Are you racist?

Of course you are. Also, no, no you are not.

[

Note: This posting combines the two parts of a two-part essay, “Am I Racist,” published here last week.]

In my Monday column, “Notes from a cluttered mind,” I observed in passing that the question Matt Walsh uses as the title for his new film Am I Racist?, opening in theaters nationwide tomorrow, is one that contemporary culture all but insists we each answer — and yet is a question that in nearly every circumstance need never be asked. The reason for this is simple: racists know they’re racist. They therefore already know the answer to the question. Yes, they’d agree. Racists are in fact racist. And that’s because to be racist is to believe in the innate inferiority of certain races, which — inasmuch as that belief is a prism through which one sees the world — it is both evident to, and acknowledged by, the person harboring that belief. Their racism isn’t a surprise to them. It is in truth a foundational part of the way they view reality.

It follows, then, that for the person who does not hold the belief that certain races are innately inferior to other races, that person is not and cannot be racist, and so would have no reason to question whether they are. A person who does not hold racist views cannot commit racist acts, because essential to the idea of committing a racist act is the precondition that one must first be racist. Racists can potentially commit racist acts, certainly — though most never will; but non-racists will never commit racist acts, precisely because they lack the foundation — being racist — to do so. This is how racism has been traditionally understood.

Of course, I’m well aware that current academic and cultural dissertation on racism and how it comes to be defined tries to overcome this rather basic ontological truism by problematizing racism per se. Racism, current fashion holds, is — like every branch of cultural Marxist theory — a product not of some reaction to an immutable trait, but rather one of power dynamics, though one that somehow maintains “whiteness” as a permanent reservoir of power, regardless of who is receiving the job offers, the financial aid benefits, the government set asides, et al. The idea goes that because the systems embedded in a racist society have been designed and implemented by whites, those systems are of necessity constructed both to insulate and to advantage white people. All white people. But not just white people, because the thing that makes someone white — in addition to skin color — is “whiteness,” which is the collection of “customs, culture, and beliefs” that “operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared.” More,

This white-dominant culture also operates as a social mechanism that grants advantages to white people, since they can navigate society both by feeling normal and being viewed as normal. Persons who identify as white rarely have to think about their racial identity because they live within a culture where whiteness has been normalized. 

Thinking about race is very different for nonwhite persons living in America. People of color must always consider their racial identity, whatever the situation, due to the systemic and interpersonal racism that still exists.

Thus, “systemic racism.”

The internal logic of such an idea suggests that anyone who adopts and adheres to the “customs, culture, and beliefs” that make up “whiteness” — none of which are transferred through the blood — are themselves guilty of promoting whiteness, regardless of their skin color. Which, eg., is how it’s argued that some blacks whose minds remain “colonized by whiteness” are themselves guilty of racism; while other blacks are not and cannot be, because they lack the institutional power whiteness bestows upon them.

I’m not going to get too deep into the Marxian ideas of Critical Race Theory in this essay, because I’ve done so many times before, and frankly, the incoherence it leads to bores me to tears. Instead, I want to touch on something I believe is far more crucial: the roles that language and hermeneutics play in racialism, racism, and racial demagoguery.