Reading Mishra's powerful analysis, I only wished for inclusion of white nationalists rage against women. Women who step out of line, of course.
13
Whites are superior. There's nothing close to the civilization of North / Western Europe. The Egyptians and Chinese and otherss had some bright eras but still no comparison.
6
@Pankaj
You cite historical references and people from the 1800's and early 1900's very selectively for the purposes of your argument.
In one example you state:
"At the post-World War I Paris Peace Conference, which Wilson supervised, the leaders of Britain, the United States, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Canada not only humiliated the many Asians and Africans demanding self-determination; they also jointly defeated an attempt by Japan, their wartime ally, to have a racial equality clause included in the Covenant of the League of Nations."
But you then completely fail to acknowledge Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written after World War 2 which states:
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Article 2 proceeds:
"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
For your information, the creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was initiated by the Western Allies after World War 2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
You will find the vast majority of people in the west hold these ideals very dear to our hearts.
Let's live the dream!
25
It seems to me that religion has been throughout history the most powerful means by which to divide and conquer, not an artificial construct like 'race'. That religion has tended to sort along 'racial' lines is purely an accident of geography. Now that I think about it, religions, too, are also artificial constructs, pure fiction and folklore. And they all share the wish to control and subjugate, in particular women.
17
Read "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It gives excellent insight on why certain societies (white, European) gained the upper hand in the technologies that allowed them to exploit other societies. (Hint: It had nothing to do with superior intelligence.) There is only one species of Homo sapiens on earth today. Petty differences like skin color mean nothing.
18
As human beings over populate the planet Earth, there will be much finger pointing and blame casting. White people who comment or criticize people from tribal or peasant cultures for their habit of over breeding and destroying their environments will be called racists. To take any notice of other ethnic groups demographically will be forbidden.
Meanwhile as the environment quickly collapses from human over saturation, the white people who had fewer children will have less power to effect any change.
Environmentalism is racism. Everyone has the right to be fruitful and multiply. No one has any right to criticize anyone else for the despoliation of Nature. Equality is extinction.
7
Technologically advanced societies have always dominated lesser ones until recently. The first to make fire, sharpen stone,bronze,iron etc had tremendous advantage over their neighbors. There are no examples of peoples not using advanced tools of the day not dominating neighbors when possible.
Western Europe lagged far behind other parts of the World until 500 years ago,in the last 300 discoveries in most fields originated there or the US.
This rapid advancement could have happened in Asia,Africa or in South America just as well had they a Martin Luther to free the individual mind and conscience from enforced dogmas.
All races have the capability to produce individuals with brainpower to discover and invent in the right conditions and luck.
5
Excellent article. I agree with 99.8% of it.
But where many in the left (and I’m most assuredly on the left) go wrong is equating/conflating religious beliefs with gender and race. Any given religion is a collection of ideas, no different than a political ideology, that the individual can choose to accept or reject. Unlike, gender and race, religion is something that is learned.
I don’t think we should treat religion with such kid gloves as we do in the US. If the ideas are bad, they need be challenged.
In our public discourse, too often (like every single time) religious belief trumps all other rational argument. The argument stops because someone just believes something because they believe it. That’s not good for society.
We see repercussions of this thinking even in our politics where “leaders” get away with adhering to viewpoints and policies that are contrary to data and fact because they “believe” something false to be true.
17
Just goes to show that a writer can cherry pick a set of historical facts, mix in bias and produce an argument to support that bias- in this case the liberal, left wing type.
35
As an immigrant, I’ve always felt there’s a racial tension in the air in the US. Sadly, from all sides. I look white and could pass for a natural born American, and I feel some communities attack me for no good reason... do they think I was one of the people who oppressed their ancestors? Only when they hear my accent they can tell I didn’t.
I grew up between two countries, one of them with a large black population; but the US racial tension feels very different than what I’m used to. People in my native country are mostly friendly and I never felt any hate.
I hope this country is not heading to a racial war, but it doesn’t feel good right now.
13
Nobody thinks you oppressed anyone’s ancestors. If you pass for white, however, you do benefit unfairly from those that oppressed people’s ancestors, and it doesn’t matter that you’re not from here. If you live in the U.S., you should probably learn about its foundations on white supremacy and at least learn to talk about it without sounding like you’re giving a “poor me, I’m not even from here and these people hate me” lecture.
6
Only in highly rated (Reader Pick) comments like those here by William M. Palmer, Esq. Boston Aug. 31 and Melvyn Magree Dulutn MN Aug. 30 or in the unique comments by Blackmamba can we read in the New York Times about the following ideas:
There is only one race, the human
We should take the time to judge a person by what is in their mind, on their mind, and how they behave, not by the "race" assigned to them by the US Census Bureau.
The US Census Bureau should collect and make available high quality SES data and end classification by "race"
Times Editorials and OpEds pretty much employ USCB views of us Americans, we belong to races, and those assigned to each race are partly genetically programmed to behave in certain ways. Never will you read a Times OpEd/Editorial founded in the thinking of this man, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Dorothy Roberts, or former USCB Director Kenneth Prewitt.
I mention Appiah because his newest book is reviewed in the Times today: Go to https://nyti.ms/2PefiPR
THE LIES THAT BIND
Rethinking Identity: Creed, Country, Color, Class, Culture
By Kwame Anthony Appiah
I mention the other two authors, Prewitt and Roberts in my unread comments here and elsewhere. I have been waiting since 2013 to hear from a comment writer who has read one of their books. So far N = 0.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
10
Still unwilling to let go of the idea that different "races" are genetically predisposed in different ways. I put "races" in double-quotes because, according to science, there is no such thing as "race". Race has no biological basis, so we do NOT belong to races.
7
Eye roll.
20
That which we see as rising racism and white supremacy is symptomatic of the real issues - increasing overpopulation and overconsumption. We're two-legged rats trapped in a finite cage, competing for an ever-decreasing supply of goods and services. Few of us yet grok how dire are our circumstances as a species. In the meantime, we attempt to band together with our "tribe" (however we define that on any given day) in the futile hope that we'll be able to survive the coming apocalypse.
25
Isn’t it amazing to see how far we humans have advanced technologically, yet psychologically we haven’t progressed much at all. Can we survive ourselves?
10
Brilliant.
1
The author’s view is colored by a level of far left virtue signaling that makes it difficult to take his arguments seriously. To wit, his reference to Israel as a colonial project is right but he gets the colonialists identity wrong. The Jews are the indigenous people of Palestine whose land was invaded and settled by the Arab/Muslim imperialists - a “non-white” settler project that conquered and subjugated vast territory and if not checked will continue its insidious march.
32
Under this model, Europeans were the aggressors who invaded the “New World,” depriving its rightful inhabitants of their land (a description hard to dispute, in itself). When does marking rights by a trail of battles and defeats end and how does it serve the present? When do we address what is just, given the present?
10
Good question. I would say that in the wake of battles a group identity is born. What is most of history, really, but a compilation of who won or who lost?
2
"identity politics and political correctness — code for historically scorned peoples’ daring to propose norms about how they are treated"
Just a little bit of a vast generalization to imply that everyone concerned with 'identity politics' is just secretly scared of loosing their 'white religion'. That they might not be concerned with the collectivist ideology of assuming a person's group identity is paramount and their individual humanity is secondary. But I suppose that concern for a kind of individualism is itself a product of the 'white nations' correct?
From what I heard from 'Canadian Youtube personality' Peterson that is his chief concern with identity politics- the sidelining of individual identity to group identity.
Speaking of which - this 'west is best'. Do the promoters of such a theory include Stalinist Russia? And are the Gulags of Stalin somehow considered superior to the mass murders of Mao's communist China? Because...you know..a least the Russians were white. How exactly does it work?
Can we go back to first definitions about what this 'whiteness' is please? Who exactly gets to belong to this 'religion'?
12
Nonsense! Utter nonsense built on a thread of truth about relatively insignificant numbers of racist whites, who were permanently marginalized and emasculated when the vast majority of non-racist whiles elected Barack Obama--twice. This sophist contrivance is also woven from a very real history of once-prevalent racism among whites, which is long gone, abated by ever-increasing economic prosperity and free trade. Worldwide poverty has never been lower.
What keeps the myth of rampant racism alive are dishonest distortions of truth and facts such as those contained in this article as told by charlatans who profit--not necessarily financially--by playing the race card to enflame fears of a relatively minor social tumor, which remaining racism is.
Even under a putative racist president, elected because Obama and progressives in Congress overplayed their socialist agenda, shoving tax-and-regulate policies down Americans' throats, the effect of Trump's racism in an era when it is abhorred by most folks has produced the greatest increase in employment and wealth among black Americans since the demise of slavery.
If America is suffering from the "grave danger" of white supremacism, African Americans must be loving it. Their employment and wealth statistics have never been higher, thanks to Trump's tax cuts and assault on Obama's regulations. Unfortunately, Trump's tariff taxes have begun to destroy the economic advantages his earlier actions delivered.
26
Here's to a future where racial groupings become more and more irrelevant.
8
@J Good luck with that fantasy. The only people who don’t seem that concerned about their “race” are liberal whites.
6
@J in an increasingly multicultural world we are seeing that race, and thus identity, are becoming more and more relevant.
4
I can't wait till there is such a mixing of races that everyone is a slightly beige/tan color and there is an end to the ego driven hate, fear, and mania of racism
16
@silversword your sentiment calls to mind the notion of the “tyranny of small differences”. The challenge is not homogenizing skin color because our brains evolved to perceive differences - however small - maybe CRIPR can fix that
1
THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN IS BEING WHITE! The fact is that the oldest human remains are consistently found in Africa. So that means that we are ALL AFRICANS. White skin is a genetic mutation--an adaptation to parts of the globe where there is less sunlight, so the production of vitamin D that requires exposure to the sun meant that lighter skinned individuals would be more adaptive and hence survive in greater numbers in the northern latitutdes. So let's get over skin color! Planet Earth is our lifeboat. There is no other choice. And don't kid yourselves--if there ever are human colonies on the Moon or Mars, the 99% will be left to fry on Planet Earth, while the 1% will be the "chosen" to occupy the extraterrestrial KKKolonies, defended by firearms.
6
Re: "Indulged by Mr. Murdoch’s newspapers, writers like Bernard Lewis, Niall Ferguson, David Frum, Andrew Sullivan and Andrew Roberts repeatedly urged American neoconservatives after the Sept. 11 attacks to take up the aging white man’s burden and quell mutinous natives. "
Mr. Mishra provides no link, no footnote for the Ferguson and Frum references.
14
Quite a bit happened between Teddy Roosevelt, and ideas that were mainstream then, and Donald Trump, who is conveniently racist to draw a string between them.
But how to explain the Kennedy's? Racists? How about Lyndon Johnson? Racist? He passed the "War on Poverty", starting Welfare help for minorities, and the "Civil Rights Act." What about Jimmy Carter, from the Deep South and hardly a racist, no one can accuse him. And then, Barack Obama, voted in twice by the same voters in Mi Wis Penn Ohio, 77,000 of them, that ended up voting for Trump. Did they suddenly become racist? That seems unlikely. Maybe, but unlikely.
Look at Colleges, Lit and Humanities departments are dominated by women. More women graduate now than men. Diversity and Inclusion movements have hired a plethora of professors and teaching cadre, so that the campuses don't look anything like they did at one time.
I live in an integrated community, where the most Chaldean immigrants live compared to anywhere in the US, and they have opened business after business, have a 65% family business ownership rate, and have singlehandedly raised home values in the area, which btw, is dominated by Whites, at 73%. Latinos, some black members and a few other minorities.
Does racism truly explain where we are today?
Chaladeans are doing better than many Americans. As are the Asian students, and Vietnamese immigrants.
Are you sure oppression is explaining everything given these kind of indicators?
19
Yes, humanity is corrupt, tyranny is, and has been, always present everywhere, life is hell. A half-truth, of course. Does Mishra really think that, hypothetically, if India had led the technological advance and colonized the world, and that consequently we were all speaking Hindi as the 'lingua franca' of academic and commercial discourse, that the world would be any more just under the domination of persons of his more brown shade of skin? The reason this article is so half baked is that it only focuses on the negative aspect of civilization. What this article really expresses is "The Religion of Anti-racism". See John McWhorter's article "Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion' for example. The article offers no constructive solutions for ameliorating the wrongs of the world, which problems, by the way, are absolutely nothing new, just vague incantations to "strip the white supremacy", whatever that means. Meanwhile the communist chinese are sending their kids to US colleges, and all sorts of ethnic categories that were once not characterized as in the "anglosphere' are intermarrying like crazy with the anglosphere. This guy really needs to get married (preferably to someone of a different ethnicity) and calm down.
12
As an old, white guy I am constantly struck by the disconnect between these idiots asserting their innate racial superiority while at the same time asserting that their existence, their culture and their history are threatened by their supposed inferiors.
Here's a suggestion for the race warriors: if you think you're superior, prove it. Cure cancer. Solve global warming. Invent a renewable, low-impact source of energy. Be the one to figure out how to break the political gridlock of extremism and single-issue myopia.
Hell, just graduate at the top of your class, be the star athlete on the team, compose a compelling, poignant poem, create a moving work of art. Be the person who your community respects, welcomes, seeks out in times of trouble. Be the person who shows up without being asked and does what's needed without the need for praise and recognition.
Do more of that and I might take your assertions of superiority more seriously, not for your race but for you as an individual. If you're looking for role models, they're all around you in every color, gender, size and shape.
If you can't, then I recommend you take the option of George Patton's oft-quoted saying, "Lead me, follow me or get out of my way."
14
I believe Trump's desire to appease Russia may be based upon his intention to enlist Russia as an ally in a struggle against China and salvation of Western -- that is, white -- culture.
1
> "The Australian lawmaker who recently urged a “final solution” for Muslim immigrants was only slightly out of tune with public debate about immigration in Australia."
This clear distortion makes me doubt the authors other examples in this article.
The man "slightly out of tune" was widely condemned by all sides of parliament, fell into parliament after the disqualification of others and had only 19 Australians vote for him in the election. Yes 19.
Around 28% of Australia's population is born elsewhere, one of the highest in the western world. For comparisons sake, in America it is around 13.5%. India and China are currently doing battle to claim the first spot in providing the most immigrants. Our offices are full of people from around the globe.
You don't get to a percentage like 28% without a population willing to take a great number of people from around the world every year.
To suggest his "final solution" speech is in any way close to the mainstream immigration debate is a gross distortion and suggests the authors own prejudices are coming into play. A line to fit his story about Australia's racist past being mainstream today, rather than the truth.
22
Israel, the world’s last active settler-colonialist project ? What about China, occupying Tibet and settling more and more Han Chinese there ?
21
All I can say is that I realize the suffering Western Civilization has wrought upon much of the world for the past several hundred years, but that in doing so we have created the most advanced and powerful civilization ever known by orders of magnitude, where even the least among us have things that would be the envy of kings of antiquity. You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.
We are far from the only race or civilization to inflict manifold misery upon conquered nations (read: Ghengis Khan and the rest). However, we are the only ones who continually navel gaze and hand wring instead of basking in the glories of our making. It is a degenerate impulse, and will be our undoing.
There is a fight coming- and the first casualties won't be the "opressed" minorities (who, incidentally, enjoy the fruits of this civilization in spite of the suffering of their forebears) but it will be among the traitors within out ranks who have actively sought to undermine the very system which has made their lives so liveable. Having fought the global war on terror, I can tell you, you have no ideas the horrors that are in store...
7
Separating the white supremacy narrative from the white nationalism narrative would be useful at this point. The issues on the ground in most white majority societies today have nothing to do with it.
4
Why should the white supremacy and white nationalist narratives be separated?
@Ed Racial survival maybe? Seeing that all white countries are taking in millions of non-whites every year but other countries aren't taking millions of whites? Kalergi Plan?
2
This deeply pessimistic piece arrives when the signs of global crisis become more numerous every day. Today we had reports of appalling neo-Nazi riots in Germany. If the urge to violent tribalism cannot be abated, the consequences could be truly apocalyptic. In the last century Germany, with a doctrine similar to the racist ones arising now, was ultimately defeated by a very diverse coalition of nations. But the cost was awful, the coalition was diverse and unstable and not
entirely, or even mainly, directed at eliminating racism. If there is an all-out 'race war' or a confrontation like the one in the middle of the twentieth century, the physical consequences will be almost unimaginably worse because of the huge increase in the destructive power of weaponry, threatening the survival of our species itself. I hope that
thoughtful people focus on these risks and not so much on somewhat narcissistic agonising about their feelings of guilt for being 'white'. Working together to
turn things in a more positive direction in the US means, in the short term, electing a Democratic house and senate in the fall. Longer term, we need to reduce economic inequality to reduce resentment and attendant racist scapegoating and improved education to increase public understanding of the nature of US government institutions, and of scientific processes and
facts. But this 'problematique' needs a lot of ideas and actions and I hope readers have some other good ones.
3
This new identity politics of the left wing is why I became a political independent. I believe it will ultimately fail is it does not have a unifying message to all in our country.
15
@Matt
It is standard fare in colleges now so it might take a generation or two. There are also large “diversity” staffs on campus now so expect more victims to be identified. (How else to justify their existence?). One could say that an entire cottage industry of identity grievance has sprung up.
Imagine if all that energy were spent on qualities like personal responsibility and/or strength (avoiding a victim mentality)?
9
The contradictions and hypocrisy evident in this article are staggering. The western-anglo world is to this day the most open, democratic, and safest place to live across human history. As others have pointed out, the philosophical underpinnings of open and democratic societies were also born here. As an immigrant from Eastern Europe, my coming here has been an event of incredible luck, which has allowed for my health and safety, education, and spiritual growth. I am not an anomaly in this respect.
Let us contrast this with what is currently underway in China: the mass round-up, torture, and "reeducation" of Uyghur Muslims in China. Current estimates range upwards of 1 million people currently being held in concentration camps.
India: rabid Hindu entho-nationalism leading to violence against a multitude of religious and ethnic groups, including muslims, African migrants, and Christians/Atheists.
To whom or that what are we being compared?
23
It is easy and fashionable to rail against "whiteness." But as Mr. Mishra fails to note, "white supremacy" is merely one of many reactionary manifestations of a base historical problem: the use of race, gender, class, religion, caste, tribe, or difference to cast whole groups aside.
Such discrimination was obviously institutionalized in majority "white" societies like the U.S. and nazi Germany, where Mr. Mishra omits to mention that millions of "whites" fought against slavery and nazism. But discrimination was institutionalized elsewhere, e.g., in South Asia where a caste system predated both British colonialism and Mr. Mishra's so-called "motherlands of democracy." Identity "whiteness" is only one shade of the longstanding problem of inhumane discrimination.
In the U.S., "globalization" has often paved a one-way street, causing justifiable resentment for those pushed into dead ends. In the name of "globalization," the U.S. has allowed outsourcing corporations to evade U.S. environmental and labor laws by exporting manufacturing and labor elsewhere. Yet while promoting the Ponzi scheme of pro-corporate globalization, the U.S. did not take equal steps to reduce the economic devastation of vast sections of the gutted American industrial heartland that voted for Trump.
It is an unsurprising, predictable, and preventable result that the disaffected might take the simple-minded road of blaming the "other." The problem is: Mr. Mishra's piece does the same.
23
This analysis is just standard Critical Race theory catechism, and is nothing more than anti-white invective. Who's looking to sneak in to Nigeria? How about China or India? No one? And the West is supposed to welcome the flood of migrants? Europe is supposed to accept cultural suicide?
25
It takes all kinds to make a world, but the 99% shouldn't have to bend over backwards to accommodate the 1% and their 'safe spaces'.
4
All the stories have been told
Of kings and days of old,
But there's no england now.
All the wars that were won and lost
Somehow don't seem to matter very much anymore.
5
A provocative opinion piece, deliberately focusing on some of the uglier aspects of racism in the “Anglosphere.” It is important not to forget that destructive racial politics in the West was not simply a phenomenon of Nazi Germany. At the same time, we should also remember that there has been a constant struggle in the West against racial politics, and that the racists have not always been a majority, just as the Trumpists are not now a majority in the USA. Take the 1866 illustration used by the author to imply that white supremacism was a decisive political force in post-Civil War Pennsylvania. The reader might be forgiven for thinking that as a result of this racist fear propaganda, the Radical Republican John White Geary was decisively defeated in his campaign for Pennsylvania governor. Not so. In fact Geary won that election and was later re-elected to a second term. The lesson is that, despite the appeal of racial identity politics to many, it is basically a superficial concept that does not automatically guarantee victory to the likes of Donald Trump. With a good organization, effective leaders, and a positive program that rises above such superficial propaganda while not simply deploring its appeal, the opposition can win, and win decisively.
3
Just be because Trump says we are worse in Australia doesn’t mean we are. To equate the tough policies on asylum seekers with a racist policy is simplistic at best, absurd at worst. Australia has a large immigration program and the largest number for years have come from Asia, particularly China and India. Nearly 29% of Australians were born overseas. The concern about “boat people” is more about uncontrolled Immigration than racism
4
Wish Pankaj also mentioned that lone politician who mouthed "" final solution"" for immigration was widely condemned by ALL sides of politics in the nation's parliament. Also Pankaj must know the east coast and west coast of USA, more than 65% of OZ, may be same percentage in Canada too, do NOT share "" white supremacy "" ethos. Yes, Trump lit the dormant flame but it will fade out sooner than later. Being from India and living in OZ for over 20 years, I don't think Pankaj is right. He is generating a scenario that isn't real, at least here in the east coast major States of NSW and Victoria where 60% of population lives.
3
I have a friend, a white woman, she voted for Obama twice and then Trump. She told me she's sick of being called a racist. She works as a RN, a middle class occupation but hardly one of privilege.
I don't agree with her choice, supporting the more racist party because she's tired of being called 'racist', but I found it to be interesting. She was basically sick of the left-wing obsession with white supremacy so she voted against it, in her view. When we on the left dehumanize white people in 2018 by constantly equating them with all white supremacy history, we shouldn't be surprised when there's a reaction.
When we twist statistics to prove some point, like averaging the net worth of the billionaire Walton family with that of their lowest paid white workers at Walmart who qualify for food stamps if they have dependents, to show obscene privilege, a lot of people see right through it.
We have millions of white working poor who have a whole lot in common with poor POC these days. It's always been about the oppression of working people by the wealthiest classes. Racism is a very big part of our history and we shouldn't ignore this history but I think the election was far more complex than white people feeling threatened by POC gaining ground. So many are only concerned that they're losing ground and the Democrats haven't provided any answers. Neither has Trump but at least he was willing to shake up the establishment and speak to the impact of globalization on jobs.
15
@kyzipster
The mindset of the left can be, itself, quite arrogant and takes almost a supremacist-like view of the “other”, in this case whites. Demonstrates how supremacy is a state of mind and one easily adopted. Too easily, obviously.
7
Donald Trump hates people. Sometimes he loves them first; then he hates them. It’s puzzling that while he hates the world, everyone and everything in it, he wants it all for himself. He’s like the child who wants THAT -- but once he has it he throws it away in frustration. I think it’s because he hopes each and every person or thing will solve the problem of his existence, which is to be real and filled, but nothing works and he remains always empty. He lives this failure every hour of every day. John McCain, for example, had a substance that is missing in Trump, who hates him for that in particular. Same for Obama, and it’s a bet that the better a person is, the more Trump hates him or her. For all individuals whose existence in fulfillment rebukes him, Trump’s only response is hatred. It’s still puzzling, but thinking about it this way does explain a lot-- and not only about Trump. Those like him who have an interest in power are dangerous. They gather around them others whose vision is narrow and selfish and for whom blame is a primary get out of jail free card. Apparently there are many of them to appeal to, but never enough to achieve the fulfillment they strive for because their emptiness is without limit. Such would-be leaders can go a long way toward destroying the world but can never succeed because everyone they draw in gets eaten alive and the whole process self-destructs. When will the rest of us learn to stop them?
2
Interested to read the link provided to the old Andrew Sullivan piece - which is not at all in favor of any kind of white supremacy, I was relieved to read (don’t know why it was linked as an example of such), but in favor of fighting for that most radical principle of the US Constitution: that self governance not be tied to religion, but be tolerant of individual conscience and belief. That is truly a challenge to any (and many) fundamentalist sects, and requires an often shaky balancing act that is central to the American experiment.
19
I read this article twice to grasp the historical perspective of white supremacy. It is very informative but I reject the racial prism through which it views the world.
The world is better viewed through the prism of struggle between Capital and Labor. Since dawn of industrial age when accumulation of capital became a source of power for the first time in history (before it was always physical force) Capital has always searched for cheaper sources of labor. Slavery and colonialism were the best ways to get cheap labor before nation states came into being and borders became largely fixed after WW-I. Thereafter, outsourcing, global supply chains, intellectual property protections and free trade allowed Capital owners to reach cheap labor beyond their borders.
This displaced Labor (termed 'mob' by Mr Mishra) in the West more than anywhere else because they are mostly capitalist systems. Declining wages and stagnant lifestyles created anger which needed and outlet other than the rich. This anger has been channeled by opportunists like Trump, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and the like, against immigrants, intellectuals who sold them globalization and non-whites. Capital has essentially captured the government. Now what?
Pendulum will swing back. People will demand redistribution of wealth, healthcare, pensions, education and wages. This will keep a lid on social unrest. This view appeals to me more than the racial prism used by Mr Mishra.
23
This could be the order of operations: If there isn’t mass white defection from the Democratic Party in Nov and the GOP feels threatened, Trump and his men could co-opt the military to ensure single party rule in perpetuity. Marshal law. Deportations begin; Resources might be re-directed to promote white interests. Many consider the US the ethnic homeland of the European diaspora. Even those who read The NY Times.
It is absurd to consider that that the most powerful and innovative group in Human history would ever willingly relinquish power to any other group. Even though if in recent decades some of its members flirted with such a scenario. Whites could lose the struggle for enduring dominance. It might then then pass to a Muslim coalition, then China. Who knows?
We in the US, W Europe and Australia live in a unique bubble of wealth, comfort, safety and tolerance that cannot, and will not, persist forever. This inevitable reckoning was foretold long ago.
7
To think that the dynamics of power in a white, Anglo dominated world is fundamentally different than how it might have been in a muslim dominated world, or any other period in history when one or another community held most of economic and political power in the world, is absurd.
The game of power has always been and always will be a zero sum game.
The only difference that exists in this day and age of ours, which never existed before, is that everyone, the affluent, the weak, the powerful, the meek.. have lost, or are in process of losing faith in the transcendent, higher order meanings of human life. So while faith and spirituality, in earlier eras, acted as the negotiators and balancer for power imbalances and cruelty and suffering borne out of that, in this post god, post spiritual world of ours, no such entity exists to maintain social cohesion on larger level and psychological cohesion on individual level.
This fact alone, makes the situation more alarming and desperate. The brutish race wars might never come as immigrants still flow from asia and africa into the west, but future of humanity is surely looking bleak . If you thought Anglo-"more or less driven by protestant ideals"- domination of the world was bad, just wait for China to complete it's modern silk road and take control of the whole world.
30
Thanks Vishal for this clear-eyed comment.
3
I've always thought that people are simpler than we make them out to be, and that a lot could be gained by seeing Emperor Trump with no clothes. Perhaps then this billowing imbecile would seem the frail, declining nothing that he is--and all of us better for having seen it.
Likewise, the ideology of white supremacy ought to be stripped of its menacing black, red, and white flag and revealed for what it is: a rigid ideology incompatible with reality, selected like every other inferior trait for extinction. It is not by the benevolence of one or many men that society has arrived where it is. The diversity exploited in our nation's past has matured into a healthy, diverse society. The only way onward and upward is through the embrace of a multicultural, multiracial society.
In our panic, what we forget to remember as liberals is that the reactionary movement afoot in Washington swims against the irresistible tide of human progress. The "great" they want to make America again was supplanted by the stronger societal model we have today. Nothing stands still. Time = change. They are fighting the natural order, and they will not win.
Trust the superiority of the system we believe in. Trust the strength of our convictions. Trust evolution. Turn off the TV. Drink some water. Vote. Relax. This movement is a societal evolutionary cul de sac. It will get them nowhere. The right lost the culture war. They will lose more still. Breathe. They've already lost.
196
@Andre
Real people are being hurt by these losers. So, no, I won’t “relax.”
4
@Andre, Multi-culturalism is definitely a good thing. I do have one thing to say on this: Multi-culturalism only works when the races are treated equally, and when all ethnic groups communicate with each other. More importantly, when you have one (or two) ethnic groups or culture dominating a country, then all the talks of multi-culturalism is moot.
I lived in Australia in the 1990s when Paul Keating was PM at the time. He actively promoted multi-culturalism, and in large part, it worked. I could genuinely feel it. And then John Howard (a racist in disguise, not unlike Ted Cruz and Trump are) came to power. It was during then that Australia saw the rise of racist politicians like Pauline Hanson (white thrash talking about keeping immigrants out).
Leader of a country can make tons of difference (good and bad). I'm seeing now how Trump is wrecking America, much like John Howard did to Australia, culturally speaking. Not surprisingly, they all hide behind the false pretense of delivering "a better economy" that everyone seeks. But that only goes to show how people revolt when their economic fortune turns.
Hillary Clinton made the genuine mistake for not tackling economic plight of "white working class" heads-on, as Biden and Bill Clinton had advised her to do. High ideals (like refugees rights) is great, but ultimately it's the economic plight of individuals that matter most. If you can't even make ends meet, how (and how) would you care about refugees and such?
7
This Guardian essay by Mr Mishra provides a broader context: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/17/the-crisis-in-modern-mascu...
17
@NYCfellow Thanks for the link - very interesting analysis.
This piece makes some good points and is well researched but suffers deeply from a lack of nuance - in common with much race-related commentary of late. For just one example, it ignores the very well articulated pushback against "political correctness"/left-side identity politics (actually critical race theory and intersectionalism - especially the most excessive versions of them) coming from the center. This needs homework. For decades I've watched the hard cultural left try to equate the center with the hard right. They have not made the case yet that extreme does not equal extreme. My evidence? No credible rebuttals to the center, and the fact that on its face it is clear the center is not the hard right. To those on the cultural left that disagree: Please at least get some game in it. Ignore this at the peril of unnecessarily prolonging the past 21 months. And, there will not be a "race war," which you've not defined. There will be a culture/class war if anything. I'll leave it at that.
14
The author of this article and those who applaud him are poisoned by ressentiment.
Ressentiment (French pronunciation: [rɛsɑ̃timɑ̃]) is the French translation of the English word resentment (from Latin intensive prefix re-, and sentir "to feel"). In philosophy and psychology it is a concept that was of particular interest to the existentialist philosophers. According to the existentialists, ressentiment is a sense of hostility directed at that which one identifies as the cause of one's frustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one's frustration. The sense of weakness or inferiority and perhaps jealousy in the face of the "cause" generates a rejecting/justifying value system, or morality, which attacks or denies the perceived source of one's frustration. This value system is then used as a means of justifying one's own weaknesses by identifying the source of envy as objectively inferior, serving as a defense mechanism that prevents the resentful individual from addressing and overcoming their insecurities and flaws. The ego creates an enemy in order to insulate itself from culpability.
27
@rpe123 I would argue that the subjects of this article, and not the author, were and are poisoned by ressentiment.
3
@rpe123
Those theories require an oppressor to justify the carefully crafted models of oppression.
People of European descent need to get over it! The Europeans have never been in the majority in this country nor on this planet.
According to a snapshot of the book, Why Did Europe Conquer the World by Philip T. Hoffman, European rulers had “incentives that drove them not just to make war, but also to spend huge sums on it.” This is the main reason that Europeans controlled 84 percent of the Earth by 1914.
See: foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2015-10-07/how-europe-conquered-world
To me wealthy Europeans developed the concept of race to divide and conquer the peoples of the world. They used physical and other differences to rationalize their treatment of the other. The poor in Europe were convinced that those who don’t look like them are inferior and are to be treated like animals. What the descendants of the European masses fail to see is that this is a bill of goods the affluent sell the poor to get them to do the dirty work.
Those of us from the Mediterranean part of the continent don’t escape the bigotry of some northern Europeans. This has nothing to do with the recent financial crisis when we were called PIGS, a demeaning acronym. While visiting my family in Portugal, I have seen vacationing northerners regard the locals with disdain. My fair skinned, blue eyed uncle was a guest worker in Germany from 1964 to 1984. At times, he was treated as a second class citizen due to his status or because the Germans understood him to be a foreigner due to his accent.
5
Actually, PIGS referred to Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. And Ireland is certainly NOT Southern Europe.
1
@M. Natália Clemente Vieira so 30% isn't a majority. Shush. Nationhood has been around a lot longer.
@Objectively Subjective
Originally PIGS referred to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
Ireland was added due to its 2008 financial crisis. Since then both PIGS and PIIGS are used.
SEE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIGS_(economics) and cnbc.com/id/44058478
The fear and insecurity of becoming a "minority" that these "white" obsessed humans possess is a product of their personal treatment of people in general. They are severely afraid of being treated in the manner they have treated others. What is the saying appropriate for this attitude, something about- things coming back to haunt you?
9
"...these chieftains of white settler colonies are fierce cultural warriors; they are all affiliated with private donors who build platforms where political correctness, Islam and feminism are excoriated..." It is not ONLY "chieftains of white settler colonies" who "excoriate feminism." We all have much to fear. And, we all have much to think about. Our first "black" president was raised by a "white" mother. We are now just learning that many of us have bits of Neanderthal DNA, and just this week, we learn that Neanderthals, Sapiens, and Denisovans interbred much like other animals of the same species. Our level of civilization is determined by our level of civilization - not our skin tone. The civilized among us are in for a rough ride I fear.
11
some of this article is poppycock
24
@Phil: and sometimes it rains too
1
White Americans see their racial privilege, if they are at all aware of it, as a zero-sum option. They believe they will lose if other races gain.
An end to any race-based privilege is desirable. Unfortunately, we have not sufficiently evolved for suspicion of other tribes not to remain a deeply seated characteristic. Perhaps we can't all become the same color fast enough.
3
As a white person who chooses to identify as a person of color, this has been the single most powerful column I’ve ever read in the Times.
And for any other readers out there who are shocked by some of the hateful pushback to this column, such as the ludicrous saying that “it’s ok to be white,” please know that these people are not fully representative of white society.
There are many like me who have an appropriate level of white guilt and we are acting on it - to open our borders, to pay reparations, to abolish ICE, to identify as people of color, and to suppress or deflect criticism of migrants and people of color, even when small mistakes are made like the harm that was done to Mollie Tibbetts and that man in Chemnitz, Germany.
In an ideal world, white people would never have been allowed to self-segregate in Europe and in their colonies, where they were allowed to develop “advantages” like science, democracy, philosophy, drama, and advanced technologies. But as globalism spreads, my hope is that white people will no longer be able to hoard their privilege as much, and suppress the strivings of others.
Again, great column! Change is coming! The future is brown and is going to be a lot less materialistic than it has been!!!
7
@Trans Cat Mom - So you’re a “white person who identifies as a person of color”? Isn’t that another form of appropriation and white supremacy?
6
@Pierre Du Simitiere
I have to think, even though I commented myself, that Mom is being sarcastic. It's just too rich and un-reflective a statement to make. I have more faith in people than to fall for this.
4
ignorance is the problem and the root cause - and that some white people fundamentally choose to be ignorant is the greatest threat. those who are white who have such fears should go to a place - antarctica might be one such place - where they can go live out their whiteness and leave the rest of the world alone.
3
It’s really very simple. Treat people the way you want to be treated. I grew up with that Golden Rule hanging over my head.
