I must say, I was nauseated by Drew Dellinger's views. While banging on about the necessity for white guilt about more or less everything wrong with the world, he seems to me to have been implying his own innocence of such charges because he is one of the good whites, and has seen through it all.
Have whites done nothing good for the world? Think Renaissance and Enlightenment, think food aid and the rule of law, think of at least some degree of civilisation, and the conclusion is inescapable: white peoples have been involved in that. It is true that white people initially enslaved black peoples, but then they freed them and increasingly, black people have the opportunity to take part in modern society. Some of the places where involvement in slavery and endemic corruption is still a fact, and has long been so, are in black Africa and other non-white countries.
My guess is, he's a white American liberal who is projecting his own world view onto other whites, probably those he lumps together on the right. In other words, he's peddling a disguised political view where he's a standard bearer of truth and justice in shining armour. By his own criterion, he could be classified as no less of a spinner of narratives as those he seeks to criticise. If so, I reject that narrative. White nations are far from perfect, but for whatever reason--who knows why--they happen to have been at the forefront of the development of civilisation for at least hundreds of years.
It may be different in future times--who can tell--but denying this is a typically trendy liberal approach by economically comfortable bleeding hearts who'd soon enough change their tune if their fortunes were to change. It's actually as patronising and paternalistic a view as those Dellinger professes to abhor.
Spirituality is not directly related to politics, and politicos, left or right, are equally prone to narcissism. The left think they are superior because of greater humanity, and the right, because of greater commonsense. Fact is, we need both humanity
and commonsense, so at the moment, if one
has to be political, possibly the best approach is centrism; however, in my experience in the UK, what are called centrist views aren't necessarily either humanist or commonsensical.
I don't think Dellinger has succeeded in disentangling politics and spirituality. He seeks to make a certain brand of politics spiritual by fiat, delivering it in an apparently understanding, humble tone (but which actually may be more hubristic). Bring me a pot to puke in, because I refuse to buy into this kind of rhetoric.
As regards the AIDS thing (see
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/racialethnic/africanamericans/ for some statistics), which I think Alex mentioned, the narrative goes something like this: secretly, scientists are racist and blame the higher incidence of AIDS in black females on their purportedly higher promiscuity.
One hardly knows where to start. But most importantly, there's the matter of how AIDS is diagnosed, whether it's AIDS at all, and in any case, whether it's sexually transmitted by the HIV virus--which I personally doubt. The criteria for diagnosing it vary from country to country, and I think there's a pretty strong link between nutrition and sanitation in Africa--and lifestyle and drug taking in the US--with the diagnosis of so-called AIDS.
Are black US females more promiscuous, or do they tend to take proportionately more drugs and/or live in less hygienic circumstances? And in any case, are their circumstances, or for that matter the proportionately larger prison population of blacks in the US, due
solely to white oppression? I'm not saying there is
no white oppression, but is it responsible for
all cases of so-called AIDS and
all black offenders in jail? Are white offenders less likely to be convicted? If so, is that down to prejudice, better court representation, or whatever?
It's easy for white liberals to point the finger at whites (excepting themselves, of course) and blame them for everything.
Someone has to be blamed, but therein lies the rub: it seems there's no role for personal responsibility, whether a person is black or white. By blaming whites, one is denying that many blacks are willing and able to accept that responsibility. It's extremely racist and patronising to say that blacks don't have any choice in the matter of whether to get AIDS or to commit crime, whereas whites do.
It's just as racist as branding black people as inherently insanitary or criminal. We all know black people who are just the reverse, in fact are extremely moral and admirable people. Some of them are even on the right of the political spectrum. If a black person wants to be an effective and contributing member of society, it might be harder due to socio-economic circumstances, but it's far from impossible. I myself came from an impoverished background, and like many blacks in my country, have improved my situation in life through the exercise of my own effort and personal responsibility.