My Moral Integrity As a Human Being Is Called Into Question

Several weeks ago, not too long after the ghastly video of George Floyd’s virtual execution, another video appeared on line. It had been shot by one of a quartet of young black entrepreneurs being hassled by a white venture capitalist, Tom Austin, who wondered if they were genuinely entitled, by virtue of having leased offices in a building in Minneapolis, to use of the building’s apparently posh gym.

For all I know, Tom Austin might secretly be the Grand Wizard of the Upper Midwest Ku Klux Klan, the most virulent white supremacist in all of America.

And he may not be.

From the video, it’s impossible to know whether he would have challenged four unfamiliar white guys trying to get into the gym in exactly the same way that he challenged the young black men. But in the eyes of at least a few people, I betrayed myself as Mr. White Privilege by pointing that out. What I was apparently meant to do was reflexively conclude that Austin was indeed a racist (one of those with whom I tussled on the social media asserted that his racism was obvious), and go into a frenzy of self-flagellation because Austin and I are roughly the same colour.

No sale, I’m afraid. I’m not exactly a stranger to self-flagellation, but I think I’ll continue to do self-flagellate because of awful things I’ve done personally, and not awful things others of comparable pigmentation have done.

One of the key features of fascism is the suppression of dissent. There’s a wonderful essay by the excellent Andrew Sullivan in New York magazine about how fascistic some “woke” thinking can be. “Question any significant part of [the argument that…individual liberty, religious freedom, limited government, and the equality of all human beings have always always been  falsehood to cover for and justify racism],” he observes — quite accurately, I think — “and your moral integrity as a human being is called into question. There is little or no liberal space in this revolutionary movement for genuine, respectful disagreement, regardless of one’s identity, or even open-minded exploration. In fact, there is an increasingly ferocious campaign to quell dissent, to chill debate, to purge those who ask questions, and to ruin people for their refusal to swallow this reductionist ideology whole.

“In this manic, Manichean world you’re not even given the space to say nothing. “White Silence = Violence” is a slogan chanted and displayed in every one of these marches. It’s very reminiscent of totalitarian states where you have to compete to broadcast your fealty to the cause. In these past two weeks, if you didn’t put up on Instagram or Facebook some kind of slogan or symbol displaying your wokeness, you were instantly suspect. 

Tom Austin, by the way, has said that he was having a rotten day, and “was oblivious to the perception that my actions could be perceived as racist." He nonetheless offered to wear a hair shirt, and to make "[a] public apology for stupid behavior (but not for racism), but nobody has responded and most of the public seems [unable] to care less”.

If you ask me, that sucks. And if, in response to my saying so, you come back with, “Yeah, well, it doesn’t suck as bad as George Floyd having been murdered in broad daylight,” I’ll spit in your eye, not because I think what happened to Austin was a billionth as shameful, but because you’re stifling dissent.