I live in the south now. It’s a different place from where I grew up. The “recent unpleasantness” still hangs in the air at times. I’m shocked that Congress still hasn't put anti-lynching legislation on the books.
I delight in holding doors open for everyone, sometimes, from the looks I get depending for whom I am holding the door open, are unsettling, but tough. If we all could be a bit kinder the world would be a better place.
125
@KLKemp
I’m shocked that today's Congress still hasn't put pro-lynching legislation on the books.
5
I think there are plenty of laws against murder already on the books.
Things like the false claim of "rapid main streaming of white supremacy" as an assumed fact make me feel alienated as a white person from the left. More and more I catch white hatred in my life. It feels like I am going to need to become a centrist.
16
@Charles Samuel
Forget center, Charles, Come home and live in the States for a while, you might move all the way to the right, as I have, after witnessing the rabid left here up close and in action.
2
Thank you, Mr. Mishra, for this well-argued, well-researched analysis. Fascinating.
5
I don’t care about skin color, but I can’t abide any religion or culture that subjugates women.
19
The "religion of whiteness" is a cancer in whatever population it takes hold. And yes, it is an old "religion". It's at least as old as the Anglo-sphere which the author describes so well.
But it's coming to an end, thank God, and the sooner the better. The old white men, and others who have bought into the myth of white victimhood, will pass on or have a change of heart.
I very much hope there won't be any race wars, yet the income inequality gap continues to grow and that is a function of the selfishness of white supremacist lawmakers i.e. the 2017 Tax Reform Bill. As the demographics in the U.S. shift towards a higher brown and black skinned populace by the middle of this century, white racists will become more desperate to hold onto power anyway they can.
2
Israel is not "the world’s last active settler-colonialist project." China has two such projects, in Tibet and Sinkiang. Brazil has an informal such project in the Amazon.
26
This is an excellent and timely article. Thank you, Pankaj Mishra. With white hegemony comes white expectations, and these expectations, even when met 99% of the time, can never be fully satisfied without a return to the era of Jim Crow. The racist, white majority in America, Australia, Canada, and the UK cannot fathom that they are racists. Of course, racism exists on a spectrum, from the far-right movements: neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, "alt right," "incel" subgroups (mostly white, but not always economically disadvantaged, men), to entire political parties, for example the Front National (France), United Kingdom Independence Party, Law and Justice (Poland), Fidesz (Hungary), the Conservatives in Australia/Canada (especially with Brother Ford in Ontario) and the Republican Party in the US. Whiteness's power and privilege move out from these groups to all white people, liberals, Leftists, etc. And it is critical that we - white people on the Left - continuously check our white privilege and how it shapes our perceptions of political realities. With that comes also a commitment to fight white nationalism and supremacy wherever it forms, whether in Austin or Austria, in Sydney or San Francisco: white nationalist rhetoric must be challenged relentlessly. And as white people we must be calling out the racism from within the realm of whiteness, while uniting with broad coalitions (Black Lives Matter, Immigrants, etc.) to kick out all the forces of white supremacy and racism.
8
It is interesting that so many of these "white rights" people base their beliefs on a religion full of flawed interpretations of a man who was neither white nor racist.
144
So true.
Jesus was born a Jew and had wool's hair...definitely not white.
He was a wonderful man, born from God who if on the earth today would be embarrassed and appalled at the behavior of many Christian clergy and their followers.
6
If he ever really existed at all.
@Jean Boling
How do you know?
1
While I am sure that it is true that Donald Trump appealed to some unsavory elements among white males in this country, it would be a gross misrepresentation to state that that constituency was the primary driving force behind his election as president. You don't have to be a skinhead to feel alienated from both of our traditional political parties. Republicans have been skimming the national treasure for about forty years now, and while this has been going on, Democrats abandoned the working class and hid under a patchwork quilt composed of the various elements of political correctness, a phenomenon now known as identity politics. There have been endless articles written about how we came to this passage, but unless mention is made of the truly cosmic levels of wealth maldistribution--whether we refer to the "one percent" or cite the 62 individuals whose aggregate wealth is equal to tens of millions of the planet's inhabitants--such talk is just fluff intended to only further mystify and defuse the anger of those affected.
22
The author doesn't appear to know history or national identities very well. The civil war in the US was fought to free slaves. Hundreds of thousands of white union soldiers died in the effort. Why would they do such a thing if they wanted to create some kind of white culture to dominate the country?
The author also appears to not know that many groups in countries like the US, UK, Ireland were leaders in the fight to end slavery. It was a world wide movement led by white people from many places.
The author also refers to white people as part of some type of "Anglo" world. The term Anglo Saxon refers to people in part of the British Isles. It does not include the many nationalities in Europe who emigrated to the US, e.g., Germans, Italians, Polish people. These people made their own contributions to freedom in many wars and political movements. They also overcame discrimination against them by living lives in a way that established populations in the countries they migrated to came to respect and welcome.
The article is quite poorly researched and written! I expect better from the NYTs.
42
@Bored
The Civil War was not fought to end slavery by any means. It may have been more important to some soldiers than others, but Lincoln himself says:
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm
4
Is orange the new white? Check with the donald.
4
Well said Mr. Mishra.
The notion of white superiority,unfortunately, has always been buttressed by elected leaders of democratic nations: Teddy Roosevelt and now Donald Trump in the US, Winston Churchill in the UK and so on. Churchill was famous for writing off the people in the British colonies as savages while at the same time trying to protect his own countrymen from an European savage. Suffice it to say that in this day and age, this primitive notion is being aided not only by media empires likes those owned by the Murdochs but also by wealthy barons like Robert Mercer who funds his wards, Steve Bannon and the like, to spread this message wherever they can find a willing audience.
67
@Plato Quite a bit happened between Teddy Roosevelt, and ideas that were mainstream then, and Donald Trump, who is conveniently racist to draw a string between them.
But how to explain the Kennedy's? Racists? How about Lyndon Johnson? Racist? He passed the "War on Poverty", starting Welfare help for minorities, and the "Civil Rights Act." What about Jimmy Carter, from the Deep South and hardly a racist, no one can accuse him. And then, Barack Obama, voted in twice by the same voters in Mi Wis Penn Ohio, 77,000 of them, that ended up voting for Trump. Did they suddenly become racist? That seems unlikely. Maybe, but unlikely.
Look at Colleges, Lit and Humanities departments are dominated by women. More women graduate now than men. Diversity and Inclusion movements have hired a plethora of professors and teaching cadre, so that the campuses don't look anything like they did at one time.
I live in an integrated community, where the most Chaldean immigrants live compared to anywhere in the US, and they have opened business after business, have a 65% family business ownership rate, and have singlehandedly raised home values in the area, which btw, is dominated by Whites, at 73%. Latinos, some black members and a few other minorities.
Does racism truly explain where we are today?
Chaladeans are doing better than many Americans. As are the Asian students, and Vietnamese immigrants.
Are you sure oppression is explaining everything given these kind of indicators?
1
One can loathe identity politics and deplore political correctness without being a vile racist. Suffice it to say that immigrants in the US, including more recently with darker complexions, are traditionally the most successful groups in the country. Indeed, (East) Indian immigrants earn substantially more than any other ethnic group, including other Asians who in turn out-earn whites.
Nothing unusual about this; all to be expected, but it does show that non-white immigrants can and do exceptionally well here, notwithstanding the 'white supremacists.' Speaking of which, have you seen what god-fearing Hindus do to Muslims back in India? You speak as if white (aka European descended) men (does Ann Coulter escape your wrath?) have a monopoly on 'supremacy'. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Jeez, Mr. Mishra. A little bit of context could go along way to moderate your parochial fury. This is a problem shared by all humanity, and the only reason you seem so aggrieved is because this particular flavor of the species-wide sin affects you. 'Whites' are the most conspicuous practitioners of 'supremacy' for the simple reason that Europe by sheer random chance enjoyed not just one but the two most recent human scientific and cultural advances - the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. I repeat, not by virtue, but by random chance - lightning has to strike somewhere. Had it been Africans or Asians instead, they surely would have behaved no better.
20
what is the point of this. People change and so does their identification, They find reasons to hate each other and that process evolves and changes. this article certainly seems to be aimed at dramatizing that hate
Racial classification has changed and mover for years. Some people use this as an excuse cause more problem or to avenge old ones.. The slam the writer took at whites can be made at several groups once we want to select the group.
8
One bizarre piece of rhetoric that gets circulated by white supremacists is: "Ask the Native Americans what happens when you have open borders!"
The reason I call it bizarre is because it seems like an inherent confession of racist motivations. What exactly do these people think was the source of conflict between the Native Americans and European settlers? Were the settlers stealing all the jobs? No, the problem then (as now) was that racism and white supremacy drove the settlers' approach to the Native Americans. So really, what many white supremacists (identitarians, whatever) fear is that at some point, minorities might do to them what they have done in almost every instance.
Slave owners feared the emancipation and equal status of slaves not just for economic reasons, but because they feared slaves would surely take terrible (and arguably justified) vengeance upon their former masters. Curiously, the former slave races did not engage in a campaign of white subjugation. Similarly, white supremacists imagine some kind of genocide in South Africa... of the kind they once perpetrated themselves. That has also not taken place.
In the same way, conservatives desperately gerrymander, suppress the vote, disenfranchise, and resist demographic change. Why you ask? Because already being a political minority, they fear that if their grip on the levers of power ever slips, others will abuse it as they have. It's projection at its finest.
12
The problem is identifying with color instead of “likes”. I personally separate friend from foe based on how alike me an individual is rather than color. I am looking for agreement, sameness, commonalities. These attributes are more important in the long run than color. I side with people who have the same ‘skin’ in the game as I do.
5
Brilliant—Misra connects the dots.
2
Yes, Trump and his white supremacists are a suicide cult. They are much more than that, however. They have the mindset of terrorists. In order to maintain their unmerited white entitlements, they are willing to blow up our democracy, our Constitution, and everything else. They have the mindset of a mass shooter. If they have to go down, i.e., if they must lose their unmerited white entitlements, then they are going to, figuratively and not so figuratively, shoot everybody else they can in the process. And they have the mindset of a faith-based apocalyptic cult. Only by burning everything to the ground can the phoenix of new white supremacist world order come to pass.
8
It's not political correctness. It's not the natural order of things. It's pure naked power we are talking about. The world is not privately owned by white males.
3
Fancy that. An Indian expert on "Whiteness". Although many of these observations are quite valid as applied to Western Civilization in general, to see them strictly thru a racial prism only reveals the myopia of the writer; to read it in the NYT , however, reveals something different still.........white guilt, patronizing self hatred, misguided virtue signaling.....In short, what we've come to expect, sadly, from the New Your Times.
30
@TransitDave: The vast majority of Indians are Caucasians...
1
"Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law" by James Whitman (2017) shows how the Jim Crow laws in America inspired Nazi lawyers in the drafting of the Nuremberg race laws.
White supremacy was and unfortunately still is a dominant feature of America. The virtual repeal of the Voting Rights Act (based on a legal argument similar "There have been no bank robberies, so we no longer need to employ security guards.") and the continued effort by the GOP to disenfranchise poor and minority voters is shameful.
America needs a nationally uniform set of voting rules such as nationally uniform hours for early voting, nationally uniform rules for the determination of the number of polling places as well as nationally uniform non-partisan redistricting, (using the model used in the UK), replacement of the the Electoral College with a system used in a number of countries in which voters cast a ballot for their candidate and a second choice in case there has to be a runoff in the case that no candidate has a majority of the vote, and real campaign reform in which corporations are limited to their contributions and the source of every last dollar, ruble and bitcoin is traced to an individual.
Until we make these reforms that have been needed for decades, democracy in this nation will wither and may die over the next 20 years.
4
Of course, if you live in a place where everyone else is white, and you never go anywhere else, you might feel afraid. But why? I am dumbfounded by the racism and anti-immigrant hatred in states like Utah. It is often the whitest state in the US. Guess what, Utah. We don't want to go there. It's not such a great place for women, either, except maybe SLC.
1
@Rory Owen CLS?
It is interesting that Mr. Mishra could not resist a gratuitous dig at the State of Israel. Considering that Zionists had no illusions concerning European racialism, and that Israel was a refuge to victims of its genocidal manifestation, it is curious that this obvious fact could not temper his hostility. Of course Israel is also a refuge to Arab Jews fleeing Arab/Moslem hostility- but Mr. Mishra's Manichean reductionism would start to crack and fray if he had to truly confront this reality. No, better just throw aspersions- its easier.
12
What a disingenuous piece. As if the progressive hyper focus on race was somehow thrust upon them by “white nationalists.”
But for some tiny group of “white nationalists,” (who managed to turn out two dozen participants for their recent big march in Washington), no one speaks of their “white identity.” That around the world, people did this more than 100 years ago has zero relevance today.
14
Okay, I'm not going to try to defend white supremacism, but I would urge that we try to move beyond the concept of race from all perspectives. The concept of race is not supported by science, and a discussion of racism which implicitly accepts race as a concept only perpetuates the problem.
As an Australian, I am particularly aware of what was done in this country to attack and limit the rights of people who were not "white" - and to be clear, in Australia and in this column, we are talking about Anglo culture more than a "white" supremacism - the Swedes are as "white" as anyone, but they don't feature in this discussion.
Race, like gender, is a category which could and should be made irrelevant in many areas of life through legislation. While the Right can talk about the problem in arguments about an enforced "equality" in areas where individuals are obviously not equal, laws against discrimination on the basis of race, gender or any other label or state of being can be enacted and enforced.
What I suggest is that discussion of race must be replaced by discussion of culture. This doesn't reflect the attitude of racists, but it does bear some close examination when it comes to attacking what was done in the past and what might be done in the future in regard to the dominance of Anglophone culture - because there can be no argument with the statement that Anglophone culture dominates the planet.
And I like my culture and I have the right to say I won't accept any other.
4
@Colin McKerlie The concept of race is not supported by science? Perhaps you should distinguish between the pseudo scientific social sciences and the hard sciences grounded in the scientific method.
1
Mishras' arguments are well taken; but he tars with too broad a brush. Israel actively imported Ethiopian (black) Jews.
It is a religious enclave but not a racial one. The reason that it is an enclave at all is less than mysterious: its population has fled from antisemitism.
8
Mr. Mishra’s historical narrative is selective in its point of view. For example, he describes Israel as “the world’s last active settler-colonialist project.” Did he select Israel as an example because Jews are “white” or does he find that Israel’s Ethiopian , Indian and Sephardic Jewish communities complicate his thesis? Furthermore, does Mr.Misha find it inconvenient that Zionism was based the Jewish people regaining their homeland from Babylonian,Roman, Turkish, Arab and British colonizers among others?
9
The insecurity and inferiority complex of the light skinned skin-cancer prone is unfathamibly deep. So sad.
1
There is no "white race." White is a social category based on skin color that arose in history as a rationalization during the slave trade. It has no basis in biology anymore than a redhead race or a freckled race. Anytime whites get together as whites, they're gathering against blacks, another social category not based on biology.
4
@Carol Marsh nothing could be further from the truth.
As a Caucasian Canadian, I would greatly appreciate the author explaining exactly how our leaders assisted with his claim "Leaders of Australia and Canada also eagerly helped with the torture, rendition and extermination of black and brown brutes" after 9-11. There was a very unfortunate incident involving a Canadian citizen that was redacted to Syrian for torture, likely by the CIA in conjunction with the RCMP and Canadian Security Services. There was never any evidence presented that Canadian government leaders were involved in this decision. The citizen involved was compensated with millions of dollars, not that it would excuse what happened but our government took responsibility for the behaviour of our security forces. Canada did join the rest of NATO in coming to the aide of our US ally in Afghanistan after 9-11 occurred; is the author seriously claiming that this was a concerted effort to harm "brown people"?
What garbage. The title of the article is racist.
24
Just recently heard about the Namibia-Germany effort to return skulls and remains of genocide victims.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_and_Namaqua_genocide
Its hard to believe that human beings still continue same old same old paths of destroying each other by dominance. The Rohingya muslims are unfortunate to be born in those families, people still have babies, even in refugee camps, its sad humans would think of bringing more humans into this world of madness. Buddha was right, equanimity is the only way to remain sane when one sees such madness occurring repeatedly.
2
Australia’s Billy Hughes fought the LN racial equality statement even while advocating renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance against North American wishes.
The US Senate on the other hand rejected the Versailles Treaty in part because of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandong_Problem of Chinese sovereignty as well as the US’s own sovereignty concerns.
The NYTimes should be ashamed of itself for publishing nonsense like this.
31
I would like to ask the writer this: Why do men and women from all over the world chose to move to English speaking countries, or the West in general, if given the chance?
24
@John Hamilton Your question is wrong and based on truncated history. People are migrating in huge numbers to non-english speaking countries in Europe as well. Because British colonies were spread across the world, people from those places are comfortable migrating to English speaking countries. People from former French colonies are migrating to France, Brazilians are going to Portugal and so forth.
In my view, people have always searched for better opportunities and resources. India attracted many conquerors (of many races) over centuries because it offered many riches at that time. Spanish and Portugese, in search of silver and gold, went to South and Central America. Europeans migrated in huge numbers to Americas, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand etc in search of economic opportunities. Those places were conquered and settled, at its core, it was uncontrolled immigration without permission of the native population. Immigration today from developing world to developed is merely a continuation of the same forces that drove Europeans out of a backward and opportunity constrained Europe. Yes, there was religious persecution but the vast majority of immigrants were in search for a better life.
The key to defeating racism is not more racism. White supremacy will not be erased by the racist assertions concerning the "Anglosphere."
7
Just what is so superior in whiteness to the mind of the midwestern Trump voter? Has that man read the great DWMs (dead white male writers)? Has he studied at respected institutions of higher learning? Has he pondered the issues of man and society raised by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle? Has he invented life-saving inventions? All of those activities might give one grounds to see and appreciate white brilliance.
But without those wise factors, on what basis does he claim racial superiority? Is it because Bill Gates, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, et al are/were white? Maybe he needs to learn more about great black, Asian and Hispanic intellectuals. But if he's decided that "those people" don't have a history worth bothering with, he'll never know just how typical white people are in the big scheme of things.
It seems to me that anyone who wants to participate in the great American experiment ought to be welcome so long as there is room. But there are a bunch of right-wing white supremacists in eastern Europe that I would not let in--hate mongers who want to stratify society would destroy our foundational principles, chief of which is: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...."
If they can't live with that, they ought not be welcomed.
2
Meanwhile Identity politics is being used to defend wall street and superdelegates.
6
As things being to recede and Republicans are galvanized by the opportunity to have their conservative court to harken an end to forward inclusiveness and breath life back to the heady days of rampant gender and race equality, the more I believe the human race is putting itself in peril. If we can’t defeat this idiocy and recognize it for what it is...we simply have not yet evolved enough to demand admittance to the future.
1
Hardly seeing a woman either, in the 1919 picture. Except as spectators in the balcony.
1
The issue with identity politics is that it assumes whites are not allowed to advocate for themselves. Everyone else can push for their own identities, but whites must shut up and accept what they are told. That’s not how people work. The riots in Germany over the past few days demonstrates that.
19
What's good for the identity politics goose is good for the identity politics gander.
6
"Whiteness" itself is an astonishingly ugly term, as well as being well-nigh indefinable. My conservative white friends, conservative Latino friends, and conservative Black friends have far more in common than do conservative African-Americans and leftist African-Americans, the moment they open their mouths. And there are plenty of conservative African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pakistanis, and Indians. Basically, Mr. Mishra needs to get out more.
12
This entire article is racist. Stop seeing people in terms of the color of their skin. I thought we would all follow MLK's idea of content of character by now. We should strive to judge each person and their actions based on them, not a skin tone. I for one will treat all people equally and fairly based on their individual actions toward me. Not a group identity given them by the looney left SJW. Embrace freedom, liberty, and the America way, put aside your hate for the "white" person. Stop being a racist bigot.
23
I think you misread the article. The people described by the piece are the ones who refuse to treat people according to MLK's dictum, not the author. it's quite amazing how sensitive some readers become when confronted with plain historical facts.
4
Identity politics and the labelling of anybody you disagree with; will be the death of us all. Put everybody in a box of fascist, racist, sexist, etc, et al. Eventually, you will wind up in the Stalinist USA of the Left. What happens when everybody is in a minority group including whites?
15
Is this author blind to the fact that ethnic cleansing has occurred recently in Myanmar and genocide in central Africa, where whites live in small numbers? Why does he ignore the religious suppression in India and elsewhere? The list of dominant groups throughout the world that are/have suppressed minorities who live among them is long and tragic. By targeting whites and thus angering them, this author contributes less to the solution of these racial and ethnic problems than to their perpetuation. This is the most divisive article yet to be published by the NYTs.
30
Brilliantly and convincingly argued.
2
Wow! Great article Mr. Mishra. A sadly accurate summary of our current state of affairs. I am however more optimistic that the evolution of a more socially just world will be less violent than Mr. Baldwin's predictions.
Despite the magnification of the racist minority by Trump, Murdoch, Bannon and the Kochs, they are still a small group opposed by the clear majority of Americans.
The speed of social progress is proportional to the civic engagement of the population. The real moral majority (not the megachurch, Fox News astroturfers) is waking up and taking part in politics. It won’t be pretty or quick but the “arc of the moral universe” will eventually, once again “bend toward justice.”
1
Why are conservatives so SCARED?
They were scared into SDI/Star Wars, into the unending Republican Wars with screams of "WMD!", and they now fear truth itself.
2
It's okay to be white.
18
We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.
Nikita Khrushchev
7
White racists dread the time when they become the minority because they know they will "done unto" just as they have "done unto others." For centuries.
@scrumble
The question is "Should they be worried?" According to you (and Charles Blow, et al.), they should be.
At least don't be surprised that some white people find shelter under the wing of a racist demagogue, okay?
3
Everything in the modern world - everything - was created by white men. The contributions of the "lesser races" is and was negligible. This is a cold, brutal, hard fact. No, ancient Egypt was not created by blacks. China invented a few things but then slid back into slumber. The Arabs were mainly desert raiders. The Hindus? Please. Hint. 1 year of history repeated 5,000 times makes a stagnant hellhole. White people are not going anywhere, my brown and black and yellow friends. Sorry.
11
You could not be more wrong. You must be aware that the pyramids were built by individuals who were what we would now call Arabic. I am assuming this comment was written in an attempt to troll readers.
@Chris Bridges Your assertion is correct. This is a heritage worth fighting for
3
@Chris Bridges
Personally, I like white people. At our best we are definitely good at making things everyone seems to like having. Should we be run out of business completely I think the whole of humanity will sink into a primitive existence. We've sparked a lot of interesting stuff.
If modernity: antibiotics, books, aviation, emergency medicine is what you'd like to get rid of - stopping white people from doing their thing will help your cause.
1
When will the New York Times give us its very first article or series under this suggested heading?
The American Concepts of Race and Racial Order, The Fatal Inventions of Racists, Preserved By The Census Bureau, Questioned by No One At theTimes.
Answer: Not until the Editors show a willingness to talk with these scholars, for starters: Kenneth Prewitt, Dorothy Roberts, Svante Pääbo and even Swedish science journalist Karin Bojs.
Only in America does a government formally and legally employ a language created by racists.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
US birth certificate: "Color-white"
3
The outraged white people need to calm down. This country was always mixed race after the Europeans came here and mostly decimated the Indian population. We whites ourselves brought in slaves from Africa to do our work for us, and procreated with both the Indians and the Blacks. We encouraged immigration to bolster our tax base and provide workers for industry. Stop whining about being victimized and join the rest of the human race. Because of our greed and ignorance the miraculous balance of the Earth's ecosystem is collapsing, and we have much bigger problems than skin color.
4
The author writes that US racial immigration laws kept Jews out of the country in the 1920s and that the Holocaust discredited overt racism. Yet he also writes that Israel is the last white colonial project. So are Jews white people or not? What he is writing is self-contradictory.
15
Speaking of great danger was the genocide perpetuated
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Sudan , and more recently in Mynamar(Burma) done by a wounded and swaggering
religion of Whiteness?
12
Cheap and gratuitous shot embedded about Israel. Talk about a persecuted minority trying to survive!
12
Ethnic nationalism is not the exclusive preserve of white people, any more than plain old racism. Yellow, brown and black people are no less racist than white people. Crude tribalism is the scourge of all humanity.
15
Funny how everyone in the world wants to immigrate to Western countries. You know, the countries whose foundations were laid by whites. And why is your ire not directed toward China, the largest ethnostate in the world that is committing acts of ethnic cleansing within its borders.
The biggest mistake of the 20th century was Britain pulling out of India.
8
You think Britain had a choice? And, would a billion Indians be better off living under white colonial apartheid rule? Your statement is both racist and absurd.
3
so if these white men are so superior in every way, why are they afraid of the inferior females and lesser races? Wouldn't their natural superiority mean that they had nothing to worry about and that they would come out on top every time?
1
I (obviously) don't believe in white superiority, but fear isn't a sign of weakness. Fear is an important reflex for any entity that wishes to preserve itself effectively.
3
Elbowing aside for the purpose of cultural appropriation - at least that's what it would be called if the elbows owner was white.
Spare us the malcontent who could work to be successful in his own culture and promote it's success.
Once the global white power structure has subdued the black and brown masses through incarceration and extermination, and all the cities are emptied and the communities are silenced and the landscapers and caregivers and nannies and restaurant workers have disappeared, will white people finally be able to relax?
1
Mr. Mishra unknowingly illustrates that all those "white" people long ago were very prescient. Mr. Mishra's article reads exactly like that predicted attack on "whiteness" designed to overwhelm and destroy "white". How ironic is that?..........As for xenophobia.....I think India and China can give the rest of the world lessons in how thats done. Hindus slaughtering Moslems? Moslems slaughtering Hindus? Chinese army handing out machetes so that "chinese" can chop up "wiegurs" in Western China?.....and predictably, Mr. Mishra recites that shopworn oldtime 20th Century Mantra of "diversity" failing to note that the most "Diverse" place on earth.....is exactly that horrible WHITE nation called the USA!! Why? Because, Mr. Mithra, "white" is actually the combination of all the other colors and frequencies. Ask any physicist. E Pluribus Unum.....to refresh your understanding of Latin......"from many....ONE".......there's ya white.
7
Once again, poor ideas chase out rich ideas. Jews, never having a Homeland, learned to perfect their performance in their perpetual role as unwanted immigrant. With such a tangible example, puncutated by the Holocaust to top all other suffering, why are so many identity groups struggling so publicly. The obvious answer is that 2000 years of wandering have freed Jews, unlike today's identity groups, from the death grip of blood and soil.
1
The Washington Post reveals this morning that a DHS staffer, a white nationalist, a friend of white nationalist leaders, regularly attended meetings on immigration policy at the White House.
Neo-Nazi mobs continue to riot and track down “brown-skinned” people in Germany for a second day; the police are overwhelmed. The Post reveals this morning that passports of American citizens are being seized by the hundreds, perhaps thousands, on the “suspicion” that they are forgeries. The owners of the passports are Hispanic.
You never thought it could happen again, didn’t you?
Whites are supreme in the white worlds they created. The inconvenient truth is that the rest is the world’s people would like to live in whites worlds, too.
9
If Asians had been in power the last couple centuries, you could replace every "white" in this article with "Asian". Or if blacks were in power, you could replace every "white" with "black". Just examine prisons and you get the idea. TRIBES.
6
The United States was "tak[ing] up the aging white man’s burden and quell[ing] mutinous natives" when it invaded Afghanistan after 9/11? Interesting.
2
It is wrong to suggest an unbroken line stretching from 19th century imperialism and "scientific-racism" to the world today.
That line was broken by WWII and the success of progressive reform. Colonies obtained independence and colonialism died in shame; welfare-for-all has become the norm; anti-defamation legislation is now in place in much of the world; overt racism remains a fringe activity strongly condemned in civil society - and non-racially defined marginalized groups, such as the LGBT community, are protected in ways unthinkable even a generation ago.
There is counter-reformation movement that has been magnified by social-media, but the most virulent parts of its agenda are acceptable only at the margins, whereas they were mainstream until around 1945.
There is no evidence that the progressive agenda is losing ground widely, even though there are some minor setbacks. Our counter-reformation President still has to use code; if we get to the point where he's confident to voice his ugly ideas openly and is supported by a majority, not disapproved of by most Americans, then we can say the arc of our history is changing. We're nowhere near that point.
2
Mishra failed to mention the racial dimensions of climate change. As the climate warms, people of color in the global south, who benefitted least from the west's industrial revolution, are suffering the most harm. White Supremacy in the guise of America First, underlies and justifies climate denialism because people of privilege believe they will manage to avoid, or at least adapt to, the worst effects of climate change. And they may be right. Studies show, for example, that US farming may benefit by as much as 8%, while tropical and subtropical agriculture could decline by an average of 20% by 2030, as the populations of developing countries soar. Will the privileged see these victims as fellow humans or lesser beings? Will our government be motivated to curb our disproportionate greenhouse gas emissions? Will energy corporations share sustainable technology with the developing world? Will we open our arms to welcome victims fleeing rising sea levels? If not, Mishra's grim vision of apocalypse may indeed be realized.
2
Not one word about genetics. Preservation of the false concept of "race mixing" plays into the hands of Neo Nazis and all connected with them.
"Races" are the fatal invention of racists, always political inventions.
Long ago Denisovans and Neanderthals mixed with our other forebears - that was a genetic mixing. So too with all modern mixing, genetic.
Times please give us social scientists who know something about our genomes.
Only-NeverinSweden.Blogspot.com
4
Mishra can't be so ignorant that he believes most wars, most of mankind's problems, stem from evil whites. Unless it's satire. Everywhere in the world people are prejudiced. I lived and worked in West Africa, home to wonderful people. But many are quick to claim that certain ethnic groups are not human. People from there who went to China in the 80s, for education, were called subhuman by Chinese. The author points to Japan's failed effort to get non-discrimination in Versailles. History hardly shows this was how Japan considered others, Koreans and Chinese discovered.
European settlers brought childhood illnesses native peoples had no resistance to. Some consciously gave them disease blankets. When Mongols fought Europeans 700 years ago, they catapulted plague corpses into cities. The Iroquois, who inspired Franklin's constitution, destroyed other tribes. And what of Hindus and Muslims?
Mishra attributes great strength to nativist white parties. They actually define weakness. Fear of culture loss, which they lost (do skinheads attend concerts?) Fear they're not educated. Fear they're minority. They are. Hitler was elected. By 33%. Trump: 26% of eligible. LaPen 33%. If people voted, if we get rid of the Electoral College, no Trump.
The American south lost the civil war, because they had 5.5 million to the Union's 18.5. 3:1.
Nativism is weak. When Xi promotes his China-first future, it frightens others. It's really decay. Nativism isn't white, it's human. The wrong stuff.
9
Nativism is weak except for having a lot of money and propaganda assets. Too bad the decent white folks will probably suffer as much or more than the racists among us when the chickens they are messing with finally come home to roost.
1
Innate supremacy of white people? Try this: watch a rerun or two of All in the Family and an episode or two of Shameless. The get out a CD of Leontyne Price and listen. Then tell me about white supremacy.
2
Race and religion are shorthand for culture. 'Cult' is the root word of culture. White "culture" is waning because of demographic decline and a certain sickness emphasizing materialism over family. Trying to attain safety from violent ghetto culture in the U.S. and E.U. is as expensive as materialism. The cost of moving to white neighborhoods and schools is one reason whites can't afford having more children. Therein lies another note of cultural suicide in addition to spending too much for materialistic nonsense.
White culture worldwide is in retreat. Europe's social services network is breaking down absorbing the flow of needy third world refugees. White colonialists running Africa are being replaced by Chinese colonialists. Perhaps the non-white world should be more concerned with what happened to inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and Tibet instead of indulging in Schadenfreude.
4
Got it. Here's what we do then to prevent a white suicide cult. Listen to the progressives. In the US, eliminate ICE and the southern border allowing any and all of Latin America to come here and at least get automatic health insurance. In Europe, allow any and all from the Muslim World to come in no questions asked. No vetting either for anyone. And any whites living their need to defer to the newcomers' cultures, rather than insist the newcomers learn to live within the host country's culture and laws. That should end this whiteness "suicide cult". And if the whites still feel their culture is being destroyed and they are being asked to self-destruct in the name of multicultural globalism and moral relativism, too bad. Gotta get with the times and get with the power curve. It's all in the mind, anyway. Right?
6
“An obscure Australia academic...” I’ve been watching NYT’s use of the word “obscure” to characterize someone who is merely not well known. Was HE obscure or was he merely not well known? I’m afraid your use of the term suggests a bias.
2
History has demonstrated that Caucasians are pre-eminent among all the world's races when it comes to committing bigotry and genocide.
That’s probably because nations of other ethnicities never even let others into their nations. Hence it’s impossible for them to commit genocide
2
Spot on.
1
Overpopulation is the bringer of much that troubles humanity. Link that with the kind of doomsday Capitalism that is contorting the environment and creating a New World Oligarchy and a social storm can arise that makes Nazi Germany seem like an hors d’oeuvre.
2
Now that is some Whitesplaining.
I am white and proud of it.
4
@NYC Dweller George Carlin had an excellent take on this. You can be proud of an accomplishment, but it makes no sense to be proud of something that’s an accident of birth. You can be happy you’re white, or Irish, or American, or a white, Irish-American. But not proud. Too much “pride” in the world, which causes us to think we’re morally, intellectually superior, and that God is always on our side because of our skin color or particular brand of worship. God could not care less. To Him, we are one, created in His image.
4
So being white is a skill you developed through hard work and discipline?
2
@NYC Dweller
"I am white and proud of it."
I am glad -- and proud of you, too -- that you managed to pick the right parents. White ones. LOL.
Definitions of who is classified as “White” changes over time in America: unless you are descended from a Caucasian, Protestant, property owning, English-speaking male of Anglo-Saxon heritage, your ancestors were once considered as incapable of assimilating into the American mainstream as Hispanics and Muslims are viewed today
2
The reality of racial is that it is a chimera, and in fact many of the major conflicts are being fought WITHIN racial groups and NOT between. One of the longest-running and deadly, as well as perplexing to the West, is that between Sunni and Shia. But other examples include Tutsi vs Hutu, Protestant vs Catholic, Indo-Moslem vs Indo-Hindu.
"Whiteness," "Blackness"--these concepts are only definable in context, and in a relative sense. Ashkenazic Jews are obviously "white," yet Hitler successfully demonized them (and he didn't look a bit Nordic himself).
I find it unlikely that there will be some grand conflict between "white" and "others," and find the article and its title rather sensationalist.
6
You forgot the one between the two Semite tribes, the Palestine and and Jews
Trump's "base" has absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Please apply Occam's Razor instead.
2
Why is this happening?
1
This non stop parade of Identity Politics that the Times’ publishes, now on a daily basis is what will tear this country apart. It will become a self fulfilling prophecy that so many on the left are preoccupied with..
This teaching and preaching of victimhood is insidious and corrosive.
24
White racism, white supremacy, old white men, angry white men, the religion of whiteness, bitter people who cling to their guns and religion (Obama), white wives who slavishly follow their husbands (HRC). When does perpetual calumny end? It ends when enough white people come to the conclusion that the Democratic Party and the Left are not their friend and vote accordingly? And when you demonize whites, you're demonizing the people who created the modern world and have given us practically everything of value in our lives.
10
The numbers don’t lie. White families in Europe have on average 1.1 babies; non-white families have on average 6-7 babies. So it’s only a matter of time. We are in the death throes of white majority rule and those in power are desperate to cling to it. They have forgotten, if they ever knew, to be nice to people on the way up, because you never know who you might meet on the way down.
