Can White People Speak And Act About White Privilege In A Way That’s Not “Performative”?

“Naked Athena” photo by Dave Killen / The Oregonian

“There are no black people in Africa.” ~ Isabel Wilkerson,
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King

We need to eliminate systems that have been corrupted by white males to benefit white males and create nondiscriminatory and compassionate means of interacting with all people, not just the ones with our skin color, religious beliefs, and financial luck. For example, at this point in the history of Western uncivilization, after the public executions of George Floyd and countless other people of color, white male millionaire podcasters should only invite non-white non-male non-millionaires onto their shows and open the conversations with, “I think I may be part of the problem. How can I be part of the solution?” White male millionaires interviewing other white male millionaires is extraordinarily unhelpful. Irrespective of any noble intentions, white male millionaire podcasters are drowning out the voices of the disenfranchised and should make room for them. If you think that “familiarity breeds contempt,” then check out the egregious nepotism rife throughout both legacy media and new media.

Do you think there is a course at Howard University entitled “Great White Male Mathematicians”? What would you think if you learned that Hitler and Goebbels sat around discussing “Jews we admire”? So how is it acceptable for Bret and Eric Weinstein in 2020 to sit around casually chatting about “Black intellectuals we admire” on Bret’s Dark Horse podcast? Until Bret and Eric fully understand the extent of their white privilege and use it to empower the disenfranchised, they remain part of the problem. Please attach all of the photos of white male millionaire podcasters as brave as “Naked Athena” or Colin Kaepernick or marching at a Black Lives Matters protest. Uh, that would be zero… because none of them want to risk pissing off their advertisers. Due to their liberal good intentions, people such as les frères Weinstein have deluded themselves into thinking they are part of the solution, but until we ACT — not talk, but actually DO SOMETHING — to help dismantle all of the systems corrupted by white men that favor white men and their/our offspring, we are no better than blatant elitists such as Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump and latent elitists such as Jordan Peterson. (I don’t want to give anyone any ideas, but if a POC were to dress up as a lobster and shoot Jordan Peterson… intellectually, according to Peterson, it would be defensible. Why must we wait until Dr. Peterson spawns another Leopold and Loeb before we condemn his intellectually irresponsible, divisive rhetoric? Whether we like it or not, we are all post-modern but that only resolves to moral relativism for myopic ignoramuses. Only conservative power-hungry crabs yearn to walk backwards to the artificial white male “MAGA” oppressive hegemony; post-modern progressives are creating new more equitable ways of interacting outside of Peterson’s failed racist dogmas and bullshit hierarchical ideologies. Foucault, Derrida, and Lacan are not “wrong;” we are playing chess while Peterson and his ilk play checkers. Same board; different game.)

Here are actionable points that progressives can work on together to help remedy the inequalities caused by systems corrupted by white men and establish the authentic EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY that we desperately need:

1. Our taxation system favors rich white men. Capital expands faster than labor, according to Thomas Piketty. This is correctable: institute a flat tax on all corporate earnings and all income including capital gains with no exemptions. Better yet, tax capital gains and/or higher marginal incomes at higher rates than labor earnings (cf. Robert Reich). And although rich white men like Bill Gates argue that higher taxes would stymy their incentive to innovate, this is obviously self-serving malarkey. Our taxation system has been horribly corrupted and needs to be revised completely and immediately.
2. Use the aforementioned taxpayer contributions to establish a free university system as well as a universal healthcare system — working models for both already exist throughout Europe. Our educational system has been horribly corrupted (cf. Scott Galloway) and our healthcare system is obviously subpar for the $3.5 trillion dollars per year that we spend on it.
3. Similarly, eliminate all tax deductions for charitable contributions. Decent human beings do not need a tax incentive to make the world a better place. Millions of rich people as well as religious institutions skirt their tax obligations by establishing 501c3s and/or donating to them. This system has been corrupted. Churches are businesses that should be taxed just like all corporations (oh, need I mention the pedophilia?). The 501c3 non-profit distinction has been egregiously corrupted — what sane person would agree that Harvard University’s $40 billion dollar endowment should be tax exempt???
4. Our voting system has been corrupted by white male millionaire’s gerrymandering. Either figure out a way to ensure that all votes are equal throughout all districts and/or eliminate the Electoral College.
5. Impose Federal judge term limits. President Trump has appointed a plethora of young, conservative white male judges to fight against women’s and minorities’ rights such as abortion and same-sex marriage. These people should not govern our appeal system for the next fifty years.
6. Remove all campaign contributions from the electoral system. There are better ways of electing representatives than the way we currently elect representatives. Abolish K-Street, abolish all political action committees, make lobbying illegal, strike the current system of systemic bribery, and let the constituents vote on the issues, not by being brainwashed by market-researched advertisements or hateful propaganda financed by 8 figure campaigns.

There are more than 328 million firearms in our fair nation of 328 million people, so the impending American revolution is not going to begin or end with a whimper. And if white people don’t act now, then we will end up like Sylvester Stallone in “Copland:”

To assuage your curiosity before you Google “Ira Israel” to see if my words and acts are authentic or performative, besides easing the suffering of hundreds of patients in my private psychotherapy practice at a sliding scale and teaching authenticity and compassion to thousands of students, here are a few of my contributions to being part of the solution: www.PresidentAlexandriaOcasioCortez.com, Charge Tucker Carlson With Hate Speech, Authenticity and Awakening for Lovable Idiots, The School of Authenticity and Lightworkers Anonymous.