As I’ve mentioned before, some conservatives feel outraged and oppressed they can’t show their true feelings and say the n-word. Like I say at the link, of course they can, but they’ll be criticized for doing it. For many conservatives that is oppression: they punch down, we have no right to punch up! See this post for more.
According to Jeremy Boering, the co-CEO of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, the solution is for more people to say it. Instead of saying it anonymously online, come right out and say the n-word where your boss can hear about it: “you’re only in the position where your boss could fire you for finding out about those views because you’ve allowed those views to be completely ghettoized through anonymity online. If 5 million people came out today and said the N-word — not recommending it — but no one would ever get fired for saying the N-word again.” Funny, it sure sounds like he’s recommending it.
The thing is, saying the n-word isn’t necessary to fight for their ugly cause. They can wage war on affirmative action without saying it (Heather MacDonald, the anti-affirmative action activist in that piece also opposes sexual harassment lawsuits against important people and claims fighting racism makes white people racist). They can gerrymander to shut out black voters. Stephen Miller can sue companies for having diversity policies (he’s also calling for a lawsuit against Media Matters for reporting on Elon Musk’s anti-Semitic tweets). They can rant about the need for violence against the black underclass, all without saying it. Or freak out about a campus evangelical right-wing group doing POC-outreach.
They can talk admiringly about the joys of a homogeneous culture (“only one culture, only one religion and only one race, completely homogenous.” — said by a Cuban-ancestry Latina]) or bemoan that legal immigration lets in people who are not like us (“us” being presumably Americans as white as pundit Laura Ingraham)
In short, they can advance white supremacy without saying the n-word — they just wouldn’t enjoy it as much. They (which in this case means “a significant percentage of conservatives but not all of them”) enjoy saying the n-word, just like in the good old days, and not being criticized for it. Just like a former friend of mine who believes companies should be able to fire anyone for any reason draws the line at firing people for racist acts. It’s not enough to benefit from white privilege if they can’t also punch down.
Similarly, the crusade against “wokeness” is a crusade against sympathy for black Americans, what the right used to condemn as negrophile. More examples of the history of this crusade at Slate.
Right-wingers know words have power. It’s why they freak out when they’re called racist (no punching up, remember!) or insist it only applies very narrowly — I’ve seen arguments that wanting segregation doesn’t make you racist, just white separatist or that you’re only a racist if you believe in the inferiority of another race, not just because you hate them or call the cops on them.
As a teenager I thought we’d be further along on race than we are today. I remain hopeful MLK was right and the arc of the universe tends towards justice, but the parabola moves much more slowly than it should. All the more reason to keep pushing it in the right direction.
