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In Defense of Multiracial Americanism

To broaden its assault on traditional American culture and values, and to account for the large and growing number of conservatives who are not “white,” the Left has now come up with a new concept, “multiracial whiteness.”

This term sprang into prominence with a guest column by Cristina Beltran published in the Washington Post last month. Beltran acknowledged that Trump’s performance with Latino voters actually improved between 2016 and 2020. She also acknowledged the “clearly Latino or African American” faces showing up in the January 6 incident at the U.S. capitol. Everything Beltran claims in her column is designed to further castigate “whiteness,” while acknowledging there are significant percentages of nonwhites who, as she puts it, “fervently backed the MAGA policy agenda, including its delusions and conspiracy theories.”

For example, one of the favored targets of the “antiracist” movement in the United States is the Proud Boys, who Beltran describes as a “neo-fascist” group. Their leader, Enrique Tarrio, is Afro-Cuban, which makes him Beltran’s prime example of so-called toxic “multiracial whiteness.” She claims the appeal of multiracial whiteness to nonwhites is “politics of aggression, exclusion, and domination.”

This sort of message isn’t restricted to leftist academics anymore. Beltran, a professor of “social and cultural analysis” at New York University, and her cohorts throughout academia now have the entire weight of America’s establishment institutions behind them.

Being “Less White”

A notorious and very recent example of institutionalized corporate anti-whiteness is a training seminar Coca-Cola posted for its employees, featuring tips on “how to be less white.” One of the slides (since taken down) stated that to “be less white” Coca-Cola employees (the white ones) should “be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less ignorant, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy, break with white solidarity.”

To review this list, one must immediately ask why these characteristics (arrogance, defensiveness, apathy) are particularly “white.” One might also wonder why this list of behaviors to be cut out wouldn’t be something everyone should adopt. Finally, it raises the question, shall nonwhites be oppressive, arrogant, certain, defensive, ignorant, and so on?

Coca-Cola is hardly unique. “Being less white” is just the latest mutation in a diversity industry that has made thousands of consultants and authors rich, and provided phony moral fodder for leftists across the full spectrum of the American Left, ranging from grassroots Antifa militants to the biggest corporations on the planet. But by moving from mandating “equity, inclusion, and diversity” to actively denigrating “whiteness,” the diversity industry has exposed an inherent contradiction in its message.

A recent poster, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution as part of their “talking about race” project, since removed from their website (but available here), defined the following “aspects and assumptions of whiteness” in the United States: self-reliance, objective and rational thinking, hard work as the key to success, respect for private property, delayed gratification, punctuality, reverence, precise use of language, being polite, and so on.

So which is it? Is “whiteness” all of these virtuous traits that any sane individual would hope to emulate and would hope to teach their children to emulate, or is “whiteness” merely a culture of “aggression, exclusion and domination?”

Since there is an astonishing amount of money to be made in the diversity industry, intelligent, slightly mad scholars are doing their utmost to square that circle. Consider the movement towards “math equity” in America’s public schools and universities. In this convoluted but very sophisticated con, teachers and administrators are encouraged to deny the validity of fundamental concepts in math. If you read their material, they don’t always come right out and say that. It would almost be better if they did.

Instead, imagine being an elementary school teacher required to fill out this 82-page “Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction.” What about just teaching kids in primary school to memorize multiplication tables? Might that not prepare them for life more than receiving instruction from cowed teachers who are desperately trying to tiptoe their way through an expansive, tedious, microscopically obsessive, mandatory curriculum that sees “white supremacy” embedded in every equation, and obscures its myriad contradictions by using weird, invented terminology and byzantine complexity? Kafka would be proud.