2
It is not just white people have a pernicious racism amongst their most atavistic members. The Uyghurs are suffering a cultural genocide by the Han people of China. They are forbidden to teach their own children their own language in their own schools. As the Times has documented, perhaps a million of them have been locked up in "re-education" gulag. What the racist minority in this country is doing pales in comparison. I'm sorry but there are those who oppose racism, and long for a world free from it, and then there are angry men with grudges, like Pankaj Mishra, who would paint racism as a white problem. No endemic discrimination in India toward Untouchables Mr. Mishra?
14
It just happens that the societies in which white raciats live tend to have the most money and the best weapons.
The author fails to acknowledge that many, perhaps even most, of the largest imperialist territorial conquests in history were perpetrated by non-whites.
5
Doesn’t mean the minority white race isn’t hastening it’s own extinction by acting like jerks...
So the Jews are both victims and perpetrators of the white religion? You can't have it both ways. The so called settler-colonial project of Zionism is actually a refuge for Jews, and a return. Remember that there was an Islamic conquest too. This is the state of the world, and decrying supremacism of one group while ignoring it of others undermines an otherwise worthy point.
8
would the collapse of white dominance be easily and painlessly solved by following the lead of young Robert Kennedy, who left a family of seven children?
if every white woman, and man, maximized reproductive capacity their numbers could be restored in two generations.
of course the self centered consumer lifestyle would have to be abandoned. Forget yoga, manicures, bikini beach vacations a two door sports cars. Hello diaper service, minivans, little league, dance recitals and regular Sunday morning church service for nine.
1
@Chrstopher
Mormons are onto this plan. Other religious groups as well.
Surely trump is a racist, but he's just using racial animosity to gin up his base and try to stay in power.
"Anglosphere’s establishment " , Pankaj Mishra, you bandy these terms around as a way of bashing the White race. Further in your piece you refer to "other panicky white bros", I'm sorry you feel that way.
However, I for one have always thought the Caucasians of European heritage have led the world in many ways. Slavery is virtually abolished now, the blood of a half million dead American white men paid for that. Hitler was stopped from global expansion as was Hirohito and yes, even Mao. It was the patriotic blood of US service men and our allies who paid for those world enrichments.
So far I don't recall any non-white African, Asians or other indigenous peoples even considering doing that. Look at the Middle East, awash with oil, and yet for 60 years it has been in a de facto state of war. It is the Caucasians who have lead the world in discoveries of science, math and electronics. And we aren't done yet, so don't count us out.
9
You don’t know a single person shaking with “existential fears about endangered white power”? How about the current president of the United States? Even if Trump isn’t “shaking with existential fears” he certainly knows how to speak to those who are. You don’t have to completely accept the dark and disturbing vision of Mr Mishra’s present to know the truth of its past or the complicity of men like Robert Murdoch, Boris Johnson, the alt right, neo nazi’s here and in Europe and much of the Trump administration in playing to fears of endangered white power. Yes it exists and your denial gives it license and power regardless of your acceptance of its reality.
2
@John Chastain
"Existential fears about endangered white power” - I see little of that. Misplaced, spoon fed white guilt - that I see plenty of. Look at any university.
That photo alone, of Trump in the hat says it all - it’s killer!
White Supremacy is a mystery to me.
Logic dictates that we will all end up coffee coloured.
Its inevitable.
This mainstream uptick in "save the race , or perish" will recede. There will always be race purists but they will be purely fringe elements.
The reason for most people being ambivalent to race purity is they just dont care. If your next door neighbor is Panamanian, French Samoan, African American yet he keeps an eye out on your kids or brings your trash cans in on pick up day, then who cares.
1
The last time we saw this kind of talk and ideologies take over a major Western society, it ended in the Holocaust. Despite being ostensibly White, as a Jew I know that eventually whoever espouses these odious doctrines, will eventually come for me, even if many of them currently claim to love me and my state.
I suggest that non-White minorities and supporters of multiculturalism start taking the threat seriously, and start planning for the worst case scenario, in which case the minority succeeds in entrenching itself in power, turning the US into the third millennium's equivalent of Nazi Germany.
3
A terrific article by Mr. Mishra. It is based on irrefutable facts and without any conjectures. It should get wide spread audience.
The only critique him and other writers banking on ultra-glitzy language is to simplify it a little; it will help them reach broader audience -as it should -rather than being limited to educated elites.
Very interesting comments. I agree with some below that this article describes the feeling in the "anglosphere", where vast empire, based on and rationalized by (among other things) racial superiority is rapidly receding and becoming history. Not surprising that in similar circumstances as in early XX century, like globalization reaching new depths (of course it did before in its 500+ years of history), migration intensifying, overpopulation, world becoming increasing connected etc., similar ideologies of white power surface. Yet, the world is now different, the old imperial borders are unstable, nativist ideologies are rising, not only white, because of scarcity and competition. I think the main issue will indeed be competition for resources, natural and human with large populations remaining disenfranchised and prone to influence of these divisive ideologies and even violence. I don't think it's going to be a race war or whites fighting the rest... It will be increasing instability due to humanities exceeding planetary boundaries and fighting itself at the times of scarcity along racial, ethic, religious or any other lines. Just look at the conflicts around the world now, in many of them both sides are of the same race and religion.
2
When all you have is a hammer, all you see is nails. I agree with the overall thesis. White supremacy has historical roots that are reemerging due to a confluence of geopolitical factors. However, Mishra sounds like a grad student fresh out of "Colonialism and Imperialism." Maybe he did a minor in "Gender and Race" too. The subjects are related like but not everything is quite so convenient. An archaeologist once told me "There are no straight lines in history; our job is to smooth out the curves." Mr. Mishar is attempting to draw a straight line.
1
In our efforts to understand how someone like Donald Trump could have been elected president, one thing becomes increasingly clear: there was a segment of our population that could not stomach the idea of a black man being president for eight years without any scandals or personal blights associated with him. Many of those who voted for Donald Trump were symptoms of a backlash ; they wanted a voice that would speak for their fear, and Donald Trump took advantage of this with a kind of malevolent brilliance. It is ironic that this man who has sought regularly to undermine in every way possible, Barack Obama‘s presidency, owes Obama himself a’ thank you’ for helping him to win the 2016 election .
6
Millions of people voted twice for a black man and then for Trump. Good try though.
5
@RD: Obama led "...without any scandals"?
* Jeremiah Wright;
* His Attorney General quashed a voter intimidation case that should have been an open-and-shut prosecution;
* Benghazi;
* Embarrassing intervention in the Henry Louis Gates matter;
* Disastrous 'Arab Spring' campaign;
* Etc., etc., etc.
The Obama Administration was wracked by scandal. I, for one, was appalled by Obama's ineptitude, but my reaction was not triggered by his being black
2
This is a powerful piece that calls things by their proper names.
What’s happening in Germany is frightening.
What’s happening in the US is even more frightening. We are supposed to be a bulwark against rampant white nationalism. We are the country that is supposed to welcome immigrants - immigrants made us wealthy and ‘great’.
And although we have often fallen short of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, I thought those words were important and what I was proud of. There is NOTHING to be proud of in the racism, xenophobia, sexism and anti-middle/poor people policies of this Administration. My heart breaks at every picture of the viciousness in the Trump rallies.
3
This country is built on the backs of free and cheap labour, from slavery in the past, to immigration (both legal and illegal) today.
Racism and greed are the most "fundamental darknesses" of humanity and the biggest threats to civilization.
They arise from erroneous religious, cultural and tribal beliefs that fail to recognize the equivalent humanity of all people.
We can only pray and take action that from this stagnant sulfuric pond of human "darkness" enlightenment arrises that we recognize the brilliant light and love of humanity in everyone's eyes.
Before I'm a white male- I am a human.
Before I'm a buddhist- I am a human.
Before I am anything I think I am- I am a human.
5
This us vs them, white vs. other isn't really helpful, especially when grounded in events from the 19th century. The subjugation of women of all colors and across the globe continues to be the major viloation of human rights, IMHO. Here in the U.S., thankfully we only have misogyny to contend with.
3
The problem comes when people conflate historically European values with European heritage or skin color. Historically European values - the Judeo-Christian tradition of thought that gave us values like human dignity, equality of both poor and rich as equally accountable before God, the Ten Commandments and golden rule as a natural law from which human rights can be derived, and liberal democracy and tolerance for diversity - do legitimately need defending and are uniquely valuable in human history. And I don’t want to live in a world where those values are no longer ascendant.
But those who confuse this historically (contingently!) European intellectual humanist tradition with European heritage or genetics are both ignorant and dangerous.
An illustration of the contrast : John McCain defended historically western or European values i.e democracy, and respected anyone of any heritage or race who was willing to work within the liberal democratic context guided by overlapping consensus about those values. Trump tramples on those values in order to defend European heritage or skin color.
Anyone who values “whiteness” thereby shows that they don’t understand the historically-European values of tolerance, equality of all human beings before God, etc. Sadly many people are too unreflective to figure out whether it’s these values or skin color that is America’s truly valuable inheritance.
13
@caroline Very well said.
1
@caroline you mentioned European heritage, values and tolerance. You inadvertently left out “accomplishments”
1
European white cultural superiority began with the Greeks and Romans. They refused to believe that other cultures such as China and Persia were equal to theirs. This attitude peaked out during the colonial-slavery era. Now the white population undertands that it is a global minority and that non-white countries can have economic success. So the threat is equality.
We brought slaves from Africa, migrant workers from Mexico, and continue to steal nurses and doctors from all over the world. We instituted policies in NAFTA that threw farmers in Mexico out of work, so they came here. We sell guns to everyone, so criminal gangs and crooked politicians in unstable countries spur more immigration. We invaded Vietnam and brought those who helped us to the US after we lost, and our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan produced Al Qaida and ISIS and thus more refugees. We refuse to acknowledge climate change, which is already causing droughts and flooding. In the future, the changing climate will cause population displacements that dwarf our current problems. If the western world wanted a "white" society, we are our own worst enemy.
2
@Laura
We don't "steal" nurses and doctors from all over the world. We educate many of them, and those who come here are are thrilled to do so. I should know, having spent a career working with many immigrant clinicians.
NAFTA was the best thing that ever happened to Mexico's economy.
Vietnamese refugees were given safe-haven here. Yes, it was the least we could do, but you write as if they were kidnapped and enslaved.
6
I am married to a woman of color. In her culture lighter skinned individuals are looked upon more favorably than darker skinned individuals. Have you ever watched an Indian soap opera? The fact that she is married to a white man is point of jealousy for some; it is a sign that she has made it.
5
A brilliant and thoughtful piece that deserves to be read throughout the country. Only one point with which i disagree: calling Israel an "active settler/colonialist" nation. Modern-day Israel, the smallest nation mentioned and one of the smallest in the world, had to be created to prevent future Jews from going through yet more attempts at genocide, and to give a home to those who had survived the latest one. Now a vibrant debate is ongoing there about how to stay majority-Jewish and still democratic. They'll figure it out and eliminate so-called "settlement building" after their next elections -- just as we Americans will figure out how to get rid of Trumpism in 2020.
This article displays the self-righteous and absolutist vision that infects the social justice movement today. It deftly mixes truths, and half truths with far-left ideology to instill fear and anger about "white, Anglo culture." The myopic view of history and current events is focused solely on race with everyone who is non-white (in this context, Latinx, Muslim, Asian or black) labeled as a marginalized and oppressed. Ironically, the ideology that infects this worldview necessarily lumps the Jewish people with white Christians, despite their history of oppression. As a lifelong Democrat and liberal, I shed a tear reading such diatribes because it only stokes the flames of extremism on the far right. Human psychology longs to simplify the world into categories of "good" and "bad." Let's work on resisting that instinct.
16
@David
You mean, in short, the article assures Trump 2020. And I agree.
This is an interesting view through the racial lens but it is somewhat farcical to argue that today’s conflicts are something reducible to race alone.
I woke up thinking most of the burden of the current atavisms is white male fear of white women. Our commander in chief’s solution to his fellow masculine travelers woman problem, a grabby brutalism, pervades his blathers. While it might be true that the majority of white women who vote chose T, the majority of college educated white women did not. They are also seemingly not choosing to marry uneducated white men. This matters as it is only white women who, in a society with racial history such as ours, can reproduce their literal white conceits.
1
The WASP ascendancy and any tacid assumption of privilege as a member of that class has been gone for well over a half century. Racism has been more durable.
I find it interesting how many defenders of white supremacy crow that landmarks such as Renaissance and the advent of modern medicine would not have occurred if it were not for the genius of white men. However, many of the innovations we credit Europe with have actually been around for much longer than most people expect.
Take medicine. Common knowledge has it that modern medicine was invented a few hundred hears ago in Western Europe. However, hundreds years before Snow and Pasteur, a Spanish Muslim physician by the name of al-Zahrāwī published a book detailing various surgical procedures. While the medieval English smeared honey and pigeon dung on their kidneys, the medical skill of Muslim doctors was so well known that European Christian kingdoms actively sought out caliphs' help with health matters. Stepping back further in time, we meet the first plastic surgeon in the world: Sushruta, who lived in 600 BCE India. Instead of performing nose jobs on Hollywood celebrities, Sushruta performed them for warriors wounded in battle.
Perhaps the reason why this information is not more widely known has to do with the way we are taught history. When I was in middle school, my World History classes focused on Western Europe for months — and then condensed India to a two-week discussion of the caste system. If we were to give the rest of the world the attention it is due, maybe we can finally get rid of the factless idea that white men have spearheaded every form of innovation.
7
racial politics today is about shaming whites, suppressing intellectual honesty and dampening freedom of speech of opposing views.
10
As a person who is the daughter of immigrants, one from the United Kingdom of Great Britain (white) and the Commonwealth of Jamaica (multi-racial), I observe that it's easy to use physical appearance to categorize and classify others, especially those who differ from oneself. As a physician/scientist/researcher, I know that humans share much in common no matter how different they look, own, or act. We all need water, food, and oxygen to live at the most basic level. We all share being alive at the most basic level. I note, from my years of study of the fundamental atoms, molecules, tissue, and organs that make up human beings, I focus the similarities rather than the differences and cannot consider one ethnicity or color of human as higher or lower than the next.
4
This is all going to get worse as climate change worsens. Historically a change in average temps of just a few degrees have affected the rise and fall of goverments. Crop failures causing bread riots in France sparked revolution. The Arab spring was kicked off by bread riots in Tunisia following crop failures. We will continue to see mass migrations and increased disasters. This will push brown people of one culture up against white people of another culture. This will squeeze and trigger these pathetic panicky white supremacist people. They will break out the jack boots goaded by soulless greedy power hungry people like our president.
There is only one species of human on this planet and we need to start being a lot nicer to each other. As our planet changes our species will have to adapt and migrate. Fearing change will serve no useful purpose.
3
"The terrible probability that the rulers of the “higher races,” struggling to hold on to what they have stolen from their captives, and unable to look into their mirror, will precipitate a chaos throughout the world which, if it does not bring life on this planet to an end, will bring about a racial war such as the world has never seen".
Somber thoughts indeed. But it had been demonstrated many times that the absolute worst and the very best can both be expected from human societies. It belongs to our chosen leaders to steer us towards the more benign and positive outcomes.
Everyone should ask themselves what future they want for their children before casting a vote n November. It is in the end a simple choice between inclusiveness and divisiveness, or between hope and chaos. I know what I would chose...
90
@flyonthewall I think that leaders are of secondary importance to primal forces within groups. Leaders get disproportionate credit or condemnation for dynamics they didn’t cause.
1
We are all descended from Africans. All the "races," every Hottentot and ev'ree Esquimaux, is descended from a few thousand out of the millions who lived there a few tens, at most a few hundred thousand, years ago.
That means that the bulk of humanity's treasure, our genetic variation, is still back there.
A small group has a bit of variance within itself. A larger group has more variety. Africa has the tallest, the Nilotics, and the shortest, the Pygmies. It has the fastest, among a variety of groups -- but the slowest are necessarily the same everywhere. There's a Darwinian line for every quality, a line below which nobody and no group survives.
To the extent that any quality is physiological, its extremes will be found in Africa.
Intelligence (or intelligences) is a largely heritable, genetic, and physiological quallity.
2
I find it frightening to live in a country where the color of my skin, my sexual preferences, and my gender are more important than my character, hard work, and integrity. I find it disturbing to be witnessing a returning belief in discredited theories, racism, bigotry, and deliberate ignorance. Worse still is the knowledge that it doesn't need to be this way. But the monied interests in America want this sort of division because it simplifies things for them. They can count on white Americans to vote against everyone else's interests, including their own, as long as those votes give the economic elites more money, more power, and more opportunities to gain and use both to oppress us even more.
Charity is not the only thing that begins at home. So does hatred, racism, cruelty to others, and host of other social ills. As long as we focus on how "those people" cheat the system we're missing how the economic elites are cheating us and gaming the system. It's not welfare queens or low level drug dealers that will destroy America; it's us listening to and believing everything the economic elites tell us.
14
While the author highlights a dangerous and worrying theme in the Western world, he makes the tragic mistake of missing out the wider issue - that inward looking nationalism is on the rise everywhere in the world. China has been slowly but steadily eliminating the identity of ethnic "minorities" within its own dubious borders while using the wealth it has gained from the western economies to build a military that will soon challenge the US and its allies. It is luring more and more countries into debt traps and obtaining access to resources and real estate in Africa and Asia. Like the British Empire, the Chinese seek to establish world dominance and have no desire or interest in respecting any other national identity. Nationalist movements in Germany, in India and in the US are not a good sign, but are local phenomena with some balance from the center and left. Bur China is the real menace to stability and peace in the world and unless the rest of the world gets its act together and counters China, things will go downhill soon.
6
The decline in power is invariably accompanied
by anger and frustration. High suicide rate among
middle aged white men is indicative of their
marginalization. Immigration and faminist
movement brought many men of color and
women running big corporations which made
it unacceptable to older white men. American
corporations, with their unrestricted power,
created globalization to take advantage of cheap
labor, loose environmental and labor safety
regulations in China to pile up huge profit and gigantic bonuses. They pushed for increase in H1-B visa which brought millions from third world
at lower salary to replace white professionals.
Unintended consequences of these policies
driven by the corporations with the help from
crooked politicians has created the back lash.
Racism is part of it but corporate power,
corruption in politics, women movement
also contributed to this phenomenon.
4
After forty years contributing to our American society and standing by, patiently, as we've opened our doors, welcoming other countries and cultures along with their closely-held values, I feel disappointed and frustrated. The very institutions and infrastructure we've initiated, created and established - widely adopted/accepted around the world - are, now, being used by the very same countries and cultures as a way to aggressively, by a Machiavellian mob-rule, assert those closely-held values many of which contradict the values we've established, here.
Unfortunately, those who find themselves at the developing edge of these institutions and infrastructure find, one-day, being the victims of their own successes. They become the enemy to beat down, criminalize, ignore, rob, diminish, erase as a means to selfishly establish a new order based on the values of those invited countries and cultures.
This country is wounded and swaggering not only by its unique identity geopolitics. It is wounded and swaggering by an attempt to assimilate the identity geopolitics of other countries and cultures who have never wished to assimilate. They simply wish to take part and exploit the wealth, safety and stability created by this country and find a way reassert their closely-held values, here.
Spend some time in India. Spend time with the Brahmans and Kshatriyasins, two sources of our wounds and swaggering. Their treatment of their own is far worse than any mistreatment of others, here.
10
@Thomas Grebinski
Please explain to us . If this piece was written by someone who was not an Indian, would you feel compelled to comment just about iniquities of Indians in India and here. What is written applies to the world and this country in this time and place. The fact you attack the ethnicity of the writer rather then look at broader issues says a lot about you. Open your mind!
Having grown up in the rural south, I could always see echos of the attitudes that developed under slavery. Whites during slave times knew two things with terrible clarity:
- First, if they showed the slightest moment of weakness --in other words, acknowledging the humanity of slaves-- that they would be swept away as a very fragile system broke down
- Second, in their hearts they knew that there would be an awful day of reckoning if the system broke down because they assumed that slaves would take the vengeance that they would inflict, were the roles reversed.
Slavery is gone, but the attitudes remain and are nourished by right wing political hacks.
Seems like we're all holding our collective breath, waiting for our Fort Sumter moment . . .
8
We are all tribal, and are essentially "meists"; i.e. the closer the "other" is to us in race, gender, age, nationality, tribe etc., the better we can understand and cooperate with him/her. Further, this is quite natural and instinctive, and unlikely ever to be overcome. Yes, this instinct may indeed be the beginning of the end for Homo Sapiens, but then most of the species that ever existed are now extinct. Nature has its way with all. That's fine.
Funny, my best friend's father in the mid 1960's told my friend and me both to marry another race when we grew up. He could see a great storm coming and the best way to adapt was simple diffusion. He was ahead of his time. All my grandchildren are bi-racial. Not my sons' philosophies exactly, they just loved someone and didn't care about skin color. Will it be hard for these kids growing up? Maybe. But so much better than a generation or two ago! If Americans traveled more, and visited places where they were in the minority, they would perhaps learn respect and tolerance for all.
8
Yes, yes. But no.
The essay discusses the history of those accustomed to power for the past 100 years or so. Yes, they were White and sought to preserve White hegemony. But they also sought to preserve Class/Caste hegemony, Protestant hegemony, familial hegemony. In other words, they fought to preserve their own power and to pass it along to their ilk, who happen to be White.
If, as the author infers, all is about toxic Whiteness then let’s test this argument by inverting it. Do predominantly non-White Nations welcome the sharing of power? Does Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ethiopia or China welcome White councillors or parliamentarians? Are they even Democratic?
So why then does this seem to be a White problem? Simple. The twin powers of the enlightenment and the industrial revolution gave Northern Europeans a momentary cultural and technological lead that allowed them to control the global balance of power for the last few hundred years. Just as the Mongols, Normans, Mayans did before them, Northern Europeans sought to preserve their power at home and in the lands they conquered/colonized.
The critical difference though is that Northern Europeans also spread democracy and liberalism across the world. This inevitably means that the power they built will be shared with all others. You’re welcome!
17
@Matt Lampner
Your last paragraph is not true and just wishful thinking and propaganda of the west. They never spread democracy and liberalism across the world coz otherwise they would not partner with saudis or dozens of other dictators across the world. That is simply not true. They promoted materialism so their corporations can benefit and materialism inadvertently leads to liberalism is a historical coincidence. it was not any kind of enlightenment as many whites delusionally believe. I think many whites have messianic complex.
2
@Matt Lampner
"Mongols, Normans, Mayans". Don't forget the Ottomans.
I would respectfully ask that one think about the immigration policies of Japan and Korea and compare those policies to the ones in the U.S. These countries have decided that they largely do not want outsiders. The U.S. has 43 million people living here who were not born here, 20% of the people world wide who have moved to another country. This is four times more than any other country. The make up of this 43 million certainly is not largely white. If the white males in charge had not wanted this, they could have stopped this. The non white males in Japan and Korea have stopped non Asian immigration to their countries. White, male bashing is certainly in vogue, but, look at the facts.
19
@Robert, why do folks want to compare the USA to countries founded on totally different constitutions? Japan (in your example) never proudly calls itself a 'nation of immigrants, melting pot, e pluribus unum, shining city on a hill, stature of Liberty's 'give me your poor......', multicultural cities, on and on and on. We are betraying OUR OWN ideals; no need to talk about how Japan or Norway or Sierra Leone treat their non-white males. Sheesh.
1
@deb. Hi. My point is simply that the U.S. has been far more open than other places. That is why Gallup finds that the U.S. is the number 1 desired destination by far in the world. Immigration is generally a fine thing, but it also places stress on the country accepting folks from afar. It would be great for the world if other countries, particularly ones in the east, had more open policies. Rest assured, because of over population and because of water and other environmental issues, people will be on the move. The western countries cannot be the only place where people want to go and have a fighting chance of being accepted.
5
I guess the Irish, Russian, (my own) German immigrant ancestors 'placed stress' on the United States, as we accepted them from afar. So? Your response reflects the fear that we'll be over-run or something fearful will happen. Just don't look at the successful immigrants who have contributed so much to so many states in which they settled, right? I assure you that there are many countries people go, settle and improve, which are NOT the U.S.A.
So many of the comments misrepresent this essay. They turn to whataboutism to attack other groups of people or they indulge in "its all class" or they say that it is histrionic. IN fact I think they are simply afraid that it is true.
9
I had not quite plumbed the depth of Trump's racism until he began blathering about the murder of white farmers in South Africa. Then I understood that for men like him sharing is tantamount to extinction and that for this reason they will never allow others to take a seat at their table. Meanwhile the rest of the world is moving on, having long ago moved to another table. Trump and his ilk remind me of those sad bullies in my high school, many of them held over, sitting alone and ignored in their corner of the cafeteria while the rest of us were getting on with life.
10
@PR Vanneman I find it interesting that the author sees the particular racism of the Anglosphere. Many times I have read the glowing praise of American and English educators for programs to improve the teaching of English in countries like Malaysia as proof of “growing civilization” there, as if learning English (as opposed to say Chinese or Portuguese) is a sign of intellect. This is for me more a sign of Anglo-Saxon arrogance than a sign of improved education.
The giant pic you had of trump's eyes is chilling--there's nothing in there. No soul, no compassion, no conscience. He has dead eyes. Scary.
8
"a Boston Brahmin"
In India keeping "the untouchables" in place is a pillar of Hindu religion, and the elite who see themselves reincarnated to supremacy see little incentive to change. And with the rise of Hindu nationalism, even "the untouchables" have a caste to despise: Muslims. The fracas at Harvard and the imbroglio over New York City charter schools is entirely among non-whites. From Algeria to Afghanistan blacks are routinely enslaved. Is not all this part of the narrative--or does it spoil it?
13
@shreir, I live in a town that still has pure blue blooded Boston Brahmins...their attitude is changing slowly but they are so secure in their superiority, why would they want to change?
1
The father of Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox, was a “stalwart of the eugenics movement”. That explains a great deal about Fox News’ insidious effect on our country.
8
No offense to the author but this is a very silly article. The problems in the 3rd world are self-inflicted and acquiesced in by the people. Corruption, lack of respect for rule of law and other ills beset 90% of the world's population and has for years. The problem is socio-economic i.e., lousy governments. How is that the fault of White people.
19
I remember a wonderful article published in the NYTimes Magazine some years ago (maybe in the '80's?), called "The Beigeing of America." It profiled young adults of mixed race who were becoming priming and successful in many fields of endeavor, with photos. It could have included the young Barak and Michelle Obama (though I don't remember that it did). It was wonderful and inspiring. I would love to see it republished, perhaps with updates.
1
As a scientist, I know there is no racial supremacy gene. Racism is a delusional waste of time and energy, cruel, and wrong. Demagogues are laughing all the way to the bank
7
And so the plague of identity politics spreads. There is no such thing as a 'white race'. Only two groups hold a fervent belief in such a thing: Nazis and the extreme left.
What you are referring to is Western civilization, which in the past was primarily a Christian one. Also in the past, Western civilization was not so civilized and did many bad things all over the world, including genocide of native peoples, colonization, the Inquisition and slavery, the latter alongside Arabs and Muslims.
The West was not alone in this. Almost all peoples behaved in ways we would now consider barbaric.
Yet nowadays the West is where we have the best of societies. Democracy, separation of church and state, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, equal rights to all. It's a process, but for acceptance and mingling of people from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds, religions and skin color, the West is where it's at.
Non Western societies are too varied to discuss here, but the Muslim world in particular is racist, misogynist and believes that 'kafirs' should convert or die. This is not a fringe belief.
The worst part of identity politics is the shaming of 'white people', i.e. Westerners, so that they can't speak up in defense of our modern democratic way of life. This divisiveness and shaming is what led to Trump. And the rise of White Supremacists. And the death of many brain cells that cry out in agony against all this stupidity.
14
@A Person
Your last paragraph is just plain wrong diagnosis. It is not shaming of the whites which lead to Trump. It is income inequality, the rise of machines, tax cuts for the wealthy and extreme capitalism that benefits a few at the cost of many.
Your paragraph about muslims is true but the reason for rise of Islamic fundamentalism is genocide of jews which culminated in usurping Palestine lands and the western deal with the house of sauds to ignore their funding the extremists as long as oil flows to the west. The sauds and the west made a Faustian deal with the islamic fundamentalists so they spread islamic fundamentalism in exchange for letting the saud/west control oil resources and not the people of Arabia.
One thing for sure:
People vote with their feet.
People are not clamoring to get into "non-white" countries.
Indians are not clamoring to get into China, are they?
Nor into Brazil, nor Argentina nor elsewhere in Latin America.
Nor into Africa.
Africans are not clamoring to get into India, are they?
Nor into China.
Nor into Brazil, nor Argentina nor elsewhere in Latin America.
Latin Americans are not clamoring to get into China, nor India, nor Africa, nor even into other Latin American countries.
So, where are they all clamoring to go?
To the "white" countries, of course:
The USA and Europe and Canada and Australia.
Will that ever change?
Time -- not pundits -- will tell.
17
Economics, climate change and war has a lot to do with migration.
@sam finn There are many people from around the world coming to Brazil. As a US American I can report first hand how many hoops I have had to jump through in halls full of people from other countries (yet I add that the Brazilian officials have treated me with the utmost respect). Oh, and are you implying that Brazilians are not white? In Brazil there are peoples of all colors - please google pictures of Vera Fischer, Villa-Lobos, Gisel Bundchen, Dilma Rouseff, Lula DaSilva, Roberto Carlos, Oscar Niemeyer and Rita Lee. And of course the great author Jorge Amado. Surprise.
Race is a false concept. DNA studies tell us that while characteristics used to identify race are inherited the rest of people's genetically determined characteristics are distributed in a manner that is not correlated with race, including intelligence and communication skills and problem solving and all the other gifts mankind enjoys. Furthermore, only Africans share no DNA with hominids like Neanderthals. White skin which enables people living far from the equator to use UV light is a characteristic that originated from mating with Neanderthals. White skin has no real correspondence to "higher abilities". This entire white supremacy thing derived from a notion that the great technological accomplishments and ability to build empires was due to some inherent characteristics of white people. Without that explanation those things become products of opportune circumstances. It would mean that group of people with similar opportunities might have done the same. It would mean if all was lost, it might be restored by non-white people.
1
Remembering our past, looking towards our future, and thinking about how the present is shaped by and will shape them respectively, is helpful, even when the discussions are uncomfortable or unpleasant to be confronted by.
But we must remember:
The past was populated by flawed people of all races, genders & beliefs.
The present is populated by flawed people of all races, genders & beliefs.
The future will be populated by flawed people of all races, genders & beliefs.
False notions of superiority, and the employ of various forms of coercion, suppression & violence against others are hardly unique to any single nation, religion, or real or abstract way of defining people.
If we are lucky, the arc will continue bending towards civility.
3
Mr. Mishra seem to ignore the significance of historical context. Social Darwinism was a construct of Herbert Spencer and Darwin's cousin Galton the father of eugenics. It was used to defend colonialism. Culture was easily linked to race because both were largely separated in the colonizing countries. Today race is slowly being eroded by intermarriage and will eventually be too irrelevant for questionnaires. I see this in my own family. The real divider is culture, particularly if religion is a major component. The racism of many current rightist leaders is a natural expression of William Hamilton's altruism equation and must be factored into any conflict resolution between nations. But it is the culture wars, fanned by a tsunami of information technology that need our major attention.
1
This diatribe is a long winded version of “why can’t good black people stop bad black people from committing crimes?” Or perhaps “why can’t good muslims stop bad muslims from attacking New York?” Or if you must “why didn’t a white person stop the massacre at Sandy Hook?”
Except, the color scheme is the plot.
The world is more chaotic than our imaginations can grasp. We look for patterns to make sense of it. Our attribution of patterns does not abate the chaos, it allows our minds to process it, sometimes well, sometimes badly, sometimes not at all.
Conspiracies are fantasies that meet a need for security. Read Non-Violent Communication, and start over.
6
You had me until you describe Israel as the “world’s last settler colonialist project”. What this just shows is a profound level of ignorance of Jewish history, and the necessity of a Jewish state. Even in the last week or so in the UK there has been controversy because a video has emerged of Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition party basically saying that “zionists” aren’t British. This is despite Jews having lived in the UK for 350 years (and that history started again because they were expelled in the Middle Ages). If a community that is so well established and so integrated isn’t considered “British” by senior politicians, then the only hope is for a Jewish home land. This is a recent example; I can go into dozens if not hundreds of others covering Jewish communities in Europe, the Middle East (yes, there used to be huge Jewish communities in the Middle East dating back millennia that are now gone), Central Asia and North Africa.
9
Spike Lee's film "BlackkKlansman" ...brings it all back: Where we have come from during the civil rights era and where we are headed with a lifelong racist Donald Trump, in the Oval Office.
We cannot afford to forget. We must reject the racism and bigotry that is Trump and his followers.
4
Some one here mentioned it was more of a resource issue and class warfare. There are aspects of that to it. But there is also just a lot of plain stupid dumbed down Hatred of the ages as always.
And when the "whites" are swept from power by sheer numbers, it seems to me that when the parties who wish to achieve change get it, they may look around a find a sick joke was played on all who fell for the conflict.
Because while everyone was swept up in the hatred - regardless of skin color, they will notice everything was taken while they were fighting. And over in the corner will still be the laughing Trumpites and Koch - heads. Secure in their bunkers knowing we all drank the Kool Aid. I'm sure someone more eloquent than I can essay this.
Hate away everyone. They are laughing all the way to the bank, as they say ...
4
Humans are just hairless apes with hydrogen bombs, but also dentistry, dancing, differential equations, and due diligence. But the evolutionary baggage is never far away; on top of which is superposed Hobbesian realities as well as certain perverse economic benefits to domination. So-called 'whites' just got there first by accidents of geography (see Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel"). And as DNA research recently discovered, the population of Britain some 10,000+ years ago were all dark skinned.
6
Whites forget that North America was once majority 'Red'. History has no qualms about it being majority 'Brown'.
5
There is probably a good deal of substance to this article, but you only get to it by wiping away the exaggeration.
6
This column raises a serious issue which I have seen in other editorials. When did misandry... a person who dislikes, or despises white men become acceptable? When did the various white man-hating stabs, jibes, insults & expectations become part of our culture? Why do our cultural norms protect & celebrate this kind behavior as “hip” or “sassy”? The difference is that misogynists are decried as evil while misandrists are celebrated. Isn't this a double standard? Misogyny & misandry is unacceptable whether it comes from the left or right? We have enough divisiveness in our country. If you seriously want to tear down the web of institutions that systemically oppress women you will need as many allies as you can get. Telling half the population that you they are evil, is not the way to do that.
16
I too could cherry pick statements made by various people across a span of 150 years and come up with a pretty damning narrative. It would be more intellectually honest to admit that the common denominator in all of the author's examples is the idea of economic pressure on the ordinary worker. This occurs in all societies, not just the white ones that are condemned within.
It is popular to blame Trump, and by extension, white "deplorable" voters as the source of all ills, even by those with a far more nuanced vision than this writer. Keep in mind, however, that these same voters watched as generations were sacrificed on the alter of corporate profits, and the same newspapers that now lecture us were breathlessly reporting quarterly earnings as the measure of the health of the economy.
The average worker in America gave up his future so that a half a billion Chinese peasants could be lifted out of poverty. Yet the Davos class and the newspaper of record kept their exalted positions, and the children of the oligarchs are the new gentry.
