In this section, it should be understood that the facts discussed and criticism expressed are focused on ideologues on the Left who craft and implement policy which serves to make it more difficult for many in the Black community to fulfill their desires and potential. There is vast and extraordinarily skillful deception emanating from the Left, and in this sense, the Black community continues to be victimized. But there is also ample room for hope, as more and more minds are opened to the truth — that which sets us free.
Among the Postmodern identity groups, race has validity that some of the others do not. Between American participation in slavery and nearly 100 years of Jim Crow, there is an undisputed lengthy period of time of real victimization of most Blacks by some Whites in the US. The appropriate label for that era is unambiguously Racism. However, it is also true that from the beginning, and increasingly so in the years leading up to the Civil War that there were other Whites who made great efforts to end slavery.
During the Jim Crow era, the treatment of the released Blacks by non-Blacks in America was divided along political party lines, with the Democrat party supporting racial discrimination and intimidation, and the Republican party supporting the assimilation of the released slaves into American society.
In Dinesh D’Souza’s 2016 movie and book, “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democrat Party”, a great deal of previously not widely-known details are revealed concerning political parties in the US relative to racial issues; the most important being the overt racism of the Democrat party not just during Jim Crow, but from its inception with Andrew Jackson until it was taken over by the New Left in the 1960s and ultimately Postmodernism’s Identity Politics in the 1970s. It seems that with Identity Politics, the Democrat party at that point became more covert about its racism, but just as potent in its negative results, as will be shown in the following.
Remember LBJ’s famous statement in the 1960s about getting his Great Society program approved?
“We get this passed and we’ll have those [African-Americans] voting Democrat for the next 200 years.”
It would appear that the first 50 years has validated LBJ’s prediction! Note that it was also under LBJ that the famous Department of Labor’s Moynihan Report came out (1965), which in part identified the deterioration of the family structure and culture in the Black underclass as a leading cause of poverty. Even though LBJ was initially enthusiastic about doing something to help out with the family issue, the Leftist ideologues in his administration overruled him, calling it “blaming the victim”, stating that female heads of households were commonplace in Africa, etc. In other words, Marxist ideology overruled common sense, and no scrutiny was made of family or culture. Note that the refusal of the Left to deal with dysfunctional family and other cultural issues in the 1960s has continued to this day. One has to ask “why”? The possibility has to be considered that the nonsensical obsession by the Left to not deal with these family and cultural problems is that they don’t want solutions; they only want political power.
In the 1970s, as the Postmodern/neo-Marxist ideology was fully adopted by the Left, the result dramatically changed the Democrat party from being essentially racist, pro-union and pro-big government, to supporting Identity Politics, while remaining pro-big government. The Identity Politics focused on the various so-called “oppressed” groups (including race), with the stipulation that all members of each group toe-the-line and support the “party line”. Identity Politics thus also became exclusionary, with so-called “oppressor” groups such as White men and Christians, along with Black Conservatives (who don’t toe the line), unprotected.
And Identity Politics created a further problem; the competition among the various victim identity groups for power. The term sometimes used for this issue is “intersectionality”, when multiple victim groups intersect in individuals. Who is the most oppressed? A straight Black, or a gay Black? And what about a Black, lesbian, Muslim, in a wheelchair, or a Hispanic male who is also ¼ Black, and has a drug using son? Who is more oppressed? Identity Politics, like everything in Postmodernism, is all about power, and devoid of logic or dialogue. Identity Politics is irrational, and the impact along racial lines is damaging to minorities such as the Black community, and in reality, to everyone.
White Supremacy, White Privilege
These two concepts are both related to Identity Politics; the use of the modifier “White” communicates that reality. However, there are distinctions between the two.
For the first term “supremacy”, the issue of White Supremacists must be considered. At a cursory glance, it would seem apparent that there are few people in North America who proclaim to be racial supremacists, and any who do identify in that manner are either ignorant, severely broken, or pathologically malevolent, maybe all three. But as a political or cultural entity, their numbers are miniscule.
