In the N.Y. Times Book Review section of Feb. 5, Black U. of Oklahoma professor Honoree Fannone Jeffers celebrates her admiration for American novelist Toni Morrison who passed away in 2019. The first few paragraphs of Jeffer’s article concern her glee at seeing Morrison expose what she considered the crass racism of Charlie Rose in a 1998 interview in which he asked her why she got so angry when asked why her books continued to focus exclusively on Black culture and Black people. Morrison apparently answered: “The person who asks that question doesn’t understand he is also racist.” Jeffers confesses: “Oh, I’ve watched this interview at least 10 times.”
But tell me, who is the racist, one who sees every aspect of the human condition through the lens of Race, or one who attempts to transcend what would appear to be a limited personal perspective by submitting all human ideas, values and behavior to the same moral/intellectual criteria, whatever the skin color of those involved? No one would deny that racism has been a deplorable factor in America’s history or that Morrison does not have every right to dramatize her people’s stories. But does suggesting, as Rose does with his question, that there might be a myriad of important human issues worth considering beyond those of Race therefore make him a Racist?
Morrison does what all those who buy the narrative of “systemic racism” do, and that is treat two utterly different species of human behavior as if they were indistinguishable, conflating perfectly Rational “White” Principles and Values not widely represented in many Black cultures with expressions of an Irrational Racist loathing for “the Other.” Take, for example, her defense of Bill Clinton as he was being impeached in 1998 for his affair with Monica Lewinski. Morrison saw the Republican assault on Clinton as a racial issue, saying his poor working-class background and political views made him Blacker than most Black people. Check it out for yourself. She actually referred to Clinton as “our first Black president.” This is absurd. The attempt to impeach him was in response to his inappropriate behavior and the lies he told Congress about it, and had nothing to do with race. Sadly, Morrison’s irrational perspective was a precursor of the “woke” dementia that has become standard in today’s culture, revered “anti-racists” such as Ibram X. Kendi having led us to a point where teaching science and math in our schools is now seen as an expression of White Supremacy.
Just watched a video of animal rights activist Carol Adams, author of a book entitled “The Pornography of Meat,” who informed her opposition in a recent debate that eating meat is clearly a “White supremacist patriarchal” thing. I must admit I have my qualms about eating the flesh of animals, but it never occurred to me that doing so makes me a male chauvinist/racist!
Our culture is rife with “moral certitudes” that are completely irrational. As an educated, Intelligent Being, I am prone to embrace those ideas and values I find most conducive to my fulfillment as such. It took me very little time to decide that the music that emerged from the hip-hop culture of the 70s was both morally primitive and aesthetically null. This had nothing to do with the fact that most of those active in that domain were people of color. I find much of our Pop Culture, White or otherwise, an insult to my intelligence. As a Thinking Human Being, I am perfectly entitled to do so!
If you read my blog of Feb. 10, you will recall my reference to Dostoevsky’s assertion that a society obsessed with tolerance [i.e., inclusion] must inevitably attempt to silence the Intelligent out of consideration for those less so. In the West today, Racism is the tool most often used by those on the Left to justify that ludicrous objective.
No doubt Toni Morrison was a lovely person with a multitude of White friends whom she treated with respect. But her tendency to denounce valuations with which she did not agree as racist when they clearly had nothing to do with race, was disingenuous if not despicable. While I loathe Rap, some of my favorite people on the planet are Black….i.e., Larry Elder, Candace Owens, Condoleezza Rice, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, etc….. Neither my likes or dislikes have anything to do with the skin color of those in question. Though the simple-minded Left consistently attempts to conflate the two, Racial Bias and Intellectual Integrity are entirely separate issues!