I’ve posted a few commentaries previously about a financial and insurance company called USAA. It is a Fortune 500 enterprise that was founded 100 years ago to serve the insurance needs of military officers. In it’s day, USAA was perhaps the most respectable company of its kind: it was that prized auto mechanic, competent, always honest, and you never have to wonder if he’s trying to get over on you. Sadly, like so many corporate entities run by white and wealthy aristocrats, the CEO of USAA declared himself to have found “social justice” salvation, and became yet another tiresome former “sinner” who, were he a religious zealot, would have said he saw the light of Allah or Jesus or whatever and came to view non-coreligionists as soiled people, worthy of scorn and contempt: “I am so much more righteous than everyone else!”
Traditionally USAA was the financial and insurance ally of military service members and veterans, but as it moved to the extreme left they came to use abuse and exploit the prestige inherent to its member base to further their country club activism. Hence, when the integrity compromised CEO put out a Memorial Day message, I responded on the USAA member forum, then responded to a reply, as follows:
Empty Words From USAA
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an amalgam of black racialist elites and the wealthy and largely white establishment aristocracy. BLM is a vocally and unapologetically anti-American organization. Its demands have been associated with the violent deaths of 1,000s of black people- this is not hyperbole but statistically evident- and the founders and leadership of BLM been repeatedly caught using donations to fund personal luxuries in crass forms of corruption. USAA unequivocally supports BLM and, as a representative of the USAA CEO (Wayne Peacock) told me in August 2020, USAA will never back away from that support.
Statistically, the majority of these increases were among black people
The office of a Wisconsin pro-life organization firebombedand vandalized
We respond to bad things, especially the suffering of others, in different ways, ways often meant to shield us from uncomfortable realities about ourselves. Ignorance, either woeful or willful, is effective, and denial and avoidance also work pretty well. There are those who thrive on the suffering of others, and indeed create it. Sometimes these people are referred to as evil. I guess there are degrees of evil, where at the extreme evil people view not just their victims as a hated enemy, but also those who stand up for those they prey upon.
One of the most profound and widely read books of the 19th century was an antebellum novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The author was abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the legend is that when she met Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War, Lincoln said, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." I contend that people who consider themselves well educated and informed should read this book (though I was over 60 when I finally did, so I’m not sure how that reflects on me). The story is, of course, about slavery, but it’s not some monolithic sermon against slavery, but rather includes all the pitfalls of human nature mentioned above when people confront, or more correctly ignore, evil. The ultimate antagonist is the brutal slave owner Simon Legree, at whose hands Tom is ultimately beaten to death because he was protecting slaves who had run away from the plantation.
Slavery, regardless of where it existed is one of too many examples in history where life was devalued so as to allow malevolence to be tolerated, and where those who refused to accept the inhumanity of it were marginalized and essentially became the enemy of the institutional powers: slavery is evil in its own right, but to justify hatred of those opposed to it took evil to higher level.
Imagine yourself living perhaps 400 years ago in a culture controlled by a Puritanical church, where the established powers had a very personal interest in determining the rules, language, behavior, and even thoughts of the citizens. You were that rare person who observed not only contradictions in the church doctrine and hypocrisy in the actions of the leadership, but actually expressed your concerns. You put yourself in a precarious position, subjecting yourself to accusations of blasphemy, heresy, and witchcraft, often leading to social ruin, banishment, and even death. Certainly you were the exception, as most people would conform to the demands of the powerful to avoid being called such things: look straight ahead, mindlessly repeat the catechism, and hope to be left alone.
The Employee Who Thought Management Was Out To Get Him
Centuries later…For many years I was a NY State civil service employee, and for much of that era had the good fortune to be pretty much left alone to do my job, one I felt was truly meaningful. During that time I worked with and came to know a fellow employee who seemed like a decent guy, competent in his job, reliable, caring, mature. Nevertheless, there was always suggestion of taint about him, as if he had done something really bad in the past; the implication that if you want to get ahead, get those promotions, don’t get too friendly with him.
by Reid Fitzsimons (note: below are images of 12 very wealthy and powerful people who embrace "racial justice" and "diversity, equity, inclusion," yet all have a distinctive demographic quality).