It's so easy to blame others. Pankaj Mishra would blame white people, Trump would blame brown people, Hindi would blame Muslim, and so on.
The oligarchs just keep cashing the checks.
The author is as much a dupe as any pickup truck driving yahoo in Kansas, but at least he has the air of civility, and the newspaper of record to applaud him.
14
This article predicts a race war, but the current evidence (largely neglected in this historical article) suggests that the danger of an actual race war has passed. As the turnout from recent rallies suggests, the number of hard militants is tiny. That's especially true for young people, who would be the foot soldiers in any race war. The article doesn't address the rising color-blindness among younger generations. Racial appeals will probably still matter in politics for a while, though.
8
Trump, as the leader of the pack, demonstrates how completely devoid of reality the white supremacy movement is. Every aspect is a lie. He lies and lies and lies. What is so shockin is how desperately these people want to believe his lies and that their white skin makes them part of a great western intellectual tradition, even though these are the same people who despise the “elites” (=those who, unlike Trump, actually have money but don’t espouse white supremacy) and demonstrate their stupidity. Trump’s recent signla to them to start the war if the dems succeed in the midterm is shocking beyond all belief.
2
So, When Indians and Chinese are in the ascendancy will things be any better?
7
@Joe McGlinchey, Joe, these are cyclical events. At one time in history, the ancient Indians and Chinese were the most advanced. Why do you think India was the jewel in the crown and most sought after colony of the British? Indians and Chinese had not become advanced overnight, they had many many golden ages, many sages, many inventions, many advances in medicine astronomy mathematics, while people in the western world were still languishing in dark ages.
5
@Joe McGlinchey
Really!!
That’s all you got from this long catalogue of western exploitation.
No wonder we despair for the future .
2
Pankaj Mishra, you have underestimated our country even as one of our elite institutions (Yale) has bestowed one literature's highest honors upon you. A $150,000 award provided by the estate of Donald Windham. You are not white and you don't even live in this country yet we recognize your talents and achievements and rightly so.
It is time you recognize ours. The United States has the highest amount of foreign born citizens in the world (47 million) almost four times the next highest country. And when they get here, they do very well, generally out-earning native born whites. And no minority group does better than your fellow Indians. It is also true that immigrants are more welcome here than Americans would be in their native countries.
Your attempt to dig up 100 year old muck and smear our present with it shows how far we have come and actually makes me feel pretty good about our future.
26
Yes and somehow the author missed the news that the Trump Administration is vocally supporting efforts by Asian Americans —not whites—to dismantle Harvard’s discriminatory admissions policies.
5
The Whites, the writer calls the Anglosphere, have been aware of their lower birthrate and their incapacity to excel or dominate without being dependent on the black and the brown. Therefore, they encouraged slave trade, indentured labor and immigration. This was in sharp contrast to the Muslim world, which at one time challenged the Christian Anglosphere in the field of math, science and warfare, but regressed because of their obsession with Islamism.
The movement of migrants is still toward the "White racist West", which thankfully harbors innumerable liberal globalists of all color, rather than toward the monolithic, obscurantist Muslim world. Or, toward the repressive world of China and Russia. The number of black and brown settlers has increased manifold in the white West; and exterminated or displaced from the non-Christian, especially, the Muslim world (from Libya to Pakistan).
The White America elected its Black president; London, UK, a practicing Muslim immigrant's son as its Mayor. Canada's ruling cabinet is full of first or second generation immigrants or refugees; Scandinavian countries have Muslim immigrant women as elected representatives. Tech giants in America have brown CEOs.
The Anglosphere welcomes orderly-productive immigration/integration of non-white, non-Christian brown or black people. It's scared of being swamped and, therefore, reacts. Media fan the fire.
They know and learn to live with the Anglosphere that will look more like Obama than Trump.
9
Look, some document written by some dead person 125 years ago wasnt some master plan all us white people have tucked away in our breast pockets on our tailored suits. I dont care what some bigot 125 years ago said, and I dont think that today is the culmination of all this document laid out.
I never even thought of myself as white until 2015. I considered myself a fair and good person who cared about others and didnt see a black person as being different. Then I learned that I was a racist for not taking on the guilt of dead white people 200 years ago that I'm not even related to. I learned I was also a racist for trying NOT to see color. Evidently to be not racist I had to consider race in every single thought or decision I made.
Well after 3 years of that I dont see things getting better. Now I'm told that I can never not be a racist, that my whiteness is an eternal curse and an original sin from which I can never be absolved. Im told that the culture that I'm part of is inherently evil and needs to be wiped from the earth.
Personally, I think trying to be race-blind creates better outcomes then focusing on race in every decision we make. Now everytime I say something I have to be like, "As a queer transgender white educated woman, I am able to have validity while offering the following thought..." Its crazy. Now we discriminate against Asians because they are too smart, and I've been hearing more and more about reparations and quotas and it's getting nuts.
20
Meanwhile, the greatest threat to human life is overpopulation, which is facilitated entirely by non-white societies, many of whom did not have a written language until they met white people.
9
When I was in college in 1967-71, while the country was going through war protests and race riots, people kept writing and talking about the coming race war. It's an old idea that keeps coming around. Stirring up people with the talk of a race war is a way of polarizing people, and keeping them from focusing on the real problems. The current economy is hurting all but the top 10 percent of people here, and that's who we need to fight, not each other. We need excellent education, decent wages, and good health care for all, and we can only get it by working together.
8
Classic Progress Denial. Despite what the doom merchants at the NYT want us to believe, the US has never been more racially tolerant than today. Sorry, but even the most cursory glance shows vast improvements in freedom and opportunity for people of all backgrounds. I’m coining a new phase, “Progress Denial”, for writing like this.
And the conclusion that the “...religion of whiteness increasingly resembles a suicide cult” is probably taken from a freshman college essay. Like much of this piece it’s nonsensical. Tone down the rhetoric, stop demonizing the opposition and make reasoned prescriptions for change.
15
@Peter York
How about reality denial? Been to a Trump rally recently?
Capital and mob indeed! Who was who said approximately "If you convince the lowest white man that he's better than the highest-achieving black man, he'll give you his vote and smile while you pick his pocket"? Trump found the perfect moment to catch that wave and ride it to the White (!) House.
6
Racism was out in full force during both campaigns and presidency of Barak Obama.
The problem whatever part of the world it rears it's ugly head can be summed up by the phrase,
"You're not from around here, are you?"
2
Reading this study in history which depicts of how the evil Western-White Empire has finally fallen before the forces of the Multi-Colored-Not Western anti-racist and progressive global rebels and deteriorated to the status of a “wounded and swaggering” identity-minority, two thoughts crossed my mind: First, how much suffering would have humanity avoided if only the Mongol hordes would have succeeded in their moral-historical quest to conquer and annihilate the European bastion from which future white global dominance have sprung.
And the second, why have Mr. Mishra, a person “focused on ideas and politics”, decided to write his opinion on the racist-colonialist (White-Western) roots of (nearly) all past wrongs in the global system and future hazards for humanity in the language of the oppressors – still lingering structural-cultural dominance? Or, alternatively, an unfortunate case of cultural appropriation by the rising victors?
3
@Meir Stieglitz In conclusion, ultimately, Mr. Mishra’s ruminations on the “whiteness suicide cult” are a mirror-image of Mr. Banon’s mediations on the “anti-Judeo-Christian global menace” – both are enemies of Universalism and of its Enlightenment’s (immanently always philosophically deliberated and practically modified) values of fraternity, equality and liberty.
1
In my view most of the problem is simply, men. Most are not evolving passed the primitive knuckle dragging neanderthal stage of development.
7
This idea that white men alone are against open border immigration is patently false. Go ahead and look for yourselves where African Americans stand on immigration. My point isn't that African Americans 'have it just as wrong as whites'. But singling out 'white guys' inaccurately and misleadingly defines the story. If a white guy is 'racist' because he is against open border immigration, is a black guy 'racist' as well?
There is a story here but it isn't solely about race and whiteness. It is about the economic ramifications of globalization against those that are most affected by immigration.
Readers of NYT get more diverse restaurants and cheaper house cleaners due to immigration. People, of all races, lower on the economic ladder face real competition for jobs. Even Paul Krugman has acknowledged this.
The constant narrative is that just white people are racist. I hope NYT fosters a wider discussion on this topic that isn't solely about 'whiteness' or race. The 21st century problems of the world can and should be explored outside of this narrow view.
12
The author doesn't get it.
It's not about a feeling of superiority. It's about a feeling of being invaded. Most whites I know are not strutting around feeling superior. They just want to have their country not taken away from them.
The same way Chinese would feel, or Africans, or Indians.
Stop demonizing normal behavior.
7
@vbering
Who is taking away the "white" country from the whites? America is no more a country of the whites by the whites and for the whites. So there is no need to feel the country is being taken over just because OTHER AMERICANS with the same and equal rights as whites demand and receive their fair share of American dream.
2
I wonder how Native Americans feel.... I’m afraid you’re the one that doesn’t get it.
2
@A. L. Grossi
Not saying the behavior is not problematic, just saying it is normal.
This article is a bit overwrought. Blaming a lot of things on whiteness misses the fact that other races are just as capable of evil or bad behavior, look at Genghis Khan or other conquerors.
In that sense all races are equal - maybe we can celebrate that equality?
3
The question is: Are we white folks stupid enough to fall into the angry, fearful suicide pact that James Baldwin so cogently depicted. Recent trends do not look good, especially with the "leader" of the "free" world, himself more bilious than brainy and with such enormous power for destruction.
1
Thank you for your excellent article on revanchist and revivalist white supremacy throughout the world.
The only rival to such resurgent racial politics is only found today in fascist Islamic movements, which seek to subjugate the "infidel" through whatever means necessary.
The only difference between the two, resurgent white identity politics and fascist Islam, is that the former is beloved by the right, and the latter by the Left (when was the last time you saw antics demonstrating against fascist Islam as exemplified by ISIS, Al Qaeda, or even the Taliban?).
Too bad the Times' recent commitment to "Islamophobia" shields its readers from a vigorous treatment of the two great resurgent fascist movements in the world today. Although he WSJ ran an excellent piece on Muslim London yesterday.
I look forward to the Times soon publishing a piece on the "sounded and swaggering" Islamic "geopolitical" dangers which lie ahead, especially in light of the dangers set forth in Mr. Mishra's article on the Right.
3
@Jubilee133
The problem with jumping on ISIL or Taliban or other Islamic based terrorist movements is that it immediately morphs into anti-Islamic hate in the hands of white non-Islamic people, which is predicted by history as outlined in this article.
@Some Dude
The fact that some people will "morph" the issue to their own ends, doesn't mean it isn't real and shouldn't be considered and addressed.
2
Readers of NYT, why do you think the so called white civilizations never achieved greatness until the Americas were discovered?
Because until the Europeans had access to the plundered resources of native Americans, stolen land of the native Americans and slavery labor they were mired in the dark ages and Christian wars. So there is nothing special about the “white” civilization coz the Eastern Europeans and Southern Europeans were whites too and they didn’t build great ANyTHING because they didn’t have access to the great resources of the Americas or the slaves. It just so happened that due to geography the French, English, Portuguese and Spanish had open access to the Atlantic and they denied easy access to Atlantic to the Italians and Greeks and Germans who were not sitting abreast of the Atlantic Ocean.
Who do you think were the largest economies throughout human history until about 1800s? Why and what happened to them after the discovery of Americas?
India and China were the largest two economies throughout human history until about 1800s. The two Asian giants were simply unable to cope with the sudden rush of plundered resources and products made by slaves coming out of the Americas. Their economy collapsed unable to compete with Europe and USA. But it took them BARELY 150 years to get back to being the top economies all over again. It is return to historical order. We can’t deny 1/3 of all humanity their right to exist. We make peace and coexist with Asia.
3
@Thought Provoking
That's a stretch. The northern europeans were hardly the only peoples who had direct access to the ocean. Also, "plundering" is how civilization worked for most of history.
1
There are other ways to view the history of the world than through the prism of race that separates humanity by skin color. That seems too simplistic to me. Most of the same issues mentioned in the article are seen as class war issues by others, as education issues by others and as the economics of geography issues by others. There are poor white communities that feel taken advantage of as economic activity clusters come and go over time leaving behind environmental problems, unemployment and dislocation. Some of those left behind people voted for Mr. Trump because he paid attention to them. The world is more complex that just skin color, in my humble opinion.
108
@Mr. Jones. Of course the world is more complex than skin color, but skin color “sells.” It can, and is being used just like a red flag in front of the bull. In the end, remember however, it is the bull that gets killed.
2
The trouble is even those poor uneducated, disenfranchised white people feel superior and entitled. This is the point of the article. As a non white Anglo Saxon living in America for 40 years I know this first hand. For them, it’s not enough to be Caucasian, but you have to be native born Anglo Saxon to fully deserve the benefits of being American.
@Mr. Jones
The “attention” you say Trump offers the “left behind” to which you refer is nothing more than the opportunity to scream (on cue) at the Trump rallies. His policies mostly hurt them!
4
The Democrats should propose a law suspending central American immigration for four years. Do the same with "chain migration". Give him his wall, even. Take Trump's most potent issues away from him. Make him defend the rest of his warped agenda. Debt? Trade war? The destruction of the ACA?
Are the Progressives incapable of playing "rope-a-dope" with him?
4
James Baldwin is proof that whites are not the “higher race.” The man was brilliant.
1
A race war looms.
I feel it, here, in Sanford, North Carolina.
There's a weird vibe in the air, and it mostly comes from older whites.
They evince the "look." All in one, its a mix of hate and superiority and fear and denial of recognition of a shared humanity. And menace.
I get it; they feel their world slipping away.
But the world has changed.
Too bad nobody willingly gives up power.
Hence the looming race war.
98
@Bert Floryanzia The only war those angry old clowns will ever fight is against the child-proof tops on their heart medicine. The world passed them by a long time ago.
5
I love this. Thank you Mr. Mishra
3
Racism is the last gasp of a dying minority who are unwilling or emotionally unable to realize that all human beings are equal. Why can they not understand that the majority of the world's people are not Caucasian? Even a slight bit of intellectual curiosity would bring out details of other thriving populations that have developed successful societies independent of the white race. People throughout the world have advanced in every field of human endeavor. Their accomplishments enrich humanity and should be appreciated, not feared.
5
The author is invoking history to attempt to prove that white people are obsessed with race and ethnicity when, in fact, it's been the other way around: black and brown people have been the ones making all the fuss.
There were moments in recent history, especially during the Clinton years and culminating in the election of Obama, where the world was becoming a better, more open, colorblind society, and that enlightenment was prevailing. Global capitalism, as the author referenced, was delivering on its promise. Unfortunately, economic inequality fostered by the business elite has been the driving wedge in our society, and that's what should be addressed.
Leave it to 'progressive' liberals, however, with their intersectional alliances to have you believe that race is the issue, that all white men are racist "angry bros" trying to recapture the glory of white male hegemony, that capitalism is synonymous with evil colonialism and that socialism should prevail despite history proving it an abject failure.
The author misperceives Trumpism as a syndrome of the ills of our society when it is merely a symptom. And as long as the hard Left, shrill in their misuse of political correctness, obscures the truth, the more likely the armageddon that author projects will occur.
But none of this matters in the end, because no one is focusing on the real existential problem to us all: Climate Change.
6
@L.gordon
That there is a segment of whites, mostly old white men, who are scared of diversity is true beyond any argument. That trump benefited from this tribal fear of these white men is also true beyond any argument. And the unfettered capitalism with all benefits going to the wealthy and tax cuts for the wealthy has created income inequality is also true. That the advent of machines and globalization has eliminated manual jobs which has disproportionately affected those without a college degree is also true.
But the solution is not in pointing fingers at "others" and demagogue the income inequality issue as immigration issue as it divides the diverse nation that is America. That saying universal healthcare is a right IS NOT SOCIALISM. That is just the way to con the poor whites to vote against their own interest when they are dying of drugs, lack of healthcare and suicide. This is a massive fraud committed by the GOP on its own base. That being polite and respectful is considered politically correct only brings out the worse in people who think it is freedom to abuse and call names. That is such a shame! And when they are spotted and marked as racists for their vile behavior that should be considered antiPC, right? But no, you can't do that. So Anti PC is one way abuse of liberals by the right.
1
@Thought Provoking
I think I agree with what you're saying. The points that I'm making are those of a classic liberal Democrat, as opposed to the progressive liberals who have highjacked my party. I agree with universal healthcare. And I agree that the GOP is corrupt in their own right. But I view progressive liberals as being, at best, incredibly, dangerously, out of touch with reality, and at worst, more corrupt than the GOP.
My point about political correctness was that, like the rest of the liberal agenda, it has been highjacked by the progressive liberals in a bad way. PC used to be a good thing because it attempted to ensure that people behave civilly to each other. Ethnic jokes, for example, that predominated into the '80s fell into disfavor. Anti-bullying programs in schools became a priority. That was good. The GOP, frowning on PC back then, were wrong to do so.
But now, political correctness has been weaponized by the extreme left to bully everyone else, and therein lays their hypocrisy. If one expresses an opinion that is not in keeping with that of the left, that person is shamed and condemned as a racist.
With everything that the progressive liberals have been doing to alienate centrists in both parties, I'm siding with the GOP, even it means -- can't believe I'm saying this -- voting for the Donald come next election assuming (1) the Dems put up a progressive liberal candidate, and (2) Trump isn't impeached and removed from office.
1
Race does not define a human being. Their belief system defines them. You either believe in equality, liberty and justice for all or you don't. You are either support the principles and ideals of America or you do not.
5
Generally, there seems to be a universal truism that people deep down like people most like themselves. Sales reps are trained to use this principle when perfecting a sales pitch to a specific customer. Most everyone these days accepts the premise of natural selection - the survival of the most fit in a given environment. What if there is a natural selection component to culture as well? That is, cultures adopt the values and worldviews which facilitate cultural survival. Indeed, culture is the lens through which we view the world. Often, especially among indigenous peoples, a group will call itself "the people". Okay then, who is everyone else? Usually they are called something subordinate and offensive. I recall from an anthropology class that there were several groups of Crow Indians. One group, the River Crow, was known to the others as the "dung on the riverbanks" even though the groups were interrelated. In India, consider the Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, the lowest of the low in terms of societal ranking. Now consider the case of immigrants, a sore point for many. They are different and that's the key to understanding the dynamics. Sometimes they are not only different but don't want to assimilate; even worse! One has to wonder how the so-called politically correct feel deep down? Is it like getting your kids to eat vegetables? They know they have to do it but really don't like it. This all goes a long way in explaining reactions to immigration in my view.
1
Until all races accept that their skin color is an illusion of our optical system, their culture a behavioral construct and their fear an expression of hormones evolved to increase the likelihood of individual survival, there will be no opportunity for our species to evolve to its next level.
The only reality (if there is even one truth in our existence) is our shared humanity. The writer of this article uses the victimization of one human by another as the rational basis for his argument. Even if I grant that he is correct (which I do not), his points offer no hope for a solution to the regrettably bloody past of the human species.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m tired of the whole argument... One race is better than another. One race is more righteous than another in its suffering. When are we ALL going to forge ahead into the future? I predict never. We are more comfortable in our illusions and constructs and hormonal genocides than in the bright future our potential as a species offers. So be it.
2
All this shows is the destruction of self confidence in the face of increasing data demonstrating that being white and male is not an advantage in a fair fight. So now we are into cheating
The YS is great solely because if the masdive advantage ofviur particular geography. Just lucky.
it seems to me that racism is as real a political issue, and as real in scientific fact, as climate change, evolution, and the Holocaust. Equally or even more important is that the best of us have inspired the rest of us by promoting the value of all humanity and working for social and economic justice. We must keep pushing toward those higher aspirations through understanding and the will to care for one another - there is no guarantee, but to choose hatred and greed is clearly a road to dystopia.
1
Fascinating and disconcerting how many commenters reject the ideas in this article. I was under the impression it was not terribly controversial that Trump was elected in no small part due to racism. Is it because of the more scholarly tone? Makes it seem closer to home or forcing more engagement with the ideas?
And to the author, this piece reminded me of the far from faultless but still missed Christopher Hitchens. Well done not mincing your words.
1
Well , look at the events Europe is seeing, that it never saw before. Acid attacks on the streets of London now normal, every day occurrences? Women in walking down the streets being harassed and accosted in neighborhoods they once lived in freely? A eye-sore wall surrounding the Eiffel Tower? Maybe some concerns are legitimate.
4
For Pete’s sake. Are so many really saying that you can’t write about white nationalism without acknowledging what everyone else in the world does? I highly doubt if Mr Mishra wrote an article focused on violent Hindus or the Chinese Communist Party that anyone would be asking where is the criticism of white people.
4
People's views about most issues and particularly about race are evolved from their personal experiences.Racism is not the exclusive domain of the white race.Japanese culture is quite racist,and Indian culture is infamous for the way "untouchable"are treated by the Hindus for a few hundred centuries.Yhe same is true for Africans, just look at the genocide in Rawanda between Hutsies and Tutsu.Unfortunately humans have been trying to subjugate others by any means at their disposal since prehistoric time.Since industrial revolution started in Europe,the Europeans have dominated the world.With the Advent of access to knowledge with technology the rest of the non white world is catching up,whether with the Japanese and Korean cars dominating the Detroit dinosaurs or the Indians dominating the silicone valley.
I believe that knowledge and education is the equalizer of power.I don't know however if that will end racism.
3
Many comments herein identify the basis of identity politics as economic. I believe they are correct. Nevertheless, one cannot escape the conclusion that in America today, racism is slowly becoming policy. From his days of denouncing the Central Park five as guilty without any evidence, to his birththerism about President Obama, his Mexicans are rapists, his false denunciation of South Africa land appropriation policies, his moslem ban, and now to reports that the administration is denying passports to native born “brown” citizens, Mr. Trump has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he is, at heart, a racist.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this administration does not someone day propose something along the lines of the Nuremberg Laws to codify in policy who can call himself or herself an American.
As an immigrant, it’s scary.
1
Are you trying to start a war? The world has grown from 1bil to 7.5bil since our the founding of our country on individual rights at the same time the enlightment took hold in the ‘west’...the course of events are not without pain, but we enjoy today a world that - on the whole- has more in wealth, health and education. To think that there is a conspiracy of race by the ‘illuminati’ that transcends centuries and continues today is the laughable. History has bad actors, but good ones as well. Old saying- You cannot change where you come from, but you can change where you are going...our system of democracy allows for that. Not easy or pretty, but it does work. What reconciliation or constructive path do you offer? Please, Stop fanning the identity flames, focus on indivual character and improvements - not who to blame
6
Here we are again. All of us. We are all alike in that we have opinions on this subject. I have stated this in discussions previously. It is not about race, it is not about color; it is about deep, dyed-the-wool, cultural differences and the lack of understanding and acceptance.
I hear: "I'm feeling overrun..." a lot and I see the rise of a righteous, wounded countenance in many I grew up with. "So, we'll all be tan eventually. What's the big deal? People are people." I tell them. They just see the "other" trying to take what they think they have earned. The pseudointellectual basis espoused by early twentieth-century so-called political leaders is for the most part lost on them. "They're savages!" they say. I keep talking.
I remember parroting racist, misogynistic, orientation, religious and every other aspersion in my youth and sharing the group laughter and feeling of superiority. It has been a great unlearning, a long road to acceptance of the fact that so much of what can be termed "success" in my life was, in fact, simply determined by what I look like and where I was born. I say this now
For a long time I lived under the delusion that civil rights had been achieved and racism vanquished. I realize that this was simply neurotic denial of situational culpability. No matter what I believe I did that mitigated this in my past, or do now, or vote for now, argue or even fight for now, my life has been one long ride on the carpet of racial privilege due to the racist culture set up by people I used to admire.
Yet, I will vote in November. This I will do.
To tell the truth, I'm beginning feel my white man face and what so many people must think when they see just it and don't see me. And I feel the deep sting of racism and I am ashamed.
223
@gowan mcavity Well said.
@gowan mcavity,
I wish I could know who who are so as to credit you properly for an impressive, almost poetic, short essay, which, along with Pankaj Mishra's article, I'm going to share next Monday with my English-language-learning students.
We are all Mexicans but, as luck would have it, about half the group identify with the typically lighter-skinned (currently) empowered layers of our society and the rest come directly from the typically darker-skinned disempowered layers who are yearning for their/our chance.
Fortunately, our society and politics work quite differently from yours.
Thank you for contributing to our discussion.
1
@Harold
I am no one of consequence and deserve little credit, Harold. However, I am very grateful for your reply and its confirmation that I have expressed myself with sincerity today and have been heard. Thank you.
2
Fundamentally this is not about economics, culture, religion, nationalism, language, ethnicity, or even race. All of these are mere symptoms, expressions, of the innate instinctual drive among all animals, and lets not forget ants,corals, fish, birds, plants, and even lesser organisms to control one's territory. Territoriality. When it is threatened or invaded, one fights back. Its a primary and driving characteristic of all life forms. Survival of ones species or shared genetic compliment. What you see in the news is just the beginning. As coastal regions are inundated and climatic changes destroy agricultural systems, vast numbers, indeed billions, of humans will be on the move. And they will be met at territorial borders by humans determined to not accede an inch of territory. It won't take any imagination to anticipate the human carnage on a scale hitherto unimaginable. In three hundred years it will be called the "The Great Dying".
1
Brilliant essay, and mostly true. However, any nation has the right to control its borders and decide how many people can come in, and what the qualifications for entrance are. Of course, when I say "qualifications," I'm not referring to race, but rather things like educational level, skill set, amount of wealth the immigrant can bring here, etc. We have a perfect right to amend our immigration laws along such lines. We as a society get to control who comes in.
A minor point: Woodrow Wilson did not "supervise" the Versailles conference. Obviously he was a very important player, but the idea that Lloyd George and Clemenceau would allow Wilson to become their supervisor is ludicrous.
7
There is truth in the piece as well as their is rhetoric - "whiteness" is not a monolithic class and "Anglo whiteness" is very different from "Nordic whiteness". Thus we are at a juncture where the cult of whiteness will fight with the institutional culture of whiteness - a creation of Enlightenment. The battle has started and the outcome will depend on the nonwhites, how they choose the side. The landscape has already changed in Asia, the economic momenta will shift the wealth ownership to Asia, but the cultural ownership battle will be long prolonged battle. The landscape become muddied in the cultural field because of religions - Eastern and Sematic and communism. This is an opening salvo of this intelectual dialogue and time has come to address this issue.
1
Oh dear, the always brilliant and incisive Pankaj Mishra has touched a nerve with many complacent Western readers. Face it, the wars of aggression in Vietnam, Latin America, and the Middle East were fueled not only by the desire for material profit but also racial and religious animus amply found in the Murdoch media and this ties in directly with White/Evangelical/Likud supremacism at home. Btw, Mishra is among the fiercest critics of racial and religious supremacism in other civilizations, especially regarding the Hindu nationalist right which got many of its conceits from European fascists.
5
This article proves that racism begets racism.
Because while much of what it says is true, it is itself racist.
Whites aren't the only imperialist thieves on this planet.
And they aren't the only (or even worst) perpetrators of racial pogroms. Ask the Rohingya.
This is a human problem, not a white one. And if we can't be honest about that, not much point discussing it at all. We all have mirror problems. All of us. The more power, the more abuse.
I'm not worried about Asian people in my country. I am worried about some Asian governments exercising more and more power, with less and less Democracy. Japan may have asked for racial equality--then it committed atrocities against the Chinese and Koreans, whom it considered inferior. Nothing the west did against Asians came close.
So let's look at the whole truth. Which is bad enough for causasians. No expunging crimes by referring to others. But we look at all of them. And try to do better.
32
"Nothing the West did against the Asians came close"
I guess some of us have decided to forget about Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Excuse me. I would have written this twenty minutes ago, but it took that long for me to stop laughing at the prospect that Donald Trump might be the avatar for white supremacy. A better instrument of, and reason for, "race suicide" could not be found.
4
The religion of whiteness began in Mr. Mishra's ancestral India thousands of years ago when the fairer Indo-Europeans descended upon the swarthy Dravidian natives. And the religion remains there until this day. The Chinese have always regarded themselves as a master race surrounded by barbarians in all directions. North Korean politics is known to be a race cult. The Arabs consider themselves the most worthy Muslims. And so on. If so, then racism is not the monopoly of European whites, who, as Mr. Mishra points out, have discriminated against other whites ("Hebrews" and "Celts," for example, by the "Anglo-Saxons") often more bitterly than they have against non-whites. Is the problem then Anglo-Saxony, the culture of the "Anglosphere"? The millions of non-Anglo-Saxon and/or non-white immigrants who came to this country or to Britain or to Canada or to Australia to find--and who did find--a better life might dispute that assertion. The reality is that every person is nurtured in a specific culture and a particular community and (usually) feels at home there, a home where language, customs, mores, food define a zone of familiarity. That zone may (as in India, Africa, China, and most of the rest of Asia) but certainly need not include racial background as one of its elements. The Anglosphere and the white world in general has been far more open to outsiders than the aforementioned black, brown, and yellow worlds. Wanting to protect one's home is not a fault.
7
@stefano445
The British plunder of India is what made them rich not some kind of genius. Why are the same british stagnating today if they are so good?
Most of Americas are immigrant nations after the native american genocide. And without immigration the US would be just as stagnant and declining as the rest of Europe. It is the Asian and other immigrants who are driving the American innovation and not the generaions old White America. Go and step into a top research university and check the professors and check out the STEM grads and employees of a tech company, if you don't believe me. And also there are no white immigrants anymore as Europe is declining and they don't immigrate to USA more than a trickle.So immigration is a net gain for America and thats the reason we are allowing immigrants NOT coz we are generous to non-whites.
2
Mr. Mishra is evidently tied to the past and needs to drag out the dead carcasses of those who imposed colonialism on the world to try and assert that Whiteness is a crime on to itself. He would try to hammer home the excuse for the failings of the rest of the world on the "whiteness" that afflicted the former colonies. I suggest to Mr. Mishra that he should endeavor to get the former colonies to revert to their prior institutions and cultures. Since, according to his hypothesis, these were damaged by the forces of colonialism, perhaps we should seek their restoration. An Asian continent that engages in the imposition of class warfare, as India has done in the past and continues to do so today. Or the imposition of child marriages, which are sanctified by the various religious institutions in these countries. Of perhaps the reestablishment of the various tribal powers and chiefs, because we know that they would bring great peace to those lands.
What Mr. Mishra utterly fails to comprehend is that human civilization has had successive waves to colonialism, whether it was the Mongols, Persians, Hittites, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Indus, Zhou, Qin or Han. To lay blame at the feet of more recent colonial powers only shows that he suffers from his own biases and prejudices.
14
@Mike
Just because other nations has issues, just as America deals with institutional racism to this day, doesn't give any justification for the unmitigated disaster, genocide, rape and plunder of native Americans, native Americans and Asians due to colonization. Again finding past invasions to justify white colonialism doesn't wash away the sins. Whether it is mongol or persian expedition, it was just a war between empires limited to certain geographical area, nothing close to global disaster of colonialism. And no the whites were no more superior than anyone else. The Europeans were by no means ready to fight China( or India or Persia) and win before they had access to the American plunder.
2
@Thought Provoking
"Again finding past invasions to justify white colonialism doesn't wash away the sins"
Actually it does. It shows that conquest and plunder was how civilization worked for most of history. You're only focused on "sins" of western culture because it managed to come out on top.
1
The fundamental problem is that our evolutionary history and the vestiges of our lizard brains are far, far older than any of these modern notions of political correctness.
From an evolutionary standpoint, no human has an interest in preserving the life (and hence genetic lineage) of those with whom they don't share any DNA and race is an easy way to identify the other.
Furthermore our evolution has conditioned us to stereotype rather than to independently evaluate each person as an individual. Why spend cognitive processing power evaluating a person's character when you should be on alert for sabre tooth tigers?
The idea that this is somehow a "white" problem belies the entire state of the rest of the world. From the Hutus and Tutsis to the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and even the brutal gang wars across Central and South America, people of color have proven that they are every bit as willing as Caucasians to rile themselves up to a killing rage.
The problem is not "racism," but rather a universal tendency to towards tribalism and a willingness to use violence against other outgroups.
5
@JP
The author didn't say that tribalism instinct doesn't exist among those groups. It does. But the topic is about white tribalism, thats all, maybe because the scale and negative effects of white tribalism is global in nature.
1
The question that stares us in the face is this: predominantly white cultures are the places to which people are trying to immigrate. You don’t see people desperately trying to immigrate into Africa, China, or India. Sure, white culture has racism, but it must be doing something right.
In the choleric rage of the left to scream about white racism, we overlook this reality, we overlook the harsh racisms within nonwhite cultures (try being black and visiting mainland China, or god forbid, being Muslim in Buddhist Myanmar), and we act like the west and white people generally are a plague upon the face of otherwise decent human beings who are people of color.
Enough with this line of commentary. Enough. White people are so horrible? THEN LEAVE. Go to India, or China, or Saudi Arabia, or Subsaharan Africa. Go on. Pack your things and leave. If white culture is this utterly horrible, racist, and frankly, evil, then just leave. Go make utopia within people of color, within the cultures native to these people of color.
By all means, please do so and succeed: actual cultural competition with the white west in human rights enforcement, religious liberty, and personal cultural and expressive freedom would be a welcome tonic to the reality that people of all colors are desperate to immigrate into majority and historically white, Anglo countries.
Culturally and historically white cultures are so horrible? Go out there and give us an alternative. No, really, I’m serious.
9
@In The Belly Of The Beast
In past centuries, why did the Europeans go to lands they thought were inhabited by ignorant savages of inferior intellects with cruel customs and unfair hierarchies? Why did the Europeans endure the dangers of such travel ? Because that's where the resources were; there was untold wealth to be made if one survived.
Maybe the immigrants are following the same playbook. The wealth of the west is attractive and like the earlier Europeans, current immigrants have made the same calculation, and have decided to put up with the ignorance and cruelty of the natives who live in the west
2
@In The Belly Of The Beast
So anyone who criticizes white genocide of the past should leave America, which is an immigrant country that gave refuge to millions of whites too, coz we can't showcase the horrible things about whites. People are migrating here coz USA is an immigrant country and has received immigrants from all over AFTER it established itself on the backs of slavery and plundered native American resource. No one can change the past, however heinous it maybe, but we there is no shame in acknowledging it and trying to get better so history doesn't repeat itself.
2
An interesting and distorted portrait of the world. Like many leftists, the author is clear-eyed with regard to the deficiencies of White people, and blind to those of all others. The sick racism embraced by some in the West is paralleled, and greatly exceeded (at least at present) by the fundamentalist Islam and other forms of murderous tribalism embraced by many in the East and South. To ignore this is itself a form of racism.
15
The military would be more positive model for Mr Mishra to study race. People work together there despite inconsequential self identity. Trump got elected because he can divide people while unifying their anger. Mr Mishra’s argument is the same argument as Trump’s inverted. The argument can be heard from all races in maximum security prisons, however, the Times won’t make a felon an opinion writer. No journalism degree from Columbia is a big minus in Manhattan’s big big bubble.
1
I find laughable that commenters here are bringing up that immigrants want come here so we must not be so bad, forgetting that this country's wealth was built on the original sins of slavery, indigenous genocide and imperialism.
