Editor, Commonwealth:
This is written to comment on a recent editorial about the grocery store murders in Buffalo, New York, and the white racism that motivated it. (“A plan for angry white men,” May 17.) The incident made me ask myself how could an 18-year-old in the 21st century be so confused and hateful as to commit such an act. I don’t buy the explanation that was, by reference, in The Washington Post.
The editorial referenced a Washington Post story that had anachronistically related the motivation of that twisted young New York citizen from this century to a Mississippi figure who lived in the early part of the last century. No one can disagree that Theodore Bilbo was a racist in the worst sense of that term. Based on historical documentation of his warped mindset, had the man been in Hitler’s position of power but wielded in Mississippi, he might have committed similar atrocities against a different race (yet probably against the same religions). However, I wonder the Washington writer’s purpose comparing the inexperienced New York youngster to the seasoned old politician, Bilbo, who has been dead for 75 years. Bilbo was an adult with set ideas that had been formed over 50 years before he wrote his hateful book. Whereas, 10 years ago the hater in upstate New York was only 8 years old! Focusing on the universal message of hatred, it would be more honest to compare the racist ideas of Louis Farrakhan with Bilbo’s, reversing the racial roles.
The editorial didn’t mention that Bilbo carried on the deep hatred promoted by his political predecessor, James K. Vardaman. And while turning ancient dirt, in comparative fairness one could dig up another corpse: Frederick Douglass. He held a religious prejudice against Catholics and a racial one against the Irish, as did a large number of whites during that time. Douglass promoted a federal law that would have prohibited Irish immigrants from legally entering America, much less attaining citizenship, because he feared they were displacing Blacks. Today some would say that it is un-Christian to even oppose immigrants who illegally enter the country. Was Douglass a bigoted, un-Christian racist, or have his prejudices been forgiven because they fit acceptable standards of the day? Arguably, his “replacement theory” preceded Bilbo.
In related current events, some in a congressional group known as the “Squad” seem to be getting away with public anti-Semitic remarks. Is racism a one-race sin: Only whites can be racists? If so, what arbiter has made that determination, and on what authority? In the 1960s, when others were promoting a creed of violence and a disregard of the law, similar to the recent Black Lives Matter movement, the Rev. Martin Luther King warned in a speech at DePauw University that a doctrine of “Black supremacy” was as dangerous as “white supremacy.” He reportedly preached to those at the Methodist institution that “God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.” Isn’t it true that hatred is hatred, whatever the age, whatever the race? One can’t be truly free by hating or being hated.
As to the conclusion of the Commonwealth editorial, how true that the white race in America is self-destructing by its own voluntary depopulation. As your opinion pointed out, the loss of manly duty and responsibility to wife and children in the committed state of marriage, open to producing offspring, is a large part of the blame. It is the principal reason we see a death of the traditional family and a loss of committed faith. But we are unlikely to see big media or conventional wisdom making an analysis based on ancient truth and wisdom or proposing a solution based on common sense and reason. It wouldn’t be progressive.
Chip Williams
Jackson
Note: I began my letter on Sunday evening and made edits Monday, intending it be sent today, Tuesday. But before today’s ending, another 18-year-old has committed more murders, this time in Texas, killing innocent schoolchildren. This evil insanity explodes in schools, churches, public buildings, private businesses and homes; by and against Orientals, Occidentals and Blacks; against strangers, co-workers and family members. The killers’ motivations or compulsions vary and are as unpredictable as the next location of their crimes. The only constant seems to be their hatred: for what’s living and for life itself.
