A Rebuttal to Commenter “Hot Take’s” Discomfort of Me Calling Out Whiteness

Here’s My Answer to You Using Hitler, Mao Zedong, and the Mongols to Argue Against ‘Demonizing Whiteness’

Here’s my definition and understanding of whiteness. I’m putting it front and centre in this article for clarity.

By “whiteness,” I’m referring to a specific ideology and social construct, rather than a skin color or a person of European descent. This distinction is important because it reframes the statement from a sweeping generalization about people to a critique of a societal structure that upholds racial inequality and systemic racism.

Here’s the comment in response to my piece “Whiteness Likes to Believe It Knows Everything — It Knows Shit.” I like the writer who responded and I may even follow them.

I think the comment is clueless, almost willfully so after 500 years of racism, the slave trade, Jim Crow and so many more atrocities committed against Black people.

Hot Take:

I’m really on edge with the “demonize whiteness as a whole because a bunch of white people were historically assholes” train.

Let us take a trip down memory lane.

Mao Zedong: Chinese communist leader from 1949–1976 committed mass genocide numbering between 49–78 MILLION people.

For reference, Hitler has had around 17 Million murders attributed to his bloodthirsty reign.

Mongolian armies killed 11% of the ENTIRE WORLD in the 13th century.

Do these other assholes make those white assholes any less assholes? No.

But I can tell you exactly when the last time I heard anyone demonize the whole of the Chinese race for shit that happened hundreds of years ago. Roughly: never. I’ve never heard that.

Whiteness is not inherently evil. Human beings can be evil, and their deeds belong to them and not everyone who resembles them.

I’ve argued against white supremacy and I’ve clarified the term whiteness too many times. And many, including me, have written multiple stories about racism on Medium for this commenter to not be clued in.

Maybe they’re at the start of their anti-racism journey, right?

Sure. Let’s give them that. They’re starting to research white supremacy, racism, and so on…

Then why did they feel they had the authority to leave such a comment?

I know the answer. I’ll leave it unsaid because it’s so damn obvious. Let’s address their points.

Chairman Mao

The actions of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party during the mid-20th century are a result of radical ideologies rooted in Marxism-Leninism, not white supremacy.

The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, two significant events leading to mass deaths and societal upheaval, were driven by Mao’s desire to reshape China into a communist society.

These events were characterized by a mixture of ideological fervor, authoritarian control, political purges, and economic mismanagement.

While there were racist aspects to the persecution of certain ethnic minorities in China, they were not rooted in the same constructs as white supremacy, as seen in Western contexts.

Adolph Hitler

Hitler’s actions were driven by a form of white supremacy: the belief in Aryan racial superiority. He and his Nazi party were responsible for the Holocaust, during which six million Jews, along with millions of other marginalized and minority groups, were systematically murdered. Hitler believed in the racial purity of the Aryan race and sought to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe.

Mongolian armies in the 13th century

The Mongol Empire, led by Genghis Khan and his successors, expanded through aggressive military campaigns. The widespread death and destruction associated with these campaigns were a result of their conquest strategy rather than a specific ideology akin to white supremacy.

Their motivation was more about power, control, and the expansion of their empire, rather than the belief in racial superiority. The Mongols incorporated diverse peoples into their empire and were known for their relatively pluralistic, meritocratic, and decentralized rule.

One commenter’s rebuttal of Hot Take

Hot take: I’m on the edge with mainstream society that has set out to make life as difficult for others as possible. The problem is that most people’s assholery was contained or fizzled out. It didn’t spread over the entire surface of the earth decimating whole populations across continents, dehumanising the remnant, and draining the resources of nations and mocking them for their resulting chaotic states. It didn’t create distorted images of people and persist in doing so in print and in film.

I’m African, we start out really liking everyone. Including white people, wanting to believe the past is just that — the past.

And then we see all the things you have to say, the way those of you who visit disdain the kindness you are shown. We understand not all of you are like that. But far too many are.

On the list of authoritarian monsters that Hot Take points out, only one operates according to the dictates of white supremacy.

Hitler

Hitler’s actions were principally driven by an ideology steeped in racial supremacy, specifically, the belief in the superiority of the so-called “Aryan” race. This belief was heavily influenced by pseudoscientific theories of race that were prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not only in Germany, but across the Western world.

One of the significant sources of Hitler’s racial theories was the work of the French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau, who wrote “An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races.” Gobineau proposed a hierarchy of races with the “Aryan” (white) race at the pinnacle.

Hitler took Gobineau’s ideas further, merging them with anti-Semitic ideologies, social Darwinism, and eugenics — a field of study that aimed at improving the genetic quality of the human population through selective breeding.

Influence of Slavery

Adolf Hitler admired the way the United States subjugated African Americans and used them as a labour force.

The system of American chattel slavery showed a template for racial subjugation. The racially-based legal segregation in the Jim Crow South was another example for Hitler.

He saw how racial laws could be used to discriminate against a specific group of people, and these discriminatory laws were an inspiration when the Nazis created the Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jews of their rights in Germany.

