Why Do They Hate Us?
Episode Stats
Summary
Why do they hate us? a question that was famously asked by journalists and presidents in the aftermath of 9/11. And judging by the last 14 years of disastrous wars, sending grandma through pat-down lines and x-ray machines, and freedom fries, I think it s safe to say that we ve never really answered that question with a great deal of honesty and self-awareness.
Transcript
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That's a question that was famously asked by journalists and presidents and average Joes
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in the aftermath of the September 11th terror bombings.
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Judging by the last 14 years of disastrous wars,
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sending grandma through pat-down lines and x-ray machines and freedom fries,
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I think it's safe to say that we never really answered that question
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with a great deal of honesty and self-awareness.
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Hopefully we can do a little bit better here today.
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When I say us, I recognize that there are many different people in this room
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and that it has tremendous social, cultural, and historical consequences.
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More important, we have a passionate attachment to our extended family
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and the cultures and civilization that it birthed.
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Now, when I say hate, I'm not referring to a passing emotion
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or a maniacal contempt or loathing or resentment to some particular individual.
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This feeling that is so pervasive that the white race and white racism
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are uniquely responsible for suffering and injustice in the world.
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These ideas could best be summed up by Susan Sontag's facile remark
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that the white race is the cancer of human history.
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but the sentiment behind her words is very much a part of the imagination
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and has become a kind of implicit slogan of the unified left.
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Yesterday, a friend sent me a photographic essay
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met with attendees at the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs,
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which sounds like a dorky conservative gathering, to say the least.
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to the White Straight Male Publishing Establishment
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and, apparently, white straight males in general.
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In thinking about the they and why do they hate us,
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it's tempting to focus on the kinds of people in these images
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or the kinds of people who have often protested just outside our conference.
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A particularly furry and foul-smelling species.
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But I have sometimes wondered if we just totally misunderstand these people.
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And when they protest, they're actually groupies and rabid superfans
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who have traveled across the country to come up, hold up a sign,
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and scream our name and maybe get an autograph.
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In other words, it's tempting to focus our inquiry on leftist,
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social justice warriors, and granola communists.
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Because they personify in our minds what white guilt is and means.
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But whatever it is, it certainly can't be reduced to money or career advancement.
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They are true believers, which you could say makes them interesting.
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But in focusing solely on this low-hanging fruit, we miss the big picture.
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We radically underestimate just how widespread and seemingly normal white guilt really is.
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which millions take for granted or don't even think about at all,
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and which are slowly eating away at our future.
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To the vast majority of the population of the industrialized world.
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It's why even the brave ones among us are afraid to show their faces.
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For millions who don't want to think about white guilt,
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last August, a major story emerged from Rotherham
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gang rape had become a usual part of growing up in Rotherham,
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this otherwise quaint town with Roman ruins and a Gothic cathedral.
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if not all, of the alleged rapist and child abusers
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which in British parlance means Arab, Semitic, and mostly Muslim.
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the reason this grotesque situation was allowed to persist for so long
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The town council thus constantly avoided the issue,
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In a way, the Rotherham case would be much more reassuring
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That is, if they were part of some dark conspiracy