| MND COMMENTARY |
White Male Guilt 101 April 19, 2004 by Bernard Chapin
Dear Sir: Several emails later I concluded that she is merely a normal student who, like countless others, is currently mired within the postmodernist septic tank of the liberal arts. The fact that she was not a feminista was rather disappointing as I miss the old days of their sending hate mail and threatening me. They’d brag about knowing my address and I’d get to respond like Ike in Tombstone with, “I’ll see you soon. I’ll see you soon.” Yet, I’m sure the reader could understand my confusion as only far leftists speak about “doctrines of white male guilt.” Radical professors alone describe white guilt in formal and triumphalist terms. The rest of us simply want to live our lives. When I read that she wanted to hear my opinions, I assumed that this would be in the same way that Rome wanted to see Vercingetorix (meaning: parade my opinions through downtown Berkeley in a box). However, as someone who’s done many an online interview, I realize that the venue is only suitable for dealing with those with whom you agree. Hostile interviewing is impossible if you give somebody unlimited time to respond. That’s why, even had she hailed from The New School for Castration, I would have happily complied with her request. That being said, let’s take a glimpse into the ideological perspectives of the next generation. College Student: What does the term, "White Male Guilt," mean to you? Uncle Bern: When I hear the phrase, “white male guilt,” I think generally of liberals who are racist at their core and who attempt to apologize for their own skin color as a means of hiding the fact that they regard themselves as being superior everyone else (specifically those in other racial groups or who live in the nation’s interior and fail to shop at Restoration Hardware). In this country, we once practiced slavery which meant that whites (and also freed blacks) owned black slaves. Then, between 1861 and 1865, 600,000 whites died in the process of freeing them. Some whites look back at slavery and feel guilt about it. What good does that accomplish? I never enslaved anyone. It’s preposterous. Slavery was a great evil that affected all cultures across the globe but was not a “white” or European phenomenon. Nowadays if you want to find slaves and slavery you’d have to visit an African place like the Sudan. It’s been banished from all parts of the western world. My ancestors came here after 1910 so to hold me or anyone else in my family responsible for slavery is outrageous, but the concept of ancestral liability in itself is tomfoolery. Where does culpability end? Would you hold a recent immigrant from Poland responsible for what a small percentage of southern elites did over a hundred years ago? Of course not. The entire idea of racial guilt is illogical. I wrote an article on reparations that you may want to read that examines many of these arguments in greater detail than I can provide for you at this time, but I will say that asking somebody like me to pay the offspring of former slaves is akin to my calling up Tony Blair and asking for a million pounds due to the potato famine. Reparations are crazy as the slaves of the pre-war south are long dead. If the government paid them something in 1870 or 1880 I think that would have been appropriate but to bring it up now is nuts. Specifically though, as far as guilt is concerned, I think it is a good thing in terms of behavior modification. If I treat someone badly I should, and often do, feel guilty about it. This can prevent me from doing the same thing the next time around. Yet generational, or DNA guilt, is entirely counter-productive. I’m proud of my ancestry. I wouldn’t swap parents or grandparents with you or anybody else. My ancestors worked a lot harder than I do just so they could make it in this country and they should be congratulated for it; they should not be cast into some university’s version of “Gone with the Wind.” You want to know who the real racists are? It’s white people who apologize for their race. They do this to compensate for the racist, elitist feelings which embody them. CS: What is your understanding of the institution of slavery? How many slaves were brought from Africa? What happened to them once they got here? Do you think that its effects ended completely with its abolishment in 1865? UB: Slavery is the one of the world’s foremost evils. Slavery is unthinkable to us today. Due to the freedom and tolerance of western civilization, we now regard slavery as being something that should have never occurred anywhere at any time. Indeed, as I said above, in 2004 you can now only find slaveholders in Africa. I think the notion that slavery is to blame today for the social problems of American blacks is absurd. The biggest challenges American blacks face stem from politicians who advocate a more expansive welfare state. In 1960 (nearly a hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation), black illegitimacy rates stood at 25 percent. Now they’re just under 70 percent. Why? Because welfare destroyed the incentive to marry and created a class of people who don’t have to work to live. As usual, to leftist liberals, the underclass are simply a group of people they move around a chess board like pawns. They could care less about them. They’re merely a means of getting elected. The Great Society yielded an anti-society. Jasmine, do me a favor. Ask your professor if she/he/it has read White Slaves; African Masters. I’m sure their heads will spin around like androgynous demons once you mention it to them. [On second thought, don’t mention it them, you seem like a nice kid and there’s no reason you should get a F in your class]. CS: What is you understanding of feminism? Are men and women paid