Woke Vs. Racist: What’s the Difference?

posted by Derek Hunter at Townhall

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own 

and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall

There’s a great comedy video that went viral this week pointing out the similarities between the woke set and racists. Like all good comedy, it’s funny because it’s true. If you watch any of these Black Lives Matter “protests” you notice one big thing: they’re mostly young white people. Yes, the leaders of the organization “Black Lives Matter” are black, they’re also rich, racist Marxists busy counting piles of money, but the people attacking police officers are mostly white. Listening to the rioters, pundits, politicians, and reporters you notice something odd: they all seem to believe black people are incapable of succeeding without their help. This used to be called the “white savior complex,” now it’s simply called “progressive.”

President George W. Bush famously and correctly called what liberals were doing to minority students in education “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” He was right then; now the left has stepped up their game and fully hardened that bigotry. 

The idea that someone can’t succeed in America because of their skin color, gender, whatever, is as stupid as it is bigoted. Weirdly, it seems to always be espoused by people who’ve “somehow” beaten the odds. How many times have you seen a black Ivy League professor on TV talking about “systemic racism”? How’d they get a tenured, high six-figure gig, book deals, speaking engagements, and a cable news contributor contract in such a rigged system? 

They never answer that question because the only people who’d ask it of them are their colleagues on TV and they’re on the same team. But the answer is obvious: they worked for it; they earned it. 

The woke crowd doesn’t want minorities to realize that, and neither do racists. Both want to keep people down because it serves their needs.

Racists want segregation; wokesters want segregation too. One in the name of bigotry, one in the name of “tolerance.” Does the motive really matter if the outcome is the same? 

In fact, to listen to the demands of the leftists in the streets, you’d think they were the Klan. 

“Black people can’t succeed without government help,” “They can’t get ahead without a government program,” “They’ll only end up in jail if they don’t get handouts.” Again, seemingly different motivations, but all those statements could’ve been uttered by either group.

The infantilizing of black people by the progressive left is actually worse than anything the Klan is doing because the KKK is a non-entity in American life in the 21st century. In my book, I wrote about the size of the KKK. The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates there are between 5,000-8,000 members of the KKK in 2016, down from about 4 million a century earlier. That’s a huge drop – to go from millions to a rounding error smaller than the average attendance of a WNBA game as the population tripled should be cause for celebration. But leftists will tell you racists are everywhere and running the show. 

This isn’t an accident. The left has redefined the word “racist” to the point that it has no meaning. Now, simply denying that you’re racist is a sign of your racism. George Orwell is spinning so fast in his grave you could power the eastern seaboard if you hooked his coffin up to a turbine. 

Democrats didn’t change their hearts when Civil Rights legislation became law, they just changed their tactics. Segregation is still the order of the day, it’s now being advocated for in the name of multiculturalism. Still, Democrats and racists don’t believe black people are capable of taking care of themselves. Does it really matter why? 

Generations of “help” from white leftists haven’t helped, which makes you wonder if it was ever designed to? If the KKK had been in charge of social and economic policy for black Americans, what would they have done differently? They would have both funded Planned Parenthood, they would both defend failing public schools from the competition that could improve education, they’d both sit idly by communities and businesses burned and people were put out of work. 

The results would be about the same as every major majority-black city in the country that has been controlled by Democrats for generations. So, yes, maybe the motives would be different. But looking at the results, you really have to wonder if they are all that different after all.