The real cancel culture: An endless cavalcade of white fragility

Having spent some time studying the invention of the idea of “political correctness” in the early 1990s, I’m fascinated by the current reboot of the very same by now incredibly tired tropes, now packaged as critiques of “cancel culture” and “wokeness.” Just as was the case with the original complaints about PC culture, this is all a massive case of projection by the proponents of the original and still by far most dominant form of political correctness in this country, which is simply white supremacy in all its guises, overt and covert.

That form of PC/Cancel Culture is based on the fundamental axiom that making a white person feel bad about being white is the very worst form of racism there is — in fact it’s pretty much the only real form of racism that still exists — and that we must stop that from happening by any means necessary. For example:

 What at first blush appeared to be a short audio malfunction at Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony in Markillie Cemetery turned out to be anything but.

A ceremony organizer turned off the microphone when the event’s keynote speaker, retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter, began sharing a story about freed Black slaves honoring deceased soldiers shortly after the end of the Civil War.

The microphone was turned down for about two minutes in the middle of Kemter’s 11-minute speech during the event hosted by the Hudson American Legion Lee-Bishop Post 464.

Cindy Suchan, who chairs the Memorial Day parade committee and is president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, said it was either her or Jim Garrison, adjutant of American Legion Lee-Bishop Post 464, who turned down the audio. When pressed, she would not say who specifically did it.

Suchan said organizers wanted this part excluded because it “was not relevant to our program for the day,” and added the “theme of the day was honoring Hudson veterans.” 

Kemter said he wanted to use his speech to share the history of the origin of Memorial Day. Afterward, he noted, he received “numerous compliments” from attendees who told him “it was nice to hear the history.” 

Nice for those people maybe. What about for all the innocent white people who were subjected to yet another PC/Cancel Culture/Woke tirade about all that bad stuff that happened to the blacks hundreds and thousands of years ago?

Kemter, a 1962 Hudson High School graduate, said he was trained as a combat medic, was in the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1995, and served in the Persian Gulf War. 

In the days leading up to the ceremony, Suchan said she reviewed Kemter’s speech and asked him to remove certain portions. 

“We asked him to modify his speech, and he chose not to do that,” said Suchan.

Suchan declined to say which part she wanted excluded, but confirmed the two minutes when Kemter’s microphone was turned off were part of what she asked him to exclude. During those two minutes, Kemter is heard discussing how former slaves and freed Black men shortly after the Civil War exhumed the remains of more than 200 Union soldiers who died in battle in Charleston and gave them “a proper burial.” 

What does any of this have to do with Memorial Day anyway?

About three days before the ceremony, Kemter said, he was emailed by an event organizer (whom he declined to name) asking him to remove a part of his speech dealing with Black Americans’ role in an early Memorial Day-type of ceremony. Kemter declined to share why the organizer asked him to remove this part, but said he asked the organizer to specify what portions they wanted to have excluded.  

When he received an email back from the organizer Sunday evening, the message stated that the parts to be removed were highlighted. Kemter said he did not see any text highlighted — and with the ceremony less than 24 hours away, he did not reply again. 

“I didn’t have time to sit down and rewrite another speech,” Kemter said.

Kemter said he showed the text of the speech to a Hudson public official, who advised him to leave the speech intact. 

OK, I know it’s not “politically correct” to ask these sorts of questions, but I’m not going to be censored by the Cancel Culture mob:

(1) What is it about White culture that breeds this kind of thing? Where do these pathologies begin, and how do they spread?

(2) Why aren’t the leaders of the White community speaking out more about what’s wrong with White culture? I realize its taboo to even raise this issue — we’re all supposed to pretend that White people are just like everybody else — but I mean just turn on the TV. Look at the statistics (if you can find them). Pretending the problem of White culture doesn’t exist isn’t going to make that problem go way you know.

(3) Before you accuse me of racism, I’d like to point out that I have a lot of White friends, and they’re great people, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to close my eyes to the reality that there’s something very wrong in the White community as a whole. The kind of pervasive social censorship that doesn’t let us talk about this problem isn’t doing anyone any favors — especially White people.