Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Yes, Elliot Rodger is 'White': What the Santa Barbara Shooter Can Teach Us About Race and Masculinity

Elliot Rodger was/is a white man.

For some people, this fact is very controversial and upsetting.

As I wrote in 'The True Alpha Male': The Santa Barbara Mass Shooting, Elliot Rodger, and Aggrieved White Male Entitlement Syndrome, when the bad behavior of white people is publicly called to account, said person’s relationship to “Whiteness” is rarely discussed.  

To be forced to include white mass murderers, madmen, and Right-wing domestic terrorists as part of the tribe is very uncomfortable and disconcerting.

This is understandable: what reasonable person would not want to excommunicate them from their community and affinity group?

Only white folks have such a luxury in the United States: a black rapist, thief, or murderer is de facto a representative of “the black race” with its “bad culture” and “pathologies”. There is no parallel for whites. The white murderer, thief, rapist, or mass shooter is an outlier, “mentally ill”, or some type of deviant whose behavior reveals nothing about white people en masse.

The boundaries of Whiteness and white privilege are heavily policed: bad people are “them”; good people are “us”.

Part of the appeal of “race” as a heuristic device and decision-rule is how it offers simple answers to complex social questions.

Despite what white supremacists and their allies would like to believe, race is a social construct with little to no biological basis. There is one race: the human race. Human beings have not existed long enough to be divided up into distinct breeds like dogs.

In the West, a person’s “blood quantum”, phenotype, or skin color has been, and continues to be used to calculate their location within a society’s racial hierarchy. 

Stereotypes and assumptions related to behavior can also be neatly triangulated relative to race as well.

The question “what are you?” is often less an existential matter about consciousness and agency, than an effort to locate a given person within a society’s racial order.

The phrase “he or she ‘looks’ ‘Asian’, ‘Black’, ‘Hispanic’…” is a quick shortcut and decision-rule for slotting people into an arbitrary racial group—with the incumbent benefits and liabilities that come with that group membership. 

Thus, the frustration/fascination when a person’s perceived racial identity does not match up with the stereotypes and expectations that dominant society projects onto them.

Race is complicated. Race and racism have a history. Both are inventions. They are not natural arrangements of power between groups of human beings. Consequently, race is a combination of law, day-to-day practices, “common sense”, arbitrary distinctions, habits, culture, “science”, and norms which have power over life chances.

As such, conceptions of race and racial identity reflect the political and social questions of a given era: they are a type of social witchcraft and mysticism.

For example, because of the “one drop rule”, a black American can get on a plane, fly to Brazil, and then magically be transformed into a “white” person because that country’s racial norms dictate that “one drop” of white blood makes you anything but “black”.

Likewise, during the American slave regime and then Jim and Jane Crow, a “black person” could move between races (literally crossing over from black to white and back to black again) by crossing state lines.

South Asians are darker in complexion than many if not most Black Americans. Yet, they are considered “white”, i.e. “Aryan” in terms of racial classification.

Over several generations “non-white” European immigrants such as the Irish, Italians, Slavs, Poles, Jews, became fully “white”. In the present, new research is calling attention to how Hispanic-Americans are increasingly choosing to identity themselves as “white”.
How do we locate Elliot Rodger within this complex story of race and identity?

Like gender, race is a type of performance.

It is a performance which can be sincere, authentic, stereotypical, deviant, natural, subversive, grotesque, beautiful, or ugly.

For example, there are about 40 million different ways to be black. This includes the young person who has internalized the ugly lie that he or she is “acting white” by being a serious and responsible student. By comparison, “acting black” also includes the studied grace, dignity, and black respectability of Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America.

There are likely as many ways to perform race (and ethnicity) as there are people in the United States.

The immigrant who is going to assimilate by being even more “American” than his native born fellow citizens, the “white negro” who acts “black” in order to upset his parents or to be “cool”, the Sikh who dresses up like Captain America in order to challenge narrow conceptions of who counts as an American, the Red State rural white voter who drives a pickup truck, watches NASCAR, and displays the Confederate flag, as well as the white suburbanite who is desperate to earn their WASP bonafides by joining a country club and going to the “right” schools, are all, in their own ways, performing race.

Race, gender, class, and sexuality are the dominant socio-organizational categories in American and Western society. They are the social and political air we breathe; to ignore how those categories influence our lives and personal identities is to deny empirical reality.

Elliot Rodger constructed an identity for himself as “Eurasian” and proceeded to internalize American society’s cues and lessons about power, privilege, race, and gender. He then lived out his own particular understanding of what it means to be white and male in the United States.

Elliot Rodger demanded and expected power and control over others. He saw respect from others not as something earned but rather as a birthright. Elliot Rodger’s life is the very definition of unearned privilege and advantage. In his desperate search for validation and affection from his white father, he projected and acted on a particular type of elite, dominative, aggressive, white masculinity and sense of entitlement.

While some would like to focus on the fact that he has an “Asian” mother as leverage for discounting his Whiteness—one of the intellectual weak spots of the White Right and the race science crowd is an obsession with “pure races”, which are non-existent, yet remain an intellectual fixation for white racists—Elliot Rodger was performing white masculinity as he understood it. 

Whiteness is an identity based upon maintaining a superior power relationship over people of color.

Whiteness is not just a reflection of “biological race” or assumed racial group membership by virtue of parental or family lineage. Whiteness is a political project with its own set of values and normative assumptions about how society should be organized.

