Divided we stand

The Real Racists of North America

Gabriel Scorgie // Columnist

Over the past two weeks, I have unsuccessfully been trying to write about several topics for this column. No matter which one I chose, they all failed to take a bite out of their respective issue without becoming bloated, so what started out as a side dish has now become the main course.

One of the most powerful words has been bankrupt of all it’s currency. To call someone a racist is now almost entirely meaningless. The charge of racism has been relegated to a misdemeanor, a pardonable offence that doesn’t have to be intentional, that doesn’t have to have been directed at a person of colour and that doesn’t have to do any real damage. When Pewdiepie can be a racist for calling someone the n-word in a video game, then the word has died. The AV Club’s article, “Pewdiepie Did Something Racist Again”, should make an adequate murder suspect.

After the word “racist” became too mundane to describe him, Donald Trump got promoted to a white supremacist. They killed one word, moved on to the next, and started their stroll down a dangerous path. I wasn’t the only person on Aug. 11 who, after hearing there were racists marching in the streets of Charlottesville, was surprised to see the media was correct in their assessment. When being called a racist becomes a normal accusation, we lose the ability to identify the real people who intend to do harm.

As a supporter of racial-realism, a branch of science that looks to uncover biological differences between ethnic groups, Jared Taylor holds some of the most reprehensible views when it comes to race. Taylor believes that Black and Hispanic people are inherently more violent and less intelligent than their white counterparts. He is an advocate for a white nation state and has been able to promote these views on several talk shows and podcasts without push back from the interviewers. Why? Because being a racist is no longer a serious enough accusation to have your opinions met with skepticism. When important language becomes obsolete, we allow people like Taylor, a white supremacist who deserves to feel every ounce of shame and disapproval that label is meant to carry, a chance to talk without confrontation.

This is the result of the retrograde idea that you should think with your epidermis. The point of the original civil rights movement was to make people’s biology irrelevant, not to put it at the forefront of every discussion.

People are so quick to describe themselves by their skin colour, gender and sexual orientation that to acknowledge someone as an individual and not by a hierarchy of genetic traits is almost offensive. When you’re told that what you look like is what dictates your experience on this planet, every unpleasant encounter will be bathed in a prejudiced light. This is not to say there is no discrimination. It’s as ignorant to think nobody discriminates, but to have such a narrow view will leave you blind to bigger problems.

Some people, knowing I’m a white male, will scoff and say what I write is a typical display of white privilege. It’ll take two seconds to say, require not a moment of thought and in their mind all my claims will be dismissed. It’s exactly that kind of flippancy that rots the English language and allows the most odious sort of human to ooze out from the sewers and join the rest of society. Words aren’t violence, but they do have power – and it’s in everyone’s best interest to treat them with the seriousness they deserve.