Patterico's Pontifications

10/22/2021

Constitutional Vanguard: The Hyper-Wokesters’ Support for Affirmative Action Is Rooted in Racism

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:22 pm



You’ve probably heard about the professor who said: “This idea of intellectual debate and rigor as the pinnacle of intellectualism comes from a world in which white men dominated.”

That’s the topic of my latest newsletter — this one for paid subscribers — which explores how deeply this racist attitude is embedded in academia. There are generous quotes to relevant pieces from John McWhorter, and some debunking of the idea that the SAT and other tests are inherently racist. But the real target is the mindset that things like linear thinking or being on time are “white” behaviors:

McWhorter quite properly describes this as a “racist screed” posing as antiracism, which must be resisted at all costs by parents. It is the attitude criticized in Stuart Buck’s book Acting White; namely, the absurd and racist proposition that logic, argumentation, reason, hard work, merit, punctuality, good grades, and other markers of success are somehow uniquely white attributes.

What could be more insulting than this ridiculous mindset? What could be more obviously discriminatory?

Link to the piece is here.

Subscribe here.

7 Responses to “Constitutional Vanguard: The Hyper-Wokesters’ Support for Affirmative Action Is Rooted in Racism”

  1. logic, argumentation, reason, hard work, merit, punctuality, good grades, and other markers of success are somehow uniquely white attributes.

    The markers of a successful society are associated with Europeans? Do tell.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  2. Although “reason” and “logic” seem to be in disrepute everywhere.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  3. Take up the White Man’s burden—
    And reap his old reward:
    The blame of those ye better
    The hate of those ye guard—
    The cry of hosts ye humour
    (Ah slowly) to the light:
    “Why brought ye us from bondage,
    “Our loved Egyptian night?”
    https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/19-american-empire/rudyard-kipling-the-white-mans-burden-1899/

    Yes, yes, I know. Racist!

    nk (1d9030)

  4. There were laws on the books in many of the slave states of the United States that made it illegal to educate slaves beyond reading the Bible. Those laws have gone the way of hieroglyphics, but there’s more than one way to reserve and apportion knowledge according to social class. Do these CRT proponents in academia have their kids taught (their bright kids at least) the CRT way?

    nk (1d9030)

  5. Criticizing affirmative action as “racist” after decades of it being made compulsory is quite the feat. I’m shocked, SHOCKED to find that leaving AA alone for decades means that educational institutions would construct ever-larger justifications for it and ever-more strident denunciations of those who would take this free government rice bowl away from them.

    Merit ain’t worth a hill of beans next to free government money for the right labels, NERDS!

    Both white and nonwhites can benefit personally from logic, argumentation, reason, hard work, merit, punctuality, and good grades, but since women, nonwhites, and recent arrivals are easier to bully and more dependent on government set-asides, the simplest and maximally effective organizational strategy is to foment race hatred against whites till what remains is maximally disconnected from any American history and prime slave material.

    That’s it, that’s the situation, and I didn’t even have to waste any time reading articles bemoaning “racism” or “fairness”. Which has generally been an ineffective and failed waste of opposition to it in the past. Free government money and the institutions that protect it does not get removed by rhetoric! Show me your organizations that can show up to protest daily until the administration gets scared straight!

    Organization Counselor (00444f)

  6. 5. No, this isn’t the reason.

    It’s to enable corruption and get kickbacks in one form or another.

    It;s not that people should be grateful for special treatment, and still less, that people in these categories are more dependent – the people being helped are connected.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738)

  7. “It’s to enable corruption and get kickbacks in one form or another.”

    That is not a refutation, and for a not-insignificant amount of people, the ‘kickback’ of never getting criticized for your conducts, in effect getting to behave as a natural aristocracy, is far more than enough reward even if you never see a dime of the Macarthur Grant for Excellence in Antiracism.

    “the people being helped are connected.”

    Oh, the people principally being financially helped are members of the Elizabeth Warren and Benjamin K. Jealous School of Passing Every Racial Test Except Those Involving Genetics, Lifestyles, or Paper Bags, if not simply their consiglieres and grantwriters. But as libertarians so constantly and conscientiously forget, there is in fact A Thing Called “Interest Groups” and they do in fact Fight On Behalf of Their Own Interests, real or implied.

    Do you call them out in print and in person on this obvious moral failing, denouncing affirmative action hires or quota personnel? Do you make privileged labels toxic? Do you laugh in the face of the lame-os who talk about how you can make a lot of money pushing the line of a corrupt government official? Do you shame them for it? Do you spread rhetorical nails in the cushy financial and social nooks they dig themselves into? Do you, in short, do what Donald Trump would do? Why not? Are you above all attempts to improve society with words and practice alone?

    “Fighting The Unfairness and Legal Issues of Affirmative Action” in response is not a strategy to defeat this mindset. Taking opportunities to “mock the privileged“, defending those who mock the privileged, and celebrating your right to mock the privileged (otherwise known as ‘exercising and defending free speech’ if you’re being pedantic) is.

    Social Science Expert (074266)


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