5
In Mr. Mishra's opinion there is a "Religion of Whiteness," an "Anglosphere" and he implies that "whites" (whatever that means) are struggling to "hold on to what they have stolen" as spoken by James Baldwin. Of course this is racist stuff that he writes, implying that somehow being born of one race imbues someone with a bunch of heinous traits and behaviors. And the title of the article seems to hope that they all commit suicide. I guess he is happy to bring back the race baiting discussions of the past and the hatred they imbue - I for one refuse to be drawn into these types of unscientific and immoral "race"arguments, respect for all people is part of what I believe is the American culture that has revolutionized the world.
6
@Gary
That you maybe "enlightened" and don't believe in the baseless whites are greater than others argument maybe true. But there is a big segment of whites all over the world who believe in the baseless whites are superior calumny. And with the rise of Asia this segment is feeling confused and agitated as it wrecks their tribal motive that no one could be better than them. That gives rise to the Trumps of the world. But this causes internal strife in a diverse country like the US which if left uncontrolled will divide and diminish America.
Year after year, the countries with the highest quality of life and those considered the happiest are Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway and Canada. What do these countries all have in common? And why does the rest of the world race to their doormats to enter them?
All of those terrible white people must have done something right.
9
@JM
All of those terrible white people are just enjoying the benefits of colonization and spreading it more equitably and mostly among themselves. There is a major realignment of forces happening as Asia regains its mojo back and do not be under the illusion that somehow whites are wealthy and progressive coz they are better. They are just lucky to have stumbled on Americas and its wealth taken away after native american genocide and slavery.
Interesting that it is pretty much only in the Anglisphere countries that climate denial first came to dominate the right-wing parties—once again fanned by the Murdoch media ecosystem. In this light, James Baldwin’s prophetic warning seems spot-on, and we may yet see these same old white men “bring life on this planet to an end”...
2
This is surely a thought provoking article seeming to declare the inevitability of race based conflict and dividing the white world into those who recognize and accept it and those who believe presently in a more peaceful Coexistence while we take advantage of that power and don’t admit it. If we believed it it would be so. Reminds me of Karl Marx. Out of necessity we have to look at the potential of Western democracies and capitalistic countries as being severely underestimated in their capability to adapt.
I find that this article claims as facts one sided interpretations of complicated events betraying significant bias of the author.
Those of us who think that our adopting the “save the white race” approach is going backwards need to demonstrate our view of how democracy can move us forward and not merely criticize the others when they see the power of history.
Ultimately do you believe:
“A liberal is just a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet”. or.....
“Democracy is the worst form of government....except for all the others”
So let me get this straight Mr. Mishra. Presidents and statesmen used to be open white supremacists, but now white supremacy has been banished to the fringes of the dark web. Yet you claim the white supremacy is growing in power and reach and has never been worse? Doesn't make sense.
@Ted Morgan
No, the white supremacy that was banished into a dark corner is slowly trying to come out into daylight and make white supremacy cool in the guise of Anti PC. And we need to be wary because the country is more diverse and these dark forces will wreck havoc and diminish America.
Racial enmity is so petty, demeaning and idiotic,and it has compromised or ruined hundreds of millions of lives. It is not only whites who harbor it. It seems to be endemic in our times among all peoples, but those who have not known oppression, the various "white" peoples, seem to be the most infected with this virus.
The wisest comment on the topic was made in the aftermath of some horrible race riots in Los Angeles by a certain Rodney King, God bless his soul: "Can't we all just get along?"
1
Republicans have "come out" now as racists, and their president commits racist acts or makes racist comments on a regular basis, with their blessing, or at least their complicity. To stop the predicted catastrophe and/or war described here, we have only one avenue left: vote them out of office.
1
Controlling this violent streak in human males is an ongoing struggle. This guy's attitude reminds me that male Hindu mobs regularly murder non Hindus in India. Or look at the genocide in Rwanda, or the genocide against the Rohingya or the genocide in Cambodia or, or, or ...
Out group violence is recorded throughout human history and pre-history and across human cultures. making it a clear that human males engaging in mob violence, sometimes very organized but still mob violence, is a latent male human characteristic with roots deep in human evolution. Preventing it is possible but requires accepting the rule of law instead of might makes right.
Race is just another excuse for those who have to keep what they have. Comments to the effect that the "white" race has made unique contributions would have a hard time including Jews as "white", despite the contribution of Jewish musicians, scientists, and businessmen. Japan was a thriving literate society while "white" Europe was in the dark ages. We are all humans, race is no barrier to conception between so called "races". And to be clear the more that different gene pools mate the more robust will be the human species.
3
What rubbish. Stating that Trump’s speech about the West’s “will” amounted to support for white supremacy is nonsense. Asking whether or not the West has the will to fight violent, extremist ideologies is not a call to racial arms. We certainly have racially biased laws and cultural standards, and they need to be overturned. But this writer’s exaggerated claims only make the discussion more difficult and give cover to the racists.
5
The world is gripped by identity geopolitics.
The struggles will be bloody
but at the end
Only one nation will inherit the Earth
The global nation of Iwarriors (the pure in heart)
For theirs the only politics that can rule the entire world.
Much of the author’s criticisms are directed at the remnants of the British Empire, including we colonials in the US. Little understood is the Norman roots of this drive for world domination, which is not by the way limited to we pale males.
The Normans conquered much of Europe including France, Britain, and Russia. Their issue continues to dominate the world.
However this illustrates the principal fallacy of the piece: race is an artificial construct. There is no such thing as a “white” race. The Irish were starved by their British masters, the Jews slaughtered by their Aryan nemesis, the Poles dismembered by the Russians and Prussians.
People do band together based on color identity but it is an artificial and weak bond. Polemics that seek to perpetuate this misapprehension from authors of any hue tend to exacerbate the problem, stir divisive emotions, and create disunity and discord which delights our adversaries, particularly my Norman cousin in Moscow.
It is time to move beyond race and the tragic folly
of the past toward a world in which,as Dr. King said, people are judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character.
5
Unless we all, all colors, all nations, all religions, all ethnic groups, begin to choose leadership that puts the environment first there will be no planet to fight over. The world's resources are limited and global warming is happening. White men in power act as though the world's resources, which they control, are infinite and that the polar ice caps do not matter in terms of climate. They are leading the world to a fiery end all because of their greed. It may be too late to turn back the clock.
The Ferris Wheel has come off its mooring and is rolling off the edge of the cliff, but the people riding on it haven't noticed, they are too busy lighting matches, talking on their cell phones and spitting on the people below them.
1
This article is one-sided and irrelevant to today's world. It is one-sided because it ignores the fact that racism is simply another form of tribalism - and as such is not a "white man's disease" only as the article makes it appear. Tribalism manifests itself in various dysfunctional forms in all societies.
Coming from South Asia, the writer surely must know that tribalism exists in spades there - communal and caste e.g. The article is irrelevant given that (a) a large portion of the article is pre-occupied a past that no longer exists and (b) ignores the genuine security concerns that arose of 9/11.
11
Spasms of civility, tranquility and attempts at equity is not the natural state of men. There is always a faction that sees equality and opportunity for the other as their oppression. We are now at the beginning of a pushback. The darkside of mankind is pushing to take center stage and the boastful and proud U.S.A with its freedoms and vaunted constitution is not exempt.
60 million people voted for Trump, which was less than the number of people who voted for Hillary, and about 25% of eligible voters.
25% of eligible voters also think that humans hunted the dinosaurs.
Point being, it's a pretty bad idea to listen to 25% of Americans on any issue, and 75% of eligible voters didn't vote for Trump.
I think it's safe to assume that the views of 25% of any population, in any country (white or non-white), would probably embarrass the remaining 75%.
We have a bad President (worst ever) right now because of the people who couldn't be bothered to vote, but I don't think the answer is to throw a word tantrum like this author does, or a literal tantrum like we see every night on the news.
The answer is to take a step back and realize that if the 75% of people who didn't vote for Trump actually vote for someone other than Trump, then it'll be the beginning of the end of his presidency.
3
White male talking here (and I am not SUSAN, by the way, but her husband).
I look upon my life and I see myriad groups and beings that claim my loyalty.
(1) God. I'm an evangelical Christian.
(2) Fellow Christians.
(3) My wife and family
(4) My friends and sometime coworkers
(5) My fellow citizens of the United States.
(6) My fellow human beings.
And so--do I feel loyalty to "people of the white race"?
NO.
Why should I?
These beings and groups I have mentioned--they have claims upon me. Claims I feel myself bound to recognize--
--as a Christian. As a husband and father. As a retired teacher. As a citizen of the United States. As a human being.
People of the "white race" per se? Approaching me, hat in hand as it were, requiring my love--my loyalty?
They'll get nothing from me. NOTHING.
Long ago, Cicero wrote a treatise for his son's benefit--De Republica. "On the Republic." And he considers an important question:
"What is the foundation of the Roman republic?"
Armies? Legions? Praetors and pro-praetors? Consuls and pro-consuls? Latin?
No.
The vital foundation, the bedrock supporting that whole mighty fabric of the Roman empire. . . .
. . . .was. . . .
. . .JUSTICE.
Let Mr. Donald Trump, let these other apostles of "white supremacy"--and oh how I HATE, how I LOATHE that phrase!--read some Cicero.. . .
..and then. . .
. .do some serious repenting.
Thanks. Fine piece.
274
@Susan Fitzwater [This really is Susan BTW] They (and our evangelical leaders) could also try reading the Bible. Our God is a god of JUSTICE. He loves it and He wants us to practice it.
3
@Susan Fitzwater. I ask in all humility, husband of Susan, how many of your fellow Christian white guys will vote out those of the Republican Party who are enablers of the trash talking, race hating man in the White House? That is the bottom line here because, in truth, it is those Evangelical or simply devoted Christians who put all of these people into office.
2
@Susan Fitzwater
Interesting post. One correction.
"The vital foundation, the bedrock supporting that whole mighty fabric of the Roman empire. . . . . . . .was. . . .slave labor.
3
Any quotes from David Frum and Andrew Sullivan where they encourage the ‘taking up of the white man’s burden” and the “quelling” of minorities? I’m not remembering their racist writings at all. The ad hominem attacks on thoughtful, distinguished journalists without context really throws this whole editorial piece into the category of hyperbole, ending with a prediction of a violent race war to end all wars. How does this contribute to the national dialogue about race and socioeconomic inequality? Republicans have suceeded brilliantly in driving a wedge between people of color and white people who have more in common economically, politically and even socially than the reublicans want them to realize. As a voting block they could easily reshape the nation. Decades of effort to whip up hostility have come to fruition in the Trump era. The much touted “white minority” is only true if you define Hispanic people as non-white, much as Jews and Italians were once defined as non-white. Convenient labels to whip up rage and useful political sentiment, and help bring about the violent race war of which you speak. It’s unfashionable to suggest alliances between political race-factions, but especially for minority populations in a democratic system, those alliances are the route to political power.
2
The great stain on our national character has always been permitting slavery.
The Northern states largely outlawed slavery in the decades before the Civil War, but the Slave States of the South were afraid that Abolitionists would prevail in the new states of the West, and that slavery would eventually be extinguished.
So the traitors of the Confederacy started a war, lost, and then kept up the effort to dis-enfranchise blacks and minorities to the present day.
They are still traitors, and by and large, they are proud of it.
5
Mr. Mishra seems awfully exercised about an allegedly dying "(white) West." It would seem all he has to do is to step aside and gleefully watch the death of the "white nations" unfold.
1
I wonder what Charles Darwin would have thought?
Are we witnessing a racial revolution or racial evolution?
Does evolution now encompass changes brought about by human intervention or is human intervention revolutionary?
I am afraid that we humans have outsmarted ourselves. In our efforts to ensure that the "higher" races dominate the planet, we are destroying that planet.
1
There's a great book out called White Fragility. Read it.
Whiteness is a disease, that some people (white & black alike) don't know how to seperate themselves from. Seeing these defensive comments only drives home that point. Symptoms include blurry world vision where white people are the standard human archetype, everything else a deviant; inability to empathize & understand that POC talk about race in America so much because it affects our lives DAILY; and a mental shutdown when challenged with the TRUTH of the human decency violations that they either actively or silently perpetuate.
If this article scares you into the arms of Trump, you belonged there all along. Stop fooling yourself.
If this article inspires you to counter with visions of your personal world where "skin doesn't matter", save it. Thats a luxury only white people can afford.
If this article makes you feel like those "other" white people sure do have some backward ideals around the pigment of their skin (or lack thereof) I URGE you to ask yourself if this "other" takes an occasional joyride on your shoulder. Is this "other" a family member, co-worker, friend?
White people need to get comfortable facing the realities of the world that their ancestors artificially engineered for them.
You can't dismantle something you pretend doesn't exist.
You can't do any self work when you auto- shut down.
Heal your heart and realize mindful conflict and self reflection is a part of EVERY (healthy) relationship.
1
i didn't quite get the point of this article. Is it that the new religion of non-whiteness will ultimately prevail? If so, how will that be morally better than the history that the author laments?
1
Wow! Mr. Mishra sounds pretty apocalyptic to me. His suggestion that Trump’s policies are driving the world to Armageddon – “the ‘terrible probability’ James Baldwin once outlined” – is a fatalistic view that belies the progress of civilization.
Maybe I’m being naïve or simply believe in what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” – and that they are color blind. Mr. Mishra could have at least waited until after the midterm elections to make his morbid case because if Republicans keep the House, it’s Apocalypse Now!
2
White, middle-aged male here. I find the concept of "white-supremacy" to increasingly be a horrible joke! This is perfectly illustrated by comparing and contrasting the great white trump with our previous, actually great, president Obama. Obama runs circles around trump (literally and figuratively) in virtually every aspect from his intellect to his physicality to his personality (I bet he's even a better golfer). In my own circle, the people most likely to hold onto their white identity are increasingly the worst examples of humanity. I, for one, will be glad when this ridiculous notion of white supremacy finally fades away - if us white people are so great, shouldn't we be able to compete on a level playing field with everyone else?
2
Mishra's opinion is salient, difficult and much needed. But as per my expectation folks are not listening. Reading the comments proves the point that Robin D'Angelo makes in her book "White Fragility" that white Americans have a difficult time recognizing their complicity in, because their lives benefit from, structural racism. Another example I recall from reading the NYT comments to someone pointing out the caustic depths of white racism by asking white Americans to be aware and take ownership, this time using his own complicity in misogyny as a parallel, was the NYT opinion piece by George Yancy a couple of years ago. The comments on his piece were equally filled with earnest defenses, redirects and prickly denials. That piece was so inflammatory Yancy received death threats and has since written a book about his harrowing experience of calling out white supremacy. As a scholar of race in America, I tell my students that race, hierarchies of inequality based on perceived human differences, is a modern European invention that emerged from colonial expansion. It has many guises, but its not subservient to economics or politics, but works in tandem to produce exploitive power relations. And yes racial violence can be appropriated, Rwanda's genocide had racial underpinnings. However the mothership is white supremacy, which continues to wreak deathly havoc on black and brown lives. One needed solution will be for white Americans to take stock of our ideals and institutions.
11
I wish that every person in this planet was educated in the colonial origins of race as a political structure and the damage that has been done to millions because of it.
Alas, history is ignored and undervalued leaving the fearful and ignorant to rant in the streets, and demand action from their political leaders who themselves are ignorant of this history.
Logic and reason fail where emotions and fear rule.
1
Here is the thing. Baldwin was right. We are on the cusp of extinction, and each one of us in our heart of hearts knows it. Gaia has woken up to find the infection of humanity on her skin and is rumbling and stretching. Ring of Fire activated? Check. Mega storms and atmospheric rivers and droughts all at the same time? Check. Collapse of Arctic sea ice and fears of the West AND East Antarctic icr shelves collapse as well? Check. Mass species die off in an increasingly anoxic ocean? Check. Methane hydrates releasing? Check. She is getting rid of the infection. Before her climate stabilizes 4-5 degree C above current temps, we will finally realize that the white man’s “highness” has killed us all. We should have realized long ago that the fate of all is tied together, but we are just animals after all. Not only that, one of humanity’s greatest weaknesses is our inability to comprehend and act on the exponential function. Maybe rats will get it better in a few million years.
243
@Dini
I don't go along with the Gaia theology but I completely agree with your conclusion. You nailed the real problem we all face. The rest is noise.
2
@Dini, it is not all caucasians but a cabal of so-called conservatives and their followers, the majority of whom happen to be white. You're sounding like your white "enemies," painting us all as evil with a very broad brushing the same sick and sad ways as Trump and his crowd paint "the other." There is no denying that a lot of European culture-based history has been bad, but more has been good and beneficial to humanity. And there are plenty of bad actors in non-white societies, too. The question as I see it is what are we going to do about it now, since today and the immediate future are all we are given? Hint: the answer is not Trump or trumpism.
3
I get it, CP. My closest peeps are all white. When I speak of white man's highness, I speak of the systems that have been institutionalized all over the globe -- often by force and conquest -- by western-created industrialism. This includes the institution of capitalism. These are the modalities that have led us, as a species, to lay waste to the bed we sleep in both because of the inherent externalities in these systems and because of human nature in general. But in the end, what has this version of 'civilization' gotten us with our fantasy of endless and unlimited growth? And what to do now? Love one another, with all of our collective faults and strengths. Once you are fully up on the climate science and the physics of it -- as well as the physics of proposed "bioengineering" solutions -- I don't see what other solutions there are, barring a radical transformation of the world economy, Marshall Plan style. Do you??
The election of President Obama brought whiteness out of the closet and set the table for Trump. At any gathering of Trump supporters, you sense a general questioning of Trump's morality and even policies, but, that is quickly displaced by code language that says he is our white guy---who has arrived just in time.
11
I assume the author is Indian. For all that white men do in the name of white supremacy, Indian men seem to do just as bad if not worse to women.
I feel blessed every day to be a woman in the US. I realize there are some places in Europe where women have it better, but I am not blind to the fact that I have it better than women in the vast majority of nations.
I think much of the problem in the US is more about culture- a clashing of cultures in a place where somehow resources are dwindling for the poor to middle class. It's about the rural poor perceiving the urban poor "getting more". It's about the church going conservative middle class family feeling judged by liberals with different values. For me, it's about seeing recent muslim immigrant women in stores walking silently, eyes down in a burka and wondering what her home life is like and hoping her daughter is allowed to grow up with the freedom I had.
It's not easy. But America does it's best to integrate a cultural melting pot not seen in other nations.
15
This piece is a sad reflection on the state of our national conversation. Mishra peddles a dark and dispiriting vision of a world where human beings are defined by their imagined relationship to the "structures of power" and, ultimately, their skin color. As a convinced anti-racist I find this racialized worldview profoundly troubling and regressive. It masquerades as a call for justice but it is justice in a neo-Marxian sense, it's the same justice that caused havoc and immeasurable human tragedies during the Cultural Revolution - both in China and in Russia. No one has a license to demonize groups of individuals - no matter how large or small. I find the anti-humanism of this piece akin to trumpian identarian ravings. There appears to be a weird symbiotic connection between the world of Trump and the world of Mishra.
14
Some quote along the lines of power is never granted, it must be taken - Frederick Douglas. The question to be answered: from the Chinese or the Americans?
"White supremacy" is a belief, and like all beliefs will not subside or disappear until we take a close look at the human belief system itself. Laboring under the illusion that there are good beliefs and bad beliefs, we don't really ask ourselves about the very nature of beliefs that so strongly influence human behavior. In the near future, we will program the human abstract thought process in a computer, and finally have the opportunity to see how we have tricked the mind's survival algorithm with our ridiculous beliefs about what exactly is supposed to survive. At that point, we will begin to understand what beliefs - all beliefs - do to the human mind and start the long journey back to reason.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
2
Instead of color, which promotes hatred and resentment, and DNA shows is not relevant, let's talk culture.
Culture A evolved to have a work ethic, freedom of speech, prioritize education for their children, human rights for all, and respect for quality of life. No other culture developed that particular combination. Culture A took a dominant role. It was also arrogant, and did not share with other cultures. It gained wealth by stealing from other cultures. Current growing pains are improving attitudes for multi-culturalism slowly.
Culture B is rising, including the education for their children as a priority, but B does not value freedom, quality of life, or free speech. Culture A has had to double its work productivity, compromising its cherished quality of life, to compete. Thus, Culture A fears Culture B.
Culture C: as education is not something the parents are pushing hard with their children, they are not participating as a culture in the 21st century world community, and though they resent it, they must first fix that key ingredient in their culture to join the world of today. Culture A is afraid the lack of work ethic or educational values as a culture will result in a contamination of those values in Culture A, and scared of the continued economic burden.
Culture D is half-heartedly educating their children, but has an enviable work ethic. Culture D has never allowed freedom of speech or debate, and has only lived under tyrants.
4
Just for a start no "culture" is as monolithic and straightforward as you pronounce and the fact that you lumped all positive traits under culture A which I'm presuming you believe is western civilization, is far too jingoistic and simplistic. Any traveler will tell you there is a work ethic to be found everywhere...as well as a few without it. As for promoting all those lovely things, we certainly talk a good story but don't always live it and when we do its by our own lights. It's easy to set yourself above all else when the marks were set by yourself.
Let's not forget that much of America's foreign policy is a defense of white supremacy.
Here's George Kennan, the originator of the "containment" strategy . . .
We must be very careful when we speak of exercising "leadership" in Asia. We are deceiving ourselves and others when we pretend to have answers to the problems, which agitate many of these Asiatic peoples. Furthermore, we have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3 of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction..
5
The English aircraft engineer and novelist, Nevil Shute, although not a literary giant, made the observation in one of his books, that the only reason we white people got to be top bananas is because we were the first to develop the technology to use gunpowder effectively. That enabled us to dominate everyone else. Not much has changed since the bulk of the arms industry is still located in the northern hemisphere.
5
While there are many good and eye-opening points in this article, a couple of things are lacking nuance:
The US was attacked by terrorists on 9/11 who were Arab Muslims affiliated with Afghanistan-based Taliban. I have always opposed a war with Iraq—it made absolutely no sense to think a secular dictator had anything to do with religious fanatics from a least developed country. I have never understood why Tony Blair signed on; there was no political advantage for a British politician for going along with a paranoid American one. But this article ignores the events of 9/11.
I deplore the Netanyahu government. However, the suggestion that Israel is a colonial power is simply not true. In varying numbers, Jews have lived in that land for 3500 years. The major immigration of Jews in the mid-20th century were desperate people fleeing from genocide, then survivors of genocide, then those expelled from Middle Eastern countries where their families had lived for generations, and finally those seeking religious freedom after decades in the Soviet Union. The mistreatment of Palestinians does not negate the rights of five generations of Israelis to live in the state allocated to them by the United Nations.
Finally, the article disregards the increasing diversity within families. Whites are unlikely to join in with denunciation, much less war against, an “other” who is not a bogeyman but a family member.
4
Identity politics, no matter who practices it, is hazardous to humans. It pits us against each other and that makes the rich and powerful smile.
8
Nonsense. Identity politics for the downtrodden is essential to overcoming white supremacy which denies the basic equality of nonwhites
The reality is that ALL humans of whatever race or tribe attempt to gain and hold onto power and influence wherever color they may be. Caucasians don’t have a monopoly on what is a feature of the human condition for millennia.
5
The Roosevelt letter to Charles Pearson was written in May 1894 when Roosevelt sent him a copy of a review he wrote of Pearson's book published in the upcoming August 1894 Sewanee Review.
1
The ocean to which all rivers flow, is not white, not black or yellow -it is all of these. Although many dams are built by those who profit from them, the River of Life will not be held back for long.
4
This article heavily relies on what people did in the 1800's and early 1900's in the US and puts a slanted filter on current events. I don't know a single white person who is shaking with "existential fears about endangered white power". Can't we write about the 322,000,000 Americans who are NOT white supremacists? Do the views of a relative handful of losers who get way too much press attention really represent the direction our Society is going in? All those old-order people in the picture of the Paris Peace Conference - they're all dead. Our modern problem is the bombing and destruction of whole countries which drives the population out, looking for homes elsewhere - anywhere. Why don't we talk about that?
8
As you can see in the photo, no woman, of any race, was at the table. The author failed to mention the the pervasive the misogamy that existed then and now. In the USA a well qualified woman's bid for presidency has twice been thwarted in the past 10 years. She was attacked by the political establishment the first time around for being white and for being part of the establishment, She was attacked for being a weak and reckless woman and for the sins of the man she was married too. Those attacks had nothing to do with her qualifications. Strangely, Russia/Putin regime, regarded her as eminently qualified. Putin was so fearful of her presidency he directed his military to put up a massive disinformation propaganda campaign to undermine her candidacy. In a few weeks, the male dominated political establishment inside the US will elected a new Supreme Court Justice who will work diligently against women’s right in the US.
5
I am told that the Lord, who is an old blue-eyed white man, and created man in his image, works in mysterious ways.
Faith erases the requirement that things make sense. How can you possibly expect to reason with such people? I envy them their certainty, but it comes at the expense of everyone not in the cult, and I still think there has to be something fundamentally unsatisfying about living a lie, even if that lie is that God is on your side. A lie is always uglier than the truth, even though the lie might smell better.
3
Trump is wrong about mass killings of white farmers. But he is wrong about many things.
But at the same time, to present Trump as a member of some sort of "white conspiracy" is also false and quite clearly politically motivated.
For how do you explain that an Indian American woman, Nikki Haley is our ambassador to the UN, and appointed by Trump. How do you explain Seema Verma, also appointed by Trump?
How do you explain the appointment of Ben Carson?
Trump is not a sophisticated man. We all know that. And he is unable to think clearly about complex issues.
But I do expect better of YOU, Mr. Misra. We need a careful analysis of the situation and of Trump rather than the huge picture of Trump right in the middle of the article.
That is partisanship and not scholarship.
8
These words may be true for the little swamp of US politics, but the rest of the "White World" has other issues than race.
The issue today is the question of access to the resources needed to keep a society working.
To raw materials, energy, water, food and brain power.
And this is not about race or colour of skin, this is about culture, religious beliefs (something we had hoped a few decades ago was a thing of the past but has made an extreme comeback) and above all about brain power.
Most societies have already understood that your skin colour does not make much of a difference if you cannot compete for these resources.
Whites vs. Non-Whites is a thing of the US, not a thing of the rest of the world.
What will become an issue though is a fight of whether one believes in certain gods or not, regardless of one's skin colour.
And that too will, falsely, labelled a fight of Whites against the rest.
But that is another story...
44
@Thomas I agree with a lot of what you said. In the US, however, the preponderance of religious fanatics are white evangelists, so I would say that it is also fair to call that situation "whites against the rest" as well. Hopefully the religious fanatics of all creeds will decrease over time to a more moderate stance.
1
“Whites vs. Non-whites is a thing of the US, not a thing of the rest of the world.”
I can see you’ve never left the country. I encourage you to travel to Latin-America and see who are the wealthy and who are the impoverished. Go to South Africa or Australia and see who owns the majority of land and resources. Look at a map of the Middle East. Do you think those border lines were a natural evolution of countries defining their own borders? Who do you think drew them?
You do make some good points, but we are still suffering from the effects of colonialism and European racism that was inflicted on other people. Of that, there is no doubt.
1
@Thomas
South Africa still has a color race problem. More such prejudices exist in the world can be seen if one were to actually check.
Apparently, white people are offended by the truth, as this comment section indicates.
Rather than sputter in indignation, or generalize this as "nationalism" or "human nature," look at yourself, your life and your privilege. Look at what is happening in this country to people who don't look like Trump.
Rather than get angry at being called out on our history, those of us who are white need to look at ourselves.
217
@Edward Allen I agree with your points - but also note that Anglo culture has a history of not looking at its history without anger. This article does a great job of placing the current moment in a deeper historical context.
5
@Edward Allen You can make disparage whites as "sputtering" and "privileged" but the reason white suicide in the US is up is because regardless of race lower income/working class people are discriminated against. Yes, it's probably an order of magnitude higher for blacks, but if you're white, on disability and over 50 you may never be able to get a job, go on vacation or buy a car. Of course they're angry, they need help which neither Dems or Repubs are providing.
1
@Edward Allen I've heard the "we need to look at ourselves" assertion many times. It's not an effort to solve a particular problem but is instead focused on trying to micromanage "white" psychology which to address nebulous concepts like white privilege and institutional racism. What you need to ask yourself is, once a white person is sufficiently enlightened or "woke," then what next?
I think this is a powerful and courageous piece.
It is crucial to put this agenda in front of everybody--it is definitely running the show.
That said, I wish the line about Israel was not in there.
The two thousand year old longing of Jews (who are Middle Easterners) to return home is not colonialism. And, the Jews of twentieth century Arab countries were displaced from their homes by Arabs.
May all peoples learn to live in peace and common humanity.
3
Skin color or "race" (whatever that really means) should have nothing to do with making value judgments about cultures. Not because of "race" or genetic superiority but because of climate, luck, historical accidents, and early use of advanced weapons, societies developed in Scandinavia, western Europe and their settler colonies like the US, Canada, Australia, that influenced by the "enlightenment" developed in a way I consider better than most of the rest of the world, having evolved more democracy, more rights for women, religious minorities, gays, more protection for the environment, more rights for labor, more rights for consumers, more emphasis on education including girls, more willingness to deal with corruption. As I said its not due to race, there are "white" countries that don't have these values (e.g. Russia) and non-white countries such as Japan that for different historical reasons seem to be successfully adopting those cultural features I admire.
6
It’s laughable that anyone would consider a race or another, superior or inferior!
Naturally, all humans are made from the same genetic blueprint, with minor variations.
Yes, we may observe differences between groups of people, or cultures. And some may have made technological advances that were not achieved by other groups.
This of course has nothing to do with skin color!
It may to do with economic factors and most likely climate conditions. Northern Europeans had to adapt to colder climates, and some groups were naturally inclined to adopt to the sea, were they lived.
Sadly, many white people believe they may be superior because they are on average wealthier than other groups, but again that has nothing to do with skin color.
In fact, the evidence would suggest that many so called industrialized countries, or the so called west, created a totally unsustainable way of life, consuming the planets resources at a rate much faster than the the earth can regenerate those resources, for a cycle of life and renewal.
That would make many groups that also happen to be white, the dumbest people on earth. And that includes the current US president. FOX news should report this and it would not be fake news.
And yes, I happen to be white, as the driven snow.
3
Let me summarize the argument: Many many years ago, white men did horrible things. Since then, we have been blaming them instead of accomplishing anything.
The notion that you may right historical wrongs by excessive and tendentious whining is not a successful nor accurate one.
18
@GeorgePTyrebyter Let me summarize the argument for you, since you obviously didn’t read the article: white men are the ones doing the hand wringing because they realize that their political and cultural hold on the world is becoming more and more tenuous, which in turn might lead them to say and do dangerous things in a desperate attempt to hold on to power. See: DJTrump and acolytes.
This is a really excellent survey of the influence of racist white supremacist ideology of the late 19th century through to WWII and its sad and pathetic return in recent times, in European colonial nations or outposts of "the West", such as the US and Australia.
Having read a lot of the comments I must say that it's disappointing so many cannot seem to bear discrete discussion of this topic without reference to the evidence of racism in other societies. "Whataboutism" is a very poor form of critique.
Even worse is the suggestion made by many that discussion of this topic is in itself racist. Honestly if you are a "white person" who can't handle expression of the fact that there has been a substantial and powerful history of racist discourse by "white people", you really care far too much that you are a "white person" and should read this essay again.
As a salve to his critics I'll criticise Pankaj myself by pointing out that not recognising "identity politics" and "political correctness" - are far as the fact of ethnic or "racial" difference is concerned - as the reactionary cry of the oppressed for license to engage, for strategic reasons, in something akin to the very same practices their oppressors practice freely - racism and "faux tribal solidarity celebrationism" - and as counter-productive to their hopes to reduce "white" racism in our world, is probably beneath his intelligence and education. But I'm only speculating.
6
Thank you for an urbane and thought-provoking essay.
Many of my comments here on NYT are devoted to condemning white nationalism and racist attitudes in the United States. This time, please allow to me offer a counterpoint.
Let’s not suppose that a world without white racism would be a world without racism. The world over, people who have been victims of white racism have been victimizers in their own spheres since time immemorial. I remember a black African intellectual’s complaint that when Westerners treat slavery as being all about their own guilt, they ignore its long history among Africans themselves.
As for the conceit of racial superiority, where can one go in Asia without encountering it? The equation of “higher races” with whites must be particularly galling to the Chinese, who have been certain for generations that they are the highest race. My family and I could, if we chose, play the indignant victims of racial prejudice on both sides of the Pacific; and on the Asian side more than the American, although attitudes have improved markedly in our particular part of Asia over the past generation.
The racism of whites is not unique, nor is the racism of non-whites a product of colonialism, which it predates by far. As for racism in America, it’s globally conspicuous not because it’s more endemic than elsewhere, but because it’s more energetically confronted and pushed back. Elsewhere, the Barack Obamas are not subjected to calumny; they’re non-existent.
10
The world has had its share of leader/monsters and they have shown up on all continents. That is why our world is in such shambles.
America, despite its short history has found its way to the front as an exemplar of much of what is seen as "good." But let a Trump loose on a world fraught with potential and active discord, and suddenly hate and racial superiority regain a supported foothold.
America can also show the world its worth and resolve by voting democracy back to the front. We have had a significant setback in just two years but that doesn't mean for one minute that we can't reset our directions.
Let America lead by example and more to the point, let America show that they want to when we vote in November.
2
"Feeling superior" to other peoples is a misnomer. "Superior" is not a feeling. The feeling behind it is hurt, contempt, sense of intrapsychic inferiority, shame. Parents strip a child's self-esteem, and he'll have to find a prosthetic ego to hold him up -- such as being "better than." The phenomenon is psychological, not sociological.
62
@FredPerhaps you have it backwards? Parents unreasonably boost a child’s self-esteem, such that the child has little alternative but to feel “better than” everyone else. When reality proves otherwise – and mind you, that doesn’t mean the reality is that the child is inferior in any way, just not as special/superior as the hammered-home message would have things – the child may well lash back, at everyone, seeing the situation as inherently ‘unfair.’ Sound familiar?
Now consider an entire culture as a whole, unreasonably boosting the self-esteem of one particular community. We like to think that as adults we don’t engage in ‘childish’ behavior, but it is apparent at every turn of late, from cheering on of Trump’s playground bullying, to yes, the hurt feelings of white America, its pampered, overly-boosted self-esteem now being forced to face reality: they are humans like everyone else.
@Fred
David Graeber in his book, "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" comes to one conclusion that once hierarchies are established it's the beginning of the end. At least that's one of the central themes I recognized.
Racists begin hierarchies for just that reason. Once someone is "better than" and others are "lesser" excuses can and are made for the most heinous behavior against the "other".
I believe psychological phenomena become sociological phenomena. Humans create one based on the other. We're going through another period of the so-called great white race taking another crack at maintaining control through whatever means possible.
In other words, their psychological miasma is becoming a sociological disaster.
@Fred I think you are right. Melania Trump’s evanescent promotion of “Be Best” seems to me a pernicious offshoot of establishing one's self worthy by looking down on others. It has been used to calm the underclasses for centuries: no matter how bad your lot, at least you aren’t [fill in ethnic or economic subclass of choice]. When will we learn that “Be Your Best” or “We’re All on the Same Planet” would be more helpful?
I'm not quite sure if the racial focus of the author
applies to THE most pressing and explicit example of a
collective death wish-suicidal urge, that is, the collective disinclination to respond to climate change with the focused intensity and clarity of mind needed.
It's clear that a significant obstacle at present is
found within conservative political movements dominated
by caucasians in the English speaking world. It is also
the case that the driving force behind the political opposition
to an appropriate response is an economic one
grounded in preserving profits for a small but powerful elite.
