism deniers reading my book that those students probably didn’t have the advantage, the privilege, of being taught by black females during their first six years of school that I had, and that ten weeks with me could not cure thirteen or more (including nursery school or Head Start) years of being told that they are intellectually and culturally deprived because of their race, that they shouldn’t expect to do as well as white students. I set Ms. Peace Corps Libertarian, who maybe should move to Russia, straight by letting her know that seeing black folks as dysfunctional and needing help was the wrong approach, that we are the exceptional race, and her folks are the ones who need even more help than they already have gotten since they’re the ones killing people and taking opioids while we have overcome barriers and succeeded without becoming spiteful and cruel.
As soon as I set Ms. Libertarian straight, I had to mean-tweet Mr. Williams and the paper that published his first article “Please Spare Black Americans From White Liberal Paternalism.” First, I had to let Mr. Williams know, since he’s apparently still living in the 20th Century, that the Speaker of the House is a woman, and the Majority Whip is a black man. I didn’t mention the last President and the last winner of the popular vote because I didn’t want to shock him with the news that women and people of color are running the “liberal” party. He obviously thinks Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the “white paternal liberals.” Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro didn’t register with him. Then I addressed the following statement: “Nowhere else on Earth could such progress have been achieved except in the United States of America.” He was referring to how much black folks had overcome in the century and a half since slavery ended. I pointed out that we had a half-black, half-white President more than a century after slavery, but Nelson Mandela had become President of South Africa much sooner after apartheid ended. Of course, South Africa is predominantly black, but clearly the whites in South Africa didn’t pass voter suppression laws and do whatever else they had to do to prevent the majority of blacks from electing Mandela. They also didn’t exterminate so many blacks that they no longer outnumbered whites. When a Native American becomes President, then we can compare ourselves to South Africa on overcoming racism. After all, our first black President does not have any slave ancestors. His black ancestors are still in Africa. Next I addressed the following absurd statement: “The first step is to acknowledge that the civil rights struggle is over and won.” I wondered in my mean tweets if Williams missed the attacks on affirmative action in the eighties and the voter suppression that continues today. He also apparently knows nothing about the new Jim Crow, where black men and occasionally women are jailed for life for nonviolent crimes. Occasionally, they’re jailed for years without even being convicted of any crime because they can’t make bail. And he hasn’t noticed how many unarmed black people have been murdered, often by the police, without the murderer being tried, much less going to jail. The white folks who read and accept Williams’ nonsense are like the black folks on crack and the white folks on opioids. It’s not surprising that they’ve become unhinged by the BlackLivesMatter movement. They think the civil rights battle was won in the sixties or maybe in 2008 when a half-white man was elected President by a minority of white people and a large majority of people of color.
Although I don’t waste my time communicating with Ben Carson, who I suspect is as crazy as Donald Trump, I’ve also mean-tweeted and/or commented on the ridiculous statements of racism apologists Candace Owens and Senator Tim Scott. After saying that he had been racially profiled by police seven times, Scott claimed there was no racism. Actually, although he seems sensible, he may also be crazy, so I probably shouldn’t waste my time trying to school him. I haven’t heard his explanation of why cops would profile him if racism doesn’t exist because there is no logical explanation. Scott is racially profiled because he’s a dark-skinned black man, and what has happened to him proves that racism still exists in America. Scott’s allowing himself to be used to write a so-called police reform bill that included no significant reform is the kind of racism apologist act that gives bigots like Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump cover.
Since she doesn’t hold a political office and only really foolish people would consider her an intellectual, Candace Owens is probably less dangerous than Carson, Scott, and Williams. However, she testified at a Congressional hearing on race, and several racism deniers, including Ms. Libertarian, have mentioned her to me. I had fun with Ms. Candace after watching part of a video where she declared that she could not support George Floyd because he’d been in jail and claimed that Shelby Steele had planted some ideas in her head. First, I let her know that Mr. Floyd doesn’t need her support because he’s dead. I told the clueless Ms. Candace that dead people don’t need our support; maybe their families and friends do, but they don’t. Then I told her how to read. She must read critically and not allow writers to “plant ideas” in her head. Finally, after teaching her a brief lesson on criminal justice and racism, I gave her a list of books to read, starting with THE NEW JIM CROW, which explains why so many black men are in jail.
White racists have always relied on “submissive” black folks to give them cover, to tell them that they’re good masters and that the other black folks are lazy, ungrateful criminals. These race traitors have at times, like during slavery, been spies who would inform on slaves planning to run away or revolt. The “real” Uncle Tom was not one of those race traitors. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s protagonist was a humble servant, but he actually died helping two black female slaves to escape. I should probably stop using his name in vain when I attack the racism apologist in the Supreme Court—Judge Thomas. I should call him Uncle Clarence instead of Uncle Thomas. He, Uncle Ben, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Candace will continue to soothe white folks who want to believe that the problem with black folks is they’ve been given too much free stuff, that white liberals are the real racists who have ruined black folks with their “paternal” socio-economic programs, and that black folks who are in jail or who are murdered by cops should be blamed for their fates.
I’ve said in the past that racism deniers are worse than white supremacists because the white supremacists are honest about their racism. But worse than white racism deniers are black (brown and yellow) racism apologists. These race traitors make money and gain power by telling the racist white folks what they want to hear, by denigrating their own people and giving cover to whites who are oppressing and even killing them. Because I’m not a race traitor, I usually try to avoid attacking my own people, but I make one major exception. I will attack racism apologists. I want to spare the world from them.
RIP, John Lewis. You were never a racism apologist!
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