Even If They Are Right
The other day I found myself in a room discussing race. Being a professional environment, not wanting to jeopardize how my colleagues thought of me, and recognizing that my colleagues would not likely be open to a reactionary interpretation, I kept my mouth shut. As I listened to the standard progressive narrative on race in America, I thought to myself “If they are right, I am not only mistaken but morally in the wrong.” Every once and a while I have these thoughts, not doubts, mind you, but the recognition that if American culture is systemically racist, if being in the LGBT+ community is something to be proud of, or if democracy is indeed the best possible form of government, then I sin every time I oppose one of these propositions. If American culture is systemically racist, let’s say, and if by this we mean that America’s institutions, values, and social roles are such that they consistently deny the dignity owed to a person of color, and if I have historically denied this and and tried to convince others to the contrary, then I actively took part in covering up injustice. For someone trying to be live a virtuous life (and, in my case, failing constantly), this is a scary prospect.
At the end of the day, I mulled over what was said about race and started to parse out what was true, what was false, and what needed more adequate interpretation, but then I stopped and said to myself “let’s assume they are right, let’s assume America is systemically racist. What would this mean for me?” If they are right, should I become a progressive? Should I cease being a dissident and join in the noxious recoiling of National Review? It would be morally and intellectually irresponsible of me to persist in an error, and error that involves me in injustice, so something would need to change if I were wrong. How could I look at an icon of Christ if I deny the dignity of people of color daily?
Something I found helpful when thinking this over was the realization that there is a moral question and a political question. The moral question is as such: is it the case that America systemically denies the dignity properly due to people of color? The political question is the following: if the answer to the former is “yes”, then ought I cooperate politically with those who also answer in the affirmative? If the answer to the former is “yes”, keeping in mind that I firmly maintain the answer to be “no”, I do not think this obligates us to answer in the affirmative to the later. Why? Because even if it is the case that America is systemically racist, the political forces whom I would naturally be lead to cooperate with are promoting abortion, infanticide, the chemical castration of children (“sex change operations”), and replacement level immigration. To cooperate politically with those that oppose systemic racism would be to cooperate with forces who advocate for the killing and abuse of children, as well as a demographic genocide of my own people. Keep in mind that the main political forces fighting systemic racism, if such a thing exists, are equally committed to abortion, infanticide, and replacement level immigration as intersectional areas of justice, meaning that we cannot meaningfully talk about women’s rights (abortion) without also talking about immigrant rights and justice for people of color. Justice done to one section of society is not really justice, justice must be intersectional. While there may be a person, and I know such people, that believe that America is systemically racist but also oppose abortion and want to see limited immigration, this is not so with progressive institutions and politicians. Either I stand against systemic racism politically and tacitly support abortion, infanticide and the demographic genocide of my own people, or I oppose anti-racist political action and support children’s lives, dignity and the future of my people.
Note that this dichotomy does not exclude the possibility of helping people of color at the non-political level, at the level of face-to-face. What is excluded is the possibility of fighting systemic racism non-politically, for it would seem that only political power would be capable of fundamentally restructuring American society, which would be necessary if the current social structure is inherently unjust. Understanding this, the dichotomy takes on a tragic character. A choice must be made, and for this reason even if the progressives are right I have to continue fighting them.