Commentary
What have the caste systems of distant places like China and India got to do with the United States? Absolutely everything.
In a previous article, I discussed the effects of hukou, China’s brutal caste system. The Chinese method of social stratification rewards only a select few; hundreds of millions of citizens, mainly those from rural towns and villages, find themselves ostracized.
India, another country synonymous with social stratification, divides its 1.4 billion people into rigid hierarchical groups. Using two key metrics, karma (roughly translated as “action”) and dharma (roughly translated as “morality”), the Indian caste system assigns people a rung on a socially-constructed ladder. Today, more than 200 million Indians find themselves on the bottom rung. Social mobility is not an option. Referred to as the “untouchables,” these people are regularly denied access to basic necessities, including education and healthcare. For the “untouchables,” mocked and mistreated, life is truly horrific.
In the United States, a caste system also exists. Using key metrics—sex and race—to reward some and demonize others, the American caste system is the product of intersectionality, a framework that uses race, class, and gender to classify individuals. At the bottom of this socially-constructed, increasingly shaky ladder, you will find white people. To be specific, white men. To be even more specific, cisgender, white men. Some say straight white men are the worst people in society. As a straight white man, I take offense at the idea of 30 percent of the U.S. population being written off as irredeemable ghouls.
Of course, one cannot discuss the demonization of white people without discussing the slippery concept of “white privilege,” a defective theory built on a foundation of evidence-free anecdotes. In the United States, around 250 million white people have been reduced to a mass blob. Progressives, many of whom enjoy talking about lived experiences, are quick to ignore the lived experiences of white people. After all, the lived experiences of a white J.P. Morgan executive director is very different from the lived experiences of a white farmer in Louisiana. Farmers commit suicide at three times the national rate, and 95 percent of American farmers are white. With such a caste system, though, facts, no matter how sobering they may be, can’t compete with dishonest, emotionally-charged narratives.
Although it might sound obvious, the following needs to be said: Millions of white Americans are the very opposite of privileged. They were never born into privilege. They live paycheck to paycheck, desperately trying to pay the bills and put food on the table. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a number of minority groups earn considerably more than whites. These include Pakistani Americans, Lebanese Americans, South African Americans, and Sri Lankan Americans. Indian-Americans are, in fact, the highest earners. This is something that should be celebrated. In theory, the United States is still a country that rewards all hardworking, conscientious individuals, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity. However, “in theory,” means very little.
Ageism, we’re told, is the last acceptable “ism” in Western society. But that’s a misconception. Racism is still acceptable, as long as the hateful comments are directed toward white people—preferably straight, white men.
How did we get here? Although Eric Weinstein’s concept of the gated institutional narrative (GIN) was never intended to explain prejudice toward whites, it helps shed some light on this rather putrid phenomenon. According to GIN, the mainstream media and academics now decide what information is kosher. Only the most heavily-filtered, pre-approved information is presented to the public, even if it happens to be fact free. Take the NY Times 1619 project, for example. Heavily criticized by esteemed historians, the project paints the United States as an inherently racist place. Whites, of course, are the oppressors. GIN, in many ways, is akin to an exclusive nightclub. Only the “right” kind of people are allowed in. Heterodox thinkers and heterodox ideas are denied entry. A very specific “dress code” must be respected. The only whites allowed in are those who acknowledge their privilege and original sin, even if they are neither privileged or particularly sinful.
Politics, as they say, is downstream from culture. Not surprisingly, then, anti-white sentiment has worked its way into government legislation. As the NY Post reported back in March, the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, explicitly discriminated against whites. Black farmers were offered debt relief. White farmers, meanwhile, were offered almost nothing. Another provision, according to the Post, “offered billions in aid to minority-owned and women-owned restaurants.” At the same time, “struggling restaurant owners who happened to be white men” were told to get to the back of the line. Worse again, the recent infrastructure bill is full of anti-white racism. Minority-owned businesses are offered a place at the front of the line; whites, yet again, find themselves at the very back. How, in any way, is this acceptable? Shouldn’t each person’s plight be considered on a case by case, race-free basis?
The idea of “white privilege” is arguably the most harmful idea in the United States today. With millions of Americans being punished for the “crime” of being white, where does the country go from here? Unless things change soon, nowhere particularly good.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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