4 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Charlotte's avatar

Steve, you wrote, “Sadly, people like Thomas don’t get to feel like the heroes of a story of systemic racism unless they insist that they still hold power over every black person.”

I don’t know if that’s what Thomas’s real motivation is or not, but I think it’s really interesting that you think that’s his motivation. And maybe you’re right. But I’m curious - why or how does a narrative about systemic racism make a white person who espouses this narrative into a hero?

Expand full comment
Steve QJ's avatar

"But I’m curious - why or how does a narrative about systemic racism make a white person who espouses this narrative into a hero?"

No, to be fair I was being a little flippant here. I don't necessarily think Thomas' intentions are bad or consciously self-serving.

There's a certain kind of white liberal who derives their sense of self (and significant social credit) from repeating tropes about systemic racism, white supremacy, etc. Their style of argumentation is built almost entirely around arguments that strip people of colour of agency, even though they make their arguments in the name of "defending" them. And my issue is that this kind of shallow analysis hardly ever does anything to help.

So when Thomas brings examples of voting laws into a discussion about whether or not a person of colour saying she wants to kill random white people is racism, it feels like an attempt to shoehorn the "antiracist talking points du jour" into a conversation rather than think about the issue seriously. I don't think he would, or should, be trying to make similar justifications for a white person saying the same thing.

And I think a common motivation for doing this (even if not always conscious) is to demonstrate that he's one of the "good ones."

Expand full comment
Charlotte's avatar

I am surrounded by the certain type of white liberals who derive social credit from repeating tropes about racism. It’s why I read your blog, so I can stay sane.

An anecdote (but first, some background): I’m from Canada. There aren’t a lot of black folks where I'm from, but those who are are fully integrated at every level of society. We don’t have separate neighborhoods like you all do here, and when you meet a black person in the course of your day, you just … treat them like you would any other person, because duh, they are.

So I came to America and I didn’t know the ropes. First off, I needed a daycare for my daughter that was open evenings, and the only one I could find in my area was run by a black lady and had all black kids. I was concerned for maybe a minute that the kids might treat my blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter differently, but I figured we’d give it a try.

So when I told my white liberal mom friends about this, I got some gasps, and then congratulations for being so “radical” as to send my white kid to an all black daycare. One mom confided in me that even though “diversity was a really important value” for her, that she wouldn’t send her kid to an all-black school.

So yeah. I know the phenomenon you’re talking about.

I've had a lot of weird moments in America - like walking up to the black neighbor kid to ask him if he knew what time it was. The expression on his face told me that a white neighbor lady walking up to ask a black teenage boy what time it is is NOT a normal occurence here. He looked positively terrified, and then visibly relieved when he realized I wasn't getting ready to call the cops.

In another moment of social brilliance, I invited another black neighbor family to a party with a bunch of white mom friends. The black family sat all together in a corner and only talked to each other, and the white moms didn't even seem to really notice. (By this time I was starting to feel like my Canadian ideas about racial integration were possibly just making everyone uncomfortable.)

All this awkward social stuff was really strange to me because nothing like this ever happened back home. But I'm pretty convinced now that America is so steeped in racism that people can't even see it in the mirror, not even when they're looking for it with a magnifying glass.

Expand full comment
Passion guided by reason's avatar

I think there might be some rich discussion in neutrally parsing the experiences you describe. In particular, having lived in the various parts of the US for many decades, I perceive a lot of what you describe as having become more common with the advent of race conscious ideology. My experience was of race mattering less and less to ordinary people over the decades, with the easily understood and widely supported aspiration of achieving a race neutral society (aka, "color blind"). In that light, I observed historic shifts in attitude and statistics over my lifetime. We were aiming for your description: "when you meet a black person in the course of your day, you just … treat them like you would any other person, because duh, they are."

Indeed, if I go to my pharmacy to get a prescription filled, the race of the pharmacist is not highly salient, and I might not remember for long.

However, starting a couple of decades ago and accellerating, that vision was vehemently denounced as "color blindness", and strongly labeled as racist. Yep, by today's anti-racist ideological standards, what you described in Canada would be considered a manifestation of white supremacy. Cafeterias become voluntarily segregated. Explicit hostile stereotypes of whites became acceptable speech while anything vaguely negative about Blacks became sinful, and punished (rather than being against both). Differences and conflicts became vastly more common in the media and public life, than discussion of similarities and shared interests/values.

SInce then, I see a lot more of the kind of behavior you mention. It seems as if trust and acceptance and mutual good will have substantially eroded, backsliding from decades of progress.

It's still dramatically less racially biased than the world of my youth. But the trend has reversed in many ways.

I understand some of the reasoning presented by the advocates, but I disagree that the prescribed strategies will yield the promised outcomes.

I personally still value the kind of world you grew up in (where individuals of all races are just treated as ... duh, people) as a valid goal, and I know that even happens in some places today. I see neighbors of different races party together, work on projects together, help each others. But that perspective seems more under siege than supported by the elites today.

Occasionally there is a positive story of interracial kindness or cooperation on Quora or Medium. Just read the comments. The people who are disgusted by and hostile to such stories are not coming from the racially prejudiced within the right. To me it has become pretty obvious which subset of political ideologies is most influentially pushing racial trust and discord. It took me a while to recognize that, because the faction is nominally on my side of the political spectrum, and it's much more emotionally satisfying to focus on denouncing the immoral moron comprising "the other side", than to look more objectively at the reality.

I hasten to add, that as this division has become valorized by Critical Social Justice ideology, there has also been some resurgence of intolerance from the other side. That's the problem with conflict-centric social change philosophies, they can easily turn into mutually reinforcing polarization, where the abuses and intolerance of both sides is justified by that of "the other side".

I am a critic of that strategy, even if there is substantial overlap between the values and those which at least nominally motivate said strategies. A dysfunctional strategy doesn't become functional because just it's nominal intention is laudable.

----------

I'm curious about your experience with the daycare. Did it work out well for you?

Expand full comment