The summer of 2020 was an intoxicating time for the elite and affluent: politicians, academics, celebrities, and corporate CEO’s. George Floyd had recently been killed and urban areas were filled with rioting and violence, and privileged liberals, those who lived in a world of materialism and money, could find meaning, and even adulation, in their otherwise superficial and vacuous lives. They could make grandiloquent pronouncements that they- especially those who never ventured outside their white privilege- were not just opposed to racism, but outraged by it, contrasting themselves with the ignorant masses who, whether realized or not, were all bigots and racists. Yes, the gilded members of the elite class would hop on that bandwagon, declaring Black Lives Matter! and, like the titled aristocrats and feudal lords of centuries ago, believed they could obtain salvation by words and gestures: even better than the of corrupt class of centuries ago, they didn’t actually have to pay for indulgences to pave their way to heaven. The acolytes of this new enlightenment- that America and tens of millions of its citizens were vile and disgusting racists- merely had to repeat trite and predictable slogans, and their white privilege could remain intact at no cost to them.
Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner
Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon
Bob Chapek, Disney CEO
Going on two years later, what exactly did they get for their sophomoric and pandering rhetoric and support of BLM? First, BLM vilified the police and demanded they be “defunded.” So how did that work out? From 2019 to 2020 we witnessed the largest single increase in the murder rate in all the years it’s been recorded, about 30%, and it apparently didn’t level off in 2021. As always, a hugely disproportionate number of victims were black people and, contrary to the coveted narrative that police enjoy hunting down and killing black people, or that some nefarious “white supremacists” were responsible, the overwhelming majority of the killers were black, and they put an awful lot- 100’s- of truly innocent and beautiful black children caught in the cross-fire in the grave. A price the insulated virtue signalers were more than willing to pay for feeling warm and fuzzy and meaningful.
By Reid Fitzsimons (see the image gallery at the end of this article)
Many forces in our culture, which could properly be described as elite and privileged, have begun invoking a mantra- essentially an incantation with trappings of religiosity- consisting primarily of three words: diversity, equity, inclusion. These words especially emanate from the mouths and pens of the "woke" in academia, partisan political circles, corporate-financial-globalist interests, the celebrity world, university students, government bureaucracies at all levels and, increasingly, the military hierarchy. They are vacuous words, of course, used by people who shouldn’t have vacuous minds, but nevertheless tend to frame their thoughts with slogans and chants. I suspect if one of them were asked, for example, “What do you mean by ‘diversity?” the answer might be, ”People who don’t look like me. Diversity is our strength!” Does “equity” imply equality of opportunity or mandated outcomes, regardless of effort? Do those who demand “inclusion” embrace people who have contrary beliefs and opinions, or those they otherwise deplore?
This mantra has been incubating and evolving for many years, but its prominence greatly accelerated with the killing of George Floyd in May of 2020, and the many opportunities his death afforded, such as the power and money amassed by the elite black racialists of “Black Lives Matter.” If a mantra can be considered to be underlying principles, so to speak, then associated slogans are often calls to action, for example, “No Justice! No Peace!” or “defund” the police!” While mantras and slogans can be emotionally satisfying, they really shouldn’t form a foundation for law and social policy, and certainly not by those who are given authority over such things, yet sadly, and often with horrific consequences, they do. With this in mind, let’s consider a sobering historical fact and how it is applicable to today.
