It is a dull, featureless day, like all days in cyberspace, for the online discussion group ASCII – Armchair Social Critics and Ineffectual Intellectuals. The keyboard cowboys, all operating under aliases, are embroiled in the latest Ukrainian American controversy: the implications of George Floyd’s death on May 25.
“Trump Loyal” starts the thread: Why say “Black Lives Matter”? All lives matter. But the press only focuses on whites killing blacks. In 2018, whites murdered 234 blacks, but blacks murdered 514 whites. Why doesn’t the press report that?
“Bleeding Heart” replies: The issue is killings by police. In that same year, whites were 76.6 percent of the population and blacks were only 13.4 percent. But the number of blacks shot to death by police was 209, over half the number for whites, which was 399. Last year, the numbers were 235 blacks killed and 370 whites. The fact is, George Floyd was killed because of systemic police racism.
“Billy Brat” intervenes: How do you know Officer Chauvin’s motives were racist? Do you know what was going through his mind? You’re assuming that because he was white and Floyd was black, this was a racist crime. If the officer were black and the victim white, would you make the same assumption?
“Bleeding Heart”: You know perfectly well it’s white racism we need to worry about, not black racism. I used to live in a black neighborhood. That gave me a taste of what it’s like to be in a racial minority. But the Afro-Americans were very kind to me, and I never experienced any prejudice or resentment. That’s more than you can say about our attitude towards black people. Besides, history has left its mark – the effects of centuries of slavery, plus another century of racial discrimination, remain.
“Billy Brat”: There’s been enough time to get over it. And Floyd wasn’t exactly squeaky clean. But they’ve made him a martyr. It’s just an excuse for violence, burning and looting.
“Bleeding Heart”: You at least have to admit police conduct and procedures need reform. As for the demonstrations, most of them were peaceful. It’s our constitutional right. These trigger-happy cops are like Yanukovych’s snipers. We’re fixated on Ukraine, but we’re applying a double standard. We talk about the Maidan, but when it comes to Americans protesting against police brutality, we take the side of the authorities.
“Trump Loyal”: Are you trying to compare President Trump with Yanukovych? Or American police officers with Berkut? The Maidan was about democracy. BLM is about socialism. Look how they beat up Bohdan Vechirko – an innocent Ukrainian truck driver who didn’t even know what was going on. Don’t Ukrainian lives matter too?
“Grapho Man” chimes in: There was even a report trying to link Vechirko with the Azov battalion. You can guess what that was all about – connecting a supposed white racist with supposed Nazi nationalists in Ukraine. That has “Russia Today” written all over it – typical FSB disinformation.
“Billy Brat”: BLM was started by Marxist followers of Saul Alinsky and Herbert Marcuse and funded by George Soros. They want to bring down our country and president, destroy white Christian civilization, establish communism and install a globalist New World Order. And the Democrats are the “useful idiots” helping them.
“Grapho Man”: So Donald Trump is going to save Christian civilization? Give me a break. Besides, what is “white Christian civilization”? One of the first states to adopt Christianity was the kingdom of Axum – today’s Ethiopia – back in the 4th century, when our ancestors were still swinging from the trees. At the office where I used to work, it was the white professionals who were the least religious – the real Christians were the black Baptist and Methodist support staff.
“Trump Loyal”: What does all this have to do with Ukraine? We don’t have a race problem. Our people were serfs, but we don’t use that as an excuse for crime and drugs and living on welfare. Our people came here with nothing, worked hard and obeyed the law. And now our businesses and neighborhoods are being looted and burned by people who say the white man owes them something because his ancestors were slave-owners. Well, my ancestors didn’t own slaves. I don’t suffer from white guilt.
“Bleeding Heart”: Once you settle in America, America’s problems become yours. Our people have benefited from white privilege. We went to public schools when many were segregated. We got jobs when Afro-Americans couldn’t. Even now, we invest in businesses that discriminate against minorities. We should admit our complicity in racism. Ukrainians, of all people, should empathize with victims of discrimination.
“Grapho Man”: But it’s not just that “black lives matter.” It’s black life. Listen to black intellectuals like Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, Bob Woodson. They believe their communities need to take responsibility instead of relying on white men’s patronizing programs, which only erode their dignity. The welfare system encourages single motherhood. Some 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock. The fathers are absent, or in jail. Their sons become criminals and drug addicts, and end up in jail too. But do liberals support marriage, family, responsibility? And if black lives matter, why are abortion rates for blacks three times higher than for whites? No, it’s more convenient for white liberals to do a little virtue signaling, blame everything on other people’s racism, and go back to their gated communities. If Ukrainian Americans want to help Afro-Americans, we need to address the broader and deeper socio-economic and cultural problems.
At this point, several of the lurkers ask to be removed from the list. The discussion moves on to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s vendetta against ex-President Petro Poroshenko. And the members of ASCII experience the delicious sensation of earnest moral engagement with a matter over which they have no control, for which they bear no responsibility, and of which they will suffer absolutely no consequences.
* These aliases do not represent actual people.
Andrew Sorokowski can be reached at [email protected].