But it is intriguing to reflect upon how this drive to preserve carbon energy market share evolved into a generalized ideological movement of suicidal climate denialism by forging political alliances with white evangelicals and other alt right types claiming to speak for and defend the economic interests of rural and small town residents. Was this racial in nature
or just tactical shrewdness?
By now, things are so detached from reality, that opposing efforts to combat climate change have become a mark of identity for proud membership in a movement whose foundation is protection of whites from the dangers of the Other and institutional elites.
In fact this protection is now a suicidal death wish imposed upon all of society, not just whites. How it can be short
circuited and rendered harmless is an answer that
better be figured out very soon.
3
White supremacy is just a pretense for the brief period during which Euro-American technology rose to prominance. It's embraced by those often poorly educated, who realize technological prowess isn't theirs, it's gone global. To defend against this truth, they pretend that ethnicity provided their "greatness."
It's possible that they could produce conflagration. But the reality is they're weak. They're herded by wealthy interests, who'd abandon them in a heart-beat. This is true elsewhere. It's unsettling to see Xi rally Chinese to a nationalist totalitarianism. But despite his grand strategy, this top-down effort will stifle China's future. It's actually weakness.
Out of the blue, however, nature intervenes. The Mongols swept into Europe 700 years ago, but didn't stay. They carried the plague, which did. The next century was Europe's apotheosis. Europeans carried childhood illnesses to the new world, which devestated native people. But Europeans succombed to Africa's fevers, which Africans were more resilient to.
We've messed with nature plenty now, and it will hit back in unexpected ways again. Euro-American dominance will deteriorate, but we can't predict how biology will turn. We don't know its footprint. There's no justice in plague, smallpox, malaria. We pretend our beings are defined by skin, and the universe laughs.
5
Interesting, as they say in academia. That's not a compliment.
The article begins by tracing a straight line from "The National Life..." book, from the late 1800's right through to today, implying that white supremacy and anti-blackness have continued unabated, the apex of which we experience at this historic moment.
That ought to scare people. Make them angry.
But that's hardly historic. In the early 20th century, popular books of race fears stoked politics, but it was in fact the bad science of the day concerning eugenics that more heavily influenced populations. This is the rubric of "bad science" which is hardly unknown to historians: the idea that science could produce the terrible as well as the beneficial was a popular literature interest, as Mary Shelley showed. And the Theory of Evolution made Science preeminent in the public's mind.
EVERY country was, in fact, concerned with racial purity, though many just dropped it after the war, including America. But it was Germany that caused the whole idea of such "bad science" to fall into disrepute.
This well-known and important information was buried -- burying the lead, or the explication of the lead, for 3/4 of the story? And only a short mention, a sentence, before we hear how seamless whiteness is, that we are now basing our life on a 1910 obscure cultural group?
Even Fitzgerald satirized eugenics in The Great Gatsby.
Racism hasn't been in polite company for 50 years.
Maybe some missed your memo?
5
@Scotty Maybe racism isn't in polite company, but impolite company is a growth industry today.
@William M. Palmer, Esq., I agree with you. But... how do we as the public convince the "poorer Trump voters that their loss of jobs, unions, outsourcing, was caused by the ownership class and their captive politicians from both parties. We as a group from all ethnicities are not going to "make it" till we get rid of Trump and Co. AND the establishment Democrats from the New Democrat/GOP "lite" group now in power. They will try to keep out the FDR type progressives who want to come in to government to right the income imbalance and enact policies that protect and advance their interests.
As an immigrant from a South Asian country I have seen it before. Politicians use the "other" as an "enemy" and get the majority all riled up and get voted in by any means. At the next election people are disenchanted when nothing happens, vote in the goons from the other political party. People eventually figure it out but feel helpless to do anything about it. I never thought it could happen here and in my opinion, we are at this inflection point of going over a cliff to a false democracy.
I am hopeful, because (maybe) of our last best hope, because the judiciary, career bureaucrats and a few politicians and citizens see the coming peril and want to stop it. I am looking to the mid term elections for this change. We, all of us, including Trump voters have to do it. How do we bring them along?
1
A superb text. If Mr Mishra now writes for the Times his voice will be greatly appreciated. Please note that Mishra mentions the fact that some critics of Trump are no better on the race front and we can think of all the so-called "never-Trump" neocons.
3
In the ancient world, did the people who felt a squeeze and their territory threatened consider the context of history before defending their land and heritage? No. They had children and needs, like white people who are not elites (ie most of them). Colonisation is irrelevant to the current issue. It may have gotten us here, but knowing about it will not make any difference. White people are not colonisers anymore. They were born.for generations now, on their lands. Why would they not believe them theirs? It is all they have.
2
Painting white people as supremacists intent on dominating all others for all time is a sadly misplaced ideology. Most people, myself included, are unconcerned about race & ethnicity. I wholeheartedly endorse MLK Jr' in saying that content of one's character is what matters. Pity that so many groups cannot accept this.
8
@Keith
Are you paying attention to the current rhetoric and policy making of Trump and his associates? They have a deep seated animus towards people of color. If most people are unconcerned about race & ethnicity, why aren't more people objecting to the numerous horrific changes going on in this country? How would you feel if you applied for a renewal of your passport and were told that your citizenship was in question?
1
I can only speak as a millenial on this issue, and bear witness to the disappointing reality that for a generation raised against racism, discrimination, and sexism so many of us have shown to be capable of misogyny and racism as adults. This is a disappointing reality that connects to the twin issues of needing to "succeed" in a capitalist economy, the deep engrained ideas that we are socialized to since birth, and the doom of generational forgetfulness.
I do not share the apocalyptic prophecies shared by this author but can only state that it appears the scourge of white supremacy and gender supremacy will continue to repeat itself. We can only hope each backlash rears its disgusting head with greater and greater recurring weakness.
5
The return to power of those who believe and espouse what is - as Pankaj rightfully describes it - "Western supremacism" and "racial pseudoscience" is indeed a "low comedy of charlatanry" and an "intellectual farce" as he says.
The reign and collapse of the "neo-liberal consensus" is to blame. It's been a decivilising event. "Might" and "Right" have become too far removed. Cynicism has been far too chic. The best of the West are not leading it. Honestly - leadership has been dismissed as unnecessary, an embarrassment, for far too long. And into the vacuum have stepped clowns - and dangerous "strongman" fools.
Those outside the West regard it with ignorant contempt - blithely dismissing its progress to the declaration of universal human rights and to scientific enlightenment. Those inside it disgrace it with ignorant praise - witlessly disregarding its history of intra-Western division and conflict, the influence of non-Europeans within and without on it, and its conduct towards such people.
Ironically the second group's fanboys and fellow travellers call for a return to greater study and appreciation of it. Sigh.
Lost on them completely is that Western civilisation and Europeans are only contingently associated. The former is far more the product of European history and geography than European genetics. Too many non-European places and people assimilated to it, to a very high degree, today, to mention, prove this. That sound is the sound of a thought bubble bursting.
1
Yes, this story is important. They are all important, each angle on what the facts suggest is our impending doom as a culture, as a society, as a nation.
But the Times ought to crank back on this incessant litany enough to let in coverage of promising new ideas that might help us fight back. Yes, we've had some of that, but it mainly amounts to more ways we can win already-blue states and districts by even bigger margins.
Certainly there must be a few communities in heartland America that have pushed back against the hatred. For example, have any of them created an alternative to the Fox monopoly on information across vast swathes of our country? Have any school districts or community colleges advanced programs for nurturing critical thought among adults? Or even basic faces, like civics and geography?
Gotta be something. Assign reporters to find it -- it's news at least as big as the latest outrage, news that must be told.
2
political correctness — code for historically scorned peoples’ daring to propose norms about how they are treated.
Best definition of the term I've read anywhere. Too bad most people in the majority in this country can't see the term for what it actually means!
10
Mishra glibly observes that "history often repeats itself as intellectual farce" but fails to fully embrace the spirit of the enterprise. Otherwise he might have noted the intrinsically comical aspect of renascent white racism and wondered after its deeper meaning. The electronic age has endowed even the dullest among us with the power to magnify trivia so as to create an illusion of massive inevitability. But underneath it all, despite the frightening distortion, trivia remains trivia. The Wizard of Oz is the paradigm for our age. We are all Kansas.
2
What I think may be the more pressing subject isn't overt organized efforts at white identity politics--though they surely are a problem--but the lack of awareness--the outright denial of racist beliefs and fears that so many people in Western countries seem to engage in.
I would bet you that most people who harbor beliefs similar to those outlined here would read an opinion piece like this one and NEVER see themselves or people they associate with in it ANYWHERE. And a lot of them wouldn't even believe that someone like Trump is engaged in white identity politics, or Maureen Le Penn, or others like her.
And critics of a piece like this will say "Well of course they aren't honest about it! No one is going to be honest when they're being associated with repugnant beliefs...." But if this piece does not strike the right tone, than how DO you get people to acknowledge racist convictions or white supremacist attitudes? What is the right way to have a honest dialogue about it with them?
4
It's amusing to contrast Mr. Mishra's article fulminating against "whiteness" (i.e., white people) with Thomas Edsall's "Who's Afraid of a White Minority?" about how white people shouldn’t be alarmed by all the articles about how white people are finally going to get what’s coming to them once they are no longer a majority of the voters, because, you see, people of mixed descent will voluntarily give up identifying as non-white in order to cash in on that sweet, sweet White Privilege.
Judging by Mr. Mishra's attitude toward me and mine, white people need to expect to be public objects of hatred for generations to come, and plan accordingly.
6
As an Indian living in the age of Modi, with its attendant lynchings of Muslims, harassment of women, and imprisonment of intellectuals and lawyers, I think this article is blinded by whiteness in its failure to identify that this grasping of power at the expense of ethnic groups and minority religion has appeal pretty much everywhere.
It was a coincidence that white men got there first with capital-funded and gunpowder-aided colonialism. Was it any different before this, with the invading Mughals, the Arab battles across Europe, or Japan marauding through China?
If we focus on this problem as being a racial one, we will be nowhere closer to a solution.
28
Those who are terrified of a white minority likely have a deeper fear than the implied change in national identity. How might the new majority (actually a collection of multiracial, multiethnic pluralities) treat the new minority? As they reflect on this question, the truth of the past few centuries becomes obvious: How did they? With that in mind, their terror, is completely understandable.
3
I find it interesting how so many of these comments brilliantly illustrate the point of the column. I've always considered my being born white incidental and accidental, not something of value except that it confers better treatment for no coherent reason. It's the same with having been born in the United States -- or anywhere else for that matter. We take these markers as signifiers of rank and worth, yet no one has any say about what race or sex or nationality they inherit at birth. Why do we take credit and cast aspersions for things outside our control? It seems rather like saying one won the lottery not through luck, by hard work and perseverance and being kind to puppies.
12
As a white (really more pink) person, I can advise the simplest way to keep from being "persecuted" in the future (or feeling that way) when we whites lose majority status: stop worrying about some bizarre notion of "racial purity" and love your fellow man and woman of any and all races. And by "love," I mean in ALL senses -- including procreation. After all, race is mutable, and "mutt"able, and we are all mutts to a certain extent. Being all of the same species, we are able to mate and produce viable offspring with other humans in spite of arbitrary and silly notions of race. Humans are beautiful in all our forms, but we are at our ugliest when we indulge in fear, hate and ignorance. How about we grow up and stop thinking in terms of racial difference and realize that, first off, there are more similarities than differences, and second, the differences we do have in color, shape, culture, style, etc. make life more interesting, exciting, fun and stimulating? Seriously, being fearful of losing "majority" status is juvenile -- unless you've been treating minorities as "lesser" all along, in which case you might want to consider your own behavior toward others before you worry about losing your status as The Majority.
283
Well said. And when we view the world through such a lens, the distinctions that the author believes are all based on race, and specifically white racism, have much more to do with the philosophy of freedom, or lack thereof.
Freedom is not perfection, and it may move slowly. But just try any other mode of human design.
@PeekaBoo
Excellent points there. Races are after all just an illusion. We all belong to the invasive human species / human race. And instead of focusing on our differences in culture, religion, language and skin color (which all add up to the spice of cohabiting on planet earth), we should instead try to minimize our impact on the health of the earth ecosystem. The real chaos will happen when we start starving and suffocating in a sterile desert land that we have created from ignorance and greed.
2
@PeekaBoo Thank you. Beautifully expressed.
2
Life stories like that of Nelson Mandela's and John McCain's show us the strength of the indomitable human spirit but it is also most susceptible in face of seduction or setback.
Race, class, ethnicity and religious beliefs are fertile ground to cultivate the addictive poisons of fear, greed, jealousy and ignorance. Haven't we seen it in the Bosnia ethnic cleansing civil war when neighbors who used to live side by side for generations suddenly turned on each other? Before that, the Jews in Germany. And even now, Palestinians and Israelis.
When the Vietnamese refugees resettled in Corpus Christi, they worked hard to rebuild their lives. Maybe too hard. And that attracted the jealousy of the natives. Thank goodness the nation was too exhausted after the Vietnam War and the fringes were receding.
Then people like Pat Buchanan began to stir. Perhaps his association with Richard Nixon and there were still mainstream conservatives who were adult enough to give some semblance of civility. The Great Recession of 2008 catapulting President Obama to the presidency and the 8 years of obstructions by the GOP, among other things, have produced the current monstrosity.
But is it just race? White v. black? Or non white? What about the demonic monk championing the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar right now? The rise of fascism in Eastern Europe?
The salient features in all these are the fear of the masses, a puppet master and a scapegoat
10
@Bos Why this endless fixation on "race" when the causes for, and understanding of human mistreatment of other humans reuire thinking in terms of everything but non- existent "race"?
The groups seen as "races" were named for political reasons, first in 1790. Not one of those groups is a genitically distinct unit although former Times genetics expert (sarcasm warning) Nicholas wade preferred seeming them so and then explain their behavior as bring related to unidentified gene clusters.
Better to seek explanations elsewhere.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Mishra's analysis of how elites have used race to provide imperialism with the moral high ground and unite white workers with elites politicall is correct. However, she misses an important point: that racialization of policies is always backward. Identity politics of the Trump version has only been possible because of the pre-existing Triumph of identity politics as the Official creed of Western elites over the past four decades.
6
"She"?
Oh, for God's sake. Spare us the politically correct tripe. If you wan to scare white people into the hands of Donald Trump and his ilk, this kind of nonsense is guaranteed to do that.
43
@Josh Hille 'scare white people into the hands of Donald Trump' via an overwrought editorial? Give me a break. The satire of Trump voters really seems to write itself - Trevor Noah actually had a bit on this.
@Anita
"The war on terror reactivated the 19th century’s imperial archive of racial knowledge, according to which the swarthy enemy was subhuman, inviting extreme and lawless violence"?
Actually, this reads like a satire of itself.
1
@Josh Hill only true if white supremacy is a pre-existing condition for said white people.
I believe this article makes a very good point: identity politics makes its return after having proved how easy yet how harmful it can be. After reading many comments, I would just like to write a couple of things.
Of course, this piece doesn’t offer all the nuances we could wish for. But can we blame an article -intrinsically defined by its shortness - for not being able to address all the aspects of a complex issue?
To all those who reply they identify as Whites and feel hurt by the article, I would like to say that criticizing the author for describing the Whites as the worst living creatures is groundless. He is definitely not doing so.
What he criticizes is the automatic instinct that we (for I would probably be identified as a White too) choose to identify as Whites in the first place (and not as human beings), either consciously or unmindfully. And this both explains and strengthens our tendency to put the “other” at arms length and (un)mindfully consider ourselves as the most legitimate and most efficient producers of moral, societal, economic, political norms.
That is why I think this article indeed describes only one aspect of the issue. It is more than just about “whiteness.” It is about holding on to a thousand-year-old economic, moral and political domination, bound to suffer from the (re)emerging of other centers of legitimacy. And branding the “White” flag instead of a white humble flag only endangers the very “civilization” some pretend to defend.
22
Balderdash. This dystopian prognostication is the product of a preoccupation with race. Our more likely future is one in which America ends up a pleasant coffee-with-cream color, as Ben Franklin predicted. Other challenges are greater: global warming, AI displacing jobs, great income inequality, among others. Never bet against the United States.
31
Mr Mishra strikes at the core of Trump’s success. Among white males, Trump has and maintains a strong following. Trump’s excesses and exaggerations capitalizes on the themes that Mr Mishra clearly outlines.
“Joe Six Pack” finds himself falling behind due to the rapacious actions of a narrowing economic-political elite. By creating racial and religious fear, this oligarchy distracts the rabble. What should be the target of their discontent is transferred to “the other.”
The Native American was nothing but a savage. R H Pratt, who wanted to save the Red Man, advocated “Kill the Indian, save the man.”
Blacks were a worry from the start. To Jefferson and Washington, the sense of inequity of their plight was outweighed by the fear of being overwhelmed should they be granted freedom. Popular culture reinforced that concept as in 1915 Birth of a Nation and 1933 King Kong.
Resentment of Latinos from attitudes of “learn the language” to resentment of government forms in two languages produces greater white outrage than a tax system that benefits 1% of the population.
White fear and animosity has found homes in both major parties, but presently dominates the GOP.
Contrary to the optimist, every reference to a changing American nation will result in greater white anger and extremism and not to an acceptance—even if it required the cost of our democracy.
27
@doughboy RH Pratt, 1840. Heh, he could have said that on the news today, I don't care what people say, it hasn't changed at all. Jefferson saying they had to concede to the south in order to form the Union, though the debate over abolition raged through the country via Britain, or at least I remember reading that? You, though, no doubt have the real story....they were afraid! Afraid of the black man overrunning them! Yes. And people saying in only 100 years, as a new country, America abolished slavery? Debates over slavery raged through the country, the south holding on, but abolitionists petitioning, culminating in a big war, in 1865. It abolished slavery but things haven't changed a bit. Not at all.
Saudi Arabia just abolished slavery, officially, in 1962. JFK was President. Looks like the West was just a little out in front, though the white supremacy of the country's leaders...of course you are right, their writings be hanged. We know better.
I live in an integrated neighborhood, beyond what could be imagined. More Middle Easterners are settled here than anywhere else in the country, Chaldean and Sunnis and Persians (Iran), Latinos are the majority, and blacks live here, too, most in adequate apartments or houses. Chaldean Christians from Iraq have the highest home ownership rate. That's not a mistake. But I see what you're saying, with that supremacy thing, because here everyone gets along, weirdly, and I'm just waiting for that mean mad white man to show up.
"Emotional incontinence rather than style or wit marks such gilded networks of white power." Perhaps this style of elite entitlement could use a good laxative followed by an enema to free the body politic of its antiquated scourge.
5
Well said! Easy to digest.
Racism and nationalism peak at times of distress and we are in the early stages of a historical period of economic disruption. Technology is the reason that workers of all types are being displaced and losing security. However its hard to pin the blame on a microprocessor or a streamlined workflow, so people point to the "Others". It will get much worse before it gets better because the vast majority of the population is not equipped to participate in a high tech global economy.
18
@RCH Why should it not be an economy equipped to participate with a population as we are?
...But there’s a third element missing from this rather dystopian sad tale of the impending demise of the white man and that is the rise of the AI man. While we analog humans try to decide who’s to sit or ride on the bus, AI is quietly making its move to rearrange all of us outside of the bus... perhaps it will be our machines who will in the end ultimately decide who lives where and who lives and dies ...
6
No one on the planet has, or has anyone ever had, the choice of their skin color. Nonetheless all of us as the expression has long noted "bleed red"
The simple depth and produndity of thought encapsulated in that observation tells any reasonable human being skin color is not only literally, but also figuratively only skin deep. However it is the acceptance of fantasy inherent in any invented supremacy which allows the denial of this reality. The discord thus spread has eventually doomed any social groupings which rejected this truth.
There are and, until racial mixing becomes more complete and therefore more acceptable, will remain large groups almost inextricably bound by beliefs held within each of their predominant cultures.
We as a species know of our eventual demise and as groups within our species face varying areas of our planet we develop similar but different responses distributed for the most part as religious or mythological groupings
If we had more trust among ourselves as mentally similar and less fearful of physical difference the problems we have always faced and are still facing would certainly begin to wither at an increasingly fast pace.
The acceptance of another's word as well as our own implies trust which is the most difficult hurdle we as individuals and by extension our societies have to surmount.
This will happen or we will continue to destroy our sentience, our children and the only home we human beings will ever have.
One chance is all we get.
15
“Other panicky white bros not only virulently denounce identity politics and political correctness — code for historically scorned peoples’ daring to propose norms about how they are treated ...”
So. Where did you get that from? To me, identity politics and political correctness mean the sort of nonsense about the Civil War and inherent racial characteristics one was more or less obliged to believe in the mid-century American South. It also means early 21st Century efforts by people on the American left to define us in terms of race and gender and to prescribe permissible thought and speech.
But if one places our common humanity and human dignity at the center of our moral universe then I don’t see where there’s room to define the world in terms of race and gender or to prescribe much in the way of thought and speech. It is up to each of us, with due regard for the opinions of others, to apply as best we can maxims such as the golden rule and the categorical imperative to guide our thoughts and actions. So there are at least two dramatically different ways to contend with the likes of Murdoch and Trump for the hearts and minds of people.
You also pretty much glossed over the last half of the 20th Century, when many white people happily accepted civil rights on principle and gladly refrained from performing the tasks that must be performed for one group of people to keep another group of people down.
28
I offer a serious request:
The term "whiteness" should be considered a pejorative, demeaning and unfair characterization of all Caucasians. As such it should be set aside as is the "n-word". We are as diverse as any other race or ethnicity, and it as insulting.
Can one imagine a "white" author complaining about "blackness" and not getting pummeled by the Social Justice Warriors of the world?
I am what would be called "white" and share little to nothing with the elites that screwed up the world and many of us who are "white" have been on the right side of history, took difficult stands at sometimes great personal cost and sometimes paid with our lives. I did not steal land from the First Peoples of the Americas or put them on the Trail of Tears or bring Africans here as slaves. I did not create, enforce or exist under Jim Crow laws. I did not own or run companies that have exploited people all over the developing world. I did not go to segregated schools or advocate for them. I served in an integrated Army that won the Cold War by maintaining a united and ready deterrent with our NATO allies against the Warsaw Pact and the Soviets.
I am not defined nor do I define myself by the color of my skin, the faith I was raised in, the region of the country I live in or even the nation of which I am a citizen. Maybe other do, but I do not.
I stand for the freedom of all, equity for all, justice and a more graceful and peaceful world. That is nothing to be ashamed of.
107
@David Gregory You did not personally steal land from the First Peoples of the Americas or put them on the Trail of Tears or bring Africans here as slaves. You did not personally create or enforce Jim Crow laws. You did not personally advocate for segregated schools. Neither did I.
But what you have done, and what I have done, is benefit from the racist attitudes and actions of our ancestors. We were born with white privilege due to them. We had no choice in that, so it's not something to feel personally guilty about. But, if we benefit from the racism of our ancestors, we must also take responsibility for it and make amends for it. And avoiding taking that responsibility is exactly what anyone who cries, "I didn't, I didn't, it's not my fault" is trying to do.
I do not believe for one second that all Germans during WWII were antisemitic. I do believe, however, that there was an insufficient number of "good" Germans to achieve the moral critical mass necessary to do anything about the bad Germans. That being the case, and WWII being what it was, the actions of the Third Reich properly define "Germans" or "Germany" during the period. Moral: there aren't enough good white people for you to matter.
Whether you want to or not, you benefit from the color of your skin. You are, therefore, "defined." Nothing's more boring than a white person who wants to be seen as innocent of their parents.
If you guys don't quit fanning the flames of racism there is going to be civil war. Normal people don't judge others based on the color of their skin, but in how they treat their fellow man. The war on western civilization and the white man continues.....
52
If the Times is not talking about white rage, white domination, or white supremacy, it has nothing to talk about, hence this unnatural focus on race.
Enough already.
Not everyone wants to think or talk about race all the time.
72
@G
I think you don’t mean “all the time”. What you really imply is ththat you don’t want to talk about it at all.
No mention of Woodrow Wilson, a racist's racist, but plenty of historically irrelevant drivel to push the panic button and tell us why identity politics is the cure for virulent "whiteness". Cute trick
15
Where, and how, in all the white hegemonists’ thinking processes, do they square their evil worldview with Christianity?
Jesus said, “you cannot worship God and Mammon. For you will love the one and hate the other.”
9
More like a homicide cult.
7
True, true....now let's get Harvard to be nice to Asians and all will end well.
7
So basically white people are terrible. Glad I pay for this.
41
@Brian
Hey, somebody had to tell them. If you only want to pay for opinions and information you agree with watch Fox
White extremists or their apologists would do well to remember that racial greed created colonialism. And blood, race and soil created the Holocaust.
9
@Siddhartha Banerjee
Well, what would happen if the colonialists found only other whites? If the colonists thought they could defeat or subvert them, they probably would have.
Methinks it's greed, universal greed, that drove them. Christianity, Manifest Destiny and race were only convenient excuses.
One must ask what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot. But I'll grant one thing: it wasn't.
1
@Siddhartha Banerjee So when the Sioux Indians took land and resources from the Mandan, were they colonialists? When the Spanish and Mexican ranchers enslaved the indigenous Indians from Baja through what is now California, were they colonialists? When Islam after the death of Muhammed, slaughtered thousands of Assyrians in what is now Syria and Damascus, destroying the first church of Christendom, St. John the Baptist, and building a mosque, were they colonialists? When they invaded India, and over 1000 years, 80 million died, were they colonialists then? When the Japanese tore up Manchuria. killing Chinese, were they colonialists?
When you search through history you might find that every country, in many cases, has had their time as colonialists, and the colonized. Now, what can we do about such a confusing situation?
1
Another racist misandrist diatribe.
I’m so shocked (not).
Apparently, as a white male American citizen, I’m the lowest form of life on the planet. In fact, I’m so subhuman it’s fine to stereotype and discriminate against me based on the color of my skin and gender, and the society created by folks like me is the worst culture ever to exist on Earth.
That being said, it difficult to understand why the majority of the non-white world are anxious to come to America, and reap the economics benefits and freedoms created by us evil white men.
68
@Proud Patriot Like Evangelicals, you are misidentifying efforts to level the playing field as persecution.
Yes, all this is changing with the race-riots in Germany and the election of right wing governments all over the European World. White People usually take their initiative from the ballot and even Adolf Hitler was legally elected and the wishes of the people will have to be carried out whatever they maybe collectively. This is the part where Whites as a species are more lethal than other species on Earth. Organization and discipline.
7
@Psysword "Whites as a species are more lethal than other species on Earth."
Whites are a race, at least in this columnists use of the word. Humans are a species of animal.
Can you provide any data to back up that assertion?
How many Indians were killed in the invasions of India over 1,000 years? Some say 80 million, other historians see a population decrease of 200 million when there were no reported catastrophes, apart from invasions.
Ghengis Khan brought fear to conquered territories and brutality, killing up to 40 million. 2.5 million Persians were slaughtered in one area by Khan.
Poetically, the "lethality" of the white race has a slithery sound, all onomatopoeia, and I actually think it's powerful and persuasive, if you don't think too hard. I've heard the phrase, "Whiteness is the most lethal system on this planet to ever breathe." (EVERGREEN Undergraduate VIDEO YouTube)
The problem, as some have pointed out, is that confirmation bias informs this essay, and that data does not support the premise.
1
Totally untrue.....I’m white wralthy and NOT committing sucide, ha
2
Funny coincidence: on the NYT homepage right now - 6:45 pm EDT, Thurs. Aug 30 - this op-ed appears in the top-right corner, while in the lower left corner is a story, "Every Generation Gets The Beach Villain It Deserves."
The latter is about a billionaire in California who bought up an entire beach town there in 2008, & since then has been in a pitched, costly legal battle to make sure that none of the general public of any race or nationality ever sets foot on that beach again. Because that part of the Pacific coast is now his - all his! - even though he doesn't live or spend time there & never intends to; in fact, he doesn't actually like the beach, not even his own. Yet he's battling to keep the world off it because he believes that allowing anyone else access to any portion of his private patch of Pacific coast would constitute a violation of his rights as a property owner.
According to the assumptions of Pankaj Mishra's op-ed, the fat-cat/landowner-supremacist who's "become the caricature of the rich guy trying to keep people out" must be just another racist white guy who hates the hoi-polloi & especially wants to assert his dominance over people of color, right? Wrong. Turns out that this particular evil land baron - whom the NYT calls "aggressive, shameless" & paints as someone 100% certain of his own superiority - is Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems from New Delhi, India.
What's going on the world today is far more complex than this op-ed says.
59
Aime Cesare was not surprised to see white people bombing themselves in 1940s Europe, for they had already beaten all the other peoples. Malcolm X noted that white men subjugated the red men, then the black men; and then had the black men go and kill yellow men in Vietnam.
‘Race’ is a very effective tool employed in the subjugation of others. Countless lies and pseudoscientific spewings are used to support the concept. But for what underlying reason? A simple one: Life is so much more easily lived on the backs of others.
Make no mistake. If it wasn’t ‘race’, some smaller invention (such as nationality) would assume the role of Defender of Greed. Ask the ‘Asian’ Laotians, ask the ‘Asian’ people of Myanmar, ask the people of Malaysia what they think of the ‘Asian’ Chinese in their countries, ostensibly building them (and thereby mimicking the previous efforts of the British, the Germans, the French and the Americans).
And if not nations, then something smaller still. I once worked in a factory where high quality and low quality fabrics were printed. When I asked where the low quality fabrics went, my supervisor said, “That s___ goes to Africa”. Shocking. But is it any more shocking than your next door neighbor collecting dividends from a company whose product causes birth defects in a state in some other corner of your own country?
'Race' is just an obvious way to hide and defend the greed that will sink all of us - inside and outside the ‘Anglosphere’- one way or another.
15
Whiteness is probably the most mutable class/identity in American history. Those same 19th Century ethnographers divided “whiteness” into different tiers. At the bottom were “Mediterranids”: Spaniards, Southern Italians, Greeks—but also Berbers, Arabs, and Persians, i.e., the people who today assert a non-white (usually “brown”) identity.
At the same time, as Irish refugees of the Great Famine fled their colonized land, American newspapers warned an “Anglo-Saxon” nation about the “Celtic ape-men,” diseased and biologically predisposed to alcoholism, flooding the shores. Anti-Italianism followed, especially towards Sicilians. A leader of a lynch mob that killed 10 Italians in New Orleans said: “[Italians are] just a little worse than the Negro, being if anything filthier in their habits, lawless, and treacherous"
Anti-Semitism might be the earliest form of racial hatred. That didn’t change with the advent of the Anglosphere. For decades, the U.S. barred entry to Jews fleeing pogroms. Six million were killed because of their “non-whiteness,” along with millions of Slavs whom Hitler also deemed untermenschen.
The biggest irony is that Irish, Italian, Slavic, etc. surnames now predominate in nativist circles. With the exception of blacks—a legacy of slavery—yesterday’s POC are today’s whites. Think this time is different? Just consider that some of the biggest personalities of the alt-right (Nick Fuentes, James Allsup, “weev”) have partial Latino, Asian, and Jewish ancestry.
10
@Mr. Grieves: Persians -- Iranians today -- are absolutely white and NOT ARABS or semites at all. They do not speak Arabic. They have their own language -- Farsi -- and it is a huge insult to call an Iranian an "Arab". They are pure Aryans.
I gather by your theory (and that posited in the article) that the late Antonin Scalia was NOT a white man, but a person of color!
1
This essay is concocted out of confirmation bias: it is the most one-sided depiction of the West I have ever read. According to Mr. Mishra, we Westerners are guilty of everything, in the most aggravated possible way.
There is just one problem with his criticism of the West. The ideals he professes, racial justice included, are Western. The assertion of universality and the rejection of ethnocentrism is Western. And his audience is Western. And Yale gave him his literary prize.
It is the West, going back to pre-Socratic Greece, that has shown a passion for universality. Mr. Mishra is a product of that passion, as indeed Edward Said was. Both of them used Western ideas as weapons against the West but the ideas were still Western.
V. S. Naipaul, even now that he is gone, stands directly against this man, and was given a Nobel Prize, and judged the greatest living master of the English language. And I think he, not Mr. Mishra, will have the last word.
51
The problem is that the West’s very ideal of universality can also be seen as an attempt to project its own dominance on other territories and societies.
6
@H. White Fragility, a concept invented by Ms. Robin DiAngelo, a white professor, describes every possible reaction to the race issue, to identity politics, and neo-marxist theory as implicated in its perpetuity. No matter how a white person reacts, "universality" or "I don't see color"? That's white fragility in the face of racism. To ask for data to support the theory? That's white fragility, and privileges white orientated science to maintain white supremacy. To question any aspect of a story of discrimination is to "deny the existence" of a poc, to "erase brown bodies and do actual violence with your words". That's white fragility. Only poc can say what is discrimination, and if they say it is, then it is, because "they are the experts". White persons should not speak, and can offer nothing on racism (unless first asked to do so by a poc), because of white supremacy baked into every white person.
You can see the problem -- it's a Gordian knot. A race of people are denied reason, the ability to question, to do anything at all except acquiesce. Who would do such a thing?
If you think I've exaggerated about what's happened to my beloved campus, and campuses around the country, and my left wing friends (I voted for Bernie, and will again), please see YouTube videos of EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE by Benjamin A Boyce, a graduate student with decades experience in teaching, who can explain the astonishing things that happened when sjw's actually had their way on campus.
1
I am always suspicious of any discussion of the "white race" that fails to note that the very concept is a dangerous fiction meant to sew together discrepant ethnicities with the thread of their common advantage in oppressing the "non-whites". I grew up in the very culture that created this toxic non-science and watched as seemingly intelligent people debated whether this group or that group now were to be considered "white". Spoiler: it generally came down to how wealthy they were. The very idea of a "white race" is laughable grammar-school-level thinking misapplied to yield preposterous conclusions – not to say that the use of the idea has not had deadly serious consequences for countless innocent people. Orwell was correct: by controlling the language, we cede control of the way we think about the problem of racism to those who have exploited and exacerbated the issue.
"White" is only defined by what it isn't. It isn't a real thing; it is from its first mention only designed to make possible some very serious bad behavior.
13
Wow...are we already at that point? Sorry, this seems slightly hyperbolic. I agree that the some of us white folks are panicked by the mathematical fact that white folks in the US will become the minority at some point in the future. As for the race war, and all the shirt rendering, I don't buy it. The American system of democracy was designed for exactly this - room to grow, change and become something new. It's designed for change - the only constant we can count on.
15
@Grackle: the white race is not dying out. In fact...whites have increased their numbers in the last few years.
The idea of "pure whiteness" is as silly as any other racial paradigm.
Do you folks seriously consider that late Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be "not white"? or are they definitely white people with white privilege?
1
I have ingrained into me children a saying that was passed onto me from me father and to him from his father, and so on - that they were born '' three times lucky''
What that means is that they were born into a western democracy, they were white and that they were male. In the case of all of them being girls, one can swap out that they were born into a family of means.
With that saying though, I have also ingrained into them that with the privileges (whether they asked for them or not), come responsibilities to work extra hard to make the world a better and equal place for all. (especially for the women part). I also use a phrase on them that; '' I brought them into this world and I can take them out'', if I ever caught them not treating people equally.
I have also commented from time to time that in the future when holograms were teaching all of the beige children about race relations (an entire human construct, just like time) and perhaps how misbegotten we were, that the children would all laugh at how strange a concept that was, and go on about their day.
We are in the last throws of white privilege, and aye, the backlash is fierce at the moment, but the demographics are a never ending numerical advance that does not have a color. Soon the scales will be tipped the other way.
