It is common to hear about 'white supremacy" these days.
The narrative surrounding "white supremacy" is that the White race believes they are superior to other races and use this belief system to marginalize and minimize others.
We are told that "white supremacy" is responsible for other races believing they are inferior and unable to reach their full human potential.
We have often heard that a lot to the problems in the African-American community are the result of low self-esteem that makes them feel inferior. It has often been said that low self-esteem among Blacks is the root cause of problems ranging from academic underachievement to crime in the African-American community
All of this can be traced back over 160 years ago to the subjugation of Blacks during slavery.
When the movie Black Panther first appeared in theaters in 2018 it was hailed as being a film that celebrated Blacks as rulers, inventors and creators. It gave agency to the idea of greatness and self-realization for African Americans instead of the Black suffering and pain that so often was part of Hollywood storylines.
An article in the New York Times magazine when the movie came out included this exchange of three young African American men consistent with the 'white supremacy" narrative.
In a video posted to Twitter in December, which has since gone viral, three young men are seen fawning over the “Black Panther” poster at a movie theater. One jokingly embraces the poster while another asks, rhetorically: “This is what white people get to feel all the time?” There is laughter before someone says, as though delivering the punch line to the most painful joke ever told: “I would love this country, too.”
If all of this is true, you would expect that Whites would have the highest self-esteem of any racial group in the United States and that African Americans would have the lowest self-esteem.
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| Source: https://twitter.com/monitoringbias/status/1636769874708922368/photo/1 https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/3jsg5eennk/YouGov_Personality_Study_2021.pdf |
Scientific research papers have also found that Blacks have the highest levels of narcissism of any racial group in the United States.
This is the an abstract from a study in the Journal of Research in Personality on "Racial Differences in narcissistic tendencies".
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| Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656611000912 |
What is also interesting is that self-esteem scores among adolescents in the United States is highest among African-American teenagers and lowest among Asian Americans.
The chart below is from a published study found in the National Library of Medicine titled "Adolescent Self-Esteem: Differences by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Age"
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| Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263756/ |
From the abstract of the study.Large-scale representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in the United States show high self-esteem scores for all groups. African-American students score highest, Whites score slightly higher than Hispanics, and Asian Americans score lowest. Males score slightly higher than females. Multivariate controls for grades and college plans actually heighten these race/ethnic/gender differences.
More perplexing is that Asian American students, who seem to have a reason to have the highest self-esteem based on their academic performance, have the lowest self-esteem.
African Americans teens have high self-esteem despite low academic performance.
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| Credit: The Wall Street Journal |
If the purpose of promoting the narrative of "white supremacy" has been to create "white guilt" it appears to have been a success.
There might also be something in all of this that suggests that the mindset that one confronts life with is important.
Being told you are unique, you are a victim and deserve special treatment might not be setting someone up for success in life.
Is it a coincidence that parents of Asian heritage have a different mindset involving parenting than other American parents?
I have written a couple of times in the past about "Tiger Moms" and their parenting style here and here. Amy Chua wrote an essay in The Wall Street Journal a number of years ago "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior". Notice what she says about the subject of self-esteem.
Western parents are too concerned about their children's self esteem. Chinese are not. Asians assume strength in their children, not fragility. Therefore, they push hard on them and hold them accountable for results.
Chinese parents believe their children owe them something. Many Americans seem to believe that since they were responsible for bringing the child into the world that they owe the child in some way.
Asians believe they know what is best for their children and override their children's own preferences and desires. Chinese parents understand that nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences.
Perhaps the ideas that took hold 30 years ago that we needed to make everyone feel good about themselves was based on a bad assumption?
Perhaps we should not have been handing out trophies to everyone in the league and telling everyone to celebrate their unique identity?
Could it be that those who are a product of a culture where you are just one of BILLIONS have a better understanding of what it takes to stand out in a crowd?
They understand that not everyone is special. You become special through your hard work and your results.
Self-esteem is important but it means nothing if it is not based in reality.
You must also always look at everything with a humble mind and spirit. Chances are high that you don't know as much as you think you do.
You are also likely to not be as special as your mother (assuming you did not have a Tiger Mom) told you were.
The following lesson was written down for us many, many years ago.
Excellent and thought provoking as always. Thank you.
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