On Racism

"And it’s also clear that many immigration restrictionists are influenced by simple bigotry — with the president’s recent excrement-related remarks a noteworthy illustration." Ross Douthat, NYT.

This passage from the generally admirable Ross Douthat illustrates just what is wrong with our elites. We elites like to think of ourselves as more sophisticated, better informed and therefore more rational.  Implicitly we assume that those we disagree with, particularly those lower on the educational and socio economic scale, are acting more from base emotions: fear, hate, bigotry. But this attitude runs into problems:

• There is no evidence that otherwise normal people of normal intelligence are any less rational than high IQ people. Indeed watching what goes on campus these days I could more easily argue the opposite.
• Generally the purveyors of 'they're bigoted' have no evidence and wouldn't dare make that accusation in front of a group of people they so happily smear in absentia.
• To argue otherwise in the immigration debate is to run up against two inconvenient facts:
• Far and away the greatest opponents of immigration are African Americans who by large margins support lowered immigration levels.
• A majority of latino Americans support Trump's key planks: Regularize the 'Dreamers, Eliminate Chain and Lottery immigration and implement Canada/Australia style skills immigration.

So are majorities of the second and third largest ethnic/racial groups racists? Of course not. When elites think of racists they only think of those of European descent which is.....racist.

So why do blacks and latinos support a restrictionist immigration regime? It's obvious isn't it?

• These two groups are the lowest income, lowest skilled groups in the nation.
• While mass unskilled immigration may be good for America, it's terrible for people at the lower end of the income distribution.

Thus these two groups (and the much maligned working class whites) have solid, rational reasons for wanting a radical reduction in unskilled immigration without having to possess any racial animus. Yet elites on the left and even some urban ones on the right (Douthat, Goldberg to name two) immediately assume that those that disagree with their position on immigration can't simply possess a different perspective arising from their different life experiences but must be evil.

This fact is the first and most important reason Trump has run wild. Because once you've called me racist a dozen times, you've forfeited my respect or even my attention.

And of course the elite insist that Trump's describing a country as a 'shithole' in a private meeting must be construed  in the worst possible light. Even while they insist on construing the foibles of their friends (IRS, FBI, Clintons) in the best possible light. But it is easy for outlanders and untermenschen to believe a country, town, hotel, district is a 'shithole' without applying it to the people unfortunate enough to live there. Indeed many of the bottom classes live or have lived in such places and they know the difference.

But again, calling your opponents racists eliminates the need to think or listen or understand where they're coming from.

Indeed the 'racist' trope used in the immigration debate is among the most bigoted and narrow minded attitudes extant in America today. Which is why more of us every day are dismissing the so called 'elites' with contempt: They are far more guilty of the sins they accuse the rest of us of. Yet they are arrogantly oblivious.

And they're finally getting their comeuppance. More, faster, harder.