7 ms·
Wokeademia
- ARandomerDude 7y agoPlot twist: MLK's words are no longer considered #woke enough. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
- nkozyra 7y agoWhat am I missing? What's the wokeness test this fails?
- ARandomerDude 7y agoRead the article.
- nkozyra 7y ago1) I did 2) this type of comment is discouraged
- nkozyra 7y agoJust to be clear, the article cites mlk's quote not as "not woke enough" but rather as a commonly invoked cover for ignoring inequality. Often people employ it as a way to dismiss discussion of race and institutional inequality. People are tired of that. MLK's dream remains unfulfilled, so using it as some representation of an imaginary Utopia of modern America is lazy. I'm hoping you saw that.
- monoideism 7y agoThere are folks who see very clearly that MLK's dream remains unfulfilled, who want it to be fulfilled, and yet who still oppose making hiring decisions on the basis on someone's race or gender. Those are not mutually exclusive.
- mindslight 7y ago> MLK's dream remains unfulfilled, so using it as some representation of an imaginary Utopia of modern America is lazy This is an utter straw man. MLK's quote isn't being stated as some insistence of how things currently are, but rather as a model of how one should treat others. Be the change you want to see, and all that. "Racism" is not simply some directional stream of abuse, but rather the general promotion of superficial group characteristics over actual individuals. The political propagandists of both teams are stoking the fires of racism to distract from the ruling class's general corruption and looting, and it's fucking working.
- nkozyra 7y agoYou completely misread my comment. MLKs quote is specifically an ideal; something he's hopeful for. It's invoked today very often to dismiss or minimize the impact of race in any discussion, as if the ideal has been realized. The concept of everyone treated as equal would have more merit were the effects of institutional racism not very, very pertinent in 2020. You can see the absurdity of this when people try to push away any discussion of race by telling you that slavery ended 130+ years ago, as if the cascading effects haven't impacted the lives of most people of color through today.
- mindslight 7y agoI do not think I misread your comment: > the article cites mlk's quote ... as a commonly invoked cover for ignoring inequality The article does not. The article cites the quote as an example that will fail the political test. You are the one filling in motives.
- nkozyra 7y ago> The article cites the quote as an example that will fail the political test. Untrue! It cites using/invoking the quote as one that will fail the political test. Which is precisely the phenomenon I described.
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- ARandomerDude 7y ago> My friends (anonymous!) in the UC system report that the criteria are clear and the word is out: Don't try to be clever. Don't quote Martin Luther King, on judgement by content of character rather than color of skin. Don't write vibrant essays on the importance of ideological, political or religious diversity. Don't quote federal anti-discrimination law, the 14th Amendment, and the UC's own statements of non-discrimination in hiring. Don't write about class diversity, diverse experiences of immigrants, such as people born under communism in Eastern Europe or the amazingly diverse experience of the colleague you just hired who came from a small village in China. Don't write about the importance of freedom of speech, or anti-communist loyalty oaths in the 1950s. Are you thinking of writing about your hilbilly elegy background, your time in the military, your support for gun rights and Trump, and how this background and viewpoint would enrich a faculty and staff that likely has absolutely zero people like you? Don't bother. We all know what "diversity" means. And, heaven forbid, don't express distaste for the project. The staff are on to all these tricks, and each of these specifically will earn you a downgrade. For an example of what not to do, see UCLA Professor Stephen Bainbridge's (UCLA law) posted diversity statement. Let's see if he gets that raise.
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- monoideism 7y agoWokeists are fairly adamant that we should be judged/hired/listened to a greater or lesser extent depending on the color of our skins. So overtly quoting MLK's famous quote identifies people as someone who disagrees with that assumption, and thus blackball-worthy.
- nkozyra 7y agoYou're again describing the ideal. There is, however, a reality that isn't congruent with the ideal. So "wokeists" may be operating in a space where reality tempers this enviable ideal.
- monoideism 7y agoI'm guessing you saw where I addressed this argument elsewhere in the thread, but in case I'll paste it below. In short, of course it's an ideal and not congruent with current reality. Still doesn't mean it's not the best way to go about things, for all parties. For anyone who has grown up and been educated under a social justice heterodoxy, understanding this classical liberal point of view seems difficult. From my other comment: There are folks who see very clearly that MLK's dream remains unfulfilled, who want it to be fulfilled, and yet who still oppose making hiring decisions on the basis on someone's race or gender. Those are not mutually exclusive
- nkozyra 7y ago> Still doesn't mean it's not the best way to go about things, for all parties. No, it 100% isn't the best way to go about things, because it isn't reality. And by pretending it is we ignore the very real institutional problems that leave people of color (and similarly women, LGBTQ, etc) behind the eight ball from day one. There is a way to say "we're all the equal" but also "I recognize the unnatural inequality imposed by systemic, lingering institutions." By ignoring the second part, you discount the experience of living in an inequitable system.