Ben Morris
Aug 28, 2017 · 19 min read

History Predicted And Indentitarianism Created Charlottesville

In the weeks that have passed since the events of Charlottesville, I have sat back to witness the typical half brained reactions that follow newsworthy events. People were given dishonest profiles of each side and told to pick one side to support. People expressed outrage and tried to bully others to join them. And our condemnation of both sides was mocked, as exemplified in this tweet.

I’m tired of playing the game created by biased and race baiting media, and their accomplices in academia, who have thrown out this idea those who hold contempt for both extreme sides, are supporting white supremacy. That notion is so far beyond ridiculous it shouldn’t bear a response. I have also grown tired of the lack of solutions, and the lack of foresight that anyone with a basic knowledge of history should have seen. There are solutions to be had, where everybody wins, and non of those solutions reside in the game that continues to be played. We must recognize history, and how the tragic past has given us lessons we are ignoring at the cost of humanity.

Black Oppression From Slavery to Jim Crow.

In his seminal essay The Souls of the Black Folks W.E.B Dubois wrote, “To him ( a black man), so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villianies, the cause of all sorrows.” Scores of academic papers, novels, and autobiographical accounts have followed that exact sentiment. Slavery is the stain in America history that hasn’t washed away. It was the first knife in the soul of a people whose value was only calculated by what they did in a field, for no pay, at the cost of their health, dignity, and life.

When the slaves were finally free after hundreds of years of forced servitude, racism wasn’t eradicated. Just over a decade after the ratification of the 13th Amendment, Jim Crow laws were instituted throughout the country, segregating blacks from whites; maintaining the tragic legacy of slavery that deemed black people inferior to whites. Jim Crow laws implemented in various states barred black people from cutting the hair of whites, it forced white and black children to be educated separately; banned interracial marriages, and prevented white people from raising mixed race or black children. In 1892, a black man named Homer Plessy challenged those racist laws by refusing to travel in a Jim Crow transit car. He challenged an 1890, “separate but equal,” Louisiana state law that forced whites and blacks to travel separately in public transit. When Judge John H. Ferguson upheld the law, the case was taken to The Supreme Court in 1896, where by a 7–1 margin, the state law was again upheld; claiming such a law was not in violation of the 13th, and 14th amendments. The lone dissenter, former slave owner Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote in his dissent, “The white race deems itself to be the dominant race,” before adding, “Our Constitution is color-blind…. In respect of civil rights all citizens are equal before the law.” That lone Supreme Court defense of a black man’s liberty was of little solace to millions of blacks who knew the Supreme Court decision allowed for the continuance of Jim Crow laws that lasted for decades afterwards.

Jim Crow laws were a system of injustice that fell on the laps of African Americans who simply wanted to be treated equal in law and society. Other attempts before and after Plessy V. Ferguson to remove Jim Crow laws were halted by other Supreme Court cases. Voting rights for blacks were removed as various states decided only those who owned land, could read, or were able to pay poll taxes, had the right to cast votes. In a span of 8 years, in the late nineteenth century, registered black voters in Louisiana dropped from 130,334 to only 1,342. Those laws that prevented black people from voting weren’t the only issues that made African Americans feel unworthy; many were beaten, killed, and had their property destroyed by racist whites, without being granted justice for the crimes they were victimized by.

Simply put, because of their race, black people were prevented from achieving equal protection under the law, and were banned from associating with whites in any positive way. The American dream lived by whites throughout the nation wasn’t shared by black America. Unsurprisingly, these injustices brought forth the Civil Rights movement.

Black people then faced even more racial violence as they fought for equal rights. Protests were met with state sanctioned violence. Fire hoses and police dogs attacked protesting black people. They were thrown into jail cells. They were murdered, along with any white allies who tried to protect them. Civil Rights leaders like MLK and Medgar Evers lost their lives fighting the system of oppression, because they had the audacity to argue their skin color doesnt make them less of a human.

That violent bigotry, and the false idea black people were less human because of their blackness, gave birth to black identitarianism, and acted as he fuse that created the black power movement.

The Formation of Black Pride

Two years before the assassination of Dr. King, an event dubbed the March Against Fear, took place in Mississippi. Stokely Carmichael and Willie Ricks screamed two words that signaled the arrival of the black power movement; “Black power.” The phrase was borrowed from a historic speech by Frederick Douglass in 1855, in which the influential abolitionist coined the phrase and then conveyed, “We should not, as an oppressed People, grow despondent. Fear and despondency prevent us from working for the overthrow of our common enemy, with that hopeful spirit which causes us to keep our head above the waters, despite the raging of the element.”

