-Ibram Kendi, Author of: "How To Be An Antiracist," "Be Antiracist," and "Antiracist baby."
If you ever wanted proof that wokeness is a sham and it's academics are total frauds, there it is.
So, let's talk about Antiracism
A THREAD🧵
2/ Race in America is a difficult topic, and must be dealt with carefully, rigorously, and with an eye to helping people grow, learn, and heal. Americans of all races want to put an end to racism, and doing that means getting this stuff right.
It MATTERS.
3/ Antiracism is neither careful nor rigorous.
Look at Ibram Kendi: first he says people have the ability to be antiracist, then he says no one ever becomes antiracist.
How are regular people supposed to make sense of this as they try to understand difficult racial issues?
4/ This is not going to work, people aren't going to be able to move forward when they get contradictory messages like this. So let's have a closer look at this shall we?
Kendi starts with an old trick: he redefines racism. Kendi doesn't see racism as a matter prejudice...
5/ In his book "how To Be An Antiracist," Kendi says “One either endorses the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist or racial equality as an antiracist.”
The idea here is that racism is not a state of mind, or a matter of the heart, it isn't about prejudice or intent...
6/ Kendi thinks antiracism is anything that moves toward racial equality, racism is anything that moves away from racial equality.
It doesn't matter why the inequality occurred because intentions never enter into it. Anything that creates or allows racial inequality is racist.
7/ If it is not clear by now, Kendi judges all policies by whether or not they produce equal OUTCOMES.
So ANY policy that allows unequal racial outcomes to continue is racist. Again, it makes no difference WHY the outcomes are different.
Racial inequality = racism. Period
8/ Let's use an example:
If more Asians per capita get into law school but more blacks per capita get into Physics programs, and physics makes more money, that means there is income inequality between Asians and Blacks. Kendi would say this means racism is present...
9/ It doesn't matter WHY Asians prefer law or Blacks prefer Physics, or WHY physics pays better. What matters is that there is racial inequality and therefore that system is racist and anyone that supports that system is racist.
10/ This is a demand for equality of outcome. And Kendi's solution, pictured below, is to allow an agency of un-elected people to ban policies and ideas the agency decides is racist.
He wants to BAN IDEAS.
This is utterly authoritarian.
11/ And if you think Kendi is kidding, he is not. Kendi was recently hired by Boston University and given a 10 million dollar grant by @jack to start the BU center for Antiracist Research, but his ideas about Antiracism are already showing up, and it is not good.
12/ Here you can see Boston University ( @BU_Tweets ) has a statement of academic freedom. That statement says very clearly: academics have a right to teach and learn in an atmosphere of "unfettered free inquirey," and are granted "full freedom to engage in research."
13/ Normally, such a strong policy would be enough. However, the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, which offers programs as part of the BU English Department, has already adopted Antiracist policies which violate the Boston University policy on academic freedom...
14/ This policy is in CLEAR violation of the @BU_Tweets policy on academic freedom.
Forcing professors to adopt an "Antiracist lens," and demanding quotas for which texts are used is a violation of the right of to professors decide what they will teach, and how they will teach it
15/ Here, from the same policy (source: bu.edu/bpt/about-our-…) we see a requirement that professors make a land acknowledgement at performances. This is nothing less then compelled speech, and is a clear violation of the professors right to teach what he or she sees fit.
16/ So Kendi has Just been hired, and already the woke elements of Boston University are violating the policy of academic freedom at that university. Why? because inequality is racist, and if academic freedom allows inequality to persist, then academic freedom is racist.
17/ This is the problem with Kendi's ideas about Antiracism. 1. There's no nuance about WHY outcomes occur 2. There's no consideration for peoples' intentions 3. There's no consistency; Kendi can't even make up his mind about whether you can become antiracist or not.
18/ .@DrIbram created a theory that functions as a blunt instrument for creating equal outcomes. His theory lacks the nuance to avoid running roughshod over people's lives, but the theory demands we give Antiracists the right to make policy. This is a recipe for authoritarianism
19/ In light of this, we ought to avoid using woke theories of "antiracism." This is not because we are in favor of racism, it is because we need ideas that will help us get rid of racism in a way that doesn't run roughshod over people's rights.