Elliot Rodger’s diaries contain numerous examples of white racial animus and hatred towards people of color. He wrote that black people were a lower type of human being: 
He was disgusted that his “racial inferiors” had access to white women. People of color were basically “kaffirs” to him--inferiors to someone of his racial stock.

Elliot Rodger wrote online how:
"Today I drove through the area near my college and saw some things that were extremely rage-inducing. I passed by this restaurant and I saw this black guy chilling with 4 hot white girls. He didn’t even look good. Then later on in the day I was shopping at Trader Joe’s and saw an Indian guy with 2 above average White Girls!!! What rage-inducing sights did you guys see today? Don’t you just hate seeing these things when you go out? It just makes you want to quit life."
Elliot Rodger also felt no sense of linked fate or affinity with Asian-Americans: his identity as a “white” man, with “white blood” pulsing in his veins, elevated him above those he considered “lowly” Asians.

He also disparaged an Asian man who posted pictures of himself with a white woman:
Elliot Rodger’s particular version of white male identity dictated that he was superior to people of color in all ways—and the greatest offense was their not respecting his control over and access to white women’s bodies. Dominance and power over people of color was one of the central ways that Elliot Rodger understood his identity as a man.

Elliot Rodger both idealized and idolized Whiteness and White Masculinity.

Rodger wrote in fawning and obsessive language about his desire to be accepted among the “superior” white men who had sexual access to the white women he coveted. Elliot Rodger dyed his hair blonde in order to look more like a white person. 

In describing that experience, he wrote how: 
"This revelation about the world, and about myself, really decreased my self-esteem. On top of this was the feeling that I was different because I am of mixed race. I am half White, half Asian, and this made me different from the normal fully-white kids that I was trying to fit in with. I envied the cool kids, and I wanted to be one of them. I was a bit frustrated at my parents for not shaping me into one of these kids in the past. They never made an effort to dress me in stylish clothing or get me a good-looking haircut. I had to make every effort to rectify this. I had to adapt.

My first act was to ask my parents to allow me to bleach my hair blonde. I always envied and admired blonde-haired people, they always seemed so much more beautiful. My parents agreed to let me do it, and father took me to a hair salon on Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills.

Choosing that hair salon was a bad decision, for they only bleached the top of my head blonde. When I indignantly questioned why they didn't make all of my hair blonde, they said that I was too young for a full bleaching. I was furious. I thought I looked so silly with blonde hair at the top of my head and black hair at the sides and back. I dreaded going to school the next day with this weird new hair.
When I arrived at school the next day, I was intensely nervous. Before class started, I stood in a corner franticly trying to figure out how I would go about revealing this to everyone. Trevor was the first one to notice it, and he came up to me and patted my head, saying that it was very "cool." Well, that was exactly what I wanted. My new hair turned out to be quite a spectacle, and for a few days I got a hint of the attention and admiration I so craved."
He was happy that his hair and features were not like that of those other racially marked, and to his eyes, inferior “full blooded” Asians. The first victims in his murder spree were his Asian roommates, men whom he considered weak and vulnerable. In many ways, Elliot Rodger’s manifesto is a love letter to Whiteness and white people. Like a spurned lover or obsessive fan, Elliot Rodger turned on them because he did not feel fully accepted by his racially idealized and idolized community as a “real” white man.

The cultural economy of sex and race played an important role in Elliot Rodger’s obsession with white blonde women.

White women are among the most protected classes of people in the United States. White women are also represented as the most desirable and attractive type of woman by the mass media. Elliot Rodger’s fixation on “blondes”—as an idealized female form—reflected the lessons about race, sex, and desirability that he learned as a young man in American society.

It is important to highlight how Elliot Rodger was not obsessed with women in general. He did not fixate on black women, Asians, or Latinas. Rodger’s fetish for white blonde women reflects broader (white) American (and global) cultural norms: colorism remains a powerful force in black and brown communities around the world.

Elliot Rodger’s sexual obsession exists within a broader social context. Recent research at UCLA-Berkeley has revealed how black women are considered the least desirable potential partners on online dating sites such as OK Cupid. And although black women are more likely to be victims of kidnapping and assault, crimes against them (and other women of color) are grossly under-reported by the mainstream news media. By comparison, what has come to be known as “missing white woman syndrome” is a trope that dominates news coverage.

Elliot Rodger’s obsession with white blonde women was an extension of a type of white masculinity that views white women and white femininity as prizes to be desired, protected, objectified, and controlled.

Wait a minute! Elliot Rodger’s mother was Asian! How can he be white!

These predictable (and tired) objections reflect a desire for simplicity in how race is conceptualized and discussed.

Whiteness is malleable.

Elliot Rodger is a white man with an “Asian” mother. Allowing for how race is constructed in a very different way for African-Americans, Barack Obama is a black man with a white mother. Moreover, Rodger’s Asian ancestry would be of no concern if he did not commit mass murder: there would be no reason for those who police the boundaries of Whiteness and white privilege to jettison him from the clan.

However, Elliot Rodger’s “Asian” identity could be central to solving the puzzle that is his violent and murderous masculinity.

