Brands

Monday 2 November 2015

The Racism Industry

Now that Christmas will soon be upon us, secular and atheist journalists and authors are in a flurry to sell their annual book to the unsuspecting public at large as Christmas presents

As is often the case, Racism is a big seller of books. Eusebius Mckaiser, Ferial Hafajee and various other trendy journalists and authors ( I assume) have written books about racism. Racism is too intellectuals what banting is too the middle class - a trendy cult.

It is rather striking that race and racism is being sold by the page when we are often told that black people cannot be racist. Who is the audience for these books then? Only white people? The same white people that are present at literary festivals and that are moaned at because no black people want to attend said festivals? It's a bit odd that books will be sold as patronizing essays to the very people that buy them, a bit like a supermarket selling expired food, on purpose, to it's customers.

Seems rather trite that racism is a big seller. While overt racism appears to be diminishing, we must now be aware of 'subvert' racism  - those little cognitive biases that make middle-class women clutch their handbags a bit tighter when a black man walks past them in a mall. It bears reminding that subconscious biases are difficult to place, are they biological? Environmental? Perhaps both? I don't know, I'm not a neuroscientist. However, I don't think 'subvert' racism is much of an issue in the grand scale of things, people will always feel better acquainted with others who are similar to them.

However, it appears that the authors of books with titles like "Run Racist Run!", (I know, its an awful title) think differently. For only R250 or more, they will show you why your cognitive biases are a massive issue in a country with massive inequalities and corruption. By 'you', I obviously mean if you're white . If you're black, your biases are not racist of course. Don't expect equality of biases here. White people have different cognitive processes, it's science (not really). I haven't read the book and probably won't ever read it, its probably a rehashing of critical race theory from the 70's that stated everything is racist, provided that no evidence is included in the statement.

As a good anarcho-capitalist, I'll let the market decide whether such books succeed. I certainly hope it flops and Eusebius is actually forced to create actual value for others as opposed to preaching to the choir and berating the buyers of his books.





8 comments:

  1. I'v been thinking about the title of Ferial's book today since I saw it on Twitter: "What if there were no whites in SA?" Question could refer to two scenarios: 1) What if whites never arrived in SA at all, ever. 2) What if all whites suddenly just disappeared/died/emigrated right now. The answer to both questions is the same: Some things would be better, and some things would be worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not really interested in what she has to say if I'm honest. The fact that she is writing about race is the reason I put here in my piece. I don't think her book will have anything new to say, she is fairly vapid.

      Delete
  2. Keep writing. 140 characters not enough to express decently expressed thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If Eusebius ever writes a book on yoga, or banting, I may think about buying it, but paying money to being psychoanalysed by him feels a bit third-hand, to be honest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brilliant. I wish we could "vote up" these comments

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What do you think of Martin Young's "Whiteness is like Herpes" article? He's not writing it for the money, and he's not an atheist either ;-)

    http://thoughtleader.co.za/martinyoung/2015/10/28/whiteness-is-like-herpes/

    ReplyDelete