Tuesday, September 05, 2017

White Supremacists Under The Bed

“That’s so bourg,” said one of the Saul Alinsky community organizers I was working with forty-five years ago in Massachusetts. Though I didn’t know what "bourg" meant, I got that it was a pejorative. “Bourg” meant “bad.” Only later did I ask the full meaning. It was short for “bourgeois,” she said, as if that explained everything. I still didn’t understand but the word sounded familiar and I knew its spelling so I looked it up. Bourgeois meant “middle class,” but I was still perplexed. I saw myself as middle class and still do. What was so bad about middle class? 
Amy Wax University of Pennsylvania Law School

Well, just about everything, I guess. At the ultra-progressive, ivy-league University of Pennsylvania, a law professor named Amy Wax is being vilified as “racist” and “bigoted” by students, faculty, and alumni for daring to write that bourgeois values exemplified in 1950s America are superior to those prized in today’s progressive America. She asserted in a Philadelphia Inquirer  op-ed that in the 1950s people believed you should:

“Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable. Avoid coarse language in public. Be respectful of authority. Eschew substance abuse and crime.”


The last straw came when Wax dared criticize mores in sacrosanct sub-cultures:

“the single-parent, antisocial habits, prevalent among some working-class whites; the anti-‘acting white’ rap culture of inner-city blacks; [and] the anti-assimilation ideas gaining ground among some Hispanic immigrants.” Wax asserted those were, “destructive of a sense of solidarity and reciprocity among Americans.”



UPenn took all that as a declaration of war and several scorching columns appeared in UPenn’s daily newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. One, signed by fifty-four faculty and doctoral students declared that Wax’s bourgeois culture:

“stem[s] from the very same malignant logic of hetero-patriarchal, class-based, white supremacy that plagues our country today,” and “These cultural values and logics are steeped in anti-blackness and white hetero-patriarchal respectability, i.e. two-hetero-parent homes, divorce is a vice, and the denouncement of all groups perceived as not acting white enough i.e. black Americans, Latino communities, and immigrants in particular.”

Forty-five years ago bourgeois culture was still acceptable but today it’s anathema to the progressive left which rules media and academia. Above her original op-ed, Wax included a picture of actor John Wayne from Director John Ford’s 1956 film: The Searchers, the film was depicted as reinforcing bourgeois culture and further enflaming the UPenn establishment.


Other symbols of the bourgeois 1950s like “Father Knows Best” and “Leave It To Beaver” are often derided by progressives. Must we now regard Jim Anderson and Ward Cleaver as hetero-patriarchal white-supremacists? Were baby boomer minds corrupted by their propaganda? Do we need reeducation and sensitivity training? To remedy this, perhaps there could be another remake of “Leave It To Beaver” in which Lumpy Rutherford marries Eddie Haskell. Maybe Whitey Whitney can renounce his white male privilege and transition into a woman. Maybe June Cleaver can organize a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood.


NBC’s Chuck Todd invited Dartmouth’s Chris Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook onto the August 20th “Meet The Press.” Bray argued for Antifa's use of violence in opposition to fascist white-supremacists. Arguing against was Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Then Dartmouth President Phil Scanlon denounced Bray’s remarks, only to be himself condemned by 100 active Dartmouth faculty. Sounds a lot like UPenn's antics.

Thus is political polarization exacerbated. Antifa uses violence not only against real white supremacists, but imagined ones as well. The Marxist left, which seems now to control of the Democrat Party, sees anyone who opposes it as white supremacist. So when Antifa beats up Trump supporters, capitalists, readers of Ann Coulter’s columns, and anyone it considers conservative, leftist Democrats either cheer them or keep silent, recent remarks by Nancy Pelosi notwithstanding.


Perhaps observing how Maine’s rural 2nd District where I live went for Trump in 2016, former Trump campaigner staffer Mark Braynard is bringing his “Look Ahead America” organization to New Hampshire. Interviewed on WMUR-TV, Braynard said he identified 15,000 to 100,000 disaffected rural voters he’ll try to register. In response, NH Democrat Party Chairman Ray Buckley called these disaffected citizens “white supremacists.


Who knew there were so many white supremacists in NH? Might these disaffected citizens also consider themselves middle class? Bourgeois? Whereas the late Senator Joseph McCarthy saw communists under his bed and everywhere else in the 1950s, it appears today’s Democrats are seeing white supremacists everywhere now.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent article. However, if Snoop Dogg can actually read and reads this, I'm sure he'll object.

Anonymous said...

One reason I no longer donate to my alma mater.

Anonymous said...

Plagiarized from elsewhere.
1. Social Justice Warriors ALWAYS lie.
2. Social Justice Warriors ALWAYS double down.
3. Social Justice Warriors ALWAYS project.
There's more of course, but that's the gist.
CaptDMO

Not Tom's former student said...

There you go again, more outraged about those fighting Nazis and White supremacists than you are against the racist scumbags themselves. That really says something about you.

Does it really need pointing out that Nazis and White Supremacists have committed millions times more murders and atrocities than antifa? Don't you wish that during the early days of rising Nazis that they were pummeled into the ground before they reached the levels they did? Imagine all the lives those antifas would have saved. Evil as bad as Nazis and the KKK need to be crushed at every little out springing.

That professor has the right to look wistfully back on the "good old days" of the Beavers, of keeping blacks in their place and not worrying about those "inner-city" colored folk slinking out and causing mayhem. And when the few unlazy ones wanted to work, you didn't have to pay them as much! Pesky women were not whining about getting payed fairly! Gays mostly were shamed into staying in the closet! Gee willikers, them were some good days, when white was right!!

