SNEAK PEEK: A World Without White People

I wouldn't even call it a subtext, actually

“Ultimately, it’s just about resentment and hatred of white people. There’s nothing more to it than that.” That was my immediate response to the cover of the September 9^th edition of The New Yorker when I saw it a few days ago. The more I look at it, the more I feel my instinct was right. This isn’t harmless. Far from it.

Of course, if you asked the artist or anybody at The New Yorker what the cover’s supposed to mean, I’m sure they’d say something along the lines of, “Oh, this is about the ‘invisible labour’ performed by persons of colour in support of white middle-class Americans, without which white middle-class Americans would not be able to live their lives of comfort and privilege. We believe this is a particularly important moment to remind white people of the value of the tireless work performed by persons of colour, and in particular immigrants, because of the divisive rhetoric of Donald Trump and his supporters…” and so on. You get the idea. We’ve all heard it before. It’s trite.

But I think there’s more to it than that.

The message I get is much darker: Life would be so much better without white people. And, in particular, white children. Which is to say, white people shouldn’t reproduce.