Asian men are routinely depicted in a feminized and asexual manner by American popular media. In the American racial imagination, Asian men have variously been the source of moral panics about “white slavery”, stereotyped as alien Others and traitors, or as sexual deviants (see the recent Hang Over movies and the "Leslie Chow" character). Historically, American masculinity has been inexorably tied to a particular type of “rugged”, “independent”, and “robust” type of white male identity.

Elliot Rodger, as detailed by his manifesto, was enraged that he could not reach the epitome of white masculinity that American society has constructed as unattainable for someone racially marked (and stigmatized) as Asian.

Roger’s search for “alpha male” status left him in a state of racial limbo.

He embraced Whiteness as a set of values, habits, and beliefs; Elliot Roger thought of himself as a type of white man.

African-American literature has a stock character called the “tragic mulatto”. In some ways, Elliot Roger is a parallel type of figure: he lacked a properly integrated sense of racial self and identity. He was/is a tragic “mixed race” white Asian who worshiped Whiteness, yet could not attain it in the manner, and to the degree, he desperately desired.

Most important, Elliot Rodger embodies the worst aspects of American society.

He was easily able to purchase a gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition which he then used to kill six people. Once more, the fetish for the gun, and a perverse gun culture that links gun ownership to masculinity, led to murder.

Elliot Rodger was a misogynist and a sexist.

Elliot Rodger’s hatred of women drove him to kill because he felt denied his “natural” right to control women and men’s access to their bodies.

Elliot Rodger was a racist. He felt that he was superior, by virtue of his parentage and over-identification with Whiteness, to African Americans and other people of color. Elliot Rodger’s embrace of Whiteness—as de facto white supremacy—fueled and legitimated, in his mind, a murder spree because his racially privileged rights of birth were denied him.

Elliot Rodger was empowered by classism and a profound sense of entitlement and power over those he deemed “beneath” him. Just as some members of the American 1 percent believe that they are imperiled, and thus facing some type of “Holocaust” and “oppression” at the hands of the “takers”, Elliot Rodger was the ideal-typical spoiled brat, born on the 3rd base of life, yet angry at the world because he thought that he in fact had hit a home run.

Elliot Rodger was rageful because he was denied, at least in his mind, his natural place in the American social order as a rich white man. Aggrieved white male entitlement syndrome led him to commit murder.

As an astute commenter wisely noted on the social media site Twitter, there are many landmines in America who are similarly primed and ready to explode.

Are the American people ready and prepared for more Elliot Rodgers? And how will too many of its citizens explain away the ugly synergy that is racism, classism, guns, and sexism when it kills again? 


Elliot Rodger said...

He's not white.

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Myshkin the Idiot said...

This piece is brilliant. A love letter to white Americans!

KissedByTheSun said...

You liberals are so desperate for an example of an evil white man that you'll pin whiteness on anybody. I mean who ever heard of white men or white society doing anything remotely evil to anyone? You guys act like people who have been on the receiving end of white violence for hundreds of years and are now highly suspicious of white behavior. I mean sure there may have been a few bombings, lynchings, raping's, enslaving, land stealing, and so forth in the past. But, cry me a river lefty, white folk have been perfectly well behaved for almost a fraction of that time...kind of.

joe manning said...

Rodger's wrong headed mindset calls our whole zeitgeist into question. There's something very wrong with a system that produces so many sociopaths. Our acceptance of war, violence, misogyny, racism, and greed highlights our collective amorality. We must hold officialdom accountable for presiding over such a society shot through with pathology.

lioness said...

It's always those whose allegiance to the group can be questioned that become the group's strictest enforcers.

lioness said...

I'm reminded of the early 20th Century Jewish anti-black racism as an attempt to show their own superiority to black people. No one makes a harsher enforcer than the person who could be kicked out themselves. Same thing happens with closeted gay men in Fundamentalist Christian churches.

bigboobyboyz said...

What makes anyone think Rogers wasn't himself just a deeply closeted homosexual? http://dreamandhustle.com/2014/05/black-women-continue-to-blissfully-ignore-the-black-elliot-rodger-and-the-black-mra-threat/

chauncey devega said...

Is that a new comedy routine or example of irony?

chauncey devega said...

Three words saying nothing. By what definition? Do develop and engage your claim in response to what was written above.

chauncey devega said...

Spot on.

Sandy Young (Corkingiron) said...

race is a type of performance.

Just so you know, I am stealing this line.

KissedByTheSun said...

A little from column A, a little from column B. Sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying.

chauncey devega said...

I am sure the others have built on Judith Butler's logic better than me :)

Zebowillis said...

Going by your racist logic, if Elliot Rodgers is white then Obama is white. There's so much racist drivel that I'm surprised you people aren't wearing you're own sheets. If I point out that most of the interracial rapes are of black men raping white women or that most murders of black people are by other blacks well then I must be a racist. The truth is that Elliot Rodgers was insane. He killed 6 people cause he couldn't get laid. This isn't about white people or guns or some other left wing talking point.

Bob Sten said...

Nice essay chauncey,

Yes, white people are all evil. They all bear responsiblity for what this half white/half asian kid did. Duh. Just like black and hispanic people should all be seen as responsible for the wrongdoings of members of their respective groups.

Thank you for enlightening us as to how the world would be so perfect, violence free, greed-free, and law abiding if it wasn't for the evil white man. You totally opened my eyes. I mean wow. I haven't been so "educated" since I listened to my loony left wing professor, uh, 5 minutes ago.

Way to be an individual dude. A real "deep thinker" ya are.

lioness said...

