After writing this, I thought better of it and never published it, which is why it cuts off abruptly. The person was arguing that I wasn’t understanding Cornell West or his points and thus my criticism had no relevance. They also made some allusions to the Navi from Avatar and their ideas of collective socialContinue reading “In response to a critique of “On being seen” “
Tag Archives: Race
On “being seen”
(From an online forum discussing Cornell West, who is especially fond of this phrase) I don’t understand the obsession with “being seen”. Or how much or what kind of being seen it is that would make people happy, or whether that kind of feeling is something that someone else, even magical white people, can grantContinue reading “On “being seen””
Third time is the charm
This is a series of stabs I made at responding to criticism of “on expectations and minority experience”. The objection raised was essentially this: “Imagine a situation where you are good at things but no one ever gives you a chance and you get rejected entirely because of prejudice. And everyone is racist, and that’sContinue reading “Third time is the charm”
On expectations and minority experience
When I walk into a gym, no one assumes I’m a professional basketball player. And they’re right. There aren’t a lot of short, Dutch basketball players. When my wife and girls show up somewhere wearing lovely and stylish outfits, people don’t assume that I bought them and put them together. And it’s very likely thatContinue reading “On expectations and minority experience”
Reading racial animus into life
It’s strange how much the internet distorts things. If I listened to the internet, black people hate and resent me and want me to be put in my place for my crimes. But as a churchgoer and neighbor and parent and employer and owner of an ice cream store, black people are just people likeContinue reading “Reading racial animus into life”
In response to Ibrim X Kendi
By his arguments there really isn’t such a thing as anti-racism. It’s just the opposing racism. It’s just labeling to justify a particular type of racism. Which, if you believe in a very relativistic worldview that’s only defined by power dynamics, what other alternatives are there? I’ll give him this, his position follows from hisContinue reading “In response to Ibrim X Kendi”
What is racism?
It is not the assignment of negative characteristics by race. It’s the reduction of identity to a single factor, race. It’s saying that you are your race, leaving no room for the individual. That’s racism. It’s ideological. It’s a way of seeing all value, interpreting all action, making all value judgments, as if race wereContinue reading “What is racism?”
Discrimination
The idea of discrimination is a tough one to crack. People use the word pejoratively, and use it specifically as a justification for the enactment of legal powers and penalties against organizations and individuals. In a purely common sense manner, though, there is no such thing as outlawing discrimination. All thought, all value assignment, allContinue reading “Discrimination”
A comment in Do Progressives Care About Jews?
https://youtu.be/F_tk9z3OpcQ Can we coin the term Jewish Fragility? It sounds like his main complaint is simply that identity politics is inconsistent. And his second complaint is that one of the areas it isinconsistent is regarding Jews, his own personal domain where he’s invested. If it’s going to exist, then, it should at least include Jews,Continue reading “A comment in Do Progressives Care About Jews?”
On John McWhorter
https://youtu.be/-D9LZdjnxKk I love John. I adore him and I think he’s a genius. He’s one of my favorite people to listen to. He’s so articulate and kind. And he has a good sense of when something has gone wrong, and seeks to correct it. He has a clear idea of what black America shouldn’t doContinue reading “On John McWhorter”
A final letter to KXYZ
You have lost me as a viewer permanently. This special is not news, this is political re-education. These “bias” trainings have not been shown to be effective, in fact there is a great deal of evidence that they cause and perpetuate the problems they intend to address. They are not based in a well-grounded orContinue reading “A final letter to KXYZ”
From a conversation with a journalist
Hello, I had some concerns about the reporting in this story. I’m going to assume that this story is not completely unidimensional, and that there are people other than those who say it is all racism, although that is not apparent from the story itself. I am not saying, myself, that using such mascots andContinue reading “From a conversation with a journalist”
My application to the DEI board
As DEI programs become more commonplace across the country, it is very easy for such processes to become mired in political concerns and personal and social conflicts. It is easy for them to become reactive, focused on deflecting complaints and liability, rather than on the production of excellence in education. I believe that part ofContinue reading “My application to the DEI board”
A letter to the superintendent
I read in the newsletter about the DEI initiative. I understand that there is a big push in all public and private institutions to engage in a voluntary inquisition to root out alleged white supremacy and systemic racism, and I appreciate the need to address the concerns of customers or people who make use ofContinue reading “A letter to the superintendent “
On Shelby Steele
Reading Shelby’s book last year really changed how I understand not just America, but all kinds of things about all kinds of societies. I think he’s onto something about people in general and how moral-religious rituals in cultures center around guilt and absolution and the creation of a priestly class who gain moral (and perhapsContinue reading “On Shelby Steele”
Rehabilitating racism
Anti-racism is a problem because it represents a rehabilitation of racialized thinking. Rather than seeking to reduce the degree to which we assign value and make judgments and sort people according two race, it moves those judgments to the forefront. We’ve seen from history where that goes. The most likely result of such mental sortingContinue reading “Rehabilitating racism”
Diagnosis White Privilege: a skin condition or a heart condition?
I’ve never felt the need to respond to or say anything about Robin DiAngelo and her little book. It never seemed like there was anything there worth responding to, it’s so obviously vacuous. But I suppose you can’t really argue with millions of copies sold and hundreds of mandatory trainings in workplaces. In my ownContinue reading “Diagnosis White Privilege: a skin condition or a heart condition? “
Random Tangent on History
(excerpted from an older entry) It’s an interesting fact that our political parties seem to have organized themselves broadly based on personality. I have a theory for why this may have happened. Partly it may just be an inevitable consequence of having enough people, and, since personality variation is a huge natural element of humanContinue reading “Random Tangent on History”
Why Systemic Racism?
I get now why they were calling it institution racism and systemic racism. They had to call it that to develop the argument that would allow them to enact their own institutional and systemic racism as a coubter-balance. Ironically, their accomplished this by shifting the meaning of institutional and systemic (formalized), for situations where thisContinue reading “Why Systemic Racism?”
Incitement to violence and Christianity
Kill the white devils! Viva la revolution! The key difference between King and many other revolutionaries who have preached similar ethics about the need to directly overturn systems of order for the sake of justice is that King was deeply committed to the doctrine of Christian love as the guiding and restraining principle that tamedContinue reading “Incitement to violence and Christianity”
Making Nobody Happy 