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Forgive the irrelevancies and the digressions, here is as much of the original journal as I could recover. Plus some interesting things about the Indian Nations.
Why the GOP-fueled 'controversy' over critical race theory, nothing to do with critical race theory
Yes, that was the original full title. Might have been clipped.
Reported at The Editorial Board
The right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, has lately been making a fetish of something called “critical race theory” (CRT). This has prompted academics to defend it. It’s not a radical political ideology, they say. It’s merely a form of critical inquiry. It is not the boogeyman it’s being made out to be. There’s nothing to fear.
I understand the need to defend critical race theory. Colleges and universities are beset on one hand by Republican fascists accusing scholars of indoctrinating students, on the other by anti-left liberals accusing the same of hostility toward freedom of speech. Meanwhile, administrations act more like corporations that privilege efficiency over research and teaching. It’s enough to think CRT is an appropriate hill to die on.
Yes, this is an opinion piece. That does not necessarily entail that it is not news to most Soylentils. And, the important piece:
Explaining CRT’s particulars to people who seem to fear them won’t change their minds if you don’t also take into account that explaining them can be seen as intolerable aggression.
Put it in the same category as "cultural Marxism", Feminazism, and Woke-ness. Operant conditioning, not intellectual discussion.
This, however, overlooks the larger dynamic at work. The more you defend CRT as an ideologically neutral mode of seeing and thinking about the world, the more the propagandists are going to do what they do best, which is terrifying the ignorant. More importantly, CRT defenders are not seeing the true nature of their opponents. From the authoritarian perspective, modes of seeing and thinking about the world are never ideologically neutral because once you learn to see and think about the world on your own, you don’t need authoritarian leaders to tell you what to see and think.
I risk making them seem like cartoons. I risk making people who treasure “traditional” and “conservative” and “Judeo-Christian” values look like they yippy-skippied over the Enlightenment on their way from the Spanish Inquisition to the 21st-century America. But it’s worth the risk given that most respectable white people, in my opinion, tend to overestimate the societal effects of liberal arts education. Critical thinking is so uncontroversial among respectable white people as to be barely worth mentioning. The authoritarians, however, see it quite clearly for what it is—an existential threat.
This is why the particulars of critical race theory don’t matter.1 (You don’t care about the particulars when you’re fighting for survival!) This is also why explaining those particulars to people who seem to fear them won’t change their minds if you don’t also take into account that explaining the particulars of critical race theory can itself be seen as intolerable aggression. What most of them fear is loss of social control. What most fear is loss of authority. Where you see an individual merely muddling through life the best she can, coming to the best conclusions she can, most of them see an individual whose ideological aggression is so monstrous as to justify any response.
Always wondered by the alt- and elder-right brought this up at the strangest of points in a discussion.
Respectable white people look at the right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, and marvel at the fact that Americans consuming its propaganda inhabit a fact-free world. I think what they misunderstand is lying isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. Facts are available to individuals to see and think about on their own, free and independent of authorities licensed to say what individuals see and think. Facts, therefore, are aligned politically with perceived enemies. A rational response to facts is nonstop lying. So “alternate facts” are not a result of authoritarian politics. They are a first principle.
Critical race theory is not a political ideology, but it may as well be to the world of the right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale. It might as well be because anything that teaches individuals to see and think about facts independent and free of groupthink compromises the integrity of the authoritarian’s grip on the group. Case in point is Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney. The Republican believes the former president tried bringing down the republic. She is factually correct. For the “crime” of seeing and thinking about the world on her own, she’s now being punished. The House Republicans are poised to purge her from the House conference leadership. The Republicans are not individualists. They are collectivists enforcing groupthink.
Who's doing the de-platforming, now?
Other sources:
The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession (MSN)
The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession (The Atlantic)
Why 'woke' and 'critical race theory' are the GOP's new favorite words (MSNBC)
GOP Looks to Ban ‘Woke Philosophies’ Like Critical Race Theory in Texas Schools (Yahoo)
The GOP’s bizarre obsession with ‘critical race theory’ has almost nothing to do with critical race theory (DroolingDog)
Oklahoma governor signs ban on teaching critical race theory (Madison)
Texas GOP Passes Bill to Ban Critical Race Theory, Stop 'Blaming White Children' for Slavery
Republicans seize on conservative backlash against critical race theory
Freeze Peaches, indeed!