Note: USAA (United Services Automobile Association) is a membership based insurance company begun in the 1920s by a group of Army officers. Over the decades they grew considerably and branched out into financial services. Some type of military association is required to be a member and they developed a deserved reputation for integrity and service. Sadly, their reputation has been slowly declining over the past few years to the point they traded quality and service for volume and greed; USAA is now indistinguishable from any quasi-legitimate financial or insurance conglomerate, and indeed fares poorly among the lower end of that spectrum. In June of 2020 the new CEO, the first one to have never served in the military, decided he wanted to offer up USAA to the gods of wokeness, so to speak. I posted an article at the time (https://conservativeproletariat.com/?p=603), and below is a follow-up that I posted on their in-house member’s community forum.
George Floyd was killed during an encounter with police in Minneapolis in May 2020. Floyd was a lifelong criminal, mostly petty and drug offenses but with a little bit of violence. Nevertheless, the events of that fateful day did not involve a running gun battle or anything of that sort, rather he was being arrested for another suspected petty offense, and was fully contained when a rather brutish police officer decided kneeling on his neck seemed like a good idea; this was the major contributing cause to his death. Pretty much anyone seeing the video could not feel disturbed, and for a brief moment we, as a nation, could have unified around this sad event, searched our consciences, and used what transpired for constructive change. This did not happen.
There were elements among the privileged that viewed the death of Floyd not as doleful and tragic, but as an opportunity, a chance for enhanced wealth and power. The main player was a group called “Black Lives Matter,” but many self-serving politicians and racialist activists/celebrities saw an opening for further profit and fame. In fact, there quickly developed a “social justice” bandwagon, and some of the wealthiest and most elite in the corporate world decided to hop on. This included Wayne Peacock, the CEO of USAA, and the ovine and avaricious Board of Directors. A month or so after Floyd’s death Peacock issued a manifesto of sorts, with an almost a religious tone, in which the sins of America were great, but he was among the handful of enlightened ones who could lead the USAA membership into the shiny new world of wokeness. His thoughts and observations were sophomoric at best, as if he cut and pasted clichés from a term paper of a privileged student at a private academy writing about personal angst associated with “white privilege.”
Note: The following is a letter sent by a friend (and supporter of this website), Carole Milljour, to the rather duplicitous and moral reprobate Chuck Schumer, Senator from NY. She had originally signed on to a group letter opposing the use of Federal government money to pay for abortions (i.e. repeal the long-standing Hyde amendment), and in this letter she is responding to his reply, which, of course, is both despicable and predictable (his response is below Carole’s letter).
There are many parallels between slavery and abortion, the most obvious being there are those who create a culture which allows for sub-humans, and this entitles them to use their Untermensch as chattel: if it’s not human you can treat it like an inanimate machine, and if it proves to be troublesome, simply sell it or kill it. Curiously, there were many slave owners and supporters of slavery who did in fact have moral qualms about the horror they propagated, but were essentially addicts to the convenience and power that apparently comes with owning people. This raises the great moral question- which is more depraved, to know it is evil ad do it anyway, or to be so reprehensibly inhumane as to not even recognize evil. Chuck Schumer is somewhat atypical because he fits in both of these categories.
Dear Honorable Charles Schumer:
It may be a woman's body, but it is not her life she is sacrificing, but a child of God. Our government should not be funding abortion services or services in which body parts of an unborn baby are sold for profit. As a taxpayer, and voting resident of NY, I do not like the attitude of anyone who thinks they have any power at all to vote for taking a human life, especially when that individual is in office to work for the citizens of this state. It may be your opinion, but not the opinion of everyone you were chosen to represent.
I am shocked and angry that you can have such little concern for an unborn child with the feeble excuse that it is okay to terminate it under the guise of “it's a woman's right since it is her body.” No one should have that right. That unborn child suffers when it is torn apart in the womb. Abortion is a moneymaker and people who are for it don't care one way or the other for the child or the mother. It's a disgrace. A woman has the right to use the various types of birth control, because that is her body; but the body she plans to remove from her womb is not hers: that child is a separate entity unto it's own. I was my mother's child, not my mother! It may have been her body, but I was her child!
