Joseph D’Hippolito: An Uncomfortable Historical Reality– We’ve Seen “Woke” Racism Before
Today marks the 90th anniversary Adolf Hitler’s appointment to be chancellor in Germany’s chaotic Weimar Republic. Ten weeks later, the Nazis started codifying anti-Semitic laws which would lead to the Holocaust. Few realize that the Nazis were motivated primarily by two intellectuals who lived in the 19th century.
This should be a wake-up call for Americans today.
Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain were men of “immense erudition, deep culture and wide experience of travel,” William L. Shirer, former CBS Radio Correspondent who authored The Rise and Fall Of the Third Reich. “Neither, be it said at once, was a mountebank.” Chamberlain, an English philosopher and former French diplomat, wrote the works that gave racism a pseudo-scientific, respectable facade.
De Gobineau’s An Essay on the Inequality Between the Human Races Published in six volumes from 1853-1855, the work not only affirmed race as the fundamental criterion to civilizational development but also included six other volumes. This work advocated for the superiority of the white race and pointed out that racial intermarriage was a major reason for civilizational decline.
“The racial question dominates all the other problems of history,” de Gobineau wrote. “The inequality of races suffices to explain the whole unfolding of the destiny of peoples. History shows that all civilization flows from the white race, that no civilization can exist without the cooperation of this race.”
De Gobineau even used this term “Aryan” to describe “the noblest among the white races.” Although he could trace Aryan roots to Central Asia and showed a fondness for Germans,
“The Aryan German is a powerful creature,” He wrote. “Everything he thinks, says and does is thus of major importance.”
As expected, de Gobineau’s views found a home and influence in Germany. Chamberlain wrote about them. Foundations of The Nineteenth Century In 1899. This work intensified de Gobineau’s views.
“Certain anthropologists would fain teach us that all races are equally gifted,” Chamberlain wrote. “We point to history and answer: that is a lie! The races of mankind are markedly different in the nature and also in the extent of their gifts, and the Germanic races belong to the most highly gifted group, the group usually termed Aryan … Physically and mentally the Aryans are pre-eminent among all peoples; for that reason they are by right … the lords of the world.”
Chamberlain however added virulent Anti-Semitism, which is not the case with de Gobineau.
“The Jew,” He Write, “thanks to Ezekiel, is the teacher of all intolerance, of all fanaticism in faith, and of all murder for the sake of religion; that he only appealed to toleration where he felt himself oppressed, that he himself, on the other hand, never practised it nor dared to practise it, for his law forbade it as it forbids it today and will forbid it tomorrow.
Chamberlain tinged his anti-Semitism with racial victimization. Both elements would define Nazi ideology.
“The Indo-European, motivated by ideal motives opened the doors to friendship” he wrote. “The Jew stormed into all positions like an enemy and planted the flag that reflected his alien nature.
Hitler reaffirmed this theme in 1934 in a speech:
Chamberlain and the Nazis saw in Jewish identity implications that went beyond biology.
“The term Jew rather denotes a special way of thinking and feeling,” He Write. “A man can very soon become a Jew without being an Israelite; often it needs only to have frequent intercourse with Jews, to read Jewish newspapers, to accustom himself to Jewish philosophy, literature and art.
“Not just the Jew, but everything that comes from the Jewish mind also corrodes what is best about us.”
Chamberlain’s views not only permeated the Nazis’ attitude toward modern art and music, capitalism, socialism, and Communism, all allegedly having Jewish roots. They even claimed his work as “The gospel of Nazi movement,” the party newspaper declared in 1925. Hitler briefly mentioned him in Mein Kampf. Chamberlain wrote Hitler to him in 1923. He met Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, four years later just before Hitler’s passing.
Every area of German society, including education, was to reflect the Nazi ideology. C.A. Hoberg was a Nazi educational bureaucrat who wrote:
What does this all mean for Americans today?
Compare this statement from a bureaucrat to This one from Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine: “There is no priority in medical education that is more important than addressing and eliminating racism and bias.”
Oder this assertion from UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering that “excellence in advancing equity and inclusion must be considered on par with excellence in research and teaching.”