If that is the case, why is it that many Blacks claim that they live in a White Supremacist society? It is likely that it is largely the result of the propaganda emanating from Postmodern neo-Marxism, which uses terminology to achieve the greatest amount of cultural and political power. After all, according to this ideology, objective truth doesn’t exist, so why not use the most emotionally charged terms to create the greatest sense of victimhood among the largest group of people possible, to maximize the accrual and maintenance of power?
Thus, on the Left side, the Social Justice egalitarians – mostly academics and media people – craft the “poetic truth” of White Supremacy, and many people in the Black community — some who live in dysfunctional conditions with children attending failing schools, and crime everywhere — cannot resist the thought that the comprehensive disadvantage they witness is fundamentally the result of White racism, accepting the unidimensional (i.e., only one cause) Marxist oppressor (Whites) / victim (Blacks) model.
Granted, as stated above, there is ample past historical evidence (slavery, Jim Crow, etc.) to tempt one to embrace that way of thinking today, even though there have been massive changes in Black-White relationships for the better, as well as much assimilation among all races since World War II. Note that there are many Whites who are also caught up in this Leftist propaganda and who provide further weight to the sense of victimhood.
The tragedy is that, while things are not perfect, it is now Leftist ideology which is the major cause of under-performance in the Black underclass. Part of that ideology is to smear any attempt among non-Blacks or Conservative Blacks to point out pathologies in the Black culture, declaring those expressions as “racist” (for non-Blacks) or “Uncle Tom” (for Conservative Blacks). There are additional problems for Blacks as a result of a host of Leftist-supported government interventions, such as easing up on school suspensions, adopting welfare policies favoring single-parent families, resisting school choice, and indoctrinating youth with Feminism’s anti-boy, anti-male ideology in government-run schools. And in the Black youth culture there is intimidation directed at those who attempt to better themselves as “acting white”.
In the case of “White Privilege”, there is a kernel of objective truth here, but that truth can best be understood by (a) separating it from the Marxist oppressor/oppressed model, and (b) removing the emotion-laden word “privilege” and replacing it with a more generic term such as “advantage”. Thus, a better phrase for analysis might be “majority advantage”. In a diverse group, whether it’s in a country or a country club, the majority sometimes has an advantage, especially if that majority dictates the overall culture of the geographic or other entity such as a country club. And if that advantage is intentionally used to discriminate against minority members, then that should rightfully be condemned and opposed. However, whether or not discrimination is present, there are many factors that lead an individual to success or failure, and “minority disadvantage” can be overcome by diligence, conscientiousness, and responsibility. Further, often “minority advantage” brings something novel and refreshing to bear on whatever endeavor is being pursued.
Consider the example of students on university campuses. Today, most students have been indoctrinated into Postmodern neo-Marxist ideology, while a small minority of students occasionally exist who have escaped or otherwise not been susceptible to that indoctrination. The ideologically minority students face many difficulties that the majority do not, for example in classrooms discussions, interactions with superiors such as teachers and administrators, as well as with social interactions among peers. These students might be impacted by intentional discrimination on the part of some of the majority entities. However, whether or not the minority (in this case, non-Marxist) students have been discriminated against, there is a distinct “minority advantage” related to the requirement of added diligence and personal resiliency that accrues to the minority student’s benefit; they can emerge stronger as a result of the opposition they faced.
Finally, in terms of privilege, there is one sense in which all citizens and legal residents have an immense advantage: “American Privilege”. It’s the reason that essentially all of the immigration is to America, and not Americans emigrating to go elsewhere.
In summary, both of these terms – White Supremacy and White Privilege — are loaded word-weapons of Postmodern neo-Marxist Identity Politics to obtain and retain adherents (propaganda), and to silence and nullify the opposition (coercion) in their quest for cultural and political power.
Leftist Policies that Harm Blacks
Accompanying the Identity Politics are related Postmodern new-Marxist (i.e., Leftist) policies that the victim group must support, or else be the object of shaming, marginalization and ostracization.
