Newspeak?
BLUF:
By this standard, even Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous maxim in his “I Have a Dream” speech — asking to be judged by the content of one’s character rather than the color of one’s skin — constitutes some form of “multiracial whiteness.” Even George Orwell would not have predicted this horrifying doublespeak.
NYU Prof Attributes Black Trump Support to ‘Multiracial Whiteness.’
Joe Biden may have won the 2020 election, but President Donald Trump drew impressive numbers of black and Latino voters. Black former Democrats led a #Blexit movement away from the Democratic Party, and many blacks and Latinos are taking prominent roles in the conservative movement. All this gives the lie to Democrats’ tired claims that racism or “white supremacy” is the motivating factor behind conservatism and Trumpism, right?
Not exactly, according to Cristina Beltrán, an associate professor at New York University (NYU) whose words appear in The Washington Post. Using Marxist critical race theory, Beltrán argues that the sneaky ideology of “whiteness” has colonized the minds of many black and Latino Americans. If blacks or Latinos support Republicans or Trump, that just shows the nefarious impact of “multiracial whiteness.”
Most Americans might think, “What kind of new insanity is this? How can ‘whiteness’ be ‘multiracial’?” Yet Beltrán, like many others before her, applies the heinous logic of Marxist critical theory to find a hidden “whiteness” in the minds of black and Latino Americans.
“What are we to make of [Afro-Cuban Proud Boys President Enrico] Tarrio — and, more broadly, of Latino voters inspired by Trump?” she asks. “And what are we to make of unmistakably White mob violence that also includes non-White participants? I call this phenomenon multiracial whiteness — the promise that they, too, can lay claim to the politics of aggression, exclusion and domination.”
Beltrán contrasts the ways Republicans reached out to Latinos before and after Trump. Before Trump, leaders such as President George W. Bush attempted to reach out to Latinos “showing a familiarity with their language and history, emphasizing the values of diversity and inclusion.” They “connected Latino culture to Republican values, emphasizing conservative approaches to faith, patriotism and the traditional family.”
“Multiracial whiteness,” by contrast, treats Latinos like part of the “White” in-group, allowing them to oppress members of the out-group, Beltrán argues.
“Rooted in America’s ugly history of white supremacy, indigenous dispossession and anti-blackness, multiracial whiteness is an ideology invested in the unequal distribution of land, wealth, power and privilege — a form of hierarchy in which the standing of one section of the population is premised on the debasement of others. Multiracial whiteness reflects an understanding of whiteness as a political color and not simply a racial identity — a discriminatory worldview in which feelings of freedom and belonging are produced through the persecution and dehumanization of others,” she claims.
“Multiracial whiteness promises Latino Trump supporters freedom from the politics of diversity and recognition. For voters who see the very act of acknowledging one’s racial identity as itself racist, the politics of multiracial whiteness reinforces their desired approach to colorblind individualism. In the politics of multiracial whiteness, anyone can join the MAGA movement and engage in the wild freedom of unbridled rage and conspiracy theories,” Beltrán insists.
Yet this contrast ignores a key aspect of Trump’s powerful appeal to Latinos — especially in Florida. The Trump campaign did not use the language of multiculturalism, sure. It did, however, tailor messages to the Latino Americans who fled communism and socialism in Cuba and Venezuela. The Trump campaign used Spanish-language ads to warn about the threat of Democrats’ socialism, and millions flocked to the president’s banner.
Latino Americans oppose socialism not because they support the “unequal distribution of land, wealth, power and privilege” along racial lines but because they oppose the state-imposed confiscation of wealth and restrictions on freedom that marked the oppressive regimes from whence they came. Trump’s appeal to Latinos had less to do with “whiteness” and more to do with freedom and the ability to preserve their own property from the grubby hands of the government.