Exactly. Read George Lakoff.

AJD said...

I don't agree with the assertion that Rodger was white. He clearly identified as such in order to deny his Chinese-Malaysian heritage out of introverted racism. And I wouldn't attribute his racism to his white side either: A lot of Asians are incredibly racist against black people. I can speak and understand Chinese, and it's not uncommon to hear Chinese people casually make racist remarks about African-Americans or refer to them using the Chinese equivalent of the n-word.

Growing up mixed-race in an overwhelmingly white social environment can be difficult because it makes it so hard to know where you fit. I myself am the product of such a family, being of mixed Irish and Romani heritage. My grandfather didn't go on any shooting sprees, of course, but he did have a lot of mental health issues that I'm pretty sure were at least partially connected to his conflicted sense of racial identity.

Basically, it's neither Rodger's prerogative nor yours or mine to erase his Asian heritage just because he was ashamed of it.

As a side note, I would caution against overgeneralizing about racism in "The West." Here in the US, it's usually based on skin color, and people who appear outwardly to be white but aren't (like me) often must contend with skepticism when we identify ourselves (notwithstanding passing privilege, of course). On the other hand, in Europe, it's a little more complicated: A light-skinned person of Jewish or Romani descent who would be perceived as white here would in many cases not be in Europe, either on account of phenotypes independent of skin color or behaviors associated with those ethnicities such as accent or mannerisms.

Rædwald said...

He never even identified as white though, everytime he refers to his background in his manifesto he without fail refers to himself as either Eurasian or half-white, he never refers to himself as white and makes it clear he acknowledges the fact he isn't white, something he also clearly resents not being.

chauncey devega said...

thus the mess--a white Asian who idealizes and idolizes Whiteness and acts out its worst attributes.

Michael Varian Daly said...

The first three people he killed [stabbed, not shot] were his two Asian male roommates and another Asian male who seems to 'have been in the wrong place' etc.

For me at least, *that* massage was pretty clear...

Michael Varian Daly said...

Capitalism mixed with Behavioral Sink.

Rædwald said...

Yes, responding to comments is hard to do for some people, it's okay if you're a little tired to respond to comments in articles you write, I'll cut you some slack, the idea alone that you seemed to think it takes the time span of human existence for breeds of dog to develop suggests you're a little tired from writing. ;)

Miles_Ellison said...

When white people do bad things, they aren't white anymore.

Jack said...

Yeah, but everybody hates black people.

Gable1111 said...

And I can imagine you're doing a lotta cryin' lately.

yoopy said...

Most of the heinous acts that have been committed have been at the hands of white men yet as a society we are allowed to believe people of color are bad. White men crashed planes into the world Trade center, enslaved races and killed billions of their own kind why is this superior?? Because Satan thrives within the white race and always will. Mixing the races is the only way to purge the impurity that the cold has produced. And just so you know yes in the beginning there was one race the frigid cold created a race of humans to mimic itself.

olu said...

Thanks for the balanced argument, I agree that the author is confused in terms of defining Rodgers as white while at the same time describing him as "constructing an identity for himself as Eurasian" (the two don't go together [I am Eurasian myself]).

Also South Asians aren't considered "white", Nazi-era rhetoric about the "Aryans" notwithstanding.

olu said...

it's not new

Sandy Young (Corkingiron) said...

Neither am I any more.

Suzanne Ennazus said...

You're trying to turn the ramblings of a person with mental problems into being about race. He had weird observations, with keep going on about not having sex, while not realising most girls want commitment and respect. Talked about life being unfair, at the wheel of a 4X4 that he didn't buy. Could his parents divorce and father's new child with new wife have affected him?

Suzanne Ennazus said...

I've never heard the term south Asian before. Do you mean Indian? I thought his mother looked oriental?

Lady.lechat said...

You are correct! His mother was Asian, which he identified with more than his "white" father, just as most mixed race children do. Example is President Obama, whose mother is white, yet he refers to himself as African American! Most people in America if they examine their DNA are a mix of several races regardless of their outward appearance. So before ranting about the "rich white man" in America who went on a rampage, get your facts straight! People usually
kill due to their mental state, not their ethnic background.

chauncey devega said...

South Asians are considered "white" in many ways in the U.S. See how Jim Crow laws did not pass for them, categories on the census have been malleable, and the federal gov't has at time considered them "Caucasion" and at other times simultaneously a "racialized group".


Bushy Brown said...

"Caucasion" (sic) and at other times simultaneously a "racialized group".

Your argument of a group excluded from the Jim Crow laws considered "white" is purely imbecilic. Throw in the Latinos, Middle-Easterners, and maybe the penguins while you're at it.

And I'd like to point out to you another ignorant argument, which is pertinent to "South Asians". They're Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, etc. You are talking about the WRONG Asian group, which is not the Asian ancestry of Elliot Rodger.

Dan Feidt~hongpong said...

Hmm there's a lot of merit to the idea that race is a performance, but there seems to be some inconsistency w categories here. "Whiteness is an identity based upon maintaining a superior power relationship over people of color." This argument states that whiteness is a social construction based on a relationship but I think it implies 'people of color' is not, purportedly some more firm basis than simply a social construction.

