December 16, 2014
Source: Shutterstock
But no. The blue ribbon in the “Self-Hating White Man” category has to be placed on the coffin of David Ruenzel.
I”ll admit it: I emailed the story of Ruenzel’s murder to a bunch of my friends with the subject line “ha ha ha ha.” That’s because he made a living writing about “white privilege” for the inexplicably respectable Southern Poverty Law Center“and he was killed by two black dudes.
While hiking, no less.
Colin Flaherty, an expert on black-on-white violence, notes that the scene of the crime, despite its pastoral name”the Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve”is described by Oakland locals as “a well known site for smash and grabs.” Yet, reportedly, it was one of Ruenzel’s favorite places.
This provides a possible insight into the thought process of your average Caucasian masochist. It’s the “eat me last” syndrome, the irrational superstition that their impeccable liberal credentials are their comic book hero superpower, coating them in a sort of race crime Kevlar.
What’s most revealing about this mindset is that it betrays an embarrassing fact: white liberals know just as well as we do who the bad guys tend to be. (Otherwise, why would they require that invisible, albeit ineffectual, protection?)
They just scold us for daring to notice, and complain about it. Ruenzel made a living out of doing just that. His murder provides some of us with a “Little Nell” moment, but don”t laugh for long.
There are millions more like him. Neither hammer blow nor ridicule nor even the threat of death can stop them.
