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Calling People Racist
Kerby Anderson
In this highly politicized culture, we see that more and more people are called racist when using the label is inappropriate. Dennis Prager has been watching this and even seen the label used against him. His commentary not only tells his story but provides some insight on, Why the Left Calls Good People Racist.
After he spoke at a Turning Point event, the vice provost for diversity at Purdue University claimed that Prager said “slavery was not bad.” Dennis Prager explains that he never said anything remotely like that. After he mentioned it on his radio show, the provost wrote to Prager and suggested they meet, but offered no apology.
Prager provides another example from his radio program where he mentioned some of the offensive words used by President Truman. A listener called to ask why Prager would repeat one offensive word but not use the N-word. He merely replied that the left has rendered the N-word the only unutterable word in the English language. Days later news stories surfaced claiming that Prager said, “it’s idiotic you can’t say the N-word.”
Prager believes there are two major reasons why the left smears with the label racist. First, truth is not a left-wing value. Truth, he explains, is a liberal value, and truth is a conservative value. But truth is not a value of the left. As we have discussed in previous commentaries, he makes a clear distinction between liberalism and the left.
Second, smearing opponents is not only a left-wing value, it is standard operating procedure. “The left does not win through argument. It wins through smear.” Make a well-reasoned argument in the public sphere, and you will be smeared with a label: racist, sexist, bigoted, intolerant, homophobic, Islamophobic, or xenophobic. It’s easier to call someone a racist or a fascist than to make a reasoned argument. That’s why the left does it.
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