NYC's Persistent Issue with Race Relations

The New Yorker, a renowned journalistic and literary magazine, has found itself at the centre of a media storm, following the publication of controversial old posts by one of its staff writers, Doreen St. Felix.

St. Felix, who joined the publication a few years after graduating from Brown University, has been criticised for her writings containing racial vitriol and defamation. The posts, which were written during the Black Lives Matter era, include statements such as "Whiteness fills me with a lot of hate", "Whiteness must be abolished", and "White terrorism is a redundant phrase".

Christopher F. Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of "America's Cultural Revolution", published screenshots of St. Felix's controversial posts, leading to a media uproar. The posts, which also contain statements about the abolition of whiteness and white people, have raised questions about the single standard of civility and honesty in public life.

Wesley Yang, a social critic, summarised the issue with the question: "Should there be a single standard of civility, decency, and honesty that excludes this kind of poisonous racial vitriol and defamation from public life or will we continue to give license to it so long as it is directed at white people?"

The New Yorker, which has declared itself an "anti-racist" institution and has set racial quotas in hiring, has faced calls for St. Felix to make a public apology or for her to be fired. Some writers have even called for the magazine to reconsider its hiring practices, arguing that it has hired writers like St. Felix to provide "representation" of favoured demographic groups and a certain flavour of opinion.

However, the New Yorker, which maintains a reputation as a serious, high-quality journalistic and literary magazine, known for in-depth reporting and cultural commentary, has remained silent on the matter. The publication has blocked Rufo from engaging with its posts on the same platform, a rare move from a national publication.

The term "tricknological", used in St. Felix's writings, was coined by the Nation of Islam, led by Louis Farrakhan, who never concealed his hatreds in euphemism or intellectualization. The controversy surrounding St. Felix's posts has brought attention to the complexities of race relations in modern society and the need for a single standard of civility and honesty in public life.

St. Felix has written essays for the New Yorker on various topics, including a recent piece about actress Sydney Sweeney. The essay was criticised for making a comparison between Sweeney and a "fantasy 'Aryan princess'" and contrasting her with "the Black man's hunger for ass."

As the controversy continues to unfold, the New Yorker faces questions about its commitment to journalistic integrity and its hiring practices. The affair has sparked a broader debate about the role of race in public life and the need for a single standard of civility and honesty in all discourse.