I recently talked to guy about original sin; only, he’s an atheist, and I’m Jewish. He was raised catholic though. He was educated in the arts, continued on to receive a master’s and now doesn’t seem to do much. We hadn’t talked in years, and I was very okay with that.
What had started as a light-hearted conversation, turned into a debate and then we hashed out the world’s problems. We talked about everything. We talked about the culture war, biology, truth and economics. Now, obviously neither of us is an expert in any of these fields. We both have eyes, ears and functioning brains (maybe just barely adequate brains is more appropriate).
We got into the topic of “white privilege.” Now, I find this idea not only repugnant, but also stupid to boot. I feel it is stupid, because it only cites one causal variable (melanin or no melanin) as the root of a societal pandemic. One of my childhood friends is a nerd who uses the game, “Dungeons and Dragons,” as an analogy for life. He says that every character playing has a list of attributes with various numerical values denoting each variable. So any given person can play these attributes to the best of their ability. Not every player has the same levels of ability, but they all have their own talents. So, they have to traverse the playing field utilizing all of their inherent and acquired talent. The left likes to play this game without regard for meritocracy. Identity is the end all be all of qualification according to them. We see this play out as a game of Oppression Olympics. He who has it worse inherits the world or so they would believe. Martin Luther King once famously said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” MLK had it right. He knew that we needed to dig deeper than the skin surface. He also wanted us to do our utmost to move beyond the world he inherited. He didn’t want his four children to carry the sins of society. He wanted to move the world to a point where we were equal, and merit was our real currency.
So, we go back to my conversation with the atheist catholic. I asked him if it’s moral to see white babies as guilty of racism or a societal debt. I asked this, because this is what we are talking about when we discuss “white privilege.” It is part of the package. You can’t have this system without all people being born into it as the criminal and victim (oppressed and oppressor). This made him take a moment to digest what I had just asked. He is not a fan of catholic theology. They preach about original sin; that we are all guilty at birth. So he’s against it when it’s the church, but he’s okay when it’s Marxist.
He could not answer this question, and we moved onward. I realized through our hour and a half debate that he really hadn’t considered much of anything. I could only assume to know what he reads for newspapers. He hadn’t offered me anything new, because I had once thought as he thought. Now, I had read more and outside the echo chamber. This was not a complete waste of time. It was interesting to be able to see what I once believed now presented back to me. It was a marker of growth almost like a Jiu-Jitsu match is.
My brother and I just watched, Black Panther. I loved this movie, but not for it’s artistic merit. I no longer can sit through superhero movies. They bore me. This one highlighted the recent struggles we’ve been going through as a people. This movie describes the philosophical positions we took in the debate we had. It also diverged from the boilerplate tale to a poignant one. The hero King T’Challa (aka Black Panther) is at war with the villain by the name of Killmonger. T’Challa is king of a fictional country in Africa known as Wakanda. Wakanda is a rich country and hidden to the whole world; how millions of people in a country can keep a secret that big is beyond the scope of a writers' room. They have a special metal that gives them all sorts of powers. The villain wants to steal a magic material (vibranium) from Wakanda. He then wants to transform it into weapons so he can arm all the “oppressed people” around the world…
Okay, Killmonger wants to arm all “oppressed people,” so they can have an uprising. Okay, I’ll go with that, but I have a few questions first. Who is oppressed and who is oppressor? Surely, it isn’t just Blacks. Can we add Jews? They run all of media and banks, so maybe not. They did live through the holocaust though and have been historically oppressed. What about the LGBT? They have gay marriage now. They also run the fashion industry, Hollywood and the art world. We all remember Stonewall though. How about we arm the poor white people of West Virginia (some of the poorest people in the country). They are poor, but they’re white. Damn, I wish I could sit down with Killmonger and hash this thing out. Who are we arming? Who is oppressed? Do we arm everybody, but White Christian straight males who earn over 50k a year? That’s not much of a fight. Then which group would assume the top spot in the pyramid once we eliminate the previous oppressors? Wakanda is the richest country in this Marvel universe. They are African, but they are a monarchical utopia. They would be the richest; this would mean they are the most powerful; they would now be oppressor. How else does one get rich anyway?
Unfortunately, I can’t have this conversation with Killmonger (played brilliantly by Michael B. Jordan). I would like to defend the morality of the film, Black Panther. T’Challa fights valiantly to put a stop to the oncoming race-war Killmonger is attempting to wage. T’Challa is a Martin Luther King figure who sees beyond identity politics. He stands for liberty, justice and freedom for all. I’d rather he took on a presidential role, and abandoned the royal throne, but King T’Challa can do what he likes. It’s good to be king. We see good triumph over evil in this Marvel movie. We see the political battle of Marxism versus the free world. Marxism is vanquished, and the people rejoice. The one who was seen as oppressor defends the oppressed. The one who was seen as oppressed became a totalitarian monster against the people.
I had this debate with the atheist catholic, and it wasn’t as exciting as the Marvel blockbuster had been. In the movie, T’Challa ends up killing Killmonger in the final battle. I did not hurt, damage or kill the atheist catholic. He was already broken or so it seemed. The world is chaotic, and we have to sort out the truth through the lies.
So, I would like to leave you with this back and forth between Black Panther and Killmonger:
“T'Challa: You will destroy the world, Wakanda included!
Erik Killmonger: The world took everything away from me! Everything I ever loved! But I'ma make sure we're even. I'ma track down anyone who would even think of being loyal to you! And I'ma put their ass in the dirt, right next to Zuri!”
Black Panther 2018.
We see the battle we are having in the culture. We see the side that is for the people, freedom, liberty and meritocracy. Then we see the other side, the leftists. We see how Killmonger views the world as oppressed and oppressor. He ignores competence in a higherarchy. He ignores the Paretto principle. He ignores the horrors behind the Iron Curtain. He simply believes what he believes and doesn’t realize the cost. Not everybody is aware of what the game of “white priviledge” leads to. We can follow this game of Oppression Olympics to its natural conclusion. In fact, many countries have done it before. I prefer to play the other game, the game where we have freedom, liberty and justice for all.