Victimology Writ Large
A review of Stupid White Men, by Michael Moore
by Max Power
Had Michael Moore not tainted his otherwise
moderately enjoyable book with its
unfortunately-titled fourth chapter, "Kill Whitey," I
probably would have retained some admiration for his
stature as a neo-Marxist folk hero. My admiration for
Moore stems from his award-winning "documentary" "Roger
and Me," which he financed by heroically selling
virtually all of his belongings, including his house.
The film memorably portrayed the aftermath of the
closure of a GM auto-plant in his hometown of Flint,
Michigan. Additionally, Moore has been vocal in his
opposition to unfettered free-trade, which sends
high-paying manufacturing jobs to the third-world
where they turn into unregulated sweat shops, staffed
by workers making a fraction of U.S. wages.
Nevertheless, for all his venerable traits, Moore
suscribes to a loathsome brand of left-wing
victimology, and in this book, he takes it to new
heights.
The book is standard Moore fair, replete with his
signature rants against multinationals, global
capitalism and America's political duopoly. There is
even a mildly humorous "open letter" to George Bush,
wherein Moore criticizes the president for cutting
federal spending and chosing cabinet members with
voting records Moore finds disagreeable. Tolerable
stuff, even though I strongly oppose the statism Moore
embraces. However, it was the pious tone of the fourth
chapter that nearly caused me to toss this thing out
the nearest window.
Moore begins "Kill Whitey" by noting, erroneously,
that whites invented slavery. As anyone with a
rudimentary grasp of history knows, slavery was
practiced by the Persians and Egyptians thousands of
years before the Europeans practiced it. Moore also
goes on to complain that whites invented nuclear
weapons and were behind the most destructive wars in
world history. Although this may answer Moore's
question of why so few blacks occupy skilled
professions (IQ), a more subtle point can be brought
to bear.
By demeaning his own race, Moore is inadvertently
conceding the moral superiority of whites over other
races by his standards of moral goodness. That is to
say, Moore obviously feels this is the correct moral
position to adopt; and by doing so, he's espousing a
morality that is shared only by whites. Other groups
have been responsible for atrocities equally as
reprehensible as those of whites. Mao Tse Tung killed
an estimated 60 million of his countrymen -- more than
double the amount of deaths attributed to Hitler and
Stalin combined -- yet the Chinese people aren't
holding daily sermons denouncing their race. The
history of Japan is marked by brutal warfare with
neighboring countries and Japan's Korean minority is
treated openly with disdain, yet the Japanese think
they're faultless. So, to reiterate, by Moore's own
standards of moral goodness, whites are morally
superior to other racial groups in this sense.
Without a shred of dignity or good sense, Moore
continues: "It's odd that, despite the fact that most
crimes are committed by whites, black faces are
usually attached to what we think of as 'crime.'" (pg.
60) This begs the question of what crime "we" think of
and why it often conjures up images of "black faces."
Assuming it's violent crime, whites, at 74 percent of
the U.S. population, commit more violent crimes in
absolute numbers than do blacks. Blacks, however, at
12 percent of the U.S. population, commit violent crimes
with a far greater frequency than do whites. Moore
knows this, but with his dishonest liberal conscience
constantly whispering in his ear, the chances of him
telling the truth about black crime is about as likely
as waking up on Inaugural Day to the sight of Ralph
Nader taking the presidential oath. Additionally,
Moore reasons that since "most crimes are committed by
whites," that whites should be frightened of whites
and that he himself is. Following Moore's tortured
logic, the safest places for him to live are those
places containing the least amount of whites. (How I'd
love to see Moore put his money where his mouth is by
moving to Gary, Indiana or East St Louis.)
Moore continues: "I wonder how long we'll have to live
with the legacy of slavery." My answer: as long as
bottom-kissers like you keep trotting out a "legacy"
most whites weren't a part of, so your favorite victims
have a convenient excuse for rioting after basketball
games. Moore further states: "Well, I'm sorry, but the
roots of most of our social ills can be traced back to
this sick chapter of our history." Why, because you
say so? If by "social ills" you mean the alarming
propensity of blacks to fill up inner-city morgues
with bullet-riddled bodies and basically decay
anything they touch, then I've got news for you Mike
-- they do that everywhere! Just look at Interpol
statistics some time. The criminality of blacks is
universal, from the Afro-Caribbeans of Brixton, London,
to the Haitians of Montreal. Montreal's Haitians are
unconnected to the oft-cited "legacy of slavery," yet
they shoot and loot just as often as our blacks do.
Moore then goes off into the deep recesses of outer
space when he claims that, as a result of slavery,
blacks had their "language and culture and religion"
taken away from them. Newsflash Mike --
spear-chucking, cannibalism, witchcraft and
"ooga-booga" hardly qualify as "language and culture
and religion."
I used to think Michael Moore was a decent guy who
stood up for the economic interests of
middle-Americans. Thankfully, this book set me
straight.
MAX POWER
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