The Bogeyman of White Supremacy

By Unz Review - GREGORY HOOD • FEBRUARY 7, 2023

The philosopher Karl Popper argued that a theory can’t be considered scientific unless there is a way to test it and prove whether it is true or false. It’s therefore ironic that societies that claim to follow “the science” are constantly accused of “white supremacy,” an unfalsifiable concept backed by many who see themselves as democracy’s defenders or, like George Soros, Karl Popper’s ideological heirs. There is no need for evidence. Whites can be barely involved in an outrage; it’s still our fault.

The once-great American city of Memphis, Tennessee, is now just another majority-black ruin. In 2021, the city government dug up the body of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife and reburied them elsewhere, likewise removing his beautiful equestrian statue. Then-mayor A. C. Wharton said the Forrest statue came from “a time gone by” that’s “not to be honored.” Presumably, the present city, which recently broke its own homicide record, is morally superior.

Last fall, a black career criminal who had been released early from prison very likely killed Eliza Fletcher, a Memphis teacher who was white. Another black man, Ezekiel Kelly, went on a shooting spree in the city, killing four and wounding three. He broadcast it all on Facebook Live.

Tucker Carlson used Memphis to symbolize the fall of America:

Memphis is arguably the most dangerous city in America — and it’s about to get worse. On January 7, a group of black Memphis policemen severely beat another black man, Tyre Nichols. He died three days later. Media around the country and the world decided that this would start major protests. There were only a few scattered demonstrations, probably because all the officers who beat him were black.

This didn’t stop analysts and “experts” from blaming white supremacy. The police as an institution is a product of white supremacy, they argue because they defend white interests and property. Some claim that today’s police are the direct descendent of “slave patrols.” Even if one believed that it would still not justify abolishing the police. The Memphis police department has nevertheless disbanded its special unit (SCORPION) that patrolled high-crime areas.

During the midterm election campaign, leading Democrats and their media allies assured us that they don’t really want to defund the police and that it’s irresponsible to claim they do. Just don’t bring up what they said at the time.

Black activist Bree Newsome Bass, who is one of those who refer to the police as “slave patrols,” is nothing if not consistent:

Y’ALL DO NOT SHOW THIS LEVEL OF COMMITMENT TO ANYTHING ELSE INCLUDING PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN

— Bree Newsome Bass (@BreeNewsome) January 31, 2023

Still, Democrats in power are not defunding the police. In fact, NBC reported that black mayors in big cities nationwide were increasing police budgets in response to rising crime. NBC couldn’t explain why the crime was rising, simply noting that “violent crime did indeed rise during the pandemic, though the causes are disputed.” For its part, just before the midterms, NPR said liberal policies aren’t to blame for rising crime, because there’s a more “complicated truth.” NPR listeners were warned against considering mass incarceration as a solution but to think about the “implications of racism.”

After the Tyre Nichols incident, a few fanatics may be calling for defunding or abolishing the police, but most Democrat politicians are unlikely to fall into this trap. Instead, the problem is “white supremacy.”

Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a British-Nigerian activist, told Sky News that people who point out that the officers were black must be ignorant. Making such arguments means “you’ve not educated yourself on how systematically white supremacy works”:

Representation and diversity matters, but don't bring in "black and brown gatekeepers" who represent white supremacy and call that representation, says @SholaMos1 when asked about the Tyre Nichols killinghttps://t.co/pIDZkPXLkr

Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233, and YouTube pic.twitter.com/JS3TeNVeCF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 30, 2023

Professional “anti-racist” Tim Wise agrees:

Anyone who says the killing of Tyre Nichols can’t be about racism because the cops were also Black really doesn’t understand how white supremacy or anti-Blackness work.

— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) January 27, 2023

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) said:

Charging the officers who brutalized Tyre is not enough. Our country will continue to sanction the taking of Black lives with impunity until it embraces an affirmative vision of public safety and dismantles its racist policing system rooted in enslavement and government control. And let’s be clear: merely diversifying police forces will never address the violent, racist architecture that underpins our entire criminal legal system. The mere presence of Black officers does not stop policing from being a tool of white supremacy.

Rep. Bush must not feel the same way about her private security, which cost her campaign about $500,000.

Jared Taylor has found other examples of commentators who blame white supremacy.

Professor Duane Loynes of Rhodes colleges explains: “Here’s a dirty little secret: studies indicate that black officers are just as brutal and at times even more brutal against black bodies as their white counterparts . . . . If a system is problematic, it doesn’t matter who you plug into the system; you’re going to get the same result.” Even “diversity” can’t reform a rotten system.

A headline in the Washington Post read: “Black Memphis police spark dialogue on systemic racism in the U.S.” The article claimed that black officers provide “fodder for right-wing media ecosystems that routinely blame Black America’s maladies on Black America,” while blacks had “nuanced conversations” about “how systemic racism can manifest in the actions of non-White people.”

The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed that bemoans the “anguish of seeing the most pernicious effects of internalized racism — the little-discussed phenomenon of Black people devaluing their own the same way the rest of the world does.” Author Erin Aubry Kaplan says that the black officers “could still compartmentalize, draw a bright line between us and them — between cops and Black people, between upstanding Black folk and whomever they deem Black riffraff.”

For its part, USA Today quotes “experts, activists, and attorneys” who claim that a “’ historically biased culture of policing’ puts Black people at risk regardless of an officer’s race.” Memphis Police Chief Carolyn J. Davis, a black woman, thought that the race of the officers “takes race off the table.” Not so. USA Today quotes Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, “an online racial justice organization,” who says it’s the systemic racial biases inherent in policing networks that must be rooted out.