A Battle for Civilization

The battle being fought, and so far being won, by the pro-diversity, anti-whiteness movement, is not going to uplift people of color. But it may succeed in tearing down American and Western culture. It is telling that the formative motto of the Proud Boys was never oriented to “whiteness.” Instead they have called themselves “western chauvinists.” Just exactly how toxic is this? Where does “pride” overflow into “supremacy.” According to the anti-whiteness movement, there is no distinction. They cancel it all, as soon as it crops up, without explanation or appeal.

But there is a distinction. The values of Western Civilization, helpfully identified by the Smithsonian Institution as “whiteness,” are the values that enabled the ascendancy of Western culture, including breakthroughs in science and individual rights that have made Western nations including America the most desirable places in the world to live, and have bequeathed to all humanity the most transformative and beneficial innovations the world has ever seen. Is recognizing this fact an act of pride, or chauvinism?

You don’t have to be a fan of the Proud Boys to embrace pride in Western culture and want to be part of it. The list of black activists and scholars who are aggressively pushing back against the patronizing and destructive message of the pro-diversity, anti-whiteness movement is long and growing. These activists don’t have to be labeled as members of some supposedly toxic “multiracial whiteness” gang of alleged reactionaries. They can be more accurately classified as promoting “multiracial Americanism.”

Here are expressions of American pride from some of these rising leaders, in their own words:

From Representative Byron Donalds (R-Fla.): “Today, Florida honors the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and radio legend, Rush Limbaugh. His legacy on and off the radio will live on forever.”

From Austin Chenge, candidate to become the next governor of Michigan, “I will cancel Black History Month in Michigan. It’s offensive, unfair, maybe illegal . . . Americans from all backgrounds deserve a revered history. I’ll declare American History Month.”

From Jevon Williams, member of U.S. Virgin Islands board of elections, “Nikki Haley misread the political tea leaves. Donald Trump is going nowhere! We will take our country back!

The incomparable Candace Owens, with this gem, “If a corporate company sent around a training kit instructing black people how to ‘be less black,’ the world would implode and lawsuits would follow. I genuinely hope these employees sue @CocaCola for blatant racism and discrimination.”

Or from the streetwise Kash Lee Kelly,  who posted on January 7, “This isn’t an end for us and changes nothing. We are a new type of American and will always stand and fight when necessary. Stand ready patriots.”

These quotes are the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of black Americans who aren’t merely part of the populist conservative, pro-Trump movement but who are leaders in this movement. And tens of thousands more are stepping up. Here, in no particular order are profiles of just a few:

Jamarcus Dove, Joel Patrick, David Harris Jr, Kimberly Klacik, KingFace, Mike Nificent, Mind of Jamal, Old School Patriot, Peggy Hubbard, Project 21 Black Leadership Network, Robert Patillo, Shekinah, That Guy T, The Conservative Circus, The Officer Tatum, Unite America, First, White House Brief, Diamond & Silk, Wayne Dupree, The Hodgetwins, Adventist Hermes, Jesse Lee Peterson, Pastor Mark Burns, Patricia Dickson, Stacy Dash, Star Parker, The Right Brothers, Malcolm Flex, Christian Deron, Major Williams, Errol Webber, Unhyphenated America, Inaya Folarin Iman, Kmele, The Christian Conservative, Carol Swain, Larry Elder, Some Black Guy, Terrence K Williams, Antonia Okafor, Bryson Gray, Chandler Crump, CJ Pearson, Common Sense Conservative, Conservative Nation.

These leaders, all of whom happen to be black, are not part of some dangerous “multiracial whiteness” phenomenon. They are part of a new movement, slowly and inexorably attaining seismic, irresistible strength, that can be described as multiracial Americanism. The danger they present, if you want to call it that, only applies to the leftist careerists, the corporate whores, the political hacks, and the anti-American fanatics who are bent on destroying everything that makes American great.

 

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About Edward Ring

Edward Ring is a senior fellow of the Center for American Greatness. He is also the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. Ring is the author of Fixing California: Abundance, Pragmatism, Optimism (2021) and The Abundance Choice: Our Fight for More Water in California (2022).

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