Even when racism wanes, it never goes out of style. Not as a practice, mind you — I’d be fascinated to see any argument suggesting that racism hasn’t precipitously declined in the post-war era — but as a boogeyman, a brush with which to tar others, and (rather too obviously for a subset of modern progressives) something one can vicariously thrill to. Ah, sweet authentic oppression, just like in the good old days.
Even Joe Biden was out there calling plays from the same tattered but trusty book last Saturday, when he spoke at Howard University and told the predominantly African-American graduating class: “The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy. And I’m not saying this because I’m at a black HBCU, I say it wherever I go.” To give the president credit on this one, he has indeed been an abject race-baiter for decades, this weekend’s blurt being a mere retread of earlier triumphs, a Return of the Son of “They’re Gonna Put Y’all Back in Chains.”
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