THE RACIST SOCIOPATH NEXT DOOR

There was a period in my life when I was more actively into general self-improvement than I am now. I spoke to many people. I thought deep thoughts. I read a bunch of books.

During this period, I came across a book called "The Sociopath Next Door." I wanted to read this book, but I resisted the urge because I had already made a decision to stop reading books that agree with a position I already hold ...unless there is some indication the book has some sort of solution to a problem in it.

All "The Sociopath Next Door" aimed to do was convince the reader that sociopaths are not all Hannibal Lectors and are more common than most of us think.

And I already knew that. So I didn't need to read the book.

I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but I'm pretty sure I've personally known two, maybe three, people that qualify as the sociopaths.

More than that, I think the only reason two out of three of them are NOT serial killing people right now is because they never happened upon a charming serial killer who might have explained to them how much fun and satisfying a grisly murder can be.

I think I'm not kidding.

These two people I'm thinking about seemed like they were born extra hollow or something, like anything or anybody that came along could fill them up with anything. The two people I'm thinking about seemed like they imitated decent behavior until something they wanted passed beneath their nose and they lunged at it no matter who was in their way. 

When I'm not thinking of these two particular people --both of whom happened to be people of color and not necessarily prejudiced-- I tend to think that each human being's personality, character, etc is based 50% nature and 50% nurture --

• "nature" being how you physically came out of the womb, your personal biology, brain chemicals, and  
• "nurture" being who you are raised by, friends that influence you, your environment, your culture.  

But having to deal with aspects of white supremacy daily, I do tend to focus more on **nurture** rather than nature. I've always thought that every-day-white-supremacy, in its subtler forms, is taught (nurtured) and passed from generation to generation. And I've been relatively sure that the overt hatred aspect of racism, culturally unpopular theses days, has pretty much been removed from a significant portion of white racism -- when white people are in public.  Lawrence Bobo once said that the Civil Rights Movement taught white people what they were allowed to say and not say about racism even when there was no deep introspection to eliminate racist belief. 

But  the hate inside white racism will most certainly overtly return, despite all denials by people like Donald Trump, as white people feel their white privilege decreasing which is a result of the country becoming browner and browner.  If some of us think the Tea Party and Donald Trump is bad, I think some of us are in for a few more rude awakenings yet.  

But we're talking about the right here and right now. And in the here and now overtly hate filled racism is still not very popular. The proof of this is that an ex grand dragon(?) of the KKK had to claim he WASN'T a racist --for so long as he was running for office in Louisiana in the early 1990s. Donald Trump has to claim he's not a racist now in order to be publicly palatable in most circles.  

In the here and now, despite the fact that hate groups surged after President Obama was elected, the white hate groups are still fringe groups in the U.S. I'd say the white hate groups are now double thickness fringe or 1 and quarter thickness fringed, whatever the case may be. 

Therefore, I believe that the most important part of systemic white supremacy and unacknowledged white racism that black and brown people are on the receiving end of now is born and reproduced out of a rational and willful ignorance and also a willful lack of empathy -- most of which I believe is passed down, as stated before.  

One of the ways that white racism and white supremacy is passed down is through things said and unsaid in the white home. The other ways white racism and white supremacy is reproduced is through the stories that white people tell about themselves in relation to others via movies, television, and novels.

I've only read pieces of Ayn Rand's work "Atlas Shrugged" and suspected she was a sociopath immediately. I was surprised to find this quote and realize that she knew she was one too. But the author of a novel I just finished reading/skimming called "The Wilson Project" clearly has no such insight into herself. And I'm wondering how representative of White America she is.

* * * * * *

PART 1 OF "THE WILSON PROJECT" 
STANDARD WHITE RACISM IN A NOVEL

"The Wilson Project" starts off three adult siblings of various races that had been adopted as children by a very rich white woman and her very rich (now dead) husband.

• The central hero of the story is the adopted white male who is now a humble genius doctor. His race nor the race of any of the other white characters is mentioned because that's just "normal" (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.) 

• The second sibling introduced is a black female lawyer who is angry 3 out of every 4 times she is mentioned, even when she's crying and upset. She's even introduced as controlling herself, stopping herself from using her fists in her very first scenes -- just inside or outside a courtroom. She even cries angrily. (i'm not kidding.)

• The third sibling is introduced in a scene where he is being cussed out by a pregnant, black, teenage girl whose language can be basically described as a corny/idiotic interpretation of "ebonics." This black girl is telling the third adult sibling how she's entitled to everything on the planet without working for a thing, ever. We get a hint that the third sibling is Puerto Rican man when the white male brother calls him on the phone and refers to him as a "spic" as a joke  (-- because the author wants to make sure we understand IMMEDIATELY that  racial epithets uttered by "good people" don't really mean anything.) 

This represents how race is presented in the first two chapters of this book. It is ironic that this represents an effort by the author to establish that this story is set within a colorblind family and a colorblind society. 


All of the above is standard crap you'll find in a bunch of books written by a bunch of white people in 1980s to 1990s and still some books being written by white people right now. It's usually just not presented all at once.

Frankly, whenever I read a book by a white author I am relieved when all of the characters are white. Too many white people, including white authors, appear to think that race is the biology of skin color and nothing more instead of sociology... right up until they want the POC character to improve themselves. That is the point at which a white savior can socialize a black or Puerto Rican person into being a better person than they would have been with their poor, irresponsible, violent, non-white natural parents.  This is why white authors will typically insert  POC characters that are:

1) flatly stereotypical and threatening, reinforcing violent stereotypes that white people already react to (Philando Castile)

 OR  

2) have POC characters that are stereotypical and simultaneously atypical, who say and believe things that Clarence Thomas, Tiger Woods, and Bill Cosby say and appear to believe without any of the crazy, contradictory stressors that leak out of Clarence Thomas, Tiger Woods, and Bill Cosby --and leak out in such an obvious manner that white people who are NOT SOCIOLOGY-OF-RACE-SAAVY can see it.  

However, the author of "The Wilson Project" book didn't truly reveal her wavy, inner-crazy, white supremacist sociopath until she arranged the story so that: 

1) the United States powers that be tells the 1% to go sit down so that the United States becomes economic nirvana

2) everybody on the planet is allowed to apply to immigrate here to U.S.

3) after every CEO in the United States is told he/she will not be allowed to make more than 4x more than their lowest paid employee (the janitor). The 1% only grumble when this economic change is made.

4) every woman on the planet has contracted a virus that has left them unable to bear children.

Note:  "The Wilson Project" is not the real name of the book as I don't want to get sued.

To Be Continued tomorrow