As of August 2021 in the USA, “the right hand is beating down the black man” is an accurate (if metaphorical) statement about the territory.
What White Fragility (and many other sources) are saying is that the people who have power need to first use that power to stop the beatings. And it helps to note who the victims are, because it is ~5x more efficient to focus on the ~20% of the population that is being “beaten down” than to make race-neutral changes.
As of August 2021 in the USA, “the right hand is beating down the black man” is an accurate (if metaphorical) statement about the territory.
What White Fragility (and many other sources) are saying is that the people who have power need to first use that power to stop the beatings. And it helps to note who the victims are, because it is ~5x more efficient to focus on the ~20% of the population that is being “beaten down” than to make race-neutral changes.
This strikes me as omitting relevant variables.
Is it not true that the right hand is also beating the poor, for example?
Is the right hand beating orphans?
Is the right hand beating the mentally ill?
Why are we treating race as the ur-conflict. I believe it’s one of many.