Mini-tweet storm's a'coming..... please stand by.
1- Dinesh D'Souza's book, "The End of Racism," was the subject of my sophomore year rhetorical criticism competition speech and analysis in college. (I was on the speech team and I also competed in policy debate.) I spent a significant amount of time with all 750 pages of it.
2 - The reason I chose D'Souza and The End of Racism was because I wanted something that completely challenged my own viewpoint. In order for me to win at crit, I'd have to apply serious analytical frameworks and make a convincing, data-driven argument.
3 - Meaning that in order to win, I couldn't just say "hey, this dude is full of shit." I'd have to pick apart his arguments and refute each with analysis, data, and evidence. It was going to be a challenge, and it was a book that would challenge me. That's why I chose it.
4 - The End of Racism makes the argument that stereotypes exist for a reason. Black people are just more prone to violence, and they don't work hard. Jews are more intelligent because intelligence is a heritable trait, and they (we) don't interbreed. Etc.
5 - All of these arguments (and more) are backed up with numbers. Of course, the numbers are designed to substantiate a single viewpoint. And that's where things got so interesting--and so dangerous.
6 - As humans, we are cognitively limited by our own biology. Our brains rely on patterns in order to save on energy. Stereotypes leverage this biological deficiency.
D'Souza's book focuses on our biological traits while completely ignoring the realities of our biology.
D'Souza's book focuses on our biological traits while completely ignoring the realities of our biology.
7 - People who are good at making arguments using numbers, especially when those arguments play into a cherished belief, are dangerous. Because they cement that pattern for us not just cognitively, but emotionally. And then it sticks. It's hard for us to get unstuck later on.
8 - Then, those numbers become a kind of gospel. It feels wrong to go against the numbers. The numbers, the argument, and the new cognitive and emotional patterns form a shared, justified belief.
9 - Of course two Black men in a Starbucks are up to no good. If you look at the data, Black men aren't educated and commit way more crimes than whites. It's not racist, it's just the numbers.
(Don't retweet this out of context. Read what came previously.)
(Don't retweet this out of context. Read what came previously.)
10 - Of course Hispanics crossing the border are going to join gangs and sell drugs and rape Americans. Just look at the numbers! I'm not racist. Stereotypes exist for a reason!
(Don't retweet this out of context. I don't actually believe this. Read what came previously.)
(Don't retweet this out of context. I don't actually believe this. Read what came previously.)
11 - The End of Racism was a 750-page invitation to stop thinking. To allow your brain to be hijacked by false patterns and a narrative that felt comfortable.
12 - You know why I won the crit category with this book over and over? Because I needed every single person I could reach to understand why books like this were so dangerous for our futures.
13 - And why people like D'Souza, who understand how to use numbers to tell a story and who are so desperate to be seen as a public intellectual, to be a talking head on TV and to be praised by others in power--are dangerous.
14 - D'Souza may have broken campaign finance laws, but he's done far worse.
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