For a network that
has always either been, or striven to be, on the cutting edge of pop culture,
MTV showed itself last week to be remarkably out-of-touch with the zeitgeist. Apparently the youth-oriented
cable channel didn’t get the memo that there is a cultural backlash against
political correctness in effect, and that half the country is mad as hell and isn’t
going to take it anymore.
MTV released a
stunningly tone-deaf PSA video Monday titled, “2017
New Years Resolutions for White Guys,” in which a gaggle of young people dispense
insulting advice to “white guys” on how to “do a little bit better in 2017.” To
the accompaniment of jaunty music designed to lighten the mood and make the offensive
message more palatable, smug twenty-somethings lecture “white guys” about their
presumed racism and sexism.
The video goes off
the rails right from the get-go when a young woman of color declares that
“America was never ‘great’ for anyone who wasn't a white guy.” This is
obviously a jab at President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America
Great Again,” which resonated with those Americans who understand that this
country has been a beacon of freedom and prosperity for countless millions of
citizens and immigrants of all races
and religions, whose lives were made immeasurably better here than wherever
they left behind. This woman’s ignorance of that is a sad testament to the
degree to which many young Americans have been indoctrinated over the decades
to believe that their country is not history’s most successful melting pot, but
rather a shameful bastion of white supremacy.
“Learn what
mansplaining is,” one nerdy young woman in the video lectures the viewer, “then
stop doing it.” Womansplaining, on the other hand, is clearly acceptable. “Just
because you have black friends doesn't mean you can't be racist!” says a black
male. In other words, white people are assumed to be racist no matter what we
do or don’t do.
“Stop saying ‘woke,’”
another speaker commands, referring to a grammatically annoying neologism that
indicates one has become enlightened about social justice issues. Frankly, I
wish everyone would stop saying “woke” in that context, but singling out white
guys for it is, again, insulting and condescending.
The video also
includes a completely gratuitous swipe at Fox News for no other reason than to signal
its like-minded audience that the video is targeting conservative white guys, because white progressives are assumed to be “woke.”
The video was such
an epic fail on every level that the backlash was immediate and overwhelming –
so much so that MTV pulled the video within 48 hours.
Did no one at MTV
realize that such a sweeping condemnation of one segment of the populace is blatantly
sexist and racist, not to mention a grossly ineffective way to encourage them
to be more socially conscious? Full disclosure: I’m a white guy. Did MTV think that
I and other white males would watch this video and nod in chastened agreement
that we need to be less racist, less sexist, and more woke?
It would be
unthinkable for MTV to address any other race or “gender identity” this way.
Imagine if the video told “black guys” or Latinas or transgenders to be less of
a disappointment in 2017, and that their complaints of discrimination are not a
thing. The uproar would be deafening.
But white male shaming has been such a longstanding cultural practice that I
doubt anyone at MTV had any reservations about the video.
The backlash showed
that the culture is changing. Americans who do not share the values of those
who dominate the entertainment industry have been complaining for decades that
pop culture has become too politicized, too one-sided. Too many showbiz folk today
march in ideological lockstep, live in a bubble of self-congratulatory
superiority, and feel no compunction about expressing their contempt for the
mass of Americans in the flyover states. The result is an enormous reservoir of
cultural frustration and anger, shrewdly capitalized upon by candidate Trump.
Smug, heavy-handed lectures like the MTV video are a significant part of the
reason why The Donald, himself a pop culture icon, took the White House. And if
the pop culture world doesn’t take this lesson to heart, Trump will take it
again in 2020.
From Acculturated, 12/28/16