To me the modern sense of whiteness is something discernable from class attitudes but is not really linked to biology. That's merely my opinion but overall we must be very careful to keep class consciousness at the forefront of how we look at interests and identity politics: however you want to define 'races', black and white workers share more common interests than their capitalist 'superiors' which is one reason that what we think of as racial division has been fostered by many powerful weasels over so many years.

chauncey devega said...

Think harder. There are multiple variables at work here. Race is clearly one of them--just read what he wrote; don't be in denial.

EFTROM said...

"Elliot Rodger was white."

"Race is a social construct."

Hahaha. Elliot was only half-white, and therefore not a white person, and he identified as "Eurasian."

"Human" isn't a race, it's a species. The different races of humans are akin to different breeds of dogs.

randy donaldson said...

so the left who is the great divider, is writing this crap. and let me get this right, obama who is half black is black but this kid who is half white is white. you idiots are so lucky that your followers cant think for themselves. THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND. just to let you know, i have no white guilt. i am a member of the greatest race the world has ever knowen. JUST A FACT

SabrinaBee said...

Excellent essay CD!

skilletblonde said...

Well...we all knew that Rodger's crimes would be attributed to mental illness. Those reading his manifesto are coming to that conclusion. The media is busy propagating this narrative. But I'm not buying it. I think his manifesto is typical. That is, representative of the way the wealthy, elite speak about the ordinary masses. In their conclaves, gated estates, and exclusive parties, these conversations of the disconnected privileged, and their narcissism is normal. May I remind you, we just experience the rantings of the bloated billionaire, Donald Sterling. Furthermore, let's not forget our former cross-eyed, faux, cowboy president, George W. Bush? According to his Business School professor at Harvard, Yoshi Tsurumi, Bush once touted, " The government doesn’t have to help poor people — because they are lazy." Tsurumi further asserts of Bush, " He thought he was entitled to all kinds of privileges and special deals".

Moreover, the preoccupation with blondness in America is no more than America's unyielding, obsession with race. It appears the Nordic blond as superior originated from the California Eugenics Movement. Hitler studied the American Eugenics movement thus the Third Reich adopted the philosophy of the Aryan Race. Never mind most Europeans are not blonde. As a matter of fact only 2% of the European population are blonde. But that didn't stop America.

The almighty capitalism would help build a false, racialized narrative about the beauty and virtues of being blonde. Hollywood, fashion, music, cosmetics and pornography would help to create the mythical blonde culture. Nothing would catapult this like 1950's and 60's ads for Miss Clairol hair-dye. With the message,"If I have only one life . . . let me live it as a blonde and "Is it true blondes have more fun." Hair-dying is a billion dollar industry. Out of 75% of women who dye their hair 86% would go blonde.

But the the ultimate fetishized blonde was launched by a man who is the original Mack-Daddy and purveyor of the philosophy of PUA-HATE. Though he is revered in the double standard culture of America, in reality, he is a glorified pimp. He would launch his men's magazine with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. This was in December 1953. The magazine of course was Playboy. Marilyn, was not naturally blonde. In fact her natural hair color was brown. Her nose and jaw was result of plastic surgery. Yet, to this day, she is described as the premier blonde bombshell.

Hefner's rabid obsession with young blonde women would grace nearly every issue of Playboy. He made no bones about his contempt for wives, money grubbing females, and the unmitigated gall that men had to pay alimony. Cocktails, he, sex and get the Hell out appeared to be his mantra for women.

Old Hef would have been dismissed as the peeping-Tom pervert that he was, except he added to a winning dynamic to his doctrine, Capitalism. The Playboy lifestyle was to include expensive cars, penthouses , furniture and liquor. Though Hefner is tame compared to the Porn Industry today, make no mistake about it, peddling naked white women around the world is also a tool of white supremacy. Furthermore, encouraging men to resent the wife and family by selling them a lifestyle most will ever see has been successful. Those men who reached the pinnacle of success, will exhibit it by having the trophy blonde on his arm. Porn stars, strippers, and centerfolds are now being portrayed as wholesome as apple pie. They are being touted as the new templates of womanhood.

Lastly, what is revealing about Elliott Rodger his overriding fixation with white manhood. It manifested itself with an unrelenting obsession with blonde women. It was an escape mechanism to quash whatever he found that was unbearable about himself. It was the stupid blonde women to blame. Or, it was black men. A culture that is steeped in racism and sexism will provide you with a scapegoat. The truth is, like old Hef, he despised women.

dean53 said...

Which goes to show (both Elliot's actions and your article) that white people are not safe living around hateful non-whites who become jealous and embittered living in a historically-white world created by white people for white people.

For whatever reasons, when non-whites get interjected into majority-white cultures, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, they often become profoundly unhappy about the way whites act -- especially the way whites exclude non-whites from their company as equals. All people want to feel like they belong and are accepted and valued by their larger culture. Obviously, whites don't value and accept racial aliens to the exact same extent that they value and appreciate their own kind -- an ethnocentric characteristic they share with virtually every other race, including blacks who obviously have no concern whatsoever for the welfare of whites. Because it is unnatural for people to prefer the wellbeing of others when it comes at their own expense. Because t is unnatural for people to sacrifice their own survival on behalf of those who hate them.

The tragedy comes when two highly dissimilar peoples are forced to dwell together when their respective needs and the way they desire to order their society are mutually exclusive. It is a compounded tragedy when one race demands acceptance and affirmation from another that cannot give it without destroying its own genotype, identity, culture and civilization. Like a married couple who are forced to stay together in an insufferable marriage, the simple and honest desire to separate will escalate (or has escalated) into pure hatred.