We need liberalism.
/fin
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Mamdani's win today had absolutely nothing to do with anything happening on X, nor did it have anything to do with Nick Fuentes, Groypers, or intra-right squabbles.
The Mamdani cake was baked weeks ago, this win, and margin of victory, were predicted by polling for weeks...
Mamdani won because he was able to appeal to the professional creative class demographic of NYC. The fact that Mamdani only won 50% of Muslims, but 70% of non-religious people tells you who his base was: downwardly mobile educated creative class professionals....
Nothing on X, and I mean nothing, played any role in his getting elected.
Cuomo and Adams both staying in the race despite their unpopularity didn't help (a centrist without either of their baggage might have pulled out a win) but anyone telling out that this was about...
1/ The Advisory Board of the Community Development Financial Institution Fund is staffed by leftists, and it funnels money into leftist causes.
For example: Justin Maxson, who sits on the board of the CDFI Fund, created a "racial equity lens" in his previous job.
2/ Jennifer Sun works at Asian Americans For Equality which "advances racial, social, and economic
justice for Asian American, immigrant and other systematically disadvantaged communities"
Again, it's a social justice focus.
3/ Maria Bilonick works at the Opportunity Finance Netowork, which funnels money into "racial equity" and "environmental justice."
1/ These Republicans are protecting the CDFI fund, an institution which funnels money into left wing causes.
The CDFI gave 173 Million dollars to the Opportunity Finance Network, and organization that is concerned with DEI, Systemic Racism, and "Racial Justice"
2/ The Opportunity Finance Network is an institution that has as its goal advancing leftists ideology and talking points.
For example, the CDFI ran a post reflecting on how they were going to "operationalize racial equity" into their work.
This is just a folk version of Critical Race Theory
3/ The Opportunity Finance Network also worked to ensure that the Community Development Financial Institutions's (that are funded by the governments CDFI Fund) are bringing in DEI to their networks and business practices.
Canadians aren't ready for what this is going to do to our economy.
Canadian Liberals adopted smug, self-satisfying anti-americanism because they see themselves as more sophisticated and intelligent than Americans, and they think having to win Trump over is beneath them...
Canada's Elite Liberal class thinks that Trump is beneath them, and they think it is they who deserve to be the ones with all the power and decision making. It eats them alive that Canada needs America more than America needs Canada...
They think Trump should "know his place" and do what Canada's elites want because they are better and Smarter that him. Because of their hubris and pride, they would rather say "elbows up" and crash their own economy than to treat Trump like an equal and show him some respect.
1/
I realize the over-feminization of public life is a problem, and I think wokeness is also feminine coded.
But leftist extremism of wokeness are not necessarily feminine coded.
In the 60's and 70's the radical left was led by violent, militant, masculine men...
2/ The left engaged in bombings, riots, kidnapping, riots, and other such sort of behavior. They formed militia's armed themselves to the teeth, and made straight-forward demands while engaging in direct confrontation.
In fact, feminists used to complain about how the left...
3/ Was run entirely by men. This was a common theme in feminist writing and discourse.
The recent increase in popularity of guys like Hasan Piker (or Bob Vylan, the rappers who chanted "death to the IDF" onstage at a festival) are attempts by the left to re-masculinize...
Indigenous displacement is an idea from postcolonial theory often used to normatively criticize western nations; often using statistical demographic change as evidence of the charge.
My question is: why this doesn't idea apply to London?
2/ The point I am trying to bring out here is related to a question asked by the philosopher Joseph Heath: "What is the difference between a settler and an immigrant?"
Concepts like "indigenous displacement" appear to be neutral descriptions but are in fact normatively loaded...
3/ And the result is that they get deployed according to the normative political considerations of the person using them.
This is why Europeans who move to the U.S. are called "settlers" but Syrian refugees get called immigrants.