Edmonton Cone-Heads

The city of Edmonton has signed on to a UNESCO "anti-racism" campaign that demonizes white people as being inherently racist and unfairly privileged. It claims that before society can divest itself of such "racism" white folks--yes, that means you, Gordie and Gloria Canuck--must 'fess up to their sins and expatiate them by pronouncing themselves guilty as charged (mea culpa; mea maxima culpa).

I suddenly remembered where I had heard this kind of tripe before. It was the summer before the Saviour's election, when his Rev. was called out for his racist rants, ones that were grounded in something called Black Liberation Theology. Here's Stanley Kurtz on James H. Cone, founder of this sacralized racism, and the man who inspired Obama's racist mentor:

While Cone asserts that blacks hate whites, he denies that this hatred is racism. Black racism, says Cone, is "a myth created by whites to ease their guilt feelings." Black hatred of whites is simply a legitimate reaction to "oppression, insult, and terror." Cone derides accusations of black racism as a mere "device of white liberals."

Indeed, one of the most striking features of Black Theology and Black Power is its strident attack on white liberals. According to Cone, "when white do-gooders are confronted with the style of Black Power, realizing that black people really place them in the same category with the George Wallaces, they react defensively, saying, 'It's not my fault' or 'I am not responsible.'" But Cone insists that white, liberal do-gooders are every bit as responsible as the most dyed-in-the-wool segregationists. Well before it became a cliche, Cone boldly set forth the argument for institutional racism--the notion that "racism is so embedded in the heart of American society that few, if any, whites can free themselves from it."

The liberal's favorite question, says Cone, is "What can I do?" He replies that, short of turning radical and putting their lives on the line behind a potentially violent revolution, liberals can do nothing. The real liberal question to blacks, says Cone, is "What can I do and still receive the same privileges as other whites and--this is the key--be liked by Negroes?" Again, he answers, "Nothing." To prove it, he pointedly dismisses the original bogus white liberal, Abraham Lincoln, who after all was more concerned with holding the Union together than with ending slavery.

Tell me that doesn't sound a lot like the Edmonton razzmatazz.