Vampires vs. Nazis: Umair Haque and the Racism of Anti-Racism

In Letter to a 'Racist' Nation, I warned against two phenomena: "Woke Fragility," and "the New Racism."  Woke Fragility arises from the privilege which left-wing ideologues are given in modern American society: control of most the Media, the Academy, and now many important corporations.  When power is crossed, as Robin DiAngelo noted in White Fragility, the powerful often get irritated.  Her prime error lay in failing to recognize that she is among the most powerful people in America today, and a paradigm of political privilage and intellectual fragility.  

The New Racism is exhibited in both White Fragility and Ibram Kendi's How to be Anti-Racist.  The way to be anti-racist, Kendi informed his millions of readers, is to discriminate against white people on acount of their skin color.  This paradox is what I call the "New Racism." 

Probably the most hysterical example of both phenomena I have come across outside of the Nation of Islam confronted me when I made the mistake of opening a piece from "The Medium" recently, by a London business consultant named Umair Haque.  The rage of the man puts DiAngelo's school-marmish white guilt, and Kendi's intellectually-driven fanaticism, in the shade, drinking lemonaide and kicking their heels.  

Yes, a new era of racism has dawned.  Haque's popular rants demonstrate how virulent, nasty, and un-self-critical, this New Racism has become in some quarters.     

Let us go line-by-line through much of this self-styled "vampire's" rant, and see why it does, indeed, belong to the forces of darkness and death, as well as of taudry melodrama. 

I'll underline the words "white" and "minority" to show that vampires, too, can be Manicheans in good standing.  

"Donald Trump revealed a great and terrible truth: who America 'really' is. "

"A white person, especially a white liberal, will cry, shaking their head at events like, for example, the coup at the Capitol: “this isn’t who America is!” And a minority will respond, shaking their head, “this is exactly who America is!”

Hague flaunts his racism from the get-go, because he knows his followers will cheer.  

An idea, even a stupid one like "Most Americans are right-wing, rioting lunatics" is located in the brain, not in the melanin. One can say something ludicrous like this, regardless of the color of one's skin - or refrain from doing so.

And of course there was no "coup," though if there had been one, led by BLM and Antifa, Haque would have cheered loudly.  

"The white person will feel a sense of white rage at the minority, and the minority will feel a kind of weary, bitter disappointment with the white person. This scene is repeated a thousand times a day."

For Haque, what matters is the color of your skin, not the content of your character.  Feelings are divided by skin color, as are the ideas that inspire them.  Racism is a kind of animistic magic, which ascribes thoughts, values, and emotions to inanimate objects or properties like color.  

Nowadays, his anti-racist racism is repeated far more often than the conventional kind.

"Back in 2016, Trump announced a “Muslim Ban.”

Actually, what Trump fought for was a ban on immigrants from Muslim countries which could not be trusted to screen their people accurately. A pretty obvious thing to do.

"White liberals, angry, replied: “We will stand with you! At the airports, if we have to!” And, to their credit, they did. The first time around, at least. By the third time Trump tried his ethnic ban, though, no white “allies,” as we say these days, were to be found."

That's because you're lying about the ban, Haque. Not that I'm a liberal. But your obsession with skin color is calculated to stir up "white guilt," for those foolish enough to be so manipulated. (Make excuses for your own racism.)

And "Muslim" is not an ethnicity, however convenient that would be for Haque's rhetorical purposes.

"Around the same time of my first example, maybe a little before, figures like Steve Bannon began to be hailed in the American press and media — a new vanguard of exciting, glamorous, perhaps even revolutionary leaders."

In fact, the American Media always despised Bannon, including conservative outlets like National Review.  This ridiculous comment, utterly contemptuous of reality, shows what value Haque places on truth.  

"Why wouldn’t anyone say fascism? That is what we minorities wondered."

In fact, plenty of liberals (I hate to give in to this man's racism and mention the color of their skin) in Portland and Seattle attacked police officers in the name of attacking fascism. But what does that word mean? "Might as well call someone as jackass," as Lenin reportedly put it. 

The word "facism" was over-used by Marxists in the past, and has long since lost all real value.  I suspect that communists use the term to distract us from how similar they are to the worst of those they attack: angry, irrational, violent, merciless, and bossy.   

"White liberals imagine themselves to be good and thoughtful people."

I agree that Woke liberalism is neither a good nor a thoughtful ideology, for reasons I explain in Letter to a 'Racist' Nation, though some liberals may be kind and well-spoken.

"And all that is how fascism got normalised and legitimised in America."

This gentleman is enormously attached to the word "facism," as were the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists. I prefer the word "jackass" -- it is much clearer.

"By early 2018, little children were in concentration camps. In those camps, there were allegations of mass sexual abuse. They were ripped away from their parents, some never to be “reunited.” All that is a form of genocide. Not even attempted genocide, but successful genocide."

These are lies. Anyone who cares about the truth probably already knows that, or can learn the facts in a few moments of searching.

