Is white the new gay?

Glenn Reynolds links a post about how hating whiteness and white self hatred are becoming standard lefty fare:

By now, the increasingly creepy tendency of using the word “white” as a glib insult has become well established in left-wing commentary.

[…]

Among progressives, low-rent snark like “frighteningly white” is required to prove you are part of the in-crowd. Imagine being part of a movement that not only requires regular self-immolation, but demands that you enjoy it and hector those who bristle at such cheap and pathetic bullying.

Hey wait a minute. I know the hate-your-whiteness phenomenon is nothing new, but I think it’s time to ask a few questions.

Aren’t these people deliberately fostering negative self esteem?

And isn’t fostering negative self esteem bad?

A recent study done right here in Ann Arbor showed that when people say things like “that’s so gay!” in order to disparage things they don’t like, it wounds gays for life:

ANN ARBOR – Sticks and stones may break your bones, but a new University of Michigan study shows words can wound for life.

The study found the commonly used phrase “that’s so gay” to describe something undesirable can have negative consequences for gay, lesbian or bisexual students.

Although subtle, such language is hostile, and can be harmful to sexual minorities, said study author Michael Woodford, an assistant professor of social work at U-M.

The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of American College Health.

OK, first off, as a libertarian First Amendment lover who clings bitterly to the First Amendment, I maintain that there is still an absolute free speech right to demean gays or whites. The First Amendment offers no protection for anyone’s self esteem, other than the First Amendment itself. If you feel insulted or demeaned by someone’s remarks about your gayness or your straightness or your whiteness or your blackness, you have just as much right to snark back in whatever way you like.

But if it damages gays’ self esteem to hear others use the term “gay” in a disparaging manner, then it seems quite reasonable to assume that using a race term in a disparaging manner would also damage the self esteem of a person belonging to whatever race was involved.

Unless whites are seen as deserving of disparagement for belonging to a certain race, I’m not getting it.

When I came up with the title of this post, I had thought I was being sarcastic, but fascinatingly, there is an emerging connection between whiteness and gayness. The well-documented phenomenon of disparaging black academic achievers for “acting white” is giving rise to a new disparagement meme. They are not merely acting white; they are acting gay:

Adolph Cameron, head of the Jamaican Teachers’ Association, said many boys perform poorly because their fear that appearing studious undermines their masculinity.

He claimed that many youngsters turn to a so-called “hustle culture” to make money, rather than chasing careers built on academic achievement and hard work.

Mr Cameron warned that the attitude was affecting the academic standards of Afro-Caribbean boys both in Jamaica and in Britain.

They are one of England’s worst-performing ethnic groups in schools. Last year just 40 per cent of Afro-Caribbean boys achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths, compared with the national average of 58.5 per cent.

Mr Cameron told the BBC: “That notion of masculinity says that if as a male you aspire to perform highly it means you are feminine, even to the extent of saying you are gay.

“But in the context of Jamaica, which is so homophobic, male students don’t want to be categorised in that way so that they would deliberately underperform in order that they are not.”

Those who imagine that the “acting white is gay” meme is limited to Jamaica should think again. From the source to the link:

I thought this was a US Black-only problem.

Every one I knew when I was younger that thought academic success equaled “acting white” has a record — every single one — and they all regret it. Hmm, kinda hard to get a job in a horrible economy when you have no education and a rap sheet, huh? I tell the young ones now that there is nothing wrong with high grades and good grammar and going to school everyday.

But that’s not as cool as wearing your pants half-off your butt, smoking weed (), hanging in the streets, selling drugs, and promiscuity which leads to either HIV or a baby. Oh well. We can’t save everyone. We need Obamas and Bookmans (from “Good Times”) to make the world go round.

It is undeniable that academic success, speaking well, and dressing appropriately are demeaned not only as acting white, but they are also seen as acting gay.

Quite ironically, the disparagement of education as “acting white” results from what Thomas Sowell calls black redneck culture. But if blacks adopted redneck culture from whites, then why isn’t that “acting white” every bit as much as speaking and dressing properly and striving for academic achievement? Years ago, a white friend who worked construction told me about a white co-worker who totally fit the redneck stereotype who regarded well-dressed white men with contempt and disgust, and on one occasion when they were working on a job, he spotted a man leave his house in a coat and tie to go to work, and exclaimed,

“LOOK AT THAT QUEER!”

What amazed my friend was that there was absolutely nothing gay-looking about the man. The whole insult was based on the fact that he wore a necktie. (Hmmm… If hating neckties is rednecky, it could be argued that these days, the rednecks are winning. Should we think about these things, or is it too inflammatory?)

FWIW, I think those who want to “act their race” or their sex, or their sexual preference are pathetic dupes. I think that such human characteristics should not be a source of either pride or shame. I realize that my thinking is considered hopelessly outmoded by believers in identity politics, but I wish they would remember that black pride and white pride — and gay pride and straight pride — are grounded in a similar error.

You’d almost think they were deliberately calculated to fuel each other.