What is "progress"?

A racial lens

Those who have been here a while may have read a previous piece I did about the magical Obama-blessed word of “Progress”. That was one the amorphous mantras that broke the brains of a generation. Why the pursuits of “Change” and “Progress” unbridled and fueled by “Hope” is a wicked cocktail guaranteed to have a bad ending. This is not that piece. Here, I want to hone-in on what “progress” even means in the first place.

What inspired me to hop over here from the Bird was this from Frank McCormick.

“Undoing a half century of progress”. He's right. And it touched a nerve with me because it's a topic I've spent a lot of time thinking about. Nothing is more essentially racist than race essentialism. It's also something I have sharp opinions on because of the path I've walked, as I've shared before. There has been an unquestionable plummet in racial dynamics in America (across the west, really) in the past two decades, and it has been fueled by “anti-racist” activism which pushes “See color!” even to children. Race consciousness. And this is being achieved by driving the notion of race essentialism across damn near every front; from social, to government, to arts and entertainment, to birdwatching and parks. I drill into that heavily in the piece above, so I don't want to drift off here. The point is, it's happening… happened.

And as I stared at that chart tonight and thought of Frank's tweet, I realized this is all about lenses. One such lens, to be worn by an “anti-racist” activist, would say that chart shows a “racial reckoning”. That society has long been white-favored, these are movements for “racial justice” and of course it's caused tension for those so comfy in power. But as I laid out in detail above, the devious (evil) tactic of this movement is it intentionally inflames racial animosity at the personal level (going as far as to stage hate crimes) as justification or predicate for policies of “change” now. Those policies are “equity”, of course. Equity being anti-capitalism; equity being anti-American. The outcome of this, the fruits of these labors, is seen above. How low would that number be today? And what is it we're actually achieving or doing here. What is this “progress”?

Well, there's an important part of our story not represented in that chart. The line above depicts 20 years of decline. What it doesn't show is the preceding 20 years of great increase. The 90s were a time in this country when the dream of a colorblind society was becoming real before our eyes. I share tales from that era above; a window into teenage and college years in a world where we did NOT have this race consciousness. Shit, most of us 90s white kids grew up immersed in rap music and therefore emulated the culture. We were mixing like never before in the 90s and early 00s … and then the “anti-racists” came.

Again, the reason why is simple. Equity; reparations. In a really cruel twist of irony, the coming together of races socially was directly detrimental to pleas of equity. It's the same dynamic that fuels non-stop “America is racist!” news today. “Anti-racist” are actually anti-capitalism radicals. And they are tentacles that go back decades with deep roots in radical black feminism. This is why Queer+ always remained on top; why BLM was founded by three Marxist lesbians. But I digress….

Policies of equity go against the American system fundamentally. It's “moral discrimination”. Our nation strives for equality, but our people do not support equity. And so they shifted the battle over to “End Racism!”, with the always present and never defeatable “White Supremacy”. White supremacy lurks around every corner, you see. “You wouldn't be against ending racism, right? Or wanting to advance white supremacy? Are you KKK?!?”. Of course not (morality-binary), and so you will do XYZ. And jeez what a coincidence that every single time the XYZ is a policy of equity… and now usually Queer+. But this problem is bigger than activists. Remember, the “E” in DEI (basically a state religion now) stands for “Equity”. These federal policies go back longer than I'm alive. We have some tough times ahead. But I'll get into that another day.

