Podhoretz against Western Civilization

Have any non-whites ever made a significant contribution to Western Civilization?

You would think that would be an easy question to answer, but the Jewish neocon race-baiter John Podhoretz writes in a NY Post op-ed:

Far-right naked racists, of whom the most prominent in the US is probably Steve King, the nine-term congressman from Iowa.

King gave an interview to The New York Times this week in which he equated “white supremacy” with “Western civilization” and asked this: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? ... Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

King’s history of horrifying comments on race dates back two ­decades. ...

King’s words this week drawing a parallel between “white supremacy” and “Western Civilization” are especially pernicious.

For one thing, Western civilization isn’t “white,” if by “white” one is referring to skin color. Much of what we consider the roots of Western civilization comes from Asia Minor and North Africa.

For examples of great non-whites, he cites Jews, Jesus, St. Augustine, Alexander Pushkin, and Alexander Hamilton!

The only non-white thing about Hamilton is that there was a popular Broadway play that portrayed him as black. Podhoretz is seriously confusing fiction with reality.

Jesus and St. Augustine could have had white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, for all anybody knows. Pushkin was at least 7/8 white. Hamilton had a light peaches and cream complexion with violet-blue eyes and auburn-red hair.

The greatness of our civilization can’t be found in its elevation of “whiteness” above all, because it does no such thing. That idea is the core of Nazism, not Americanism. “White supremacy” treats being “white” as a tribal identity. But Western civilization’s greatness lies not only in the beauty of its art and the wisdom of its thought but in the universality of its message.

Now we get to his real issue. Like most Jews, he is a Jewish supremacist. He believes that Jews should control the money and information channels. He is a big promoter of Jewish pride in their tribal identity, but he hates the idea of whites having any tribal identity.

The Jewish religion has no universal message. It says Jews are the Chosen People, and that Jews should do whatever is good for Jews.

As soon as any white non-Jew shows any ethnic identity or pride in Western civilization, Jews like Podhoretz are quick to start name-calling with "Nazism". Really? I thought that Nazis did bad stuff, but according to him, they were just white people recognizing the greatness of our civilization.

I will be watching to see if any Jewish publications denounce this sort of anti-white racial hatred, but I doubt it.

There seem to be some very deep-seated jealousies here. Jews do best in white supremacist countries. Jews are scattered around the world, but where do they prefer to live? White countries. And they they complain about White people all the time.

I quoted someone saying "Jews do not understand the first thing about America." It seems like a silly statement, and Podhoretz appears to be an educated man. He has a funny idea about Americanism. He writes a whole column praising non-whites, but he cannot seem to name any exemplary ones.

The libertarian Reason mag attacks King by quoting:

Take it away, Jean de Crevecouer in Letters from an American Farmer (1782):

What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.

He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.

I've noted elsewhere that Crevecoeur has his limits (among other things, he speaks only of men and he owned slaves for a time). But he accurately captures a process by which America is a country that has long aspired to be a place where people could be judged, in Martin Luther King's phrase, by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

No, the slave-owner was probably not ignoring skin color.

Crevecoeur was describing a new American race resulting from mixing English, French, and Dutch. In other words, all White people from Northwestern Europe. He is saying that there is an American race, not that Americans ignore race.