Table Talk for Activists, Part 3: Don't Delegitimize Your Struggle By Making "White People Are Doing 'It' Too" Arguments

This essay is contained in my new book. I'm delighted to announce that The Sojourner's Passport site has launched! You can visit it at http://www.sojournerspassport.com/.

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Khadija Nassif
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Whenever the topic of wrongs committed by Blacks comes up, there are always plenty of Black folks who link and measure our evil deeds with those of Whites. I believe that this traditional, knee-jerk response is a serious error. As much as we like to scream about how we're being victimized, many of us feel perfectly comfortable victimizing others.

The "White people are doing it too," or "White people did it worse," or "White people are doing it more" arguments are totally irrelevant when considering the evil of some of our people's actions. Furthermore, these arguments are: (1) ethically repugnant; and even worse, (2) a dangerous strategic liability in terms of African-Americans' long-term interests.

Ever since the Open Letter to Princeton Theological Seminary post, White, racist trolls from Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) have been stalking several Black activist blogs. Muslim Bushido is one of the blogs that they've been stalking. It pleases me to know that these racists are still smarting from this blog's (and other blogs') call for justice regarding the hate crime at PTS. [Click on the "Say NO to Racism at Princeton" badge under the masthead for more details]

I had a brief exchange with one of the racist PTS trolls in the comment section of the Negative National Security Impact of Damaged Beyond Repair Black Men post. This particular racist said:

"In all fairness to black guys, white guys are the original DBR. We just didn't just go rape some people.. we colonizied a bunch of people, wiped out some civilizations and started a couple of world wars. Black men have a looooooong way to go to match that. And really.. who do muslims hate more than evil, white, European guys?"

I responded:

"Anonymous:

Hmmm. You could be a DBRBM pretending to write in as a WM. {No...your anonymous note doesn't have quite the "right" tone for that}

Or your primary issue could be that you're an anti-Muslim bigot of any ethnicity. {No...that doesn't sound quite right either}

Or, you could be one of the Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) racists who is still smarting from this blog's, and other blogs', call for justice at PTS . . . DING! DING! DING! By George, I think that's it! Funny how you're still stalking activist Black blogs.

Whatever. {yawn} It really doesn't matter. Ayatullah Murtaza Mutahhari gave a concise summary of the Islamic position in his book Social and Historical Change: An Islamic Perspective: "Islam is oriented toward justice and equality. Plainly, those who benefit from this orientation are the deprived and oppressed, and those who lose are the plunderers, monopolists, and exploiters. Even where Islam works to secure the rights and interests of a class, its primary aim is to realize a value, to found a humane principle." pg. 119.

Muslims have a problem with whoever it is that's doing something wrong. Remember that, Anonymous.

With justice in mind."

As the exchange continued, the racist troll was very eager to try to elicit a "White people have done 'it' worse" response from me. You may ask, "Why would a White racist WANT to hear a Black person agree with the 'White people have done 'it' worse' argument?" Answer: Because these sorts of arguments almost always serve his (racist) interests! In many different ways.

Making "White People Are Doing 'It' Too, etc." Arguments Serves to Delegitimize Your Struggle

Let me explicitly point out the strategic danger of engaging in the "White people are doing it too, etc." framing of issues related to Black folks' wrongdoing. White racists like to hear that sort of reasoning and arguments from Black folks. The racists like it because these type of arguments serve to delegitimize our struggles for justice!

The "White folks are doing 'it' too" type of arguments let everyone know that the speaker is NOT interested in justice. It lets everyone know that the speaker is NOT taking a stand based on principle, but instead on the basis of ethnic favoritism of some sort.

Engaging in the "White people are doing 'it' too", etc." arguments plays into White racists' public relations strategy of characterizing our struggles as corrupt hustles and/or shakedowns.

When you make these sorts of arguments, you are helping to convince neutral, non-Black bystanders that your cause is unworthy of their support. Here's why:

Unless you have worked to establish an ACLU-type reputation for advocating on behalf of the U.S. Constitution across the board, it looks as if you simply want any and all Black criminals to go unpunished when you make these sorts of statements. It looks like you are callously disregarding the pain that Black predators have inflicted upon other people. It looks like you have no ethical center to your arguments. It looks like you have no concern for public safety. Finally, it looks like you have no common sense.

Non-Blacks have NO inherent interest in having Black predators go unpunished.

Those audience members who remember some of the other comments from the White racist PTS trolls, will recall that these racists assumed that we would NOT want a Black hate-crime perpetrator punished. They assumed that our calls for justice were actually calls for ethnic favoritism.

Over the years, you've heard some of the racists' pet phrases: "special treatment," "special interests," etc. You feed into this characterization by making "White people are doing 'it' too, etc." arguments. Please know that it seriously throws White racists off their game when you demand justice across the board.

White Racists Have Nothing to Lose by Admitting Their People's Past Crimes Such as Genocide, etc. YOU and YOUR Struggle Have a LOT to Lose by Making "White People are Doing 'It' Too, etc." Arguments.

Evia was quite incisive in her response, and pointed out several extremely important points about all of this. She correctly analyzed the troll's comments as:

". . . just another form of the same protective device to enable the DBRbm to continue their reign of brutalizing NON-WHITE females. Now just let these DBRbm start going into white communities raping 12 year old white girls and doing some the vile things they do to unprotected black girls, bw and other nonwhite women, there would be lynchings again in this country.

See, it’s easy for wm to make excuses for da po bm (IF that was a white person) on blogs and such, but you just let Tyrone go into those white communities raping little white girls and preying on ww and see what would happen. And any white person like your commenter (if s/he was white) who’d try to make excuses for them would be strung up too.

. . . I always point out to these folks that white folks know what they’ve done here, there, and everywhere because their historians document their heinous acts, but this is also why whites are willing to pump billion of dollars into THEIR military industrial complex. And this is why they knew/know they need nuclear weapons. Last time I checked, AAs don’t have a military and we don’t have any nuclear weapons.

. . . Whereas the white DBRs that your commenter mentioned are not held accountable (since their people control the United States military and nuclear weapons), AAs won’t have anything to protect us from the backlash that these damaged black males are causing."

She's absolutely right about all of that.

First of all, you should realize that the entire topic is a joke to the racist troll. He knows that his collective will NOT be held accountable for their history of genocide, slavery, etc. So he can make all the historical admissions he wants, without it undermining his people's interests. The additional joke for him is that he's dishonestly pretending to shed crocodile tears for long dead victims of color, while ignoring and brushing off the suffering of still-living victims of color.

When we join the racist troll (and others) in making the "White people are doing 'it' too, etc." arguments, we are undermining our people's interests. We are furthering the racist characterization of our struggles as ethnic favoritism-based hustles.

We are also driving away potential non-Black allies. You see, the only thing that non-Blacks usually hear from us are demands that Black criminals escape punishment. As well as a steady stream of excuses and denials of the evil done by some Blacks. They almost never hear any of us calling for any Black predator to be punished.

Secondly, keep in mind that racists do NOT wish you and other Black people well. They do NOT want to see the African-American collective cleanse itself of the crime and evil within. Racists are quite comfortable when Black folks excuse and enable evils that these same racists would NEVER tolerate running rampant within their collective.

"White people are doing 'it' too, etc." arguments serve to excuse and enable evil. These sorts of arguments also undermine our long-term interests. It's long past time to stop using them.