The New York Times also blamed white supremacy:

It has also brought into focus what many Black people have said is frequently lost in police brutality cases involving white officers and Black victims: that problems of race and policing are a function of an entrenched police culture of aggression and dehumanization of Black people more than of interpersonal racism. It is the system and the tactics that foster racism and violence, they say, rather than the specific racial identities of officers.

The Times quoted several activists who said a diverse police force still won’t solve the problem and suggested that black police officers may be treated unfairly. “Even the speed with which the five officers were charged has elicited complex reactions of both applause and concern that white officers have been treated differently under similar circumstances,” it said, with one lawyer claiming that white officers historically “don’t get prosecuted as much.” Could this be the same reason schools don’t discipline white students as often? They are less likely to misbehave.

There is much to be gained by blaming all problems on “white supremacy,” but what do activists want to be done if hiring black officers doesn’t help?

FOX News reports that officers Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley were both hired after the Memphis Police Department dropped a requirement for either an Associate’s degree or 54 college credits because of a 2020 “staffing crunch,” although it’s not clear whether the others had degrees. The International Association of Chiefs of Police reported before 2020 that half of the agencies had “to change agency policies in order to increase the chances of gaining qualified applicants.” Officers with college degrees are less likely to use force, use their guns, or be assaulted by civilians. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that “we’re not getting enough good people applying because of the disparagement of police officers.” That’s undoubtedly true, but any effort to make police departments look like the people they arrest means lower standards.

The Memphis Police Department features its black female chief in its recruiting pitch.

Blacks commit a lot of crimes, but we mustn’t talk about it. Author James Trice took Candace Owens, a black conservative whom he refers to as an “anti-Black activist,” to task for stating that “blacks are the most murderous group in America.” “There is no evidence to support her assertion,” Mr. Trice claimed.

There is plenty. According to the FBI’s 2021 crime statistics, blacks made up more than 60 percent of known murder offenders, despite being less than 14 percent of the population. The Anti-Defamation League says that 13/52, the shorthand reference to the share of the population (blacks) that commits homicides, is a false claim. In one sense, they’re right: the actual numbers are closer to 14/60.

This influences “police culture,” no matter who is hired. Any city police department is going to end up dealing with a lot of blacks. Some of these encounters will end badly. Years of criticism mean that many police are either leaving the force or being more cautious about their jobs. Steve Sailer found that both the black homicide rate and the black motor vehicle death rate have greatly increased since George Floyd’s death and the “racial reckoning.” Less policing is a great threat to black safety since blacks are disproportionately both perpetrators and victims of crime.

Is there any evidence that black police commit violence against other blacks because of white supremacy? A study from 2016 actually found that police are more likely to shoot whites than blacks. Some researchers challenged this finding on the grounds that the study didn’t consider how often police confront black or white civilians. It also didn’t consider the possibility that blacks could be prejudiced against blacks. Still, researchers seem to be ignoring the simplest explanation: Black and white police are both dealing with the same problem: Blacks commit more crimes. They resist arrest. They shout obscenities at the police. Any blacks standing around during an arrest are likely to scream and even actively interfere.

Whoopi Goldberg recently asked if “we need to see white people get beat up” for police to change their behavior. Daniel Shaver wasn’t available for comment.

GRAPHIC: The shooting of Daniel Shaver, January 18, 2016. pic.twitter.com/7BEND2MNPU

— Libertarian Party of Delaware (@LPofDelaware) January 29, 2023

Anti-white attitudes are widespread in academia, the media, finance, and politics. Where are the “anti-black” attitudes that are so powerful they even infect blacks? Activists, journalists, and “experts” keep telling us white supremacy remains mighty despite the billions spent on Black Lives Matter; Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE) programs; and the contempt for white historical figures and history.

“White supremacy” has become a dogma that must be accepted despite a lack of evidence. It’s an attractive target because there’s no cure except for promises of “systemic change” and — what really counts — endless grants of money and power to leftists and especially non-whites. If you say “white supremacy” isn’t a dominant force, you have just proven how deeply rooted it really is.

“White supremacy” is a force so strong that not even removing whites entirely can weaken it. It’s the most influential, nonsensical, and unfalsifiable conspiracy theory in the world. And yet, the media constantly warn us against “conspiracy theories.”

Still, the relatively tame protests show that most people in America won’t buy blaming the Tyre Nichols case on the white man. A sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, could be the white scapegoat the system needs.

He didn’t beat Nichols but he tried to taser him and let him escape. “I hope they [other cops] stomp his ass,” he said, which they did. Officer Hemphill has been suspended and is under investigation, but he reportedly didn’t beat Nichols. It would be a stretch to charge him with murder, but under the current system, nothing can be ruled out.

Preston Hemphill

Of course, that doesn’t mean America is finally acting intelligently about race. While martyrs such as Tyre Nichols become heroes of a cause, both the black and white victims of less spectacular crimes are forgotten. Even cases such as Eliza Fletcher’s can at best be used as a protest against generic “crime.” Whites never defend themselves as whites.

The question is not whether we can develop white racial consciousness. It is being forced on us whether we like it or not. Whites are apparently so powerful that our racism can be used as the explanation for almost anything. We must respond as a group, in defense of our own interests. Otherwise, ruins such as Memphis will become even more commonplace. Even if we are not involved, we’ll still get the blame.

(Republished from American Renaissance by permission of author or representative)