T-shirt available at E-Bay for $19.95 by Reid Fitzsimons
The word “racism” is used in our current culture with impressive frequency, and often with frightening consequences. From a societal standpoint, it is tantamount to being called a “witch” during a time when Western governments were largely theocracies, and such accusations could lead to severe punishments with no real opportunity for defense against the undefined charge. Similar to those dark times, when those in control were not concerned with the betterment of the people under their rule, but interested only in maintaining their elite status, vague accusations were (and are) an effective means to obtain and wield power, a way to intimidate opposition into silence and compliance. At the present time, despite the ubiquitous (and even cultish) nature of the charges of “racism,” it is largely used generically, and often by very immature people, much more like a 4-year-old calling someone a “doo doo head” while having a tantrum than a reasoned adult. The premise of this article is to actually consider what “racism” means, if indeed it was exclaimed with any thought at all. For Part 1 of this article, click here: https://conservativeproletariat.com/?p=631
“They are all like that” racism: At one time I was well acquainted with a person, a former physician, who was living as a ex-patriot in Honduras (My wife and I have spent a number of years there running a small charity project). Often over the duration of our association, he would declare, “ALL Hondurans are VILE!” Not some, not many, not most, not just a handful, but ALL! There was, obviously, no basis for this other than his deranged feelings. In a way his worldview was fascinating, as if generic and immutable attributes could be applied to large numbers of people linked by whatever- race, nationality, ethnicity, religious traditions- with no allowance for individual variation.
In the US at the moment there are declarations made by racialists that ALL white people are racists- it is genetic, generic, and immutable. Like the concept of Original Sin in Christian theology, there is a stain among (white) people simply for being born, but unlike Christianity it applies only to one class of human, there is no option of redemption or forgiveness, and the intent is to see an entire race of people grovel in perpetuity. The irony here- that this in fact is racism in its most primitive form- should be obvious, and it probably is, but for some it is used as a means to power. Another irony is that the person mentioned above took great pride in the belief that he alone was the only white person who wasn’t a racist.
Accusing others of Racism in our present political and social climate is an efficient means for a person to find validation and meaning in their lives, at least for the kind of person that needs a bad “Them” so they can be part of the good “Us.” This is not unlike ill-balanced religious zealots who need others to serve as sinners so they can view themselves, in contrast, as Saints. Of course, as with so many things of this nature, word meanings are vague and often remain poorly defined.
In reality, racism is a concept that resists simplistic definitions, but rather it is better explained by category and example, which this article endeavors to do. First, an introductory warning: to anyone reading this who is emotionally and culturally fragile- prepare your fainting couch, because in a few instances the “N-word” is going to be spelled out fully.
Those who are inclined to hurl out the insult of “Racist” typical do so mindlessly, and they largely mean nothing more than anyone who disagrees with them, but if they were able to attach to it some significance, these are some possibilities:
True vile and hate-filled racism: In prior times, up into the 1960’s perhaps, truly vile racism was often public and even proud, but, where it exists today, it’s more of an hidden internet phenomenon among a handful of losers: the mostly mythical “white supremacists.” It is, fortunately, the least common form of racism, despite what social justice activists yearn to believe.
In my 62 years I have encountered this type racism twice. The first was in the late 1970s in Mississippi, where a complete jerk from a privileged family, who somehow became a lawyer, talked to me about “blacktopping the road-” intentionally running over black people. He also talked about the joys of “coon hunting” at night. As far as I know he was (fortunately) a despicable coward and never lived his fantasies.
The second encounter I had was in South Alabama soon after my wife and I moved there in 2008. I went to introduce myself to our new and elderly neighbor, and was asking him about lawn mowers when he spontaneously declared, “I don’t care much for niggers.” He went on to talk about the good old days when “niggers knew their place” and one time they got uppity and had to be driven from (presumably by the local KKK) a town in the area. We came to learn he had been a lifelong angry drunk who, ironically, had a hypoxic brain event soon after, and ended up being cared for by black caregivers.
