"cancelling the Amy Coopers of this world will not help the future George Floyds."
I agree with this take on a complex issue. People are lashing out at a larger system that they don't feel they can reach by disproportionately punishing some individuals.
I agree with this take on a complex issue. People are lashing out at a larger system that they don't feel they can reach by disproportionately punishing some individuals.
The challenge is getting to an alternative that goes to the core of the issue. In a sense these things are moving in the right direction. For all the complaints about some of the excesses of white anti-racists, it's a good problem to have, one that can be adjusted.
But even that process of increasing the number of white anti-racists, working with them, and aiming together at things that can make real and significant differences in the lives of those impacted by that overall system is a long process, and people are rightfully impatient.
At the same time people see the resistance to even the tiniest bit of improvement. Anti-anti-racists have existed for a long time, and they have just as much of a platform as those anti-racists, thus portraying an endless battle of the two sides. So the optics look bleak.
My biggest frustration is the complacency of the moderate/complicit middle. Those who hear the pleas for change, hear the complaints, but dismiss the whole thing with one excuse or the other. Always resulting in them doing very little, at most.
Maybe MLK's frustration 50 years ago plays into this. Until the "White Moderate" decides that racism is no longer acceptable and takes serious steps to eliminate its significance, we're going to see these games played over and over in these annoying ways.
In the middle lies the real power to effect change. Until that middle decides enough is enough, we'll see more and more symbolic cancellations that make no meaningful dent in racism.
Alas, we all play our part in the game until then.
Alas, we all play our part in the game until then.
