Racism
Ongoing discussion…
Racism
Ongoing discussion…
Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart; and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.
In my applause-stoked flights of oratory, I didn’t realize that to say something is wrong about a racial group is to say something is inferior about that racial group. I did not realize that to say something is inferior about a racial group is to say a racist idea. I thought I was serving my people, when in fact I was serving up racist ideas about
... See moreMore than the grand beauties of our lives, wonder is about having the presence to pay attention to the commonplace. It could be said that to find beauty in the ordinary is a deeper exercise than climbing to the mountaintop.
To study hard, according to Collins, to excel on standardized tests, to earn high grades, to exceed expectations, is white supremacist behavior. Asians are therefore complicit in the systemic oppression of black students.
When someone says Black people can’t be racist because Black people don’t have “institutional power,” they are flouting reality. The powerless defense strips Black policymakers and managers of all their power. The powerless defense says the more than 154 African Americans who have served in Congress from 1870 to 2018 had no legislative power. It
... See moreBlack people have brought new feelings to life and made them available to broader publics.
to fully abandon an exploitative and destructive status quo, we need to dig even deeper.
Worldview-Reform
We need to not only shift our attention toward the systems level but also toward the worldviews or mental models that lie behind it.
I once heard that joy and happiness do different things to the body. Happiness, which works itself out in the sympathetic nervous system, makes you excitable and energetic. It’s important but fleeting, grounded in the immediacy of a moment or the whim of a feeling. Joy is more tranquil. It has to do with the parasympathetic nervous system, and it’s
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