I suggest for whites to take the advice from the above with more aplomb and start making the world a better place now.
Equality is the new black.
7
This is one of the most disturbing and depressing accounts of history I have ever read. While no one wishes any of this to be actually true or accurate, it is hard to disprove. We should remember that such white supremacy was not the only thing in white people's minds. I mean there has been plenty of miscegenation to prove that. But all the values of humanism and culture and art that have been shared globally should also be recognized in white Western culture of the past and now simply Western culture going forward, among other success factors and positive contributions. Let's not get too fixated on white evil, is all I am saying.
5
On the other hand, Hinduism and Islam have such *wonderful* records for equality and tolerance of difference. For some reason, though, I have no desire to live in any society where either dominates.
"White culture", as it has been described, may have its problems. Note though, it doesn't guarantee any of the alternatives are any better.
22
@Abraham "White culture", as it has been described, may have its problems...it doesn't guarantee any of the alternatives are any better."
You forgot to blame whiteness for all of the problems of the cultural alternatives. And male pattern baldness and Wonder Bread.
@Abraham
Hitler was Catholic. He never renounced his faith nor was he excommunicated. Christianity as it was practiced largely ignored the teachings of Jesus, and still does today. Slavery and segregation were profoundly unChristian.
White superiority? Seriously? It beggars understanding how even someone with an IQ in the low two figures could fall for this kind of baloney. And it’s also notable that some of those who seem most earnest in defense of “the West” probably couldn’t give you an accurate description of what western civilization actually consists of, if their lives depended on it. Do you think Trump occupies his off hours reading Plato, Dante, or Shakespeare? He doesn’t read at all. I sometimes wonder if he thinks that Oedipus Rex is some kind of new dinosaur at the Smithsonian.
9
While my optimistic nature has led me to believe the Trump phenomenon and its siblings elsewhere are temporary, something still keeps me up at night: The impacts of climate change are being felt disproportionately in the Global South, which may make the migration crisis worse over the coming decades. That may keep what the author worries about from dying anytime soon.
8
Interesting insight on the Treaty of Paris in 1919, illustrated by Ho Chi Minh's effort for independence of Vietnam from France. I don't see this "Religion of Whiteness" as a grander time scope than the evidence shows.
There were too many eras when the great cleavages of the world were of those with similar races, as sub-Saharan Africa was hardly explored. The the Hundred Year War of the 14th century was among the same racial stock, the division mostly being on the version of Christianity, Protestantism or Catholicism. And the world wars of the last century were fought with the utmost savagery with race being an insignificant factor.
The Religion of Whiteness began in 1788 when two different economic and ethical cultures chose to unite in a single nation. The tension was known at the inception, with the Southern states only relinquishing their sovereignty with the understanding that, other than ending importation, their slaves were owned beasts of burden. That's when Whiteness became more than just a religion but an ideology - as there was no resolution. Jefferson wrote of slavery as the "Wolf by the ear--we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is on one scale, and self preservation on the other" President Lincoln agreed, until forced to fight."
The Civil War never had a peace treaty, but a short term truce, where within a decade, Jim Crow gave us the "birth of a nation" and of a religion. Trump simply lit the fuel that had never dissipated.
10
Nice point, about us Americans. But the author is referring to global whiteness, and similar reactions we see in other anglophile democracies today.
"...the religion of whiteness increasingly resembles a suicide cult."
It's looking more and more like a murder-suicide cult to me.
13
We all still fatalistic, but our white & black citizenry are amplified more so because they disenfranchised by lower quality of life and income. With slavery came the politically charged division of West African slaves and indentured European servants.
I worked on a District #19 Congressional Campaign, and I believe a good portion of the right might agree, dialogue and common grounds would go a long way; a joint history lesson wouldn't hurt either, focused on the division as a starting point.
4
*We all watching the same circus, but the audience is separated and clowns cajole and pit us against one another.
11
What scares whites as a collective is to tell them they are on the same footing as minorities. Many among them want to preach equality and diversity up to the moment they have to practice it. In our own American history, white supremacists has fought tooth and nail to maintain the status quo in overt and covert ways.
24
@damon walton what scares "white people" are people who claim they aren't racists and then generalize about "white people".
Even with gerrymandering and ID card requirements, if non-white voters did their civic duty and showed up at the poles — and voted in their best interest — this article would not need to be written. White people vote. Religious white people vote.
What bothers me are the Latino-Americans who voted for Trump, and the people who voted for Obama twice, and then voted for Trump. There were enough of them to make that 70,000 vote difference in the 3 swing states that netted Trump the Electoral College. Did these voters just not want a woman president? Then the prejudice we are all being oppressed by at the moment is misogyny.
19
No, they just didn't want Hillary. Big difference. The best male candidate beats the worst female candidate. The best female candidate beats the worst male candidate. Fortunately, one dimensional "identity" factors still don't trump everything else for the majority voters. At least not yet.
4
@joymars
Total nonsense... all the people I know (including myself) who voted for Trump did so because we wanted Obama's executive orders reversed. We wanted a new direction in foreign policy.
I would have happily voted for a woman if she had had the politics of Margaret Thatcher, not Hillary Clinton.
1
You’re not going to win over people by denigrating white civilizations and describing Canada and Australia as “settler colonies”
There is a lot of hate and resentment in this piece. I found it a little immature. The author should contemplate why so many people of color want to emigrate to majority white countries. Is it because they are so awful? I don’t think so.
95
Perhaps they emigrate because so many of those white countries stole resources and people from non-white ones through slavery and colonialism? Just a hunch.
@Navigator
Canada and Australia were most definitely settler colonies. That is a fact. Great Britain set them up that way, the same way they set up the U.S. History is what it is, not what you wish it was.
In 2014, you wrote an article in NYT called “Modi’s India” and again in 2017 in NYT: “India at 70, and the Passing of Another Illusion”.
If I combine the above articles with the current one, the underlying reality is, “We (of some definition) are going to be soon outnumbered and we have to fight back”. It is the some definition of “We” that is the problem.
And this problem is due to a snowball effect. Some assertion of superiority by the majority community leads to the creation of ethnic (or religious) organizations and demands of the minority community which in turn leads to demands of the majority community etc. etc. etc.
A Bangladeshi Muslim author had put it succinctly, but I am going to expand it in scope: “We are all ready to criticize the failings of the majority community but we look the other way in the failings of the minority community”.
21
Mishra has a lot of nerve to talk about whiteness. Indians rank people in India according to how white or Aryan they are. So do people in Brasil. Americans are not the only ones by far.
68
@norman ravitch
This preference is also the case all over east Asia, where products to whiten the complexion are sold. Japanese women hundreds of years ago used bird guano to whiten their complexions: Not because of Madison avenue, but completely independent of European influence.
19
Indians, Chinese and others under the influence of colonization still think white skin is better BUT it will wear off once they build enough confidence about the greatness Of their own civilizations.
@Middleman
Not always Romans, Greeks, and West Asians considered Northern Europeans and Slavs of antiquity as barbarians fit to be natural slaves. They also felt that their pale skins were not as attractive as their own olive complexions
It is a hallmark of the south Asian intelligentsia, especially its soi-disant left-wing, that it denounces white/European/colonial/imperialist evils, both real and imagined, with an extra dose of scorn for Israelis, while finding every sovereigntist excuse for maintaining the most unequal, oppressive, caste-ist/racialist society in the world. Especially galling is the appropriation of figures like DuBois, who were firmly committed to class politics and cross-racial alliances, for this turned-on-its-head racism.
25
Have you any idea of Pankaj Mishra’s stance on Indian politics? He is one of the most strident critics of the Indian right. You could just have looked up his articles in the NYT. Of course you didn’t bother because you were reacting to his attack on your identity. You just made his point.
@David
It seems your ire is motivated by his very accurate criticism of Israeli settler-colonialism
Sorry-- the Indian Right did not invent caste tyranny, Nehru was as guilty as Modi is. It has been the broad based policy of those ruling India, including nearly all of its intellectuals and one reason the local elites loved Brits even as they wished to be rid of them. Mishra's views on Modi are not an answer.
1
The roots of modern racism are deep, going back to at least several hundred years, but they are not eternal. Attitudes will not change overnight, but eventually they will change, as historical circumstances also change. In the meantime, the best antidote to hatred is humanity.
5
I’m always shagrinned by the use of and presumed negative and loaded label of “identity politics” being thrown about by the fearful conservatives and rightwingers. As if they themselves are somehow above aligning with a particular identity and then voting based upon it. It’s the kind of maddening rubbish that one cannot reach through and point out to them because they are too busy screaming about others’ alleged identity politics.
7
We must ask, which has prevailed in our human history:
...
...The love of self and family or fear/hate of others?
...Hope for the future or despair over the present?
...Adapt and belong or stand righteous and alone?
1
If you believe that Identity geopolitics is limited to "Whitness' you are naive. When you speak about restricted migration, you ignore other countries. The United States allows over 1.2 million people a year, from all over the world to legally immigrate here.
How many, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics immigrate every year to Japan, China, South Korea? A fraction.
Compared to the United States, These and other nations are the real racists.
49
@Rob
You may also be aware of the term "abd" or "abed" in the Arab world, a slur used against people of African descent in the Arab world, which literally translates as "slave."
Similarly, you may be aware of the antipathy towards sub-Saharan Africans that in Egypt takes the form of discrimination and in Libya takes the form of chattel slavery, with open air slave markets like those that would have been outlawed in the Anglosphere 150-200 years ago, but were still legal in Saudi Arabia through the mid 20th century.
In today's world, South Africans riot and attack encampments of Zimbabweans who have come to their country desperate and looking for work. The same pattern is seen in Colombia and Brazil in response to those fleeing Venezuela. At a certain point, opinion writers like Mr. Mishra might want to consider that what what he condemns majority white countries for is something that isn't even remotely unique to whites.
16
Rob,
And we are allowing immigrants because without the fresh ideas and the striving of immigrants we WILL not be able to hang to our innovation edge and grow the economy coz capitalism demands growth. Why do you think the us is the sole economy that is growing and Europe is stagnating? Because Europe’s population is declining while ours is still growing thanks to immigration. Without immigration we would have been just as stagnant as Europe and would have long ago lost the innovation edge to China and India.
@Rob
I did not see where the author said identify goepolitics was "limited" to whiteness. Whiteness happens to be the subject of this piece. I can see many of you are disturbed by this article but the usual ploy of insulting a person of color's intelligence and/or worldliness legitimizes Mr. Mishra's theory.
1
The United States has always and continues to be Apartheid. That's the big secret isn't it? We stole the country first from Native Americans, then enslaved African men women and children, and we have suppressed and abused our fellow Americans of color consistently to this day.
And, yes, we've reached the beginning of a horrid potential ending in the Orange Racist himself, Herr Trump.
Until we truly achieve equitable income redistribution, free college, free medical care, less imprisonment and free mental health, the country will be solidifying racism into a cancerous tumor or tumors that will most assuredly collapse this country and all it has ever hoped to stand for.
But make no mistake. We have always been Apartheid.
16
Too eridite.
Say what you want to say in a way someone like myself, a man with a masters degree can understand it without having to dissect every sentence. Make your case in simple terms an examples please.
11
“Emotional incontinence rather than style or wit marks such gilded networks of white power.” Ok, Dude. You lost me right about here, I’d say...
20
Disclosure: white guy here. I think it's very telling the sort of responses this column has received. It appears that the truth has made a lot of people uncomfortable.
29
Mr. Trump isn’t a racist. How come? Nobody in the world knows it! I don’t know it and neither you!
We can make a case that he made a thousand of mistakes but we have no ability te figure out who among us is the racist.
The humans are very often stupid and make many mistakes, but the racism is determined by something else. Being mean is a prerequisite for it and the people aren’t entitled to make such a call because they lack the ability to determine it correctly.
Let’s start with something less controversial. Is Mr. Trump a smart person? Are you sure? Would such an individual spend seven decades of his life on proving every single day how smart and great he was?
Would the smart person engage in the endless series of conflicts and waste his life on it instead of enjoying his time of this planet and using his abilities to help the entire humanity?
If I claimed Trump was a racist, then I should declare the entire population of the USA as such, all of us!
I could prove that making mistakes is not equal to the racism in less than 60 seconds.
How do you officially call about forty million residents? The African-Americans?! Why? It implies that those people don’t belong here but in Africa!
How to you call the Caucasians? Just the Americans?! Why don’t you call them the European Americans? Do such a choice implies they are the real Americans?
Making the mistakes doesn’t mean you are a racist but that you don’t understand what you are doing…
2
No. Calling Trump racist doesn’t mean every American is racist. And saying some one is African American doesn’t mean they belong in Africa.
@BH
Why would you call somebody who lived in America for many generations for let's say three centuries an African-American? Why don't you consider them to be just the Americans?
@BH
Adjective "African" has nothing in common with the people that have lived for many generations here in America
This is going to be my briefest comment ever... to Pankaj Mishra... sir, “ Right On!” You nailed it perfectly. The whiteys are sooooooo scared. And given the history quite a dangerous bunch.
14
I thought from the headline it would be an article about Episcopalians.
10
I can sum up the objections to this essay very simply:
“Everyone does it, pure drivel, it’s nonsense etc etc etc ..........
I am white and I am not a racist.”
There, no need for any more attacks on the essay.
10
The author has an affinity for the past.
A few things I take issue with
1) Islam is a religion, not a race. Hint: there are white Muslims, two of whoi were Boston Marathon bombers.
2) You have to be a little careful here when you ascribe
"higher races" to Trump. Seeing how he never said it. Actually, I think anyone who has has likely passed away by now.
3) They're not your "white bros" they are individuals. I can get a sunburn and you likely can't, other than that, I am an individual and so are you.
It's not 1893, it's 2018, the world has gotten a lot smaller. Sadly, many people still play the "R" card, and yes, a few of them are "white supremacists". Judging from your drivel, they are not alone
21
@James
It seems he touched a nerve, Americas wars of aggression are motivated by racial and religious animus on the part of a declining demographic that will have to answer for its sins-deal with it.
The disgusting racism that Pankaj Mishra details is a consequence and not a fundamental cause. Ideology reflects and justifies underlying social relations. The ideology of racism reflects the underlying social relations of capitalist private property.
Eliminate private ownership of the means of production on a global scale and in so doing you eliminate the oppression of the working class by the capitalists. You then simultaneously eliminate the foundation of ideologies that are used to divide the working class and join the white "mob" to its capitalist oppressor as an unwitting, subordinate partner in defending capitalism.
Of course, not all capitalists are "white". In India the Hindu nationalists perform a similar role in promoting divisions between Muslims and Hindus in service to the Indian ruling elite.
In Northern Ireland it has been Catholic against Protestant in service to the enfeebled British Empire. At one point Irish immigrants in America and Britain were said to be an entirely separate race denoted by their red hair and "twinkling eyes". Anti-Semitism is fundamentally no different. The white Third Reich declared that the white Slavic populations were untermenschen that merited extermination along with the white Jews. The white Croatian Ustashe murdered 400,000 white Serbs during WWII.
Racism is a vehicle for the diversion of class antagonisms in an entirely self-serving and retrograde direction. Only socialism on a global scale will end this madness.
1
Everybody wants to believe that they’re ‘special’, huh?
That said, those who subscribe to such paranoias should consider that the biggest most traumatic acts of bloodshed to the global population of whites have, by and large, all come at the hands of other whites—not nonwhites.
Further, the very same destructive Neolithic impulses of tribalism, later, nationalism and, scientifically disproven “supremacy” have been the very impetus of all of that white woe.
2
White genetics are best observed in the deep South where people think the local Sheriff that runs the county actually cares. In those settings, one ponders the future of white people with humor and pity. Frankly, white people are expiring and nothing will stop the miscegenation process and whiteness will be gone forever.
3
@terry brady right you are and in a few hundred years the people of this country will be brownish, bisexual with no religion.
1
@terry brady
I thought everyone expired ,does any human not ever die?
1
@terry brady: and you wonder "why Trump"?
What if you told BLACK PEOPLE their race will die out, and be gone forever (plus, you hate them are a glad they die)???
Would you get their votes?
Are you telling the Han Chinese -- almost two billion strong -- that THEY are dying out?
Or is it just WHITES who are dying out?
1
But this is the natural outcome of the left’s identity politics. By harping on browness, blackness and victimhood, it was only a matter of time until identity politics infected white people as well. The focus should have been on class where we can all make common cause together. What a colossal mistake and shame.
27
As a 68 year old "white" man, I have never thought that I was privileged because of my "race." I don't have a single male friend that believe this meme either. But then my friends are predominantly liberals. Perhaps a better description is that many far right racists believe that they have special privileges.
5
Umm, no. When majority non-white nations like Japan, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Uruguay, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt, and Botswana begin to make half the effort that the white-majority west has to bring in and integrate immigrants who are white, in the interest of multiculturalism, we can talk about a religion of whiteness. In the meantime, the only white suicide cult that many see is in Europe, where many white majority nations have forgotten that just because someone wants to immigrate does not mean that they want to be like you. In fact, they may desperately want you to become like them.
32
@Observer of the Zeitgeist Uruguay is actually whiter than the US: 88% of its population is of European descent. Additionally, the US has no claim to be more Western than Uruguay. Since the 16th century, Mexico (where anywhere from 10-35% of the population is white) has been receiving massive amounts of European immigrants. Get your facts straight when it comes to Latin America, where European immigration has always been encouraged.
A thought provoking piece. But the failure to mention the mass incarceration of black men (a topic strangely absent from this paper) is unfortunate.
5
And the author didn't even get to the "religious freedom" part of all this. That's another match lighting this powder keg.
1
All of the mentioned in this country may be a suicide cult when the white supremacist faction of Trump's base faces off with the identity politics of the Dem's. There appears a complete loss of compromise and agreement on much of anything. The remainder of the "greatest Generation" of all races must be scratching their head and wondering what they risked their lives for
2
At the time, prominent eugenicists included a lot of 'educated' Americans: Alexander Graham Bell, Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood) and the African-American Intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois. Ms Sanger had a particular focus on the black community.
4
Reacting to the Nazi barabarism, Gandhi said that "Western Civilaztion" could be a great idea. After decolonization and rise of Asia- Pacific, the world is increasingly becoming more peaceful, civilized and prosprous. There's no need to panic, the arch of history is bending towatds justice. Time for civilizations and races to dominate others is over. The author has written a good article about this suicidal cult.
4
Notice that the article consistently singles out Britain, America, Australia, South Africa, and Canada, as the mainly white supremacists, though they are not the only white races. This is due to the fact that the Anglo-Saxon races have a singular type of racism based on color. I do not know why this is so, only that it is so. There is comparatively little research on this, but once you notice it, it becomes quite unmistakable. Take McConnell, the Senate Leader: he is married to Elaine Chao, an ethnic Chinese (Taiwan), so his racism cannot be labeled "ethnic"; but he could not stand Obama as President, because Obama is black. Mr. McConnell's racism is, thus, based on color, as is the racism of most Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. In fact, there is an element of this color racism in just about all anti-Black attitude in the US. This is one reason why what we call "racism" (opposition to African-Americans) is still so pervasive: the element of color is indelible printed on it.
6
@Ignacio Gotz
Do you think that maybe -- just maybe -- McConnell's objections to Obama's agenda may have been based on policy and not race?
1
It’s one of those TRUE cliches. Give a white man someone to look down on and despise, and you can rob him blind. I’ll hand it to Trump: HE is a master of race baiting, for his own benefit. That is absolutely the number ONE reason he is occupying the Oval Office. A nasty, belligerent old man found his natural constituency, and “won”. VOTE THEM OUT. ALL OF THEM.
10
I guess the author has never learned of how the Irish and Italians were treated when they came to the New World.
16
@Mark...
Or how the Catholic church has been treating LGBTQ people for the past 1,5OO years.
The Englishman that populates the east coast especially the South came from the Islands of Barbados that owns slaves for at least two centuries. These islands were unproductive with lazy indentured English folks and thereby seek up north for vast fertile lands in the South. Slave trade from Africa was a manna for these landlord Englishman. The white in the South of caste system is ingrained in their genes and blood. The Abolitionist Movement is young and nascent in US History compared to Europe.
3
@Uly
Slavery was brought to the Americas by Europeans and it continued in the Caribbean through the 1840s. The anti-Semitism that the Europeans brought to the Americas still exists here, along with the belief among certain descendants of those Europeans that slavery, like anti-Semitism, really isn't all that bad. In present day Europe, well, you might be hard pressed to find someone who shares those notions - at least about slavery.
Although I largely agree with other commenters that this article is one-sided, I will say this: for 400 years Europeans had a chance to export their better ideas - equality, liberty, fraternity, scientific inquiry, education for all - to the lands and peoples they conquered and, instead, mostly chose to subjugate and exploit those lands and peoples, perhaps, in some cases, creating an educated ruling class to do their bidding and keep the rest in check. You reap what you sow.
12
What puts the world in grave danger? Humans.
So much recklessness through the centuries; what's the point picking on something in particular: all complicit.
Population is a major problem, including trying to house and feed and educate everyone; to give health care and decent jobs to all; for everyone to live well and not overwhelm nature and the ecological balance. Can't really talk color.
Half the world is in China and India. We all need to help focus attention there, as well as America (and Chad and Brazil and .....). Don't demonize a few; we're all from countries that are too influenced by money and bad for the environment. All.
We can create a better world: not by pointing fingers; by joining hands.
4
I’ll be sure to bring this up at the next white-only world domination meeting. Our secret plans were not supposed to be so widely know. We must move quickly.
46
I’m a Columbia U educated attorney and I’ve been reading the NYT every day for at least 25 years,
And the point of this article went way over my head.
Can someone please explain it to me?
15
It's just stupid to die for color issues.
One world with limited resources... and an ancestral inability to peacefully resolve our differences assure us the inevitable extinction.
1
The problem with articles like this, and those who promote them, is they peddle the erroneous narrative that supremacism is somehow exclusive to white people. This does nothing but drive otherwise indifferent whites to become more insulated from a multicultural society and leads to the very identity politics the OP claims to be against. This is the same type of hypocrisy that sees the Confederate flag as a symbol of oppression but the burqa as a symbol of liberation.
Here's something non-white people desperately need to understand and accept: your own ancestors are likely guilty of literally every single crime and atrocity you accuse white people of. From imperialism to slavery to ethnic cleansing to genocide. And in many cases, on a scale that makes white people look like saints by comparison.
The OP denounces Islam being "excoriated" - can you name even one country that adheres to anything remotely resembling Sharia (Islamic) law that gives equal rights to Muslims and non-Muslims? Islam is arguably the most supremacist ideology this planet has ever seen. But of course it's racist to say this because "brown people".
Make no mistake, white supremacy, like any racial or religious supremacy, is abhorrent and should be combated anywhere it rears its ugly head. Let's just not pretend that non-European peoples and cultures are innocent of these things.
53
Dylan Roof is without a doubt evil- but he's by no means crazy. He was driven to murder by a fierce desire to start a "race war" but he was too stupid to realize the world's been engaged in a race war since humans (and the"races") emerged. White people's self-delusion and intrinsic obsession with themselves may very well be the ruination of all living things- but the brown skinned majorities of the world can stop it if we try. Try to reassert our pride, our rightful place in the chain of life and save (white) humanity from its own vanity. Let no man tell you that you were wrong to emerge, let no man tell you you're not fit to walk the Earth.
1
@Keely
There you go saying in effect ALL white people are... ,well whatever!
In fact you may not give any light to the fact that many white people since the 1950's were bought up to be Afro Centric in their education & respect for black people ,especially those that relish the African contribution to science ,the arts ,politics and journalism.
For the most part I find this article full of hyperbole and low on content, and unworthy of comment beyond - another attempt to create an issue of identity politics out of a mishmash of unrelated circumstances.
Save one thing.
This: "The war on terror reactivated the 19th century’s imperial archive of racial knowledge, according to which the swarthy enemy was subhuman, inviting extreme and lawless violence." is just a cheap theatrical exercise.
The war on terror is unrelated to race. It is, to the greatest extent measurable, related to a dangerous cult that somehow managed to be accepted as a religion, by people who should know better.
18
@Objectivist So, you're saying the white religionist, terrorists of the United States are being subjected to an unrelenting war? They are indeed a dangerous death cult responsible for most of the terrorist deaths in American afterall if we acknowledge what is to the greatest extent measurable.
@Songsfrown
Yes, that's what I'm saying.
In your mind.
But for people who can read and parse a simple declarative English sentence - and who have even the simplest understanding of the roots of the 9/11 attacks, no. That's not what I'm saying.
Until people, all people not just so-called white people, recognize that race, ethnicity, and culture are all voluntary constructs individuals choose for themselves, the world will continue to have conflicts between these groups and have to read pseudo-serious minded "stuff" like this piece that validates the imaginary differences that fuels the conflict.
5
i am White, but not that interested in White racial ethnonationalism. However, I fully 100% believe if white people feel ethnonationalism, that is their right. And when it comes to immigration, we have a constitution to comply with, and we are a democracy. We will decide matters of immigration among citizens, as the Constitution grants citizens the right to vote.
Although i have no interest in white ethnonationalism, I do believe Republicans want to bring in poor nation low-skill immigrants to destroy wages and take jobs from american poor and formerly working class (who have had a good deal of their work culture destroyed, and need rehabilitation in this area), and I do think Dems want low skill poor country immigrants because it creates more poor here, and brings in people who are poor, and who need government help, and there are their votes.
6
@tbs: YOU GET IT!
Both parties have betrayed us.
Both have sold us out to illegal immigration.
YOU WIN THE INTERNET TODAY!
1
My impression that the increasingly mobile global population is inter-marrying across ethnic lines more and more frequently. What impact would this have?
1
@Joe Ryan
My feeling is that is so ,inter racial marriage will perhaps in a thousand years create few people who are pure white, black or green.Viva le Difference !
Yeah, that's it--"Islam and feminism are excoriated, the facts of injustice and inequality denied, chests thumped about a superior but sadly imperiled Western civilization, and fraternal sympathy extended to Israel, the world’s last active settler-colonialist project."
Like to see that, the Shariah-driven world of Imams and Clerics embrace "feminism". The religion-political system of absolute control over females, married off at 14, enslaved at birth. Yeah, give me that old-time Shariah any day over the natural rights of free men and women.
It should be "excoriated" out of existence--at least in Western democracies, a point made by Tocqueville quite some time ago. It's brutality to its own is reason enough.
Nonetheless, not sure what the thesis of the essay is other than that "whiteness" is responsible for all the suffering its intellectual tradition has brought to the cosmos--i.e., more cultural Marxist stomping from our Sovietized mass-media and university-entrenched Maoist reeducation camps.
So it goes in the post-Modern world of Marcuse America.
14
“...seem to push us all closer to the “terrible probability” James Baldwin once outlined: that the rulers of the “higher races,” “struggling to hold on to what they have stolen from their captives, and unable to look into their mirror, will precipitate a chaos throughout the world which, if it does not bring life on this planet to an end, will bring about a racial war such as the world has never seen.” “
This is satire, right? I was laughing pretty hard when I realized, my God, someone actually believes this. Please, tell me that no one outside some fringe academics believes this. If it is satire, well done Mr. Mishra. If not...I’m sorry, that just isn’t possible.
15
The powerful and wealthy use race and other ways to divide the masses while they steal as much as they possible can. If white people are so scared of brown people they won't notice how the rich are paying no taxes and stealing from the pensions of hard working Americans.
This is really a class war. The 1% against the 99% but they get a lot of the 99% to believe it is actually poorer more vulnerable people that steal their paychecks.
This tactic isn't new and it still works as most people are easy to fool - case in point - trump!
13
@earthgve 21st
Most powerful and wealthy do not give race relations any thought at all as they are to busy sunning on their yachts.
Insulated by money and their society of private beaches and gated communities ,here in NY the guards are doormen largely unionized, serving as screeners to
keep riff raff out homes.
My neighbor from Pakistan say in his country the rich call the poor "bacteria".
Here's an important logic lesson: things that are similar are not the same. You don't have to be a "white supremacist" to be concerned about (white) farmers in South Africa. You don't have to be a "white supremacist" to see value in our shared Western history and culture (despite it's faults). Ironically, this recent eagerness on the left to take one or two opinions and extrapolate that into full-blown "racism" has driven me increasingly right. I didn't vote for Trump the first time, but I guess I better order my MAGA hat now.
17
So refreshing to hear the Murdoch press and little men like Rich Lowry and the faux-snobby National(ist) Review called out for the white supremacists they are in the context of historical white supremacist rhetoric. Trump is their burden and the elephant in the China shop.
7
White people, at least the rich and powerful ones have a couple of kids and adhere to the teachings of Thomas Malthus. Other races and lesser whites are fighting it out over scarce resources and are subject to the laws of natural selection.
Aristocrats and super wealthy do not let their kids "hook up" and sire children outside their caste. In fifty generations they have weeded out quite a bit of poor manners.
1
Spare us your sweeping inclusion of Australia 2018 in your “global whiteness crusade”. The politician who mentioned the “final solution” was instantly and roundly condemned by all sides of politics and the public. 28% of the Australian population are foreign-born (the U.S. is 13%), most of whom in the last 30 years are Chinese; Indian; Vietnamese; or Middle Eastern, including a sizeable proportion of Muslims.
There is broad bi-partisan support for immigration, and while it is acknowledged that locking up “boat people” is harsh, it stopped the people smugglers and deaths at sea (1200 died in the two years before the boats were stopped). Moreover, this policy enjoys substantial majority public support. Why? Because, as Malcolm Turnbull said, “There are 50 million people who qualify as refugees under the UN Convention; we simply cannot permit everyone to come here as they wish. If we want to preserve public support for immigration, we must control our borders.” The U.S., the EU, and the UK should have taken note.
It’s not “global whiteness” that is necessarily at work - though that could be a motivation for some - it is preserving multicultural community. Exhibit 1: Australia 2018.
6
Civility is that wiry, elusive ferall we have yet to tame in our early century. Hate is such an easy and loving pet.
3
Working class people are being shoved aside for immigrants in the US, EU and Australia. It's not so much racism but survival. Even Mexico has a problem with Central American immigrants. It's nice to be magnanimous if you're upper class with a great education with a bright future but if your government writes you off who do align yourself with? Someone who promises to do more of the same or some who says they are on your side?
Trump says he's for the better trade deals, the EU paying for its own defence and the American worker. Who do the Democrats represent today? As bizarre as it sounds the white ones don't even believe they're white. Something Harry Truman would have something to say about I assure you.
6
Thank you, NYT, for exposing all forms of racism and sharing this opinion with your readers. It's important to remember that racists and bigots come in all colors, creeds, and sexes.
8
"political correctness, Islam and feminism are excoriated" - Islam, feminism and political correctness? I don't see a common cause here. All three are despised by white evangelicals I guess, although I don't know of a lot of muslim countries championing Feminism and politcal correctness either. You can through LGBT in there for the sake of completeness.
It's certainly a well written article but it's far to simplistic when applied too broadly. A pro civil rights, American liberal - white or not - can be equally disdainful of the white Evangelical movement, the Chinese or Russian government models or most of what's happening in the middle east or Africa. Would you rather be an Arab in Israel or a Jew in Iran. Or maybe a gay man in the occupied west bank. It's an arbitrary choice. None are enviable but only one is worth mentioning here since it fits the narrative more cleanly. You neglect to mention or criticize the horrendous abuses taking place in the non-west. The genocide in the Congo or Syria, also largely across ethnic lines. The west may be drifting in that direction but a good part of the world is already there. We are just fortunate to have been insulated for so long.
6
The New York Times again goes out of its way to cast the ails of the modern world squarely on the shoulders of whites, despite what I would suspect is a fairly defensible statement, that the majority of whites who've ever lived haven't benefited from their whiteness. What a thoroughly simplistic assessment of world history. How on earth do you expect to marshal any impetus for change if you keep insulting the very people you expect to help you in making change?
18
While Pankaj Mishra obviously did his homework in terms of citing facts and figures from history and the contemporary world, one gets the solid impression that he chose an argument in advance and then set about the task of filling it up it by harnessing evidence that would meet his bias.
While the evils attributed to the "whites" are true, it's equally indisputable that the fight against them were also inaugurated by people of the same "white" race.Such struggles between the violently obscurantist minds and those trying to stop or limit their damage to society have been a long feature of American history, for example. From the abolition of slavery to the various immigration reforms based on ideas of fairness, the key role was played by " white" leaders.
Mishra shows no awareness of the historic, race-based mass slaughters among the Han Chinese, the Mongols, the Manchus, and other minorities in China . Japanese mass violence against the various" others" under their sway have been equally well documented. West Pakistanis committed what was akin to language and race-based mass murder in East Pakistan causing the eventual rise of Bangladesh as a nation nearly 50 years ago. And degrading treatment and violence within India by dominant groups based on skin color, language, religion and caste continue sporadically.
One doesn't find such balance in Pankaj Mishra's inflammatory essay. Erudite he may be, but don't look for wisdom in his mind.
9
The article ends with, "the “terrible probability” James Baldwin once outlined: that the rulers of the “higher races,” “struggling to hold on to what they have stolen from their captives, and unable to look into their mirror, will precipitate a chaos throughout the world which, if it does not bring life on this planet to an end, will bring about a racial war such as the world has never seen.”
Higher races? Most destructive races, yes. Most greedy races, yes. Most socially unconscious races, yes. Fear, anger, hate, WAR, death, destruction, rape, pillage, plunder races, yes.
The Good News is that a tiny minority of these white men are the ones causing the havoc. All it takes is for Good People of the world to step up and say NO - and take one action to stop them.
NO.
WE THE PEOPLE will not participate in your attempts to destroy OUR lives, OUR governments and OUR planet.
Not now. Not ever again.
4
There are several ways to view all this, as economics or racism or history, or as part of "human" nature itself. What is true is that considering business and organization and even intellectual metrics the whites have dominated, and still do. There are good and bad aspects to all of this, and they are of course closely linked.
It is good that whites have done many good things, and I would refer to Ancient Greece and Rome, and economic and other work of Adam Smith, and the work and attempts at equality by the "founders" of the USA; and even to the work of Galileo, Newton and Einstein. We could refer to the world exploration by Columbus and Magellan and others financed by the emerging white nations...which led to the creation of colonies and subjugation of entire peoples. We can blame various individual people for such policies, which were not perceived as incorrect or improper at the time, and were even seen as a good thing, and sometimes well intended. And we could legitimately argue that "White Power" at that point truly was a reflection of a superior culture, and to some extent that may still be the case. But can that justification still exist in the world today? Almost certainly not.
1
It is clear to me that Trump and his administration have facilitated the emergence of half-buried racist attitudes, feelings and behavior in a large swath of American society. Mishra provides ample evidence to back up his point, but he also reveals his own biases throughout his analysis. In particular, Mishra lost my respect when he called Israel a settler-colonialist project. If he believes that Israel is colonialist, he has a very imperfect understanding of what colonialism entails, and a limited knowledge of history. His obviously partisan view of history makes me wonder what else he has misrepresented or misread.
5
We need to remember that there are good and bad men of every skin color.That skin color is only a reflection of living for thousands if years in a certain place with a certain level of light.That what matters is kindness and generosity and what is dangerous is greed and hatred. Not skin color.
Humans are sneaky and will twist anything to their advantage. This is a form of greed mixed with fear. Know it for what it is and avoid it.
6
All the more ironic in a society that proudly bills itself as being meritocratic.
