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Journal by Azuma Hazuki
I'm going to explain this much-ballyhooed "Critical Race Theory" thing in such simple terms that no one has any excuse not to "get it." It's not that this is difficult anyway; people refuse to understand it.
Anyway, here's the simple ELI5 version: "Just because racism isn't the law anymore doesn't mean it isn't still around."
I'm not going to use the terms "de jure" and "de facto" with a 5 year old of course, but that's what this comes down to: racism and its knock-on effects did not disappear with Brown v. Board of Education. Entire cultural frameworks, and the physical realities built around them, do not simply evaporate into the aether because they are officially ordered to.
I don't actually think any of the refuseniks here are actually low-intelligence enough to think such a complete lack of ontological inertia is real. We all know what their problem is: it's not can't understand, it's won't understand.
Anyway, here's the simple ELI5 version: "Just because racism isn't the law anymore doesn't mean it isn't still around."
I'm not going to use the terms "de jure" and "de facto" with a 5 year old of course, but that's what this comes down to: racism and its knock-on effects did not disappear with Brown v. Board of Education. Entire cultural frameworks, and the physical realities built around them, do not simply evaporate into the aether because they are officially ordered to.
I don't actually think any of the refuseniks here are actually low-intelligence enough to think such a complete lack of ontological inertia is real. We all know what their problem is: it's not can't understand, it's won't understand.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
TOO BAD YOU CAN'T BUY a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin
real fast and freak everybody out.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday July 01 2021, @04:38AM (16 children)
Whatever Scalia thinks of it. Yes, I know Scalia is dead; Clarence "Uncle (Ruckus)" Thomas appears to be Scalia's phylactery, or Horcrux to use a more pop-culturish term...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 01 2021, @05:46AM (15 children)
I'd like to apologize for what I said in that last poll:
Clearly I was wrong; you are a racist. And of course the rest of what I said still stands.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by nostyle on Thursday July 01 2021, @04:57PM (14 children)
What you assert has an element of truth, but you are missing the big picture...
We are all racists.
Everyone in the USA has heard the lie that there is some fundamental difference between blacks, whites, asians, latinos,...etc., and that we must adapt our behavior to account for these differences. This is a fabrication, yet, to some extent we all actually do adjust our behavior to make allowance for the manifestation of this prejudice in everyday life. Why is there a "white" section of town and a "black" section of town? And which section would you prefer walking through late at night? Why are there "white" churches and "black" churches, and which have you never attended?
Nobody alive today invented this lie. It was invented long ago. The accusation of racism is tossed around as a pejorative to try to hang the guilt for this lie on those who are "not me". Who is to blame for it, however, is irrelevant.
Own it. That is the necessary first step to overcoming it.
The thing that nobody seems to have an answer for is how we can efface it from our society entirely.
--
In an evolutionary sense it is undeniable that "Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 01 2021, @05:45PM (7 children)
Nice job.
I went to Disneyland when I was a little kid. There were white swans and black swans in the mote around Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Funny thing was, the white swans swam in their groups, and black swans swam in theirs. It's something I thought about for a long time as a child, and the story of the Ugly Duckling didn't help.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 01 2021, @10:30PM (6 children)
Hmm, very tiny swans, then? Seems you have segregated yourself into the group of people who cannot spell, constantly use "then" for "than", and can't read the constitution. You're white, aren't you?
(Score: 1) by TheMightyChickadee on Friday July 02 2021, @02:04AM (5 children)
I think the GP meant "moat", but did not know how to spell it. So the inference is probably valid. Or moot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @02:47AM (4 children)
I was more interested in the sentiment than the semantics. This was not meant to be a black swan event, but a personal observation in a conversational style. You can tell a lot about people by the way they react to it.
I self-identify as an ugly duckling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @02:57AM
I had a Jerry Pournelle reference to add to the above post, but it didn't fit with the flow. Still, some people think Neville is the better writer. Alas.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Friday July 02 2021, @03:43AM (2 children)
"White"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @04:04AM
^ "Transparent"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @04:16PM
Gotta call out all those honkie, flag waving, Fox News Zombie, homonym spouting, home schoolin', work-ethicked, God-fearing, idiotic, rednecks.
Purely as a service, for their own good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 01 2021, @05:46PM (5 children)
I reckon we can safely exclude any solutions that are based on adding more race-based rules.
A few countries have tried that over the years, and it always ended up sucking.
(Score: 2) by nostyle on Thursday July 01 2021, @06:56PM (4 children)
The way I see it, any rule based on race is a rule based on a lie. Hence, baking such rules into our laws and governing institutions must be avoided.
That said, I have no trouble with acts of assistance and charity being extended to those who wind up being oppressed by the racial bias that continues to exist in the society, and restricting those acts to specific racial categories is surely within the purview of the individuals and agencies that extend those benefits. Each individual and agency will have a distinct and valid sensitivity to the suffering they observe, and should be allowed to respond as best they see fit.
So maybe some solutions extending from the private sector could include race-based restrictions, but such things would be expected to be temporary and tailored to the exigencies of the moment.
--
Walk a mile in my shoes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 01 2021, @07:35PM (1 child)
- Judge halts Biden's $4B aid program for farmers of color [nypost.com]
(Score: 2) by nostyle on Thursday July 01 2021, @09:21PM
I am not well-informed of the legislation in question, although the ruling of the court seems sensible, and my view is that charity is best handled by non-governmental institutions.
Still, ever since the dust-bowl era, some subsidy of farming on the part of the federal government has been deemed wise. Now, if, in these payments, there has been inequity between racial groups due to previously existing laws and practices, and if the congress were to decide some reparation was proper, then I would not mind if measured steps were taken to undo that inequity, even were it to appear to be a reverse-racism. Justice is when people get what they have deserved in a fair manner.
But this borders on the topic of "reparations", which is a whole other can of worms.
A lot of folks never did get their forty acres and a mule.
--
Georgia did well to apologize to Ray Charles [bet.com], though. Who knew it would make the state turn blue?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 01 2021, @11:49PM (1 child)
Great. Remove "Abstudy" for a start. Then cancel the millions poured into keeping black museums and organisations afloat. Stop govie payments keeping outback "historical" towns alive. After all, these black fellas lived in the desert for thousands of years just fine. Make government support equal. Strip all references to race from government welfare systems.
Won't work of course. Some people may have to actually work for a living.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 02 2021, @08:01PM
"Only thing worse than
dragonsAmerican racism, Australian racism!"