Yes, we can agree to disagree on this particular topic. I'm sorry that your community seems so hostile to people different from them. But the jurists ruling against Affirmative Action are applying a principal that discrimination based on skin color is wrong. There are black intellectuals (Glenn Loury, etc) who agree that AA is wrong and …
Yes, we can agree to disagree on this particular topic. I'm sorry that your community seems so hostile to people different from them. But the jurists ruling against Affirmative Action are applying a principal that discrimination based on skin color is wrong. There are black intellectuals (Glenn Loury, etc) who agree that AA is wrong and moreover ineffective. One can be anti-AA and yet believe in equal civil rights for all groups.
But I won't try to convince you of this. I believed what you believed until recently. I will note that many of the anti-racism activists who preach skin-color essentialism (dividing us into affinity groups, accusing many of us of unconscious racism) also tend to endorse the gender stereotypes common in trans activism. I think it consistent to resist essentialism in all its forms whatever the identity attribute.
But don't listen to me! The trans stuff has unmoored me from all my formerly rock solid beliefs! Best wishes for the New Year!
No, we are not going to agree to disagree on this topic, and wishing me a happy New Year doesn't end the conversation. If you don't believe that racism exists in the U.S. except in a few "pockets", you are most likely a racist yourself. The evidence is all around us to be seen. It isn't hidden, and there are no economic or social factors keeping it in place. It is being kept in place by racist people, not just the people who are openly racist, but the ones who pretend there isn't a real problem. The world that you seem to believe in -- one in which all our problems will work out because people are essentially rational and honest -- just doesn't exist.
I'm living in a white community, not because I want to, but because this was where my mother lived in her final years, and once I was here (to watch over her), I decided to stay because I didn't have a car and finding a new place without a car isn't easy. When I was looking for a roommate about five years ago, a black man showed up on a bicycle to see the apartment. The first thing he said was that he was sorry for not telling me he was black. It was clear that he was terrified to be in a white neighborhood. He was afraid he'd be stopped by the police just for biking through the area. This is just one experience I've had. At 73, I've had a lot of them.
By the way, the people who divide society into "affinity groups" are the racists, not the ones who just want everyone to get along. Identity politics was put in place by the bigots precisely because THEY are the ones who hate this group, hate that group, hate this group, hate that group -- don't you see? That forces the rest of us to see the world in the same "essentialist" way that they do so that we can fight their bigotry.
Haven't you noticed that the people who hate one group tend to hate them all? The same person who hates blacks will also hate homosexuals and will also hate Jews and will also be a misogynist. It all ties together. They hate everyone who is different from them. In other words, THEIR group (whatever it is -- usually white, male, straight and Christian) is the "essential" group, and all the others are hated.
Your "essentialism" argument is backfiring on you.
Yes, we can agree to disagree on this particular topic. I'm sorry that your community seems so hostile to people different from them. But the jurists ruling against Affirmative Action are applying a principal that discrimination based on skin color is wrong. There are black intellectuals (Glenn Loury, etc) who agree that AA is wrong and moreover ineffective. One can be anti-AA and yet believe in equal civil rights for all groups.
But I won't try to convince you of this. I believed what you believed until recently. I will note that many of the anti-racism activists who preach skin-color essentialism (dividing us into affinity groups, accusing many of us of unconscious racism) also tend to endorse the gender stereotypes common in trans activism. I think it consistent to resist essentialism in all its forms whatever the identity attribute.
But don't listen to me! The trans stuff has unmoored me from all my formerly rock solid beliefs! Best wishes for the New Year!
No, we are not going to agree to disagree on this topic, and wishing me a happy New Year doesn't end the conversation. If you don't believe that racism exists in the U.S. except in a few "pockets", you are most likely a racist yourself. The evidence is all around us to be seen. It isn't hidden, and there are no economic or social factors keeping it in place. It is being kept in place by racist people, not just the people who are openly racist, but the ones who pretend there isn't a real problem. The world that you seem to believe in -- one in which all our problems will work out because people are essentially rational and honest -- just doesn't exist.
I'm living in a white community, not because I want to, but because this was where my mother lived in her final years, and once I was here (to watch over her), I decided to stay because I didn't have a car and finding a new place without a car isn't easy. When I was looking for a roommate about five years ago, a black man showed up on a bicycle to see the apartment. The first thing he said was that he was sorry for not telling me he was black. It was clear that he was terrified to be in a white neighborhood. He was afraid he'd be stopped by the police just for biking through the area. This is just one experience I've had. At 73, I've had a lot of them.
By the way, the people who divide society into "affinity groups" are the racists, not the ones who just want everyone to get along. Identity politics was put in place by the bigots precisely because THEY are the ones who hate this group, hate that group, hate this group, hate that group -- don't you see? That forces the rest of us to see the world in the same "essentialist" way that they do so that we can fight their bigotry.
Haven't you noticed that the people who hate one group tend to hate them all? The same person who hates blacks will also hate homosexuals and will also hate Jews and will also be a misogynist. It all ties together. They hate everyone who is different from them. In other words, THEIR group (whatever it is -- usually white, male, straight and Christian) is the "essential" group, and all the others are hated.
Your "essentialism" argument is backfiring on you.