Instead of lumping all white Americans into a selfish mass and lighting the pyre with terms like 'suicide cult' let's step back for a moment and remind ourselves that the vast majority - not a slim majority, a large majority - of whites in America want equal opportunity for everyone; are horrified at the evidence of systemic racism that has been reported on with great clarity in just the past few months; believe that immigration and immigrants are what makes us the unique melting-pot magnet that America still is; and can't wait to vote the racists out of office.
Eugenics is debunked. We've decoded the Human Genome. Let's recognize our shared humanity and the many positives that diversity has provided us as a Human Race.
The Trumpists might be expressing the very last gasp of a dying race-based classism. Let's certainly hope so. And let's insist that the Blue Wave, more than any impeachment effort, push Education Reform at the State and local level to make sure our citizens - rural, urban, rich, poor, in every community - learn about critical thinking, civics responsibility and ethics.
19
@Fleming
The term "melting pot" is an offensive one that the University of California system has asked instructors to avoid using, because it would seem to pressure immigrants to assimilate. And encouraging assimilation and the adoption of an American identity is oppressive if not genocidal.
You know, there are times I actually think being a "person of colour" has an advantage. The fact that I have never been considered as one of the "higher races" (I'm one of those pesky women of African descent) means that I don't bemoan a sense of superiority which may or not be true.
It must rough, at this moment in history, to be a member of the beleaguered "higher race" ...
7
Well certainly you have an advantage. Were you to apply to any high paying job or any institution of higher learning (outside California) you would most certainly be granted preferential treatment before a member of any other race, even if your test scores were lower.
4
So now we are at the stage where the dysfunction caused mostly by population increase and climate change is making huge demands on the environment and the viability of life on this planet. So people have turned to a dog eat dog, let the devil take the hindmost, fear ridden phase . They don't know how to make things normal again and they are turning on each other and all the old hatreds are resurfacing. The mood we are in now is sure suicide.
All I can say for sure is that we better get past this phase, because we can't make it in the world as it is changing now without cooperating and working together.
6
White people are not afraid of the rising strength of non-white countries. We celebrate it. We actually contribute to their success by inviting them to participate in trade, capitalism and democracy. We also invite them to come live in our country. We also invite them to be educated at our universities. We also make business deals with them and share our technology, medical advances and discoveries. We give them grants and charity and food and healthcare and we invest billions of dollars every year to make their lives better right where they live. The West has brought great prosperity and opportunity and advancement to the entire world with welcoming arms. You just don't like that we have restrictions on immigration - but ALL countries have immigration limits. How could you not know that?
8
@Patrick McCord You "celebrate" it? Trump's rallies don't look like no happy racial harmony parades...
1
Although I agree that much of the heart of Trump's approach is an appeal to racial fears and animus to distract aging and increasingly marginalized lower middle-class white men from the true culprits in the entire caper, the moguls of consumerist capitalism, it is essentially values neutral. He doesn't care about anyone (other than DJT), regardless of color. That is to say, his claim that he is not a racist is correct if being an equal-opportunity expoiter, bully and victimizer exonerates one of the charge of racism. Our focus needs to be not on race primarily but on the enormus swindle that is being performed to the detriment of fairness, decency and the rule of law so that all but the wealthy, particularly his weathly cronies, suffer.
5
Given the flap over Harvard's admission standards, it is quite clear that Asians are thinking they are superior to white people, and Trump is going along with that. The argument seems to be that without preferences given to white candidates, Harvard would have many more students of Asian origin, based strictly on merit.
3
Beautifully written, but way over the top.
2
@Mark, it’s more of an academic piece.
1
It’s not just a white issue. I think all cultures want to hang onto the culture they were raised in and feel comfortable with. I was born and raised in Niagara Falls,NY 82 years ago. We were a city of European immigrants, with a small number of black immigrants from Dixie, legally integrated with segregated neighborhoods. My father came from Scotland. Many of my Italian school chums spoke Italian at home. There were no Asians or Latinos. I waein my 20s before eating Chinese food, and in my 30s before eating Mexican food. Mind you, I joined the Air Force when I was 22 and stayed for 22 years. I have lived in the Seattle area for the past 41 years, which is totally multicultural and I enjoy it but the newcomers have mostly adapted to western culture, at least in public. I have experienced class discrimination being raised in a working class family, but as ay Scot will you, I never experienced any cultural discrimination.
10
Most societies and religions have some version of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yet, most societies and religions fail to follow this rule. Life would be so much easier and nicer if this ancient and universal rule was followed. Can't we all get along?
4
Mishra's grasp of American history seems to be about as good as Dinesh D'Souza's. I would go farther and conclude that they are really on the same team. Together they constitute a good argument that the pre-1965 immigration policy was a good one.
8
@Hadding Scott - true, the article mentions "Anti-minority passions in the United States peaked with the 1924 immigration law (much admired by Hitler and, more recently, by Jeff Sessions), which impeded Jewish immigrants and barred Asians entirely. "
But it doesn't also point out that it was a second peak for the Klan, who were going after white people, too. Oh, bless my heart, I meant to say they were going after Papists, of course.
Because face it, what is "white race" other than a collection of small tribal nations who were constantly murdering each other when they weren't marching out to invade other places? Or is your view of history one that shows Europe as a peaceful paradise over, say, the 19th and 20th centuries?
3
Thank you for presenting yourself as a precise example of the reactionary white man fearful of non-whites that Mishra illustrated in the essay.
7
Bottom line, as the share of the economic pie gets smaller and smaller for the vast majority of the population, it benefits the economic elites to encourage racial and ethnic hatred. If most people are blaming “the undeserving other,“ whether that be racial minorities or women, etc for their economic woes and lack of political power, then they won’t be paying attention to the real causes of these problems, which are an economic and political system rigged to benefit the most wealthy in our society.
40
I’m interested in what Mr. Mishra has to say, but frankly I’m more interested in winning the House this fall. To the latter end, I suggest that we crank down the rage, and remember that not all whites are racist. And that even among the racists there are varying degrees of intensity on the issue.
Many Trump supporters are hardcore racists, no doubt. But many others may be responding to what they perceive as an existential threat to the social fabric in which they were raised, and on which they have come to rely for economic and social security, and for their personal identity. Others may more simply be responding to the prevailing zeitgeist. http://wp.me/p4ja0Z-Apc
Some 7 to 9 million Trump voters voted first for Obama (many not once, but twice) before turning to Trump. Are they racists? For Democrats to brand them as such would be to risk their support when they and other swing voters are critically needed to win the House. With emotions running high, mistakes can be made—and that one would be calamitous. So, let’s cool it and keep our focus on the main chance. http://tinyurl.com/y8sqzs65
23
I think this article laid out the truth, in a cool, concise, thorough manner. If you’re not interested in the truth, we have a problem winning the House will never solve.
9
A couple thoughts:
If the West is so awful, why are people risking their lives to get here?
While white nationalism is a real and dangerous thing, this is hardly an exclusively white phenomenon. This article makes it seem like all white people are sitting around worried about getting overrun with non-whites. If that were true, why would all the Western countries have open immigration, while many of the non-western do not.
172
History has shown that certain racial, ethnic and cultural ideas and styles are popular everywhere. The idea that white identity will vanish is absurd. Almost all of American personality and beliefs are a conglomeration of music, art, dress, and law taken from different times and places. Teenagers in China love American movies and music, as India's pop culture is a shameless copy with local flourishes of British, American, and Asian style.
Whites in America cling to what? Anglo Saxon legacy? Do they not grasp the French and German and Italian influences? Wake up the Romans and they might well sneer and laugh at us.
In Regards to Christians in the 2d century might decide we are in error? White is never white but a blend and that is it's selling point. Racial supremacy is bunk and every generation has to learn this lesson.
17
@David Fairbanks Thank you, David. For some reason though some folks gain power from exploiting obviously ridiculous emotional fears. Why would any individual think their culture will be eradicated if they believe and hold on to their culture? It simply doesn't work logically. How is it that we have such wonderful "little Italys and Chinatowns, etc. sprinkled throughout the land." Then again there is a death cult out there known as republicans that have garnered plenty of power and money for promulgating "threats to marriage" by trying to define how others should view loving partnerships. How is my traditional 40 year young marriage and family threatened in any way by how other children of a loving god define their love relationships. Seems the same for race/ethnic/culture issues. Freedom and justice for all should indeed mean ALL.
The race war has already begun. It’s called climate change and it’s our baby.
Americans literally think we're entitled to destroy the world. The world is ours and if we can't be first, then we'll take the whole thing down. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Americans' determinedly ignorant climate change denial and all the insipid conspiracy theories they’re distracting themselves with. The secret's out, the rest of the world is on to us.
What's most unfathomable to me is how people like the Kochs and Rex Tillerson go from day to day -- these last 40-50 years -- knowing full well they're destroying – have ALREADY destroyed -- the world and their grandchildren's futures and keep doing it. They're like real life versions of SMERSH and SPECTRE. Truly evil!! And so many Americans, esp. the ones waiting for Jesus, don't seem to mind.
I’d say Mr. Mishna’s prediction of race war is close but too optimistic. We’re already there.
19
@I Remember America You are correct! It is fairly easy to understand the Kochs/Tillerson. They simply do not care. Period, full stop. It may not be narcissism but just good old fashion selfishness that often manifests itself in the moral equivalence of giving the finger to everyone else in society simply because they can. Makes them feel good. It's the exact same phenomenon you see when the lower class young white dude alters his pickup to spew diesel, or roll coal.
"If I get a notion I'll climb this tree, or chop it down and you can't stop me. Freedom. Liberty" (Garcia/Hunter)
I seriously don't think that all white people are against all non-white people etc. but a few could lead the majority astray. We all have to be very watchful. Just remember WW2 and its evil ways. In the end, we all have to live peacefully on mother earth which is getting warmer by the minute. Climate change may be a bigger threat than racial identity.
17
Omar Diaz de Arce
6 min ·
The New York Times
·
The author of this article and another in this paper is very clever in the effort to clarify the relation between race, identity and democracy. For more than 10 years I have translated religious books from English into Spanish directed to evangelical readers. It is incredible the ideas and theories you can find in them. Conservatism and anti-scientific doctrines that nurture millions of evangelicals that now support Trump and his policies principally in the central states of this country. When you ask which are components of the present wave of right-wing populism in America don't forget the influence of evangelical conservatism.
27
You’re absolutely right. Evangelicals in buttressing Republican anti Christian policies demonstrate that they are on team Beelzebub.
4
"the leaders of Britain... not only humiliated the many Asians and Africans demanding self-determination; they also jointly defeated an attempt by Japan, their wartime ally, to have a racial equality clause included." Wasn't Japan the wartime "enemy" of the leaders of Britain, etc., not their "ally"?
9
@Dubious. Japan was an ally of the western powers in World War I, but of course the enemy during World War II. The author is referring to the post World War I peace negotiations.
7
@Dubious - Japan was an Anglo-American ally in WWI, and an enemy in WWII (as was also the case for Italy).
Though it's not often cited today, the Japanese deployed their own flavor of "anti-racist" propaganda after Pearl Harbor (among the instances, against the British in Mishra's native India).
2
This is WW I he is talking about not the sequel.
1
Mr. Mishra selectively cites some historical facts and highlights what he calls the "religion of whiteness" as if racism were a one-way street, and as if all people with light-colored skin are racists.
Mishra is right about the dangers of Trump's politics of hate and Rupert Murdoch's media empire of hateful ignorance. But he is wrong to suggest that "white" people are the only bad actors.
It's myopic and dangerous to suggest that all people are either "white," "yellow," or "black," as this piece does; such simplistic views of people only serve to drive them apart... but maybe that is Mishra's aim. If so, he joins the professional racists of the "Black Lives Matter!" movement, and David Duke of the KKK, and the Republican Party's politics of hate and division.
Yes, history is very important, and we should never forget. However, using distant history as political leverage is very dangerous.
The best we can do is this: treat people with respect (by default, contingent on their behavior) and be careful to not ever judge people on superficial characteristics like skin color.
The best Mishra can do is this: stop inciting racist hatred. Never suggest that people are doomed by skin color to join a "religion of whiteness."
33
Here I thought that the meetings of the White Male Global Conspiracy Collective were confidential. I'm shocked - someone must have leaked Mr. Mishra a pdf of the Protocols of the Caucasoid Bro's. Seriously though, J'accuse: what is racism if not seeing the world and the dynamic of history as one solely of racial conflict and domination? Mr. Mishra's essay is a study in the rankest and most naked form of racism and race hatred. For him to employ the name of Hannah Arendt to further his sumpworthy invective is particularly shameless.
Perhpas Mr. Mishra hasn't noticed, but today's "Anglosphere" political reaction looks suspiciously a lot like every other ethno-nationalist reactionary movement sweeping the world right now. The difference is only of extremes: 'Hindisphere' reaction in India actually includes violent pogroms. And something tells me that the Rohingya people would greatly prefer being subject to Republican voter id laws rather than the reactionary 'Buddhasphere' genocide they now endure.
Mr. Mishra's intellectually pretentious vitriol isn't new: it's a rehash of Edward Said's now discredited bunk from the 70s. But the funny thing about Said is that if he were living today, he'd be a victim of the very people his ethno-nationalism sentimentalized. He was Christian Orthodox after all. ISIS doesn't give a rip about anyone's race or nationality.
151
Edward Said hasn't been "discredited" except in your imagination. And the contention that those who point out racism are worse than the racists themselves need scarely be taken seriously.
4
Umm please provide statistics of said Hindu pogroms. More black people are killed in police shootings annually in America than the total number of Muslims killed in communal violence in India.
1
@Jam pot The wave of Hindu sectarian violence that has exploded in India since the election of BJP in 2014 has been well documented and is only a google search away. The targets haven't been just Muslims either. It's included the Christian minority, feminists, homosexuals and social media driven attacks against people suspected of breaking religious norms. State sponsored mob violence is a far cry from the lawful exercise of police powers in this country, the abuse of which has resulted in lengthy prison terms. In contrast, the NYT has recently reported on the difficulty the victims of Hindu extremism have had seeking justice under BJP.
2
I guess that if white supremacy has to look to the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump for leadership, we know why it's in decline.
I have to note, however, that the west has no monopoly on ethnic nationalism. Such attitudes have long plagued Japan and other Asian and African states. And we can't ignore the election of the radical ethnic nationalist in India.
But the world may now be seeing ethnic nationalism for what it is: a dead-end idea that only weakens us as we need strength to face real problems, e.g. global warming.
31
The Chinese, more numerous than the white population of the world, consider themselves to be a superior race. The Japanese likely feel the same (ask the Koreans). People in Singapore look down on Fillipinos. While India does not have an official caste system, its legacy is alive and well. But no, we are constantly told, it is white America that is the only sinner. Somehow statements made by people dead for 100 years are taken as representative of how whites view the world today. It certainly seems unusual that this country is the preferred destination of the rest of the world given the virulent racism that is alleged to run rampant here. This country is committing suicide but not in the way that the author describes.
176
@Tim Lewis, if it is any consolation, even albinos are not spared in Africa, for not looking black enough.
1
Great historical sweep and powerful citations of original sources!!
BTW, Pankaj Mishra, an indian citizen, is one of the most forceful critics of Hindu extremism and supremacy in India.
13
This essay reminded me of a Jack London short story from 1910 about a genocidal chemical attack on China. The story was called The Unparalleled Invasion and reflected the racial fears of an Asian threat to the western world.
1
I'd bookmark this article in order to refer Donald's supporters to it, but they're not racists. They tell us that all the time. No racist, no racist, you're the racist. Donald said, "I'm the least racist . . ." yet he opened his campaign calling Mexicans murderers, rapists and drug smugglers. He regularly singles out black people to disparage. All that's missing is a blinking neon sign saying "flaming racist." Racism and religion unite Donald's base far more than the cover story of economic anxiety. Ron DeSantis couldn't have signaled his racism to Donald supporters he wants for his own if he had tried, in fact he gave it his best shoot.
14
As a matter of intellectual history, this essay is deeply flawed. It selects provocative comments reflecting the racism, social Darwinism, and pseudo-scientific eugenics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and falsely argues that the political and social controversies of the present are linked to those discredited doctrines. That is utter nonsense. There is no "religion of white supremacy" outside the confines of some vanishingly tiny groups that try to make noise now and again on the Internet. But this piece, like so many others in our irresponsible media, falsely suggests that we are on the cusp of an all-out race war. The irony is that these pieces actually fuel the animosity they purport to condemn. In this case, the author's preoccupations are clearly literary and political rather than historical, and what he has produced here is a propaganda piece that accords perfectly with the needs of our sensational media to generate ever more provocative and intellectually fashionable bits of agitprop. There's absolutely nothing wrong with calling attention to the ugly prejudices of the past; but it is a real disservice to our society to actively foment racial discord with this kind of tendentious propaganda.
66
Yes, new fears are causing old hatreds to rise and this is a good example of that.
1
@JMM - Spot on!... but you might want to add that meanwhile (sleight-of-hand style), the 1% are laughing all the way to the bank!
2
Unfortunately I can't change the color I was born. I no longer care anymore. Anyone else if free to kill themselves if they want to.
11
Our earliest ancestors resided in what we named Africa, and had brown skin caused by the need to have protection from lots of ultra violet rays from the sun, protection brought about by melanin.
As humans migrated out of Africa northward, into what we named Europe, Europe where there are less ultraviolet rays, humans skin lightened in color into the shades of peach we speak of as "white". An exception is for those folks who live in the north whose essential diets are seafood; then their skin is darker than shades of peach.
It is meanness, greediness, selfishness, violence, cruelty, and the like, not skin color, that cause us to misbehave toward one another.
7
I agree, "whiteness" is a religion with a cult leader who threatens to ask us to "drink the kool aid", a reference to the Jim Jones 1978 Peoples Temple mass suicide by cyanide laced kool-aid, (not a reference to Obama). More importantly, "whiteness" is associated with nationalist and nativist religiosity which specifically rejects border crossing religions like the catholic church, and rather stakes its soul on keeping border crossers out -- maybe even shooting them down. Refusing to commit suicide in this new American cult is to work vigorously against scapegoating especially Hispanics (but also other immigrants, documented or undocumented) and to reject the argument of the anti-immigrationists like Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller, and groups associated with the anti-immigration campaign like FAIR and NumbersUSA.
6
Why do I feel that if I were reading this article on whiteness as a masthead in Syria,Iraq,Afghanistan ,China , most of Africa and many other countries in all of our worlds continents where the same race of people slaughter each other 24/7 that this opinion is only relevant to those of us in liberal Manhattan.
I did see a posted sticker recently on 6th avenue & 25th street
on a lamp post that read. "IT'S OK TO BE WHITE " so perhaps the "White Privilege" concept is having some impact on inherited guilt but that sort of smearing one's race as if all think all alike is a dangerous summation.
22
I sympathize with your concerns, and I agree that in many ways the US is still fighting the civil war. But please choose your words carefully. A minority of white men hold such odious views. Many white men (and women) are fighting 45 and all he stands for. Please recognize that it is this white minority you fight (yes, they wield disproportionate power). Those of us who oppose the present power structure must stick together, whatever race, ethnicity, or sex we are defined by. Don't lump all white men together with the evil minority in power (says this sympathetic white man).
12
Seriously, Israel is "the world’s last active settler-colonialist project"? Two points seem obvious--> 1. Ignoring claims about God giving the land to the Jews, there is a substantial historical connection between the land and the Jewish people, and of the latter's ousting from the land by ancient non-Jewish colonialist intrusions. 2. The connection between the Jews of Israel and whiteness is debatable. The Jews are not racially different from the area Arabs who remain in or near Israel. While the majority of Jews worldwide are Ashkenazi-descended whites, millions of Jews worldwide are descended from northern Africans, both as the offspring of the expulsion of Jews from Spain and natives of Arab lands, and the Israeli Jews from Ethiopia are not even arguably white.
6
@Fred Stone
I suggest you refrain from further commentary until you familiarize yourself with 21st century scientific, non-political definitions of words like "race" and "white" -- many would say these terms are essentially political, serving only to perpetuate meaningless notions of "superiority" and "inferiority".
You might also gain some basic understanding of how DNA plays into whatever case you are trying to make here about the whiteness, or non-whiteness of Israelis, Jews, or any other group. What ARE you trying to say?
Israelis are diverse in ancestry, religion, and DNA. People of Ashkenazi Jewish descent constitute around 47.5% of Israeli Jews; Sephardic Jews, descended from communities in the Middle East and North Africa, constitute about half (52%) of Israeli Jews. Ethiopian Jews (*) are 1% of Israel's Jewish population.(Total Israeli population is about 75% Jewish; 20.6% Arab; 4.1% minority groups. (*) Origins, and thus genetics, not really confirmed.
You might also review your comments for flaws stemming from misunderstanding of who the Ashkenazi Jews are: they carry much of the same DNA as other Jews, as they were Jews of the diaspora who settled in the Holy Roman Empire around 1000 AD. Intermarriage has of course changed their genetics over the past 1000 years. Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews are also descended from Jews dispersed in Roman times -- their DNA also complicated by their various wanderings, expulsion from Spain, conversions, etc
3
That’s funny, because Trump’s critics, in more or less hysterical language, accuse him of wanting to destroy that very “Western” “liberal” world order.
3
Just the ideas the Slave State Neo-Confederates want to promote.
When will people realize how evil the Southern Slave State Neo-Confederates really are?
The Lost Cause needs to get lost - for good.
3
If I'm remembering this correctly, Mishra (briefly) connected early Zionism to non-western liberation movements, in both Age of Anger and In the Ruins of Empires. He's paraphrased David Grossman to describe Israel as a state that has degenerated in terms of human rights, but he usually shies away from connecting Israel with South Africa or Zionism with white supremacy. He's even quoted Herzl positively.
So what's a nod to Israeli "settler colonialism" having "brotherhood" with white supremacists doing here? Even though he stops just short of using the word white to describe Israel, it still seems to me like a break from his earlier stance on it.
To my best understanding, right-wing support for Israel is mostly based on evangelical notions of the Jew's place in the rapture, not any sort of white brotherhood (especially since only 40% of Israeli Jews are Caucasian). There's even been reports of neo-Nazi candidates in this country stomping on the flag of Israel- not so out of place in a BDS rally. I guess connecting Israeli violence with white supremacy is an easy way to connect Palestinian suffering and Middle Eastern politics to the current struggles of POC against imperialism and colonialism elsewhere in the world, despite the fact that the two are very separate.
If anyone can square his writing on Israel and prove me wrong, be my guest.
Good article otherwise!
3
What a wonderfully Trump tactic.
Accuse others of what you are doing.
Whiteness is a cult most embraced by a narrow segment of would be intelligentsia primarily in the West or as part of a West fad.
Some dull men who think they are white whatever that is also embrace the cult.
A pox on all of you. And poxes mind you are caused by pathogens happy in any human host regardless of the host complexion. Since a human is a human is a human.
4
And the true war is the rich against the poor, regardless of skin color. Class Warfare continue's and will be the finial battle of humanity. The identical mentality is there of superiority over other humans as personal wealth grow for a person, regardless of their skin color.
5
Thanks for clearly picking out the historically significant threads of white supremacy and racism. In particular, I was unaware of the roots of the Murdoch/Fox News white supremacism in Murdoch's racist father.
Every "white" person should reflect on this history and these truths. All races are equal and their heritages should be equally honored, but until white racists cease their perverted beliefs and social campaigns, no group - including, ironically, those of European heritage - can be comfortable in its own skin.
As Martin Luther King said, "All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be."
9
This 19th century history needs to be exposed, perhaps to the religious world, in an effort to head off the disaster.
The irony of course is that the right is constantly accusing the left of using identity politics. I still don't know what that means as far as I can tell we're just looking out for the poor and disenfranchised no matter what their color or gender might be. Most of the white supremacist bile you quote in this piece is not ancient history but it's still history. We didn't have DNA then or desegregation or civil rights. I kinda thought, naively, that we had evolved from that primitive state but I guess the last thing to evolve will be hate, fear and prejudice. As a white man I try my best to see both sides to these arguments but, call me enlightened, educated or just more evolved but this all seems black and white to me and if a racial war starts, you'll be able to pick me out in my unit. I'll be the proud white guy at the head the brown brigade. That is if the other side can field an army with all those bone spurs.
9
It’s quite easy to read old newspapers online, the racist past is there for all to see. Africa was in the news and the locals named their boats “the starving African” is one that can be printed these days. Just open an old newspaper, follow a story about “others” they sound just like today’s republicans.
7
Wow! An essay on a subculture of White people whose influence and power has long since gone. Interracial marriages have been legal for decades and the civil rights act is 50 years old. Reagan gave amnesty to 3 million Latin Americans. Trump razor thin election is not a testimony to a resurgence of white hegemony but a failed implementation of global economic policies that ran far ahead of its promises.
This is a long winded diatribe meant to create a wedge between white people and ...everyone else on the planet. What's the real purpose of this one sided argument? Justification for:
White guilt?
White disenfranchisement?
A white tax?
Maybe the author could spend some time looking at how Asian cultures in the East Asian region and racial makeup has its own racial hierarchy. Or, maybe explain the caste system in Inda. Or even the racial discrimination between lighter skined blacks towards those with darker pigmentation?
Western powers from Anglo countries have been the dominant powers for hundreds of years. So, of course, some of the perversions in the power structures they created still resonate in some fridge elements but any look at the black caucus in the US Congress and the scores of women on the ballot is a testimony to this article backward looking perception as being irrelevant.
17
The author is so busy flinging his ill-aimed tirades that he misses the key take-aways and believes that the plural of anecdote is actionable social/economic/political strategies.
The USA is well on its way to a minority white population. The reaction against 'economic' refugees around the developed world is not due to the hue of their skin - it is a reaction to their net cost on national budgets.
I read the author's most excellent book [The Age of Anger: A History of the Present]and his similar diatribes in a variety of UK papers [Guardian among others]
Here - as in his book he relies on anecdotes - novelists and poets rather than historians and sociologists.
To quote - I don't know - let's try the self-same NYT: "But he doesn't have much to say about the material reality of economics and politics other than angry bromides about the 'Western model' and broad, unsupported statements about stagnation."
Pankaj is an amazing writer and thinker but I am still anxiously awaiting from him a smart and ACTIONABLE essay on global tribalism of ALL varieties.
7
@SteveRR...
According to H.H.H. over the past decade refugees have contributed 62 billion dollars more to our American economy than they have cost.
Natural born citizens perpetrate much more crime than those born in other countries.
Let's progress by working toward being better. I see daily varieties of people with excellent abilities that aren't all white in color. Color as an indicator of greatness? Puhhleeze.
1
FDR? Come on. You provide no evidence for such a baseless attack against a truly great man. FDR is who we pillory now? Sickening. He was adored by blacks in America and helped transform them from poverty. America was isolationist until WW2 but how could you claim what he did was his fault? He did what he had to do to save the world? Then you say “oh yeah and Wilson too” with no evidence.
7
@Brennan Blacks may have liked FDR, but the New Deal very explicitly excluded them in many key areas, principally housing. That legacy fed into the red lining that further segregated America before and after World War II. And I say this as someone who considers FDR as the second best president America ever had; he was good for America as a whole, but his policies were unfortunately racist
1
@Brennan...
FDR famously refused to bomb the train tracks leading to the Concentration Camps. He also refused to allow more than a few European Jews to emigrate to America during the War.
It is rare that great human beings are without significant flaws.
Things were going just fine in this article until the writer equated Israel with Australia and other "settler-colonial" projects. He seems to be arguing with a straight face that the establishment of a haven and national home for a persecuted minority is the same as the imposition of an existing nation's power onto a new geographic area. Does this writer know nothing about Jewish history?
3
Would Pankaj Mishra be willing to point out that John McCain was one politician who played an instrumental role in pushing White American power over the globe, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead and maimed in its wake. Yeah the same John McCain who is now currently being lionized by the greater mainstream media including the New York Times I might add.
4
Pankaj Mishra, Please explain how the Indian caste based society is better
19
It's more the "male" than the white part of the equation that causes a problem.
7
In Mishra's native country, slightly lighter skinned people from the North, or from higher castes, have long looked upon themselves as above the slightly darker Southerners - even coming up with a mythology of Aryan invaders quelling a beastly race of demons - a culture and religion that has persisted since the decline of the indigenous Indus Valley civilization in 1400 BCE.
So the white vs. dark has been around as a symptom of human culture long before Australian or Trump supporters supposedly made it a cult.
16
Mr. Mishra, in citing Japan's earnestness to seek racial equality after WWI, you forget that Japan used the cause to brutalize Asians under the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." Racism is not just a White thing.
16
While entertainingly written, it is not clear that Mr. Misra is telling us anything new about the alarm of the Anglosphere over the loss of supremacy. Worse, he has nothing to offer in terms of how to react or respond to this, other than to say that this is a suicide cult that might take down everybody with it. Should liberal whites be defeatist or fatalistic about it? What should non-whites do? Is their rise in the world an accomplished fact or could they still lose their political and economic gains?
If the writer thinks Australia has brutal immigration policies try migrating to Japan.
19
Brilliant article.
Whenever I hear a "conservative" complain about identity politics, I automatically think - "You are projecting". Railing at the threat to the male, and white supremacist identity politics you so badly desire to normalize and universalize.
1
One only needs to look at the many nations of the world to understand that the majority white nations are the most advanced and prosperous and the black nations are the poorest and least educated.
That’s just the way it is.
14
@Tuco
But why is it so? If every car that won a race was red would you conclude that red ones must be faster?
Until about 13,000 years ago all human beings alive lived the simple lives of hunter-gatherers. That's less than 5% of the total time human beings have existed.
Explaining the different rates at which different societies of different areas have become more sophisticated is much more difficult than noting the skin pigmentation of their residents.
When dark-skinned people in Iraq and Egypt were living settled lives in cities, light-skinned people in Great Britain were still living nomadic lives of subsistence.
1
first of all, power isn't static. Asia is rising, Europe is falling. after Asia, will come Africa .. I promise you. and at one point, the Africans were the most powerful in the world. things change
I'm white and I feel like the Trump era has given us a good hard look at what has been swept under the rug for a long time. It is a dirty, ugly mess and I'm not even sure what exactly is under there.
With Trump's evil blathering it is easy to get depressed and feel we are just a racist country and horrible.
But at least we now know we are racist and horrible. That's kind of the first step to being a better place. Most people, when they are paying attention and actually thinking, want good lives for all their neighbors and all little children. I'm not sure of practical steps to get from A to B, but I do know we all do better, when we all do better.
23
Shift the emphasis from white vs non-white to majority vs minority. Oppression of minorities is not unique to white-majority countries.
People may feel less defensive when a conversation is framed in terms of population fraction instead of "racial" identity.
This approach should be considered by everyone who values pluralism and wants to dispel fear from the prospect of whiteness slipping from majority status.
9
This article is some what taken out of historic context but certainly provides racist reasoning that with Andrew Johnson in the W.H., meant Trump, we are apparently moving backward instead making any progress. Just as social media is tearing society apart into "tribes" racism is sadly not being resolved.
1
If Mr. Mishra and like thinkers want an ethnically, racially, genetically well mixed society, they should
(1) help people overcome the atavistic fear of living with those "who are not like us", and
(2) work for the UN to adopt a compulsory policy international miscegenation.
2
And work on his homeland first.
2
@Margo
India has genetically one of the most mixed populations in the world. the conflict there is religious and cultural, with the formerly ruled Hindus and their erstwhile rulers, the Muslims.
While some Muslims have remained Arab or Persian genetically, the majority are descendants of mixed race Indians, of those forcibly converted from Hindusim, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism by Muslim colonialists. (Think of ISIS and the Yazidis, and multiply that by a few centuries)
I would be interested to read Andrew Sullivan's response (among others).
4
What worries me is Trump falsely telling Preachers that the Democrats will use violence, if they get elected. If there is one thing that I learned from watching this creature in the highest office, is that whatever comes out of his mouth, he means the opposite. He also labels others with traits that he also has. So, Trump is talking about Democrats becoming violent, what that means is he is thinking about organizing the deplorables to use violence, if he is impeached or loses an election. Trump does not plan on leaving peacefully. In this “Alice In Wonderland “, presidency, this is not far fetched. If we have learned anything from this experience, it is that up is down and down is up.
14
Strange that the article cited Japan's petition for racial equality at the League of Nations after WWI. The author seems to overlook the fact that Imperial Japan used the pretext of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" to subjugate Asians. Racism is not just a White thing.
28
Ironically I found, Mr. Mishra’s, who is a harsh critic of a Eurocentric world, point of view to be very Eurocentric. Supremacy, racism and entitlement have not been in the monopoly of the white race. 500 years of European colonization of the world made these human illnesses universally more noticeable and recognizable when manifested as white supremacy or racism. Unfortunately, however, they exist all over. These are solidified pathological cultural constructs, especially in societies with more complex economic structures, starting more than often with a desire to protect, preserve and justify an unjust economic advantage of a certain group over others differentiated by a certain characteristic.
Before Trump dreamed of it, the Chinese built a wall with the fear of losing the political and cultural Sinocentric order. Before Portuguese made it global, slavery was endemic in Africa. Arabs traded millions of African slaves across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean. Turks looked down on Arabs, Persians looked down on both of them. All over the world, in the past and today, supremacy, racism and entitlement have been strongly alive. In Mr. Mishra’s native India, for instance, the tensions between the Hindus and the Muslims, between the Aryans and the Dravidians, and most notoriously, the caste system, which the country struggles to dismantle with quotas in educational and professional reservations, make me thing that defending a “higher race” is a more universal illness.
119
This is brilliant
1
A most important article, depicting the arrogance of insecure, abusive and immature 'white supremacists' who, under the stupid pretext of the color of their skin, are determined to go on, justifying their exploitation of the world by naming 'the other' inferior and unable, without guidance, to fend for him/herself. Ludicrous and stupid, with no science nor reason to support it, 'whiteness' seems to have gotten away with 'murder' thus far, by controlling world capital and ever more sophisticated weaponry for control. The rest, and majority, has been subdued and made dependent on the goods and services provided by a corporate world with unregulated power, discriminating against all, whites and non-whites, if away from holding the reins of money and the power it confers. This abuse is getting more difficult, as there are millions of folks smarter than the prevalent white supremacists, and demanding a more equitable share of the economic pie. The current segregation of Housing, Health and Education is becoming unsustainable, however much a 'Trump' or a 'DeVos' insist in trampling our humanity, and viciously denying that we are all equal, and our richness depends on our diversity. Have we forgotten the 'golden rule', some humility, and the absolute need for inclusion to survive and, with some luck, enjoy life to it's fullest, absent wars to satisfy our greed, and the conquering of our ignorance (specially if willful) and it's prejudices? Human stupidity seems limitless, right?
8
Mr. Mishra writes about "whiteness" the way left-wing academics write disparagingly about capitalism, while enjoying everyone of its priviledges.
So, a question for Mr. MIshra: What country outside the overwhelmingly white first-world would he say his values are best reflected? This goes for anyone else who wishes to answer.
25
So will my comments raising the point that republicans have had no policy prescriptions since Goldwater other than those that assuage the fear and insecurity of a racist death cult keep getting axed by the moderators? And yes, Nixon's EPA is the exception that proves the rule.
1
Where and when in the course of human history has any group that was not like the group in power not subjected to prejudice and worse? Where in the non-white world today all gay humans treated with respect and honored with the same rights and protections as their fellow citizens? The fixation with rice is dangerous and non-whites are just as guilty of gross generalizations as whites. When and where whites are no longer in the majority world history be different for them? Will non-white rulers treat their minions any better then they were treated when they were in the minority. Based on the fascination with racially defined behavior and the continuation of gross generalizations of people based on the color of their skin I tend to doubt it.
24