Trump Executive Order Supports Ethnonationalism

The Oklahoma City University School of Law recently expelled a student for posting flyers. The flyers said, “IT’S OKAY TO BE WHITE.”

Dean Jim Roth and some students were rattled by the flyers’ message. The dean stated:

Despite what the intentions of that message may have been, the message reminds me of one fact that I know our community embraces — it’s okay to be EVERYBODY. Exclusion and hate will not be tolerated here. You are accepted at OCU Law no matter how you pray, what you look like, or who you love. And you always will be.

AboveTheLaw offered “kudos to the dean for handling a disgusting situation in the most gracious way.”

The Oklahoma City University School of Law hosts several race-based student groups, including the John E. Green Black Law Students Association, the Native American Law Students Association, and the Hispanic Law Student Association. There is no White Law Students Association.

The school supposedly didn’t expel the student for the flyers’ message. The student was reportedly already “on suspension” and wasn’t allowed on school property. Presumably, the school would have taken the same action if he had posted blank pieces of paper.

Oklahoma City University Police Chief Bill Citty said the student committed no crime, isn’t facing charges of trespassing, and wasn’t a threat. He didn’t release the student’s name, though, citing “privacy.”

This banal conclusion followed an intensive investigation, including reviewing security footage and consultations with the Oklahoma City Police Department and possibly the local FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Initially, officers thought it might be a “hate crime.”

Would the school have disciplined the student if he hadn’t been on suspension? Local and campus police in other areas have launched sweeping investigations after discovering pro-white posters, and in at least one case, arrested someone. It’s hard to imagine they would react the same way if pro-black or pro-Hispanic flyers appeared in unauthorized places.

Meanwhile, President Trump signed an executive order that says Jewish people are a nationality — not just a religion — for purposes of federal civil rights law. The law always protects against discrimination on the basis of “race, color, or national origin,” but not always against religious discrimination. This executive order (EO) removes all ambiguity, and gives Jews just as much protection as blacks.

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order combating anti-Semitism at a Hanukkah reception at the White House on December 11, 2019. (Credit Image: © Abaca/Abaca via ZUMA Press)

The order’s immediate purpose is to combat the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement, which is increasingly powerful on some campuses, and the Department of Education will now have unquestioned authority to investigate anti-Semitism. As a practical matter, the order may not make much difference because the department has recently been claiming that fighting anti-Semitism is part of its mandate. Still, colleges could lose federal funding if they don’t fight anti-Semitism, which is broadly defined to include “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” applying a double standard to Israel by requiring of it “behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” and comparing “contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

The Anti-Defamation League welcomed the order.

The ADL constantly attacks white advocates, but it’s the increasing number of non-whites who threaten American support for Israel. In 2015, Steve Sailer noticed that eight student governments in California with large non-white populations passed BDS resolutions. Some Hispanic activist groups, including those such as MEChA that use “Aztlán” symbolism, explicitly link the Palestinian cause to that of American Hispanics. In an article on the BDS movement, the Times of Israel noted that white Americans support Israel more than non-whites. Democratic support for Israel collapsed in recent years, possibly because President Trump supports the Jewish state, and possibly because Democrats are increasingly a non-white party.

The ACLU and a number of Jewish organizations say that the EO is a major attack on the First Amendment; other groups will demand their own ethnicities be shielded from criticism.

Furthermore, if Jews are an ethnicity rather than believers in a faith, who gets to decide who is a “real” Jew? “Black Hebrew Israelites” were reportedly responsible for the recent mass shooting in Jersey City. They targeted Jews, presumably because they didn’t think they were “real” Jews. Some other black Jews moved to Israel decades ago. Are Black Hebrew Israelites real Jews, or is it only Ethiopian Jews who are authentic? If some sects are excluded, which ones? Even many Israelis can’t decide who is a “real Jew,” and many Ethiopian Jews think they are victims of racism in Israel.

At the same time, this EO implies that American Jews have dual loyalties. What would people think if President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order banning discrimination against Irish-Americans, or Dwight Eisenhower insisted that German-Americans were a nationality that deserved civil rights protection?

Israel recently declared itself the “nation state of the Jewish people,” and President Trump’s executive EO states that “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” is anti-Semitic. The American government would never declare the USA the “nation-state of whites in North America.” President Trump would never sign an executive order protecting whites from racist criticism on campus or anywhere else. He hasn’t even signed his promised executive order abolishing birthright citizenship.

Let us hear no more from Conservatism Inc. about opposing “identity politics,” “ethno-nationalism,” or “Identitarianism.” President Trump and the American government explicitly support these things. They are even willing to restrict Americans’ free speech to support them. They just don’t support them for us. To “our” leaders, it’s still not OK to be white.