A few short months after the term became a rallying cry, Carmichael delivered a speech at The University of California Berkeley, that continued the tone. In the talk, Carmichael used the tragic history to embrace identitarianism and inspire others with similar histories, and racial anxieties to join as one to fight the oppression they all face due to the color of their skin. “- in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom. No man can give anybody his freedom,” Carmichael said, before adding, “A man is born free. You may enslave a man after he is born free, and that is in fact what this country does. It enslaves black people after they’re born, so that the only acts that white people can do is to stop denying black people their freedom; that is, they must stop denying freedom. They never give it to anyone.” He dismissed the idea of individuality being the key to freedom by also saying in the speech, “ in order to get out of that oppression one must wield the group power that one has, not the individual power which this country then sets the criteria under which a man may come into it.”

Other infamous quotes are as follows.

“the reason for a man being picked as a slave was one reason–because of the color of his skin.”

“ We are oppressed as a group because we are black, not because we are lazy, not because we’re apathetic, not because we’re stupid, not because we smell, not because we eat watermelon and have good rhythm. We are oppressed because we are black.”

The embrace of identitarianism of Douglass in 1855 was an effort to inspire slaves to rise up from their injustice, and was used by the Black Panthers to push for self determination of black folks who used their sense of community to fight oppression. The Black Panthers used American history; and the historical mistreatment of blacks, the very same way Carmichael did. With Carmichael in attendance at a Free Huey rally in Oakland, Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale, evoked the same message of unity among oppression by suggesting, “Huey learned the need for black people to develop a perspective and a understanding of our oppressive conditions.”

The Black Panthers originally acted as a protective force against the Oakland police, who made sure any arresting officer of a black man didn’t do anything stupid. The group also performed charitable acts within black communities. They set up educational programs; they fed poor people, and provided free health care services, to show the public and those they helped, that black Americans have the right to self determination, and can take care of their communities themselves. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee( SNCC), the Black Panthers, and other organizations during the black power movement, used identitarianism to increase power, memberships, by evoking imagery of the white man oppressing the black man, in every facet of life.

Black identitarian movements like the Black Panthers saw capitalism as a creation of the white man, meant to enslave the poor. Their ten point program was rife with entitlement; as the group demanded guaranteed income for blacks, as well as subsidized housing. Those ideas have been co-opted by BLM; as seen in the now viral list of requests published by the leader of BLM Louisville.

Black identitarianism is a byproduct of oppressive history. Images of white Americans lynching, and murdering black Americans; the homes of black Americans being burned to the ground, have stamped the idea into the brains of many African Americans that white people have held their faces into the mud since 1776. That understanding however; has limitations, and doesn’t excuse the actions, rhetoric, and narrative of the regressive left, who has blamed innocent people, born decades after these sins, for the crimes of their ancestors. It should come to the surprise of no one, that rhetoric has had disastrous implications.

How The Left Fueled The Growth of White Nationalism

In no way have white people felt any type of racism on par with slavery, and Jim Crow laws. Anyone who suggests that needs a quick cat scan. I have not suggested such a thing above, nor will I below. However; those historical heartaches have linked the black power movement, Black Lives Matter, the alt-right and white nationalism in one obvious way. When you embrace identitarianism and attack others because of their identity, you create a victim complex, that drives individuals to group themselves among nefarious characters, who look like them, as a means of survival.

And if anyone bothered to pay attention, they would have seen it coming.

More than a year ago, an article written by David Marcus, forewarned the far left by penning an article titled How Anti-White Rhetoric Is Fueling White Nationalism. In the piece Marcus wrote, “At first, ‘white men are our greatest threat’ postings tended to be ironic, a way of putting the racist shoe on the other foot. They were meant to show that blaming an entire race for the harmful actions of a few individuals is senseless. Then the tenor changed. What started as irony turned into an actual belief that white people, specifically white men, are more dangerous and immoral than any other people.”

In his article, Marcus included headlines to support his thesis that included,

The White Guy Problem.

White Men Must be Stopped: The Very Future of Mankind Depends on It.

I Don’t Know What To Do With Good White People.

Ten Things White People Need To Stop Saying.

Dear White People: Here’s a List of Things We’d Wish You’d Stop Doing.

