Guilty by Reason of Insanity

by David Limbaugh

  Fairfax defied the new rules of intersectionality, opting instead to fall back on the old norms of race alone. “As a matter of general principle, no one should challenge the fact that African American women have been marginalized regarding sexual assault claims,” said Fairfax. “Nor should anyone challenge the fact that African American men have been the targets of false allegations of sexual assault, whoever the accuser. We need a justice system that treats both accusers and the accused fairly and affords both due process.”26 He had a point, though his appeal to fairness, justice, and due process wasn’t in line with intersectionality’s hierarchical rules. And we certainly didn’t hear any Democrats arguing for due process and the presumption of innocence when Judge Brett Kavanaugh was falsely accused of sexual assault.

  “YOU DON’T MAKE PROGRESS ON HALF THE RACE”

  One convenient aspect of intersectionality is that it can shield victimizers as victims and serve as a perverse type of identity immunity. This is exactly what happened when Representative Ilhan Omar faced allegations of anti-Semitism. As minorities like Omar are among the historically oppressed, they have free rein to dump on historically oppressed whites, to wit: Jews. When Omar was under siege, fellow leftist Linda Sarsour defended her, saying she was “triggered by the constant defensive posture women of color leaders find themselves in.… We are put to higher standards than everyone else.” People, said Sarsour, “want to destroy us and liberals always play into it… liberals talk about smashing the patriarchy and standing with people of color and often times are the first people to throw women of color leaders under the bus to show how self-righteous they are and to appease angry white men… this is upholding white supremacy.”27

  If you reject meritocracy, why not reject accountability as well? It’s all part of the same logic. Identity trumps behavior. Omar can’t be culpable because of her disadvantaged identity. Sarsour’s Women’s March colleague Tamika Mallory made similar arguments, attempting to turn the tables on Omar’s oppressor-accusers. Mallory tweeted that “women of color are held to unreachable standards and scrutinized in a way no one else is.” She added that “we are also not given benefit of the doubt. Just based on who we are, people assume ill will. This is NOT okay. There’s racism at play.”28 So people are NOT allowed to call out Omar’s racist statements lest they be accused of racism themselves.

  Similarly, when Representative Rashida Tlaib came under fire for a column she had written in 2006 for Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic Nation of Islam, she invoked her identity as a woman of color to portray herself as a victim rather than a victimizer. Tlaib tweeted, “The hardest part of serving in Congress as a WOC [woman of color] & as a ‘first’ is how people hear you differently. No matter how much we take on the hate & stay true to who we are through our experiences, our voices are shushed and reduced. We aren’t perfect, but neither is this institution.”29 Yes, when someone calls you out for your racism, they must be trying to shut you up because of their own racism.

  THE SINS OF THE FATHER

  The left also uses intersectionality as a lens for examining religious discrimination. Since the American left sees Muslims as non-white and victimized, it overlooks gross violations of civil rights in Muslim countries. Intersectionality is not as forgiving of Christians, who are perceived to represent the top spot on the religious privilege hierarchy. Despite rampant persecution against them, Christians are not seen as victims. Open Doors USA reports that 215 million Christians—about 1 in 12 Christians worldwide—experience high levels of persecution by communist, Islamic, or other nationalist-religious regimes.30 Yet most of these incidents receive little media attention, much less political condemnation.31

  Like affirmative action, intersectionality is self-contradictory because it applies racist, sexist, and class solutions to address supposed problems rooted in racism, sexism, and classism. It’s one thing to be conscious of wrongs perpetrated against particular groups in history, but it’s another to demonize descendants of the identity groups believed responsible for such wrongs based solely on their identities. In effect you are discriminating against people based on their identities, not their behavior, which is as wrong in this case as in any other. Leftists make these classifications based on identity categories and ignore the actions and characters of individuals in the “privileged” groups. Our sense of justice can’t help but rebel against condemnation for things we had nothing to do with. Intersectionality encourages us to objectify human beings rather than view them as individuals. It’s immoral and destructive to the human spirit to exempt people from personal responsibility for their individual actions because they are a member of a disadvantaged identity group.

  Intersectionality’s proponents will doubtless claim that they are not demonizing white people or white men in particular but merely seeking redress for the historically disadvantaged. But you can’t witness their allegations of privilege and miss the ethos of resentment and blame. This sick thinking dominates the left. For example, the Library Journal, founded by Melvil Dewey, who originated the Dewey decimal system, tweeted, “Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries.”32 There you go—whiteness is evil. Actress Rosanna Arquette, sister of Patricia Arquette, expressed the same idea when she tweeted, “I’m sorry I was born white and privileged. It disgusts me.” In case her feelings weren’t clear she added, “And I feel so much shame.” Ironically, her self-denunciation provoked criticism from social justice warriors who accused her of taking full advantage of her privilege.33

