J. A. Adande, director of sports journalism at Northwestern University, was recently interviewed on ESPN where he argued that America really had no right to judge China given its own despicable Civil Rights record. This is no doubt an opinion held by many on the Left for whom Capitalism is an ideological cancer.
But it is a ludicrous opinion, as was Whoopi’s on the Holocaust, born of personal bias rather than an objective appraisal of the historical facts. Contemporary China’s oppression of Uyghurs, Christians and indeed any sector of its population that does not bend to the will of its authoritarian government, is self evident. Obviously America is not perfect but, as I have argued elsewhere, its progress towards social equity since it fought a devastating Civil War in defense of that ideal, was clearly interrupted by the two Great Wars and Depression that marred the first half of the Twentieth Century. After an understandable period of calm following 1945, the Civil Rights movement began in earnest and, rather than being oppressed by a systemically racist government supported by a systemically racist White population, it was in fact supported by the majority of Americans.
From the Beats of the 50s through the 60s and 70s, thousands of Western artists challenged the values and conventions of their societies and yet, while they no doubt met opposition, none, to my knowledge at least, were arbitrarily put in “detention camps” or executed for their views. Democracy works! The progress made in America over the last 60 years in the realm of fair treatment for people of color, women, gays, etc., is undeniable. Black “conservatives” are shocked that “progressives” would even consider arguing this fact. But the latter, their Identity threatened by the fact that many of their very legitimate goals have been realized, would seem to have become obsessed with rooting out social injustice even where none exists. Hence, for example, the absurd conclusion that George Floyd’s death was unequivocal evidence that all White cops are Racists. Hence the absurdly irrational assertion by an “academic” that America’s record on issues of social justice is really no better than that of an intolerant Communist regime whose obsession with Power far outweighs its interest in the rights of its citizens.