The incidents have been piling up especially in the past few years, especially since the election of Donald Trump to the White House during the ascent of Black Lives Matter in the age of social media, and even include cases of people calling for the hate of privileged groups and insisting it’s not hate speech. Just as remarkable is that this new rhetoric is not coming from dropouts and loners at society’s margins it is being advanced by successful professionals who have scaled the heights of respectability and are given a platform on social media and in prestigious cultural outlets.Īnd though each of those examples generated a public furor, such inflammatory rhetoric is defended or downplayed by cultural gatekeepers. What strikes a casual observer is that such language would be instantly denounced if it targeted racial minorities or other protected groups.

The escalation of this inflammatory rhetoric is reaching the highest levels of American society, as when President Biden insinuated in a fiery campaign speech last week that Donald Trump supporters are “ white supremacists” and when he maligned conservative mask skeptics last year for “ Neanderthal thinking.” It parallels the acceptance of anti-male rhetoric that casts masculinity as “predatory” and “toxic,” or just casually demeans males as oafish and clueless, which allows the Washington Post to give a megaphone to Northeastern University professor Suzanna Danuta Walters to ask: “Why can’t we hate men?” (Her conclusion: We can and we should.) This is a sampling of the new racism that is gaining purchase in American society even as its advocates relentlessly punish speech they deem harmful and threatening to people of color.

Aruna khilanani nationality