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Hello, and welcome back. I'm your host, Marie Beacham, and
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on today's episode, I'll be talking about what progresses could
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learn from our mistakes on race and anti racism. This
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is my best attempt at a short and sweet episode.
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Lots of the other ones I've prepared are on the
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lengthier side, but I wanted to give you a whole range,
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so I thought this would be a good topic for
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me to breeze through and see how you feel about
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a shorter episode. The way I see it, there are
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three major things, three major overarching umbrella categories, race and
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racism and anti racism, and the left and the right
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each have their own beliefs about those three things. I
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would say that the left and the right and their
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extreme forms believe exact opposites about those things. The previous administration,
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the left was in power, kind of got our way
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on a lot of things, enacted our version of anti racism,
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spread our beliefs about race and racism, had a lot
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of cultural and social power. Now we're in a different
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moment where the right is in power. They're in the
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position to enact their version of anti racism and to
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spread and implement their beliefs about and racism. So it's
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been this ping ponging back and forth thing, and I
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would argue, and I do argue, that each side, in
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its extremes, has a flawed program. I find myself left
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of center, really believing in progressive anti racism, while also
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seeing flaws and fallibility over in this neck of the woods.
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I've been sounding the alarms ever since I started to
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catch wind of all of these areas and ways we
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could be wrong about some things. But I think that
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now especially, we are primed and in position to learn
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from our mistakes. Progressive anti racism had its moment, It
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had its heyday. It was being embraced, it was topping
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best seller lists, it was adopted unquestioningly in its very
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new and novel form at universities, at colleges, at companies everywhere.
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But a few years have passed and progressive anti racism
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has gone belly up. Progressives have been shaken, and many
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of our leaders have been despairing. That's because now there's
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no vision for how to move forward. There's just a
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hope that whenever we're back in power, we'll get to
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do DEI and anti racism all over again, exactly the
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same way. What we really need is to learn from
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our mistakes. What are those mistakes, Well, I call them
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the Big three, the big three claims. The first is
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on racism, the claim that racism is absolutely everywhere, The
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second is claim that race is absolutely everything, and the
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third is that anti racism must be uniformly embraced by everyone.
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Those big three beliefs, in their absolute form and their
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extreme form, cost progressives credibility and our cultural influence. I'll
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unpack each of those in a bit more detail, but
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to do so, I actually want to start with explaining
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the right, because the right has their own Big three,
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and it's the exact opposite of what we see amongst progressives.
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On the right. The big three beliefs are that racism
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is practically nowhere, that race is practically nothing, and that
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anti racism needs to be adopted by exactly no one. Granted,
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my big three for both the right and the left,
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those are caricatures, those are extremes, but they highlight the
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ultimate destination that both sides have been venturing down for
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a while. So let's start with these on the right.
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On the far right, what do people believe about racism? Well,
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there's generally this sense that most people are people of goodwill,
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and so because of that, no one's deliberately trying to
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discriminate based on skin color anymore. That was true in
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the fifties and the sixties, and sure in the seventies,
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but it's not true in the twenty first century. As
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they see it, We've put so much effort toward anti
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racism that those efforts have been successful. Racism is illegal,
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discrimination is not in vogue, and prejudice is something that
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everyone's trying to deal with. So we could reasonably conclude
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that racism is nowhere anymore. What do people on the
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far right believe about race? Well, Consequently, because racism is nowhere,
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race is pretty much a nothing burger. It doesn't matter,
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it's not significant, doesn't affect your social life unless you're
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just the one deciding to make a big deal of it.
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No one cares about your skin color. No one and
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will treat you any differently. It's up to you whether
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you want to read into that identity or not. But
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if you do that, you're pretty much making something out
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of nothing. Race is nothing. Biologically, it's not real, and
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so socially it might as well be not real either.
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Race hasn't meant anything for a long time, and it
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doesn't have to mean anything as long as we can
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just move on, move forward, and stop talking about it
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so much. Now, what do people on the far right
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believe about anti racism. They believe that anti racism efforts
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or efforts to oppose prejudice and discrimination need to be
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taken up by no one, because again, the issue of
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racism is pretty much laid to rest. As they see it,
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the real issue is all of this dust we're kicking
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up about racism by talking about it so much and
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making so many flawed and failing efforts to deal with it,
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Our inti racism efforts that are the real problem. We
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just need to stop with all of that mess, stop
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striving toward anti racism, and just stick with good shared
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moral values about treating people kindly and we'll be good.
