Julian658 wrote:The problem with 3rd wave anti-racism is that it has become a religion.
If a person says I am not racist, that is seen as evil. A good person must be an ant-racist.
“The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' What's the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist
Ibram Kendi!!! From the fury of Anti-Racism Crusaders like Kendi, Protect us O Lord.
Ibram Kendi is a walking example of anti racism morphing into racism itself. The racism of a rogue Anti-Racist is more complicated, enduring, and not as amenable to treatment. This is because from get go the Anti-Racist occupies the moral high ground. His cause is good. The racism he fights is a clear and present danger. This fierce urgency of now urges him to act with immediacy. He tolerates no hesitation. Fence sitters are in denial, or are closet accomplices, fifth columnists who must be destroyed. You are either with him or against him. You begin to see the slow and dangerous emmergence of a stern and merciless Robespierre. His intolerance is justified, as he considers his intolerance the intolerance to injustice. His lack of compassion is justified, as it is immoral to be compassionate towards those blocking his path. And the stern, merciless Robespierre grows larger and larger...
Ibram Kendi has this to say:
“The very heartbeat of racism is denial. When people say they’re not racist, they’re sharing the words that white supremacists use. Jim Crow segregationists said they weren’t racist. Lynchers argued they weren’t racist; the problem was the people they lynched. Slave owners said the same thing.
“But to be antiracist is to say ‘that chokehold was racist and that policy that has impoverished that community was racist. When I supported it, I was being racist, but I’m going to change it and be different.”’
In Ibram Kendi's delicate hands racism- really white racism- is an original sin. To be white is to be racist. Other Anti-Racism Crusaders have described it as a pre existing condition. A Russian serf can whine all he wants that as far back as he can go all his ancestors were oppressed, it wont matter. This same serf is also beneficiary of inherent previledges. In the weird logic of these Anti Racism Crusaders these serfs, poverty stricken they may be, still oppressed as the case might be with some of them, deserve less compassion from the Woke crowd than say uber billionaire Oprah! Go Figure.
To fight racism is good. But care must be exercised lest well meaning folks get misled by Anti Racism Jacobins who have morphed into the very evil they are fighting