Consider the following list of some of these policies that harm Blacks:
| Leftist Policy | Damage to Black Community |
| Affirmative Action | Sets up recipients for failure, demeaning (note: it may have been needed 30 years ago) |
| Minimum Wage | Drives away businesses, jobs |
| Lack of School Choice | Traps youth in failing public schools, and open to Leftist indoctrination |
| Feminism anti-male rhetoric | Destructive, especially to young Black males |
| Entertainment media support of negative cultural traits | Destructive to youth |
| Welfare, other government assistance with little incentive to leave | Enslavement of the poor on the government plantations |
| Fostering a sense of victimization in every possible way (e.g. “hands up, don’t shoot”) | Hopelessness, resentment, separatism rather than assimilation |
| Opposition to voter ID laws | Demeaning, opens door to fraud |
| Left’s war on law enforcement | Lack of law and order, high crime, drives out business |
| Leftist paternalism, suggesting that Blacks need White help | Demeaning, fosters dependency, resentment |
| Exemption of Black students from behavior rules | Lack of self-discipline, fosters unruly behavior |
| Illegal immigration | Takes jobs from Black community |
| Anti-Christian, anti-family policies | Devastating to the Black community |
| Early sex education, normalization of LGBTQ behavior | Increases promiscuity, increase in AIDS and other STDs |
| Increasing attacks on Christianity and public Christian expression | Reduces influence of the Christian church |
| Continuation of the “Negro Project” via nearby abortion clinics | Weakens families, emotionally devastating to women, fosters promiscuity |
Similar observations and conclusions are found in John Perazzo: “Victims of the Left – Black Americans” (section headings listed):
- How the Left Created Black Victimology and Black Rejection of American Values
- Affirmative Action: How the Left Has Harmed Blacks through the Bigotry of Low Expectations
- How the Left Consigns Blacks to Substandard Education
- How the War on Poverty Devastated the Black Community
- How the Failed Crusade of “Sex Education” Harmed the Black Community
- The Crime Wave that Has Decimated Black America
- How Blacks Have Been Victimized by Leftist Policies Concerning AIDS
- How the Left Demands Black Conformity of Thought
In discussing the documentary “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democrat Party”, filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza makes the following comparison between the Democrat plantations under slavery, and their contemporary urban plantations under progressivism, created and maintained by the Left:
| Feature | Under Slavery | With Contemporary Urban Plantations |
| Dwellings | Ramshackle | Tenements, projects |
| Family | Disarray by slaveholders | Disarray by Democrat policy, Hollywood influence |
| Violence | By slaveholders | By gangs, drug dealers |
| Provision | Meager | Food stamps, lack of jobs due to violence, minimum wage |
| Opportunity | No education, imprisoned (some escaped) | Poor education, demonization of “acting White”, Democrat-provided victim mentality leading to hopelessness (some escape) |
How can today’s extreme victimization of Blacks – especially the underclass – by the Leftist Identity Politics policies be considered anything but racist? Fine, if there were problems with these policies after two or three years when the Left took control at the end of 1960s, maybe give them a little more time. But after 50 years – with Black “leadership” in charge of all governmental entities in many of our urban centers – the plight along many indices show catastrophic decline: illiteracy, illegitimate births, aborted pregnancies, crime, infrastructure, business climate, employment. Yet as mentioned above the Left prohibits criticism of the underlying culture of the underclass, and works diligently with Marxist groups such as Black Lives Matter to decrease effectiveness of law enforcement in the urban areas, ensuring high crime rates, with little interest in the establishment or retention of businesses in these areas, for example by raising minimum wages. And the Left also adamantly opposes school choice for poor families to get their kids out of failing schools, which might offer some hope. And for many years the Left has ensured policies which incentivize single-parent households, going back to the time of the rejected Moynihan Report.
No, it appears that the Left – at the elite level – has no incentive to see positive change; they support “hands up, don’t shoot” to enhance a sense of victimization, but demonize groups that support abstinence until married programs, preferring earlier and more inappropriate sex education for small children. It’s no wonder that anti-family policies emanate from today’s Left; their founders wanted to trash traditional families and smash monogamy (and they led extremely licentious lifestyles to “walk their talk”).
