Ed— "UnWoke" or "Edgelord"?

Monday, 25 December 2023

Oh, OK. I posted a joke a year or three ago on Facebook—arguably lame, probably historically inaccurate, regarding pulling down the pyramids because they were built by slaves. I think the meme was funny and I don't regret posting it. It lampooned, as I saw it, the over-broad demands for obliterating way too many things unreflectively, and possibly included satirizing the affect of a drunk redneck lurching off to do something impossible. But I didn’t expect everyone to see it the same way or even to laugh.

I was attacked then online as a racist, as an insensitive boor, as ignorant of history, as pro-slavery (or at least as indifferent to its horrors), and attacked (or praised?) as “unwoke” and as an “edgelord.” It was weird.

I was not posting that meme to troll people or to see whether people would over-react (I figured some would, but that was not my purpose: humor was my purpose.) I didn’t know the history of the building of the pyramids and don’t think the correct history matters to the joke. I laughed at it, so I passed it along.

One of my favorite videos is of Steve Martin opening Saturday Night Live with his King Tut bit—and I don’t think it’s remotely accurate historically (or otherwise) nor that it should be seen as offensive to Egyptian heritage or museums. But it is hilarious and I’ve watched it many times—so should you:

But, just in case people don't get me and actually want to (why would anyone want to understand me? I don’t know—not for me to say), here are some serious questions, all more or less inter-related, and my answers, my opinions, to which I invite criticism or disagreement, etc. (Numbered just for convenience of responders—these are not in any particular order.) If you just want to weigh in and try to declare what I think, be advised—you’ll be blocked or unsubscribed with no warning for doing that; but not for offering contrary opinions. Remember, please, that I’m not declaring all these to be grand truths or facts; but they’re all truly my opinions.

1.    If I think some people might be offended by something I’m posting as funny, why do I post it anyway? Because I like humor, including corny stuff, lame stuff, etc., and it is ultimately impossible to eliminate the possibility of anything anyone thinks is funny also being something that offends someone else. I live with and love a blonde—lifelong and my favorite person on earth—who likes dumb blonde jokes and encourages me to post them (of course she likes best the ones that depict the blonde as actually the smart one). I post—usually repost from others actually—things I think are funny. I never post—and will not—memes or jokes that I think are merely insulting or offensive nor will I post things intentionally to insult or offend others. Humor, probably especially on Facebook, memes, e-mail, etc., is easy to look at in more than one way. If someone doesn’t think something I post is funny, he can ignore it, groan, top it, complain that it is lame, post a thumbs down emoji, etc. Complaining that it is possible to misinterpret it is, IMNHO, useless, because that’s true of all humor.

One of the most intriguing and effective bits in American literature, regarding a riverboat explosion, is from Huck Finn by Mark Twain—a blatantly racist pair of comments that use irony almost perfectly to skewer racism. This should be taught in high school English, in my opinion—but might get the teacher fired these days if it was. See https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/jan/05/censoring-mark-twain-n-word-unacceptable if you want details.

2.    Do I think anyone else has the right of free speech on my Substack site or my Facebook page? No. It’s my site/page, not anyone else’s. I will not block or unsubscribe someone else just because I disagree with him and have published essays I don’t agree with—and will again. But I will take such blocking actions if I think a commenter is trying to declare what I think instead of what s/he thinks or if he is, in my judgement, merely being rude or outrageous for its own sake—being a troll. I have blocked people and no doubt will again. Do I think there should be any restrictions on me as to what I post or write on Letters…? Yes, but not just because some other poster doesn’t like what I say or post or misinterprets it. (Like everyone else I know, I tend to think that I’m right, clear, etc.). Of course I think anyone has the unqualified right to unfriend or unsubscribe or block me. Facebook and my Letters… are just social forums, not something restricted, in the same way government is, by the First Amendment.

3.    Is slavery, race-based or otherwise, immoral and abominable? Yes. Despite all manner of sacred texts (see Leviticus 25, especially verses 44-45, for a biblical answer that shows what Jehovah supposedly said on slavery) and historical epochs that disagree(d), despite wide varieties of reasons and practices, it is not, and never has been in my opinion, acceptable for one human being to "own" another, and yes that includes sex-slaves or anyone held against his/her will. It has in practice been quite different in some areas or epochs, and those differences might affect how immoral I consider it—but I don’t think it is ever acceptable.

