Your conservative friends aren't racists, and the accusation provides cover for real racists

Joel Kurtinitis | Special to the Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Controversy over Papa John's founder Papa John's founder John Schnatter is no longer board chairman after using a racial slur, but he remains the company's largest shareholder. Ricky L. Jones, a university professor says it is evident that he has levels of racial insensitivity. (July 12)

This week I posted what might have been my first truly controversial tweet, and I’m still trying to figure out what was controversial about it.

While catching up on news about Papa John’s pizza founder John Schnatter’s resignation, I started thinking about society’s evolving standard for language, and hazarded the following:

“Why is the n-word the only remaining curse word?



"Every word that shocked and horrified 50 years ago is now mainstream, but the n-word is so unthinkably evil, it's a national headline when anyone says it, even as a quote.



"Except rappers, of course.”

The tweet garnered a variety of responses that ranged from the snidely condescending to the cheap and insulting, but most flailed at the strawman that I, as a white man, was complaining about the stigma of using a racist slur.

I suppose in our societal race to the lowest common denominator, it’s possible that nobody considered that someone might actually decry low standards, rather than complain about high ones.

Or maybe it was just another intellectually lazy attempt to give me the Steve King treatment.

Iowa’s Democratic socialists united to insist that the Register stop giving my “dog-whistle racism” a platform in a tweet that drew a good bit of attention for the teapot-tempest it tried to brew.

As my notifications started to fill with angry responses and a continued insistence that I was in fact a racist who wanted to use the n-word at will, I had to think about where this road leads us as a nation.

Schnatter was pushed to resign from the board of a company he founded, over utterance of the n-word in the form of indirect quotation. He never used the word in a derogatory fashion or in reference to any person at all, but as an objection to the idea of company ads including someone who actually does have a history of using the word in discourse — rapper Kanye West.

Another recent example was Georgia state legislator Jason Spencer, who embarrassed himself this week by (among other things) yelling the n-word at the behest of trickster Sacha Baron Cohen, who posed as an Israeli counter-terrorism expert and convinced him that doing so would protect him from terrorists.



Stupid? Of course. Humiliating to himself and his constituents? Absolutely.

But a sincere representation of personal racism? That’s a stretch for everyone outside the View, where at least one panelist insisted with metaphysical certainty that “he enjoyed yelling that word out.”

John Schnatter and Jason Spencer might be racists, but there’s certainly no honest way to reach that conclusion from the exchanges in question.

In his resignation, Schnatter stated, "Regardless of the context, I apologize. Simply stated, racism has no place in our society." Of course racism has no place in our society — it’s a stupid and barbaric ideal that should have died off centuries ago. But the notion that context is irrelevant is dangerous to both common sense and common understanding.

Of course context matters. Descriptive parlance for a maternal canine is different in a kennel than in a bar fight.

The only way we establish effective communication is by agreeing to common definitions. Racism is a real word with real meaning, and haphazardly using it to tar political opposition has the unfortunate effect of allowing real racists to fly under the radar.

I have known real, actual, honest-to-God racists. They do still exist, and unfortunately, many of them have crept out of the shadows under the Trump presidency. I never in my life thought I would have to argue against the absurd concept of “genetic heritage” and serious suggestions to divide the U.S. into ethnic microstates, but that’s exactly the kind of reactionary undercurrent that serious constitutional conservatives have had to stave off for the last couple of years.

And our efforts are frequently hampered by the Left’s insistence on dishonestly weaponizing those terms against those of us holding the line. It also evidences a flippancy about the issue of race that’s unbecoming to those who claim to stand up for equality.

People who call conservative Daily Wire editor Ben Shapiro a white supremacist can’t be taken seriously, and undermine their own credibility on issues of race. Ben was the top target of journalistic anti-Semitism, according to the Anti-Defamation League, and social media attacks against him over the last two years provide a snapshot of what real racism looks like.

When people apply the term “racist” to thoughtful conservative intellectuals like Shapiro or Dr. Jordan Peterson, or even immigration hardliners like Iowa’s own Rep. Steve King, the more the alt-right is able to argue its legitimacy based on the idea that the Left simply brands all its opponents racist.

And the same is true of Democratic socialists who see a tweet mourning the loss of linguistic dignity across the board, and assume it’s just a white guy complaining about not being able to use a racist slur.

Had they taken a moment to read before posturing for attack, they might have discovered a plea to move the standard for decency up, not down.

I was raised in a conservative Christian household where no filthy language, racist or otherwise, was tolerated. I attended a college where “curse boxes” were installed on televisions to bleep out profanity. Of course the n-word is wicked and coarse, and people should be ashamed of using it. But so are many other words that we have mainstreamed, from Hollywood, to the music industry, to social media and everyday banter.

If we are a society that promotes degradation and filth, we can’t be surprised when some of that filth is also racist, sexist, etc. Conversely, if we promote respectful discourse and raise the standards of public dialogue, racist language can’t survive either.

In other words, there’s more value in the virtues our society seems intent on leaving behind — grace, integrity, generosity, respect and kindness — than in shallow, limited admonitions to not be racist or sexist.

Real virtues always require something of us: honesty, humility, selflessness, sacrifice. They require teaching, practice, willpower and sometimes repentance and grace.

The ethics of political correctness don’t require much of anything; they’re just markers for self-congratulation, allowing pretty much anyone who didn’t march in Charlottesville to pat themselves on the back and feel good because they aren’t racist or sexist, even as they hop on social media to write a profanity-laced rant about whatever politician they hate this week.

People truly invested in stamping out racism and bigotry should look at conservatives — particularly social conservatives — as allies in the fight, and work together to elevate the national dialogue both within and without the context of the feared isms.

Broadly painting political adversaries with the brush of racism only promotes easy dismissal of the underground resurgence of racial politicking on both sides — a current that we can ultimately fight only by standing together.

Joel Kurtinitis of Des Moines is a homeschooler, conservative-libertarian writer and millennial political activist, who contributes regular columns to the Register. Follow Joel on Facebook at facebook.com/jkurtinitis or on Twitter @Joel_Kurtinitis.