A History of Moral Supremacism

A History of White Delusion

by Nicolas Kristof, July 14 2016 (LINK to article)

" . . how easy it is for a [white] majority to “otherize” minorities in ways that in hindsight strike us all as repugnant."

Nicholas, are you seriously suggesting that ethnic minorities don't "otherize" the ethnic majority or other ethnic minorities?

Of course they do, and always will, because deeply rooted in human tribal nature.

I'm sure you don't mean to, but what you and your "progressive" colleagues are doing,  is playing the "moral supremacist".

You just want to be "moral", of course, as we all do, because our tribal nature also makes us a "moral animal",  but you were taught, if not by your parents and at school, certainly at university, that being moral entails suppressing your own racial prejudices and demonising them in others, which necessarily involves denying and despising one's own racial identity,  which we are taught is just a "social construct", only of importance to nasty racists.

Instead of demonising human tribal nature and prejudices, we need academics to study and understand them, so that we can better lean to deal with them in a civilised fashion, just as we do with human sexuality, which until very recently was also demonised by the state for purposes of social-political intimidation and control.

The demonisation of racial prejudice was an overreaction to the evils of Nazism and the Holocaust, which is something the NYT itself warned its readers about in an editorial response, The Price of Fear, to the Islamist terror attacks in Paris last November (LINK to my comment).

Moral supremacism has a long history, going back to before the first states and civilisations emerged from a tribal society.

Man being an inherently tribal and moral animal, society has always been ruled to a large extent by those claiming moral authority for themselves. This used to be the priesthood, which, in coalition with a warrior class (aristocracy) that provided the muscle and power of the sword, dominated society, exploiting it as a human resource. The priesthood provided the brains and power of the Word, i.e. moral authority, which in modern times has been largely replaced by academia. While the power of the sword has largely been replaced by the power of money, i.e. capital.