4.    Would I rather be a slave or be executed if captured in battle? I don't know—I’d probably prefer being a slave, but circumstances matter and I’m unsure anyway.

5.    Was race-based slavery, particularly in the US, worse than historical slavery more generally? Yes, beyond any reasonable doubt. The interplay between the economic interests of slaveholders (and the economy of which race-based slavery was an integral part) and malicious slandering of one group of people was destructive to human decency, rationality, and, especially of course, to the rights and lives of the enslaved. The racism that was used to justify slavery, by slaveholders, preachers, and ordinary citizens—including by many in non-Southern states or areas such as Cotton Mather in New England—has taken many forms and persists to the present. That racism was and is entangled with sexism and, especially, with keeping the poor and working people—of all “colors”—oppressed and exploited. This is not at all new, and it does not just affect people of color, though they obviously bear the brunt the worst. The whole society is distorted and corrupted by white privilege, alleged white supremacy, discrimination, and related matters.

6.    Is race real? Should racists and racism be condemned? Can an old white Southern guy understand what it’s like to be black? Should an old white Southern guy even express any opinions on these questions? Yes, yes, no, and yes. Race is real as a social construct (and an often dangerous and important one in this nation) even though it has no solid basis in biology and is understood differently by different people. Racism can be extremely destructive (getting people terrorized, lynched, or murdered by white Christian terrorists) or less deadly but still horrible (keeping qualified people from being hired or promoted or from living where they wish) or shitty but not as horrible: getting people snubbed or looked down on or ignored or treated as invisible. And these categories certainly bleed into each other.

An old white Southern (I was born in South Georgia in 1946) man like me can have observed my culture and society reasonably well because I have tried to do that, read widely, talked to people, etc.—but I cannot know what it’s like to live any other life, and I cannot even imagine what it is like to live 24/7 as a black person coping with a racist world. I can and do have opinions and political stances on many issues that touch on these matters, and, as long as I don’t pretend to speak for anyone else or that I can have any opinion but my own, expressing those opinions is reasonable. Racism is a scourge and needs to be ended—but exactly what laws, policies, practices, customs, etc., need to change and how is not at all automatic or obvious. I'm not familiar with the Portland, OR, protests enough to be sure, but from what I have seen or read, the wall of moms and then wall of dads were not distractions, were not changing-the-focus theater, but were (mostly at least) effective declarations of alliance and support. (See, for example, https://www.wbur.org/…/2020/07/23/wall-of-moms-protests-por… ). They're needed to dramatize for all Americans the need to take action, to vote, to demand change in the streets AND in the boardrooms and smoke-filled rooms.

The movement (for decency, justice, economic reasonableness, etc.) needs all of us to be active participants, not mere Greek choruses. No one should presume to speak for others but all of us should speak—loudly—for justice, against racism, and against police brutality and lawlessness.

7.    Should any historical figure who has ever "owned” a slave be denied any form of honor? No—it’s far too complex and unreasonable and at times ahistorical to condemn completely anyone who ever thought he had a right to own another person. I do condemn—see above—the idea that anyone has that right. I’d unhesitatingly condemn James Henry Hammond (1807-1864) even though he was a South Carolina Governor, a US Senator, and rich as hell, and his “owning” and abusing slaves was certainly a major part of why he should be condemned and dishonored. I’d have some ambiguity about others: Andrew Jackson was a slaveholder and responsible for genocidal war on American Indians, yet he did serve as prez and he did accomplish some positive things—I wouldn’t favor pulling down statues of him or insist that Jackson, MS, say, be renamed—but I would insist that history books reflect his negative side accurately, and that statues be properly labeled about his most salient negative side. And I’d oppose erecting any fresh statues of him.

