A battle we must win

In response to David Livingstone Smith's provocative editorial ((linked at the bottom) "Fighting hate is a losing battle" in the September 3, 2017 issue of the Sunday Globe I am perplexed by what he attempts to say.

The main objection I have is that he offers no remedy of what to do about the so called "Alt Right" whites who are upset by those "other" human beings who are allegedly at the heart of their grievances and a  threat to their white power "heritage.”  He gives one no idea of what to do about the white majority who have perceived grievances against not only one but various minorities because of an ascribed status those minorities cannot change. The concepts behind white power anger against their perceived offenders is often times demonstrably false.

Hate put forth by the Alt Right including nationalists, the KKK or American Nazis may be because of alleged grievances but it is hate nonetheless. There are different kinds of hate or, for the purposes of this article, grievances by them some of which not only cry out for verbal opposition but demand fervent action against them as well.  There are reasons behind white hate, yes, but they are, more often than not, consummately wrong at best if not insane at worst.

Nazis did, in fact, hate Jews simply for being Jews which we know has a long history in Europe sometimes entitled the longest hatred and tried to enact the harshest most sadistic punishment possible on them because of an ascribed status no Jew could change.  It was not simply unjust treatment of Jews it was, in fact, murder of them.  It was not only unfair but it was lethal. The number of six million Jewish dead at the hands of Nazis has been scrupulously documented often by Nazis themselves and it speaks for itself.  What is a Jew in America to do when he views white men parading like Nazis at night with Tiki Torches and with swastika flag in tow?  Perhaps just yawn?  I think not.

Persons of color in this nation were thought of by whites who owned them more than simply chattel but an inferior subclass of human who could be treated any way the white owner wished. The fate of the unlucky black child whose only sin was to be born black and the harsh future that awaited him/her was predetermined at birth by something they could not change.  The injustice perpetrated on blacks in this nation, too, for three centuries has screamed out for opposition, demanded fervent action and still does.

Relegating various minority groups to submission to the dictates of a white majority is not only noxious and unfair it is also life-threatening.  Whites have not been a minority and are not now a minority. They are the majority. Statistics of prosperity, generally, among white men do not lie.  They do, on the whole, quite well.  

This nation was founded by human beings who did not want to be treated unfairly by a tyrant.  Emma Lazarus's poem on Lady Liberty that says "give me your tired your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..." means something and requires us to reject hate which is what is the product of the oppositional grievance and promulgated by those white men who have for three centuries had it all.

 https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/29/smith/j5F9Mf4ZqPohu4oxC6stTP/story.html