Note that the Black community – whose family structure just prior to the Leftist takeover was not that far behind the general population (and that was under Jim Crow and similar institutional racism) – has unfortunately responded “well” to the Leftist founders’ wishes, with catastrophic results. In what sense is this NOT racism of the Left, since they took over in the 1960s?
White Guilt and Black Protests
Black Conservative author Shelby Steele published an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Black Protest Has Lost Its Power”. In it he states that for many years, protest was the means of gaining freedom in the wider culture; the Civil Rights movement after World War II being a prime example.
But what if all the major objectives of protest have been achieved, and essential freedom the result? Steele brings up the 4,000 black-on-black murders in Chicago in 2016. He goes on to say:
“We can say that past oppression left us unprepared for freedom. This is certainly true. But it is no consolation. Freedom is just freedom. It is a condition, not an agent of change. It does not develop or uplift those who win it. Freedom holds us accountable no matter the disadvantages we inherit from the past. The tragedy in Chicago—rightly or wrongly—reflects on black America.
“That’s why, in the face of freedom’s unsparing judgmentalism, we reflexively claim that freedom is a lie. We conjure elaborate narratives that give white racism new life in the present: “systemic” and “structural” racism, racist “microaggressions,” “white privilege,” and so on. All these narratives insist that blacks are still victims of racism, and that freedom’s accountability is an injustice.
“We end up giving victimization the charisma of black authenticity. Suffering, poverty and underdevelopment are the things that make you “truly black.” Success and achievement throw your authenticity into question.”
Leading the charge for maintaining that self-defeating sense of victimization is Identity Politics as applied to matters of race.
Rational Discrimination
There’s a mind-game that was circulating in the 1990s, as follows:
Two young black men are walking down a sidewalk in their fairly run-down somewhat crime infested neighborhood. They’re carrying backpacks, and their jeans are hanging low, with baseball caps askew. A taxi comes by, and they attempt to hail it, to get a ride.
The taxi slows down, and then continues on its way.
Question #1: Were the two young men discriminated against?
Additional information: The taxi driver was Black.
Question #2: Were the two young men discriminated against?
Additional information: The two young men were late for a Bible Study, and their back packs contained Bibles, and other handouts for the Study.
Question #3: How could the outcome have been different?
The answer to both questions 1 and 2 is yes, they were discriminated against, but the discrimination was rational; the cab drivers, based upon appearances and location, plus his knowledge of the culture of that neighborhood, decided was too risky to stop for the young men. It wasn’t that he hated Blacks, nor was a racist; he just wanted to finish his workday and arrive safely back home with his family that evening.
But these two young men WERE discriminated against. Yet it was rational.
Now, the non-Black driver would likely at least have been shamed, and perhaps fined or even lost his license. What about for the Black driver?
Black Libertarian Economist Walter E. Williams describes rational discrimination as related to freedom of association:
One of my strong values is freedom of association. If you believe in freedom of association, you have to accept that people will associate in ways that you find offensive. And I believe that people have the right to discriminate on any basis they want, so long as they’re not using government. For example, I don’t believe that a [public] library should be able to discriminate against me, because I’m a taxpayer….
Discrimination for me is just an act of choice. And we all discriminate …. When I was choosing a wife to marry, I didn’t give every woman an equal opportunity. I discriminated against Japanese women, Italian women, women with criminal records, women that did not bathe regularly: I discriminated on all kinds of people.
The issue of rational discrimination was discussed in detail in Dinesh D’Souza’s 1996 book, “The End of Racism”; a full discussion is beyond the scope of this section. Consider some concluding remarks at the end of his lengthy chapter entitled “Rational Discrimination”:
Thus the puzzle of whites and blacks witnessing the same racial landscape and coming up with radically different interpretations of it is finally resolved: whites are correct in their observation that they do not generally engage in irrational discrimination against blacks, and blacks warranted in their conviction that discrimination against innocent members of their group, whether rational or not, is often painful, dehumanizing, and immoral. Whites are making a rational appeal to group traits, whereas blacks are making an ethical appeal to personal rights. Perhaps the most sensible appraisal of the new and complex face of contemporary racism and discrimination comes from African American historian John Hope Franklin. “There’s still racism manifested everywhere in this country,” Franklin said in a recent interview. “Not all of it is in our heads. A lot of it is in our heads. But blacks ought to help themselves more and stop crying about what they don’t get. There are enormous opportunities that they ought to grasp.”
