No, Virginia, Racism Is Not an Inherent Trait of 'The Right'

Chapter 5.4: Will the real racists please stand up

Why this book | Title Page | Table of Contents
Preface | Introduction
PART 1
Chapter 1 (1.1) (1.2) | Chapter 2 (2.1) (2.2) (2.3) | Chapter 3 (3.1) (3.2) (3.3) (3.4) (3.5) (3.6)
PART 2
Chapter 4 (4.1) (4.2) (4.3) (4.4) (4.5) | Chapter 5 (5.1) (5.2) (5.3) (5.4) | Chapter 6
PART 3
Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14
PART 4
Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 |
PART 5
Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Conclusion
Appendix | Works Cited

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5.4
Metrics of calumny

• Racism

  • Problem #1
    Fascism ≠ Racism

  • Problem #2:
    Some movements of the left were also racist.

    • American Progressives (again)

    • But wait, there’s more…

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Racism

The left’s specious legerdemain on “racism” is similar, and goes something like this:

1. The Nazis were racists

2. The Nazis were right-wing

∴ Racism = right wing

A political spectrum based on this “argument” would use degree of racism as its unit of measure. Naturally, implying the implicit existence of such a spectrum, and placing the Nazis and fascists at the far right, serves the left’s purposes.

Problem #1

Fascism ≠ Racism

Here is a little-known and, for this spectrum, highly inconvenient fact of history: Racism is not an inherent characteristic of fascism. Racism was central to Nazism, but it was not a part of Italian or Spanish manifestations of fascism, in either doctrine or practice. Germany’s racist policies were, rather, a separate add-on to the fascist package. 

Jews held prominent party positions in the Italian fascist hierarchy, including in the Grand Council of the Fascist State. Both Mussolini and Franco made efforts to protect Jews at various points during the war.¹ Italy resisted following Germany’s lead on race issues until 1938, passing its race laws only once its status as the junior partner in their alliance became clear.

Even then, Mussolini and the fascists had little interest in the Nazis’ racial obsession, and held off enforcing those laws to any significant degree until 1943, after Germany had set up governmental operations in the north of Italy.

Fig. 5.3: Italian and Spanish fascists were not doctrinally racist

If the unit of measure of the spectrum is degree of racism, then the Spanish and Italian fascists would no longer be over to the far right with the Germans. We know that cannot be, for in other respects these were all part of the same movement, sharing the same provenance and basic principles. While degree of racism may end up being useful as a secondary measure, as a primary measure, it has already failed.

Problem #2

Some movements of the left were also racist. 

American Progressives (again)

Imagine how the left of today would react if any conservative were to assert that certain races were inherently superior; that birth control, sterilization, and other forms of eugenics should be used to reduce populations of “defective classes”; and that a patriot is a man “who thinks not of himself primarily, but of his race.”²

Imagine if a leading conservative had called for "unselfish concern for the future of our race” or had openly yearned for “race purification.”³

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