5 ms·

What can you do, other than telling your children that aiming for success is no more "acting white" than it is "acting Nigerian" or "acting Indian" or "acting R

What can you do, other than telling your children that aiming for success is no more "acting white" than it is "acting Nigerian" or "acting Indian" or "acting Russian" or whatever? Speak up when the race baiters support their narrative, go to school board meetings and let the cabal know you're not having any of it. Home school if that is feasible, especially when your have access to a group of like-minded neighbours. Don't allow the narrative to go by without speaking up against it no matter when it comes up - in the media, in popular culture, at social gatherings, in church or mosque or synagogue or temple, etc. Don't be preachy but just state the facts as you know and have experienced them. You may be called out on doing so, may be accused of acting against your own interests, acting "white", being an uncle Tom and more of such but that is a hurdle you'll have to take - it just means you're getting close to the target. Also, vote according to what candidates have done and what they promise to do, not according to "how people like you are supposed to vote". The people pushing this narrative do so because they expect to gain or keep power by portraying themselves as representatives of people like you, let them know they do not represent you and that their false narrative is not welcome because of the reasons you stated. While voting - and letting people know why you did so - won't solve the immediate problems caused by these false prophets it does help to deflate their narrative. There is a whole industry and economy built around keeping the narrative alive - Thomas Sowell had written extensively about this - so it won't just disappear overnight but once enough people speak up against it out will be hard for them to keep up the appearance of being righteous... and they'll change their target to some other identity category like gender or religion (this is already happening).

rayiner 3y ago
The tricky thing is that in my social context, the (liberal) white people are the ones encouraging minority kids to adopt an unhealthy, race conscious attitude. It puts me in the awkward position of having to emphasize race to gently remind my daughter that her dad and grandparents know way more about how to be brown in America than her teachers do. By the way, “Uncle Tom” is too obvious. The new dog whistle is “pick me.”
- the_third_wave 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - rayiner 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - the_third_wave 3y ago
      How do they react when you confront them with your own experience of parents never telling you to expect racism and thus never encountering it in any meaningful sense? This should not be possible according to the narrative unless you were living in that one special area where systemic racism did not exist, i.e. Utopia. Even more interesting is to know how they react when confronted with the fact that their narrative leads people to believe their fate to be preordained in that they will always be held back. The '...so why even try...' is tacked on through countless programs aiming for 'equity' - equality of outcome - where the state will provide for those who fail to do so by themselves. It is here where people make careers based on the narrative, here in this 'welfare-industrial complex' (to paraphrase Eisenhower) which grows as large as it is allowed to grow. The larger it grows, the more people have their livelihood staked on its existence either through employment or by being recipients of its handouts. This large group of people has an incentive to vote for those who promise to keep up the narrative which in turn ensures that even more young people are caught in its snares by being convinced they do not have any chance to succeed 'so why even try'. It is a vicious circle which needs to be stopped somehow, the narrative needs to be punctured and those caught by it need to be shown they can succeed without the need for government-enforced 'equity'.

rayiner 3y ago

The tricky thing is that in my social context, the (liberal) white people are the ones encouraging minority kids to adopt an unhealthy, race conscious attitude. It puts me in the awkward position of having to emphasize race to gently remind my daughter that her dad and grandparents know way more about how to be brown in America than her teachers do. By the way, “Uncle Tom” is too obvious. The new dog whistle is “pick me.”

the_third_wave 3y ago
[flagged]
- rayiner 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - the_third_wave 3y ago
    How do they react when you confront them with your own experience of parents never telling you to expect racism and thus never encountering it in any meaningful sense? This should not be possible according to the narrative unless you were living in that one special area where systemic racism did not exist, i.e. Utopia. Even more interesting is to know how they react when confronted with the fact that their narrative leads people to believe their fate to be preordained in that they will always be held back. The '...so why even try...' is tacked on through countless programs aiming for 'equity' - equality of outcome - where the state will provide for those who fail to do so by themselves. It is here where people make careers based on the narrative, here in this 'welfare-industrial complex' (to paraphrase Eisenhower) which grows as large as it is allowed to grow. The larger it grows, the more people have their livelihood staked on its existence either through employment or by being recipients of its handouts. This large group of people has an incentive to vote for those who promise to keep up the narrative which in turn ensures that even more young people are caught in its snares by being convinced they do not have any chance to succeed 'so why even try'. It is a vicious circle which needs to be stopped somehow, the narrative needs to be punctured and those caught by it need to be shown they can succeed without the need for government-enforced 'equity'.