You’ve heard all the arguments explaining why the brutalization of a white mentally impaired man by four hate-filled black teens in Chicago wasn’t driven by race. Contrarians might point out that in the video the assailants live-streamed they shout “F*ck white people.” But those with a genuine understanding of race relations will emphasize that the mere fact of their having recorded the 48-hour ordeal is proof there was no criminal intent. Who, after all, but a bunch of ignoramuses would provide police not only with evidence of their crime but motivation for a hate crime enhancement? Wait, scratch that question.
If you’re still seeking proof positive that the “hateful four,” now being held without bail, are not racists, consider this bit of logic from Sophia Benoit, who who writes for The Guardian:
Racism against white people doesn’t exist because racism is a system and the system benefits white people. Thank you for understanding!
— Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) January 10, 2017
Racism is a system? Not according to my dictionary, which defines racism as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
So where did Benoit get her “facts”? She tells us in a subsequent tweet that is a reaction to this tweet by Twitter user Suede Henney:
@1followernodad a black person can attack a white person just cos they’re white. Please correct your tweets. Thank you
— SUEDE HENNEY (@suedehenney) January 10, 2017
@suedehenney i understand what you’re saying, but this is one source that explains what I’m going off of: https://t.co/2tFMcoJv3Q
— Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) January 10, 2017
The link takes you to the website of Debby Irving, “racial justice educator and writer,” who provides this sui generis definition:
Racism is the system that allows the racial group that’s already in power to retain power. Since arriving on U.S. soil white people have used their power to create preferential access to survival resources (housing, education, jobs, food, health, legal protection, etc.) for white people while simultaneously impeding people of color’s access to these same resources.Though “reverse racism” is a term I sometimes hear, it has never existed in America. White people are the only racial group to have ever established and retained power in the United States.
And this is the whole of Sophia Benoit’s argument.
Words fail me.