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Those are the big three ideas on the right. I
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say the right the far right. I think there are
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a lot of thoughtful people on the right who wouldn't
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fall into those caricatures or the most severe version of
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those beliefs. But if they had to lean one way
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or the other, they would lean in the direction of
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saying that racism isn't very prevalent, that race isn't very important,
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and that anti racism isn't all that needed now in response,
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what is believed on the left? What is the left's
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big three? Unlike those on the right who believe that
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racism is nowhere, those on the left believe that racism
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is everywhere. On the left, you'll hear about implice, prejudice
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affecting all of us at the individual level, and systemic
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racism affecting all of society. It's taught that no matter
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how hard you try to be a good person, even
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you can't escape the clutches of racism, you yourself will
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promote racism, no matter how hard you try not to.
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You are part of the problem because racism is inescapable.
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It's poison in the air we breathe. It's a disease
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that we're all affected with, even if we're asymptomatic, and
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it is pulling the strings in our society. It always
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has been, and to believe otherwise is to believe a delusion.
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In some strains of the left, it's taught that there
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is no such thing as a situation that's free of racism.
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There's no possible interaction between two people of different races
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that isn't marked by racism. It's a pernicious evil. It's
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harbored by those who don't even intend to, and it's
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being perpetuated at all times because power is concentrated amongst
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white people, and all people of color are fundamentally victims
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in a racist, white supremacist society. That's what those on
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the left or the far left believe about racism. What
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about race? What is the lefts teaching on race? Unlike
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those on the right who believe that race is essentially nothing,
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those on the left believe that race is essentially everything.
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The left is admittedly very identitarian, meaning that our social
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identities are demographics. Those matter a lot. They matter personally
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in terms of how we can make sense of ourselves
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and our place in the world and the scripts that
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we're given, and they are also consequential in terms of
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the experiences we have, the opportunities we do or don't receive,
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the treatment we get. Race unfortunately affects everything because the
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previous belief that racism's everywhere. As long as racism is
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rampant in our society, and on the left you'll hear
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it is, then we need to be paying attention to
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race because that necessarily means that race is a determinant
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of all sorts of things about your life experience. That's
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why you'll also hear that we need to be conscious
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of race. We need to pay attention to it because
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it is shaping the trajectory of our every day and
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our lives, whether we realize it or not, so we
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might as well realize it. There's also this view that
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not only should we see race because of racism and
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as a way of catching discrimination and noticing prejudice, but
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we should also see race in the positive sense. We
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should see it as a beautiful aspect of your identity,
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as a special part of who you are. Race should
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be seen and celebrated and salient. It should be top
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of mind because it is core. It is key to
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who you are as a person. And lastly, what does
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the left believe about anti racism? Well, unlike those on
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the right who believe that anti racism should be adopted
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by absolutely no one, those in the left believe that
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anti racism should be uniformly embraced by every Again, that's
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an extreme way of putting what's a widespread sentiment on
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the far left and in activist circles. If anti racism
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is how we deal with the evils of prejudice and discrimination,
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then how could we not have everyone adopt this? How
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could we not enforce it, share it, teach it, have
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people abide by it whether they want to or not.
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If we let people opt in or opt out, what
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are they opting out of? They'd rather not have anti
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racism because they want to be racist. No, we can't
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give them that option. Anti racism must be a shared
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communal value because it's good and it's true, and it's necessary,
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and anyone who thinks otherwise it has to be evil
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or stupid. You'll notice how these big three fit together perfectly.
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Because it's believed that racism is ever everywhere. That means
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that race is everything, and that also means that anti
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racism needs to be adopted by everyone. Now I laid
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out the views on either side, but to start this episode,
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I said that progressives need to learn from our mistakes
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on race if we want to make things right. So
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what do I mean by them? Do I mean that
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the right is right? Do I mean that racism is nowhere?
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Race is nothing, and anti racism should be embraced by
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No One spoiler alert. No, but I do think that
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both the right and the left are getting different things,
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very very wrong. I think that political polarization has pushed
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us further and further out into extremes. But on this
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very gray, nuanced matter, the truth doesn't lie in the extremes.
