Speaking personally, I think something like #1 is true on the grounds that I have seen many cases of white Australian people, often with considerable power, acting in excessively patronising and authoritarian ways towards Aboriginal people and I have no difficulty believing that similar things happen in the US.
However, I also do not think that racial disparities in outcomes are almost all caused by #1; in fact I think that probably less than 50% of almost any particular disparity is caused by #1. Thus, I think that outcome disparities are at best weak evidence for #1. Many people (notably Ibram X Kendi) say that in fact they are. I actually believe that the theory underlying this claim causes some of the authoritarian behaviour I observe. I think people reason something like this: - We don’t want to be racist —Differences in outcome indicate racism —We must eliminate differences in outcome —Eliminating differences in outcome requires substantial behavioural changes on the part of Aboriginal people
- Authoritarian strategies are the most reliable way we have to induce substantial behavioural changes
I think that overly authoritarian policy is often harmful.
I don’t know if DiAngelo endorses this claim—that outcome disparities are almost all caused by #1 - but claims like “being white is to know privilege” make me suspect that to some extent she is also reasoning backwards from outcome disparities to the existence of racismS. I think this is a big mistake!
I also think, with less confidence, that DiAngelo is not really popularising this theory but is rather explaining a theory that is already popular. Perhaps many people, like myself, think that this theory is flawed and that it is unfortunate that it is so popular. However, I suspect that they are making a mistake blaming DiAngelo for this. Criticism of her book could be a stand-in for criticism of this theory in general.
Maybe taking it further, I think that it’s possible that reasoning backwards from outcome disparities to racismS yields a flawed theory of what racismS is, because it’s a flawed inference to begin with. This might be why many people take issue with racismS rather than the premise (outcome disparities → racism), even though my best guess is that the premise comes first.
Speaking personally, I think something like #1 is true on the grounds that I have seen many cases of white Australian people, often with considerable power, acting in excessively patronising and authoritarian ways towards Aboriginal people and I have no difficulty believing that similar things happen in the US.
However, I also do not think that racial disparities in outcomes are almost all caused by #1; in fact I think that probably less than 50% of almost any particular disparity is caused by #1. Thus, I think that outcome disparities are at best weak evidence for #1. Many people (notably Ibram X Kendi) say that in fact they are. I actually believe that the theory underlying this claim causes some of the authoritarian behaviour I observe. I think people reason something like this:
- We don’t want to be racist
—Differences in outcome indicate racism
—We must eliminate differences in outcome
—Eliminating differences in outcome requires substantial behavioural changes on the part of Aboriginal people
- Authoritarian strategies are the most reliable way we have to induce substantial behavioural changes
I think that overly authoritarian policy is often harmful.
I don’t know if DiAngelo endorses this claim—that outcome disparities are almost all caused by #1 - but claims like “being white is to know privilege” make me suspect that to some extent she is also reasoning backwards from outcome disparities to the existence of racismS. I think this is a big mistake!
I also think, with less confidence, that DiAngelo is not really popularising this theory but is rather explaining a theory that is already popular. Perhaps many people, like myself, think that this theory is flawed and that it is unfortunate that it is so popular. However, I suspect that they are making a mistake blaming DiAngelo for this. Criticism of her book could be a stand-in for criticism of this theory in general.
Maybe taking it further, I think that it’s possible that reasoning backwards from outcome disparities to racismS yields a flawed theory of what racismS is, because it’s a flawed inference to begin with. This might be why many people take issue with racismS rather than the premise (outcome disparities → racism), even though my best guess is that the premise comes first.