Why the Left may have made us more racist
We live in a very different America than when then-presidential-candidate Barack Obama said on “60 Minutes” that if he didn’t win the election, it wouldn’t be due to America being fundamentally racist.
I was in fourth grade when Steve Kroft interviewed Obama (who became the first black U.S. president in 2008) on “60 Minutes.” It was the first time I watched the newsmagazine TV broadcast, and two questions intrigued me.
The first question was: “How important is race in defining yourself?” Obama replied, “I am rooted in the African-American community, but I am not defined by it.” The second question was about whether he thought the country was ready for a black president and whether being black would hold him back from being successful. Obama answered without hesitating that America was indeed ready for a black president and if he didn’t win, it would be due to “other factors” and his inability to show the American people a vision that they could get behind.
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So, in other words, if he lost, it wouldn’t be due to America being fundamentally racist.
But now, we live in a very different America. Unfortunately, the modern Left focuses greatly on dividing people into social categories – race, class, and gender (intersectionality) – and blaming these social categories for failures.
Intersectionality
When Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the 2020 election, outlets like Vanity Fair,The Atlantic, and The Guardian focused on whether America was still sexist. The questions weren’t about whether Americans wanted to buy into her vision and policies, but about whether Americans were sexist and misogynistic.
After she dropped out, Joe Biden vowed he would pick a woman as his running mate. Later, leaders in the black community wrote a letter to Biden and demanded that he pick a black woman to be his vice-presidential candidate; which, by the way, is racist and discriminatory.
Instead of picking a running mate qualified for the job, popular, and respected, he picked Kamala Harris. This pick made no political sense. For those who may not remember, Kamala Harris dropped out in the primary, had no base, and was very unpopular even in her own state. But because Biden vowed to pick a woman as his running mate, his desire to make up for his past controversial racialcomments, and had a confrontation with Harris, he picked her to be his running mate.
A November poll showed Vice President Harris at 28 percent approval with the American public, but individuals like TV host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel came to her defense pleading that sexism and racism were the root cause of her unpopularity. No, it couldn’t be because of incompetence or poor policies, it had to be due to bigotry.
This reminded me of eighth grade when a classmate told me that Congress should equally represent the population. “There aren’t enough people that look like you and me, Solomon. I mean blacks and browns,” she argued. I had never heard that contention before and it hadn’t come across my mind. I told her that I agreed there were relatively few minorities in Congress, but there was an infinite number of ways to divide a population. She asked me what I meant and I provided the example of those who were right-handed or left-handed. “Should 10% of those in Congress be left-handed?” She thought about it and shrugged. I asked her about obesity and whether 30 percent of Congress should be obese. (In 2013, the obesity rate was 27%). We smiled, laughed, and started to talk about something else.
I don’t believe my classmate had any bigoted motives when she shared her opinion, but that can’t be said of the Left, which pushes “diversity” that divides and fractures our society.
Intimidation
Besides intersectionality, the Left also uses intimidation through name-calling, coercion, and cancel culture. If a person says that biological males shouldn’t compete in sports designated for biological females, then that person is labeled transphobic. In the California recall election, the L.A. Times condemned Larry Elder as the black face of white supremacy. American academic and author Michael Eric Dyson similarly labeled Winsome Sears as a black mouth for white supremacy.
Now, let’s examine coercion. Look at Biden’s vaccine mandates. Even though courts have struck this down, OSHA temporarily suspended its enforcement, and the Senate rebuked the mandate, people have already lost their jobs and many more are currently at risk of losing their ability to provide for themselves and their families unless they get vaccinated. A person is forced to decide between their bodily autonomy or their livelihood.
Biden, the president with the most votes cast for him in U.S. history, says that he cares more about people getting vaccinated than people being fired from their jobs. He and many on the Left are telling people that if they want to make money and enjoy certain pleasures in society, they must allow an unknown number of doses of new medicine that they may or may not need into their bodies for an unknown period of time.
So much for the Left being proponents of “My Body, My Choice!” But that is a different article.
There is also intimidation through cancel culture.
American rapper Nicki Minaj was slammed by the media for simply sharing a story about what happened with someone in her social network after he got the COVID-19 vaccine. “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling was canceled for acknowledging the biological facts concerning gender (even after sharing her love and support for trans individuals), and recently wasn’t invited to the Harry Potter reunion. Actress Jodie Comer received hate for simply dating James Burke, a lacrosse player who happened to be a Trump supporter.
The Left tries to pride itself on “diversity,” “inclusivity,” and “tolerance" but they don’t actually practice what they preach. Leftists excoriate anyone who dares to disagree with their ideas, including their allies.
Indoctrination
Let’s look at indoctrination through media. Take the Kyle Rittenhouse court case. A clear case of self-defense was turned into a racially-charged media circus that involved repeated lies and ridiculous accusations. Lies were told about him crossing state lines with the AR-15, being a vigilante, blaming whiteness for the final not-guilty verdict, and comparing Rittenhouse to slave catchers. It became so absurd that Ana Kasparian, co-host of The Young Turks, came out and admitted that she bought into the false narrative and made a mistake. While Kasparian and her apology deserve respect, this is all too rare in the media.
We saw the opposite with Big Tech censoring the very true story about corrupt Hunter Biden and one of his forsaken laptops. It was labeled “Russian Disinformation” by “former intel officials” and Jen Psaki.
Remember: it’s not just what the media tells you, it’s also what they don’t tell you. The Left holds vast power in the media and will promulgate whatever it wants to tell whether it is true or not. Anything they don’t want you to hear, they throttle and censor.
There is also indoctrination in academia. In California, a cowardly professor begged for forgiveness for the great sin of acknowledging biological sex. A professor, Marc Lamont Hill, claimed boldly that men can “sometimes” get pregnant and have periods.
Public schools demand that whites reflect on their whiteness and apologize for it. Grading policies are being changed for the sake of “racial and other disparities.” These policies are racist.
Project Veritas exposed Gabriel Gipe, a California pro-Antifa teacher, who shared that he had 180 days to turn his students into “revolutionaries.”
The list of examples goes on and on. But what’s most important is recognizing the political Left’s modus operandi: Divide and conquer. They divide people from each other through arbitrary intersectional groups. They conquer individuals by intimidating them into silence and submission. Finally, they indoctrinate people into abandoning correct and righteous principles while accepting narratives and paradigms founded in lies and wokeness.
America has become a godless nation. We need the remedy of 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” America is the greatest country to ever exist, but we must humble ourselves and cry out for forgiveness. Let us acknowledge America has a flawed past and present, yet aspires to be good. Let us learn from our mistakes and milestones and build a greater tomorrow.
Solomon Green is a writer and podcaster. His writings can be found on Thinkspot, Merion West, the Christian Post, and Medium. He hosts the podcast "One More Thing With Solo Green", which can be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other sites where podcasts are available. His work mostly focuses on Culture and Politics. To send in your questions, comments, podcast topic suggestions, or business inquiries, you can best reach him at: [email protected].
