Communist Philosopher Karl Marx
One idea at the forefront of liberal circles is that whites and racial minorities have always existed in opposition to each other and if existing institutions are not changed then there will continue to be racial fricitions. This is expressed in the book White Fragility with the statement that, “white identity is inherently racist.” However, the breaking down of society in two separate groups is fraught with errors which make it ignorant and simplistic. It ignores other identities besides mere whiteness and blackness and creates the illusion of perpetual racial strife.
The division of society into two separate groups has its modern day origins in communist philosophy. In the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels purport that, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” In their eyes, society was divided upon one line of identity; class. They believed that the old society would live and die by class. Either leaders around the globe would willingly accept their doctrine, or more likely, a revolution would occur. Positioning these two groups against each other was a way for them to explain all of the fundamental shifts which occurred in society through the ages. Although it was obviously false and simple-minded, it garnered wide approval, because of its simplicity. This allowed it to be accepted by the masses of people who desired an explanation for their lowly status.
The same phenomenon is occurring in discussions about race. White is said to only exist in opposition to black just as communists believe the rich exist in opposition to the poor. This allows people who hate Western society to take the easy way out and turn an issue that we have, into the only issue that we have. It allows them to ignore all of the nuances that we have in our society and feeds the masses a simplistic view of history which falls in line with their false prejudices.
However, there is a very large problem with this false binary. It ignores the fact that there are infinite numbers of groups that supersede racial considerations. The fundamental assumption which people make when they set up premises that put white in continual opposition to black, is that the loyalties of white people always lie with other white people. However, most white people have loyalties which lie far outside of race. For example, I would feel more comfortable being around someone of any race who is a conservative Christian than I would a white, liberal, atheist. This is true for many people. Political and religious affiliations will almost always supersede racial ones.
By establishing two groups and creating a false binary, liberal elites create a sense of perpetual racial conflict that allows them to push their narrative that America was founded upon white supremacy. However, most of the conflict between groups in our modern society is between people with different political affiliations, not with different races. You would be hard pressed to find a white liberal who would choose to associate with a MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporter than a black liberal.
Simplifying society down into two groups is a trick to ingrain certain beliefs in people. Intellectuals often attempt to get people to accept the false premise that society is based upon white supremacy, because it allows them to castigate all of our societal institutions as evil. The belief that all of society is based upon race struggles is as ignorant as believing that it is all based upon class struggles. Simple explanations like these are easy to feed to the masses and allow intellectual-supremacists to criticize society as a whole without delving into the specifics which they know nothing about.
