Note: This is for those who are curious about our “We Don’t Want It” bumper sticker. And it is on behalf of the President and all Republicans that we want to give our Hispanic background Americans a special note of praise: In a country that is being looted, burnt out and just generally PCed to death by something called The Resistance it is heartening to see people Resisting back.
Those Americans of the Hispanic background are doing this through their admirable trait of resisting Identity Politics – rather than joining it. It is not that they have not been invited to join the world of Identity Politics: they have simply tended to resist. So, for their benefit, I am reprinting an article from our Current News! Page that shows how Identity Politics is taking over – and the fearsome cost that often comes with it when it does. After the reprint, I will finish with a final note to those of you who want to be a part of My Resistance, i.e., those resisting The Resistance with its lawless, PC, Identity Politics chaos.
Start of Reprint:
CULTURE WATCH VII – JUNETEENTH? NOT JUST NO – BUT HELL NO! (Posted 7/22/20)
Like all important issues, there is always something of a back story. Before I get specifically in the Juneteenth, etc. issues, let me first walk the reader through three recent incidents from our past.
Incident One: The Day That Many People Became Anti-Immigration. I cannot state the exact date, but I can state the exact type of incident and the approximate date. I was in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State during the early 80s. A sign had just been put up in both Spanish and English – and for the first time. And, at least in my area of the world, this was the first time, and the first date, for the starting of the Great Rift on the immigration debate.
Whether the perception was right, wrong or indifferent it was perceived that – for the first time – a group of people had come into the country for the purposes of NOT assimilating. For this is what the immigration debate is actually – and has always been – about: it is simply about assimilation. Neither the President (nor any Republican that I am aware of) has ever had objections to any type of a person coming so long as they stick to the script: you can come here as anything BUT, once here, you become only an American and you are no longer anything else! You do not come here to NOT assimilate.
Incident Two: The Rise of the Self-Righteous Nit Pickers. Forgive me if I am aging myself but something from a long time ago: “Aye, aye, aye, aye (strum, strum, strum, strum, strum) … I am the Frito-Bandito (strum, strum)” so went a commercial sung to mariachi music. And, as far as anyone could tell, they were simply amusing commercials that sold products. Which was then pulled off the air for … being racially offensive. Now, I have no position on the merits of the matter one way or the other – and forget that for the moment. Instead, consider the old maxim about knowing where to pick your fights.
Suppose you are nit picking a fight over something that has no roots in racial prejudice, invokes no racial prejudice and is enjoyable to viewers (and of all races) without causing any problems to anyone? And I am certain beyond a certainty that not one single American became more ‘racist’ because of that commercial. So, why was it a smart way to do the picking of a fight? Do we really help ourselves if we are constantly a bunch of stuffed shirts just waiting around to get offended?
And while I, again, have no real interest in the matter (one way or the other) let’s fast forward to Confederate paraphernalia. To quote a frequently expressed point of view: “Were one to think of the Confederacy they could think of it as a strictly one-dimensional issue about the use of slaves (or they could not look at it that way?) Then, if one wanted to do the construing, they could construe anything connected to the Confederacy to be endorsing slaves. Therefore, I further construe that you have to expunge anything Confederate or you are a racist slave advocate.” (Or maybe it is just a little less of the construing that is in order?)
The problem is two-fold: it blurs the line between never forget and never forgive. There is, in fact, a way in which everyone should remember the Confederacy: The ancestors of the Slave holders need to learn the necessary lessons about what caused it – and the ancestors of the slaves need to learn the necessary forgiveness towards those who caused it. Both things are crucial – and both things are currently AWOL.
But secondly, and most important, is that a self-righteous nitpicker is simply never satisfied. I knew that we would wind up where we are today – and that being the Perfect Acquiescent Society would just lead to further excesses down the road. I would rather live in a country where a small part of the population has some type of an interest in the Old Confederacy – and that is then addressed through intelligent discussions. Than today’s country where everyone is required to hold the same views, no discussions are allowed, and you simply try to expunge things that you do not like. Thus, we come to the next incident.
Incident Three: The Intellectual Equivalent of the Book Burners. (And the end results of being the Perfect Acquiescent Society). I refer, of course, to the present situation of statue slayers, rioters and looters. Like their forerunners, the self-righteous nit pickers, this group has all the same traits of shallowness, being self-righteous and being judgmental.
1) The shallow mentality: everything from the past is garbage therefore destroy everything from the past. (And, being the lofty goal that it is, vigilante styled action is acceptable also.)
2) The self-righteousness: as though we are not all perfectly aware of the past – we are. But there might be some differences on the takeaway, that is, the question of where we go from here. Traditionally, if you do not understand why my takeaway about the past might be different than yours then we used to have something called a discussion. It is where you do something called talk (and, preferably, in a two-way manner) and where you do not do things called loot and burn.