Those are just a few of the voluminous examples. Other headlines include,

Why these professors are warning against promoting the work of straight, white men.

From white trash to the whitelash: what do white people want?

Healing from Toxic Whiteness: The woman behind a course helping white people tackling internalised racism.

And so on, and so on.

For the past number of years white people have read numerous articles in which they are to blame for everything because of their whiteness. Academia is being run by radical leftists, who are indoctrinating young people; and mainstream media outlets who are bleeding in debts, are giving voices to those who have jumped on the hate whitey bandwagon. Because of all of that, white people are thinking about their race, and are fighting for survival. If you are honest and open minded, you can’t really blame some white people for embracing racial pride, as the above examples show, the alt-right was forced to sacrifice their individuality for the kinship of other white people, who see the regressive left as a dangerous threat, aimed to eradicate them only because of their skin color.

Before his demise at Breirbart, Milo Yiannopolous co-wrote a feature on the alt-right that perfectly explains who the alt-right is, and how they were invented. In the article, Yiannoplous and Allum Bakari admonished the media for their complicity in the growing division by accurately suggesting, “All they had to do was argue for common humanity in the face of black and feminist identity politics, for free speech in the face of the regressive Left’s censorship sprees-Instead, they turned a blind eye to the rise of tribal, identitarian movements on the Left while mercilessly suppressing any hint of them on the Right. It was this double standard, more than anything else, that gave rise to the alternative right. It’s also responsible, at least in part, for the rise of Donald Trump.” The writers also succinctly revealed why the alt-right exists by noting, “The politics of identity, when it comes from women, LGBT people, blacks and other non-white, non-straight, non-male demographics is seen as acceptable — even when it descends into outright hatred.”

That is exactly what we have now. The left predictably plays identity politics ad nauseam; at the frequent cost of demeaning white people. In more ways than one, the far right and far left is identical, and those in the alt-right are simply playing the hand they are given. If you don’t believe me, then check out the words of the most infamous alt-righters to see for yourself.

Christopher Cantwell is a well known podcaster and writer in libertarian circles who has always been a bit of an ass. If you’re another somewhat famous libertarian or anarchist, you have probably felt his wrath. Before embracing the alt-right he was barred from libertarian conventions, radio programs, and had run ins with the likes of Larken Rose and Cathy Reisenwitz. He went from a brash and unapologetic libertarian, to a man who after being banned from You Tube, Twitter, Facebook, and PayPal, fell victim to the free market. He wrote on his website, “The Alt Right is not entirely based on ideas. It is primarily an identitarian movement. We are coming together around our race, because the evolutionary psychology, and behavioral pathologies of homogeneous peoples seem to be less in conflict than those of diverse peoples.”

Months before Charlottesville, Richard Spencer did an interview with You Tuber Roaming Millennial in which it took him less than thirty seconds to say, the alt-right “is an identitarian movement. It’s identity politics for white people in America and around the world.” Since becoming a prominent voice in political discourse, Spencer has routinely mentioned the importance and perceived reality of race. In a 2016 profile in Rolling Stone, Spencer claimed, “Race is real. Race matters, and race is the foundation of identity." Another white supremacist, who organized the event and was booked to speak, Jason Kessler, claimed the rally was a, “pro white demonstration,” aimed to, “show that folks can stand up for white people,” before concluding, “The political correctness has gotten way out of control, and the only way to fight back against it has been to stand up for our own interests."

The white supremacists attach themselves to contemporaries who share the same grievances. Kids from broken homes; without friends, or gripped with other struggles are susceptible to influence, and white supremacists are no different. When people are traumatized by circumstance and have no one in their lives to put them on the right path, they attach themselves to charismatic demagogues who convince impressionable minds Jews, blacks, and everyone else is to blame for their hardships.

White supremacists have been around for hundreds of years, and up until a few years ago, true neo-Nazi’s were trapped in the underground thanks to the public evolving away from discrimination, and finding their views socially unacceptable. With help from the anonymity of the Internet, and festering rhetoric of anti-white leftists, being a white supremacist is once again popular. The white supremacist has found a spot within the alt-right; a collection of shitposters, trolls, free speech absolutists, and small government advocates who no longer trust any once respected institution like academia, the media, and the government.

