The Dark Side Of Colour-Blindness
Why I Reject "White Essentialism"
At its core the concept of color blindness is the opposite of race essentialism. But to over-interpret color blindness to the point where race, and the part it plays in identity, specifically concerning white people, becomes something spoken of only in hushed tones, it seems to me is to practice a form of paranoid avoidance that is surely just deferring trouble. This potential for trouble is greatly exacerbated by the fact that it is only white people who are being asked to erase themselves out of existence.
The funny thing is, so-called oppressed groups like trans people, will often claim that their very existence is denied or threatened, when there is no such constituency of any real size or influence, who openly advocate for trans people not to exist. However, proto-genocidal language directed at whiteness (a sinister term that really just means white people), is religiously propagated throughout western societies.
What is needed is a course-correction to counter the great illiberal subversion currently attacking western societies (most notably the majority populations). An anti-woke movement is required that values liberal science, objectivity, viewpoint diversity, speech and academic freedom - all things tied to heterodoxy.
In addition, a counter-woke resistance must reject race essentialism, group identity based ideological diversity, the victim/perpetrator dichotomy, patriarchy theory, Critical Theory, the prioritizing of impact over intent, and disparity fallacy (the idea that all disparities are evidence of discrimination) - all things related to postmodern identity politics.
A First Principles Approach To Race And Ethnicity
In my view, a universal conception of humanity must be durable and lasting. It must represent the course-correction mentioned, and it must be well-considered that the chosen direction and ultimate destination be one which maximally optimizes our imagined structures of human association, towards a baseline of equality quashing all notions of privilege, and naively reductive conceptions like the victim/perpetrator dichotomy, the disparity fallacy, or the fallacy of impact over intent.
I say “imagined structures” as a hat tip to the great Benedict Anderson, who wrote about nationalism - and described nations as “imagined communities.” In the same sense I also see ethnicity as an imagined structure in the form of a social/cultural construct. Identity, being a derivative of these constructs, is nothing more than an amalgamation of a persons most intimate imaginings, where the source material of those imaginings are the ethno-myths of the culture one is born into. Like Anderson with regards to nations, I don’t judge any of these things on the basis of their false-ness. I judge them on their depth and creativity and the pro-human value expressed at both the individual and social level.
That constructs related to community or identity do not exist in tangible forms matters little. What does, is people interfacing organically and frictionlessly with each other, conflating their overlapping cosmologies of myths & traditions into a shared cultural substrate. When individuals draw from it, in personally relevant, selective and self-directed fashions, a truly beautiful loop of authentic communal association is created. A situation optimized for the individual and the greater society.
Race, I see largely as an insignificant biological structure that, like cultural constructs, is not permanently fixed. All people started in Africa with black skin. Some migrated north where over thousands of years, due to environmental pressures and the availability of key natural resources, they began to evolve and develop differently. One of the biological consequences of their new environment was that it lightened their skin.
This biological mutation (loss of skin pigmentation), is by far the least interesting part of the story. But to say it’s not interesting at all, seems disingenuous. The white skin of these people is little more than a visual marker of the descendants of the group who migrated north out of Africa. This is good news. It is a story involving a common link; that all people share a single human heritage. A first principles approach to race recognizes this as a historical fact of human evolution, migration and cultural development, while making no value judgements elevating any group over another.
A color-blind conception of society, if taken too literally, runs the danger of ignoring the fact that, while intermarriage is increasing in the west, the vast majority of Canadians - and this is true of people all over the world - will self-sort into a social pattern that primarily involves others of like-kind.
Race is only a single marker - albeit an instantly recognizable visual marker - that allows people to generalize both themselves and others into relevant ethnic categories. Even though, when it comes to race and ethnicity, the lines of delineation are not always so distinct, and many mixed race people identify with a mix of ethno-traditions related to their unique mixed-ethnic configuration.
To me, the ethno-traditions of different groups are what make them interesting and distinct. In contrast, the race aspect of a given ethnicity is the least interesting as it is simply skin deep. However, the field of demographics is forever presenting the public with statistics that divide groups by ethnicity. For example, instead of breaking down Asians into the various ethnic Asian sub-categories, the reports usually lump all Asians into a single category; Asian. This is done with black, white and indigenous, etc. Instead of differentiating ethnic white Anglo-Saxon protestants from other subcategories of “white ethnicities,” we lump them all into one category; white.