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This framework that I've created of the Big Three helps
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us to wrap our mind around exactly what the differences
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are on the right and left. The differences first lie
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with our beliefs about racism, which then feeds our beliefs
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about race, which finally shapes our beliefs about anti racism
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and what that should look like. All lay out, really briefly,
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what I believe the left must do to learn from
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our mistakes. My heart is with people who are progressive
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on race, and to that group I have a loving
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plea that we would make some things right by modifying
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our Big three claims. Rather than just believing that racism
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is absolutely everywhere, I think we need to rein in
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who and what we deem racist rather than believing that
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race is everything. We need to walk back some of
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our counterproductive fixation on racial identity, and rather than declaring
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that anti racism needs to be embraced by everyone. A
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good place to start would be reform, modifying and improving
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our program of anti racism, essentially admitting that we don't
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have it all figured out and we're not in a
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position to implement it uniformly as if we do. I'll
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unpack each of those a little bit. This brief conversation
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really captures everything that I love about progressive anti racism
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and the racial justice movement, and it also makes very
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clear where I think we've gone wrong and how we
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can take strides to make simple changes that fill out
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our beliefs and make them less rigid, less severe, more nuanced,
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more practical, more accurate, and precise. In this conversation, both
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sides are guilty of speaking in hyperbole. Both sides are
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guilty of caricature. Both sides have been moving further and
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further to differentiate themselves from the other side. Now we're
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at a point where if a conservative person speaks with
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concern about racism, they're accused of being too progressive. If
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a progressive person says something about racism being a little
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less severe than we thought, no, now they're disowned. That's
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an act of betrayal. Both sides have been landlocked into
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what we've said we believe, and we've been landlocked into
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the most extreme black and white version of our sentiment,
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and that doesn't help us. So what shift would be
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really healthy for progressives to make on each of these
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big three claims? Well, if our starting point is the
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idea that racism is absolutely everywhere, which I'm not saying
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that you, as the listener, believe that or would put
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it in those words, what I'm saying is that of
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the books from the left on my bookshelves right now,
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that's what's being taught, that's what's being assumed. A helpful
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pivot would be to reign in who we deem racist
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and what we deem racist. Lots of voices on the
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left will tell you that every person who is white
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is automatically, irredeemably racist. I don't think that's productive. They
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will tell you that your implicit prejudices are impossible to overcome,
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are ruling your decisions all day long. They will tell
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you that you have this disease, this evil that can't
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truly be dealt with. But if that's what we believe
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to be true about racism, that it's something that everyone
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is affected by, and not just affected by, but completely
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controlled by, and not just that it controls us, but
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that it's completely imperceptible, and not just that, but also
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that no matter how hard we try, we can't do
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a thing about it. Well, then we have just made
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our own grave, and we might as well lie in it.
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Those of us who are progressive on issues of race
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would do well to see that that logic about racism
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can't be argued with. And it also teaches that trying
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to deal with racism is a fools errand it's a
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lost cause, it's completely hopeless. It leads to a whole
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lot of confusion because we end up looking for racism
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as if it's equally present in people in places of
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goodwill as it is in people in places who are
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deliberately discriminating, when in reality, our conscious choices do determine
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a lot. We can both believe that unconscious prejudice is
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real and also believe that it's not the most real,
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most defining aspect of our lives. We can believe that
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we are susceptible to racial prejudice or racist socialization without
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believing that we have no power over it or that
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we can do nothing about it. What I want those
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of us who are on the left to come to
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see is that it's not just a wash. It's not
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that everyone is equally racist in equal measure, not that
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racism is so ubiquitous you and I have no hope
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of escaping it, or overcoming it, or moving beyond it.
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I want us to see racism as something that is
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marked by racist categorization of people, racist discrimination of people,
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and therefore something that some people really opt into and
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some opt out of. I'm essentially asking us to reclaim
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the long standing historic understanding of our racism is it
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is a choice to see people differently or treat people
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differently because of their race. And that's something that you
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largely can control, not entirely, not perfectly. There are unconscious elements,
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there are passive versions of racism, but those should not
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overwhelm the entire discussion. Okay, Now, race, If on the
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far left it's believed that race is everything, Race determines
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our experience of the world, it determines our self understanding.
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It is absolutely pivotal, and therefore we must see it
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and pay attention to it. If that's our starting point,
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I would like us to walk back some of the
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fixation on racial identity. When we pay so much attention
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to race, it can have a very counterproductive effect for
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people of color, racial minorities, black people. There is a
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pile of evidence that paying a lot of attention to
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race and believing it's going to shape your experience because
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you are on high alert for racism, leads to such
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a significant racial burden that even if you don't experience racism,
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you still have essentially racial battle fatigue. You still end
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up carrying a very heavy load. So when people on
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the left are especially telling people of color, you should
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really really pay attention to race, you should really be
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thinking about that all the time, that works against us.
