Charlton Heston And White Pride

Charlton Heston died a couple of weekends ago. For a couple of days there you couldn’t watch the news without hearing about this well known actor kicking the bucket. Although its been decades since he’s done anything noteworthy, in the Ten Commandments, he played Moses fighting for the liberation of the enslaved Israelites against the dominating culture of Egypt. He played the Omega Man, one of the last men on Earth working hard to restore humanity to humanity. He played Robert Thorn in the movie Soylent Green discovering that a huge corporate machine is actually consuming the poor and disenfranchised humans in order to produce the very sustenance that keeps others alive. And in Planet of the Apes Mr. Heston played George Taylor, an astronaut that travels into the future and witnesses a time where civilized apes subjugates uncivilized humans through methods of propaganda that keeps people from reaching their true potential. Mr. Heston has been a very busy actor.

Mr. Heston was also a very busy advocate. He is most notably known as the president of the National Rifle Association as well as the Screen Actor’s Guild. Mr. Heston quit the screen actor’s guild when a white actor was denied the opportunity to play a Eurasian in Miss Saigon. Mr. Heston felt this action was too unconscionably racist to be tolerated. He resigned his leadership role as Screen Actor’s Guild president. It was Mr. Heston’s opinion that it is more important to protect white actor’s right to play whatever role that comes their way instead of getting more racial diversity in the acting profession. Mr. Heston quit the National Rifle Association only after his Alzheimer’s infliction became too severe for him to ignore.

I was surprised to hear that Mr. Heston marched with Doctor King in the struggle for rights for the black community because Mr. Heston was a strong advocate of white pride. I may have mistakenly assumed that Mr. Heston’s white pride meant he was some kind of closet Aryan or Nazi. His close relationship to the Republican Party and its denizens who often ignore the plight of the black community only reinforced my opinion that Mr. Heston should be kicked to the curb. But like most things, the reality is much more complex than the assumption.

While I support the rights of any ethnicity to have pride in its heritage, so much of the accomplishments of white people have been obtained at the expense of other ethnicities. For example, the greatness of America did not and could not happen without the suppression and subjugation of the many tribes of people who called this continent home long before the average European was aware of its existence, long before the Europeans usurped these natives’ land and called it America. According to Wikipedia, the name America is derived from a European explorer named Amerigo Vespucci or Latinized to Americus Vespucius or the feminized version America, keeping in the tradition of feminizing the name of the other continents.

The pride white people have in their short lived Confederacy of the Americas is typical of white people’s insensitivity to matters of race. Arguably, the single issue which led to the establishment of white people’s Confederacy is the southern United States overwhelming desire to protect its economy with the practically free labor of the African descendent. Many white people take pride in the Confederate flag and point to it fondly as a part of their white heritage. But if someone of German descent proudly wore and displayed a swastika as a part of their German heritage not many people would be willing to tolerate its exhibition. The city I currently live has a large German population and not a single swastika in sight. Why do we continue to tolerate such a symbol of white pride but racial discord? The reason is that many of these people, entire state governments in fact, will embrace the mindset, this is our history and black people can go to hell.

The continued acceptance of the Confederate flag, the little smiling sambos employed by many sports teams that represent various ethnicities such as the African, Asian, Latin, and the Native American is indicative of a major principle of white pride. Many people who celebrate white pride operate with the impression that white pride equates a disregard for other races and ethnicities. Some people who want to manifest their white pride will blatantly detest the very existence of people from other races and ethnicities. And because the dominant culture consists mainly of white people and other ethnicities that are very sensitive to the values that are dictated by white people, the dominant culture is much more willing to tolerate symbolisms that are offensive only primarily to minorities.

White pride is apparent in an America that tolerates racial disparity as a matter of public policy. White pride is apparent when institutions and corporations try to make amends for their history that favored the white community to the point of virtual exclusivity are reprimand by the courts for embracing a strategy of affirmative action. An institution or corporation with a population that is disproportionately white with respect to the local public racial ratio will suddenly be considered unfair to a single white individual who was unable to take advantage of an opportunity because the institution wanted to assure some kind of representation of a qualified minority candidate. White pride calls this reverse discrimination and special treatment. Minorities are getting preferential treatment even though white people continue to take advantage of the majority of opportunities.

