Browncast Episode 77: Professor Wilfred Reilly on hate crime hoaxes, racism, wokeness and more

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In this episode we talk to professor Wilfred Reilly, who teaches political science at a historically Black college in Kentucky. We talk about hate crime hoaxes, racism, wokeness and more..

 

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Omar Ali

I am a physician interested in obesity and insulin resistance, and in particular in the genetics and epigenetics of obesity As a blogger, I am more interested in history, Islam, India, the ideology of Pakistan, and whatever catches my fancy. My opinions can change.

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Razib Khan
Admin
4 years ago

great podcast! reilly is a very provocative thinker in a good way

anonymous
anonymous
4 years ago

Interesting guy but his cultural touchstones are really out of date. I haven’t heard anyone bring up otherkin in years!

Janamejaya
Janamejaya
4 years ago

Wow. Great interview with excellent questions.
Reilly is the American Arif Mohammad Khan. 🙂

Mayuresh Madhav Kelkar
Mayuresh Madhav Kelkar
4 years ago

Two Centuries of Silence
https://www.amazon.com/Two-Centuries-Silence-Conditions-Invasion/dp/1568592604

“Drawing on a variety of original sources, Zarrinkoub looks into the savage darkness of nearly two hundred years and detects glimmers of Persian resurgence in various parts of Iran and Muslim Central Asia. In fits and starts forms of the indigenous language broke their long silence, and Iranians began to speak about and for themselves.”

“Readers will understand, for example, why being called Arab can infuriate many Iranians. The book traces the deep roots of the current fashion of proclaiming Persian nationality with Zoroastrian imagery. Zarrinkoub s study tells the ways Iranians of the 8th and 9th centuries resisted the imposition of a pure Islam on every aspect of their lives.”

I have not read the book. But I think that Iranians are at best reluctant Muslims. Just when their ancient traditions were about to resurface another calamity of Mongol conquests fell on them and then yet another one of Ottomans, and then of course the Brits. These foreign rulers would have found Islam as a convenient tool to repress the local traditions. The struggle very much continues till this day.

Here are pictures of the Shah

https://www.google.com/search?q=shah+of+iran&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS760US760&sxsrf=ACYBGNQiapDGgMLyUP05Q3MBQHU95So1nQ:1579113149949&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-mfPynobnAhXvYd8KHbIZAscQ_AUoAnoECA0QBA&biw=1164&bih=801#imgrc=fry0FSS6CLbnpM

and the Ayatollah

https://www.google.com/search?q=ayatollah+khomeini&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS760US760&sxsrf=ACYBGNRNxI8xelP_BXt6zUyzSk3olWNLng:1579113203618&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiA9L6Mn4bnAhVLTd8KHbaFC_MQ_AUoAXoECBQQAw&biw=1164&bih=801

Without any training in genetics it seems even superficially that these two individuals do not have much in common.

Razib Khan
Admin
4 years ago

I have not read the book. But I think that Iranians are at best reluctant Muslims. Just when their ancient traditions were about to resurface another calamity of Mongol conquests fell on them and then yet another one of Ottomans, and then of course the Brits. These foreign rulers would have found Islam as a convenient tool to repress the local traditions. The struggle very much continues till this day.

this is ridiculous. you are confusing modern iranian nationalists with iranians as such. the earlier mongol period was characterized by liberalism of religion. that didn’t lead to a resurgence of zoroastrianism.

there are some groups, such as kurds, who are known to be lax muslims (kurds have a lot of weird religious subcultures too, not just yezidis). but this is not true of persians.

persian culture and persian rulers came back btwn 900 and 1000 AD. and they came back as muslims. (though there was still more religious diversity back then than early modern period)

Jejune
Jejune
4 years ago

@Omar, I am interested in knowing why you think that “woke South Asians” see themselves as oppressed by the whites. I also do not think that Prof. Reilly’s example of “a grandson of a high priest at Mysore” feeling oppressed by white supremacy, holds much reality. Because that kid would be as self-loathing as white-supremacy loathing – he would be more ‘ashamed of his privilege’ rather than see himself as oppressed.

There is no generic ‘brown’ phenomenon. Hindu 2nd-gen kids would normally be self-loathing, “caste = evil”, eating beef is some sort of prize, Modi is evil, etc.

Muslim 2nd-gen kids would not be observant certainly, but have more pride in their background. Perhaps they may fit into the phenomenon described above.

Kabir
4 years ago
Reply to  Jejune

Calling people “self-loathing” for being against Modi/BJP is a typical right-wing move. So I suppose all those Israelis who don’t like Netanyahu are self-loathing Jews?

People can be against a particular political formation without hating their religious/ethnic identity.

Jejune
Jejune
4 years ago
Reply to  Kabir

When I said self-loathing, I was referring to their hatred for their religious/ethnic identity, not an opposition to Modi.

Kabir being Kabir lmao

(I mentioned “modi=evil” also because there is (anecdotally) a strong correlation between religious/ethnic self-loathing and hatred for modi, so I thought it was informative to mention it. There is no compulsion for Indian(or Hindu) – American 2nd gens to have an opinion on politics in india.)

Kabir
4 years ago
Reply to  Jejune

The point is that calling people “self-loathing” because they disagree with your politics is a typical right-wing trope. I have never seen this done by the Left.

All those Jews who don’t support the Occupation of Palestine apparently hate themselves.

All those Indians who don’t support BJP also hate the fact that they are Hindu. Apparently, there are a lot of self-loathing people who have been protesting CAA for three weeks straight. And singing Pakistani poetry to boot!

