In Defense of Old White Men

This may be my most controversial piece yet, but I think it deserves sharing and so here I go…

Recently, Democrats have attempted to paint old white men as the problem in America. Not just the “old white men” of today, but the “old white men” of our history. They point to these “old white men” tolerating slavery as if they were unique in that respect.

These white men who helped make America the wealthiest nation on earth with civil liberties unmatched anywhere on the face of the planet were the same white men who died freeing slaves in America and freeing Europe from Nazism and Asia from Japanese Imperialism. Were they alone, no. They had plenty of help from women and men of color. But make no mistake about it, our country is a better country because of the values these “old white men” of history brought to this new nation.

Okay before you start labeling me a racist, let me be perfectly clear, none of the good that “old white men” have brought to our country had anything to do with their skin color. I certainly would not have married the love of my life (a Chinese woman) or encouraged my children to look beyond their race for their soulmates if I thought skin color implied any sort of superiority. As a result, five of my six grandchildren are African American or African Hispanic American.

The “race” of these “old white men” is simply a by product of the part of the world in which their culture and values developed. Suggesting that “skin color” played a role would be similar to suggesting skin color played a role in the emergence of sushi in Japan, I suspect the development of sushi was a product of the proximity to fish not skin color.

In other words, the “old white men” were white because of an advantageous skin color mutation based on the climate in Europe and so overtime through natural selection it became the predominant skin color of Europeans as a whole. It is also the reason, I think over time skin color in the US will begin to blend as “white” does not impart the same genetic advantage it once did and so it will fade in time. I have read that within 30 years more than half the children born in this country will be mixed race and I think that is a good thing even if my family has already surpassed those numbers. But I do not want to lose the “culture and values” these “old white men” brought to this country.

The fact that European culture had nothing to do with skin color or gender is important because it means that the same success realized by these “old white men” is equally available to people of all races and genders who follow a similar cultural/economic model. America’s success is a product of a culture and values brought by “old white men”, not because they were white.

At the macro level, the culture of these “old white” men had been heavily influenced by the secularization of their religion in Europe as a result of the reformation and Age of Reason and the competition that close proximity between competing nations can have on innovation.

As a Christian I see my values as the product of Middle Eastern religion and European capitalism and not based on race at all. I have no idea if any of my values go back to may pagan German ancestors, nor do I really care what the values of these “white men” were.

Think about it… our civil rights are believed to be derived from unalienable rights given to us by our Creator, not our government. It is why we do not believe government has a right to take them away. Our economy even today is built on innovation and competition between nations and between companies.

The great thing is just like my values are not based on pagan Germanic values, all Americans can “inherit” the unique set of values that make us Americans (regardless of race). They are not the reserve of a long line of “old white men” passed on from white father to white son. Similarly, they should not be dismissed because they were brought to our country by “old white men”.

My family did not arrive in this country until the early 20th century, but I claim as my heritage the culture and values of the Founding Fathers, Pilgrims, Native Americans, and all other groups that have influenced the American culture and economic system today even if they date from before my family arrived and even if I do not agree with all of their values and beliefs.

That our freedoms are not natural is evident in North Korea, China, and Congo, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia to name a few nations. Those countries do not have the same historical culture that we do and so it has led them to a different place.

Many young people of color seek to reject the culture of “old white mean” and replace it with a new culture like socialism or progressive identity politics instead of capitalism and classical liberalism, because they have been told the cultural values of “old white” men are “racist”. That is a pure lie. If our culture is “racist”, then what does a Hispanic, Asian, African, etc. look like?

I don’t dispute that there are racists in this country, but our culture of classical liberalism and capitalism are not racist even if it was brought here by “old white men”. The American culture based on God given rights and capitalism is the product of a society which had to have “rules and laws” to function and an economy to compete. Those rules and laws have functioned on a whole better than those in place in other parts of the world. And so I encourage my “Asian American children and African American grandchildren to embrace their American heritage as their own and not one that somehow is tied to skin color and “old white men”.

Our values and culture belongs to all US citizens regardless of when your family came to this country or where it came from. So rejecting someone or name calling them “old white men” suggests a form of racism that is just as inappropriate as any other form of racism.