May 9, 2023

So... they're doing this in the New Yorker crossword.

That's today's puzzle. Clue: "What kind of white nonsense..." Answer: "The Caucasity!"

It's good wordplay — a twist on "the audacity!" — but not anything I'd seen before, and the clue suggests this is a phrase in ordinary speech these days rather than a new joke. 

It really is white supremacy, in my view, which is — as advised yesterday by WaPo's Philip Bump — not to be too "rigid" about the meaning of "white supremacy." Bump, you will remember, argued that "white supremacy" could be understood to include promotion of the "structures of power that largely benefit Whites." So, if you like just about anything the way it is, you may be a white supremacist.

I had thought that The New Yorker would refrain from using racial taunts in its crossword! Why did it seem okay? Answer: White supremacy. You don't understand my point? To quote Philip Bump, "This confusion... stems from overly rigid understanding[] of... 'white supremacist.'"

[C]ritical race scholar, journalist and activist El Jones... says, “The caucacity of it all is that not only can everything that we generate be taken and used, but then white people can turn around and say, it was never yours in the first place — claiming to be the expert on blackness,” explaining that it is audacious for a white person to rewrite the origin stories of Black colloquialisms....
“Caucacity” — a combination of “Caucasian” and “audacity,” is a term coined in 2019 by the Bodega Boys podcast, and has been used all over social media as a way to “marvel at the baffling behaviors of white folks” and capture their “willingness to take bold risks” due to the comfort that privilege provides.

That is, the phrase expresses a belief in the superior position of white people. It's critical of that perceived position, of course, but don't be so rigid. It also reinforces the idea that the high position of white people is real. 

57 comments:

Old and slow said...

You know, I thought all the talk about so-called "white supremacy" that started going around a few years ago was utterly ridiculous at first, but I've got to admit, they've brought me around! I now think it is a real thing, and I'm all for it. Western civilization really IS quite superior to the alternatives.

Owen said...

All that one needs to do now, to sound utterly profound and escape all criticism, is to lard one’s discourse with the PoMo buzzwords, “structures of power,” “performativity,””representation,” “discourse,” “problematize,””de-center,” and the like.

This drivel is magic.

Bob Boyd said...

If a journalist martyrs his credibility for the narrative, he'll go to Prog heaven and get 72 original ideas nobody has had before.

Enigma said...

The Woke Left created a new religion, but lack awareness that dogmas are dogmas and that empty incantations are empty incantations. More power to 'em for reinventing basic morality, but they are in the dangerous infantile stage of their new religion. Zealots. Holy Wars. Martyrs. Genocides.

If Whites are systematically stereotyped, belittled, and attacked they will systematically fight back to survive. This is after many Whites fought and died against the Old South and Nazi Germany. So, don't stereotype Whites as evil any more than you stereotype Blacks as evil.

Two generations ago the left demanded a firm separation between church and state. No crosses on public land, no official reference to Christian dogmas, etc. Now, their grandchildren regressed to the mean as rabid alt-conservatives in lefty clothing.

Tim said...

Funny thing about crosswords. The ultimate symbol of white supremacy. You know all the words and the meanings well enough to get obscure puns! Who would have thought that Ann was a closet white supremacist?!

Mr. Majestyk said...

That's just sick.

Rocco said...

Bob Boyd said...
"If a journalist martyrs his credibility for the narrative, he'll go to Prog heaven and get 72 original ideas nobody has had before."

Or 72 raisins. Some scholars argue there was a typo in the original ProgSpeak.

rehajm said...

The bigotry of low expectations…

…and the irony of caucasity* in a crossword puzzle…in the New Yorker…

*Spell check not up to speed on the latest inventions…

BIII Zhang said...

"structures of power that largely benefit Whites."

Where do you even start with these people? (I'll give you the answer at the end of this comment).

All structures of power (in the United States) largely benefit white people. Why? Because the US is largely composed of white people. It's simple math. The police largely benefit white people. Hospitals largely benefit white people. Crosswalks largely benefit white people.

