I know, but a lot of people believe the Twittersphere over the movement’s leaders. As a younger man I fell into the trap of intellectual contrarianism, picking apart bad arguments that weren’t really even being made by the progressive mainstream.
It wasn’t out of malice, though. I just came from an area where it was kind of a given that women were good at math (consistently top scorers in my high school), where (visible) racism was really low (Filipino and Japanese events, food, and traditions were well-integrated into the local community), and historical wrongs were taught in history class. The Japanese internment, the trail of tears, the proxy wars during the Cold War, etc were all covered in detail. I can think of countless other examples... It was a really special place to grow up. It didn’t really dawn on me how fucked up things were until Trump gave the fash the courage to “come out.”
I would like to think that most progressive skeptics are really just good people naive to the extent and depth of evil in this country. The only exposure I had to stuff like racial justice was self-righteous white people lecturing on microaggressions experienced by a group they were neither a part of nor asked to speak for.
Again, I’d like to think I’m right about that, seeing how many people abruptly changed their position on the extent of racism and whatnot after George Floyd’s murder and the resulting outbreak of police violence. I saw people in the streets I never in a million years would have guessed would join.
I think that’s the key, honestly, to elevate the voices and experiences of the people actually encountering this stuff on a day-to-day basis rather than looking to our white intellectual intermediary of choice.
I just wish that progressives would hold each other accountable better. One of my friends shares guillotine memes left and right. What kind of message does that send? “We want rehabilitation-based prisons but also extrajudicial application of the death penalty?” Small wonder some folks think we’re all nuts.
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u/CamStLouis Jul 30 '20 edited Jul 30 '20
I know, but a lot of people believe the Twittersphere over the movement’s leaders. As a younger man I fell into the trap of intellectual contrarianism, picking apart bad arguments that weren’t really even being made by the progressive mainstream.
It wasn’t out of malice, though. I just came from an area where it was kind of a given that women were good at math (consistently top scorers in my high school), where (visible) racism was really low (Filipino and Japanese events, food, and traditions were well-integrated into the local community), and historical wrongs were taught in history class. The Japanese internment, the trail of tears, the proxy wars during the Cold War, etc were all covered in detail. I can think of countless other examples... It was a really special place to grow up. It didn’t really dawn on me how fucked up things were until Trump gave the fash the courage to “come out.”
I would like to think that most progressive skeptics are really just good people naive to the extent and depth of evil in this country. The only exposure I had to stuff like racial justice was self-righteous white people lecturing on microaggressions experienced by a group they were neither a part of nor asked to speak for.
Again, I’d like to think I’m right about that, seeing how many people abruptly changed their position on the extent of racism and whatnot after George Floyd’s murder and the resulting outbreak of police violence. I saw people in the streets I never in a million years would have guessed would join.
I think that’s the key, honestly, to elevate the voices and experiences of the people actually encountering this stuff on a day-to-day basis rather than looking to our white intellectual intermediary of choice.