Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
So Melody perhaps inaccurately used skin color as a proxy, which is somewhat understandable given the rough overlap between African American subcultures and African American looking people themselves. But it is VERY rough as you point out.
So I think we agree.
The alienation I was referring to among my daughter’s Irvington students had little or nothing to do with DEI or progressive anti racist ideas. This stuff has very little if any presence in the really poor African American
areas where my daughter worked. She was referring instead to a broad feeling among her students that they had no place or future in the broader culture. A lot of these kids just think they are worth shit. As a teacher this lack of self confidence was by far her biggest hurdle.
When she changed to a more affluent integrated school in DC, the DEI crap hit her like a shitstorm. She is now in disciplinary proceedings for a “name based micro aggression” brought by the parents of a hyper entitled African American kid. She forgot that she was in a new environment. This would NEVER happen in her previous Newark and Irvington schools.
So yes the alienation derived from anti racist dogma is rampant and destructive. But it is not the real cause of the other type of alienation experienced in the poorest and most segregated African American neighborhoods in her experience.
Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
So Melody perhaps inaccurately used skin color as a proxy, which is somewhat understandable given the rough overlap between African American subcultures and African American looking people themselves. But it is VERY rough as you point out.
So I think we agree.
The alienation I was referring to among my daughter’s Irvington students had little or nothing to do with DEI or progressive anti racist ideas. This stuff has very little if any presence in the really poor African American
areas where my daughter worked. She was referring instead to a broad feeling among her students that they had no place or future in the broader culture. A lot of these kids just think they are worth shit. As a teacher this lack of self confidence was by far her biggest hurdle.
When she changed to a more affluent integrated school in DC, the DEI crap hit her like a shitstorm. She is now in disciplinary proceedings for a “name based micro aggression” brought by the parents of a hyper entitled African American kid. She forgot that she was in a new environment. This would NEVER happen in her previous Newark and Irvington schools.
So yes the alienation derived from anti racist dogma is rampant and destructive. But it is not the real cause of the other type of alienation experienced in the poorest and most segregated African American neighborhoods in her experience.