Whites once saw blacks as nothing more than slaves. Today it seems as if blacks see whites as nothing more than a meal ticket, modern-day tax slaves who are obligated for all eternity to provide them with food, shelter, healthcare, education, jobs, preferential treatment, respect and positive affirmation. There is no happy resolution, because each side sees the other as demanding that it give up its essential well being. Which they are. Because what is good for one side is bad for the other. There is no win-win.

dean53 said...

That's like saying that a lion is evil because it caught a zebra and ate it. There's a reason why some people win wars and others lose them. Imagine if Idi Amin had been as smart as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Do you really think he would have used his superior intelligence for good? IQ is not synonymous with evil or good. It simply gives one an advantage, though not a lock, in the competition for survival. Because in the final analysis, all people are ultimately mammals fighting for survival on planet earth. Some win, and some lose. Try being a white woman raising a family in Detroit, and see how much good a few extra IQ points will do you surrounded by the virtuous citizens of Detroit.

Michelle said...

Excellent. Totally on target. A service to God, our country and a fitting response to this tragedy. The victims did not die in vain. As a youth I was told I was white. In fact, apparently, my GGG Grandfather was an enslaved man who was murdered for a relationship with the overseer's wife. I have always had a spiritual connection to him and other ancestors, though it took me a long time to understand its source. With thick black curly hair that I did not know what to do with and would not relax, and brown eyes, I faced Rodger's predicament. The crucial difference is that I had no desire to be white. I desperately wanted to "belong" but would never accept the terms of their mainstream.( I identified as Jewish for a long time-my mom is half Jewish-and advocated for racial justice while there.) This moral grounding also gave me the strength ultimately to overcome the mental stresses of the outsider position. Doors have been opened for our country to enter a phase of deep cultural reform. We are entering our own "Haitian Revolution," spiritually and culturally speaking,

Ian Steffy said...

Yes they are. He is both white and asian.

DeepQualia said...

Very well said.

White Americans are almost blind to glorification of blondes. For example, my naturally blonder friend a few years back freaked out cause I pointed out that the sides and back layer of her hair was medium brown, while the top looked bleached blonde and asked if she dyed her hair. She was so offended and said no no its the sun. Eventually she said "well I did you use Chamomile Tea and Honey to lighten the top a bit but that doesnt count, I am a natural light blonde." Adamantly.

Afterwards, an indian friend of mine refused to stay in the sun for too long for fear of being dark and she was the first one to point how stupid it is. Its just skin colour, who cares?

Bocobo said...

If your POTUS and half white/half black, you're black. If you're the best golfer in the world and one-quarter black, you're black. If you're half white/half Hispanic and shoot a black kid, you're white. If you're a Cuban Republican, you're white. If you half white/half Asian and go on a killing spree, you're white.
I've almost got this figured out.

Jewbz said...

Delusional moron

capsaicin said...

Chauncey Devega, you're the one in denial. Rodger's mother is Chinese, his father is a white American. Rodger was half Chinese, half white. Thus, he was Asian American.

Of course, you deny/ignore/pretend his ACTUAL racial heritage doesn't matter because this fact of reality impedes your delusional narrative of "white men are evil."

Only a person captive -- in this case, Chauncey Devega -- to a delusional worldview of hatred against white males would be unable to explore the killer's true racial heritage. Chinese is not equivalent to white American, no matter how much you wish it were.

Intellectually honest and truly intelligent people are exploring how Rodger's mixed racial heritage impacted his psyche, but Chauncey Devega retreats to the tired and dishonest mantra of "white males are evil" as he can't bring himself to face the fact that Rodger was Asian American.

And that's just the ACTUAL racial angle. Mental illness and fatherly abandonment likely played the biggest roles in Rodger's descent, but of course, it's simply easier to lie and say "Rodger was an angry white male," as Chauncey Devega does here.

Such delusion is on par with Rodger's lunacy.

chuck_in_st_paul said...

so all those killings in the ghettos are the "white" blood in the ghetto rats doing the mayhem then...??

speechlesstx said...

Do you perform the same mental gymnastics to dissociate Muslims from terrorism as you do to make this guy part of my "tribe"?

Dimart45 said...

Someone should tell our race-baiter author that Elliot Rodgers was a mentally ill psychopath and should certainly not be used as an "example" of white supremacy, sexism or anything else. The man/boy hated men also (black/white Asian equally - not because of their race but because of his inability to relate). He might also want to read the manifesto more closely because Elliot did not dye his hair to be more white, he died his hair to be noticed - big difference in Chauncey's diagnosis.
Chauncey if using a mentally ill person to make you're case you are as dangerous as Elliot Rodgers because you are just as mentally deficient.

Dimart45 said...

And when you were young Michelle were you also told you were mentally ill? Unless you can answer yes you can't use Elliot Rodgers as having the same issues.

speechlesstx said...

I somehow fail to see how race baiting makes one a "respectable negro".

Werewolf said...

"Human beings have not existed long enough to
be divided up into distinct breeds like dogs."...You must not know that human beings pre-date and are responsible for the creation of nearly all breeds of canine except for the wild indigenous breeds?

I got a good laugh from this drivel.

Dimart45 said...

That's his assessment of what he is - that doesn't make it so...

