simply grumble in private until they wake up one morningnand find that Afro Ed has become a required course in everynschool in America, and nobody will know how it happened.nHatred of truth is misanthropy in the fullest sense becausenit denotes a hatred of the human spirit at its most noble. ThenAlice-in-Wonderland insistence of IQ-test innovators thatndown is up, bad is good, low is high; and the hysterica}ncontention of Egyptomaniacs that white is literally black,nraise the question of whether blacks as a group are becomingnmisanthropic.nThey no longer regard whites as the only devils in theirnprivate hell. In recent years they have begun directingnbitter enmity at other races and ethnic groups; increasingly,nthey seem to be saying that anyone who is not black is white.nMiami is a flashpoint for black-Hispanic tensions. Blacknaccusations of brutality against Hispanic police pulsate withnthe same frenzied quality of similar cases against whitenpolice in the 60’s. They also are showing the same tendencynto turn into causes celebres, such as last year’s wellpublicizedntrial of an Hispanic officer who shot a blacknmotorcyclist who tried to run over him. The Miami policenforce itself has divided along racial lines: black officers havencharged that Hispanic officers are slow to respond tonback-up calls from them.nIn “Hispanics vs. Blacks in Houston,” about the ongoingnstruggle for municipal power, T^ewsweek reporter GinnynCarroll writes: “The reigning assumption seems to be thatnthe nation’s two largest minorities will have to duke it out,nwhile white control remains intact . . . the animus betweenn[Hispanics] and Houston blacks is likely to worsen.”nIn my own area, blacks have built up a head of steam overnnewly arrived Central Americans. Arlandria, a long-timenblack section of Alexandria, is now home to an enclave ofnSalvadorans and it is ready to boil over. “They can’t standneach other,” said a social worker.nA study by the University of Chicago’s PopulationnResearch Center suggests one reason why blacks resentnHispanics. The study found that Hispanics who werenperceived as white had little difficulty moving into whitensuburbs, while Hispanics who appeared to be black werensubject to the same discrimination patterns as Americanbornnblacks. Said study director Douglas S. Massey: “Hispanicsnare primarily white. They are apparently morenaccepted as neighbors than blacks.” Idealists will say thatnHispanics, having a foot in both camps, will “educate” theirnnew white neighbors, but anyone who knows how humannnature really works can see where this split is headed. As anHerman Wouk character put it: “The great unwashednworship the washed.”nBlack hostility toward Asians has mounted steadily in thenface of Asian business success, which many inner-city blacksnattribute to a government plot, and the superior academicnperformance of Asian students in tests that are supposedlynbiased in favor of whites. To make matters worse, anpersonality conflict freighted with irony has also emerged.nExplaining what it is about Asians that blacks don’t like, thenembattled Korean grocer whose Brooklyn store has been thentarget of a year-long black boycott told the Washington Post:n”Because we don’t laugh so much and don’t smile so much,nit doesn’t seem like we’re very kind people.” Blacks are nowndemanding smiling good cheer of Asians just as whitenSoutherners once demanded it of them.nIn Do the Right Thing, a desperate Korean about to benattacked by blacks cries, “Me no white. Me no white. Menblack.” But it does no good. To the attackers he is whitenbecause he is not black. The Virginia State EmploymentnCommission seems to think along the same lines. Accordingnto Richmond Times-Dispatch editor Robert Holland, whonunearthed a copy of it, the Commission has a conversionntable to help them rig aptitude-test scores on the basis of racen(a practice politely known as “score adjustments”). Blacksnand Hispanics are listed separately by name, but thencategory known as “Other” consists of whites — and Asians.nBlack anti-Semitism has taken the same bizarre turn. SaidnToni Morrison in Time: “What I find is a lot of black peoplenwho believe that Jews in this country, by and large, havenbecome white. They behave like white people rather thannJewish people.”nRachel Flick confronted the same attitude at a 1988nblack-Jewish conference in Atlanta convened to repair thendamage between the two groups. “What emerged innAflanta, moreover, was that interest in repairing the alliancenis one-sided,” said Flick. “For Jews of the Reform tradition,nas most of the civil-rights activists are, an alliance with thendowntrodden is an essential part of feeling Jewish. But fornblacks, Jews are white — a point tactfully and truthfullynofi^ered by Benjamin Hooks of the National Association fornthe Advancement of Colored People.”nAs a final fillip, blacks have thrown down the gaunflet tonfeminists. To repair the damage done to poor black males byntheir female-dominated, fatherless environments, the growingnmovement by black educators to segregate boys intonseparate classes, or even separate schools staffed exclusivelynby black male teachers, can only undermine the wholenconcept of sexual equality and re-invent Freudianism,ncomplete with new-old buzzwords like “emasculation.”nHispanics, Asians, Jews, women—blacks are flailing theirnway into misanthropy minority by minority, interest groupnby interest group, faction by faction. If it continues, ournOmnium Gatherum might well achieve a unity nobodynbargained for.nA few years ago, while having coffee in my favorite diner,nI eavesdropped on a conversation between two good olenboys who were discussing the race for the 1984 Democraticnpresidential nomination. This is what I overheard:n”Hey, T.J., you know whut?”n”Whuzzat, Dwayne?”n”If the Jews hate Jesse Jackson, they cain’t be too bad.”nPoliHcal scientists would call this a realignment but in factnit is a movement of the earth. If Dwayne and T.J. cannbecome good ole goys, anything can happen. If blacksncontinue on their misanthropic way they will eventuallyngoad the rest of the population into a monolithic white racenwith some only-in-America touches. Having given “ProtestantnEthic” a new meaning, Asians will increasingly think ofnthemselves, and be thought of, as white. The concept ofn”ethnics” will vanish altogether as all whites adopt thenEurocentrism of which we presently stand accused — andnWasps will finally stop describing as “foreign looking”nanyone who does not turn pink and blister after an hour innthe sun. <§>nnnMAY 1991/27n