"Also, even without recent redefinitions, when the same term is used for anything from lynchings to teaching kids standard English in school, it's both inherently confusing and easily weaponized to borrow extreme emotional valence from one end of the spectrum to exaggerate the seriousness of something at the other end. "Racism" has becom…
"Also, even without recent redefinitions, when the same term is used for anything from lynchings to teaching kids standard English in school, it's both inherently confusing and easily weaponized to borrow extreme emotional valence from one end of the spectrum to exaggerate the seriousness of something at the other end. "Racism" has become a huge amorphous blob concept, not much better than, say, "scientists say"."
I love this entire paragraph. It maps so well onto my frustration with the weaponisation of language and the flattening out of the concept of racism. We're at a point in society where I simply don't want to hear about people being asked "where are you from," or feeling like they're being watched too closely in their local convenience store.
Yes, this is racism, or racial stereotyping/bias, but there are so many more pressing problems affecting people of colour. And writing academic theses about it won't change the attitudes of the convenience store owner or the geographically curious stranger. The influence of academia on racial discourse (and, in fact, any social justice discourse) has been pretty much wholly negative.
Where I use the phrase "pretty much" solely to allow for the possibility that there's a positive case that I'm not currently thinking of.
THIS! Exactly. I have the same issue with feminism, which has gone down a similar path of treating the smallest slight as though it were necessarily an extension of a world conspiracy to subjugate and abuse women. There is a world of difference between being sexually assaulted, on the one hand, and being "mansplained" to by a dude who assumes I'm a helpless bimbo, on the other. I don't relish either experience, but they are worlds apart, and pretending they're not diminishes our perception of the harm caused by true victimization. Furthermore, claiming that 'society' is somehow responsible for enabling attitudes that necessarily lead to acts of rape minimizes the responsibility of actual rapists for their crimes.
"Also, even without recent redefinitions, when the same term is used for anything from lynchings to teaching kids standard English in school, it's both inherently confusing and easily weaponized to borrow extreme emotional valence from one end of the spectrum to exaggerate the seriousness of something at the other end. "Racism" has become a huge amorphous blob concept, not much better than, say, "scientists say"."
I love this entire paragraph. It maps so well onto my frustration with the weaponisation of language and the flattening out of the concept of racism. We're at a point in society where I simply don't want to hear about people being asked "where are you from," or feeling like they're being watched too closely in their local convenience store.
Yes, this is racism, or racial stereotyping/bias, but there are so many more pressing problems affecting people of colour. And writing academic theses about it won't change the attitudes of the convenience store owner or the geographically curious stranger. The influence of academia on racial discourse (and, in fact, any social justice discourse) has been pretty much wholly negative.
Where I use the phrase "pretty much" solely to allow for the possibility that there's a positive case that I'm not currently thinking of.
THIS! Exactly. I have the same issue with feminism, which has gone down a similar path of treating the smallest slight as though it were necessarily an extension of a world conspiracy to subjugate and abuse women. There is a world of difference between being sexually assaulted, on the one hand, and being "mansplained" to by a dude who assumes I'm a helpless bimbo, on the other. I don't relish either experience, but they are worlds apart, and pretending they're not diminishes our perception of the harm caused by true victimization. Furthermore, claiming that 'society' is somehow responsible for enabling attitudes that necessarily lead to acts of rape minimizes the responsibility of actual rapists for their crimes.