Thursday, June 25, 2015

The Liberal Pose: Politics as Fashion Statement

I swear, every time I leave town, the world falls apart. Sheeez. Okay. I'm back. Can we all calm down now and be reasonable?

Just as I was leaving last week, I heard the news about the Church killings in Charleston. Now according to news reports, nine people in a Black church were killed by a crazed racist with a gun. But, after listening to the commentary on the incident, it has became apparent to me that there are some people who are under the impression that the parishioners of this Black church were killed, not with a gun, but with a Confederate flag, although I have yet to hear anyone explain exactly how Dylann Roof could have killed nine people with a large red and blue piece of cloth.

If you trace the reasoning back from consequent to ground, it seems clear that these people believe that, had these flags not been available, these deaths would not have happened. And further deaths, this implicit logic would seem to suggest, will be prevented if we will remove these flags.

Of course, this is just the usual routine we all have to go through every time there is a high profile crime committed in this country--particularly if it has anything to with race or gender (or purported gender).

Every crime that is committed now must, if possible, be universalized and fitted into some pre-existing narrative framework of oppression--that of widespread racism, or anti-gay oppression, or latent hostility toward women. These are categories into which, if at all possible, we must fit every violent event.

And not only must it fit into the narrative of oppression, it must be seen as a crisis. Any particular act is not just a particular act: It is always an instance of some larger conspiracy of Intolerance against the oppressed group of the week. If a White person performs an act of violence against a Black person it is never an isolated act (whereas if it is Black on White violence, it is, of course, an isolated incident).

Liberals don't want good race relations. It is in their interest to fan racial tensions as often as possible. Black leaders like Al Sharpton can't have much to say about Rachel Dolezal, the head of the NAACP. While she is not in fact Black, she shares with Sharpton and his ilk the fact that she is a professional Black--someone who strikes the oppressed Black pose. They're in the same business.

The criminals themselves love this. They know their cause will be front and center on the evening news. When Dylann Roof was shooting members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, he intentionally left one survivor, telling her that he wanted her to live because "we need someone to survive," presumably so she could tell others what happened.

Liberal politicians love it too. They can line up at microphones and strike the liberal pose, pretending to be at the forefront of the War on Racism to which they attribute all the violence is our society.

It's not difficult at all.

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