The primarily White supporters of the Freedom Convoy argue that pandemic mandates infringe upon their constitutional rights to freedom. The notion of “freedom” was historically and remains intertwined with Whiteness, as historian Tyler Stovall has argued. The belief that one’s entitlement to freedom is a key component of White supremacy. This explains why the Freedom Convoy members see themselves as entitled to freedom, no matter the public health consequences to those around them.
Historian Tyler Stovall can jump in the lake too. How about an alternative perspective, less in favor now than once in Washington and elsewhere:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Emphasis added, because emphasis is needed.
3 comments:
So Stovall is saying that white people invented the idea of personal freedom? The WaPo writer doesn't seem to be looking at the immediate downstream meaning of statements very much.
Embrace this. Freedom is Whiteness. AND, "race" is a social construct. Otherwise how can any group be "White-Allies" "White Adjacent", etc?
Anyone of any skin color can be "white" -- free, participatory, and potentially successful. The accident of skin color is secondary. Envy the Banana, the Oreo, the Twinkie, the Coconut ... The envious betray their envy and covetousness by the insults they've invented. Race is only skin deep but Freedom is a blinding light of the heart.
Freedom, assimilation, the melting pot, social cohesion, e pluribus unum, and YES! the superiority of the AngloSaxon Magna Carta and the US Declaration of Independence over other theories, old and new: Islam, Socialism, Communism, Fascism -- The "exception" of American Exceptionalism is exactly the idea that any person of any race, creed, or national origin can be "naturalized" and become as much a part of a new "nation" (native, nation, natal, naturalized -- all embracing the same root concept) as any other race, creed, etc. And yes the arc of history has -- exceptionally -- bent toward inclusion of those who, in our past, were excluded. Indians, African slaves, Irish- or Italian- Catholics, Filipino or Chinese or Japanese workers... Join in the dance, take the chance, bring us your music, your menus, your crafts and your vocabulary.
The world has provided us proofs by example. Consider Hong Kong. Consider the divided Korean peninsula. Consider the now-united Germany. Consider Palestine. Where the race and skin colors, the climate and natural resources are identical, but "freedom" and "western values" and (go ahead, I do not object what you want to call this social package) "whiteness" moved in to set an example on one part -- that part is just plainly better. More free, more wealthy, more engaged with the rest of the world.
Basically: our socialist dreams are incompatible with freedom, and the best explanation we can come up with for failure is that objecting to tyranny is white supremacist thinking.
Now that we're clear on that, the rest of us know what to do.
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