Debating White Nationalists and White Supremacists On Race in the 21st Century
I recently had an opportunity to participate in an Oxford style debate with some white nationalists and white supremacists. The resolution was in question form (no affirmative or negative, just an open question):
“How should Western societies deal with race and racial inequality in the 21st century?”
The general format was as follows:
Section 1: 10 minutes for each person to answer the question without interruption. Additional time will be reserved for subsequent sections.
Section 2: 30 minutes for cross examination, where you can ask each other questions, raise objections and challenges. I will only contribute points of order here. Additional time will be reserved for subsequent sections.
Section 3: 30 minutes for question and answers, where I read from the live chat and ask my own questions.
Section 4: 5 minute summaries, to sum up your argument
Total : 1.5 hours
After the debate, the floor was open to discuss what was previously debated. Once again, thank you to the Modern Distributist for providing the forum.
What I Learned Debating White Nationalists and White Supremacists
In debating white nationalists and white supremacists in this format, I found many were advocates of racial realism or a belief that races are genetically inferior to other races and are predisposed to violence, certain levels of academic achievement etc. This belief has led to the irrational fears that result in electing the inexperienced into crafting policy, and justification of the resulting incompetence. Michael Harriot encapsulates everything I learned from this experience. Essentially, a lot of white people feel they must have as many guns as possible because they are under attack. How are they under attack?
Crime and Terrorism
The chances of an American dying by a terrorist act is 1 in 20 million, but we have to watch out for terrorists (read Muslims) because of what extremists in their religion believe. I was sure to point out in debating these white nationalists and white supremacists that 84% of white people are killed by other white people and there is no group that kills more children and elderly than white people. Still, society must beware the black man who will murder you and then have his way with your wife.
Immigration
Immigration (read Mexicans) ties into this as well. While an estimated 5.8 million unauthorized Mexicans lived in the U.S. in 2014, 5.3 million illegal immigrants are from other places. Of those 11 million people, an estimated 8 million have jobs. Statistically, the Mexican unemployment rate is lower than the black unemployment rate. To be fair, many of these jobs are low-paying and require very little training or education, which makes it perplexing why people think Mexicans are taking all the jobs. Also, the same Bureau of Justice statistics that show poor whites and poor blacks commit crime at the same rate also point out that poor Latinos commit crime at lower rates.
Voter Fraud
The Washington Post examined 14 years of ballots and found 241 incidents of voter fraud out of 1 billion votes. During the same period of time, law-enforcement officers shot and killed more than 3,000 men of color. In-person voter fraud is rarer than a black man raping a white woman while a terrorist opens the door for Obama to confiscate their guns.
However, if you only want white people to vote, one of the biggest tools in accomplishing this goal is restricting voting rights. As if reducing the number of polling places, decreasing the number of days for early voting and making it harder to vote via mail isn’t enough, the biggest tool is the institution of voter-identification laws.
White Hate
This is the ultimate white fear. It is the seed from which all other Caucasian conspiracies germinate. According to them, white people are becoming the enemy. White men are being marginalized by women and people of color.
Any group of people that controls every branch of the federal government, 46 of the 50 state governorships, 99 percent of the banks, 495 of the Fortune 500 companies, every television network, movie company, six of the seven major music companies and every single lawmaking body in the country, but still fears and complains about the decline of the country they control, will never, ever have a rational, fact-based conversation.
I would not call the debate a waste of time, but it confirmed a lot of things I already knew. A large swath of white people are scared and they have no real reason to be.