Influence of Native American Reservations

Hitler also looked to the United States’ treatment of its indigenous peoples as a model for expansion and racial subjugation. In his book “Mein Kampf”, Hitler praised the United States as the one state that had made progress toward a primarily racial conception of citizenship, by “excluding certain races from naturalization.”

He was fascinated by the forced displacement and extermination of Native Americans. This process provided a precedent for Hitler’s plans for lebensraum (“living space”) for Germans in Eastern Europe.

The Holocaust, in which six million Jews, along with millions of other people belonging to various marginalized and minority groups, were systematically exterminated, was the outcome of Hitler’s belief in racial superiority.

These sick and deadly ideas haven’t gone anywhere. And as proof westerners really refuse to learn.

After the war, many Nazis escaped prosecution by fleeing to various parts of the world, including South America, the Middle East, and North America.

In the United States and Canada, some were covertly employed for their scientific, military, or intelligence expertise in a geopolitical context dominated by the Cold War.

Operation Paperclip (aka Project Paperclip 1945–1959)

Over 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were recruited to the U.S. from post-Nazi Germany for U.S. government employment.

Among these individuals was Wernher von Braun, who played a key role in developing the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. In the U.S., he became one of the central figures in the development of the Saturn V rocket, which eventually took humans to the moon in the Apollo missions.

While these individuals contributed significantly to American technological advancements during the Cold War, their employment raises ethical questions given their Nazi past.

Nazi collaborators in Canada

Canada’s record is less well-known, but it is documented that we took in Baltic Nazi collaborators post-WWII, falsely believing them to be anti-communist freedom fighters.

When we scrutinize the decision of the United States and Canada to harbor former Nazis, white supremacy undeniably surfaces as a fundamental factor.

Intellectual Superiority

Western nations, steeped in white supremacist ideologies, believed in the superior intellectual and scientific prowess of the white race. Despite the Nazis’ horrific past, they were deemed valuable for their ‘advanced white intelligence’.

White Interests Above All

The core of white supremacy places white interests above others. The West prioritized its gains from these Nazi recruits — technological advancement, Cold War advantage — over the fundamental injustice of giving safe haven to those victimized by the Holocaust.

Neglecting Non-White Suffering

White supremacy blinds societies to the pain inflicted on non-white populations. As primarily white nations, the U.S. and Canada failed to empathize and have compassion for, or, to recognize the magnitude of the Holocaust, primarily inflicted on non-white and marginalized groups.

Double Standard in Morality

White supremacy fosters a double standard that pardons the crimes of white individuals while harshly judging those of non-whites. It’s this idea that allowed the US and Canada to segregate the Nazis’ scientific talents from their involvement in heinous crimes.

Nazi Hunters

On one hand, hunting Nazis and holding them accountable for their war crimes was, undeniably, an action aligned with justice. It demonstrated a public commitment to holding perpetrators accountable, and it may have served to soothe any guilt or moral obligations felt by the international community after the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed.

On the other hand, secretly providing safe haven to Nazis under the aegis of operations like Paperclip reveals a disturbing moral compromise.

The U.S. and Canada effectively put their strategic interests — gaining a technological and scientific edge in the Cold War — above the ethical imperative of justice for the victims of the Holocaust.

Publicly supporting Nazi hunters while covertly sheltering Nazis also speaks to a manipulative double game: outwardly projecting an image of justice and accountability, while behind the scenes, allowing gross injustices for the sake of national advantage.

If hate continues to fester unchecked, the potential outcome for Black individuals, and indeed for all marginalized communities, is devastating.

Future Outcome

History offers us evidence of this grim reality — unchecked hate, fueled by ideologies of racial superiority, led to genocides, slavery, and the countless lynchings during the Jim Crow era.

The dehumanization that occurs under white supremacy allows such injustices to take place without repercussions, the tormentors acting with impunity under the protection of their societal status.

Therefore, if the current wave of hate continues unabated, we risk regressing to some of the darkest chapters of human history.

A future defined by fear, violence, and the denial of basic human dignity is not impossible.

The urgency to counteract this hate is not just about preventing potential harm — it’s about preserving the very essence of what it means to be human.

A creature of empathy, understanding, and social bonds. It’s about being a part of a community and culture, being shaped by experiences and interactions, and having the capacity to shape the world around us in turn.

And what it means to be a society — a collective of individuals, diverse yet united, working together for the common good.

So, Hot Take, anything that tears us away from working together, from being united is unnatural to humanity and is deserving of our scorn.

Whiteness is a destructive force ripping at the fabric of our humanity.

Whiteness, is an ideology, like the Matrix — a systemic illusion that blinds us, controlling our actions and shaping our perceptions. Unless we wake up and consciously unplug, we remain pawns in a game of systemic oppression and racial inequality.

And for anyone to say “they don’t get it” is much like Cypher’s choice in The Matrix — choosing the blue pill’s illusion over the red pill’s awakening.