According to the Smithsonian, it is acting white to be rational, independent, and decisive.

The ideological parallels between Democrats in Lincoln’s time and the establishment white left today continue to amaze me. That non-whites are shiftless, aimless, unable to manage their resources, and so need a government overseer to make decisions for them, to direct their work, and that they, the white left, are ready and willing to take on this thankless job and so deserve the fruits of their charges’ labor, could have come straight from the mouth of a George Fitzhugh or a Stephen Douglas.

Douglas, the Democrat famous for the pro-slavery side of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, argued that “the Negro” needed government overseers, because they were inferior to whites. They were incapable of “self-government”, he said. They couldn’t manage their affairs as whites could, they didn’t have the work ethic of whites, they couldn’t reason as well as whites.

All history has proved that in no part of the world, or the world's history, had the Negro ever shown himself capable of self-government… whenever any one man or set of men were incapable of taking care of themselves, they should consent to be governed by those who are capable of managing their affairs for them.

Surely, he rhetorically asked his Republican opponent, you wouldn’t say that blacks and whites are equal?

Yes I would, said Lincoln, although he did so in an I come here not to praise Caesar but to bury him sort of way.

…there is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence—the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man… in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. — Abraham Lincoln (First Joint Debate at Ottawa)

Today we find the white left returning to its mire—if they’ve ever left it—and arguing again that certain benefits of civilization are for whites alone. They’ve put it in a Smithsonian infographic that attributes to whites the scientific method, rational thought, self-reliance, and time management. How is this any different from Douglas? It makes the same arguments, that it is whites who can plan ahead, it is whites who can use reason, it is whites who can make decisions.

If it is whites who can make decisions, who will make decisions for non-whites?

Stephen Douglas had the same answer as the modern white left. We will take this burden.

They’ll take that burden at restaurants. It’s why white activists see no incongruity with lecturing to (screaming at, really) black customers at a restaurant. Those customers need to be ridden, hard, if they’re not making the right choices. And who has the right choices? The white left. Their purpose among Democrats today is much like the Klan’s purpose for earlier Democrats: remind everyone, especially minorities, who is in charge, violently if necessary.

They’ll take that burden on protest lines. Officer Jakhary Jackson, a black officer in Portland, finds it impossible to engage with blacks on the streets, because white protestors take over the conversation.

[Officer] Jackson said people of color will frequently come up to speak to him during protests to ask him what he thinks about the death of George Floyd or some other issue. But inevitably when he tries to engage with these people, “someone white comes up ‘F the police. Don’t talk to him.'” Jackson said that after a while he could see it coming.

When a young African-American girl came up to him at a recent protest to ask why he wouldn’t speak to the protesters he said he started to explain that every time he tried to do so a white protester would cut him off. Jackson said, “right when I said that this white girl pops right in front of her.” The girl was amazed and said, “He just said that was going to happen.” Jackson said to the girl, “I told you.”

Jackson then said to the white girl who had interrupted, “I’ve been called the N-word. She’s been called the N-word. Why are you talking to me this way? Why do you feel that she can’t speak for herself to me? Why is it that you feel you need to speak for her when we’re having a conversation?” The white girl replied, “Someone told me to do it.”

It isn’t about ending racism. It’s about using it, to make decisions for inferior peoples who need the white left to direct their lives.

This is why a statue of Abraham Lincoln—who ended slavery in the United States—erected by former slaves in gratitude for his standing strong against the expansion of slavery was, and remains, threatened. It isn’t slavery that the white left is against.

It’s why a statue of Frederick Douglass—one of the most effective anti-slavery activists of American history and a former slave—was torn down. Acting independent, say the white left, is acting white.

Lincoln’s response to Douglas could just as well be a response to the modern white left. Their arguments are nothing new, and there is no good in them.

They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people—not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument and this argument of the judge is the same old serpent that says, “You work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it.” — Abraham Lincoln (The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln)

The white stereotypes in the infographic are mostly harmless. Bland food? My Italian forebears disagree but frankly couldn’t care less. The non-white stereotypes, however, are the same excuses for slavery that racists have put forward since race-based slavery began. The white left today, as they did in Lincoln’s time, believe that people of color are better off for being ridden.

And so today the most racist thing Lincoln said is not his occasional political expediency, or his bury-Caesar rhetorical constructions, but his most direct assertion that all men are created equal.

Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal. — Abraham Lincoln (Speech at Chicago)

Today, the media wold be all over Lincoln for saying that, just as they’re all over people for saying that all lives matter. This, say today’s white left, is racist. Everything that gave us civilization comes from whites, and to claim that non-whites as well as whites are capable of reason, science, and independence is racist. It has always been racist. The white left once again echoes Orwell and asks, “How many fingers am I holding up, America?” as they redefine the English language. As Douglas did when he defended slavery and dependence over a century ago, they tell us that racism is enlightenment. Equality is racist. Slavery is freedom.

For other people, of course.