Prats
Prats
4 years ago
Reply to  Kabir

“The point is that calling people “self-loathing” because they disagree with your politics is a typical right-wing trope.”

There are people who are politically left who do actually have a sort of self-loathing. But in all fairness, this is a much smaller sliver of the overall population than a lot of people on the right assume it to be.

There’s a somewhat larger chunk of young left folks in India who are plainly ‘new atheists’ or are de-racinated. The two groups are often conflated together.

I recently met a TamBram secular lefty lib type woman who told me she had some anxiety issues. I suggested she try reading the Bhagwad Gita and she flat out refused because ‘anything Hindu had been sullied for her’ by the present government. So there’s that.

Kabir
4 years ago
Reply to  Kabir

When your religion is linked to attacks on minorities and hard-line nationalism it can be kind of a turn off. Totally understandable reaction.

Jejune
Jejune
4 years ago
Reply to  Kabir

How spectacularly do you keep on ignoring the import of my words!

I have said already that the issue is not about BJP/Modi, it is about this group of people hating the practices of their ancestors.

Kabir
4 years ago
Reply to  Kabir

My point was simply that people who decide that they can call other people “self-loathing” are indulging in a right-wing smear tactic. It’s not terribly convincing.

thewarlock
thewarlock
4 years ago
Reply to  Jejune

because they can associate with the oppressed in the leftist post modernist construct of oppressors vs. oppressed. there is a space for them there, and it is cool to be a leftist. The whole “islamphobia,” while real to some degree is taken advantage of by identity politicians who coopted it in such a way that it is cool to want to display muslimness in the “woke crowd” under the guide of intersectionality, even if it means violating typical progressive culture norms, such as supporting the hijab

What hurts Modi also is his lack of a silver tongue. If it was Sashi Tharoor disguising all of this with his silver tongue aka a prettier sounding Jaishankar type leading the nation similar to how Imran Khan does with Pakistan, this stuff would happen less. Modi reminds these kids of their grandparents and parents they often resent in the West for trying to control their lives.

Razib Khan
Admin
4 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

if it’s coded as muslim progressives are much OK with stuff like hijab. i’ve seen it in my own circles (my wife, a traditional 1990s liberal, hates this tendency of acceptance of muslim modesty culture among SJWs).

i think american indian americans have best of both worlds. 1) they are upper caste so they can self-flagellate like white people 2) then, they can flip and say they are PoC and attack white oppressors, even if those white oppressors are wal-mart checkout clerks without full compliment of teeth

Kabir
4 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

Progressives don’t celebrate the hijab. They simply support the right of women to wear one if they choose.

If a woman feels that her faith requires her to cover her head, that should be between her and God. The great thing about the US is that people have the right to practice their religion the way they see fit.

Saurav
Saurav
4 years ago

“Hindu 2nd-gen kids would normally be self-loathing, “caste = evil”, eating beef is some sort of prize, Modi is evil, etc.”

Hindu kids , from the same social strata in India have the same views TBH.

Jejune
Jejune
4 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Not sure. For example strongest support for BJP comes from the youth in India – many surveys out there to back this up but too lazy to link them now.

Your point may apply for lack of strong religious observance, but nit sure that translates to self loathing.

You’re overfitting – watching too much of English news based in Delhi will give you a misleading view of india

Saurav
Saurav
4 years ago
Reply to  Jejune

The operative word is “from the same social strata”

Pretty sure that’s an accurate description.

Rural young are different. They vote Modi. The urban young (at least who vote) SAY that they vote Modi.

AnAn
4 years ago

Indians are typically very proud and arrogant of their own success and the success of Indians in general.

“feeling oppressed by white supremacy”

What a joke. Most Indians don’t worry about this. Most Indians believe that Asians (and Asianized European ancestry people such as Jews, Israelis, Lebanese, Syrians, Iranians, Turks, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Russians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs) are taking over the world in all spheres in the very near future and that most European ancestry people (minus the Asianized ones such as Jews, Israelis, Lebanese, Syrians, Iranians, Turks, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Russians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs) are kind of falling apart. There are some exceptions to the rule . . . but Europeans are generally declining.

In reality, few give a flying crap about “white supremacy” at the hands of non Asianized or non East European people of European ancestry.

90% of the reasons Indians use this language is to attack other Asians (or Asianized European ancestry people), Latino European Americans, or to protect themselves from charges of:
—hate
—white supremacy
—structural racism
—privilege
—nazism
—alt right

In modern Europe and North America people of European ancestry frequently accuse Asians of the above. Faking “wokeness” is self defense.

AnAn
4 years ago

BTW, a ton of people know the below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income
BTW, someone messed with the above stat to lower the incomes of various Asian and East European (Asianized European) groups. But it will likely be edited back soon.

Razib Khan
Admin
4 years ago

“The point is that calling people “self-loathing” because they disagree with your politics is a typical right-wing trope.”

it’s a general trope. minorities who don’t align with progressive positions are always called self-hating/loathing.

though i agree it’s a stupid rhetorical tack.

Kabir
4 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

I have never seen a Leftist call anyone “self-loathing”. Perhaps the Leftist equivalent would be to accuse someone of “false consciousness” or of voting against their interests.

Razib Khan
Admin
4 years ago
Reply to  Kabir

I have never seen a Leftist call anyone “self-loathing”. Perhaps the Leftist equivalent would be to accuse someone of “false consciousness” or of voting against their interests.

might be an american thing then. but it happens to me all the time.

Old Blue
Old Blue
4 years ago

Great interview! Excellent questions responded to so very cogently. I will highly recommend sharing this discussion. Congratulations on an excellent job!

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