It's a retarded definition, but that's by design. The entire purpose of the definition is to make ANYTHING THEY WANT be "white supremacist." That phrase is the new "racist" because they've so overused the word "racist" and can't really even find any racism any more (as evidenced by all the racism hoaxes, Juicy Smoolet, garage pull nooses, etc.)

So using "racism" as a means to obtain power has lost all value. Thus, we get "white supremacist." And everything "largely benefits whites." Do police in Zambia largely benefit blacks? Yes, yes they do. 95% of the population of Zambia is black. So that only stands to reason.

So, back to the original question: Where do you start with these people? You don't. Just know they're playing a game you cannot ever win, and the only winning move is to not engage them. Don't hire these sorts of people. Actively thwart their efforts at every turn, pee in their corn flakes if you can do so discretely, and remember folks ... whatever you do ... don't buy Bud Light.

Bud Light largely benefits whites.

James K said...

"White supremacy" is akin to "climate change": An all-purpose term that can be adapted and applied to any event after the fact.

RNB said...

So what's the next signpost along our path to liberation in the NYT crossword? CRACKER? OFFAY? PECKERWOOD?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The white left benefit the most from white supremacy.

BudBrown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Breezy said...

Seems like “white supremacy” is simply a stand in phrase for meritocracy in many cases. People generally hate to compete for things, so it makes sense that ‘white supremacy’ is deemed unfair and privileged if anyone wins by skill or even luck. People of any race who are good at what they do will come out on top. I would expect a critical race scholar to poo-poo meritocracy. They don’t see individuals or an individual’s unique skills. They don’t make money that way.

Aside - in engineering circles, maybe others, the acronym BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Thinking big and boldly has rewards. Nothing wrong with being audacious in certain circumstances.

michaele said...

Pick, pick, pick...the scab can never really heal and that's how certain victim mindsets want it. As it turns out, it meant nothing for the United States to have elected Barack Obama. Race relations have gotten worse and worse and there is such a disturbing willingness to be offended by slights caused by this stirred up hyper sensitized resentment. What a shame for our country.

planetgeo said...

Day after day, Clue: What kind of NYT nonsense...Answer: the communisity.

farmgirl said...

I’m watching Partner Track on Netflix- and just finished the episode on white fragility.
I’m thankful for all of the French-Quebec/frog jokes growing up or it might’ve given me the vapors.

I’ve never liked crossword puzzles. Word searches are so much easier. Must be the %unknown in my dna that makes me so.

Michael said...


America is well on its way to a Rwanda moment.

TickTock said...

I'm with Old and slow. I've taken the red pill, and if "white supremacy" is equated with western civilization, then I've taken the white pill as well.

Aggie said...

I notice that all of the information is contained in the white squares, and the black squares have...... nothing. They just take up room.

Am I doing this right? I'm being highly sarcastic, by the way. One of the things about dealing with the cutting edge is that one has to take its dullness into account.

Jersey Fled said...

I think I’m getting sick of all this.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The clue is the first line after “click for more” where the source of the new word and the TikTok personality is a “critical race scholar.” Well WTF? Every lefty on here and in media constantly says “no one is teaching critical race theory” and yet this racist viral video is proof that they were teaching are teaching and will continue to create “scholars” of this nonsense Marxist agitprop. I’m sick of the Old Gray Lady trying to start a race war, tired of a President and political class that constantly tries to fan the flames. But the fucking neverending gaslighting and disinformation spread by every damn entity that allegedly exists to “inform” the public and bring us facts.

They even have to turn a light hearted intellectual pastime into racial antagonism.

M Jordan said...

People vote with their feet. How is the world voting these days?

Cappy said...

Huh?

traditionalguy said...

A government of the people, by the people and for the people was paid for at Gettysburg where its white people fought to the death. The Scots Irish trial lawyer named Lincoln was the Republican genius that won that fight with a little help from his friends.

Hate that horrible culture at your own risk. They fight.

Kevin said...

Funny thing about crosswords. The ultimate symbol of white supremacy.

The white squares get letters and the black squares don’t!

Michael said...

Re "white supremacy": if your perceptions and policy prescriptions are not supported by history, economics, psychology or reason and sense, all you have left is name-calling.