The point of demographic analysis of this type should not be to blame a specific macro-ethnic group for doing better or worse regarding any given socio-economic outcome. The utility of ethnic classification should be focused on the sub-cultures of each ethnicity. The work of James Flynn illustrated, for example, that Asian students get higher marks, because on average their parents make them do much more homework (a characteristic of their subculture). Asian-Canadians, regardless of what level of Canadian ethno-traditions they may choose to adopt, are statistically likely to bring their habits of prioritizing homework and intense study to Canada, and pass those Asian cultural values of studiousness to their Canadian born children.
A first principles, grown-up approach, to dealing with education outcome disparities, would be to put programs in place that would model what works for Asians (since we know they are doing the best), and empower all other families to more productively approach homework with their children. Or, maybe instead of spending money on antiracism and diversity re-education, an investment in tutors for kids in single parent homes (where it is very difficult for a parent to spend enough time doing homework with their children, this I know from experience).
White Essentialism
First, let me describe why a poorly conceived post-ethnic society, which only demands white people actually be post-ethnic, will only lead to conflict.
As long as demographers continue measuring things along ethnic lines and journalists continue publishing those measurements; as long as we have a Black Entertainment Television or a Parents of Black Children; or, The Chinese Cultural Center of Toronto; Jewish Federation Of Canada; World Sikh Organization of Canada; the Canadian department of The International Working Group For Indigenous Affairs; The Council Of Agencies Serving South Asians; Black Health Alliance; Etc. - as long as these things persist, in a culture shared by white people (who hold a declining share of the population), and there continues to be no counterpart organizations that represent ethnically white people (ie. WASP’s), there is a virtual guarantee of future increased white resentment - especially in the face of the shifting demographics seen in steep and sudden declines of the white share of the population - leading to potential ethnic conflicts we should be able to see coming.
A further listing of non-white ethnically oriented Canadian organizations could go on for pages. There are so many of these groups in Canada it's not possible to list them all.
When I type “black groups in Canada” into google the top results give me 1) 19 Organizations supporting black Canadians 2) Ten Organizations That Empower Black Communities In Canada 3) The Federation Of Black Canadians 4) 20 Antiracism Organizations You Can Support 4) 15 Organizations Cultivating Black Talent In Canada
When I type in “white groups in Canada” the top results are:
1)-Far Right Extremist Groups - Right Wing Hate Groups 2) Hate Is Canada’s National Crises - We Charity 3) White Nationalism And Right Wing Extremism Aren’t New To Canada - CBC 4) Dismantle White Supremacist And Neo-Nazi Groups In Canada - NDP
Imagine you were an alien who just arrived in Canada, and upon noticing that there are both white and black Canadians, you performed the preceding Google search. What would you think?
If you aren’t convinced by this Google experiment, perhaps you might be by the next one. In 2019 Douglas Murray included in his book (The Madness Of Crowds) published that year, a description of the results of two google image searches, one for “white couples” the other for “black couples.” I’ve produced a slightly different version of that experiment, by simply searching “white people” and then “black people,” and the results were consistent with What Douglas Murray discovered in 2019.
These are the results starting from the first image (top left corner) through the third row of image results (15 images in total), given in the order presented by Google.
White People (Google image search):
1) An image of Robin DiAngelo - author of the best-seller White Fragility, with the caption reading - “Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism.”
2) Another image of Robin DiAngelo, this time with the caption - “Why white people can’t face up to racism.”
3) Random white dude, with the caption - “4 Ways That White Supremacy Harms White People.”
4) A photo of Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, with a caption - “FLORIDA ADVANCES BILL THAT WOULD BAN MAKING WHITE PEOPLE FEEL BAD ABOUT RACISM, AND NO, THAT’S NOT A JOKE.” - and yes it’s written in all caps so we really get it!
5) A picture of George Floyd, a black man murdered by a white police officer.
6 - 10) Are all photos of black people
11) A slightly racially ambiguous white-passing woman, with the caption - “Conversations about race between Black and white friends feel risky, but are valuable, Stanford psychologists find”
12) A black woman, with the caption - “What happens when I try to talk race with white people.”
13) A black & white photo of about 10 black people (no white people in the shot).
14) A white man with teary eyes, and a slightly out of focus Asian guy in the near background, with a caption - “The Trouble With White People.”
15) A Black Lives Matter meme. It's a drawing in color, but features the colorless outlines of 6 white people sitting around a boardroom table. In the center of the table is the Black Lives Matter logo, three of the white people are holding letters - a “B” an “L” and an “A” - the other three don’t have letters yet. The caption reads - “It’s Time For White People To Have Tough Conversations.” - the inference being that the three holding letters, who are shown sitting together, are having the “tough conversation” with the three letter-less ones on the other side of the table (the missing letters being the “C” and “K” needed to spell “black”).