Yet Beltrán interpreted Trump’s multiracial coalition in the ugliest of terms, suggesting that some form of white supremacy motivated Americans of all races who pulled the lever for the president who restored the federal judiciary, brought peace in the Middle East, and spurred on economic growth.
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“Multiracial whiteness offers citizens of every background the freedom to call Muslims terrorists, demand that undocumented immigrants be rounded up and deported, deride BLM as a movement of thugs and criminals, and accuse Democrats of being blood-drinking pedophiles,” the NYU professor argued. “Here, the politics of exclusion, violence and demonization are available to all.”
Notice Beltrán’s sleight of hand. She suggests that acknowledging the link between radical Islamist terrorism and many forms of Islamic doctrine constitutes a form of anti-Muslim racism. She suggests that immigration law is itself racist. She suggests that any link between the Black Lives Matter protests and the riots that followed — in which lawless thugs destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments — is racist. Americans of all races are rightly worried about the threats of radical Islamist terrorism, unfettered illegal immigration, and the destructive riots of the summer, but according to Beltrán, those concerns are all facets of “whiteness.”
“America’s racial divide is not simply between Whites and non-Whites. Thinking in terms of multiracial whiteness helps us recognize that much of today’s political rift is a division between those who are drawn to and remain invested in a politics of whiteness and those who seek something better,” she argues.
This notion of “multiracial whiteness” has its roots in Marxist critical race theory. This noxious ideology assumes that the central aspect of society is racial oppression — the historic abuses white people have committed against people of other races. “White supremacy” secretly rules everything, even when policies explicitly consider people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. If white people have more money than black people, that is ipso facto proof of white supremacy, regardless of how Asians are doing and regardless of the true reasons behind any disparity.
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Yet it gets worse. According to this theory, various aspects of American society are secretly “white” and oppressive. The Smithsonian briefly showed how this works when it published a “teaching tool” infographic on “whiteness.” That infographic claimed that the nuclear family, science, capitalism, the Judeo-Christian tradition, individualism, “objective, rational linear thinking,” and even values such as “be polite” are aspects of oppressive whiteness. (The Smithsonian rightly removed the graphic after facing criticism.)
Portland activist Lilith Sinclair provided a chilling example of Marxist critical race theory and its ability to inspire an aimless revolution. “There’s still a lot of work to undo the harm of colonized thought that has been pushed onto Black and indigenous communities,” she said. As examples of “colonized thought,” she mentioned Christianity and the “gender binary.” She said she organizes for “the abolition of … the “United States as we know it.”
In other words, “whiteness” is so ingrained in the minds of black and Latino people that they must be brainwashed in order to reject it.
This dangerous radical ideology appears to have inspired much of the destruction during the riots this past summer. Inspired by Marxist critical race theory, an author published a book entitled In Defense of Looting, and National Public Radio gave her a platform.
When vandals toppled a statue of George Washington in Portland, they spray-painted “1619” on the statue, referring to the New York Times‘ “1619 Project,” which reinterpreted American history by claiming that 1619 — rather than 1776 — was the “true founding” of America (the Times has since memory-holed this claim, even though it formed the foundation of the project).
When Claremont’s Charles Kesler wrote in The New York Post, “Call them the 1619 riots,” 1619 Project Founder Nikole Hannah-Jones responded (in a since-deleted tweet) that “it would be an honor” to claim responsibility for the destructive riots. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) called for the “dismantling” of America’s “economy and political system,” in order to root out supposed racist oppression.
The Left’s embrace of Marxist critical race theory and the destruction it has wrought on the black community are driving Americans of all races away from the Democratic Party. Rather than acknowledging the fact that the Democrats may be alienating black and Latino voters, writers like Beltrán merely accuse these voters of internalizing a form of “whiteness.”
By this standard, even Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous maxim in his “I Have a Dream” speech — asking to be judged by the content of one’s character rather than the color of one’s skin — constitutes some form of “multiracial whiteness.” Even George Orwell would not have predicted this horrifying doublespeak.