The book Stupid White Men by Michael Moore has become popular because hatred of men (misandry) has become pervasive in contemporary popular culture. The slur promotes a negative stereotype of white males as over-privileged whiners. Moore would never so carelessly use such a derisive term for women or minorities - and he shouldn't.
Moore argues that we, as a predominantly white country, are in denial about the extent of racism.
Really? A Time/CNN poll found that, among black teens, 89 percent found little or no racism in their own lives. Black Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson recently proclaimed, "The sociological truths are that America, while still flawed in its race relations ... is now the least racist white-majority society in the world; has a better record of legal protection of minorities than any other society; offers more opportunities to a greater number of black persons than any other society, including all those of Africa..."
The ongoing disputes over politically incorrect mascots on high school and college campuses are a microcosm of what is happening nationally - a backlash against political correctness by our youth. Witness the huge success of rapper Eminem.
We live in an era where Americans support equal opportunity, while condemning racism, sexism, and exclusionary policies of public agencies. Yet, Moore is stuck with the "victim" chant, "The racist white man holds us down."
This myopic worldview demonstrates our national abhorrence to white racism only. Let us condemn all racism just as harshly. Perhaps Moore is in denial about a recently released FBI crime report that reveals that a higher percentage of blacks than whites are charged with race-biased hate crimes against each other?
The FBI's "Hate Crime Statistics" for 1999 show that 2,030 whites were arrested that year for hate crimes against blacks, compared to 524 blacks who were arrested and charged with a hate crime against whites. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks make up 12.8 percent of the population so, given the arrest rate versus population percentage, the data indicates that blacks are one-and-a-half times more likely to be arrested for a race-based hate crime against whites than vice-versa.
By singling out white males as hate mongers, it encourages the divisive view of minorities and women as groups of victims pitted against an opposing and angry group of oppressors, with no possibility for dialogue and peaceful coexistence. The message is that only heterosexual, white males are guilty, which only fuels the culture wars. That's not healing anyone.
The late Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas once declared, "We are one, we Americans, we are one. And we reject any intruder who seeks to divide us on the basis of race and color. We must not allow ideas like political correctness to divide us ... We reject both white racism and black racism."
Finally, it's interesting to watch the PC types like Moore behave when questioned. When anyone disagrees with them, they call it "hate," "racism," "bigotry," "homophobia." By doing so, we never get at the real issue.
The only alternative to this kind of
balkanization is to cease putting others down merely because they think
differently. That's the opposite of true diversity. The bottom line
is that you cannot cure racism with racism or sexism with sexism.
Joe Manthey
