“If this author really cared about helping disadvantaged non-whites instead of pursuing their partisan agenda, they could instead advocate for meaningful policies that might actually help North Koreans.”
Otto Warmbier, an American student, died suddenly upon his return after being released from North Korea this week. He had been arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for tearing down a propaganda poster in his hotel room. Instead of condemning a cruel dictatorship, writer La Sha of the Huffington Post wrote an article stating how this is a good example of how white privilege isn’t universal. This shows a stunning lack of empathy from La Sha and is an example of how the depravity of identity politics warps a person’s world view.
La Sha called privilege a “hell of a drug,” and that Warmbier had a sense of invulnerability because the white mass shooter in Colorado walked out unscathed, and the white shooter in Charleston was provided Burger King while he was being questioned! These two instances have little connection to Warmbier’s likely thoughts and behavior while in North Korea, except in this radical’s imagination.
Like the liberals magically turning political assignation into attacks against supposed right wing hatred, a brutal dictatorship essentially killing a college kid for sophomoric behavior became an opportunity to attack white people and enjoy how their privilege is diminished.
A more rational evaluation of this event would place the blame on foolishness meeting up with a brutal regime. The State Department has advised against travelling to North Korea, which Warmbier ignored, and Warmbier engaged in some juvenile behavior that he should have avoided while he was there. But the ultimate blame lies with the North Korean dictatorship.
Fifteen years of hard labor is a brutal punishment that doesn’t fit the crime, and is an example of the senselessness of North Korean leadership. Beyond excessive punishment for dissidents and tourists, the dictator is spending vast sums of money for nuclear weapons while his own people are starving.
The word liberal comes from the Latin word for free. If there is one thing a liberal should support, it is the cause of freedom. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and yes, even the freedom to be a stupid college kid. Of course, the latter might earn a small penalty in free societies, but it should never be a penalty that causes significant brain trauma and death. Caring about freedom in North Korea would help a good number of Koreans escape oppression. If this author really cared about helping disadvantaged non-whites instead of pursuing their partisan agenda, they could instead advocate for meaningful policies that might actually help North Koreans.
Of course, all of this assumes that white privilege is even a real thing. The many white poor living from paycheck to paycheck, who have seen their average life expectancy drop amid a wave of lost jobs and the opioid crisis would disagree with the idea that they are naturally “privileged.” The concept also discounts the role of hard work, perseverance, and wise choices in a person’s life, reducing them to little more than a prisoner of their pigments.
Finally, and most importantly, most normal people would have shown some basic empathy, regardless of their political persuasion. The family of this student has gone through a hellish two years of fear and anguish as their family member was taken hostage, used for propaganda, physically abused, essentially forgotten by the Obama administration, and then died several days after returning home as a vegetable. Yet this Huffington Post author is such a partisan hack that they can’t take a moment to express some genuine sympathy.
My heart goes out to the Warmbier family, and I stand committed behind US policies that seek regime change in North Korea.