Biased racism: this is a form of racism that has existed in my lifetime and was somewhat common- an inculcated a belief among certain whites that blacks were, simply, inferior. A perfect example of this type was as follows: I knew a person who owned (in the government backed loan sense of the word) a large amount of farmland in Mississippi, and he had a habit of hiring people as his farm managers right out of central casting for thieving rednecks.
Once, just after the latest manager absconded with pockets full of loot, I asked him if he might consider hiring Archie as the manager. Archie was a black man who had long been a dependable employee and knew farming front and back. He, the land owner, replied succinctly that Archie could not be considered because, “He’s a nigger.” He did not say this with any animosity and indeed he treated Archie and all his black farmhands well. It was simply a belief that a black person couldn’t function as a manager. In his defense, sometime later a woman with an agricultural related college degree applied to be the farm manager. I asked him why he didn’t hire her and his response was a predictable, “Because she’s a woman.”
Observational and descriptive racism: When I lived in East Africa many years ago it was common for kids to run about excitedly as I passed by shouting “Mzungu,” which essentially means “White Person” in Swahili. They were certainly not racist, simply observing that they saw a relatively rare white guy. Unfortunately, invoking a description of race, for example saying in a rural mostly white small town, “I saw a black guy crossing the street,” might be construed by easily offended “social justice” activists as racist.
Progressive politicians, feeling anointed and obligated to somehow shield black Americans from reality, have decreed that using race in describing a suspected criminal, for example, is prohibited. Hence, in some cities it is disallowed to say, “The suspect is a young black male of average size.”
Unfamiliar racism: There was an old widow neighbor (recently deceased) who my wife and I helped quite a bit- we live in a mostly white rural area and she simply hadn’t been around black people much. I was telling her that we were going to bring over from Kenya a black man to attend college in the US, that he was going to spend some time with us, and that she would enjoy meeting him. She said, “I don’t know, I’ve never had a black person in my house before,” a statement that could easily elicit a charge of racism from sensitive activist. Once he arrived she was very welcoming, was quickly and thoroughly charmed by him, and even gave him a hug when he left for school. This man is from a very dark-skinned tribe, and she observed, “He’s the darkest black person I ever saw!”
Note: USAA (United Services Automobile Association) is a membership based insurance company begun in the 1920s by a group of Army officers. Over the decades they grew considerably and branched out into financial services. Some type of military association is required to be a member and they have developed a deserved reputation for integrity and service. I’ve been a member for 37 years, and I (along with my wife) use them for our car and house insurance and many of our banking needs. One great plus of USAA is that it has been operated by serious and competent adults who never gave in to societal and political fads and pressures, until now. Below is a letter to Wayne Peacock, the newly installed CEO of USAA and the first who has never served in the military, in response to a position statement he released fully aligning USAA with the woke social justice activism (that statement can be found at the bottom of the page).
Greetings Mr. Peacock:
I had thought to myself with satisfaction that USAA was one of the exceptional companies that had the strength of character and sobriety to not succumb to the coercion and disingenuousness of the popular culture of the moment. That is, until I found your letter of supplicating mea culpa apologetics when I signed on to my USAA account.
I cannot recall in my lifetime a situation in which there has been unanimous agreement on a value- in this case revulsion at the brutal murder of George Floyd- that was so quickly exploited so as to create division and foster hatred and even violence. The underlying premise, that black lives matter (BLM), is fine as far as it goes, because everyone’s life matters, regardless of race, ethnicity, etc. What we know is that the political and cultural movement known as BLM in fact embraces racism by selectively applying worth to black Americans on a commodity basis, and finding marketable value only when the manner of death can be used for profit: if a black American is one of the handful killed by a white cop, for example, there is titillation; if a black American is one of approximately 6,500 killed by intra-racial violence every year there is something between silence and embarrassment: the former must be exploited, the latter ignored.