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That's not in our best interest. Now. I love how
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on the left there is a positive view of race
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and a celebration and embraceive diversity. I think that a
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degree of color consciousness is beautiful. It's good. But at
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the same time, all of our enthusiasm for race, for
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seeing it from racing it, all of our confidence that
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paying attention to race will be how we deal with racism.
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I want to thwart that just a little bit by
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reminding you that race itself was invented for purposes of racism.
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Race was created. We all know this. We all know
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it's not biological. We all know it's just a social invention.
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We all know the categories of black and white were
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made up so that some people could enslave other people
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and to humanize them along the way. If we know
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that that is the origin of race, and that the
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categories themselves serve to justify differentiating people and discriminating, then
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isn't it very possible that holding tightly to those categories
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that were created for oppression might not be the best
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way to deal with oppression. It's possible that dealing with
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racism means dealing with race if we want to get
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at the root of racism. The root of racism is
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believing that race is important, it's defining, it's a distinguishing feature,
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and it makes us very different. Racism then takes that
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one step further and says it makes some better and
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some worse. But maybe the way to go upstream and
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fully deal with racism is to deal with race a
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little bit, to not embrace it and pay attention to it,
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and say that we should see other people differently because
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of it, and be race conscious till the cows come home.
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Maybe we need to examine race itself, deconstruct race itself,
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undermine our belief in race itself. Yes, in the biological sense,
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everyone knows to do that. Everyone knows race is biologically fake,
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it's not real. But we should also consider what that
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could mean in the social sense. Maybe not now because
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race still affects so much of life experience, but hopefully
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in the future, hopefully the near future. And finally, anti
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racist on the left, if the starting belief about anti
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racism is that it needs to be embraced by everyone,
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how could we shade that in with some nuance, Well,
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I think we would do well to begin readily changing
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our program of anti racism. Our program of anti racism
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is often guilty of some circular reasoning. Many prominent voices
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in the left talk about anti racism, and they define
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racism very rigidly, and then they define anti racism very rigidly,
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and they define a racist person as anyone who doesn't
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agree with them on racism and anti racism. They'll talk
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about unconscious bias, they'll talk about systemic racism, they'll talk
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about stereotyping, they'll talk about microaggressions, they'll talk about a
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million and two issues, and then they'll say you are
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anti racist if you agree on every last one with
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what I've just explained, and you are racist if you
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disagree and you have internalized racism, or if you're a
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person of color, then your self hating, or if you're
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a white person, you're a white supremacist. And it's this
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fully circular, padded argument of head's eye win tails, you lose,
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and that circularity has led to our own demise. We
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need some give in our understanding of anti racism. We
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need some flexibility. We need to be open to learning
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new information and being willing to change. Anti racism by
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its nature needs to have some opt in opt out ability,
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because we need to start by not seeing it as
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objectively good and true, but as something that is fluid,
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something that's largely speculation, largely moral. It's an ideology, it's
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not a fact. Hopefully, we take a lot of facts
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and use those to inform our ideology, but when it
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comes to what we believe about paying attention to race
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more or paying attention to race less, or interpreting microaggressions
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as if they're racism, or interpreting microaggressions by assuming the best,
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or there's a whole range of things I could list out.
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We want to take the facts and build an ideology,
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but at the end of the day, it is inherently ideological,
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which means it's something that people are going to see differently,
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and that's not necessarily a problem. That might even be
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a strength. Dare I say it is a strength on
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the left. We've lost out on what could be a
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lot of helpful discourse, a lot of back and forth,
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a lot of improving our own program, because when we
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receive criticism, we dismiss that person, We shun them and
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shame them as a heretic, and we send them on
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their way. I'm not saying that's everyone, and I bet
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money that that's probably not the people who are listening
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to this podcast. So this is not a call out
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by any means. But in this critical time where the
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future it is, it remains to be seen. We don't
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know what's going to happen in the coming years. I
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think we won't regret getting our grasp of race and
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racism and anti racism in tip top shape. And if
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we are put in the position once again to have
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a lot of political and social and cultural influence that
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will get it right that time, a little bit more
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right than we did the first time around. That's my hope,
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at least, truth be told. I had not a single
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note for this episode, so I was hoping it would
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be much more brief. But I have impressed myself with
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my own jeeper jabbering abilities. I'm sure you'll give me
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grace in how I chose my words, and I hope
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that I could put in simple and clear terms a
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picture of what we're seeing on the left and the right,
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and that I could make a case for a different way,
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a better way than all the ways that have been
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done before. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you
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for listening. Until next time,
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Hello, and welcome back. I'm your host, Marie Beacham, and
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on today's episode, I'll be talking about what progresses could
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learn from our mistakes on race and anti racism. This
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is my best attempt at a short and sweet episode.
