Systemic, anti-black racism is an American reality.
No, you have not accidentally clicked on MSNBC or CNN. You’re reading Blaze News. It’s me, Jason Whitlock. Continue reading. Let me explain.
Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was elected to the position of speaker of the House, justifying Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s gambit earlier this month to vacate Kevin McCarthy’s speakership. Evangelicals should celebrate. Johnson is a man of considerable conviction. He’s pro-life, and he has refused to pretend that the 2020 election was corruption-free.
I like Mike.
People I respect — Matt Walsh, Jack Posobiec, and Mike Cernovich — are more skeptical of the new speaker. They pointed to a June 2020 interview to raise questions about Johnson’s conservative convictions. In the days after the death of St. George Floyd in 2020, Johnson agreed to an interview with Walter Isaacson, a former CEO of CNN and president of the Aspen Institute, a left-leaning nonprofit think tank.
Isaacson, of course, asked Johnson about his emotions following the death of Floyd, a celebrated activist and American hero.
“I was outraged,” Johnson shared. “I don’t think anyone can view the video and objectively come to any other conclusion but that it was an act of murder. I felt that initially, as everyone did. It’s so disturbing, and the underlying issues beneath that are something that the country is now struggling with, and I think it’s something we have to look at very soberly and with a lot of empathy. And I’m glad to see that’s happening around the country.”
I’m not a fan of Johnson’s response there, but I understand it. Conventional wisdom at the time of Floyd’s fentanyl-induced death was that white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin brutally snuffed out a black taxpayer for the crime of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Had Johnson spoken more honestly, he could have contributed to the seething racial unrest sweeping the country at the time. Johnson chose an answer intended to tamp down people’s emotion and protect his political position.
Isaacson then asked a follow-up question. Johnson chose to personalize his response. That’s what politicians are trained to do. They want to sound relatable and sympathetic during times of crisis. They’re celebrated for it.
So Johnson, who is white, referred to his adopted black son, Michael. Johnson and his wife brought Michael into their home when he was 14 and before they had children of their own.
“What it’s taught me,” Johnson said of St. George Floyd, “is we now have four other children of our own. And my oldest son, Jack, ironically, this year is now 14, and I’ve thought often throughout all these ordeals over the last couple of weeks about the difference in the experiences of my two 14-year-old sons. Michael being a black American and Jack being white, a Caucasian. They have different challenges. My son Jack has an easier path. He just does. The interesting thing about both of these kids, Michael and Jack, is they’re both handsome, articulate, really talented kids gifted by God to do lots of things. But the reality is — and no one can tell me otherwise — my son Michael had a harder time than my son Jack is going to have simply because of the color of his skin. That’s a reality. It’s an uncomfortable, painful one to acknowledge. But people have to recognize that’s a fact.”
My only problem with this answer is Johnson did not elaborate and clarify why things were and would be harder for his black son, who is now grown with children of his own.
Systemic, anti-black racism is an American reality. Johnson should have explained that. So should Matt Walsh, Jack Posobiec, and Mike Cernovich. Everyone should quit denying systemic, anti-black racism.
Johnson finished his comments to Isaacson with these words: “I think we really do need systematic change, we need transformative solutions.”
Over the course of America’s first 190 years, white and black evangelicals deconstructed this country’s system of anti-black laws, policies, and cultural norms. During the last 60 years, white and black progressive elites rebuilt a system of anti-black cultural norms, laws, and policies.
Starting with Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” the Democratic Party convinced black Americans that our salvation and progress were tied to government assistance rather than obedience to and trust in God. The Great Society bribed black women to abandon the patriarchy, male leadership, and the nuclear family, the central pillars of biblical faith.
Our allegiance to Christianity allowed us to end slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. Our faith in government destroyed our families and relegated us to an identity of entitlement and victimization.
We’re Samson and Democrats are Delilah. Christian faith was our long, flowing locks of hair, our superpower.
Does Mike Johnson’s black adopted son have a more difficult path than his brother Jack? Absolutely.
Michael will be criticized for being adopted into a white family. He’ll feel pressured via social media and other platforms to prove his “blackness.”
Jack will never be chastised by his white friends for speaking proper English, excelling in academics, and not being able to recite Rick Ross’ latest pornographic rap song. Black kids face those obstacles every day. If Jack chooses to model his father’s Christian faith, white kids will not blast him for selling out and adopting a racist religion. In the world constructed by leftists, black kids and adults are constantly questioned about practicing a “white man’s religion.”
Jack is under no pressure to embrace a victim’s mentality. Being a victim is not part of Jack’s racial identity. Jack’s culture is not framed as hip-hop, a form of commercial music that portrays black people as perverted, criminal, materialistic, addicted to drugs, emotional, and intellectually challenged.
Jack is free to be a conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican. He won’t automatically be deemed a social outcast among his peers for thinking the wrong thing.
Through the music industry, academia, television, movies, corporate and social media, and corporate diversity-equity-inclusion mandates, the left maintains a culture that systematically imposes low standards and even lower values on black people. These reduced standards and values are designed to destroy black men.
Mike Johnson has told no lies. His black son Michael is facing a much stronger headwind than his white son Jack.
That does not mean Jack has a wind at his back. He doesn’t. He’s facing a headwind, too. What is being done to black boys and men is now being done to heterosexual white men.
I want to challenge Matt Walsh, Jack Posobeic, and Mike Cernovich to avoid harsh judgment of Mike Johnson until we’ve had a chance to make him elaborate on why his black adopted son faces a more difficult climb. What Johnson said in the summer of St. George Floyd might be different from what he should know to be true now.
His white son is next on the chopping block. The massacre of men should unite all evangelicals. We united to end the previous forms of bigotry Democrats supported. We can do it again. We owe it to our ancestors. It’s our calling.