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0 pointsdvtrn5y ago0 comments

We just went through a mini-version of it: the go-to move is that any criticism is immediately labelled as closet white supremacy.

Is that what you truly believe I did above? That I am labeling you, and think you to be a white supremacist?

If so then allow me to be clear for a moment: I have literally no way of knowing if you're a white supremacist. I have no way of knowing if you're not actually an armada of ants collectively working to actuate the keys of a mechanical keyboard or a Boltzmann brain sending these messages through some strange and baffling form of quantum entanglement. What I am trying to expose is the very real reality that these are uncomfortable conversations, that's just intrinsic to this topic and the climate we are in.

This is fine. It is fine to admit being uncomfortable trying to process where we are, how we got here, and how we got out of it.

But one has to start by looking that beast in the face first in order to reckon with it. For some, that uncomfort gets unwittingly channeled into anger and frustration and they might not even know why or even realize it, but that can be focused, and turned into knowledge and wisdom on the issues. One's just gotta start, like I said: see it for what it is, and working from there.

If you took that to be me associating you with white supremacy, I'll try to find other ways of seeking out clarity from people next time.

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jholman5y ago

> Is that what you truly believe I did above? That I am labeling you, and think you to be a white supremacist?

Looked like it to me, an uninvolved curious third party.

> the very real reality that these are uncomfortable conversations

Huh, that's what the poster that you replied to said. Weird that you got all up in their grill about it.

Let me just attempt to paraphrase the initiating series of comments, seeking only to illustrate how your comments looked to me, not attempting to do justice to the full meaning of each commenter.

nickff > advice on how the manager should do power dynamics

saagarjha > "strange power dynamic" [followed by lots of savvy commentary, irrelevant to my point here]

free_rms > CRT is all about power dynamics. That's the point. I find it exhausting, but me being exhausted is not the point, the point is that it's about power. [bit of a reductionist take on the parent comment, but probably correct?]

dvtrn > Are you exhausted because, as a beneficiary of oppression, you'd rather the oppression continue? Or is it because you're just too lazy to care about fairness?

free_rms > See, I dunno where you got that I'm an oppressor, where did this threat come from?

Yikes! And free_rms didn't even say that your implication that she/he is an oppressor was wrong, nor were they defensive about it. They just said that it's exhausting! I mean, it would be! Who would not be exhausted by that, whether or not it's a fair accusation!

I mean... now, at the bottom of this thread, you imply that you were seeking to know more, and not trying to imply that the exhaustion is evidence of being a bad person. Okay, I believe you, and nothing in your first comment belies that reading (though some of the intervening comments, hmn not so sure). But I don't think it's the natural read of what you said, at least it wasn't the natural read for me.

Me personally, btw, I dunno what CRT is, so in my privileged ignorance (enabled, of course, by my general white privilege) I'm immune to the exhaustion. I read this whole thread to see if I could learn something useful. Not so far, though I don't regret the time spent.

I dunno, is this helpful? Maybe I'm not being helpful.

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