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Lots of the other ones I've prepared are on the
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lengthier side, but I wanted to give you a whole range,
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so I thought this would be a good topic for
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me to breeze through and see how you feel about
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a shorter episode. The way I see it, there are
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three major things, three major overarching umbrella categories, race and
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racism and anti racism, and the left and the right
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each have their own beliefs about those three things. I
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would say that the left and the right and their
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extreme forms believe exact opposites about those things. The previous administration,
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the left was in power, kind of got our way
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on a lot of things, enacted our version of anti racism,
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spread our beliefs about race and racism, had a lot
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of cultural and social power. Now we're in a different
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moment where the right is in power. They're in the
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position to enact their version of anti racism and to
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spread and implement their beliefs about and racism. So it's
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been this ping ponging back and forth thing, and I
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would argue, and I do argue, that each side, in
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its extremes, has a flawed program. I find myself left
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of center, really believing in progressive anti racism, while also
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seeing flaws and fallibility over in this neck of the woods.
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I've been sounding the alarms ever since I started to
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catch wind of all of these areas and ways we
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could be wrong about some things. But I think that
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now especially, we are primed and in position to learn
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from our mistakes. Progressive anti racism had its moment, It
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had its heyday. It was being embraced, it was topping
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best seller lists, it was adopted unquestioningly in its very
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new and novel form at universities, at colleges, at companies everywhere.
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But a few years have passed and progressive anti racism
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has gone belly up. Progressives have been shaken, and many
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of our leaders have been despairing. That's because now there's
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no vision for how to move forward. There's just a
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hope that whenever we're back in power, we'll get to
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do DEI and anti racism all over again, exactly the
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same way. What we really need is to learn from
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our mistakes. What are those mistakes, Well, I call them
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the Big three, the big three claims. The first is
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on racism, the claim that racism is absolutely everywhere, The
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second is claim that race is absolutely everything, and the
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third is that anti racism must be uniformly embraced by everyone.
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Those big three beliefs, in their absolute form and their
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extreme form, cost progressives credibility and our cultural influence. I'll
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unpack each of those in a bit more detail, but
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to do so, I actually want to start with explaining
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the right, because the right has their own Big three,
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and it's the exact opposite of what we see amongst progressives.
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On the right. The big three beliefs are that racism
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is practically nowhere, that race is practically nothing, and that
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anti racism needs to be adopted by exactly no one. Granted,
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my big three for both the right and the left,
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those are caricatures, those are extremes, but they highlight the
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ultimate destination that both sides have been venturing down for
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a while. So let's start with these on the right.
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On the far right, what do people believe about racism? Well,
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there's generally this sense that most people are people of goodwill,
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and so because of that, no one's deliberately trying to
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discriminate based on skin color anymore. That was true in
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the fifties and the sixties, and sure in the seventies,
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but it's not true in the twenty first century. As
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they see it, We've put so much effort toward anti
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racism that those efforts have been successful. Racism is illegal,
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discrimination is not in vogue, and prejudice is something that
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everyone's trying to deal with. So we could reasonably conclude
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that racism is nowhere anymore. What do people on the
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far right believe about race? Well, Consequently, because racism is nowhere,
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race is pretty much a nothing burger. It doesn't matter,
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it's not significant, doesn't affect your social life unless you're
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just the one deciding to make a big deal of it.
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No one cares about your skin color. No one and
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will treat you any differently. It's up to you whether
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you want to read into that identity or not. But
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if you do that, you're pretty much making something out
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of nothing. Race is nothing. Biologically, it's not real, and
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so socially it might as well be not real either.
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Race hasn't meant anything for a long time, and it
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doesn't have to mean anything as long as we can
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just move on, move forward, and stop talking about it
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so much. Now, what do people on the far right
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believe about anti racism. They believe that anti racism efforts
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or efforts to oppose prejudice and discrimination need to be
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taken up by no one, because again, the issue of
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racism is pretty much laid to rest. As they see it,
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the real issue is all of this dust we're kicking
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up about racism by talking about it so much and
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making so many flawed and failing efforts to deal with it,
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Our inti racism efforts that are the real problem. We
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just need to stop with all of that mess, stop
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striving toward anti racism, and just stick with good shared
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moral values about treating people kindly and we'll be good.
