Steve, have you checked out Sheena Mason and her "theory of racelessness"? I think you might be into it.
The explanation for race-conscious anti-racism I'm sympathetic to is the notion that, while color blindness (or "racelessness" as Mason calls it) is a wonderful goal, in the present day there is still a lot of racism. If there are no …
Steve, have you checked out Sheena Mason and her "theory of racelessness"? I think you might be into it.
The explanation for race-conscious anti-racism I'm sympathetic to is the notion that, while color blindness (or "racelessness" as Mason calls it) is a wonderful goal, in the present day there is still a lot of racism. If there are no black people, then there is, ipso facto, no racism--who's being discriminated against? If we can't classify the victims, it's hard to do anything about the discrimination. (I've always wanted to use the term ipso facto and now I have so my work here is done).
"I've always wanted to use the term ipso facto and now I have so my work here is done"
😁
Yeah, this point gets made a lot, and it's a fair one. We can't talk about racism without acknowledging that there's an idea called "race", based on the colour of people's skin, and that it affects the outcomes of people's lives. But I see this running pretty much completely in tandem with the day-to-day lives of people.
It's the difference between looking at people as demographics and looking at them as individuals. When I interact with my friends, colleagues, random people on the street, I do so as an individual. I want zero "race-consciousness" in those interactions. No white person I meet is responsible for any systemic obstacles I might have faced. I don't want them to pretend that they are. Let's just all be people together.
When trying to look at and fix racial disparities in society, a degree of race-consciousness might be necessary. But even here, what we're really looking at is the circumstances of groups.
There are disparities in wealth and home ownership and incarceration and crime and on and on between black people and white people. But Dave Chappelle and Jay-Z don't suffer from those issues, despite being black. The white single father struggling to make ends meet isn't better off in these areas than many black people. Now we need to think about causes and solutions.
There are many good reasons why some black people struggle more than they should have to. I believe passionately that these issues should be addressed. But if they're done in any kind of sensible way, maybe our white father will benefit too. That's good. And JayZ shouldn't benefit at all. That's good too.
I think we're already long past the point where "black people" need help. *Some* black people need help. And they should be helped because of the impact that racist policies had on them. Race consciousness is totally appropriate here. But we could also do a lot of good in a completely race-blind way. Let's help poor people. Let's invest in poor communities and struggling schools. These investments would disproportionately help black people, because black people were disproportionately harmed in the past. But in many cases, we'd do more good with this latter approach.
I love what you wrote here, especially about the non-racial class dimensions of wealth inequality. I tend toward universalist solutions too for pragmatic as well as ethical reasons. There's a bizarre thing happening in the US now where liberals are challenging the need for spending (i.e. Build Back Better) b/c it might, God forbid, help white men too much! It's like the inverse of what Heather McGhee talks about in The Sum of Us -- racist whites who oppose govt programs they desperately need just b/c they don't want black people to benefit. What a sad mess.
When it comes to interpersonal stuff, it's incredibly fraught b/c the governing anti-racist ideology says that, if a person of color says something is racist, it's racist, even if another person of color says it isn't. So, for example, if I (I'm white) compliment my black co-worker on something she wrote and say she's "articulate" (somehow that word has become a lightening rod), she might appreciate the compliment. But if another black co-worker calls me out for racism over that statement, then I'm racist, end of story. I really don't know how to handle those kinds of situations other than withholding praise for fear of it being interpreted as a microaggression.
Here's another one someone told me about: A white woman learned that her black co-worker was going to be a grandma. She congratulated her and then said, "You look too young to be a grandma." Racist.
Steve, have you checked out Sheena Mason and her "theory of racelessness"? I think you might be into it.
The explanation for race-conscious anti-racism I'm sympathetic to is the notion that, while color blindness (or "racelessness" as Mason calls it) is a wonderful goal, in the present day there is still a lot of racism. If there are no black people, then there is, ipso facto, no racism--who's being discriminated against? If we can't classify the victims, it's hard to do anything about the discrimination. (I've always wanted to use the term ipso facto and now I have so my work here is done).
"I've always wanted to use the term ipso facto and now I have so my work here is done"
😁
Yeah, this point gets made a lot, and it's a fair one. We can't talk about racism without acknowledging that there's an idea called "race", based on the colour of people's skin, and that it affects the outcomes of people's lives. But I see this running pretty much completely in tandem with the day-to-day lives of people.
It's the difference between looking at people as demographics and looking at them as individuals. When I interact with my friends, colleagues, random people on the street, I do so as an individual. I want zero "race-consciousness" in those interactions. No white person I meet is responsible for any systemic obstacles I might have faced. I don't want them to pretend that they are. Let's just all be people together.
When trying to look at and fix racial disparities in society, a degree of race-consciousness might be necessary. But even here, what we're really looking at is the circumstances of groups.
There are disparities in wealth and home ownership and incarceration and crime and on and on between black people and white people. But Dave Chappelle and Jay-Z don't suffer from those issues, despite being black. The white single father struggling to make ends meet isn't better off in these areas than many black people. Now we need to think about causes and solutions.
There are many good reasons why some black people struggle more than they should have to. I believe passionately that these issues should be addressed. But if they're done in any kind of sensible way, maybe our white father will benefit too. That's good. And JayZ shouldn't benefit at all. That's good too.
I think we're already long past the point where "black people" need help. *Some* black people need help. And they should be helped because of the impact that racist policies had on them. Race consciousness is totally appropriate here. But we could also do a lot of good in a completely race-blind way. Let's help poor people. Let's invest in poor communities and struggling schools. These investments would disproportionately help black people, because black people were disproportionately harmed in the past. But in many cases, we'd do more good with this latter approach.
I love what you wrote here, especially about the non-racial class dimensions of wealth inequality. I tend toward universalist solutions too for pragmatic as well as ethical reasons. There's a bizarre thing happening in the US now where liberals are challenging the need for spending (i.e. Build Back Better) b/c it might, God forbid, help white men too much! It's like the inverse of what Heather McGhee talks about in The Sum of Us -- racist whites who oppose govt programs they desperately need just b/c they don't want black people to benefit. What a sad mess.
When it comes to interpersonal stuff, it's incredibly fraught b/c the governing anti-racist ideology says that, if a person of color says something is racist, it's racist, even if another person of color says it isn't. So, for example, if I (I'm white) compliment my black co-worker on something she wrote and say she's "articulate" (somehow that word has become a lightening rod), she might appreciate the compliment. But if another black co-worker calls me out for racism over that statement, then I'm racist, end of story. I really don't know how to handle those kinds of situations other than withholding praise for fear of it being interpreted as a microaggression.
Here's another one someone told me about: A white woman learned that her black co-worker was going to be a grandma. She congratulated her and then said, "You look too young to be a grandma." Racist.
Oh, and thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out. My reading list is monstrous though so it'll probably be a while😅
Here's a short intro on youtube. https://youtu.be/YsJ6g2mDE3I