Or the California Community Colleges’ demand for faculty to create course content that “promotes a race-conscious and intersectional lens” and to evaluate those same faculty, as well as administrators and staff members, based on “competencies” in “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”
Just like the Nazis, the “woke” ideologues who promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” are dedicated racists. Granted, their racism reflects different ideological roots, neo-Marxist critical race theory, and ostensibly benefits and opposes different groups than the Nazis’ brand. But by making race the fundamental intellectual and moral criterion — and by systematically segregating anyone outside of their criteria — those “woke” ideologues fit the classical definition of racism.
Compare Chamberlain’s words about Jewish identity as “a special way of thinking and feeling,” along with his sense of racial victimization, with these from the Smithsonian Institution:
Just like the Nazis, the “woke” want to infuse their ideology throughout every aspect of society, especially education. Just as the Nazis promoted courses and majors in racial studies and racial hygiene, the “woke” do the same with courses in their ideological trinity. Undergraduates at Georgetown, Davidson and Northern Arizona must take courses in “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Bentley University in Massachusetts and Penn’s Wharton School even made the subject it’s own major.
Just as Nazi academics rejected Einstein as “Jewish physics” and tried to shoehorn disciplines into their ideology, so do “woke” academics reject the foundations of Western culture as “white supremacy” and try to redefine even the physical sciences in ideological terms.
In September, UC Berkeley reorganized 10 major courses in the departments of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM); Integrative Biology, and Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology “to better incorporate inclusive and anti-racist approaches to course design and teaching practices,” a university release stated.
The courses emphasize such subjects as fish, freshwater, and wildlife ecology; evolution’s role in ecology and “plant diversity,” and even “climate justice.”
The new requirements reflect the guidelines of a resource called Advancing Inclusion and Anti-Racism in the College Classroom, designed to “orient curricular materials explicitly toward social justice.” Specifically, instructors must “focus curricular materials toward anti-colonialism,” “make curricular materials anti-racist,” and “include Indigenous perspectives.”
Just as the Nazis used education to try to impose their agenda on the greater society, so do the “woke.” In preparation for its All-Star Game in suburban Miami, the NHL promoted a job fair with this now-deleted tweet: “Participants must be 18 years of age or older, based in the U.S., and identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability. Veterans are also welcome and encouraged to attend.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued this response: “Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic.”
The NHL capitulated.
But would demographics that the “woke” consider politically unpopular become targets for extermination, as the Jews became under the Nazis? Consider the following:
“The future of life on the planet depends on bringing the 500-year rampage of the white man to a halt. For five centuries his ever more destructive weaponry has become far too common. His widespread and better systems of exploiting other humans and nature dominate the globe,” wrote Frank Joyce, a white left-wing activist who contributes to Salon and calls former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson — an African-American — a “white supremacist.”
“Whiteness is not humxness. In fact, white skin is sub-human. All phenotypes exist within the black family and white ppl are a genetic defect of blackness,” wrote Yusra Khogali, who founded the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter.
“Why do white people have a right to affirm their life? Why does white life have value? Why should I care about your life, anyway? Your life ain’t worth affirming,” said an African-American debate student from the University of West Georgia to a white opponent in a debate at Harvard. The teams were supposed to debate renewable energy but West Georgia’s all-minority team arbitrarily changed the subject to exterminating whites.
“…how we are going to exterminate white people because that, in my estimation, is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem,” said Kamau Kambon, an African-American professor from North Carolina State.
The Nazis said and did the exact same things with people they viewed as undesirable.
“History’s most savage ideologies have been those that called for the extremely rapid and radical transformation of society,” political scientist Benjamin Valentino wrote. “Such transformations have almost always come about at great cost in human life.”
Make no mistake. Despite their constant cries of being “inclusive,” “anti-racist,” and “anti-fascist,” today’s “woke” promoters of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” are the Nazis’ true moral and spiritual descendants.
Joseph D’Hippolito is a freelance writer who has covered politics, current events, religion, and sports. His commentaries on politics and religion have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post, National Post (Canada), American Spectator, and American Greatness, among others. His sports coverage has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Guardian, among other outlets.
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