The cry "racism" is still one of the most potent weapons in the verbal arsenal of immigration advocates. Most Americans - especially white Americans - fear the accusation and will do just about anything to avoid being tarred with it. That in itself is proof that they really are not racists in the full sense of the word, i.e., people with irrational hostility toward people of other races.
Yet many white Americans feel considerable unease at the prospect of becoming a minority in a country that traditionally has been European in character and culture. Is it possible for them to argue against this outcome - now looming about five decades away, given current policies of immigration - without being made to feel that they are the sort of bad people that immigration promoters claim they are?
______________________________________
John Vinson is president of the American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF). One possible line of argument is that so rapid an ethnic/racial shift would sever America's continuity of heritage and culture and seriously destabilize our country. This is a reasonable position, but many white Americans would decline to voice it for fear it would sound narrowly self-serving, perhaps even a thinly-veiled defense of white supremacy.
What to do? Perhaps the best defense against the cry of racism is a good offense, specifically throwing the charge back in the face of the accuser.
Immigration restrictionists can do so quite honestly and effectively. One could argue that one of the most powerful and virulent examples of racism in America today targets Americans of European descent. While small pathetic bands of Klansmen spew hatred in remote cow pastures, Euro-bashers command many key institutions of society in the universities, the schools, the media, big business, the bureaucracy, and churches.
Claims of racism against Americans of European descent may strike some readers as unjustified, but to cite one of innumerable examples the following appeared in Managing Diversity, a magazine which government agencies and corporations subscribe to for advice on handling multiethnic workforces. According to author Harris Sussman,
In our post-modern vocabulary, ‘whites' or ‘the white man' is all we need to say to invoke [a] history and experience of injustice and cruelty. When we say ‘white people' we mean the people of greed who value things over people, who value money over people. We know exactly what their values are and where they lead. We have all paid a terrible price for these values.
"Given the reality of Europhobia and its influence, are average white Americans truly racist when they object to becoming a minority through immigration?"
* * *
"Genuine concern for
self-preservation hardly adds up to prejudice." A statement which sums up the essential attitude of "Europhobia" was critic Susan Sontag's remark that "the white race is the cancer of civilization." Europhobes, many of whom are white, seem to believe that white people are uniquely flawed and evil, and that their demise (perhaps through immigration) would not be a particular loss. A Europhobic movement in the black community, the Nation of Islam, even goes so far as to pronounce that whites are literally devils.
Ideas have consequences, and Europhobia is no excep-tion. Multiculturalism, which subordinates successful Euro-American culture to dysfunctional Third World cultures, keeps gaining ground against surprisingly weak opposition. White Americans, with a few exceptions, passively accept government-sponsored anti-white discrimination - even that which benefits recently-arrived immigrants.
Europhobes, however, are quick to deny the power of their racism. White males, they maintain, still have the political and economic power in the U.S. And, indeed, they do - or at least a small minority of them do. But more often than not that power serves the interests of Europhobia which, once again, is the reigning prejudice of the key institutions and the whites who run them.
What makes these elites Europhobic? Some of weak mind and character may agree with Ms. Sontag. For others the answer may lie in the psychopathology of self-hatred and far-left politics. Still others in the business community may view Europhobia as a means to financial gain. Possibly they seek to phase out troublesome white workers (and for that matter, blacks too) in favor of docile, low-wage immigrants.
Given the reality of Europhobia and its influence, are average white Americans truly racist when they object to becoming a minority through immigration? If accused of racism, they might reply to the accuser
"In a climate of Euro-phobia, we have every legitimate reason to fear and resist a substantial racial/ethnic shift. Assimilating non-European immigrants into America's traditional Euro-culture is difficult. Europhobia makes it nearly impossible. As many of the newcomers absorb this hostility, European-Americans will face increasing tension, discrimination, and perhaps physical danger. We are under no moral obligation to accept these risks either for ourselves or our children.
"American society now grants all racial minorities the right to organize on their own behalf. As Euro-Americans become minorities in states heavily impacted by immigration - and eventually the whole country - you will have no moral ground for objecting when we follow their examples.
"If you wish to change the make-up of America, the burden of proof should be on you to show that racism, i.e., Europhobia, is not your real motive for pushing this almost unprecedented social gamble."
Supporters of open immigration may take offense at these statements and demands, but they will be hard-pressed to dismiss them out-of-hand. If they refuse to reply, or fall back on the usual tactic of shouting "racism", reasonable people will begin to wonder who the real racists are. Genuine concern for self-preservation hardly adds up to prejudice.
Changing your address?
We want to know so you won't miss
a single issue of The Social Contract.
Simply print your name and new address on one of the subscription application cards from this journal, write the word "change" on it, and drop it in the mail. No postage necessary. TSC