03-20-2024, 01:52 PM
(03-20-2024, 12:58 PM)CJD Wrote: What frustrates me is the progressive movement has the right idea, they just use it improperly. The lasting effects of systemic racism are reverberating through our society today, and it's good to address them in a constructive and forward thinking manner.
Here's the thing. I totally agree with you, and it would have been a much simpler task to approach this properly and it would have been much more successful at achieving its stated goals. I think most White people are ok with acknowledging the wrongs of the past and the need to correct them. How to fix them would be a matter of debate, but the need really wouldn't. There are some, and always will be, who will refuse to acknowledge the problem, but I don't think their numbers are significant. This begs the question, why wasn't it done that way?
Quote:It's just the language surrounding the issue is all out of whack which leads to major problems when it comes to individual interactions between people of different races. A black person may use the phrase, "Black people can't be racist, they can only be prejudice" in what they believe is a good faith evaluation of systemic racism, but all some white people will hear is, "you are trying to make an excuse for acting the way you don't want me to act." And nobody likes a hypocrite.
Here's where I get into the why, as I see it. I think this was done with complete intent. For many in the "progressive" movement reconciliation and a move towards equal treatment was not the end goal, and we can see that by the fruits borne by the movement. The goal was "it's our turn now". I've told this story before, so apologies if you've read it. I have a friend in San Diego who is mixed race, mother white and father black. We were discussing at another friend's bachelor party weekend about the progressive movement. This was pre-George Floyd and took place literally a month before the pandemic shutdown. Our discussion centered around how successful it could be. I noted that it could be very successful if it avoided going down the "it's our turn now" route. My example of this is a college called The Citadel. Hazing freshman is a tradition there, and can get rather out of hand. The group that conducts the vast majority of the hazing is the sophomore class, who just got done being hazed for a year. So the people you'd think would have the most empathy for the freshman's situation actually treat them the worst. Why, because "it's out turn now."
You see the progressive movement as having good intent and going astray. I see it as a movement with a stated noble intent that was deliberately steered into the current area by people with ill intent. Look at the people the movement has chosen to elevate, using Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates as examples. While Kendi is the worst offender of the two both are very much in the "it's out turn" camp and it is clear that actual reconciliation and equal treatment is not on their menu and never was. The founders of BLM were openly misandrist Marxists whose stated goal was the destruction of the nuclear family. All the flashing red lights were ignored by most due to fear of being labeled racist, which you correctly point out used to be a very weighty accusation. So, while I have zero doubt of your good intent and perceptions, I don't think the movement as a whole ever really had a noble end goal in mind. The proof is in the results.
Quote:And right wing pundits have taken advantage of that fact to really drive the culture war home. It is endlessly frustrating to me that culture war topics are the prevalent topics of discussion in politics today. I wish it weren't that way, but unfortunately that's where pundits on the right (with those on the left happily following their lead) have driven the conversation.
Politics are exhausting.
Of course, this is a natural reaction to being attacked. Also, these culture war issues are a distraction, the question being from what? I've heard arguments that this is a deliberate distraction after the Occupy Wall Street movement, because it's far better for the ruling class to have the masses arguing about race than arguing about class/wealth. Maybe there's some truth to that. But I can state, again from my position and observation, that the progressive movement produced exactly what it set out to produce, and the results have been terrible.
