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- Is Mommy Mormon blogger – turned Alt-Right poster-child, Ayla Stewart, a White Supremacist?
- Why did she attack LDS rapper, James the Mormon, in a recent blog post?
- How are Ayla Stewart’s views received by her home ward?
- What does Ayla mean by “ghetto culture”?
All these questions and more are discussed on Racism 101’s most recent and most controversial episode ever, where Dr. Darron Smith sits down with Ayla Stewart (aka NordicSunrise) and with James the Mormon.
Once again, we thank Dr. Jonathan Streeter for helping out setting up the live YouTube video this past week. Please show some love to Dr. Streeter by visiting his blog, Thoughts on Things and Stuff.
Next week we will be doing another live YouTube video where you can send in questions in real time. The discussion will be with BYU’s first black Student Body President, Dr. Robert Foster. It will be this Wednesday at 7:00 Mountain Standard time on Rational Faiths’ YouTube channel.
Please leave an email question for Dr. Darron Smith to answer on the podcast by filling out the form below. We encourage our listeners to email us a voice-mail question so we can play it on the podcast. Also, please share this podcast with friends if you you find this series helpful.
Dr. Darron Smith and Miguel Barker-Valdez
Dr. Darron Smith
Dr. Darron T. Smith is a faculty member at the University of Memphis in the Department of Sociology. He is frequent political and cultural contributor for Huffington Post on various issues of inequality in the form of racism, classism and other systems of U.S. based oppression. He has also contributed to various forums from Religion Dispatches and ESPN's Outside the Lines to The New York Times and Chicago Tribune op-ed sections. Dr. Smith’s research spans a wide myriad of topics on including healthcare disparities, Religious Studies, Race & Sports, Stress & Mindfulness, Transracial Adoption and the Black Family. His current research focuses on healthcare workforce discrimination involving African American physician assistants. His is the author of, When Race, Religion & Sports Collide: Blacks Athletes at BYU and Beyond, was recently released to critical praise in November 2016.
All posts by Dr. Darron Smith
First I would like to thank Ayla for coming and spending time to defend and explain her beliefs. I certainly respect that she is a very intelligent person and has thought about these issues and is not inheriently racist (OK, MY view of the term “racists”, not with Dr. Smith’s definition that gets into institutional racism and how we all play into that – I will give that topic a rest – at least this week 🙂
I tried to really think about what she is saying and not just emotionally react as I feel I can react in two ways. One is saying she is right that a very low birth rate does equal the possibility of a race becoming extinct. That does give me a second of “wow” feeling. The other side I feel is that even if Ayla does not feel it is racist, it sure comes across like that.
But when I paused the podcast and thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I don’t know that I care if in 6 or 7 generations there are no more pure Caucasians. After reading “Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness” by Paul Reeve I have a hard time understanding what “white” is. It certainly a fluid term. Maybe I am just drifting more to being a humanist. Then I thought about Ayla herself. I don’t know what her genealogy says her ancestry is, but let me just assume for an example someone in Utah that has lots of ancestry from Denmark and Sweden. If you go back a few generations this persons ancestry could have said the same thing. Her Swedish predicesors even once they came to America could have said, “We need to have more Swedish babies” and her Danish ancestors could have also been saying, “We need to have more Danish babies.” It sounds a bit odd when put that way. I just have a feeling that over time and travel becoming much easier that we are going to see more and more mixing of the races and short of some huge uprising like in WWII, that is the path we are on. In a dozen or so generations I think it is going to become less of an issue.
My $0.02 worth (not adjusted for inflation – both in the economy and the inflation of my ego).
Yep. There are even some voices that argue that the only wa to end racism is for people of different races to have sex and have babies with each other. Not sure if screwing our way out of the problem is the right solution though.
Screwing our way out of racism sure sounds better than the many wars that have been because of racism (or at least nationalism).
If screwing your way out of racism worked slaveowners raping their slaves would have had some impact. Also the way some people fetishize and promite ending racism through race mixing is a form of anti-blackness (ie babies have “exotic” skin while maintaining “white features”).
Bingo. You nailed. The main difference would be that now we would be talking about consensual adults. But the whole idea just seems wrong.
I agree with happy hubby. Using the term “extinct” is not accurate. The genes of white people will still exist in their descendants in 100-200 years. Their descendants skin might not be as white as we are used to now, but these people will exist. Race is not a species so thus they cannot go extinct. Now genocides can happen which can eliminate a cultural group as it exists in that moment, but the changing of birth rates leading to less purely caucasian people is not that. If she is worried about the loss of culture and tradition, well those are going to change no matter what. Even if we are just talking about preserving British culture lets say, well which British culture are we talking about? Stone Age British culture, Medieval British culture, Shakespearean British culture, or Modern British culture? British culture will change and has changed drastically over time even if no one immigrates there. So I am not sure what she is worried about losing if white people have less babies. Cultures all over the world shift and change all the time naturally. If a culture is being changed by force, or by imperialism now that I have a problem with. But the natural changing that happens as humans have moved throughout the world for thousands of years and will continue to do for thousands of years is not something I have a problem with. So if there are not “pure white” people on this earth in a few hundred years, my feeling is does it really matter?
