5 ms·

The reason is because "woke" is racism in reverse. As long as there's racism (in any direction), color matters. You can't treat or think of people differently

The reason is because "woke" is racism in reverse. As long as there's racism (in any direction), color matters. You can't treat or think of people differently on the basis of race without knowing who is in what race. The last thing "woke" people want is for discrimination on the basis of race to disappear, or for the color of people's skin to no longer factor in to how they are judged or treated. Edit: agreed with a below commenter, and thanks for the correction. There isn't any such thing as "racism in reverse", just racism.

casefields 5y ago
Here's Christopher Hitchens in his 2001 book, Letters to a Young Contrarian: >Beware of Identity politics. I'll rephrase that: have nothing to do with identity politics. I remember very well the first time I heard the saying "The Personal Is Political". It began as a sort of reaction to defeats and downturns that followed 1968: a consolation prize, as you might say, for people who had missed that year. I knew in my bones that a truly Bad Idea had entered the discourse. Nor was I wrong. People began to stand up at meetings and orate about how they 'felt', not about what or how they thought, and about who they were rather than what (if anything) they had done or stood for. It became the replication in even less interesting form of the narcissism of the small difference, because each identity group begat its sub-groups and "specificities". This tendency has often been satirised—the overweight caucus of the Cherokee transgender disabled lesbian faction demands a hearing on its needs—but never satirised enough. You have to have seen it really happen. From a way of being radical it very swiftly became a way of being reactionary; the Clarence Thomas hearings demonstrated this to all but the most dense and boring and selfish, but then, it was the dense and boring and selfish who had always seen identity politics as their big chance. Anyway, what you swiftly realise if you peek over the wall of your own immediate neighbourhood or environment, and travel beyond it, is, first, that we have a huge surplus of people who wouldn't change anything about the way they were born, or the group they were born into, but second that "humanity" (and the idea of change) is best represented by those who have the wit not to think, or should I say feel, in this way.
- eloff 5y ago
  I miss Christopher Hitchens' way with words. He truly had a talent for expressing himself richly and convincingly. The ultimate irony is he deconverted me from the religion of my childhood posthumously because I saw the news of his death and then googled him. Which lead to a fascinating summer of YouTube videos of debates and conversations.
  - TimTheTinker 5y ago
    Agreed. I've listened to and enjoyed several of his debates (as a Christian, no less) and mourn the loss of him. He was a formidable and worthy opponent on the debate stage, and by all accounts one of the most kind, thoughtful, personable, and affable people off the stage.
    - CRConrad 5y ago
      The only problem with his prodigious ability was that it seems to have given his poor little brother a massive inferiority complex.
open0 5y ago
This is such horseshit. You people on this website are far more of problem for the world than the crowd of woke 20-somethngs that as a group have very little power or money.
- phist_mcgee 5y ago
  "You people", and the cycle continues..
- TimTheTinker 5y ago
  Perhaps you'd consider making a case for your opinion instead of resorting to attacks on people.
  - open0 5y ago
    What case needs to be made exactly? That you useless fucks are busy destroying society while enriching yourselves?
    - TimTheTinker 5y ago
      You're violating site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - open0 5y ago
        [redacted]
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
fighterpilot 5y ago
There's no such thing as racism in reverse. Just racism. To be clear.
- TimTheTinker 5y ago
  Thanks - added an edit to my comment.
throwkeep 5y ago
It's racism masquerading as anti-racism.

casefields 5y ago

Here's Christopher Hitchens in his 2001 book, Letters to a Young Contrarian: >Beware of Identity politics. I'll rephrase that: have nothing to do with identity politics. I remember very well the first time I heard the saying "The Personal Is Political". It began as a sort of reaction to defeats and downturns that followed 1968: a consolation prize, as you might say, for people who had missed that year. I knew in my bones that a truly Bad Idea had entered the discourse. Nor was I wrong. People began to stand up at meetings and orate about how they 'felt', not about what or how they thought, and about who they were rather than what (if anything) they had done or stood for. It became the replication in even less interesting form of the narcissism of the small difference, because each identity group begat its sub-groups and "specificities". This tendency has often been satirised—the overweight caucus of the Cherokee transgender disabled lesbian faction demands a hearing on its needs—but never satirised enough. You have to have seen it really happen. From a way of being radical it very swiftly became a way of being reactionary; the Clarence Thomas hearings demonstrated this to all but the most dense and boring and selfish, but then, it was the dense and boring and selfish who had always seen identity politics as their big chance. Anyway, what you swiftly realise if you peek over the wall of your own immediate neighbourhood or environment, and travel beyond it, is, first, that we have a huge surplus of people who wouldn't change anything about the way they were born, or the group they were born into, but second that "humanity" (and the idea of change) is best represented by those who have the wit not to think, or should I say feel, in this way.

eloff 5y ago
I miss Christopher Hitchens' way with words. He truly had a talent for expressing himself richly and convincingly. The ultimate irony is he deconverted me from the religion of my childhood posthumously because I saw the news of his death and then googled him. Which lead to a fascinating summer of YouTube videos of debates and conversations.
- TimTheTinker 5y ago
  Agreed. I've listened to and enjoyed several of his debates (as a Christian, no less) and mourn the loss of him. He was a formidable and worthy opponent on the debate stage, and by all accounts one of the most kind, thoughtful, personable, and affable people off the stage.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    The only problem with his prodigious ability was that it seems to have given his poor little brother a massive inferiority complex.

open0 5y ago

This is such horseshit. You people on this website are far more of problem for the world than the crowd of woke 20-somethngs that as a group have very little power or money.

phist_mcgee 5y ago
"You people", and the cycle continues..
TimTheTinker 5y ago
Perhaps you'd consider making a case for your opinion instead of resorting to attacks on people.
- open0 5y ago
  What case needs to be made exactly? That you useless fucks are busy destroying society while enriching yourselves?
  - TimTheTinker 5y ago
    You're violating site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - open0 5y ago
      [redacted]
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]

fighterpilot 5y ago

There's no such thing as racism in reverse. Just racism. To be clear.

TimTheTinker 5y ago
Thanks - added an edit to my comment.

throwkeep 5y ago

It's racism masquerading as anti-racism.