9 ms·

Robin Diangelo’s work doesn’t seem to me very good or well informed on what anti-racism actually constitutes. It seems mostly like a schtick to sell to HR manag

Robin Diangelo’s work doesn’t seem to me very good or well informed on what anti-racism actually constitutes. It seems mostly like a schtick to sell to HR managers. The way that she essentializes race seems like a bizarre, inverted reification of whiteness (and by extension white supremacy), than any deconstruction or attack on it. Anti-racism is about taking on the powers and material structures that reproduce racism in our society to put an end to that reproduction. It’s what the multiracial coalition is doing right now, in the streets, forcing changes to laws and policing. All of this has little to do with your boss paying someone to lecture you about why you’re bad/biased/ignorant. In fact, it’s contrary to anti-racism, because it positions your boss, who controls your life and buys her classes, as the arbiter of what is and isn’t racism. People would be better off studying the life and work of Fred Hampton.

JPKab 6y ago
Agreed. I found her work to be devoid of any attempt at connecting her theoretical claims to any form of data and/or measurements. As if two human beings who both happen to be white are the same, when one was born in a trailer park and the other a high-rise in Central Park West. I was pretty irritated to see her book getting promoted by my HR department, who is filled with people who proudly brag about "math not being my thing."
- free_rms 6y ago
  HR isn't a disinterested party here. The more built-up the theology is, the more role for the Pharisees in interpreting and enforcing it.
nsporillo 6y ago
What exactly are the powers and material structures that contribute to the perceived racism in our society? From my limited understanding of this position, it sounds like the goal is a dismantling of police and courts which form the backbone of a civil rule of law society.
- zasz 6y ago
  Systematic exclusion of black people from social programs, like the GI Bill and Social Security, and redlining, which prevented black Americans from building up wealth through homeownership the way white Americans were. "The Color of Law" is a good book on redlining. To expand on the bit about Social Security, farmworkers were excluded, since farmworkers tend to be not white. It was a nice sneaky way to be racist without coming out and doing so explicitly.
  - twybriny 6y ago
    One of the things that confuses me quite a bit is the focus on laws that expired or have been abrogated 50-60-70-150 years ago and make it as if everything wrong with contemporary American society is caused directly by such laws and nothing else. * GI Bill: adopted in 1944, expired in 1956. * Social Security: adopted in 1935, unclear what the impacts were at the time. Unclear what the impacts are today. * Redlining: created in 1934, illegal since 1977. As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Much more stringent appear, in no particular order and not pretending to be exhaustive: * the whole F1/H1B situation, which depresses the domestic labor market in technical jobs, especially software, but also research at large * global competition, especially with China * the over financialization of the economy * the profits accumulating at the very top since the 2008 Great Recession * the explosion of real estate market in big cities, way above what we pretend the inflation rate is * manufacturing decline * offshoring of entire industries to East Asia * right now, the covid19 lockdowns which are destroying the service economy, which was supposed to be the future of jobs * the decimation of small business America due to same covid19 lockdowns. * specifically for the black community, the lack of academic achievement * the rise of the gig economy and Amazon warehouse jobs * the opioid, homelessness and suicide crisis * the obesity crisis, and the related food deserts Again, not a young black guy or gal. But if I'd were, there'd be 10 high priority items on my worry list before I'd get to the Civil Rights Era. As a nation we seem to have abandoned the middle and working class of all colors. The public discourse is obsessed with Instagram influencers and race histories half a century old if not older, sometimes much older.

JPKab 6y ago

Agreed. I found her work to be devoid of any attempt at connecting her theoretical claims to any form of data and/or measurements. As if two human beings who both happen to be white are the same, when one was born in a trailer park and the other a high-rise in Central Park West. I was pretty irritated to see her book getting promoted by my HR department, who is filled with people who proudly brag about "math not being my thing."

free_rms 6y ago
HR isn't a disinterested party here. The more built-up the theology is, the more role for the Pharisees in interpreting and enforcing it.

nsporillo 6y ago

What exactly are the powers and material structures that contribute to the perceived racism in our society? From my limited understanding of this position, it sounds like the goal is a dismantling of police and courts which form the backbone of a civil rule of law society.

zasz 6y ago
Systematic exclusion of black people from social programs, like the GI Bill and Social Security, and redlining, which prevented black Americans from building up wealth through homeownership the way white Americans were. "The Color of Law" is a good book on redlining. To expand on the bit about Social Security, farmworkers were excluded, since farmworkers tend to be not white. It was a nice sneaky way to be racist without coming out and doing so explicitly.
- twybriny 6y ago
  One of the things that confuses me quite a bit is the focus on laws that expired or have been abrogated 50-60-70-150 years ago and make it as if everything wrong with contemporary American society is caused directly by such laws and nothing else. * GI Bill: adopted in 1944, expired in 1956. * Social Security: adopted in 1935, unclear what the impacts were at the time. Unclear what the impacts are today. * Redlining: created in 1934, illegal since 1977. As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Much more stringent appear, in no particular order and not pretending to be exhaustive: * the whole F1/H1B situation, which depresses the domestic labor market in technical jobs, especially software, but also research at large * global competition, especially with China * the over financialization of the economy * the profits accumulating at the very top since the 2008 Great Recession * the explosion of real estate market in big cities, way above what we pretend the inflation rate is * manufacturing decline * offshoring of entire industries to East Asia * right now, the covid19 lockdowns which are destroying the service economy, which was supposed to be the future of jobs * the decimation of small business America due to same covid19 lockdowns. * specifically for the black community, the lack of academic achievement * the rise of the gig economy and Amazon warehouse jobs * the opioid, homelessness and suicide crisis * the obesity crisis, and the related food deserts Again, not a young black guy or gal. But if I'd were, there'd be 10 high priority items on my worry list before I'd get to the Civil Rights Era. As a nation we seem to have abandoned the middle and working class of all colors. The public discourse is obsessed with Instagram influencers and race histories half a century old if not older, sometimes much older.