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“Race” is a shorthand unmoored from its pseudo scientific origins with plenty of people discussing the usages & meanings of it and how people & identities, self
by finiteseries 5y ago
“Race” is a shorthand unmoored from its pseudo scientific origins with plenty of people discussing the usages & meanings of it and how people & identities, self imposed or not, relate to it. You may have heard of things like eg “intersectionality”.
“Racialist” criticism is almost exclusively a universalist French concept. It isn’t entertained outside continental Europe, and is already being challenged within by the children of African & Caribbean immigrants who were previously kept at arms length in the colonies.
- trompetenaccoun 5y agoThere is massive overwhelming consensus among biologists that human "race" isn't a thing beyond the abstract concept itself. From what you write it sounds like you don't dispute this, but claim there's even more made-up context to it now. That may be so... it only further aids cementing an idea that was flawed from the start. Keeping racist thinking alive is the opposite of being anti-racist.
- finiteseries 5y agoI don’t dispute that at all, but this “made up context” is the attempted exploration of the actual, human, lived in reality that was flawed from the start. Anti racialism/color blindness has been tried before, that was the general progressive approach for decades and decades here. It didn’t work out, and the most vocal opponents were themselves “black”. By its very nature, it is deeply unaligned with the interests of the group it’s trying to help. 5 wolves and 2 sheep deciding how to share dinner, but all of the wolves have agreed to wear little blindfolds. Or, even worse, they’re all deciding in the dark with the lights turned off! Not only can the predatory wolves still wolf, but they can do it under the cover of darkness. To compete, the sheep must become wolves. This is okay, even encouraged in assimilationist societies. This is absolutely not an option anymore in eg the US. We have a generation of older black men with names like Reginald and Eustace to remember its utter failure by. Strained analogy that also completely ignores structural racism, please consider discussing racialism with fellow countrymen who happen to be of a different “race” <- shorthand!, as that cultural divide can be quite wide to reach across.
- trompetenaccoun 5y agoI like how you unabashedly write people have to become more racist to fight racism. And this is exactly what's happening at the moment. Meanwhile MLK is turning in his grave.