The policy referred to began under a black president, actually (for those who think skin color is important). For an explanation, read "DHS Responds To Claims 545 Immigrant Children Have Yet To Be Reunited, Says Some Parents ‘Refused’ Reunions," at the Daily Wire.

"America was a society that would tolerate the worst abuses human beings could make happen."

This is the conclusion Haque wanted to reach, obviously. The mite of unexamined evidence he offered in support of that conclusion was just an excuse for his hatred, as I show was so often the case with fake "racist incidents" that went viral during Trump Admin. In this age of fanaticism, too many are addicted to these accusations, like a heroin addict. The 10 Minute Hate becomes as necessary a part of one's routine as that morning cup of coffee.

"That brings me to my fourth example. Mass death. 400,000 people died of Covid within one year. Much of this was due to a lunatic President leading an army of aggressive anti-maskers. But much of it was also due to white liberals treating all this like some kind theoretical debate or college seminar or game…all over again."

More nonsense. As I explain at The Stream, there are 12 reasons why America was more vulnerable to Covid than most other countries. (We also held a few advantages):

https://stream.org/grading-trump-on-his-covid-performance-did-he-really-kill-all-those-people/

Grading Trump on His COVID Performance: Did He Really Kill All Those People? | The Stream Joe Biden, in his bumbling way, has accused the president of being responsible for all 200,000 (plus or minus three zeroes) American deaths from COVID-19. Is anyone surprised? Of course not. Most of us once thought the fact that Trump is often obnoxious would keep him out of the White House. Plenty of people will still vote against him in November for that reason. But no, he hasn't blown up any countries (I note with relief), while his enemies burning down cities right and left (mostly left). So a few crude Twitter comments plus his other faults are not going to keep me from voting for him this time. The Left has redefined "obnoxious," and not even Donald Trump can compete. (You know that's true when the big question to ask now is, "Which cities will they torch next?"But what of the "COVID-killer in the White House" theory? Should it stick? This has become the chief argument for the prosecution, so it is worth examining. Let's try a radical experiment here. Let us simply seek the truth.To judge an action f stream.org

America does not, in fact, have the highest death rate from this disease. Other advanced First World countries do. This is a little surprising, given just one of those factors: how common obesity is in America, and the fact that it increases vulnerability to Covid by 50%.  Given how infrequent obesity is in Italy, for instance, one might expect that nation to suffer far fewer deaths.  And that's just one factor.  But no doubt the Italians and Belgians are also racists.  

"White liberals . . . couldn’t bring themselves to believe math. And therefore, by treating Covid like a game, normalised its spread. Maybe it was freedom not to wear a mask."

Of course this racist offers no evidence that "white liberals" treated Covid "like a game," or didn't wear masks. (When it is perfectly obvious that most did, but not obvious that there is some relationship between melanin and the impulse to wear masks.)

And if white liberals didn't wear masks, wouldn't that make them die at a higher rate than more responsible "minorities?" 

I'm a conservative, and early in this epidemic I fought to import masks . . . My boss sent me hundreds from overseas, and I passed them out, then fought to ease bureaucratic restrictions on import. This is the first time I thought that the color of my skin had anything to do with wearing a mask . . .

"America consists now of three tribes. One, regressive white people, whose entire lives and lifestyles are devoted to supremacy and hate, in harder or softer ways. These are the Trumpists."

I guess this is supposed to include me? Because I voted for Trump the second time, against all that goodness and grace in the streets of America last summer?

Our "entire lifestyles" are "devoted" to supremacy and hate?  Can't we even go to the park and walk our dogs without hating?  Or listen to Christmas carols?  Or watch NFL football?  "Get back to your racial supremacy and hatred, slave!"  

What a concept this warped and angry gentleman has of other peoples' lives.  

Haque clearly has no idea whatsoever of who conservatives are. Maybe he is afraid to find out. His own ideology of hatred is brittle, which may be prompting some of this anger.  

And, of course, despite such rabid rhetoric, Trump increased his vote among minorities this election. The dam of racist anti-racism may be springing a leak.

"Two, the other kind of whites. The ones who think they are much better, much smarter, much more moral, and so on."

Liberals, too, in this gentleman's twisted thinking, are classified by melanin count.

"And finally, there are minorities."

The good guys, presumably.

"Now, whites think they are pitted against one another — and that is the dumb, false story told in the everyday media. But what we minorities know is a very different truth."

Remember, Vampire here speaks for all minorities. If you are a minority and disagree with him, perhaps you should check your melanin count. 

"White people will always choose themselves over us. That is why and how fascism got normalised and legitimised in America. It was white liberals tolerating regressive, hateful white people — and then, flying into fits of rage, calling the rest of us alarmists, hysterics, and hyperbolic for pointing that simple fact out."

Has someone been calling Vampire hysterical? I can't imagine why.

Remember, vampires cannot see their own images.  Imagine the horror Haque would feel if he could see what is so blindingly obvious about himself.  