Adam Samuels said...

This analysis is well-written but sad and leads to a predetermined outcome. Rodgers was a sick person. Anything he wrote or said was skewed because of it. Too bad you cling to inherent, "neatly triangulated" racism as the reason people hold onto stereotypes. Most whites today weren't brought up in a culture of slavery or Jim Crow (rather, this is a culture of forced diversity and affirmative action) and, while not always fair, they form their opinions of groups based on their general behavior. The Asian stereotype is one of hard work and academic success - because, in our culture, that's what you predominantly experience. Not every Asian is an academic rock star but most are that we know. The same could be said for people of Indian backgrounds - not all but most. Any negative stereotype of Blacks (to a sane person) would come from the general perception of behavior and reaction to things (affording the notion that not all Blacks are the same either). If White people were truly racist, in an evil way, Asians and Indians (all non-whites, for that matter) would share the negative stereotype - why don't they?

chauncey devega said...

The model minority myth is just that a myth used as leverage to denigrate black people. Frank Wu has done some good work on this. Plus, what about all of the other "Asians"--a huge group that comprises many different ethnicities--who do not fit the model and have high rates of poverty, incarceration, drug use, etc.?

n_slash_a said...

This guy is as white as Obama.

Sonya Blade said...

Bet if he was "half black" he'd be labeled a victim and Obama would be saying, "if I had a son..."..and Sharpton and Jackson would be rallying the sheep for sit ins and marathons protesting those evil white blonde college girls that cause all the problems.

Michael Varian Daly said...

RE: "There's something very wrong with a system that produces so many sociopaths."

Google 'Behavioral Sink'.

Maurice Bishop said...

"Any brave soul who dares to talk about white masculinity, white privilege, and gun violence will be hounded by the Right-wing's dogs--a media machine that cares nothing for the truth. Many otherwise decent, smart, and fair-minded white folks may also recoil at the thought that Whiteness and White Masculinity can be dysfunctional and violent. When an entire social structure has been erected to reinforce the lie that white folks are "normal", and those "Others" are "deviant" or "defective", it can be very difficult to break out of that haze of denial. Such an act requires a commitment to truth-telling and personal, critical, self-reflection which Whiteness, by definition, denies to most of its owners. White privilege and Whiteness hurts white people. Aggrieved white male entitlement syndrome is killing white folks' children, wives, daughters, sons, fathers, and mothers. Yet, White America stands mute. Again, what shall we do with the white people...especially if they are so unwilling to help themselves?” —Chauncey DeVega

Judging from the fence riding race apologist whites on this comment thread saying silliness such as, he is"Half-Asian" (GTFOH) -- I'm directing that towards you! AJD -- yous are gonna need loads more Eliot Rodgers before the white plebs finally wake up in the USA. Smh.

Nonetheless, we salute you for your service as a loyal soldier, Eliot Rodgers, in the battle against White Supramacy/Racism and Capitalism by any means necessary. Let's hope the next sane and rational white chap like takes a couple more tossers with him; only a sane and rational white person knows the truth of white supremacy and will go the distance to expose it.

Vaya con dios mi compañero...

"If you do not understand white supremacy (racism)— what it is and how it works — everything else you know will only confuse you." —Neely Fuller, Jr.

anon said...

In forensic anthropology, when an individual has even a smidgeon of minority ancestry, they are identified by that minority ancestry. This young man would have labeled as ASIAN by a forensic anthropologist in medicolegal terminology. It's science.

Phoenix Zen said...

Yep. He is a white male supremacist stuck inside an Eurasian body. Maybe he wasn't at first. But after being repeatedly bullied in UK then US as a racial outsider, he internalized his bullies' viewpoint. Like, being held hostage by an internalized Hitler. It happens sometimes.

But as a "misogynist" he is not complicated. Men beating up or killing the women they desired because they feel rejected, or angry, or horny, that happens too - A LOT. So in that sense, Elliot's entitlement complex is typical male villain. These days sociopaths know how to hide behind words and haircut.

Elliot the psychopath is not unique. He is driven by low self-acceptance, a fetish for unavailable shiny white females, and a raging, wounded, and unappreciated half of his racial identity.

The glaring bit is, he is not ineligible. Yet he displayed simultaneous haughty superiority AND self-denial.

Why would anyone accept you, if you can't even acknowledge one half of yourself, nevermind celebrate that half?

Personally I think being born a half-white half-Asian/black/whatnot is not easy. The less mixed ones among us, we only have to deal with balancing the psychological weighting of mom or dad, female or male. The Eurasians or "Yellows" have another thing to balance. Not easy if you live in a culture where 50% of your race is god-like, while the other 50% is so vehemently ignored, they may as well... as Elliot suggested - not exist. Blacks receive a lot more white guilt and concession than Asians, in US or the whole world, that's for sure.

His friend said he got extra bullying because he was a smart kid.

He wasn't just a scapegoat because he is "uncool" and "small", he was a hunted witch too, because he is an outsider race, with brain. He was discounted, for being a threat too.

Not easy being 100% or 50% East Asian and male in America, obviously. Being smart invite bullying from the brawny bullies. BMW won't buy you self-respect or average blonde chicks or any hot chicks, when you can't even accept half of who you are.

Elliot obviously hated half of himself so much, he killed 3 of them. Or, 3 and a half of them.

icarusty said...

