How liberals say segregation

Via American Digest I found, "And Justice For All," by Richard Fernandez, an essay on what political correctness has wrought.

So though it is theoretically irrelevant, it is probably unfortunate that J. Christian Adams, the Justice Department lawyer who resigned over the mishandling of the New Black Panther case, is white. In our politically correct world, it would have been far better had he been black, because just as those who are seeking justice for [murdered gay man] Robert Wone are themselves gay, the case against voter intimidation would have been immeasurably strengthened if the complainants had been persons of color.

Political correctness has changed the terms of discourse without changing the underlying concepts or attitudes. PC speech simply rephrases bigotry and racism into expression that is presently acceptable to cultural watchdogs.

PC's handmaiden is, of course, "multi-culturalism." And as I commented at Digest, "multi-cultural" is how liberals say "segregation." Here's an example. At the annual conference of the Tennessee Conference of the UMC (think: the annual convention of the diocese), one of the worship services was announced, advertised and presented as a "multi-cultural" worship service. And so it was, with elements of American Indian culture, African and Hispanic too. I will point out that these elements were offered by actual American Indians, actual Africans and Hispanic people - this was not imitation or simulation. It all worked well and it was all truly uplifting, worshipful and inspiring.

This was intended to be inclusive and celebratory but what it also did, unintended, was make sure that these forms or worship were kept in their box, that they remained "other," that everyone in attendance knew they were not mainstream, but different.

And once the multi-culti service was done, we never saw those styles again. It all went right back to 18th-century English worship and the comfort level was re-established. In other words, segregation was rerooted after the multi-culti bone had been thrown. And incredibly, I have to assume that the small number of minority people attending the conference were happy about it and did not understand that they had been sent, socially, to the back of the bus.

Why have a service announced as "multi-cultural?" As Nike say, "Just do it," but don't do it only once. Integrate (a word I use deliberately) the other cultures' worship throughout the whole conference, not just once. In other words, mainstream them and make them unremarkable and normative.

But I have a suspicion that it will not happen, nor will the minority members want it to happen. It would deprive their styles of the spotlight, even though the spotlight is a boundary. Tokenism, I suppose, can be not simply accepted but embraced if one remembers Mae West's dictum, "It's better to be looked over than overlooked." Segregation and getting shuffled to the back of the bus have not gone away, they've simply been re-termed. Now they are called "multi-cultural" and "celebration of cultures."

I say back of the bus deliberately. In Nashville there is an road called Rosa Parks Avenue, named after, of course, Rosa Parks, who, "On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger." Blacks were demanded then to take only the rearmost seats of the bus, and this Rosa Parks refused to do. Her stand (well, sit) was an ignition moment of the whole civil rights movement in the United States.

Note well: Rosa sat down in the "white" section of the bus and refused to move to the back. So where, do you think, did the Nashville city council find a street to name in her honor? Of course: they found a street that ran right down the middle of the African-American part of town. They should have named a street after Rosa that went through the middle of the palest part of the city, say, Belle Meade, where Al Gore's infamous house is. But nope, back to the back of the bus Rosa went, and as far as I know, not a single black leader in Nashville saw what the white Nashville establishment was doing and objected.

This is what the Left calls progressivism - the structures of racism are retermed, reinforced and reinvigorated, and racial minorities not merely agree but cooperate.

To quote Gerard Vanderleun, "I try to get more cynical every day, but lately I just can't keep up."

Update: J. Christian Adams explains what happened at DOJ.