Again, what sort of general impression would our alien get - after encountering Canadians for the first time and conducting the above google searches - and more importantly, what sort of conclusions would he reach? Before we attempt to answer, let’s go through the results of the google image search for “black people.”
Black People (Google image search):
1) The same photo of a group of black people that was in the #13 position on the “white people” image results. The caption reads - “6 myths about the history of Black people in America” - which links to a Vox article. The first sentence of that article - “To study American history is often an exercise in learning partial truths and patriotic fables. Textbooks and curricula throughout the country continue to center the white experience, with Black people often quarantined to a short section about slavery and quotes by Martin Luther King Jr. “
2) A photo of a black woman, with the caption - “Allissa Richardson: 'It’s telling that we’re OK with showing black people dying'. - Black Lives Matter Movement.”
3) A photo of 18 black people, with the caption - “Fixing Systemic Racism: 19 Black Economists You Should Know About - Fortune”
4) A photo of a cute little black girl (maybe 3 or 4 years old), the caption reads - “How Young Black People In Care Made Their Voices Heard.”
5) A Photo of 10 black people showing the range in the visual spectrum of blackness (from light-skin to dark-skin), with the caption - “Facts About The U.S. Black Population - Pew Research”
6) A photo of 8 black people, with the caption - “Being Black In America: We Have A Place In this World Too - NPR.”
7) A photo of a black woman, with the caption - “African American In The ‘Raceless’ Soviet Union - Penn Today.”
8) A photo of Chris Rock (a black man) with the caption, “It’s Not Black People Who Have Progressed, It’s White People - Vox.” Interestingly, this is the same photo and caption that appears in the #6 spot on the “white people” google image search result page.
9) A photo of U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson (a black woman). The caption reads - “When Black People Refuse To Quietly Endure Tolerance, Amazing Things Can Happen - SF Chronicle.”
10) A photo of a black women, with the caption - “FINDING BLACK PEOPLE IN ANTIQUITY: TALKING THE FUTURE OF CLASSICS WITH SARAH DERBEW”
11) A Photo of a smiling Will Smith (a black man), with the caption - “What’s The Real Reason Why Black Celebs Are Still So Angry With Will Smith - The Guardian”
12) An emotional photo of 4 crying black men attending a West Baltimore protest over the death of Freddie Gray. The caption reads - “The Familial Language of Black Grief - The Atlantic.”
13) A photo of former U.S. president, Donald Trump, with the caption - “Stock Are Soaring, And Most Black People Are Missing Out - ABC News.”
14) A photo of a black woman, with the caption - “Nobody Thinks Black People Can Be Barristers - BBC News”
15) A drawing of a man in black face, with a caption that reads - “How The History of Black Face Is Rooted In Racism.”
White People vs. Black People Google Image Search Results
The first observation I made when comparing these results was that the Black People group returned images that contained captions with either pro-black or anti-white sentiments or both. While the White People Group, as our hypothetical alien might assume, did not contain any pro-white or anti-black sentiment what-so-ever. In fact the sentiments were entirely pro-black and anti-white. This means that regardless of searching for images of white or black people, the captions of all images will contain pro-black / anti-white propaganda.
The second glaringly obvious thing I noticed was, on the black people page, there were actual photos of black people. I mean, the search was for images of black people, so you would expect Google to present that. And they did, there were a total of 58 black people to be seen in the first three rows of results. There was also one image of a non-black person; Donald Trump. And one drawing of a non-black person depicted in black face.
Compare this to the white people search results. In the group of 15 images, there were only 6 appearances of white people, and Robin DiAngelo appears twice. However, there were 17 black people, 1 Asian person, and a BLM cartoon.
This is race essentialist and anti-white. A type of bigotry that selectively essentializes, others, problematizes, and seeks to erase only white groups, is what I call white essentialism. A pro-human universal conception of humanity cannot be a white essentialist one. I predict that, given a situation where white essentialism continues indefinitely, once pushed to its limits, and once the ethnic white majority’s share of the population decreases sufficiently, the result will be a highly predictable reactionary conflict.
The only reason that white essentialism is permitted, is because white ethnic groups (ie. WASP’s) form an overwhelming majority. However, Canada is projected to take on the majority-minority demographic pattern achieved for the first time in the largest city, Toronto, in 2016. By 2050 Canada will be a majority-minority. Under the situation brought about by this projected demographic composition, white essentialism will become utterly intolerable for many, if not a majority of whites. Can you see why? Can you understand that there is a sense of security when one is a member of a majority group, but as population share decreases, so does the sense of security.
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Thanks For Reading. For more on this topic - Demographic Transition And Populism - by James Pew (substack.com)
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