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0 pointschitowneats5y ago0 comments

The main thrust of the "antiracist" movement that is gaining steam in many sectors of society, including the tech industry, can be summarized as: "whites are perpetuating a global racist conspiracy against people of color."

They see Israel/Palestine through this lens, as well as the racial justice issues in the US.

It doesn't take much of a leap to get to, "Jews are perpetuating a global racist conspiracy..."

Sound familiar?

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notduncansmith5y ago· 1 in thread

I think one could do a lot more justice to the nuances of the situation than your summary.

1. Saying “whites” like it’s the 20th century is unnecessarily evocative of pre-civil-rights-era vibes.

2. To call it a “global conspiracy” implies there are far more people in on it than actually are.

3. When you choose a word like “perpetuating”, it doesn’t make sense to call out white people alone: the antiracist movement makes it clear that people of all shades “perpetuate” our society’s systemic injustices.

4. Finally, “against people of color” is not even the full scope of the issue: homogeneity breeds weakness, and another pillar of antiracism is a recognition of the strength in diversity.

5. The “sound familiar?” bit at the end is inviting a comparison that would be in incredibly poor taste IMO and smacks of DARVO tactics

Antiracism is a self-serving strategy if one identifies with humanity as a whole. It’s not a wild idea that’s “gaining steam” - people have been writing and speaking these truths for many years.

chitowneatsOP5y ago

1. You do not have the right to tell me how to refer to my racial identity. I would normally say, "white Americans", but that doesn't make sense in the context of discussing a conspiracy theory that implicates white-skinned individuals globally. "White-skinned individuals" is a mouthful. You read into "whites" what you wanted to. I don't use "white people" anymore, due to the association with "wypipo", a new racial slur the supposedly "antiracist" crowd has come up with.

2. I'm glad we agree it's a conspiracy theory.

3. Yes, yes. "Internalized white supremacy" and other related BS. Yawn.

4. "Diversity is our strength" is a hypothesis that I've seen very little supporting evidence for. The Chinese would agree. It's painfully obvious that ethnically homogenous societies have an easier go of things. That will never happen in the US, and we should not wish for it to. But we should be clear eyed about it, and not pretend it's some sort of competitive advantage.

5. You taught me a new acronym today, thanks. You're way off the mark, though. Reasonable people see the parallels between what the old anti-semites believed, and what the new ones do.

They also see the difference between the likes of Ibram Kendi and MLK. But please, keep pushing this line that contemporary "antiracism" is philosophically equivalent with the Civil Rights era movement. It's obviously bullshit to anyone who isn't already an acolyte, which suits my purposes just fine.

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