One thing these brittle racists have in common with many other racists of all descriptions is that they aren't very good what they do, and what's worse they're acutely aware of it. They know why they have their jobs, and it isn't because they earned them on their merits. This knowledge eats at them and induces the paranoid hatred that every one of these extracts displays - but if they ever have an attack of conscience or honesty and reveal the truth their careers are going to vanish in a puff of smoke.
Perhaps what we are seeing with the racist writers at the New Yorker perhaps has less to do with race per se but rather is more about charting the demonic in our culture. Racism is most offensive, in my view, because it reduces the targeted person to a biological entity with certain immutable characteristics. And, based on that reductionist view launches hatred and ridicule and power moves. In contrast, one who truly sees the other person, of whatever race, as a soul, transcends the demonic and finds reason to love. Seeing the divine in the other is a higher order skill and viewpoint, one which should prevail over demonic racism. There is irony in the view that one is a soul, in essence, and the body is merely a vehicle. Those who imagine reincarnation is an option realize that in one incarnation one might be black, in another, white, and so on. So one ends up hating former and future selves based on the chosen vehicle. We would laugh at someone who made vehicle choice a cultural touchstone... but that is what demons do. There are no strong voices, unfortunately, pointing out that the true degradation of racism is its demonic quality. One should not label them racist but rather demonic.
One thing these brittle racists have in common with many other racists of all descriptions is that they aren't very good what they do, and what's worse they're acutely aware of it. They know why they have their jobs, and it isn't because they earned them on their merits. This knowledge eats at them and induces the paranoid hatred that every one of these extracts displays - but if they ever have an attack of conscience or honesty and reveal the truth their careers are going to vanish in a puff of smoke.
Perhaps what we are seeing with the racist writers at the New Yorker perhaps has less to do with race per se but rather is more about charting the demonic in our culture. Racism is most offensive, in my view, because it reduces the targeted person to a biological entity with certain immutable characteristics. And, based on that reductionist view launches hatred and ridicule and power moves. In contrast, one who truly sees the other person, of whatever race, as a soul, transcends the demonic and finds reason to love. Seeing the divine in the other is a higher order skill and viewpoint, one which should prevail over demonic racism. There is irony in the view that one is a soul, in essence, and the body is merely a vehicle. Those who imagine reincarnation is an option realize that in one incarnation one might be black, in another, white, and so on. So one ends up hating former and future selves based on the chosen vehicle. We would laugh at someone who made vehicle choice a cultural touchstone... but that is what demons do. There are no strong voices, unfortunately, pointing out that the true degradation of racism is its demonic quality. One should not label them racist but rather demonic.