The problem with the “anti-racism” movement sweeping the country is not that it tries to combat a social plague. Rather, the problem is that it lumps complex human beings into two categories, and, in the process, erases an essential component of the human condition—our cherished identities.
Here’s my theory for why this is happening: anti-racism has become, as much as anything, an anti-white movement. Railing against “white privilege” and “white supremacy” is a driving force of the movement, which has resulted in a simplified binary system—you’re either in the white camp or you’re not. Anything “in between” would just complicate the movement.
There is an activist logic to this dynamic—revolutions work best when there is a singular, powerful target. Because whites were the original slaveowners and founders of this country, and still hold enormous power, they make an ideal target. Fairly or not, all whites are now guilty by association. A poor white person in the Midwest is in the same camp as a wealthy white person on the Upper East Side.
But if there’s an activist logic to this framing, there’s also a high societal cost.
The first obvious cost is that it erases the rich kaleidoscope of ethnic identities. “Whites” come in all different hues and classes and national origins. Because I was born in Morocco, I’m a Sephardic “white Jew” with an olive complexion who some consider a “Jew of color.” I don’t fit neatly into any color category.
Similarly, how can we lump the multitude of ethnicities and nationalities that have landed on our shores over the past 150 years—Germans, Russians, Italians, Irish, and so on—into one category? The same goes for people with Hispanic origins– from Puerto Rico to Mexico to Guatemala to countless others– as well as the incredibly diverse Asian and Middle Eastern populations: How can we lump any of them into one category, whatever the category?
The point is, there are hundreds of identities and sub-identities throughout America that people are attached to. When Whoopi Goldberg described the murder of six million Jews as “whites killing whites,” it wasn’t just her ignorance of Holocaust history that offended me. It was also that she was erasing my Jewish identity. For me and many other Jews, that Jewish identity is a deep source of meaning and collective pride.
When Whoopi Goldberg described the murder of six million Jews as “whites killing whites,” it wasn’t just her ignorance of Holocaust history that offended me. It was also that she was erasing my Jewish identity.
Just like 330 million other Americans, I’m a lot more than a skin color who falls into one of two camps.
This is why the anti-white movement goes against American ideals. When immigrants landed in this country, regardless of their skin complexion, they kept their identities but added an American hyphen. There was profound satisfaction in becoming Italian-American or Jewish-American or Arab-American. Immigrants were honoring a fabled melting pot that simultaneously embraced their numerous identities.
But the highest cost, perhaps, of an anti-white movement is that it’s also anti-human. When you teach kids in school that a key part of their self-definition is their skin color, you are effectively diminishing their uniqueness as human beings.
I can’t think of anything more dehumanizing and less empowering than being defined by something I can’t change, like skin color. Teaching kids that whites fall in the “oppressor” camp and Blacks in the “victim” camp doesn’t give them valuable knowledge or tools for life. Rather, it triggers their emotions and undermines their ability to think for themselves.
When you define people by something as immutable as skin color, you shrink them. Instead of offering hope and nourishing identities, you offer a false choice of two opposing camps.
Further, accusing anyone who challenges this paradigm of being “racist” is a form of bullying that silences dissent and leads to self-censorship. It’s hard to see how this helps combat racism.
The great irony is that instead of reducing racism, one can fairly argue that the anti-racism movement is actually increasing racism by building silent resentment. When you define people by something as immutable as skin color, you shrink them. Instead of offering hope and nourishing identities, you offer a false choice of two opposing camps. Eventually, all camps come to resent that.
It’s clear that we must combat racism. I’m just not sure that lumping hundreds of identities into two categories will do the trick. We give justice a better chance when we elevate identities, not erase them.
