The problem I’m seeing, broadly, is that white people can’t necessarily always tell the difference between the two. Even when it’s couched in positively obsequious language there’s a decent chance of that. I’m not exaggerating here; some white people now think it’s racist to even mention racism. Most white people (certainly a lot of them here in this site) are highly resistant to the idea that racism even exists in this day and age, or that it’s anything other than a strictly defined “paying attention to racial differences.”
You can’t meet everyone halfway here, because they’re either unable or unwilling to reciprocate. It’s not about reaching out to people and persuading and convincing them, at that point—it’s about not letting the fact that you can’t stop you from addressing your actual situation.
I don’t think people can reliably tell the difference between the two, probably especially when they feel they have higher status than the person being addressed. At the moment, we’re getting a variant of the problem in regards to gender.
Who decides the emotional significance of a statement? What tool can you use? Emotions are a rubber ruler, but what else could be available?
This being said, I don’t think the problem is completely unsolvable. Social justice as currently practiced is probably not going to be the last experiment in working on it.
I don’t think people can reliably tell the difference between the two, probably especially when they feel they have higher status than the person being addressed. At the moment, we’re getting a variant of the problem in regards to gender.
I’m looking at what you said here, and the paragraph I wrote whose format it echoes, and I can’t help but think we’re talking about two very different things.
Who decides the emotional significance of a statement?
The person whose emotions were touched off by it. Easy, right?
The question I’d be tempted to derive from your connotation here is more like: “Who gets to decide which interpretations of those reports-of-emotional-significance are being proposed as the priority for the purposes of conflict resolution and communication?”
(My answer to that is “the question is slightly broken”, but I’m about to head out so can’t give you the preferred reframing right this moment).
Social justice as currently practiced is probably not going to be the last experiment in working on it.
Oh, definitely not. It has plenty of its discontents, even within the movement, who aren’t satisfied with the tools and methodologies available, its failure modes, and so on. That’s being actively discussed in many spaces, I’ve observed.
The problem I’m seeing, broadly, is that white people can’t necessarily always tell the difference between the two. Even when it’s couched in positively obsequious language there’s a decent chance of that. I’m not exaggerating here; some white people now think it’s racist to even mention racism. Most white people (certainly a lot of them here in this site) are highly resistant to the idea that racism even exists in this day and age, or that it’s anything other than a strictly defined “paying attention to racial differences.”
You can’t meet everyone halfway here, because they’re either unable or unwilling to reciprocate. It’s not about reaching out to people and persuading and convincing them, at that point—it’s about not letting the fact that you can’t stop you from addressing your actual situation.
I don’t think people can reliably tell the difference between the two, probably especially when they feel they have higher status than the person being addressed. At the moment, we’re getting a variant of the problem in regards to gender.
Who decides the emotional significance of a statement? What tool can you use? Emotions are a rubber ruler, but what else could be available?
This being said, I don’t think the problem is completely unsolvable. Social justice as currently practiced is probably not going to be the last experiment in working on it.
What do you mean by “actual situation”?
I’m looking at what you said here, and the paragraph I wrote whose format it echoes, and I can’t help but think we’re talking about two very different things.
The person whose emotions were touched off by it. Easy, right?
The question I’d be tempted to derive from your connotation here is more like: “Who gets to decide which interpretations of those reports-of-emotional-significance are being proposed as the priority for the purposes of conflict resolution and communication?”
(My answer to that is “the question is slightly broken”, but I’m about to head out so can’t give you the preferred reframing right this moment).
Oh, definitely not. It has plenty of its discontents, even within the movement, who aren’t satisfied with the tools and methodologies available, its failure modes, and so on. That’s being actively discussed in many spaces, I’ve observed.
Some of us even object to “white people”!