And statues that had inscriptions extolling the Lost Cause or slavery or white supremacy would have to be torn down or redone, IMNHO. James Madison, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson deserve excoriation for owning slaves and for racism but also massive praise for major accomplishments. Robert E. Lee was a leader of treason against the US and pro-slavery and racist. Any statue of him that I had any say about would be gone from the public square. Any monument glorifying the Lost Cause or slavery or white supremacy—gone. No Stonewall Jacksons, no Nathan B Forrests. Rename the military bases now named for Southern Generals—all of them.

But should Ulysses S. Grant, who did own a slave, be denounced and dishonored, or have his statue pulled down as it was in San Fransisco? Hell no—that is absurdly ahistorical and unreasonable. What about Edward Colston in Bristol, England? I’ve seen the statue of him in the main square there and found it disturbing (it’s now been hurled into the harbor by protesters), but I don’t know enough to be sure of exactly what should have been done.

8.    Should the battle dead, Confederate or Union, be honored at American battlefield sites? Yes—but no obelisks glorifying the Lost Cause or white supremacy. I’ve been to a few battlefield sites and all I’ve seen name the names and units of Union dead as well as Confederate. Remembering those killed does not have to be the same as glorifying slavery or white supremacy. See https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/opinion/confederate-graves-arlington-cemetery.html

9.    Should Martin Luther King, Jr., be honored and appreciated? Should he be presented as a non-threatening, “safe” hero? I’ve written extensively about this before—some conservatives (now, but not back in the 1960s) claim people like MLK and John Lewis and Andrew Young and Joseph Lowery were all just politely, quietly, asking for equal rights. That’s utter bullshit—they were making trouble and raising hell for justice, and that’s why they should be honored (they’re high on my list of heroes) and how they should be remembered. People should read about King before making lame statements.  For example: 

10. Is non-violence adequate to get change? Not alone, at least not always. Non-violence, as practiced by MLK and John Lewis, did indeed bring about real and important change, and I’d prefer to always avoid violence if possible, but sometimes it isn’t—and I think MLK understood that. Would Haitians ever have thrown off slavery and won freedom without horrific violence, under the leadership of François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture? Almost certainly not. Would Ukrainians be able to stop Vladimir Putin and Russian troops? Or Israel be able to stop Hamas from terrorism by nonviolent means? I don’t see how.

11.  Do black lives matter? Don’t all lives matter? Do you support the organization, Black Lives Matter? Of course. Yes, “all lives matter”—but that’s not a reasonable response to saying that black lives do. (If someone said, “There’s been a school shooting that killed three third graders,” replying that “all students matter” would be true—but outrageous.) From what I know about (a fair amount for an old necessarily inactive guy—but not everything) Black Lives Matter, I agree with them. I’ve seen some reports online about them that I would not agree with—but I’m pretty sure at least some of those reports were mostly false right-wing nutjob claims, not accurate ones. Protests stemming from the death of George Floyd were not just aimed at racism or just about racism. Police brutality has been against poor people, especially black Americans but not exclusively so. The racism in America is real, pernicious, long-standing, vicious, and unjust and needs to be countered. On an individual level, I don't really understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of such vile white supremacy, however much I think I can imagine it. But I do care about justice and decency for all my fellow human beings, whatever color or ethnicity or supposed social class they are. Black lives matter. And I support all—or at least nearly all—that BLM has done or is doing, and I oppose the racist intentional distortions of BLM by the Trump right. But I also support justice and oppose classism.

12. Is anti-semitism a form of racism? Are Jews a race? Jew-hatred is quite similar, especially in its virulence, viciousness, and irrationality, to racism whether or not “Jewish” refers to a race, a religion, or a culture, or all of those things. Definitions vary—but hatred of Jews and of Israelis, and of Muslims and of Palestinians, is horrific , dangerous, and disgusting. An excellent opinion piece on this was recently posted in The Guardian—

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/24/antisemitism-holocaust-denial-stephen-fry-alternative-christmas-message-channel-4-x-trolls

13.  Am I trying to be a “woke” or “unwoke” or an “edgelord”? “Woke” is a term so variously (and in some cases absurdly) used that I am proud to be both “woke” and not. I don’t really know exactly what being an “edgelord” is, nor do I care whether others think I am one.

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