Related to my piece in @Commentary (bit.ly/2Sa7yAp) I am very intrigued by the body of ideas of Louis Farrakhan and Ta-Nehisi Coates and how they converge and contrast. These are both very different thinkers who make similar epistemological claims about race.
While Louis Farrakhan is theologically driven and believes world history will end with some type of redemption, Ta-Nehisi Coates is a materialist atheist and believes that the world is chaos. Yet at the center of both world views remains a common elusive foe: The White Man.
Now this thread is not meant to pass judgement (which I've already done) but an attempt to understand. I am intrigued by any theologically purist mindset that lends itself to conspiracy theory or the conclusion that the world isn't as complicated as it actually is.
Ta-Nehisi Coates seems to believe that the power of white people is cosmic, or nearly cosmic, as he describes "the passive power of whiteness" "which cannot ensure mastery of all events but can conjure a tailwind for most of them."
Likewise, the theology of NOI as preached by Farrakhan also centers on "the white man", describing him as an devolved creature created by an evil mad scientist. What is interesting here is the centrality of white people in both world views.
Those who center white people will attract others who also do so. It is no coincidence that members of white supremacist groups have expressed support of Farrakhan in the past or that Richard Spencer has called what Coates does the photographic negative of what he does.
What I can't quite understand is the collective failure to grasp these ironies:
One cannot believe in black self-determination but also that white people are ultimately responsible for everything. These are literal opposites.
One cannot believe in black self-determination but also that white people are ultimately responsible for everything. These are literal opposites.
There are of course many conservatives who are playing games with us. I think they include people like @BillOReilly who questions @KingJames for not investing in Chicago as if all famous white people should be investing in West Virginia because of the opioid crisis.
It doesn't seem that @BillOReilly *actually* cares about Chicago, or black people in Chicago, or black people in general. It's a talking point that riles up his base and gets him a paycheck. This is the kind of performative disregard that exists in some conservative circles.
It doesn't strike me that @BillOReilly actually cares for the fatherless child who, if he is not hit in a drive by because he was at the wrong place in the wrong time, chooses to join the gang to replace the gaping hole his father left. I sense no empathy in Bill's words.
But this tawdriness is not all-encompassing; micro-aggressions do not have cosmic power. The spirit of resilience is alive in my community; but that spirit isnt furthered by the people who believe our lives are controlled by white people or who dont have genuine care for others.
