Casey Chalk writes for the Federalist about the disturbing views among those on the political left.
As much of an evil as racially-motivated chattel slavery was in American history, the comparison to the evils committed by Nazi Germany suggests the true nature of 21st-century racial ideology. Nazism was motivated by a racial supremacist ideology that sought to exterminate millions of people in death camps. Everywhere the Nazis went, they massacred anyone they viewed as an inferior people. Such horrific cruelties were baked into their entire political and social program.
The United States, in contrast, was founded upon principles of equality and liberty. Its founders, even those who were slaveholders, were deeply conflicted about the “peculiar institution” it permitted at its founding. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, among many others, recognized to varying degrees that the principles underlying the American constitutional order were in tension with the institution of slavery.
Some hoped that in time it would die a natural death, either for economic or moral reasons. Of course, as demonstrated by the Civil War, our nation’s bloodiest conflict, that was not to be. Thankfully, and at great cost, freedom and equality won the day. Such political leaders as Abraham Lincoln argued that the end of slavery represented a realization of our constitutional order.
Yet for 21st-century racial ideologues, such historical details are irrelevant. The Nazis were evil, and thus Nazi Germany was evil. Slaveholders were evil, and thus America was evil, even if slaveholders acted in opposition to our founding principles. Just as post-war Germans must be constantly reminded of the Holocaust and their ancestors’ role in it, so must white Americans be constantly reminded of slavery, even many generations removed from the actual sins.
Nor is it enough that America’s grade school curricula, media, and entertainment industry are already overwhelmed with racially charged narratives about our history. No, citizens must be endlessly reminded, lest they forget how systemic racism pervades our nation and requires dramatic action — such as racial reparations costing trillions of dollars — to rectify historic harms.
