Modern racism is looking at the gigantic wealth divide between the median black and white household and saying it isn't a result of racism but rather the natural order of things. Modern racists have evolved past just flat out saying Black people are "low IQ". Now they tap dance with platitudes about "culture" and treat symptoms of systemic racism as root causes. Modern racism is also pretending that this country's foundation isn't built off of racism. This country was the last industrialized nation to end slavery and it required one of the bloodiest civil wars in world history and had a century long aftermath of supressing individual rights and economic activity of the black community.
Are many progressives racist? Yes. They are. But in a different way the the right. Racism is across the spectrum. My feeling it that progressives are more individually biased, and the right is more biased at a group level (and many at an individual). Racism is far and wide. But @dachuda86 sentiment reflects how pervasive racism is - and only counters the narrative that racism really doesn't exist today.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/07/what-is-problem-with-individualism-new.html July 17, 2021 "What is the problem with individualism?" — The New Yorker's Isaac Chotiner asks Robin DiAngelo From an interview titled "Robin DiAngelo Wants White Progressives to Look Inward/The author of 'White Fragility' discusses her new book, 'Nice Racism'": Your book is a critique of individualism, by which you mean, as you put it, "Our identities are not separate from the white supremacist society in which we are raised, and our patterns of cross-racial engagement are not merely a function of our unique personalities." What is the problem with individualism? Individualism cuts the person off from the very society that the concept of individualism is valued in. That’s the great irony, right? If we were in a more community-oriented or collective-oriented society, we wouldn’t value being an individual the way that we do. We have been conditioned to see that as the ideal, that every one of us is unique and special and different, and if you don’t know somebody specifically you can’t know anything about them. She's saying that individualism is not individualistic at all, but something we absorb as part of a group that deludes us into not seeing ourselves as part of the group. Posted by Ann Althouse at 7:55 AM
The "white" part here is more important than "progressive," as conservatives do at least half the things there as well, in additon to far far worse.
@dachuda86 isn't a progressive, which is the book is talking to. She isn't speaking to the right - she's saying that the left is racist as well (just like dachuda is) but for different reasons. People like Dachuda say the left is racist for inventing the KKK and slavery which makes no sense because the Democratic Party wasn't a left party back then. American politics wasn't divided like that. America was an openly white supremacist state for much of its history. One civil rights movement in the 60's didn't wipe racism off the map. But to think that the KKK is the only form of racism is ridiculous as well. You can't clean out racism from cultural norms easily and that's the point to take away. Bias exists and most don't even realize it. While some of it may seem ridiculous it does not invalidate the idea.
pretty entertaining review of Nice Racism https://taibbi.substack.com/p/our-endless-dinner-with-robin-diangelo
interview with Adolph Reed on DiAngelo and Nice Racism https://taibbi.substack.com/p/professor-adolph-reed-tells-white excerpt In the year since, Reed has become an involuntary casualty to an argument that has bizarrely come to dominate both the Democratic Party and the American left in general, the question of whether “class-not-race” politics is outdated and needs leaving behind. The debate itself is something of a red herring, especially with regard to Reed, who’s always been a “class and race” thinker — the “the greatest democratic theorist of his generation,” as Cornel West called him. However, he’s deeply at odds with “antiracist” thinkers like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram Kendi, which has put him on the outs with current intellectual fashion in some segments of the political left. In an interview with Katie Halper and me on Useful Idiots, Reed gives his take on DiAngelo’s White Fragility and Nice Racism. “I flirted with going to the seminary for about six or eight months when I was like 12, and I didn’t,” he says. “So I don’t need to hear her confession. I’m not interested in her confession.” Reed, who will be starting a podcast called Class Matters in the fall, went on to riff on a range of subjects, from antiracism to the future of the Democratic Party to academic freedom to Wesley Snipes movies and the agony of watching Billy Graham revivals. A partial transcript, edited for length . . . . more at the link
I know @fchowd0311 is disappointed that there aren't more os or tinman threads on the first page of the D&D, so just trying to help a brotha out with a bump
You guys need to go lookup the definition of "racist". Ring-wingers actively try to re-define that term and then liberals feel the need to go on the defense about it, which then validates how the term has now been redefined. Discussing or mentioning one's race isn't racist. Even treating somebody different because of race isn't necessarily racist. Being proud of yourself isn't racist. Celebrating different cultures isn't racist. What IS racist is having the belief that you are superior to somebody else on the basis of race. That's it.
I don't think you have been paying attention. It is the very progressive left that has been trying to redefine racism. The new definition is that racism = power + prejudice and that any racial disparities in outcome are proof of systemic racsim. Further, the current progressive orthodoxy is that ALL white people are racist and ONLY white people can be racist.
Oh, I'm paying attention. I just disagree with you. So using your formula, Progressive think: racism = power + prejudice Swing and a miss. Racism = racism. Systemic racism = power + prejudice Systemic racism ---> racial disparities Strawman: Progressives think ALL white people are racist. Wrong. Progressive DO say, however, that the American people that instituted systemic racism are white. That is a fact. 80/20 rule. Are there non-white racists in America? Definitely. But those folks didn't cause 80% of our problem. Why? Cause those non-white racists are not in power. Whites in America need to stop justifying that our country was founded on white supremacy. Just say it. My ancestors were white supremacists and that sucks. Stop justifying that behavior with non-sense about "state's rights". We've never publicly acknowledged our history as a nation so it just keeps hanging on. Just acknowledge it and then we can all move on. Let's stop getting all butt hurt about what is so clearly obvious. Germany doesn't argue the merits of having Nazi symbols in town squares. They said, woops, apologized, and moved on. If you want to learn about Hitler, you can go to any number of museums and learn all about it and they are open about how terrible it was. (*note: there are exceptions to every rule so everything I said is in generalities, not as absolute statements)
You think no pregressives think what I described? Do you think these are not progressives? That they are lying? You notice I include a range of people from black youtubers to white academics. Why are they all saying that ALL white people are racist and that black people can't be racist? You understand that it applies to the good and the bad, right? Also, it isn't broken down by race. I'm pretty sure we also have museums where you can learn all about racism in America and how terrible it was. Have you heard of the African American History Museum, as one example?
Yea, you can find anything on the Internet. Find a quote from somebody I've heard of. My point is, in general, that isn't the position of liberals. I stand by that. I don't understand what you are saying. That's an obtuse answer. On a daily basis, I see confederate flags. The insurrectionists flew the flag in the Capital buildings. In Germany, you don't see Nazi flags beyond museums. Period. The confederate flag is a symbol of treason and hatred. Why is it tolerated?