I agree. I wish I would have had your brain in my head when we were chatting with her last week.
That’s some pretty intense deconstructionist nihilism there. Of course cultures change but they also having enduring substrata. That is why you can trace cultural patters in immigrant communities generations later. If you oppose colonial changes because it violates the self determination of a group why is it morally wrong to want to opt out and advocate for preservation of white peoples an cultures as a separate group?
Also would you apply the same nihilism to an bush tribe that didn’t want white people moving into their lands?
For dr smith and Miguel what she seemed to be referring to was basic highschool genetics (which control every possible PHYSICAL trait we express). Are you saying that with countless example in history, life in front of us, or the Bible you don’t believe in genetic drift which can affect bones, more effective oxygen consumption, and other traits? I’m not touting one race above another. I am merely saying take the Galápagos Islands for example. There Darwin himself found the same animal species developed in different ways. Some had a thinner covering to release more heat due to a desert environment. Others had slightly longer necks to reach food easier. These adaptations made it easier for the ones with the desired adaptation to find mates thus breeding away the undesired trait. As human we are mammals as mammals we are animals. We selectively breed the same way. Only that we don’t have the survival issues those animal had on the islands. Food is easy to get. Not much if anything is actively hunting us and we as humans stopped the nomade life style and started farming. This brought about changes. In just my life time the “jock” type Male was desired now it’s more the smart and compassionate “nerd” type guy. If we like it or not we use snap judgements with people every day. Those judgements are based on evolution.
I have another question.
I was in a supermarket and a black women walked down the isle talking rather loudly on her Bluetooth head piece. I couldn’t help but over her side of the conversation. Anyway she repeated what the other person in the phone said “why don’t I date white guys? Because they don’t do it for me. I’m not attracted to them.” Now I thought to myself NO ONE would have a problem with that. But at a family dinner I mentioned casually I really wasn’t attracted to black women. I’m just not. I find them beautiful and hot but I don’t really want to date them. At that point I was called a rasicest and a bigot and some other choice words and phrases. Since then I’ve kept that rid bit to myself. My question is why can she say she’s not attracted to white men as a black women and be ok. Though, as a white man I cannot say I’m not attracted to black women. I’m called a rasicest bastard. FYI I don’t know what it is I like all types of women Asian, Japanese, butch, fat skinny, red heads, I’m not choosy. Just to point out I’m not racilly biased
Simple question. I am not in any way agreeing with alaya but I asked myself this-
If no teeth and or DNA is usable or even there how can we tell who we are generally looking for?
I believe what alaya was taking about was a broad from of identification or biological race. It’s not ment to put anyone down it’s purely physical only and extremely broad. It’s wrong for sure but geneticist Dobzhansky voiced an opposing view with his well known quote. “If races did not exist they would have to be invented. Since they do exist they need not be invented, they need be understood.
While I do not think I’ll of any race but can see systemic racism everywhere, I don’t think it would be that bad if “whites” died out in 300 years from now. Like alaya was saying.
Due to adaptation done hundreds or even thousands of years ago to certain regions we have some traits still today. not to make anyone upset but skin color is one. Be it white or black. You look at my nephew and he’s translucent white and can’t tan but then you look at my daughter she is white but darker toned and can get a dark tan in like one time in the sun. Everyone is different and that’s ok. We have many traditions and many many years (even now) of media representation of how we should act. We need to think for ourselves. Believe me I grew up in prejudice growing up Mormon then moving to Ohio where being Mormon we majorly looked down on and shund. I had a group of friends that over the summer got to know me and then summer ended and it came out I was Mormon. They couldn’t get over some of the stuff they had heard. Like did I really have horns and we don’t celebrate Christmas. Then I had trouble at School because some teachers hated mormons. Life wasn’t fun at all. That’s why I’ve always tried to get to know someone first not relying on snap judgments of others.
It took me a while to finally get to listening to this. Modern DNA analysis has shown that there is greater genetic diversity within the continent of Africa than the rest of the human race, which I think supports the notion that lumping them together into one racial group more of a social construction based on one single attribute. It’s my understanding that an east African is likely to have more DNA in common with a European than with a west African.
I was listening wondering why she was even on the podcast. She was meandering into areas without credentials. Not to say she can’t speak about stuff, but to put her on a podcast, giving her a platform to explain stuff about bone structure and forensics as if she’s credentialed to do so, seems irresponsible to me.
That’s my main issue. She is making these huge, sweeping, provocative statements on the flimsiest of foundations, with the assumption that she had the confidence of expertise.