"Fascism got normalized and legitimised in America. But it wasn’t regressive, hateful whites who normalized it. It was white liberals. Regressive and hateful whites could spread fascism, sure. But they don’t control America’s institutions and power centers and norms. White liberals do. Fascism spread in America because white liberals treated it like some kind of intellectually pleasing game, some kind of deeply absorbing debate, a “provocation,” something to be proven wrong. But what kind of astonishing idiot needs fascism to be proven wrong?"

And who needs to define fascism? Or prove what you define exists?

Interestingly, though, the "minority" Jonah Goldberg agrees that liberals lean towards fascism, for very different reasons. I think he defines the word first, and doesn't classify people by skin color.  (Five uses of "whites" as a synonym for "demons" in this paragraph alone.)

"Fascism is a pattern of escalation of abuse, which happens when fanatics who think some people are subhumans seize control of the state."

Finally, a definition of "fascism!" Not a very accurate one, though.

The temptation to treat other people as less than human is perennial, to every person of every color, sex, or ideology. 

It is obvious whom Haque regards as subhuman. 

"Hate, scapegoating, dehumanisation, bans, camps, raids, genocide, mass death. That’s fascism."

Sounds like communism. And scapegoating (see Rene Girard) is ancient, arising millennia before fascism was invented.  The riots last summer were a textbook example of scapegoating, even the fact that they occured during a pandemic. (I explain their timing and psychological roots in Letter to a "Racist" Nation.) 

"Worst of all, flying into white rage, and hounding those of us who warned that…"

Haque wears his racism on his sleave like a badge of honor.

"Who else puts kids in camps? Tortures them, which is what “family separation” is? And who doesn’t care enough about that to stop it? The answer, sadly, is: white liberals."

I KNEW Joe Biden was a Nazi! But what about sweet Kamala?  She separated a lot of families, too, when she prosecuted criminals.  

"What Donald Trump revealed about America is the following terrible truth. White people will always choose white people over minorities . . . America came to the final endpoints of fascism, mass death and coup. It got there because white liberals legimized and normalized fascism to such a degree that the rest of the world was horrified. Not shocked, mind you — but just horrified."

No mention, yet, of months of BLM riots, which did vastly more damage, expressed more rage and hate, ruined vastly more businesses, and injured exponentially more people. Not that cops (or "pigs" as Colin K called them) are unhuman, mind you.

"We minorities spent the last four years feeling physically ill every single day, afraid for our lives and our loved ones, terrorised by white America. "

Again, Haque presumes to speak for tens of millions of Americans. If he really has felt this way for four years, well being a vampire no doubt takes a toll. But he should see a doctor, a priest, and a psychotherapist.

"You cannot know the feeling in the pit of your stomach that your family might disappear — and have to live with it every day — unless it is happening to you."

Here is is hard to to know what Haque is on about on any level. Are aliens beaming people with high melanin counts off this planet? Maybe he's referring to the fact that America, like every other country on earth (not just the "fascist" ones) has rules about who can enter, and those who break those rules are subject to export? At least we don't rise in the middle of the night to drink peoples' blood.

But I have tried your patience.  If one were a collector of bon mots of inanity, one would feel rich as Bilbo in the dragon's lair after Smaug shuffled off his mortal coil. But let us skip, finally, to the end, or at least the beginning of the end:

"Everything is not fine. Donald Trump revealed to us just how much America hates us. Oh, we always knew that the bad whites hated us. And we had an inkling that the good ones were not that good . . . your entire society hates you, only some a little less than others — is too much to bear . . . "

When a country becomes as horrible as the US, emigration is an honorable option. Might I suggest Venezuala? There seems to be plenty of space down there right now, and they hate fascists and Americans, too.

"Donald Trump revealed the truth of White America.

"We see it, us minorities. The whole world sees it. But white liberals still don’t. And that, strangely, funnily, stupidly, terribly, is the truth of White America. The bad ones want to annihilate the rest of us. The good ones? They’re busy looking the other way."

As a conservative who considers you a dingbat, a racist, a sophist drunk on bad rhetorical whine, and a poor excuse for calling mankind "homo sapiens," I wouldn't raise a finger to hurt, still less "annihilate" you, still less people I love and admire of other races.  May God bring your fevered head peace.  Again, you simply don't understand us. Perhaps you are projecting. Did you participate in the Burning Times last summer? This is a seldom-understood principle of psychology: one's own hateful actions, beget more hateful emotions. This rant bears the stamp, perhaps, of a guilty conscience?  One has to wonder.  

Except in the hypocrisy of its hatred, and utter contempt for truth, in some ways Mr. Haque's rant is a typical sample of the New Racism.  Notice how many times he uses the word "white."  Note that you could swap out the words "demon" and "demonic" for "white" (or "jackass" or "cow demon snake spirit") and the essay would make exactly the same amount of sense.  

"The people of one race I hate are not human, because they all perceive others as subhuman for their race."

Fanaticism is a perennial, but it comes up a different color every year.  Like Saurman's cloak, the color this year seems to be everything but white.  

Gandalf, White Supremacist.