Ancient Mariner said...

The newest racist/sexist stereotype: all the world's ills are the fault of white people, and most particularly white men.

wendybar said...

The New York Times is spreading White hate...just like the Biden Administration, the media and the Progressive left. THIS isn't going to end pretty.

Ancient Mariner said...

The newest racist/sexist stereotype: all the world's ills are the fault of white people, and most particularly white men.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Were they the ones who made the swastika on Yom Kippur? ...Oh no, that was the other publication of New York City Democrat Party members.

Earnest Prole said...

If everything is white supremacy then nothing is white supremacy.

Lincolntf said...

Gee whiz, the NYT squeezing in another opportunity to generate and encourage racial animus. Even in their silly puzzles. I guess NYT readers crave this stuff or the Times would stop doing it.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

It is most prominent in racial discussion, but can also be heard in gendered and BTQA+ conversations as well, the joyful adventure of showing how much more clever you are than others by finding a new expansion of the definition of words. It's a sport and a game, so it is unsurprising that it would find a home in word puzzles, where such ambiguities are considered a sign of superiority.

I am increasingly convinced by simple observation that puns are a soft sign of being on the spectrum, and the dark side of that, overinterpreting the meanings of others, is prominent in the trans and postmodern communities.

Owen said...

Michael @ 8:14: "...Rwanda moment."

Dude. Don't even say it.

Jupiter said...

"So, if you like just about anything the way it is, you may be a white supremacist."

You're taking a provincial view of the matter. In Africa, you would be a black supremacist. In Japan or China, a yellow supremacist. But you are onto something. When your goal is to overthrow the existing power structure, any aspect of the present dispensation becomes a potential point of attack. The present dispensation oppresses blacks, women, homosexuals, Muslims, wild animals, the Earth, wise Latinas, the Moon, indigenous peoples, etc. Whereas, once the current dispensation is overthrown, and you are in charge, it will be you doing all that oppressing. A much more satisfactory state of affairs.

wendybar said...

The "White Supremacist" that the media are telling us that the murderer in Texas was actually in the Cartel, but that doesn't fit the narrative of the open borders crowd...PROGRESSIVES.

John Burk
@johnburk1776
·
Follow
Replying to @MrAndyNgo
I have a source on the ground that has confirmed the shooter had cartel related tats. Allen is 20 minutes from me and it’s a predominately black mall. His victims where majority white. This wasn’t a race crime, this was a cartel hit.
7:20 PM · May 8, 2023

https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2023/05/09/andy-ngo-sheds-light-on-bizarre-reporting-about-allen-tx-mass-shooter-garcia-in-thread-receipts/

wendybar said...


Roy Nathanson
@roy_nathanson
·
Follow
Replying to @MrAndyNgo
If people want to argue that one doesn't have to be white to be a "white supremacist," then maybe it isn't about race...
8:04 PM · May 8, 2023

Bonkti said...

The term "white supremacy" is a terrific examp!e of a motte-and-bailey, a term loaded with the emotional freight of lynchings but, as Bump explains, attaches to all conservative ideas.

Saint Croix said...

What is quite common in our society is white people mocking other white people for their whiteness.

You also sometimes see black people mocking other black people for their blackness.

In general the idiotic "woke" idea that some races are superior to other races is poison, and anybody who jumps on board that program is destined to be mocked as a racist and a bad person. So stop it, you idiots, we're in the 21st century.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Caucasity Is the antonim of Perspicacity?

PM said...

The NYer needs to publish an annual staff photo.

Bailey Yankee said...

What about "Scratch Donald"? Do you think that was an accident?

gahrie said...

One of Biden's nominees was questioned by Congress for using the term "caudacity" in her tweets, and she refused to define it.

Michael K said...

Overeducated suburban white women get wrapped around the axle about nonsense like this. Meanwhile, South Africa becomes Zimbabwe as it sheds its "white Supremacy."

Ironclad said...

Caucasity is a racial slur - full stop. It’s a “polite slur” of course made up by some dime store “Dr of X studies” that pulled the C word out of ( fill in the blank place) to have the good wine sipping white cat ladies of NYC tittering in mock scandal.

