Joe Said the N-word
President Joe Biden, in a press conference, said the N-word right in front of the television cameras. I watched it on TV. I was shocked and outraged at his prejudicial slurs against me and people like me. During a photo op with lawmakers at the White House, he called out Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves for removing mask mandates and stated, “The last thing – the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking.” I was stunned by his hurtful slur.
The report on my DNA profile says that I have 243 variants that trace back to Neanderthal ancestors and that I have more Neanderthal DNA than most people. According to the one drop rule, that makes me a Neanderthal (according to Wikipedia, the one drop rule asserted “that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of black blood) is considered black). President Biden should immediately apologize and at the very least take anti-speciesist sensitivity training.
Oh, you thought that President Biden had said a different n-word. It doesn’t matter. The thought was the same. Here in Texas, we call people of different ethnicities and cultures all sorts of names. We call them Polacks, Frogs, Micks, square heads (Germans and Czechs), blue hairs (elderly ladies), and all sorts of other things. Of course, not to their face or in polite company. And, although I have never been called a Neanderthal (at least to my face), I have often been called a Gringo (and to my face). Of course, citing the one drop rule, I could also be called Mick, Wop, square head, limey or Jew.
And as for President Biden’s insulting reference to Neanderthal thinking, you should be aware that the Neanderthal brain with an average size of around 1600 cubic centimeters is larger than the average human brain at less than 1400 cubic centimeters. Maybe I would insult President Biden by accusing him of human thinking.
In all seriousness, I am not advocating the use of any n-word or any other ethnic or cultural slur. They are always inappropriate. But they do slip out from time to time. Does that make the slipper a racist? Possibly so. Stanford University neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky wrote in his book, Behave, The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, that in an experiment the amygdalae of test subjects reacted to photos of people of different races by pumping out chemicals to facilitate a fight or flight response more quickly than the frontal cortex could recognize the photo. It is the frontal cortex that does the conscious processing that can suppress the reaction of the amygdala, but it is a delayed response. All humans are racist for the few milliseconds it takes for the frontal cortex to react.
Professor Sapolsky goes on to note that there are all kinds of Us/Them dichotomies. Some of them are racial but others can be different types of associations such as being fellow masons, attending the same university or supporting a favorite football team. The amygdala will see the Blue Star logo of the Dallas Cowboys and say “friend.” That is why Africans used tribal scarring and why soldiers wear uniforms. It is also why opposing countries in wartime dehumanize their enemy with racial or ethnic slurs so that the amygdala’s response will be stronger and less controlled by the frontal cortex.
Other animals have similar reactions. The quick response of the amygdala is essential to the survival of a species. But lacking the powerful human frontal cortex, they are less able to control their reactions. The entire history of civilizing human beings has been a process of expanding the Us that we consider our fellow citizens and countrymen, and reducing the number of people we consider Them.
The divisiveness that we are experiencing in America, arising from identity politics and forced diversity and inclusion, is enhancing the Us/Them response to the extent that an ever-increasing number of fellow American citizens are now considered Them. Our national motto, e pluribus unum, has devolved into e pluribus bellum.
It is hard to cancel a sitting US president. And social justice warriors have a poor history of going to bat for Neanderthals. Further, Neanderthalism probably isn’t even on the intersectionality map. Mimi Groves was not so lucky. Three years ago, upon getting her leaner’s permit, she exulted, “I can drive, (N-word – the other N-word). Unfortunately for Mimi somebody caught her outburst and shared it on social media. A bi-racial classmate saved that video for three years, waiting to post until it could do the most damage. The classmate said that he waited because, “I wanted to get her where she would understand the severity of that word.” Poor Mimi, her admission to the University of Tennessee was revoked and she lost her position on the school’s national championship cheerleading squad.
Few people would know about this little local tragedy, except that the New York Times chose to feature it in an article headlined, “A Racial Slur, a Viral Video and a Reckoning.” This is the same New York Times that is pushing the infamous 1619 Project. It is also the same New York Times that forced long time reporter Donald McNeil to resign for discussing racist language with high school students and actually using the n-word, but as an example and not as a slur. This is also the same New York Times that fired an editor for publishing an op-ed by a sitting United States Senator pushing a policy proposal that the New York Times leadership disagreed with (apparently it was news that was not fit to print). This is also the same New York Times, that Bari Weiss quit because she was being bullied by her colleagues because she did not reflect the left-wing bent of her coworkers. She described the work environment at the New York Times as a civil war between young wokes and older liberals (apparently there is no room for centrists or conservatives at the New York Times).
Welcome to the world of wokeness! This is the scenario the far-left progressives want to see in every workplace, every classroom, and every political gathering. If they are in the minority, they demand a “safe place” where they don’t have to listen to opposing views. If they are strong enough, they try to silence opposing views or hound people expressing opposing views to flee.
This woke world would not appear to be a pleasant place in which to live or work. More importantly, this would not be America. Whatever happened to the saying, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” That is what America is about. That is freedom and free speech.
The woke world envisioned by far-left progressives and Black Lives Matter is not a happy place. It is an angry place filled with angry people that demand capitulation to their wokeness. The woke world will be an oppressive tyranny.
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