There are many factors causing Americans to experience “Civil Rights Fatigue.” One is the news media's refusal to criticize our first black president. During his five and a half years in office, members of the media haven't wavered in their protection of this president, even abandoning their integrity in the process, losing readers and credibility. Of course, slanted news reports have always been an essential ingredient of the Civil Rights movement. Indeed, the movement would not have survived without these deceptive media reports. But, after all these years, the public is losing its gullibility.
This new social virus, Civil Rights Fatigue (CRF Syndrome), is not surprising, because in addition to a half-decade of media's overblown kudos to our first black president, we have endured over a half-century of all-inclusive laws, preferences, quotas, set-asides, lowered school standards, grade inflations, social promotions, and other excessively favorable treatment of minorities. We were told that fifty years of special preferences was necessary to end racism. But, if you believe media reports, racism is not ending. Indeed, rarely a day goes by that the media doesn't tell us about a new type of racism.
The latest variety results from a paradigm shift. - Formerly, racism was what put others at a disadvantage. Now it is also what puts some at an advantage; i.e. “white privilege.” Actually, this latest form of racism has been around for a while. The phrase dates back to 1988, when a student in women's studies at Wellesley College coined it. She actually wrote about “white privilege and male privilege”, but as the two are deemed synonymous, male privilege doesn't have to be mentioned.. Under this new definition, you are a racist just for being white. Like other accusations of racism, white privilege is also designed to induce white guilt. As a first step in atoning for their guilt, whites must acknowledge that their “unearned” privileges oppress minorities.
Some secular Left academics, using clever semantics, have included heterosexuals and Christians in the groups who are racist . Consequently, these academics identify the four most racist groups as whites, males, heterosexuals and Christians. As a member of all four of these groups, I reject this accusation. I also reject the concept of white privilege as a form of racism. And somehow I don't think the public is going to buy it. I also think the Leftist establishment realizes that the public is suffering from CRF, and that white Americans cannot be manipulated into accepting yet another variety of white guilt. So the Left's indoctrination is aimed primarily at young students. And in these indoctrination endeavors, academia is assisted by the media.
We know that the news media is not impartial, and slants its reports to accommodate political and social agendas. But we should remember that biased news reports are boosted by academia, the entertainment industry, and even studies by social scientists. Today's social scientists want us to think that they are dispassionate, and that their studies are rigidly controlled, based on solid data; verified, and incontestable. But the unshakable findings of one year are usually refuted in a future year. And different social scientists often interpret similar data in conflicting ways.
Although they might deny it, social scientists are highly susceptible to media attention. In fact, it helps their careers, so they have no problem embroidering the results of their studies in ways that improve their chances of getting media attention. Studies that enhance liberal causes stand a better chance of getting media coverage than those that do not. Actually, of all the thousands of studies produced by social scientists every year, the public usually only hears about the ones that the media approves of.
These dubious studies by social scientists are a serious problem because our politicians think they can create social justice if they fashion laws based on the latest “psychological” theories. Unfortunately, the latest psychological theories are heavily influenced by contemporary political opinions. So Americans are victims of a vicious cycle: political opinions are influenced by psychological theories that are influenced by political opinions. Indeed, many of the problems we have today are the indirect result of questionable laws that politicians enacted to bring about social justice. When the Left talks about social justice, they usually mean eliminating racism.
But the Left cannot eliminate racism if it keeps expanding the definition to include more and more types of speech and behavior; “white privilege” being the latest. You might be surprised by examples of white privilege that are considered racist. - Let me offer just a few illustrations from publications like the Southern Poverty Law Center. - If you cut your finger and need a bandaid, it will be flesh-colored to accommodate white flesh. If a lady buys nude colored panty hose, the nude color will match white skin tone. A hotel guest will find a complimentary bottle of shampoo in his room designed specifically for the texture of Caucasian hair.
Colleges offer courses on Greek and Roman mythology, but not African mythology. Students are usually required to read Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens but not Toni Morrison. Poems studied, will more likely be written by Coleridge or Wordsworth rather than Maya Angelou.
In order to eliminate white privilege, we must surrender critical portions of our traditional culture. Although it will be quite an undertaking, the process has already begun and is being pushed by advocates whose zeal borders on fanaticism. White students can get additional academic credits by writing papers about the pernicious effects of their “undeserved” privileges. Students are taught about the effects of white privilege in diversity classes and cultural studies classes. These kinds of classes have been or will soon be implemented throughout Ivy league colleges. And we can be sure that Leftist academics at institutions around the country will insist on adding such courses to their curricula.
However, the “white privilege as racism” campaign is going up against a widespread outbreak of CRF Syndrome. The outcome of this conflict will tell us a lot about our contemporary society. CRF Syndrome was bound to happen, because socio/political movements go in cycles. When the pendulum has swung too far in one direction, its momentum stalls, and the pendulum begins to swing back – not all the way back, but enough to halt the intensity. There is even evidence of Civil Rights Fatigue Syndrome at a major university: a campus of the University of Colorado decided to end its White Privilege Conferences last year. Is it too early to call this hopeful sign a trend?
Gail Jarvis is a Coastal Georgia based freelance writer. Following a career as a CPA/business consultant, Mr. Jarvis now critiques the establishment’s selective and misleading reporting of current events and history. Gail can be reached at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