Just wonder how it would go over if the Slimes puzzle guy used a phrase like “the Negracity” of a thing as a solution? I mean it’s got to be a real word doesn’t it? Because nature demands an anti particle be born as balance.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

If find it curious the White Left assume they are not park of the White-problem.

n.n said...

Caucasity, Slav, Jude, Downs Syndrome genetic isolation and viability, baby... fetal-baby, were/are characterizated in the blackest terms is the premise for a genocidal ideology.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Bump's "take" is evidently that you can so totes be both an Afro-Cuban and a white supremacist; a South American and a white supremacist; an Indian and a white supremacist; an Asian and a white supremacist. Just give any of these characters some trait that, in the writer's eyes, connotes "white supremacy," and you're basically done already.

The corollary is, of course, that people with the "correct" views can never, even by accident, stray from the proper path. If they do stray, it's because their views were insufficiently correct, see?

The worst thing I saw last week was Eugene Robinson referring to "Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio." Yep, the man was baptized "Henry." But he has used "Enrique" as his front-name since forever, and he's obviously Afro-Cuban. Why this petty dig? Because Robinson wants to obscure that the "white supremacist" is an Afro-Cuban, to the extent that he can.

n.n said...

Afro-Cuban and a white supremacist

Or the Tutsi white supremacists, then Hutu white supremacists, then Tutsi white supremacists, again, in their turn. The same in the South, where Mandela's Xhosa competed, then allied with trans/national white supremacist interests, to subjugate the Zulu, with native collateral damage. Obama's Kenyan elites vs Kenyan deplorables, etc.

n.n said...

America is well on its way to a Rwanda moment.

Or South Africa, where Xhosa and Zulu literally stab each other in the back, and deplorables are collateral damage in the woke of social progress, in a nation that legalized diversity [dogma] (e.g. racism, sexism, ageism), equity, inclusion (DEI) as their legal scripture.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"It really is white supremacy"

Any white person who believes that people of color need the help of white folks to improve their lives is a white supremist.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"It's a retarded definition, but that's by design. The entire purpose of the definition is to make ANYTHING THEY WANT be "white supremacist.""

Native Americans do that with land. They claim that ALL of Mother Earth is sacred to them. What that really means is, by making that claim, if they want control of a piece of property, they can simply play the "To our people, this is sacred land" card. Well here's the reality, if you don't actually own the land, you're in no position to control it's use.

Here in the Twin Cities, the current Progressive virtue signal is hiring a lawyer to have the racial covenants removed from the deeds to their property -- an empty gesture if ever there was one. But it does beg the question -- if you truly want your deed to correct any and all injustices of the past, why are you content not having the land's original Dakota ownership reflected on your deed? Because I'm sure there's a lawyer for that.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"I notice that all of the information is contained in the white squares, and the black squares have...... nothing. They just take up room."

The black squares were forced to attend substandard schools where they never were given an opportunity to learn the alphabet. And as such, all of the white squares must give them some of their letters. It's the reparatious thing to do.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

We are now being told by the media that the Hispanic man who drove his car into a group of migrants at a bus stop in Texas was a neo-Nazi. What other possible explanation could there be?

khematite said...

Kelisa Wing, chief of DEI education for the Defense department was relieved of her duties just a few weeks ago. She had generated some controversy a year earlier when she tweeted the following:

“I’m so exhausted at these white folx in these [professional development] sessions this lady actually had the CAUdacity to say black people can be racist too,” she wrote in one post from June 2020, using a portmanteau for “Caucasian audacity.”

A slightly different version of the word used in the crossword puzzle, but probably what brought the concept back into the limelight.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/23/woke-dod-official-kelisa-wing-reassigned-after-gop-highlights-anti-white-tweets/https://nypost.com/2023/03/23/woke-dod-official-kelisa-wing-reassigned-after-gop-highlights-anti-white-tweets/

Bunkypotatohead said...

Blacks don't do crossword puzzles or read the New Yorker.
The white folks writing this dreck are just talking to themselves.