Race: Much Ado About Nothing; the Celtic Cross

Little Green Footballs during the past week had a huge debate going about whether the European political group known as Velaans Belaang was a white supremacist group. It seems VB wants to keep Europe white. Charles Johnson posted a couple of videos from VB, one of which was a skit of a European family discussing Turkish immigration to Europe. I couldn't understand the Flemish (a dialect of Dutch that is spoken in Belgium) but I could understand the subtitles in French. The message of the video seemed entirely reasonable to me, that Turkish immigration into Europe should be restricted.

However, at the end of the video the camera focuses on a Celtic Cross sitting in a bookshelf, and the focus was obviously intended to convey a message. As someone of Celtic lineage, i.e Irish, Welsh, I like the Celtic Cross, which is a Christian cross with a halo around it (see photo at right). However, a version of the Celtic Cross has been adopted as a white power symbol. The White Power symbol differs from the traditional Celtic Cross in that it does not have a long base on the cross and resembles a plus sign with a halo (see photo below, left).

The cross in the VB video was the plus sign. And that is not a good sign. For that reason, I agree with Charles that we should not seek association with Velaams Belang, even though they are ostensibly in agreement with us about Muslim immigration and Islamic evil. Any association with white power groups is a death sentence to any movement. Such an association will never attract large numbers of sympathizers or followers.

However, I am not in sympathy with PC movements that demonize any casual comment or innocent remark that a particular racial group finds offensive. A case in point is the ridiculous recent brouhaha over Don Imus's silly comment about "nappy headed hos," which was intended to be cool and cutting edge, even though it was in bad taste. He was fired from his long standing radio show and, like Jimmy the Greek and others who voiced clumsy comments on race, demonized beyond belief. Such practices only foster a paranoid hypersensitivity in excitable people and do nothing to further genuine racial harmony or understanding.

We should reject the message of real racists who want to deny people equal rights on the basis of skin color or nationality. But this is not the same thing as wanting to stop immigration of those who do not share our cultural beliefs in pluralism and tolerance. One cannot promote tolerance by promoting intolerant groups, whether they be potentially violent, undemocratic Muslims or white power organizations.

Top Photo: a traditional Celtic Cross in a cemetery.
Bottom Photo: the White Power symbol.