I, and I believe a vast majority of this country, reject the notion of discrimination that is justified because it serves the right cause. Nor is the American populace down for state control in the name of racial inequity which sure quickly looks like communism. And wouldn't you know it, the literal communist fist is splattered all over the activism. I mean, every single branch of this activism, from BLM to Queer+. So with it understood we aren't going New World Order, then we must ask ourselves what “Progress” is being pursued? Because now let's talk in the equality vein…

Unlike “equity” which seeks to attone with present action for lack of “generational wealth” due to past unequal treatment, equality means equal under the law. We are a nation who has pursued the noble principle of equality more than any other in human history. In fact, with ever expanding LGBTQIA+, it looks like we may have shot well beyond the boundaries of workable order there. Our people continue to support this cause, and if DEI had been about remedying instances of unequal current treatment, it wouldn't be in such collapse. This means we don't allow businesses to discriminate, have different treatment legally, exclude from societal structures, etc. Since the era of Jim Crow, America has worked relentlessly and correcting these abhorrent practices. Again, we've made more progress there than anyone. We have layers and layers of law that ensure our people are not treated differently for the color of their skin. And we did that! We weren't perfect, I'm not sure any society ever could be, but the stories I was referencing earlier about the 90s and a modern fueling society without a sense of race conciousness, were real-world evidence of the American project and our pursuit of equality working successfully.

The level a poll chart would have shown from 1960 to 2000 was astounding. THAT is true “progress”, is it not? Red, White, and Blue is me kicking it with my neighbor at a BBQ and not giving a shit that he's black; not me thinking about my “white privilege” or him about my “unconscious bias”. Just listen to those terms. Think about what they are designed to do. We have college kids getting broken out into race-based “affinity groups” - “Moral skin-color segregation” to “End Racism!”. We have K-12 students with this same dogmatic identity and race-obssessed thinking being rammed down their throats from every direction. We have Cartoon Network telling young children it's wrong if they don't “See color!”. We have Kendi funded openly with $10M by Jack producing “Anti-racist Baby” on Netflix. Is it any wonder that racial tensions are at a modern high? It isn't to me. From my eye, it appears to be mission success.

I mentioned Jack above, so let me add one last layer to this. This came out of WaPo in January of 2021. Consider the meaning or objective of this in the context of everything above.

What would white people embracing their “racial identity” look like exactly? I know a lot of white people and they vary a great deal. There is no mold of “white guy”. So what is it we're asking society to do here? If you think about it, it shares a lot in common with the manipulative notion of “toxic masculinity”, just almost in the inverse. Here, it seeks to draw out race essentialism in order to activate “race consciousness”… ultimately to smash those characteristics. In the feminist world, it was used to disassociate all positive traits from being masculine, leaving only the negative (the oppressor) behind. And then consider what amplifying this does to racial tension. It's basically the opposite effect of that racial harmony place we were landing at the turn of the millenia.

The “anti-racists” can't have that. It's time we have a deep conversation as a society about what “progress” really means. Are we talking go to Mars, or use Racecraft wizards to spook campuses? Not being flippant, are we talking the liberal pursuit of equality under the law or policies of “equity” to restore lost “generational wealth”? Because that second one ain't flying in this country. It's time we stop playing games - no, BEING gamed - in this whole “equity” vs equality thing. The results of doing otherwise and allowing this (let's be honest, decolonizing) beast to grow unabated are all around us. Frank echoed them powerfully above. Throw in all the other crazy shit going on and we're climbing up the DEFCON chart, man. We've got scholars telling me black people literally can not be “racist”, while a black man brags of murdering a white girl for her car and says “shit white people been fucking us up for years so just put it on the tab”. Wrote that on Facebook after coldly stating he killed the stranger for the ride, nothing more. He doesn't see her as worth anything anymore; in fact, negative value, the oppressor. He has been taught to hate and she has been dehumanized.

I don't think he's alone, at all. Just like years of anti-police rhetoric has caused a generation to grow up inherently disliking law enforcement, a generation raised under anti-“whiteness” as virtuous is going to have deeply embedded and troubling worldviews and animosity. We've watch this cultivated all right in front of us. Half our nation cheered it on. As what? “Progress”. Even worse, they called anyone who opposed it bigots and racists and white supremacists. Many still do, they just say MAGA now. We have some very difficult times ahead.

Below are two long threads from Twitter, if you don't follow me there. They are in this vein.