4 ms·

A Different Approach to Anti-Racism

23 points by RickJWagner 5y ago

Miner49er 5y ago
This article would be fine if it didn't go out of it's way to straw-man the approach taken by what it calls "leftist consultants".
- Jensson 5y ago
  There is no evidence that what those consultants do actually helps. They are there so the company can check a box, not to reduce racism. Edit: HBR wrote about it here (fixed link to right article): https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail
  - trabant00 5y ago
    Even worse problem is that they need to create the demand for their services first, and in doing so they create further divide.
  - pwinnski 5y ago
    I agree that the evidence suggests these programs are useless, or close to it. That's not what the Reason writer said though. Instead he produced a strawman stereotype and dismissed them in a way that if I hadn't seen the University of Toronto study already, I would have interpreted as bad-faith subtle racism on the writer's part. Heck, it might still be, but I'll be gracious and assume he just forgot to mention the basis for his obvious animus.
Zababa 5y ago
I like that approach to anti-racism. I especially like that part: > The reason for this is very simple. When we talk about the concept of supremacy, supremacy is not just a racial concept. If someone cuts me off in the street and I begin to see that person as less than me, to see myself as greater than or better than that person, I have entered into a supremacist superiority complex, right? And when I'm doing that, I'm basically acting out of insecurity. I'm using supremacy as a defensive mechanism, because I am operating out of a sense of lack. So all the exercises in the Theory of Enchantment help the practitioners develop tools to deal with their insecurities—because all human beings have insecurities, unless you're the Buddha or something—so you'll be less likely to overcompensate for them by being attracted to supremacist ways of thinking. And again, it's not strictly racial. It's a fundamentally base human instinct that we get looped in as a defensive mechanism. I think things like anti-racism should bring us closer together, not farther appart.
hprotagonist 5y ago
Wikipedia lists the author's "Theory of Enchantment Three Principled Practices" as: - "Treat people like human beings, not political abstractions;" - "Criticize to uplift and empower, never to tear down, never to destroy;" and - "Root everything you do in love and compassion." Which are right in line with other personalist (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/personalism/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/personalism/) philosophies that all seem to make the most sense to me. I have never been very convinced that shame is a good tool; after the past 18 months of pandemic and 4 years of utter bullshit at a federal political level, i'm absolutely convinced of it.
- happytoexplain 5y ago
  They are definitely fantastic principles, but note that a lot of people claim they are doing the first two while they are doing the opposite (on both sides of politics). Not that this is unique to these principles: There is always a ton of dishonest noise complicating every positive ideology.
  - hprotagonist 5y ago
    I think kind of baked into the first principle is the expectation that these are "top of the maslow pyramid" kind of aspirational ethics. It's like this: we are going to fuck up. Given that we're going to fuck up, what next? The way to judge, I think, whether you're in good shape is whether or not you have a culturally ingrained mechanism for atonement and forgiveness, and whether or not that mechanism recursively 1. doesn't treat people like things; 2. seeks to uplift and empower; 3. is fundamentally grounded in love.

23 points by RickJWagner 5y ago

This article would be fine if it didn't go out of it's way to straw-man the approach taken by what it calls "leftist consultants".

Jensson 5y ago
There is no evidence that what those consultants do actually helps. They are there so the company can check a box, not to reduce racism. Edit: HBR wrote about it here (fixed link to right article): https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail
- trabant00 5y ago
  Even worse problem is that they need to create the demand for their services first, and in doing so they create further divide.
- pwinnski 5y ago
  I agree that the evidence suggests these programs are useless, or close to it. That's not what the Reason writer said though. Instead he produced a strawman stereotype and dismissed them in a way that if I hadn't seen the University of Toronto study already, I would have interpreted as bad-faith subtle racism on the writer's part. Heck, it might still be, but I'll be gracious and assume he just forgot to mention the basis for his obvious animus.

Zababa 5y ago

I like that approach to anti-racism. I especially like that part: > The reason for this is very simple. When we talk about the concept of supremacy, supremacy is not just a racial concept. If someone cuts me off in the street and I begin to see that person as less than me, to see myself as greater than or better than that person, I have entered into a supremacist superiority complex, right? And when I'm doing that, I'm basically acting out of insecurity. I'm using supremacy as a defensive mechanism, because I am operating out of a sense of lack. So all the exercises in the Theory of Enchantment help the practitioners develop tools to deal with their insecurities—because all human beings have insecurities, unless you're the Buddha or something—so you'll be less likely to overcompensate for them by being attracted to supremacist ways of thinking. And again, it's not strictly racial. It's a fundamentally base human instinct that we get looped in as a defensive mechanism. I think things like anti-racism should bring us closer together, not farther appart.

hprotagonist 5y ago

Wikipedia lists the author's "Theory of Enchantment Three Principled Practices" as: - "Treat people like human beings, not political abstractions;" - "Criticize to uplift and empower, never to tear down, never to destroy;" and - "Root everything you do in love and compassion." Which are right in line with other personalist (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/personalism/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/personalism/) philosophies that all seem to make the most sense to me. I have never been very convinced that shame is a good tool; after the past 18 months of pandemic and 4 years of utter bullshit at a federal political level, i'm absolutely convinced of it.

happytoexplain 5y ago
They are definitely fantastic principles, but note that a lot of people claim they are doing the first two while they are doing the opposite (on both sides of politics). Not that this is unique to these principles: There is always a ton of dishonest noise complicating every positive ideology.
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  I think kind of baked into the first principle is the expectation that these are "top of the maslow pyramid" kind of aspirational ethics. It's like this: we are going to fuck up. Given that we're going to fuck up, what next? The way to judge, I think, whether you're in good shape is whether or not you have a culturally ingrained mechanism for atonement and forgiveness, and whether or not that mechanism recursively 1. doesn't treat people like things; 2. seeks to uplift and empower; 3. is fundamentally grounded in love.