  Even pointing out that whites are being categorically maligned can inspire charges of white supremacy. Those who demand an “honest” conversation about race should understand that many people feel they can’t speak freely without being wrongly accused of prejudice. As if to prove my point, race-baiting leftists have added another loony term to our dictionaries—“white fragility,” defined as “the tendency among members of the dominant white cultural group to have a defensive, wounded, angry, or dismissive response to evidence of racism.”34

  “WHITE WOMEN UPHOLD WHITE SUPREMACY THROUGH THEIR VOTE”

  “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but white people are awful,” writes RedState’s Alex Parker. “They’re just the worst. We have a relatively new term for all the people who aren’t the worst: people of color. Therefore, there are people who are of color, and there are people who are the worst. Those are the two races in America today.” Parker cites an example of how this thinking plays out. Actor Herve Villechaize, a dwarf, played Tattoo in the popular seventies show Fantasy Island Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, also a dwarf, portrayed Villechaize in the HBO movie My Dinner with Herve. When social justice warriors heard that Villechaize was a minority and Dinklage was not, they pounced. One person tweeted, “Umm Herve Villechaize is FILIPINO!!!! NOT WHITE!” Another said, “Love Peter Dinklage, but are folks just gonna ignore the fact that Herve Villechaize was Filipino?” He added the hashtag #whitewashedOUT. Yet another went further, tweeting, “No. No. NO. Shame on you, HBO. Herve Villechaize was French-born Filipino and British. Casting Dinklage in a wig and with a fake accent erases his real identity and tragic story and is a crushing blow to APA actors who could’ve owned this role.”35

  There you have it. One’s identity is based on his race, not his common humanity, a buzzword that liberals used to use, ironically, when virtue signaling harmony and solidarity was their thing. But harmony went the way of other liberal pet causes such as global cooling. As it turns out, with regard to Villechaize, the social justice warriors jumped the gun. Villechaize was actually of German, French, and English descent—pretty solidly white, in other words. This entire episode is silly and pathetic. It’s wrong for people to obsess over race. It is wretchedly dehumanizing to all concerned, and people who agree should express revulsion toward such thinking rather than standing fearfully silent or pretending to endorse it. It is the height of racism, in the name
of purging racism.

  Other examples of such divisive nonsense abound. Although Democrats and Never Trumpers hailed the 2018 congressional elections as a repudiation of Trump, some disgruntled leftists were outraged that the white vote trended Republican. Progressive activist Marisa Kabas tweeted, “deleted a couple tweets because I don’t think they accurately expressed what I was trying to say. White women uphold white supremacy through their vote. They have no qualms about hurting women of color, and that’s an objective truth.” If this was her preferred tweet, one wonders what the originals contained. Travon Free tweeted, “Black women voted 95% for [Democrat] Beto [O’Rourke]. White women did what white women do. #ElectionNight.” Leftist celebrity Chelsea Handler tweeted, “59% of white women voted for Ted Cruz. I don’t know what it is going to take for us to be sisters to other women, but we have to do better than this. We need to vote for the best interests of others, and stop thinking only about ourselves.”

  Handler was similarly agitated a few weeks before, when she denounced Fox for unveiling its new streaming platform, Fox Nation. She tweeted, “Fox News’ new paid streaming service ‘Fox Nation’ will launch later this year with daily programming from Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity. It’s for when you need a break from watching racists on your TV, so you can watch them on your computer.”36 These tweets illuminate another problem with intersectionality and leftist politics in general. Leftists like Handler get a pass in our culture and from the liberal media for such despicable remarks. They are immune from criticism when falsely alleging that conservatives, by virtue of their conservatism alone, are racist.

  On election night, another person tweeted, “Really, truly embarrassed that 76% of white women in Georgia voted for [Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian] Kemp. It’s shameful. Humiliating. Thinking about driving my ass down there next election and personally talking to as many of these fools as possible.” Another said, “White women: foot soldiers of the patriarchy.” There are countless other examples.37 The message is that white women can’t possibly promote their own interests if they vote Republican. Apparently, a robust economy, strong defense, and social conservatism only matter to white male patriarchs.

  The election defeats of African-American gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams (Georgia) and Andrew Gillum (Florida) triggered socialist icon Bernie Sanders. He told the Daily Beast following the election, “I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African American. I think next time around, by the way, it will be a lot easier for them to do that.” Apparently Bernie was unaware of any whites in either state having voted when Obama was on the ballot. But in the end, Bernie just couldn’t resist contradicting himself and blaming racism full-on. “I think [Gillum is] a fantastic politician in the best sense of the word,” said Sanders. “He stuck to his guns in terms of a progressive agenda. I think he ran a great campaign. And he had to take on some of the most blatant and ugly racism that we have seen in many, many years. And yet he came within a whisker of winning.”38 It’s not about race, but it is.

