Resisting A White Victim Mentality
“That’s the kind of man I want you to be,” I tell my young boys as Pee Wee Reese puts his arm around Jackie Robinson for all the world to see in the film ‘42’. That movie, starring the late Chadwick Boseman, has become a family favorite since we first saw it in 2013. Every viewing is a wonderful opportunity to discuss not only the ugliness of racial hatred but also the Christian response to such hatred. As much as we admire Jackie Robinson, as a white man raising white kids, our conversations have always centered around the mistreatment of Jackie by white people and the courageous way Reese and Dodger’s general manager, Branch Rickey, stood up for him when it was unpopular to do so.
During our most recent viewing, one of my sons asked me, “Some people hate white people like that today, don’t they?” After reading Jeremy Carl’s important new book, ‘The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart’, I couldn’t very well tell him ‘No’. Carl thoroughly documents the alarming rise of socially acceptable discrimination against and, yes, hatred for white people. As much as I hate to admit it, my boys are growing up in a society where New York Times writer Sarah Jeong can express the joy she “gets out of being cruel to old white men” with no consequences whatsoever. Left-wing publications like Salon.com can regularly publish articles like “White Men Must Be Stopped: The Future of Mankind Depends on It.”
Some on the right are concerned that if we acknowledge the increase of anti-white racism, it will encourage a victimhood mindset in young white men and lead to hatred of non-whites. They think we should downplay it or reframe it as revolutionary rhetoric that has nothing to do with skin color. I believe this is a mistake. While it’s undeniable that Marxist revolutionaries stoke racial division to further their agenda (as they have always done), the avatar they’ve chosen to represent all they hate is white men. To the young white men who are the recipients of discrimination due to their white skin, assurances that it has nothing to do with being white are going to ring hollow.
Others on the right have leaned hard into white identity politics and embraced an angry victimhood that fosters hatred for non-whites. If mainstream conservatives continue to dismiss concerns about anti-white racism, young white men will be drawn to these more radical groups that validate what they are experiencing. If demographic trends continue, America will be majority non-white in a generation. With anti-white racism becoming more and more socially acceptable, we’re likely to see a dramatic increase in overt discrimination. Our white children need to be taught how to stand up for themselves without succumbing to the worst excesses of racial identity politics.
To help us navigate this new challenge, our country’s unfortunate history of anti-black racism offers us many lessons. Young white men can embrace an angry militant whiteness like a white version of the Black Panthers, or they can follow the Christlike example of men like Booker T Washington and Jackie Robinson, who refused to let the hatred of others define them or hold them back. As Christians, we shouldn’t shame white men for noticing that society seems to be reorganizing against them in real-time. It’s okay to acknowledge their fears. They should be encouraged to reject a victimhood mindset, not by denying that the deck is stacked against them, but by teaching them, like so many of our historic black exemplars, to face adversity with strength and a resolve to overcome whatever obstacles they encounter.
My son’s question hung in the air while I considered how to respond. “Yes, some people do hate white people like that today. You’ll probably experience some in your lifetime, but that doesn’t give you the right to hate in return. You might miss out on opportunities because of your skin color, but that’s not an excuse to give up or whine about being a victim. Daws men do hard things. You boys are going to meet any adversity, however unfair or hateful, with determination not to be crushed by it or grow bitter about your mistreatment.”
As we settled back in to finish the movie, we watched Jackie Robinson respond to hatred with remarkable self-restraint. He refused to let anger define him and chose to forgive rather than nurse his grievances. We saw him work twice as hard to prove himself during a time when he could have legitimately played the victim. Still thinking about the frightening world I will soon launch my boys into, I point at Jackie Robinson on the screen and say, “That’s the kind of man I want you to be.”