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 …
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.
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.