Category Archives: South-Africa

‘Oprah’s Excellent Elitism’

South-Africa, The Zeitgeist

“Oprah can protest all she wants, but, like Jefferson, her actions bespeak a belief in ‘a natural aristocracy among men,’ which Jefferson considered ‘the most precious gift of nature.’ In an 1813 letter to John Adams, he described this natural aristocracy as distinguished by ‘virtue and talents,’ and disavowed ‘an artificial aristocracy … without either virtue or talents.’ Jefferson would have thus approved of the way Oprah separated the wheat from the chaff for her school, selecting each girl for her grades and grit. The 152 girls were chosen for qualities rare everywhere (and certainly among American school kids).”

The excerpt is from “Oprah’s Excellent Elitism,” my new WND column, which also leads the Commentary Page today.

Some bonus material that didn’t make its way into the column:

Rapper Jay-Z, who recently acquainted himself with conditions in Africa, said he would no longer be referring to the relatively poor neighborhood in which he grew up as the “hood.” “Struck by the sight of children playing near open sewers in an African slum,” he said, “this is the hood.”

In other words, Jay-Z thinks African-Americans have no idea what the “hood” really is.

'Oprah's Excellent Elitism'

South-Africa, The Zeitgeist

“Oprah can protest all she wants, but, like Jefferson, her actions bespeak a belief in ‘a natural aristocracy among men,’ which Jefferson considered ‘the most precious gift of nature.’ In an 1813 letter to John Adams, he described this natural aristocracy as distinguished by ‘virtue and talents,’ and disavowed ‘an artificial aristocracy … without either virtue or talents.’ Jefferson would have thus approved of the way Oprah separated the wheat from the chaff for her school, selecting each girl for her grades and grit. The 152 girls were chosen for qualities rare everywhere (and certainly among American school kids).”

The excerpt is from “Oprah’s Excellent Elitism,” my new WND column, which also leads the Commentary Page today.

Some bonus material that didn’t make its way into the column:

Rapper Jay-Z, who recently acquainted himself with conditions in Africa, said he would no longer be referring to the relatively poor neighborhood in which he grew up as the “hood.” “Struck by the sight of children playing near open sewers in an African slum,” he said, “this is the hood.”

In other words, Jay-Z thinks African-Americans have no idea what the “hood” really is.

Letter of the Week: Murderous Condescension By Prof. Dennis O’Keeffe

Intellectualism, Race, Socialism, South-Africa

I just read your fine and frightening piece on South Africa. The following may not be original, but it needs saying again. No one is more racist and condescending than white socialist intellectuals, strangely called “liberals” in the United States, perhaps because they are so liberal with other people’s money. White conservatives sometimes dislike black people and Asians, though this is a less and less common thing among young conservatives. Such dislike even when it occurs does not work in conjunction with hatred and a desire to hurt people. Socialist intellectuals, of the kind who in Britain control most Broadcasting—and many university departments across a whole range of disciplines—regard black people as virtually subhuman, without souls or conscience or any moral sensibilities. In Britain, Apartheid South Africa was never out of the news. Today the horrors of South Africa never hit the headlines. The point is that the white intelligentsia care only about offences committed by white people. They are seen as the only ones capable of autonomous immorality.

This kind of reasoning explains why Nazism is taken by so many Western thinkers as the surest standard of evil. It is because an unambiguously and self-consciously white race performed the Nazi horrors. The crimes of Communism, in which the numbers murdered were far greater, are dismissed because they were carried out by the semi-Asiatic Russians or by the unambiguously Asiatic and comic Chinese.

Until the world learns to impose the same moral requirements at all people’s doors, regardless of their various racial compositions, we will never get out of this habit of murderous condescension.

—Dennis

Letter of the Week: Murderous Condescension By Prof. Dennis O'Keeffe

Intellectualism, Race, Socialism, South-Africa

I just read your fine and frightening piece on South Africa. The following may not be original, but it needs saying again. No one is more racist and condescending than white socialist intellectuals, strangely called “liberals” in the United States, perhaps because they are so liberal with other people’s money. White conservatives sometimes dislike black people and Asians, though this is a less and less common thing among young conservatives. Such dislike even when it occurs does not work in conjunction with hatred and a desire to hurt people. Socialist intellectuals, of the kind who in Britain control most Broadcasting—and many university departments across a whole range of disciplines—regard black people as virtually subhuman, without souls or conscience or any moral sensibilities. In Britain, Apartheid South Africa was never out of the news. Today the horrors of South Africa never hit the headlines. The point is that the white intelligentsia care only about offences committed by white people. They are seen as the only ones capable of autonomous immorality.

This kind of reasoning explains why Nazism is taken by so many Western thinkers as the surest standard of evil. It is because an unambiguously and self-consciously white race performed the Nazi horrors. The crimes of Communism, in which the numbers murdered were far greater, are dismissed because they were carried out by the semi-Asiatic Russians or by the unambiguously Asiatic and comic Chinese.

Until the world learns to impose the same moral requirements at all people’s doors, regardless of their various racial compositions, we will never get out of this habit of murderous condescension.

—Dennis