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Those are the big three ideas on the right. I
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say the right the far right. I think there are
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a lot of thoughtful people on the right who wouldn't
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fall into those caricatures or the most severe version of
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those beliefs. But if they had to lean one way
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or the other, they would lean in the direction of
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saying that racism isn't very prevalent, that race isn't very important,
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and that anti racism isn't all that needed now in response,
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what is believed on the left? What is the left's
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big three? Unlike those on the right who believe that
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racism is nowhere, those on the left believe that racism
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is everywhere. On the left, you'll hear about implice, prejudice
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affecting all of us at the individual level, and systemic
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racism affecting all of society. It's taught that no matter
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how hard you try to be a good person, even
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you can't escape the clutches of racism, you yourself will
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promote racism, no matter how hard you try not to.
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You are part of the problem because racism is inescapable.
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It's poison in the air we breathe. It's a disease
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that we're all affected with, even if we're asymptomatic, and
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it is pulling the strings in our society. It always
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has been, and to believe otherwise is to believe a delusion.
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In some strains of the left, it's taught that there
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is no such thing as a situation that's free of racism.
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There's no possible interaction between two people of different races
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that isn't marked by racism. It's a pernicious evil. It's
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harbored by those who don't even intend to, and it's
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being perpetuated at all times because power is concentrated amongst
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white people, and all people of color are fundamentally victims
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in a racist, white supremacist society. That's what those on
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the left or the far left believe about racism. What
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about race? What is the lefts teaching on race? Unlike
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those on the right who believe that race is essentially nothing,
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those on the left believe that race is essentially everything.
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The left is admittedly very identitarian, meaning that our social
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identities are demographics. Those matter a lot. They matter personally
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in terms of how we can make sense of ourselves
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and our place in the world and the scripts that
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we're given, and they are also consequential in terms of
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the experiences we have, the opportunities we do or don't receive,
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the treatment we get. Race unfortunately affects everything because the
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previous belief that racism's everywhere. As long as racism is
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rampant in our society, and on the left you'll hear
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it is, then we need to be paying attention to
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race because that necessarily means that race is a determinant
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of all sorts of things about your life experience. That's
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why you'll also hear that we need to be conscious
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of race. We need to pay attention to it because
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it is shaping the trajectory of our every day and
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our lives, whether we realize it or not, so we
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might as well realize it. There's also this view that
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not only should we see race because of racism and
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as a way of catching discrimination and noticing prejudice, but
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we should also see race in the positive sense. We
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should see it as a beautiful aspect of your identity,
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as a special part of who you are. Race should
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be seen and celebrated and salient. It should be top
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of mind because it is core. It is key to
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who you are as a person. And lastly, what does
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the left believe about anti racism? Well, unlike those on
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the right who believe that anti racism should be adopted
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by absolutely no one, those in the left believe that
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anti racism should be uniformly embraced by every Again, that's
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an extreme way of putting what's a widespread sentiment on
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the far left and in activist circles. If anti racism
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is how we deal with the evils of prejudice and discrimination,
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then how could we not have everyone adopt this? How
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could we not enforce it, share it, teach it, have
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people abide by it whether they want to or not.
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If we let people opt in or opt out, what
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are they opting out of? They'd rather not have anti
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racism because they want to be racist. No, we can't
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give them that option. Anti racism must be a shared
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communal value because it's good and it's true, and it's necessary,
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and anyone who thinks otherwise it has to be evil
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or stupid. You'll notice how these big three fit together perfectly.
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Because it's believed that racism is ever everywhere. That means
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that race is everything, and that also means that anti
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racism needs to be adopted by everyone. Now I laid
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out the views on either side, but to start this episode,
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I said that progressives need to learn from our mistakes
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on race if we want to make things right. So
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what do I mean by them? Do I mean that
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the right is right? Do I mean that racism is nowhere?
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Race is nothing, and anti racism should be embraced by
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No One spoiler alert. No, but I do think that
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both the right and the left are getting different things,
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very very wrong. I think that political polarization has pushed
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us further and further out into extremes. But on this
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very gray, nuanced matter, the truth doesn't lie in the extremes.
