Backtalk! Race is an Illusion, Racism is Not

Backtalk! Race is an Illusion, Racism is Not
July 22, 2004

After reading my article "Race is an Illusion, Racism is Not," a reader who identified himself only as "US," wrote in to express his objections. Put simply, he objected to the fact that I objected to racism.

I feel compelled to make only one point in rebuttal, to ensure that my views are not misrepresented. I wish to stress that everything I advocate is predicated on individual free will. Needless to say "US" is seriously mistaken when he interprets my opposition to racism as Politically Correct top down social engineering.

I am not an advocate of social engineering. I am the farthest thing from an advocate of social engineering. I categorically oppose the initiation of force, no matter how "worthy" the cause. That is why I have always vehemently opposed "Affirmative Action," even though many of its advocates have good intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I am a market anarchist who believes in voluntary, contractual solutions to all problems, social, economic, and political. Racists are fully within their legal rights to cling to their atavistic views, providing they refrain from initiating force against others. Racists may be morally repugnant, but not everything morally repugnant should be made illegal. Only the initiation of force should be illegal. It is sufficient that progressive minded individuals ostracize and boycott racists.

"US" obviously missed the entire point of my article, which was that scientifically speaking the concept of "race" is nonsense. There are no "races" today. There is only one race, Homo Sapiens. There is no such thing as "being of mixed race" because there is only one race on the planet that one can belong to. Everyone alive today is "racially pure," because everyones' parents were members of the species Homo Sapiens.

This of course does not mean that racism does not exist. Racism exists even though races don't exist, because racism is a false belief. A false belief is a false belief precisely because it has no basis in fact. Racists hate their fellow human beings based on the false belief that some of them "belong to another race." But the simple fact is, there is no other race for anyone to belong to.

Alert readers will probably be able to read between the lines of his letter and draw their own conclusions about where "US" is coming from. If I had to make a wild guess, I would say that the virulently racist, pseudo-scientific beliefs that "US" feels compelled to defend have cruelly victimized "US" in his own life, leaving him with little sense of self-worth apart from his part "Aryan" racial identity. "US" deserves our compassion, not our hatred.

-- Bevin Chu

See:
Race is an Illusion, Racism is Not

Here is what "US" wrote, verbatim, in toto. I have not altered his text in the slightest, except to format it as HTML:

I just read your writing about race. I'm asian and aryan. I'd like to say that maybe you are a little too pro-race mixing. Your comments about what the kkk (and the like) fear, is race mixing and therefore race mixing is the solution. With all due respect sir you are just as wrong as the kkk. You are speaking like a multi cult version of a race supremist.

The truth is the problem isn't race purity or lack thereof. The true issue is soveriegnty. As much as you have the soveriegn right to belive in and practice race mixing, by that same principal, those that prefer race purity have just a much right as you do.

The problem with 'racists' or racialists is that they arent being allowed to enjoy and excercise thier soveriegn right. The solution isnt FORCING them OR thier children by violence or trickery to breed in a way they don't see as being fit and proper for THIER people.

If you force or espouse the forcing of race mixing then you yourself are no better than the people who use the same tactics to enforce NON interacial breeding. So the issue of race isnt an issue of race at all, its an issue of soveriegnty.

Also, china has beautifull history, cultures, art etc etc.....if we force or trick ALL chinese to mix with non chinese........there won't be ANY chinese left. The day we no longer have asians due to war or disease or race mixing or whatever, is a sad day.

Multiculturalism is the death of all cultures. Diversity should be the cellibration of the similarities AND differences of different races/cultures. Right now in africa there are aproximately 100 different UNIQUE dialects that are dieing off. Forced multiculturalism is killing these extremely rare types of speach.

It would be nice if the world was full of robots with no differences or ambitions........NOT. The great part of being alive is being a part of such a fantastically varying reallity. I dont regret being Aryan, nor do I regret being Asian. I do wish however I could have been one or the other fully because lets face it..theres hardly enough time in ones life to master ONE cultural tradition let alone 2 or 3 or 4.

If someone were to ask me what i think i have gained by being "racially mixed", i'd have to answer "probably not much", meaning i'm just another man. If they were to ask what i think ive lost as a result of being racially mixed i'd have to say "culture". I have none. No relgious ties, no social ties, no traditions etc etc. So not only have i missed out on my beautifull Aryan culture, but also my equally beautifull Asian culture. AND because i was not full white or full asian i never fully fit in with either side, though both sides have always done much to accept me.

I listen to my Asian grandmother talk about her childhood. I listen to my Aryan granfather talk about his childhood. I see how they tried to blend cultures in to a culture of its own, and ultimately how this failed. WHY? Simple, there isnt enough time in a day to observe the traditions of your people when you are made up of more than one type of unique people with unique cultural identities.

My point is each race has its ups and downs but if we all breed into a coffee colored slant eyed caucasoid....what kind of pride in heritage, or what kind of culture would we have then? Probably none. A people with no sense of devotion or honor to anything. A people with no ties to thier past, no visions of the future. In my opinion sir that would make us uninteresting, uninventive, culturless, unmotivated, and quit frankly not worth writing history books about.

My intent was not to offend you. Everyone has a right to thier opinion (theres that soveriegnty again). My point was as a mixed person i can understand why not all people would want to be mixed, i also understand that as much as i have a right to live breath and die, so do pure breeds. As much as I have the right to choose who to associate with and how to raise my child, so does a nazi.

We should learn from eachother, work and play together, yes yes i agree. But if someone doesnt prefer the company of a certain race....do we really have the moral authority to criminalize and demonize them for thier difference? I mean do we kill lions because lions have a tendancy to eat lambs? Do we kill lambs because they have a tendancy to shy away from lions? Do we frankenstien them together (aka mix) to "solve" the "problem"?

Also...if the lions and lambs didnt live together....would there even be a problem? Furthermore, what man alive dead or yet to be born has the god like authority of knowledge to determine all of this? So you see in the end on every issue of morallity etc it really isnt a matter of right or wrong, its amtter of the same old thing......agenda.

Race mixers agenda, racial purist agenda, homosexual agenda, non homo agenda, femanist agenda, non femanist agenda, democrat, republican., left, right, middle, neo con...the list of human ism's is staggering. Ultimately though we are all a bunch of dumb monkeys in an amazing exisistance fighting for domination of and preservation of the agendas of ourselves as individuals and sometimes as groups aka tribes aka races aka etcetc.

We should all fight the good fight but we should never kid ourselves or our 'peoples' about the reallity of the agenda. Thanks for the interesting read.

-- "US"