Falling for the Left's Racial Politics

Breitbart may be right that the Left loosely slings charges of "racism" at their opponents, but that is no excuse to play the same game.

I occasionally write for Andrew Breitbart’s website, and agree with him that the media blasting him for inaccuracy (and the Tea Party for racism) while steadily ignoring the New Black Panther Party or similar organizations is frustrating and silly. However, two wrongs don’t make a right, and “he started it” is a miserable justification for something. Yes, the Left engages in perpetual victim-mongering and yes, they sling charges of “racism” at their opponents while ignoring it on their own side.

But didn’t Breitbart notice how much those practices contributed to their banishment from American politics? Didn’t he notice how Bill Clinton calling out Sister Souljah for being a hypocrite contributed to his success, or how Obama deliberately sold himself as a non-angry, non-paranoid non-Al Sharpton when he was running (whatever he’s become now)? And if Breitbart did notice these things, just what gave him the idea that mimicking this practice was a good, or a conservative, idea, when it was already being marginalized? I recognize the need to go on offense sometimes, but that doesn’t have to mean slinging exactly the same charge at your opponent. Hypocrisy is the live question in areas of Leftist racism, and burying it under the tired former charge is not the best approach.

Besides chilling free discussion of controversial ideas almost to a freezing point on both Right and Left, this practice validates the falsehood that racism/sexism are central to the American experience, and American discourse generally. This would, in turn, lead many Americans to conclude that being openly racist is no big deal, given that there will always be some media establishment somewhere that will defend you, if you only hold the right political affiliation. The net result? Less of an incentive to avoid racism, and voila, racial hypocrisy is legitimized.

Don’t get me wrong - hypocrisy is ugly, no matter who does it, but racism as a charge should be returned to its rightful home in the abyss of Leftist irrelevance and ethnic studies departments. Breitbart may survive, but racism as an ad hominem should not.