Previously on Critical Race Matters: Who’s afraid of ‘Critical Race Theory’? Jews should embrace the right’s latest bogeyman (Forward.com)
******
There was an update, before the Deluge, something about Oklahoma, where the right-wing nut-jobs were sweeping down the Planes before the Centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
100 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, last living survivors urge America to not forget, of course. But the Governator of OK signed a law about teaching the Dread Critical Race Theory, and got hisself kicked off the board of the Centennial observance, and was rebuked by the Oklahoma City School board in no uncertain terms.
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, was removed from the commission overseeing the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Friday after he signed a bill banning critical race theory in the state’s schools.
So sad, it was such a non-racist feather in his cap.
And, this is popping up everywhere, more than Hunter Biden's laptop, or Seth's assassination, or the pimple on Sean Hannity's left cheek. Seriously. Donald Trump allegedly said there were good people on both sides of the Tulsa Massacre.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @02:20AM (10 children)
But the social constructs are not persistent. The racism and sexism structures of today are in many ways unidentifiable when compared to those 100 years ago. Even a rudimentary glance shows how even "race" has changed in surprising ways. Just look at the history of who was and is considered "white" in the various cultures of the world. True they are not permanent, just like an infestation of cockroaches, but that doesn't mean that destroying a persuasive or invasive infestation will take place overnight or remain stable and unchanged while it does exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @03:27AM (9 children)
Genetics are not persistent over generations, as seen in lower rates of sickle cell among Black Americans when compared to East Africans. Is the continued existence of the mutation responsible for sickle cell socially constructed or a result of African ancestry?
The most "surprising" being that geneticists cannot reliably identify it, at least it must be surprising to race hustlers who base their entire career off the very concept.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @04:25AM (8 children)
So sickle-cell makes you black? Since geneticists cannot identify it, what does make one person one race vs another? Were the racists of old just misinformed and that is why they change it? How are we to know that your version of what races are since the old versions were so wrong?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @12:11PM
No, the sickle-cell mutation is a consequence of living in malaria prone regions. The US is not a malaria prone region but the mutation persists through generations. This is to say that "race" is simply dominant genetic traits that arose within smaller isolated populations. These traits are provably not socially constructed (unless we're including sexual selection) and that is why CRT cannot escape the charge of being an essentialist ideology.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday May 24 2021, @02:01PM (6 children)
What's the justification for this claim? For a counterexample, geneticists seem to have decent success in determining a person's ancestry from DNA analysis. That ancestry includes some ethnic information.
My take is any genetic basis for race is weak, but present. But when it comes to racism rather than race there is a strong, universal evolutionary driver for that behavior. A behavior that yields even a slight net advantage over other behaviors for continuance of one's genes is IMHO going to manifest strongly over enough generations. And racism has probably provided such an edge for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Sure, I might be wrong, but it would explain how racism is so universal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @02:53PM
The old *friend or foe* thing, goes back to the amoeba, right? (well, actually, they ate friend and foe, no "racism" there, everything is food) If you don't look, sound, smell, taste familiar, people are going to be naturally suspicious of your intentions with their daughters. The brain stem is "racist" in this sense. The big ass cortex serves by rationalizing it in the most eloquent forms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @08:13PM (1 child)
Science. [wikipedia.org] CRT wants to say race is socially constructed but the basis for that claim can only possibly be differences in skin pigmentation and hair color, hence it reduces to racial essentialism. They're re-framing Marxist arguments on the basis of race, so "white supremacy" is to be understood as capitalist liberal democracy. In summary: CRT is the biggest push for a racialized socialism in the West since that German guy with a mustache did it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @08:51PM
You are so dumb ;^)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @09:55PM
They are the one who said it, I repeated it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 25 2021, @04:34AM (1 child)
And where would a person have run into other "races" for hundreds of thousands of years? You are describing "othering" which happens based on any way to differentiate the "us" from the "them." In antiquity, races were akin to tribes, and progressed to cultures and city-states. What racism is today is just the latest round of "us vs. them" thinking, and equally as valid.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by khallow on Tuesday May 25 2021, @12:18PM
You just answered your own question.