Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Regressive Left’s Obsession with Race

Just look at this article here in the UK Independent by Edward Siddons, which concerns the recent sexual assaults in Germany.

If we read it carefully we can see before our eyes an outstanding fault of the modern left: the bizarre conflation of culture with race.

First, Siddons points out that some people on the far right are complaining that maybe the cultural attitudes of the attackers might have something to do with their crimes.

But then Siddons immediately implies that this means that such people are therefore focusing on the attackers’ race, with the implication that they must all be racists. What?!

In looking at the news coverage and personalities raising issues about the events in the media over the Cologne attacks and even on the populist right, I see nobody screaming about the race of the attackers and saying that they committed the crimes because it is in their genes. No doubt some exist on the really far right, but clearly these people do not dominate the conversation.

Instead, there are questions about whether some of the regressive cultural ideas in the parts of the world from which the attackers came might have something to do with their crimes. This is clearly totally different from their racial origin: culture is not race.

There seems little doubt that the conflation of culture with race comes right out of the Postmodernist poison and all its offshoots over the past 30 years, and that it is a most dangerous and sinister idea, for it would make even criticism of culture or cultural ideas tantamount to racism.

Just think about where it would lead: we could easily say that neo-Nazism in Germany as a cultural belief system must be racial in origin and in the genes of Germans. Therefore any criticism of German neo-Nazism is equivalent to anti-German racism!

Or take this video below about a similar spate of sexual assaults in Sweden.



If we take the view that criticism of culture is tantamount to racism, then it would follow that this BBC report is racist for merely letting people suggest that culture may have something to do with the attacks.

That is where this nonsense would logically end.

9 comments:

  1. Islam is not a race is a cop out.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/20/islam-race-richard-dawkins

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    Replies
    1. (1) The article is incoherent.

      First, the author agrees that the religious identity in question is not a race, but then half-way through we read: "Islam is not a race, but Muslims are". What?

      (2) "it is disingenuous to claim that Islam has no colour."

      ??? How can a religious belief per se have a racial identity? It does not.

      Presumably what is meant is that there are many Muslims who are not white. True. But nobody denied that.

      (3) "When discrimination against some eastern Europeans in the UK is called racism, you don't hear cries of "Polish is not a race" to justify plain prejudice"

      First, being Polish is a nationality, not a race per se. Secondly, if you looked closely enough I'd be very surprised if any of the discrimination against Poles is caused by people thinking Poles are racially inferior. This is just xenophobia.

      (4) the issue here is that culture is not race.

      Is being a conservative Catholic and being vehemently opposed to contraception a phenomenon closely related to the cultural/religious beliefs of conservative Catholicism?

      Clearly, yes.

      You can't close down discussion of regressive Catholic social views by screaming that this is just anti-Italian or anti-Irish or anti-Hispanic racism, when race clearly isn't the issue at all.

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    2. Perhaps incoherent to you. But makes perfect sense to me.

      There's always a pretense in these conversations. Obviously in the UK, Muslims are likely brown ... there are lot of people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc.

      So it's people who hate Islam or Muslims who typically cop out with Islam is not a race. The technical point is irrelevant.

      "How can a religious belief per se have a racial identity? It does not. "

      See the point above.

      More importantly, the point is that racists just hide behind the "religion is not a race" so that they can show their hate for others. They want to say "oh we are just attacking the beliefs" but that's obviously not the case.

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    3. "So it's people who hate Islam or Muslims who typically cop out with Islam is not a race.

      "Typically"? I find this highly dubious.

      Some small group of vicious right wing thugs or idiots may well hate irrationally.

      But liberal or secular left-wing people or atheists or even conservatives who simply wish to carefully and fairly examine religions and cultural ideas to examine those ideas and scrutinise them are not irrational bigots nor do they suffer from some pathological phobia.

      Even liberal Muslims often point out that their religion is not a race.
      E.g., have you never heard of Maajid Nawaz?:

      https://twitter.com/maajidnawaz/status/554976010425606144

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    4. Oh "typically" was an undertone.

      The point is not whether Islam is a race or not. It's not a race

      Consider the statement: "Asians have low intelligence".

      Is that racist?

      Yes.

      But "Asian" is not a race. People in Asia are diverse. So it is irrelevant whether Asian is a race or not. The person who says Asians have low intelligence is racist.

      It's the same case with Islam or Muslims. They live everywhere.

      You could critique a religion ... go ahead ... but Islam is not a race is a cop out!

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    5. Ramanan's claim is ridiculous. "Asians have .." is a statement about race because identifies a group by a physical trait, not an idea they hold. "Christians have ..." is quite different. The group is identified and defined by their beliefs.

      Logic, truth, accuract, and clarity are no copouts.

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    6. "There seems little doubt that the conflation of culture with race comes right out of the Postmodernist poison and all its offshoots over the past 30 years, and that it is a most dangerous and sinister idea, for it would make even criticism of culture or cultural ideas tantamount to racism."

      Indeed. That's the goal. That's Ramanan's tactic too I think.

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  2. But "Asian" is not a race.

    Asians are a number of races, so yes it is racist to imply they are inferior to non-Asian races.

    Islam is a religion, like Christianity. To say that criticising Islam is racist is as silly as saying that criticising Christianity is racist.

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  3. A good article on related stuff. http://observer.com/2016/02/the-totalitarian-doctrine-of-social-justice-warriors/

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