Recently, more people have formed white supremacist views based almost entirely as a revolt against the idea of white privilege. These are people who grew tired of their race being to blame for the crimes of ancestors they never met. They are being told they are privileged as they struggle to make ends meet. The far left will respond to that by suggesting white privilege exists in films and advertising, and is not just about wealth, but a lower middle class white male finds no comfort in seeing white people in movies when he is forced to work a low paying job he hates just to be able to live indoors. His struggles are being mocked by the far left, and ignored by the media. They have been pushed into identitarianism by the far left and have embraced white supremacy because of shared grievances and the sense of community where they are freed from the supposed crimes they commit for simply being white.

It can be said that the alt-right hasn’t properly dealt with white nationalists, but to lump everyone in the alt-right with white supremacists is patently dishonest. White supremacists want to secure a country for white people and drive minorities out; alt-righters want to secure a culture of free expression, property rights, and capitalism. The alt-right sees leftism as a threat to their country, and that perception is being supported by the fact history of black Americans shows, when you strip a person of their agency, rip out their individuality and judge them based solely on the color of their skin, sexuality, or religion, pride movements of all kinds are created.

The far left falsely believed making white people think about their race would end white supremacy. They thought white people would accept the blame for the historical crimes of their ancestors. They were wrong. They refused to listen to the warnings, and failed to open their minds by peering into the other side to find common ground. When identitarianism is supported, you create the enemy. You put gasoline in the fire, and your noble cause fails to come to fruition.

When Race Mixes With Politics

At least since I became politically astute during the Bush administration, partisanship has gone unchecked, and hypocrisy has reigned. A compassionate small government conservative entered the Whitehouse, placed America into two wars, increased the deficit, and violated the constitution by spying on Americans without due process. He gave way to a Democrat, who campaigned on the promise to fight the War on Terror without violating the constitution. That man did the exact opposite; increased the number of drone strikes that kill too many innocent people around the world, and pushed through a health care bill that increased health care costs to far too many Americans. The man who spoke of hope and change, lead America to neither. The establishment continued to run wild with their lies and dishonesty, compelling millions to vote for a rich guy with no executive experience. That man; hated by the left so severely, makes George W. Bush look like JFK, has been embraced by the right who wanted a real change.

America’s left hates Donald Trump, but it’s the far left who suggest daily Trump is the orange skinned version of Hitler. They have assaulted Trump supporters who they claim to be racist simply for their vote. They have also blamed the man for the mess, which is at best woefully misguided.

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Democrats have secured the African American vote, despite the fact it was Democrats who delayed the freedom of slaves, and it is Democrat run cities like Chicago, and Baltimore that are riddled with violence, income inequality, and poor performing schools.

The administration of Bill Clinton, cheekily referred to as “America’s first black president,” increased funding for the war on drugs, as well as increasing penalties for drug convictions, adversely affecting African Americans. Eight years after his term ended, Barack Obama entered the Oval Office with fan fare, as a former constitutional law professor and community organizer. A black man who worked among African Americans, continued the disastrous war on drugs, and oversaw a decline in black labor participation, and did nothing to increase the median income of black Americans to bridge the gap between black families and white families.

For decades the Democratic Party has played lip service to minorities during election season without following through. Colleges continue to offer majors with no real job prospects, while simultaneously increasing tuition that saddles young people with a lifetime of debt. Because of this the regressive left is attempting to push Democrats further to the left under the cloud of entitlement. The far left has deemed anyone who disagrees with them a “Nazi,” and has equated free speech with bigotry. The far left shut down a free speech rally in Boston, even after event organizers made it clear they are against white nationalism. A similar event in Berkeley was met my counter protesters. The regressive left wants their feelings protected by big government, and feel entitled to free education and the fruits of others labor.

The right is seeing cultural Marxism shoved in their faces. Western values like free speech, property rights, and freedom of expression are getting threatened with each cancelled speech, and the destruction of private property. The right correctly understands the first amendment protects all forms of speech whether said speech is bigoted or water cooler talk. They look at Europe and see the disastrous implications of rushed and poorly planned immigration; while the left suggests every single refugee should freely cross into the country. White Americans are seeing their jobs vanished, and geared more towards professions for which a college degree is needed; and with the majority of collegiate institutions being run by leftists who want to indoctrinate them into believing their whiteness is an original sin, the alt-right is fighting to secure a culture and the values they cherish.

America has gone to war with communism. The very idea of communism entering the country is a nightmare. The right sees what is going on in Venezuela, and don’t want their country to be overtaken by an ideology that controls every aspect of every day life. They don’t want a country of massive inflation. They don’t want an America where families rummage through garbage to eat. They don’t want a country they love to be dropped into the sewer that is communism.

