'Anti-white' rhetoric subtly encouraging acts of vileness in Columbus and beyond

Ray Marcano is a long-time journalist with writing and editing experience at some of the country’s largest media brands.

Earlier this year, Columbus' Franklinton Farms, a non-profit that helps feed the community, received racist mail, and its Black executive director — the first in the organization’s history — told Fox 28 that the hate was directed at her.

A sitting congressman from Mississippi praised white students who used monkey noises to heckle a Black women attending a protest.

An eighth-grade student in Massachusetts was the victim of a mock online slave auction, and lawyers want a federal government investigation.

These are just a few examples that show we live in a time of acceptable racism, glossed over by a society that accepts denigrating people of color as normal. In these three examples, and others, there’s initial media coverage and outrage, followed by waning interest and then silence, as if nothing ever happened.

We shouldn’t be silent, especially given the data.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a record 81,055 new discrimination charges in fiscal year 2023, with nearly 30% involving race. Additionally, the Department of Education and the Fair Housing Justice Center also report a record number of complaints.

Furthermore, polls, including this one from Gallup, show most Americans, Black and white, agree that racism remains a problem that impacts the way of life for people of color.

So we know that racism is a problem. Yet, the powerful anti-progress crowd use an old playbook — fear —to slow progress.

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Fear comes in many forms. Rich conservative groups have been suing companies they say have programs that illegally favor minorities. Ohio and other states have warned private companies they could face lawsuits if they continue with diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and the threat’s working.

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Across the county, companies like Google, Starbucks, and Goldman Sacks have, in different ways, cut back on efforts to help advance members of disenfranchised groups. Ohio University wimped out and refused to award $46,000 in diversity scholarships.

The right is so emboldened by these developments that Christopher Rufo, one of the leading anti-DEI voices, wrote in March that the abolish DEI campaign has gone from right-wing fringe to mainstream acceptance. “While momentum is on our side, we should press for maximal demands: abolish DEI in all American institutions, terminate the employment of all DEI bureaucrats, and encourage them to find gainful work elsewhere.”

Dog whistle ramping up attack of people of color

The viciousness of the anti-DEI movement is that it plants ideas that cause others to act. It’s the mother of all dog whistles because an acronym that few understand — DEI — has been transformed into a symbol of "anti-white racism."

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That overheated DEI rhetoric starts a cascade of emotions that leads to anger directed at communities of color. So instead of using an online platform to spew bias, people angry at the attack on white people turn to other forms of acceptable racism. For example:

• A Black student in South Dakota found a racist note on his car windshield that, among other things, called him a “cotton picker.”

• A Black tenant in a Brooklyn, NY apartment building found a stuffed monkey with what appeared to be a noose around its neck hanging from a light fixture.

• A bingo hall in Middletown was vandalized with the phrase, “You don’t belong,” with a racial slur and KKK symbol.

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It’s been decades since it was en vogue to use the “n” word when addressing a Black person, or unabashedly use slurs directed to Mexicans or Asians.

Instead, society has looked the other way conservative activism has spurred this new acceptable racism.

Anti-white myth encourages acts of vileness

The right will tell you that they’re simply trying to create a level playing field for everyone.

That’s a lie and they know it. They seek a victory that stops the country’s progress on DEI. That victory would ensure that disenfranchised communities — and this includes poor white people — have little avenue to prosper since there would be few mechanisms to help them advance.

Acceptable racism takes away all the tools to help communities of color succeed under the false guise of equality. Then, the anti-DEI crowd pushes the “anti-white” message to subtly encourage acts of vileness the see as justified because the right tells them their whiteness is under attack.

Given that twisted logic, why wouldn’t their racism be acceptable?

It shouldn’t be.

But it is.

Ray Marcano is a long-time journalist with writing and editing experience at some of the country’s largest media brands.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: The 'anti-white racism' lie encouraging acts of vileness