Slaves of political correctness

There is a house of culture on the territory of Michigan State University - the Wharton Art Center. Clifton Wharton - President of the University and former Under Secretary of State for the United States, worked under the administration of Bill Clinton. Wharton comes from the family of a high-ranking civil servant - an African-American, in his biography it means that he is an African-American "pioneer", that is, one of the first representatives of his race who reached such a high position.

A jazz concert was held at the Wharton House of Culture last week. After the concert, one girl decided to go to the gift shop of this cultural center and saw a terrifying picture there.

Among the goods in the store was a small plywood Christmas tree - apparently, it remained unsold after the holidays. And on the Christmas tree hung decorations - rag men.

The girl recognized in men Michelle Obama, Diane Ross and musician Prince. What united them was that they were all black. And it turned out that in the store of the cultural center literally hanged black people on a tree. It seems to be a trifle - souvenirs, toys, jewelry. But the girl saw in this a model of Lynch's court - black people hang on branches.

As is customary in the modern world, a scandal erupted: the photo of the Christmas tree with the figures hanging on it went on social networks, the center’s leadership broke their foreheads, apologizing, and also promised to conduct mandatory training for employees on “racial sensitivity”.

It is from such scandals, from such seemingly trifles, that the general stream of political correctness obligatory for all is formed: don’t say that, don’t look that way. This is not censorship at all - this is real self-censorship, which is inevitably inculcated in modern society. White people are offered one option - to pay and repent. Are there few blacks among chess champions? White is to blame. Among the directors of films nominated for an Oscar, there are few blacks? White is to blame. White privilege is taken for granted, as if people with fair skin not only have real privileges, but are also to blame for the fact that their skin is of this color.

Meanwhile, this agenda - completely totalitarian and round-the-clock - has been imposed on the entire world community by several countries that are forced to rake the consequences of their slave system and their own colonial policy 300 years ago.

Especially gentle shrine in the West is the word in the letter "n". For us, it’s just a word that completely without value means a person with a dark skin color. This word is in children's books and in American translated novels. In our country, it is more likely associated with an honest hard worker, kind and sympathetic person, someone close to a Soviet person. For the Russian ear in this word there is nothing derogatory or derogatory. But you try to pronounce this word in a public place or write it on your page in the American social network. And you don’t have to try - self-censorship.

Self-censorship resulting from the trauma of slavery - the trauma that is characteristic of countries practicing slavery, moreover, this slavery lived.

And then somehow the world changed, mores softened: it turned out that people should not be kept for animals, and skin color should not determine a person’s social status. With this, of course, there were still problems for a long time - separate toilets for blacks and whites, as well as various drinking fountains, remained in the USA until the 70s of the last century.

In the Soviet Union, with all its endless flaws, throughout its history, dark-skinned students graduated from universities along with everyone else, and then became engineers at the Gorky Automobile Plant (this is written in Robert Robinson's autobiography “Black Among the Reds”).

In Russia, anything at any time could be inferior to the West: life, the level of freedom, access of individuals to public resources, business potential, and even it’s scary to say! - defense capability. But in Russia there has never been an unworthy attitude towards a person with a different skin color. This does not abolish the private manifestations of racism, but it does not make our country traumatized by segregation slavery.

Serfdom in Russia was not based on slaves from distant colonies and in general in the strict sense was not slavery. Serfs had rights: yes, these rights were not always strictly enforced, but they were. A serf could enter into legal marriage, could apply to law enforcement agencies, could sue, could inherit property. The slave was a man, in a social sense, forcibly reduced to an animal. He did not have his own subjectivity - it was replaced by the fact of owning it.

Western society itself obligated itself to be constantly in a state of spasm and guilt for its past. And this spasm cuts society worse than any twig: you can’t pronounce the word with the letter “n”, you need to behave in such a way that, God forbid, you do not offend the black man, you must not go to certain areas, you must not let the dark-skinned hero die in the Hollywood blockbuster scenario the first one.

Of course, I only welcome the fact that we are adopting Western standards for our lives, transplanting all good things onto our soil. But do we really need this elongated political correctness, which prohibits calling a spade a spade and obliges us to constantly look back in search of abusive slavery, which we never had?

In the end, Russia is a free country.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.