In all honesty white pride is in no way in danger of being extinguished. It is embraced so heavily that sometimes, other ethnicities often participate in its celebration without even understanding why. For example, virtually every year the number of people who make the pilgrimage to a Disney theme park grows significantly. The Disney Corporation has not been a leader in the development of cultural diversity. The first Disney film that featured live actors was Song of the South and in many respects, the movie promoted the relationship of black people as the natural servants of white people. Disney’s movie the Lion King, with its African based setting, has far more white actors and supporting cast than black ones. And yet, because of the vast and overwhelming amount of marketing and propaganda that has evolved as a result of the Disney brand, black people are lured like lemmings into the Disney fan club like moths to a flame.

Being black, and understanding white people’s penchant for racially insensitive violence often dismissed as pranks and the somewhat oppressive standards for behavior and appearance that allow for some superficial racial diversity but limited cultural diversity, Mr. Heston’s call for more white pride and for more white power was a troubling invocation. White pride in itself is nothing to fear. Overzealous white pride in the hands of many white people can be devastating.

The Russian Example

Russia is going through some significant changes lately. After eight years of being Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has finally giving up the title. But that’s all he’s giving up. Mr. Putin plans to install himself as Prime Minister of the country. As Prime Minister, Mr. Putin will retain considerable power of Russia’s affairs indefinitely. And Russia has revived its power considerably. There is some fear that the office of the President will be a symbolic figurehead. But when this plan is implemented, it is feared by the administrators of this government that Mr. Putin will become the first czar of Russia in decades.

Over the years, since the presidency of Michael Gorbachev, Russia has dwindled in relevance on the world’s stage. The new, kinder, gentler, government referred to as perestroika pretty much gave up as a counter to the American threat. Mr. Gorbachev threw in the towel on an economy based on communism and embraced capitalism with little success. Old hats in the Russian government tried to stage a coup to take back the government. Boris Yeltsin emerged as a contender in the fight to restore order. And low and behold Mr. Yeltsin emerged as Russia’s new President. But widespread food shortages, inflation, and corruption stymied changes. Yeltsin guided Russia into chaos and despair. And when Mr. Putin succeeded him Russia was in a mess.

But the twenty first century has been kind to Russia. Vast reserves of oil and other natural resources allowed the country to climb out of its economic doldrums. A hundred dollar a barrel oil prices has given the country a serious financial infusion. Mr. Putin cracked down on the freedoms that came with Mr. Gorbachev’s perestroika and reinstituted some old fashioned KGB style communistic policies. Got a problem with a government? You are more than welcome to voice your displeasure. Just don’t be too surprised when a problem comes up with your business license.

One of the things Mr. Putin discovered is that the chummy relationship that previous leaders of the Kremlin recently shared with the United States was detrimental to Russia’s standing in the world. The Cold War was the peak of Russia’s influence in the world. When people were afraid that the superpowers would go toe to toe in some nuclear missile equipped throw down the entire globe respected and feared Russia’s power. But then the late twentieth century came and the country become a mere shadow of its former self. The Soviet Union no longer existed and patriotic pride was on the down low. Mr. Putin restored Russia’s pride.

The people who govern the country of Russia discovered that no one will listen to you if you play nice and try to understand your adversary you run the risk of being taken for granted, manipulated, and largely ignored. Now that Russia is reasserting itself on the world stage people are taking notice and are growing concerned about what is happening to the rights of the Russian people. These are the same people who ignored the plight of the Russian people when inflation was ravaging the country and store shelves were empty of groceries and people were starving. People say they care about the Russian people, but no actions speak a lot louder than words. Now that a sense of pride is returning to the Russian people, other people want to sound alarms about the possibility of a resurgent Russia reentering the world’s stage.

The black community could learn a lesson from Russia’s example. As long as the black community remains confused and weak it will never gain the attention of people who claim that we have all the equality we need to lift ourselves by our bootstrap. In fact, a lot of people in key positions inside and outside of government say we can eliminate racism by quit looking at racism as a crime. Affirmative action is the new evil of discrimination and reverse discrimination is the new civil rights movement. Black people don’t have the education of our white counterparts and black people don’t have the ability to obtain jobs like our white counterparts. And as long as we play nice the dominant community has no incentive to help the black community with anything but sticking to the status quo and staying in its oppressive state.

If the black community was able to reaffirm pride in itself and reestablished its unity and truly act as a community we would have the ear of the dominant culture that generally ignores us and leaves us nothing but economic crumbs and stereotypical caricatures as role models for our black children. Our schools are crumbling. Our neighborhoods are more likely to be subjected to gentrification and blight. And our future as a respected component in the fabric of American society looks dim. The dominant community will do nothing for the black community out of the goodness of their collective heart. They won’t even have the decency to give us a bootstrap for us to pick ourselves up with. We could learn a lot from Russia’s example. We must learn to work together to reestablish ourselves as a force to be dealt with as an equal.