3) The judgmentalism: My apologies but judgment belongs to God. We are only permitted to never forget – not to never forgive. I will neither judge you – nor will I permit myself to be judged by you. It is not going to happen. So, we finally get down to the topic of this article …
Incident Four: The Juneteenth (and Alternative National Holidays) Suggestions. First: A context issue. I have worked in the retail industry and am, therefore, aware of Cinco de Mayo (An Independence holiday relating to events in Mexico). A lot of celebration goes into it and it is clearly a fun occasion BUT no one has ever seriously put it forward as an equal footing to July the 4th (or even, as the BLMers do for ‘Juneteenth’, a replacement for it). So … in the spirit of taking my own advice (and not being a stuffed shirt waiting around to be offended by things) I see no real problems with it.
However, I do have real concerns about things like Kwanzaa and/or Juneteenth. This is getting into the area of different National Holidays for different racial groups – a ‘Don’t Touch’ area by my book. Look at Kwanzaa for a moment:
“Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African American culture held from December 26 to January 1, culminating in gift-giving and a feast of faith, called Karamu Ya Imani. It was created by Maulana Karenga and first celebrated in 1966. (!) Kwanzaa has become more commercialized while observance of the holiday has waned.”
Perhaps, I am excessively blunt but when you look at the dates involved (and examine the creator – his name was actually a Ronald Everett) isn’t it, arguably, just a lot of faked up whatnot? No wonder you have the part about “has become more commercialized while observance of this holiday has waned.” (What holiday? Can someone just make something up out of the clear blue sky after giving themselves an Africanized surname??)
As to Juneteenth, it has somewhat more legitimacy. It does, for example, have a real history event behind it. The last slaves were freed on a June the 19th in 1865, thus, the ‘Juneteenth’ appellation. Also, there was a natural outpouring that you would expect to be associated with it for at least some time. However, after the passage of time, the predictable also happened again.
Most African Americans shifted to a forgiveness for the past and a looking forward to the future. Fixations on being enslaved waned considerably and the date fell into disuse. That is why, in my years in retail, I never witnessed any purchasing connected to either Kwanzaa or a ‘Juneteenth’. Thus, the desire for a revival has always tended to be as a political statement by political activists.
But now it is to total excess! Don’t even celebrate the 4th of July at all (because that is Whitey’s day of liberation – not ours?). Or put it on an equal footing as separate holidays? This is where I take my position of not only “No” but “Hell No!” And my reasoning is simple: just look at any other human relationship.
Let us say I tell my wife that I am going back to my pre-marital era and am pulling something out of it to be my main focus. That I am officializing our separate histories and perspectives and may even put them on an equal footing – or as a replacement – to some things we have previously shared together.
But what is wrong with that? After all, I do have a previous separate existence before I met my wife, don’t I? And I am not (necessarily) saying that I am going do this wholesale and, say, starting from right now am I? So, what is wrong with it?
What is wrong with it is that, unless you a total dumb bunny, you still know that it is a first step towards getting a divorce – all of the intellectualizing and rationalizing notwithstanding. I know we are in the middle of a strained relationship right now with some African American citizens – but I am still not in favor of us winding up with a divorce coming out of it.
And I conclude with the main point from the three prior incidents. Does anyone still really believe that a Perfect Acquiescent Society can pacify people with half measures? That if you will acquiesce just one more time, in one more small measure that everyone will finally love each other?
I don’t believe it. So not only am I opposed to the African American citizens (and us) winding up with a divorce from one another. I am just as opposed to any half measures (like separate National Holidays) that might be even so much as a one initial step that could lead towards it. There are some people who simply cannot be satisfied; so do not even try to!
End of Reprint.
So, there you have it. We are in the middle of all of our current turmoil, ostensibly, because of a George Floyd. But Floyd has zilch to do with it. George Floyd, while alive, practiced none of their evil behavior (burning people out, beating them, looting them, etc). – and believed in none of their nut-bagged points of view (Blame Whitey for all of your problems, De-fund the police, etc.)
It is just vintage Resistance to use someone, when they are no longer able to speak for themselves, to push for more of their Identity Politics. There is nothing about what is going on that is a natural follow up to Floyd’s awful death. It is merely the natural end point – that you will always wind up at – when people get too enmeshed in Identity Politics.
Therefore I say “Viva to those Americans of Hispanic ancestry who do NOT do Identity Politics. Continue to remain exactly the way that you are! Continue to Resist The Resistance! Politica De La Identidad? We Don’t Want It!!!”