Many "hapas" (kids of white and asian parents - usually white male, asian female) develop an inferiority complex and confused identity. Confused because whilst they are part asian, they see the unequal dynamic between their parents - usually mum and dad are equal, but the sort of non asian men who go for asian women tend to have other flaws that prevent them from being able to keep a relationship with their own races' women. As a result, they exploit the "asian women are easy" stereotype. However, this does not bode well for any male offspring, because if the guy wasn't able to be with a woman without resorting to the above tactics, what hope for his son?

Furthermore, the child (boy or girl) develops the same inferiority complex as their mother, who usually seeks a white man regardless of their social worth, but because they see being white as status in itself. As a result, the children with such parents tend to resent their asian part far more, even pushing to hide it, like Eliot did, and showing as much racism towards asians as many full blooded non asians would.


- not quite. It is of concern and should be to ALL mixed race parents in the world. Not so much the asian part, rather than dynamic between the races coming into the relationships i.e. if the white guy thinks he is more than capable of getting an asian woman, whereas the asian women thinks it a privilege to get a white man. That is a road to some self hating kids. The parents' job, especially for mixed kids, is to raise them up to be equally proud of BOTH races and/or cultures. Quite difficult when you are both, and especially when society from both races may shun you for what you are, and take preference in one "side" (i.e. white jocks vs skinny asian)

His parents let him down big time.

icarusty said...

read his manifesto. It was about race, he kept raising the topic. About blacks being slaves, latino pigs and ugly asians, and his fury when such "unworthy" were seen sleeping with or even talking to a white girl.

for you (and many others) to discount this, and instead concentrate on his privileged upbringing is purposely missing the point.

icarusty said...

Uh, he identified with his whiteness more, did you not read his rants? He insulted asians and was disgusted with his "asianness", he wanted people to see him as white - but couldn't.

icarusty said...

yes that's right. you're british aren't you? we're the only ones we call east asians orientals, in the rest of the world it's actually a racist term!

Antony said...

See, I agree with your analysis about why Elliot Rodgers is the way he is. But, with all due respect, he was definitely not white. No white person even glancing at Rodgers would have considered him white.

A Eurasian man with Rodgers' phenotype would not be considered white in any European or European majority country.

White people decide what the boundaries of whiteness are, you don't. I know how unfair that is, and I'm trying in my own small way to change it.

smuggar said...

whoever wrote this is obviously the racist…Elliott Rodger isn't white you moron.

smuggar said...

oh and he killed 3 people with a knife, not all were killed by a gun but in reality nobody actually died, the whole thing is fake.

Simba711 said...

That means Mr. Obama is also a white man. God, the American media. Just wow.

Mule Face said...

wait wait wait wait wait wait wait... South Asians are white?? In what country?? perhaps i'm sheltered but I have never heard anyone that I know refer to any Asian person as white...

and the thing about Irish "non whites" just doesn't make any sense to me, perhaps it's only because I personally use words like "black" or "white" as a descriptor of a person's physical appearance, not in identifying their cultural history based on their skin, i think the author is kind of putting words into the mouths of strangers that have not said anything like this, that's what's so tricky about the internet, you can write an essay claiming ANYTHING and it can be taken as gospel truth until someone comes around to question it's validity, i come from an Irish American Athiest low income home, we worked hard for everything we had, my grand-parents were immigrants and were raised to treat everyone as they come, and never to judge someone no matter how well you think you know them. unfortunately because of my skin color, most think they know a great deal about me and my family history and how "easy" my life supposedly is, and whether they are actually correct or not doesn't seem to make much difference, as long as it furthers their argument, i'm not saying racism isn't as prevalent as it was decades ago, but it will always be until people stop using the outdated "US vs THEM" mentality and realize we are just a cloud of atoms banging up against each other in a big cosmic soup, perhaps i'm wrong and always willing to admit when i am, but i personally don't think rationality like this is getting people any further to some ideological goal of brotherhood...

juliannathom said...

Elliott Rodger was not white - he was Asian. Northern european genes are recessive to Southern genes, so in interracial marriage between a northern European and a person who's asian, black, hispanic, indian, or middle eastern, the children are only 15-25% white/Northern european.

Michael Ejercito said...

Race, gender, class, and sexuality are the dominant
socio-organizational categories in American and Western society.
This is not limited to America, but is common throughout all human societies.

Yes, America has racism- and that is because Americans is composed of humans. all human socieities are naturally racist. The only difference is which race happens to be privileged.

What does distinguish America is that it has constitutional restraints severely limiting the use of racism in government.

Michael Ejercito said...

Confused because whilst they are part asian, they see the unequal
races' women
And what if the father is Asian and the mother in not?

Michael Ejercito said...

some dude in central Germany said the same things about Jews in the 1920's. I wonder fi anyone listened to him.

You're gross. said...

Yeah, South Asians are totally treated as white while we still face racism from white people every day.

lool said...

Holy shit you are nasty
wtf is a white asian go suck cock

Sangelia said...

Thing is, Elliot's dad is of Arab ancestry. And Arabs are NOT White.
There is more than just Asian, Black, & White. There is Middle Eastern(Arabic), Native American, & Polynesian. Those last ones tend to be what some would classify as "Red".
So your claim of him being a White male is wrong.

hansolo36 said...

He was half Jewish and half Malay, that makes him 0% white And no, Rodger was not going out of his way to target your colored brothers.