Yes, she has the right to those archaic beliefs. But others also have the right to ridicule her for them.

Anonymous said...

Chemotherapy has some awful effects. It attacks and damages even some healthy cells. It can wreak havoc on your organs. your hair can fall out, etc, etc, etc. But it is doing this stuff to wipe out something MUCH, MUCH worse.

I guess since you are trying to equated the KKK and ANTIFA, you may as well equate chemo and cancer as well.

Anonymous said...

I believe it was Charles Murray who once said: If you want to be poor
1) fail to graduate from high school
2) have children out of wedlock

Seems to be pretty basic, common sense stuff, although he was vilified for it too. It's called socialization.

No need to insist on heterosexuality. No need to point the finger at certain groups.

Anonymous said...

I would love to see some hard facts and evidence that having children out of wedlock effects ones income. It does not seem to be common sense to me.

Brian said...

"...strive to stay married...Be neighborly... Avoid coarse language in public... Be respectful of authority"

Amy Wax is really letting Trump have it!

Speaking of the clown, since his "all-talk, no-action" bluff of "fire and "fury" was laughed at, he is know trying the obviously not-gonna-happen bluff of stopping trade with anybody who trades with North Korea. C'mon Donald, try making your words have some meaning.

Anonymous said...

I was a native of the Mt Washington Valley for years, I've moved away now but still love reading your articles. Thank you for having the courage to articulate the feelings of so many Americans.

Anonymous said...

I'll grant that it does take some kind of perverse "courage" to publicly side with White Supremacists and Nazis over those that fight against them. It is happening more frequently now that there is a racist in the White House who 33% of Americans support. Thanks for opening the eyes of the other 67% of Americans who can now see what the extent of our problem is. The next few elections shall be great to see (if we can keep the Russians from getting involved)!

Anonymous said...

From what I have read about ANTIFA, they have no allegiance to liberal democracy, which they believe has failed the marginalized communities they’re defending. They’re anarchists who are way outside the traditional conservative-liberal spectrum.

Mark Bray, a historian at Dartmouth College and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, describes the book as “an unabashedly partisan call to arms that aims to equip a new generation of anti-fascists with the history and theory necessary to defeat fascists and racists”

Anonymous said...

Mr. McLaughlin seems not to grasp the deeper meaning of calling something "bourgeois", instead relying on just one of the simple dictionary entries - "middle class".

Bourgeois refers to a quality of (sometimes mildly) snobby-without-realizing-it, upper-middle-class sensibilities. Usually associated with upper-middle-income white people, but not necessarily. Can involve driving the "right" car, being very obsessed with materialistic objects and always having "nice" things, maybe having $5 lattes at Starbucks because you think you're above Dunkin Donuts, having status-symbol spouses and kids or pets, thinking $20 wine is cheap, belonging to the right country club, and gentrifying neighborhoods.

Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. said...

Why might not Snoop Dogg be able to read? Because he is "ghetto"?

He would certainly object to Charles' comment.

Brian said...

Tom said: "Antifa uses violence not only against real white supremacists, but imagined ones as well. "

Are the "imagined ones" some of the "very fine people" that march alongside Nazis?

sami gay said...

You were one stupid bourg 45 years ago and you are still one stupid bourg today. Ignorance like yours knows no political boundaries. Never could understand why were are so proud of having "changed sides". That action was more a reflection of your gullibility than your intellect.

Anonymous said...

When you think your liberal friends are making fun of just the "middle class", I am sure you are also confused about a lot of other things, as you still are today. Maybe getting dumped by your hippie girlfriend sent you to the dark side?

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the good old days of Leave it to Beaver, in which the dad says moronic things like "a woman's place is in the home- and I suppose as long as she's at home- she might as well just be in the kitchen."

Anonymous said...

I like your cartoon of the conservatives "feeling offended"!

I wonder just what they are offended about?

The "war on Christmas'?

Gay marriage?

Any mention of gun regulation?

The "war on Christianity"?

Obama's golfing?

"Fake" news?

The "death of traditional, leave it to Beaver" values"

Women wanting equal rights?

Gay wedding cakes?

Peace or coexist stickers?

Repeating Trumps words so as to make him look bad?

People fighting Nazis and racists?

Women on the golf course?

Rap music?

Poor thin skinned saps.

Anonymous said...

Well, Tom, as you know we often disagree, and while I can be fairly conservative on many issues I often feel you go too far in your generalizations. Still, I can't help noticing that most of hostile the responses to this column tend to prove your point about the poor logic, inconsistent reasoning, and intolerance of your most liberal critics.

Anonymous Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. said...

How the heck would Tom know that "we" often disagree" when you post as Anonymous?

As for your accusations of "poor logic and inconsistent reasoning", how about some examples, otherwise that comment is as worthless as your first.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what is prompting the sudden interest (in several outlets of the usual suspects) in the usually derogatory,.. cheese eatin', wine swillin' surrender monkey, and subsequent Marxist economics term, "bourgeois", in addressing folks more familiar with the term "Middle Class" (upper, middle, lower)?
Plagiarism? Recycling? Cultural Appropriation? Dunning-Kruger Syndrome? "Higher" education?
CaptDMO

&65&8(&8759077%*(77% said...

I ponder upon the possible causes of the SLUGGISH non-interest (in multiple sockets of the usual bubble heads) and the constant derision...pickle pukin', slop stirrin' kookie cow, and further perverse locker room terms, "slippery sausage". in relating to folks more familiar with the term "love noodle" (lust, madness, passion)?
Copycat? Aper? I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I? Stockholm Syndrome? Trump University?
GenWTF

Anonymous said...

And don't forget "Did you push the "birther" conspiracy as far as Trump did?"