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This framework that I've created of the Big Three helps
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us to wrap our mind around exactly what the differences
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are on the right and left. The differences first lie
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with our beliefs about racism, which then feeds our beliefs
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about race, which finally shapes our beliefs about anti racism
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and what that should look like. All lay out, really briefly,
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what I believe the left must do to learn from
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our mistakes. My heart is with people who are progressive
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on race, and to that group I have a loving
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plea that we would make some things right by modifying
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our Big three claims. Rather than just believing that racism
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is absolutely everywhere, I think we need to rein in
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who and what we deem racist rather than believing that
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race is everything. We need to walk back some of
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our counterproductive fixation on racial identity, and rather than declaring
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that anti racism needs to be embraced by everyone. A
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good place to start would be reform, modifying and improving
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our program of anti racism, essentially admitting that we don't
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have it all figured out and we're not in a
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position to implement it uniformly as if we do. I'll
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unpack each of those a little bit. This brief conversation
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really captures everything that I love about progressive anti racism
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and the racial justice movement, and it also makes very
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clear where I think we've gone wrong and how we
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can take strides to make simple changes that fill out
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our beliefs and make them less rigid, less severe, more nuanced,
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more practical, more accurate, and precise. In this conversation, both
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sides are guilty of speaking in hyperbole. Both sides are
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guilty of caricature. Both sides have been moving further and
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further to differentiate themselves from the other side. Now we're
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at a point where if a conservative person speaks with
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concern about racism, they're accused of being too progressive. If
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a progressive person says something about racism being a little
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less severe than we thought, no, now they're disowned. That's
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an act of betrayal. Both sides have been landlocked into
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what we've said we believe, and we've been landlocked into
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the most extreme black and white version of our sentiment,
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and that doesn't help us. So what shift would be
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really healthy for progressives to make on each of these
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big three claims? Well, if our starting point is the
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idea that racism is absolutely everywhere, which I'm not saying
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that you, as the listener, believe that or would put
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it in those words, what I'm saying is that of
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the books from the left on my bookshelves right now,
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that's what's being taught, that's what's being assumed. A helpful
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pivot would be to reign in who we deem racist
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and what we deem racist. Lots of voices on the
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left will tell you that every person who is white
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is automatically, irredeemably racist. I don't think that's productive. They
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will tell you that your implicit prejudices are impossible to overcome,
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are ruling your decisions all day long. They will tell
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you that you have this disease, this evil that can't
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truly be dealt with. But if that's what we believe
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to be true about racism, that it's something that everyone
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is affected by, and not just affected by, but completely
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controlled by, and not just that it controls us, but
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that it's completely imperceptible, and not just that, but also
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that no matter how hard we try, we can't do
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a thing about it. Well, then we have just made
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our own grave, and we might as well lie in it.
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Those of us who are progressive on issues of race
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would do well to see that that logic about racism
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can't be argued with. And it also teaches that trying
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to deal with racism is a fools errand it's a
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lost cause, it's completely hopeless. It leads to a whole
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lot of confusion because we end up looking for racism
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as if it's equally present in people in places of
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goodwill as it is in people in places who are
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deliberately discriminating, when in reality, our conscious choices do determine
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a lot. We can both believe that unconscious prejudice is
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real and also believe that it's not the most real,
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most defining aspect of our lives. We can believe that
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we are susceptible to racial prejudice or racist socialization without
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believing that we have no power over it or that
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we can do nothing about it. What I want those
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of us who are on the left to come to
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see is that it's not just a wash. It's not
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that everyone is equally racist in equal measure, not that
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racism is so ubiquitous you and I have no hope
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of escaping it, or overcoming it, or moving beyond it.
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I want us to see racism as something that is
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marked by racist categorization of people, racist discrimination of people,
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and therefore something that some people really opt into and
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some opt out of. I'm essentially asking us to reclaim
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the long standing historic understanding of our racism is it
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is a choice to see people differently or treat people
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differently because of their race. And that's something that you
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largely can control, not entirely, not perfectly. There are unconscious elements,
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there are passive versions of racism, but those should not
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overwhelm the entire discussion. Okay, Now, race, If on the
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far left it's believed that race is everything, Race determines
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our experience of the world, it determines our self understanding.
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It is absolutely pivotal, and therefore we must see it
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and pay attention to it. If that's our starting point,
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I would like us to walk back some of the
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fixation on racial identity. When we pay so much attention
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to race, it can have a very counterproductive effect for
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people of color, racial minorities, black people. There is a
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pile of evidence that paying a lot of attention to
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race and believing it's going to shape your experience because
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you are on high alert for racism, leads to such
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a significant racial burden that even if you don't experience racism,
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you still have essentially racial battle fatigue. You still end
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up carrying a very heavy load. So when people on
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the left are especially telling people of color, you should
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really really pay attention to race, you should really be
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thinking about that all the time, that works against us.
