As a result of your post and the link I went to Amazon and bought Adams' book on being a conservative in today's academia.

But though I am highly sympathetic to his overall concerns, I'm not sure his essay works.

We're supposed to think that there is an embedded white supremacism in the comment "I'm embarrassed to be white." But were this true, the same formula should work in other contexts where it seems not to work at all.

Imagine a regular German citizen's reaction upon learning the full extent of Hitler's genocide. This citizen realizes that many of his friends and neighbors were hoodwinked by Hitler's rhetoric, and now he realizes that they have all been party to murder by the millions. He says, "I'm ashamed to be a German." It makes perfect sense in a way that has no racist or nationalist overtones.

I watch religious programming and I see the big-haired woman spouting off with yet another bit of absurdity. I watch as the televangelists brazenly fleece their sheep. In utter disgust, I say, "Benny Hinn makes me embarrasseed to be an evangelical Christian." So far as I can tell, there is no hint of superiority in this. It makes perfect sense given the context.

One may wish to debate whether there is anything in the history of those of European descent that is genuinely and uniquely shameful. All of that is fair game.

But the form of Adams' argument seems to me not to work.

______________

Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of man.

I'm going to try this.