I Am Shocked. SHOCKED!!

Last week, a friend who follows my writing, pointed out that “progressives” have been the target of a lot of my ire recently. And it’s true. The reason being, and I can’t stress this enough, that I have nothing but the purest, white-hot disdain for what passes for “progressive” in 2022.

It’s not just that I disagree with progressive talking points (although I often do), it’s not just that the rhetoric is meaningless, self-serving performance art (although it often is), it’s that today’s “progressives” are constantly centring themselves over the communities they’re supposed to be supporting.

In my article, BIPOC Is The New Ni**er, I took issue with this latest in a long line of terms used to collectivise and label people, all while making it harder to solve the problems they face.

Today’s conversation features two readers, and, for once, we all agree! But they both offer fantastic insights into the problem:

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M:

This even more powerful writing than usual. I am more a left leaning independent than anything else. Most of what I see in my neighborhood is performative wokeness. It sure seems to me that most of the people who claim to care about racism and oppression just want to feel superior to non woke people. They don’t really even care that much about black people. They are as blind to systemic racism as anyone.

If we focused on dismantling the forces that STILL concentrate poverty in particular neighborhoods, and helping people become middle class, I suspect even racism would improve. I actually don’t think that many people are racist. They are racially biased. And their bias is based on real observations.

But they never stop to wonder if there are explanations for what they see other than race. I live in an upscale community sandwiched between two areas of concentrated black poverty. It has been this way at least 50 years. There are schools that rank 10 out a 10 in my neighborhood less than 2 miles from schools that rank 2 out 10. The dividing lines are very sharp. I could walk less than 2 miles in two different directions and suddenly be in high crime, high drug use, low employment, high poverty areas.

Most of the crime in my neighborhood is imported from those areas. All the moms in my neighborhood with BLM signs in their front yard would IMMEDIATELY pull their kids out of public school if they thought there was ANY chance their kids would be in class with kids from those nearby areas of minority poverty.

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Steve QJ:

I was looking for a section to highlight but just agreed so hard with the entire thing that I couldn't choose. Perfectly said. This is exactly the problem. The performance has become the whole game for too many people. That's why these communities so rarely actually have their voices heard.

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Joslyn:

I shared this with [M] above, but wanted to share this with you too, because "the performance has become the whole game for too many people." I'll go one step further, the performance HAS BEEN the game for a long time, folks are just now catching up to the grift...

I worked for a Community Based Organization, CBO, some years back. We were education based, and our "clients" were very rough, failing schools in tough neighborhoods, and overwhellmingly black students. In fact, in the 5 years that I worked there, I could count on one hand how many schools I taught in that had white students. The overarching sentiment was that we were doing "great work" for these students. Nevermind that our curricullum contained language that they just didn't understand and called it "corny" all the time. While they were being so proud of their work, they failed to realize how much it wasn't working. They really thought that a bunch of us going in few hours afterschool was going to make significant cultural changes, because that's what's really needed, a change in midset. We just didn't have that much power.

But did that stop them from taking their money for services rendered??? No, it didn't. And, this company targeted these schools, selling a cardboard dream. And can you guess what the racial and political makeup of the executive staff?? Mostly white progressive, far-left liberals. Surprised? Eventually, I had to leave, like many of us. We were just too uncomfortable with what was happening in front of us. Plus the work kills you...

This is extra: In one of my schools, I was held-up at gunpoint. A gun to my face...They took the kids coats, it was January in NYC, so very cold. But these kids had fierce fabulous wardrobes, despite living in very ecomonically depressed communities. When I informed the company, they brushed it off!! And I had to finish out the school year. I fell into a deep depression. And they brushed it off because it didn't fit into their narrative. They were willing to put our lives in danger just to keep up the charade.

And BTW, the service fees were exorbitant, the executive staff was paid handsomely, and we, the teaching artists, who did the brunt work, saw maybe 30% of it as pay. Go figure...

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Steve QJ:

And can you guess what the racial and political makeup of the executive staff?? Mostly white progressive, far-left liberals. Surprised?

Thanks so much for this. And yes, as you can imagine, I am shocked. SHOCKED!! 😒

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It’s been noted many times in many different ways, that nobody relinquishes privilege voluntarily. And, for the most part, this is fine.

Racial justice is not a zero sum game. White people don’t need to lose in order for black people to gain. In fact, it doesn’t even make sense to think about societal problems in terms of of “black people’s gains”and “white people’s losses.” We’re not sports teams. Society benefits when the maximum number of human beings are living the best possible life, and this should be the goal. The end.

Instead of squabbling about abstractions like whether black people can be racist, or where we each rank on the victimhood ladder, the focus should be on fixing the very real problems faced by very real people. Problems that are rarely spoken about outside of their communities. If progressives want to make meaningful progress, it’s time to stop speaking for these people and start listening to them.