Their ideological foes want government to redistribute wealth and get rid of capitalism; a system they feel they haven’t benefited from. They believe words are more violent than gunshots. They believe the wealthy are selfish and evil, so they have latch themselves onto a political theory that hasn’t worked anywhere it’s been practiced. Their mounting student loan debts, and poverty has turned them to an ideology of violence; where any dissent; any support of capitalism and property rights is met with the stiff arm of the state. Like the Black Panthers before them, BLM has embraced communism, because of their belief capitalism is a system of oppression, supported by racist whites who use it to keep the poor poor, and people of color oppressed. The ideological battle has pitted black against white, capitalists against communists, all while simple solutions are being ignored.

Ending the drug war would benefit every American. Trillions of dollars have been spent to legislate what a supposedly free person can do with their body. Officers who get federal funding with each drug arrest, are using the drug excuse to harass citizens; especially people of color. Non-violent drug offenders are being tossed in jail for long sentences. When they get out; unable to secure a federal student loan or get a job, those former felons return to the drug trade to pay the bills; only to get arrested and imprisoned again. Income inequality, ever increasing tuition costs, and housing prices, have forced young people to bunk up with friends, or move back in eith their parents, just to live indoors. All of those, and other important issues are being ignored in favor of admonishing white people for covering songs by black artists, and wearing dreadlocks. The alt-right sees the culture of freedom being threatened by every safe space, and every suggestion that white people must atone for crimes committed by their ancestors. They are being told having political views is grounds for assault. They are being told their problems aren’t real. And they are being told whiteness is being attacked and will erode. Because of all of that, actual white supremicists have joined in with the alt-right to embrace the identitarian victimology complex of the far left.

White supremacy needs to be eradicated, but will only cease to exist when the issues plaguing America are honestly addressed, without identitarianism playing a part. A bridge must be built to unite the left and right on common ground, but sadly, many people like myself, who have been paying attention the last couple years, see that unity less likely every day.

There Are Only Two Options. Choose Wisely.

What happened in Charlottesville should be a wake up call for all sides. Right and left; civilians and politicians, but partisanship, claims of moral superiority and hypocrisy continues to control reality.

No one wins when identarianism is embraced. People will continue to embrace more extremism, and people will continue to die; unless people decide to open their minds, address issues honestly, and eliminate the tribalism that makes them feel they belong, when such alliances rob them of decency, things will only get worse.

Colleges must freely invite conservative speakers, the free market must rid the world of white supremacists without touching the constitution. The drug war, and the police brutality that comes with it must end, we must stop the racism from both ends, and first and foremost, we must not stop with the identitarian nonsense, and look for what united us instead of dividing us.

Americans of all stripes are struggling, but the regressive left is too busy telling poor white people they are privileged, to actually sit at the table and find common ground to lift each other up from poverty. Privilege theory mixed with identitarianism, has helped create this mess that drives poor and disenfranchised white Americans to white nationalism. Unresolved anger and desperation has fueled the violence that has come with these rallies.

If you truly want to improve the world, identitarianism must end. Identity politics drives cars into crowds of protesters. It swings flagpoles, it sprays mace, kills parishioners inside churches, and erodes all human decency, and as David French of The National Review perfectly explained, “-identity politics work as the mirror image of white supremacy — compressing the extraordinarily rich and complex histories of nations, continents, and cultures into one characteristic: skin color. For the white supremacist, white people are natural-born victors. For the identity-politics leftist, white people are natural-born predators.”

In conclusion, take an honest look at the failing rhetoric of the far left, and digest the words of former white supremacist Christian Picciolini.

“I don’t think anyone in the world became anti-racist because they were punched in the face by a protester or hit with a bottle of urine. It simply becomes harder for them to come back. They get pushed further away.”

“All of us who left received compassion from the people we least deserved it from when we least deserved it. It’s the disarming of the people we hated when we don’t deserve it that helps people get out.”

“I’m not defending their choices, but at some point we have to look at them as victims that were co-opted and put on that path.They didn’t find what they were looking for in the real world and they started looking on the margins.”

Without identity politics; and with compassion, white supremacy will become nothing more than a lonely bee buzzing away without direction. Without compassion and with the continued application of identity politics, white nationalism will be a full of infestation, stinging everything within its path. If you want a full on race war, continue with the demonization and the identity politics. If you want peace and equal opportunity for all, stop playing the media engineered game of otherness. It’s that simple.

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