By An Old Friend

Wed, Jul 29, 2020 5:36 p.m.

"A Few Tips in Case You Find Yourself in A Mandatory 'Anti-Racism' Struggle Session"

Some of the online comments are also worthwhile considering ...

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-7-28-yl3inutt14922co435gu5vgrv04mme

A Few Tips In Case You Find Yourself In A Mandatory "Anti-Racism" Struggle Session

July 28, 2020/ Francis Menton

Lenin, Stalin, and the other creeps who created the Soviet system of totalitarianism in the early twentieth century, were far from the brightest maniacs ever to play at the game of evil dictator; but they did make a few effective innovations that enabled their rule to last much longer than it otherwise might have. One thing they figured out early on was that the best way to stifle all potential dissent was to require subjects to vow adherence to the regime and/or the party line in some form every day. Failure to articulate the required expression of loyalty on any given day, or even to express it with less than the mandated degree of enthusiasm, would get you marked as a troublemaker. You could then be deprived of your job, of deprived of all food, or you could even get sent off to the Gulag.

Subsequent versions of this practice have been used by regimes in places such as China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Venezuela, and of course North Korea. The Maoist "struggle session" — where the designated victim of the day is forced to humiliate himself and confess to various crimes he did not commit — was a particularly obnoxious yet widespread form of the art.

I bring up this subject today because reports have been reaching me from various young people that a nasty form of this totalitarian orthodoxy enforcement is now spreading like a cancer here on our shores. The new innovation consists of "anti-racism" or "diversity" training sessions, which many employers are recently requiring their employees to attend periodically. The sponsors of the sessions that I have been made aware of are large corporations and universities. I'm given to believe that there has quickly arisen a class of professional "trainers" who make a living running these things. The trainers then make it a point to accuse the attendees of various forms of "racism" or "systemic racism" or "white supremacy," and seek an acknowledgement of complicity and a commitment to change behavior.

[N.S.: Actually, diversity training began over 30 years ago, though the slogans (e.g., "systemic racism") have changed.]

Of course, if you find yourself in one of these "training sessions," you will quickly realize that the whole point is to humiliate you and force you to express loyalty to the approved orthodoxy. Suppose you think — as I do — that the progressive programs that are lately put forth as the solution to "systemic racism" are actually counterproductive and make the situation far worse for African Americans. Can you speak up against the insanity you are going through? Or will word immediately get back to your boss, and to your boss's boss, that you are a "racist," whereupon you will promptly be fired?

If you find yourself in one of these things, one strategy is of course to do your best to remain silent, or at least to say as little as possible. I can't tell you not to follow this strategy. But if it were me, it would not be in my nature to just sit back and accept humiliating accusations of "racism" from people who are idiots and who are also themselves racists as I see it. What's more, if everybody with a brain just remains silent and allows the totalitarians to proceed without pushback, we gradually — maybe rapidly — lose all of our freedom.

But then, anything you say may be quoted back against you. It's a tricky situation.

Fortunately, the Manhattan Contrarian has a few handy tips should you find yourself required to show up for one or more of these sessions.

My first tip is, it is a mistake ever to make a declaratory statement of any kind, even "yes," "no," or "I understand." So, if asked to assent to something, or to say something, what do you do? The answer is, always respond with a question. Also, there is no need for the question that you pose to have anything to do with the question that has been posed to you. In fact, the less related your question is to the thing you are being asked to concede, the better. You can also try to ask a question even if no question has been posed to you. The point here would be to try to divert the "trainer" off his or her prepared outline or script, and onto something that challenges their assumptions.

Here are a few questions I have come up with if you want to have some fun:

• Are you a racist? (If no,) How do you know that? What facts do you base that on? (If yes,) So why don't you stop being a racist?
• Can you provide us with a complete list of all words and terminology that are now deemed racist and/or disrespectful so that we can stop using those words going forward? If you can't give a complete list, how about 20 (or 30 or 40) examples?
• Do all black lives matter? (Note: Don't make the mistake of using the phrase "all lives matter," even in a question. That will get you branded as a "racist." The question of whether all black lives matter will be a new one on them.). Do the lives of approximately 6500 black men murdered by other black men each year matter more or less than the the lives of the far smaller number of blacks killed by police each year (under 300), let alone the number of unarmed black men killed by police each year (which is around 20 or fewer, although you can't get a precise figure because the Washington Post data base only includes deaths by shooting)?
• How do you explain the fact that Nigerian-Americans and Ghanaian-Americans have higher household median income than native-born white Americans?
• Does the NBA — where average salaries are multiple millions per year and active players are about 75% black — have an obligation to make itself "look more like America"? If not, why not?

That should be enough to get you off to a good start. Readers are invited to submit additional ideas. So if you find yourself having to go to one of these things, go and have a good time!

And finally, here's a little something to give you more understanding of how this kind of process works, and the incredible power of it. The prior dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-Il, died in December 2011. This link goes to a video of masses of people in Pyongyang crying, indeed deeply sobbing, in the streets in the aftermath of that death. Did a single person in North Korea actually feel sad that the elder Kim was now dead? Highly unlikely. This was a show that you had to put on if you didn't want to get sent off to a camp and worked or starved to death. Fortunately, we aren't there yet — quite.