Systemic Individualism

Systemic individualism is a nonsense concept. I made it up. Or is it? And did I? You see, in western culture individualism is so deeply held that it obscures a lot of systemic issues, and it may be the primary barrier preventing well-meaning (and other) white people from understanding systemic racism, white privilege and the power of dominant culture.

Individualism or, more precisely, the discourse of individualism is the sword used by the political right-wing to combat any attempt of their ideological counter-parts to ameliorate racial disparities and ongoing segregation in economics, housing and education. Individualism is the new colorblindness. People who deny the existence of systemic racism and fervently agitate against Critical Race Theory, will claim that they don't see themselves or others as a member of a racial group. They act as if they're insulted by the mere suggestion that their group membership matters. They'll accuse you of generalizing and discounting their individuality. "As an individual," they'll say, "I am objective and view other as individuals as well, not as members of racial groups. If I were hiring, for example, I would simply hire the best individual for the job, no matter their race, sex or religion."

Sounds good. Right? Only problem is, and it's a giant problem, that only members of the dominant group have the privilege of being viewed as an individual, because there's a power-disparity. All other groups, with less cultural, political and economical power, can only attempt to balance out this power-disparity through collective action, by banding together, by planning and acting as a group. This is most readily apparent in the class struggle between capitalists and workers: workers have no power unless they unionize and cultivate their own power in numbers. Collective action and unionization are of course also things the political right hate with a passion. If an employee isn't satisfied with their job, they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and look for another job or educate themselves to get a better job. Whatever the systemic injustice, it can easily be denied by individualizing everything .

It's funny (not really) how members of the political right-wing proudly elaborate on how the dominant modern western civilization is the product of white European Judaeo-Christian culture, but are blind to, or simply deny the existence of, the privileges that come with being a member of that predominantly straight white male group. Maybe that's another reason why science-denial is so prevalent among the conservative right-wing section of the population. Sure, religiosity has some part in it, but when you're accustomed to privilege equality feels like oppression, and to fight that perceived oppression you have to deny all the research and history that shows just how privileged your group is. Best deny the existence of groups then. Unless it's a QAnon meetup, or a Trump rally, or a BLM counter-demonstration...

Social warriors of individualism, like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson, always act surprised when they're confronted with the fact that a large part of their support-base consists of racists, white supremacists and white nationalists. The above might explain why that is the case; their discourse of individualism, their supposed colorblindness actually functions to obscure and maintain systemic racism, rather than ameliorating it. The below linked video is a perfect example of how Jordan Peterson makes a complete fool of himself by using this discourse, although he speaks of "particularizing" instead of "individualizing," but it amounts to exactly the same.

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