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That's not in our best interest. Now. I love how
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on the left there is a positive view of race
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and a celebration and embraceive diversity. I think that a
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degree of color consciousness is beautiful. It's good. But at
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the same time, all of our enthusiasm for race, for
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seeing it from racing it, all of our confidence that
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paying attention to race will be how we deal with racism.
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I want to thwart that just a little bit by
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reminding you that race itself was invented for purposes of racism.
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Race was created. We all know this. We all know
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it's not biological. We all know it's just a social invention.
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We all know the categories of black and white were
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made up so that some people could enslave other people
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and to humanize them along the way. If we know
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that that is the origin of race, and that the
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categories themselves serve to justify differentiating people and discriminating, then
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isn't it very possible that holding tightly to those categories
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that were created for oppression might not be the best
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way to deal with oppression. It's possible that dealing with
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racism means dealing with race if we want to get
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at the root of racism. The root of racism is
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believing that race is important, it's defining, it's a distinguishing feature,
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and it makes us very different. Racism then takes that
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one step further and says it makes some better and
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some worse. But maybe the way to go upstream and
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fully deal with racism is to deal with race a
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little bit, to not embrace it and pay attention to it,
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and say that we should see other people differently because
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of it, and be race conscious till the cows come home.
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Maybe we need to examine race itself, deconstruct race itself,
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undermine our belief in race itself. Yes, in the biological sense,
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everyone knows to do that. Everyone knows race is biologically fake,
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it's not real. But we should also consider what that
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could mean in the social sense. Maybe not now because
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race still affects so much of life experience, but hopefully
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in the future, hopefully the near future. And finally, anti
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racist on the left, if the starting belief about anti
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racism is that it needs to be embraced by everyone,
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how could we shade that in with some nuance, Well,
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I think we would do well to begin readily changing
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our program of anti racism. Our program of anti racism
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is often guilty of some circular reasoning. Many prominent voices
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in the left talk about anti racism, and they define
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racism very rigidly, and then they define anti racism very rigidly,
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and they define a racist person as anyone who doesn't
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agree with them on racism and anti racism. They'll talk
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about unconscious bias, they'll talk about systemic racism, they'll talk
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about stereotyping, they'll talk about microaggressions, they'll talk about a
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million and two issues, and then they'll say you are
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anti racist if you agree on every last one with
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what I've just explained, and you are racist if you
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disagree and you have internalized racism, or if you're a
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person of color, then your self hating, or if you're
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a white person, you're a white supremacist. And it's this
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fully circular, padded argument of head's eye win tails, you lose,
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and that circularity has led to our own demise. We
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need some give in our understanding of anti racism. We
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need some flexibility. We need to be open to learning
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new information and being willing to change. Anti racism by
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its nature needs to have some opt in opt out ability,
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because we need to start by not seeing it as
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objectively good and true, but as something that is fluid,
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something that's largely speculation, largely moral. It's an ideology, it's
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not a fact. Hopefully, we take a lot of facts
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and use those to inform our ideology, but when it
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comes to what we believe about paying attention to race
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more or paying attention to race less, or interpreting microaggressions
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as if they're racism, or interpreting microaggressions by assuming the best,
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or there's a whole range of things I could list out.
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We want to take the facts and build an ideology,
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but at the end of the day, it is inherently ideological,
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which means it's something that people are going to see differently,
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and that's not necessarily a problem. That might even be
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a strength. Dare I say it is a strength on
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the left. We've lost out on what could be a
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lot of helpful discourse, a lot of back and forth,
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a lot of improving our own program, because when we
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receive criticism, we dismiss that person, We shun them and
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shame them as a heretic, and we send them on
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their way. I'm not saying that's everyone, and I bet
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money that that's probably not the people who are listening
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to this podcast. So this is not a call out
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by any means. But in this critical time where the
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future it is, it remains to be seen. We don't
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know what's going to happen in the coming years. I
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think we won't regret getting our grasp of race and
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racism and anti racism in tip top shape. And if
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we are put in the position once again to have
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a lot of political and social and cultural influence that
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will get it right that time, a little bit more
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right than we did the first time around. That's my hope,
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at least, truth be told. I had not a single
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note for this episode, so I was hoping it would
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be much more brief. But I have impressed myself with
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my own jeeper jabbering abilities. I'm sure you'll give me
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grace in how I chose my words, and I hope
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that I could put in simple and clear terms a
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picture of what we're seeing on the left and the right,
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and that I could make a case for a different way,
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a better way than all the ways that have been
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done before. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you
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for listening. Until next time,