relatively the same wage? Are they considered equally for employment for all jobs? BC: I’m glad you asked me that. You see, I’m a feminist according to the word’s original derivation. I believe in equal pay for equal labor and non-discriminatory hiring practices–which puts me at odds with the radical, or perhaps pathological is a better term, feminists. The pathological feminists wish the state to discriminate in their favor which is referred to as affirmative action. Radical feminism is all about more and more goodies and privileges for women. It’s about categorical discrimination against men in general. Hiring should be gender blind. Let the most qualified person get the job. Besides, there is no wage discrepancy among men and women who are single and in their twenties and thirties. When disparities are visible it is often due to the variable of marriage. My boss missed a decade of work while she raised her young children. A Special Education Director I know worked three days a week when she had toddlers at home. Should they have been paid for the days/years that they did not work? Of course not. Radical feminists deny that life is about choices. Many women would rather, and justifiably, stay home with their first degree biological relations than spend their days in a workplace full of strangers. Who can blame them? Supply and demand, as opposed to gender, determines wages in this country. We see this now with the female dominated field of nursing. There is a severe shortage of nurses in America and salaries are skyrocketing. If a woman wants more money they should select work in an area that is in desperately in need of laborers. My job is in the field of education and over 70 percent of my co-workers are female so I can’t say I’ve ever seen any discrimination based on gender occur. The superintendent of our district is a black female who makes over $150,000 a year. Much of what is charged by university professors is a result of them not mixing with the general population. They’re very ignorant, but unfortunately that won’t deter their speech. Also, many college students like yourself are unfortunately unaware that men dominate the ranks of the less glamorous professions like welding, pipefitting, and the various construction trades. Why aren’t there more female welders? The answer lies within you. Why don’t you want to weld? I know a welder who made $100,000 in 1998. Did he deserve it? Absolutely. How many people in the United States could do what he does everyday? Not many. I know I can’t. He deserves his pay. CS: Should you so choose, would you be legally allowed to marry the person with whom you are currently dating (or any person you have dated) in any state, country, or province of the world? UB: Marriage is for men and women. It was recognized by the state in order to foster the social stability inherent to a two parent home. We see what the welfare state has done to the social fabric–it’s destroyed whatever it has touched. We should encourage men and women to marry before having offspring. It’s the best thing for all of us. Gay advocates confuse “right” with “privilege.” You have a right
to remain silent. If you’re not a felon, you a right to vote. You
do not have a right to get married. It isn’t a right. It is a legal
procedure but not a political right. Marriage is something heterosexuals
do. It’s not something that homosexuals do. I’m in favor of civil
unions. More power to it. We’ll do our thing and they can do theirs.
BC: Jasmine, honestly, I don’t know and I don’t care. I consider
my representatives’ voting record first. I never thought I’d ever
have a worse representative than my old one (Jan Schakowsky) but I moved last
year and discovered Danny Davis. He happens to be an even
bigger jackass than Schakowsky. Not only did I see him at anti-Bush
rally (disguised as an anti-war rally) last month, but he sent me
a newsletter blaming white people like me for why there are so many
blacks in special education. Ironically, it is white people like
me who consistently discourage parents from having their 16 and 17
year olds evaluated for special education. Sadly, some want the benefits
that come with the label. Now call me a traditionalist but I don’t
want to call someone disabled unless they’re actually disabled. Representative
Davis is not only clueless but he’s a liar too. UB: Well [sniffle, “I don’t know if I can continue on, Mr. Donahue”], I’m looking for a new job now and I think the fact that I’m white and male is a double negative against me. I go through that every time I fill out an application but, unlike those in the academy, I don’t dwell and whine about it. I do what past generations of Americans have always done. I move forward and try to be optimistic. Unfortunately though, this is a whiny, self-absorbed, narcissistic brood of Americans we are now producing. Whining about past wrongs is silly and pointless. You need to forget about that stuff and simply achieve. I have some advice for you and your classmates: “Work Hard!” And when you’re done, “work harder still.” Only with labor and production will you be successful and content with your life. Don’t worry about what other people think or say to you. We shall overcome! DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE IN THE FORUM! Bernard Chapin is a writer in Chicago. |
This
morning, just as I was considering brewing even more coffee as a way
to get my tired, irritable bones into the gym, I received a very suspicious
email from a girl wanting to interview me for a college term paper.
The tone of the email and the questions that came along with it made
me suspect that she was a Womyn’s Studies major or, at the very least,
a person deeply under the sway of the sensitivity brigade.|
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