  CHILLING PRIVATE SECTOR SPEECH

  Many white progressives revel in attacking conservative whites for their alleged racism and yes, for simply being white. Senator Lindsey Graham became an immediate villain when he staunchly defended Supreme Court Justice nominee Bret Kavanaugh. Protestors accosted Graham when he exited the Senate office building and headed for his car. They called him “despicable” and promised to vote him out of office. They screamed at him, “You old, white, privileged patriarchy!”39

  Race-shaming is rampant in our culture. Fashion retailer Forever 21 stepped in it when its website showed a white male model wearing a sweater with the words “Wakanda Forever,” a reference to the movie Black Panther. One critic tweeted, “Hey @Forever21, in what universe did you think it was OK to feature a white model in Wakanda gear? Granted, chances are you knew it wasn’t OK, but still. As a Former #21 men brand specialist for the company, I’m highly offended.” Being offended is a badge of honor these days, especially if it’s for the right reasons and you have the proper pedigree. Another person tweeted, “Wow Forever 21 is tone deaf af. Colonizers aren’t praised in Wakanda. Try again.” Do you see how deep this goes? The hapless white model with a sweater promoting a black superhero movie is instantly demonized as a colonizer. This is too twisted for words.

  Naturally, Forever 21 didn’t dare object. The store instantly hit the ground groveling and apologized for offending the left. It deleted a tweet with the photo and deleted pictures of the evil youngster from its website. It tweeted, “Forever 21 takes feedback on our products and marketing extremely seriously. We celebrate all superheroes with many different models of various ethnicities and apologize if the photo in question was offensive in any way.”40

  But in what sane world would the photo be offensive? What is offensive is this entire charade. It’s not just the leftist cultural insanity that is so alarming but the widespread capitulation by people who are bullied and intimidated into conforming. Arguably, private sector intimidation is becoming as great a threat to free thought and expression as government encroachments.

  Similarly, Columbia University student Julian von Abele ruffled feathers when he filmed a video praising Europeans for building the modern world and expressing his love for white men. The university got wind of the incident and emailed undergraduates, condemning the “racially charged” incident and announcing they had begun an investigation. Von Abele responded on Twitter, denying charges of racism and hatred. “Nobody has explained what I said that was actually negative or racist, or insulting towards anybody else,” he said. “I was theatrically and sarcastically demonstrating that whites are not allowed to embrace their cultural achievements.” He added, “As everyone who has known me my whole life knows, I am a kind person and I don’t hate anyone, certainly not for their race or ethnicity.” The school newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, charged von Abele with harassing students of color and “spewing racist, white supremacist rhetoric.” Student senate member Alfredo Dominguez attributed the incident to allowing free speech on campus. “You can have arguments all you want about free speech and people being entitled to say what they want,” said Dominguez. “But when that bubbles [into] assaulting black or brown people with that and then stalking them… you’re getting into levels of hate crime and your speech being directly related to violence.”

  The article reported on a video supposedly showing von Abele berating a group of mainly black underclassmen with racist and white supremacist comments. The Black Student Organization and the Student Organization of Latinxs accused von Abele of physically grabbing another student and asking him if black women like to date white men. The video doesn’t corroborate any of these smears, but it does show one student touching von Abele’s chest and face.41 Abele explained that he made the video because he was tired of people using the term “white privilege” and other divisive rhetoric to dismiss others’ views. “Every single person should love themselves and their culture, and we should all be allowed to be proud of our heritage,” he said. He related that other students told him he had no right to express his views because he was male and white. But he said he was tired of being held personally responsible for others’ historical actions and of the divisive rhetoric that blames all society’s ills on white men. He added, “At no time did I shove, grab, or physically or verbally assault anyone, nor did I denigrate anyone’s race.”42 The alarming attitude of the Columbia Daily Spectator vindicates Abele’s concerns about his free expression rights. The incident shows that people are frustrated and weary of being blamed for things they had nothing to do with, which violates any reasonable person’s innate sense of justice.

  Nevertheless, intersectionality has continued to spread from academia to the Democratic Party. Democrat Stacey Abrams, the failed gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, penned an essay in Foreign Aff
airs endorsing intersectionality as a vision for America. She’s convinced that white racism is rampant today, mainly among conservatives, and that it must be countered by identity politics, which she laughably denies is divisive. “When the groups most affected by these issues insist on acknowledgment of their intrinsic difference, it should not be viewed as divisive,” she wrote. “Embracing the distinct history and identities of groups in a democracy enhances the complexity and capacity of the whole.”43 In her view, all existing inequities are due to bigotry, and identity groups must be empowered to defeat them—which is a formula for a balkanized, bitter, and joyless nation.

  “UNEARNED SKIN PRIVILEGE”

  The notion of white privilege is fundamental to the ideology of intersectionality. But for allegations of white privilege, intersectionality would have no juice at all. In 1989 sociologist Peggy McIntosh revolutionized the idea in her piece, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”44 She observed that while men might admit that women are disadvantaged, they won’t concede that men are overprivileged. They might be willing to improve women’s status but won’t agree to lessen their own. She equated men’s refusal to reduce their own “privilege” as de facto obstruction of women’s progress. In thinking through these issues, she realized there are interlocking hierarchies in our society. White privilege must exist, just as male privilege does, though its existence is denied and protected, as is the existence of male privilege. “As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.”45