It's OK to be white
It's OK to be white is a cultural meme invented in 2017 on the 4chan imageboard.[1] It was a "proof of concept" campaign intended to demonstrate that the dominant or mainstream culture of the United States and most other Western countries had a strong anti-white bias. Some of the activists believed this culture even favored a form of white genocide, though with no desire to carry this out through violent means. Instead, they claimed it would happen through a generally peaceful process of population replacement.
The campaign was supported by white rights groups and activists, including former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard and two-time presidential candidate David Duke.[2] Posters and stickers containing the sentence "It's okay to be white" were placed by anonymous activists on streets and campuses across the USA and elsewhere.[3]
The campaign met an immediate strong counter-reaction from mainstream culture media organs, left-wing activist groups, academia, and allegedly "deep state" interests. The strongest critics generally agreed that the message was unacceptable, because white people were guilty of countless past and present offenses against non-whites. Instead, white people should rededicate their lives to making reparations for these crimes. Whites should also renounce pride in their white identity, though other racial groups would be allowed to retain such pride.[4]
Contents
Progressive denunciations
The University of Regina declared such posters to be unacceptable.[5][6] University President Vianne Timmons said: "Simply put, these signs have no place at our university."[7]
A spokesman for a Waterloo Region District School Board declared: "Our schools are safe spaces. We want to see them be safe for all of our children, so to see this kind of thing emerge is a worry."[8]
At Washington State University, Phil Weiler, Vice President of University Communications, claimed that "one could reasonably believe the intention of the signs is to set a sense of fear and intimidation on campus".[9]
The University of Utah said: "If, indeed, these tactics are meant to silence our work in diversity and inclusion, please know we shall not be deterred."[10]
Police were contacted regarding the flyers being posted at University of California, Berkeley.[11][12]
In November 2017, Lucian Wintrich attempted to give a speech titled "It's OK To Be White" at University of Connecticut as an invited speaker of the school's Republican club, but his message was violently suppressed by left-wing activists. The director of career services at Quinebaug Valley Community College grabbed Wintrich's speech papers from the podium. When Wintrich tried to resist the theft, he was arrested and charged with breach of peace.[13]
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization known for its campaigning against antisemitism, described the slogan as part of a trolling campaign and declared it a hate symbol.[14] The highly influential Internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia has also condemned the slogan.[15]
Mainstream media rejection
Mass media organs generally reacted in the way the original authors on 4chan had expected,[16] though there also was reluctance to publicize the message by mentioning it at all.
Tucker Carlson asked: "What’s the correct position? That it’s not okay to be white?",[17][18] but Newsweek writer Michael Hayden then condemned Carlson for helping to spread what he called neo-Nazi propaganda, by defending the message that it was OK to be white.
Writing for The Washington Post, Janell Ross also strongly condemned the message that it was OK to be white,[19] as did The Root magazine.[20]
Other media
An article in Jacobite magazine by Nathan Duffy argued that the purpose of the slogan was to generate a reaction and "process of enveloping the audience in the act" comparing it to a performance by Andy Kaufman. It states that the juxtaposition, "on the surface ... could be mistaken as a weak-kneed plea for tolerance". It argues that the slogan's success relates to exploiting the psychology of predicting reactions from political opponents.[21]
T-shirts with the slogan were put on sale at Shopify by Milo Yiannopoulos.[22]
Markus Persson, founder of Mojang, tweeted the phrase on 30 November 2017.
See also
- Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white
- Fourteen Words
- Pro-white
- White nationalism
- White Power
- White Pride
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/its-okay-to-be-white
- ↑ Spandrell (Jan 31, 2018) https://bloodyshovel.wordpress.com/2018/01/31/the-jordan-peterson-movement/
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/its-okay-to-be-white
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_okay_to_be_white
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- 2010s slang
- 4chan
- Alt-right
- Anti-globalization
- Identity politics in the United States
- Internet memes introduced in 2017
- Race-related controversies
- White nationalism in Australia
- White nationalism in Canada
- White nationalism in New Zealand
- White nationalism in the United Kingdom
- White nationalism in the United States
- Words coined in the 2010s