Critique: This linked video demonstrates that the political power accrued by application of Identity Politics does not result in improvement in the lives of Black Americans.
A more extensive video entitled, “Identity Politics & The Marxist Lie of White Privilege,” by Jordan B. Peterson provides an in-depth critique of Marxism, Postmodernism and Identity Politics, and then addresses the concept of White Privilege. He states that for society to be sustainable and cohesive, people must be considered and treated as individuals. To use group racial or ethnic labels such as “White” of “Black” to apply to an individual is inherently racist and reprehensible and fosters the disintegration of society.
A less extensive video dealing with the core issue within Identity Politics of victimhood is given by Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt in a 2016 lecture at Duke University. This video clip provides insight into the devastation caused by the adoption of victimhood among university students in the various Identity groups on campus. Clearly that devastation is not limited to university students but affects all who are seduced into the Marxist spirit of victimhood.
Black Conservatives are not Victims
When everything is taken into account, there is no question that Black conservatism provides an alternative to Identity Politics and the problems in the Black underclass, with the emphasis on responsibility and the individual as the antidote. Yet the Democrat party marginalizes, demonizes and opposes Black conservatives and the non-Leftist policies they propose. In fact, these people are the best hope for the entire country, because they have suffered, yet have TRANSCENDED victimhood!
Consider quotes from some Black conservative writers concerning the negative effect of progressive policies emanating from Identity Politics on the Black community:
Jason Riley: “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed”
In Please Stop Helping Us, Jason L. Riley examines how well-intentioned welfare programs are in fact holding black Americans back. Minimum-wage laws may lift earnings for people who are already employed, but they price a disproportionate number of blacks out of the labor force. Affirmative action in higher education is intended to address past discrimination, but the result is fewer black college graduates than would otherwise exist. And so it goes with everything from soft-on-crime laws, which make black neighborhoods more dangerous, to policies that limit school choice out of a mistaken belief that charter schools and voucher programs harm the traditional public schools that most low-income students attend. (from Amazon description: bold letters added)
Derryck Green – “The Absence of the Black Church”
Because of the postmodern trappings of “tolerance,” “diversity,” and relativism, blacks have willingly relinquished the painful process of self-critiquing their own community. The moral and spiritual deficiency has led black culture to define “authenticity” as comporting oneself with behaviors and stereotypes that the generations of many black grandparents and great grandparents sought to avoid and overcome.
John McWhorter – “What’s Holding Blacks Back?”
“Victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism underlie the general black community’s response to all race-related issues.… Today, these three thought patterns impede black advancement much more than racism; and dysfunctional inner cities, corporate glass ceilings, and black educational underachievement will persist until such thinking disappears. In my experience, trying to show many African-Americans how mistaken and counterproductive these ideas are is like trying to convince a religious person that God does not exist: the sentiments are beyond the reach of rational, civil discourse.”
Shelby Steele – “The Loneliness of the Black Conservative”
“Today a public ‘black conservative’ will surely meet a stunning amount of animus, demonization, misunderstanding, and flat-out, undifferentiated contempt. And there is a kind of licensing process involved here in which the black leadership—normally protective even of people like Marion Barry and O. J. Simpson—licenses blacks and whites to have contempt for the black conservative. It is a part of the group’s manipulation of shame to let certain of its members languish outside the perimeter of group protection where even politically correct whites (who normally repress criticism of blacks) can show contempt for them.”
A question may be asked as to the scriptural basis for refutation of the above contemporary views of Black conservatives. For Christians who support the Democrat party, how does one frame the overt racism from Andrew Jackson to LBJ, or the covert Postmodern racism (at the elite level) of Identity Politics which has created and maintained today’s urban plantation for the Black underclass?
If you’re unfamiliar with the thoughts of Black conservatives, sample videos and recommended books are provided in the Appendix.