"Liberalism is attractive on both principled & strategic grounds. If liberalism has never lived up to its ostensible principles & values, that goes no way in proving that the principles & values are themselves unattractive ones.
2/
"The illuminating way to understand violations of (ideal) liberal norms [is] as a manifestation of the corrupting results of group power, whether of the privileged classes, men, or the dominant race, for liberal theory & practice.
3/
"But we can appeal to the idealized, non-group-restricted versions of liberal principles and values to critique the exclusionary versions—indeed, that is precisely what most American progressive social movements have historically done.
4/
"As for the strategic reasons: Liberalism (in the broad-spectrum sense that includes right-wing 'classical' liberals) has been the dominant political ideology in US history. So in trying to win over a broad political audience rather than preach to the choir...
5/
"...one immediately has the immense advantage of invoking the political ideology nominally endorsed by the majority.
And insofar as legal change will be crucial for progressive structural reform—necessary if not sufficient—...American & broader Western juridical systems...
6/
"...are founded on liberal principles and assumptions.
'Black radical liberalism' will thus be able to engage directly with its conservative juristic opponents. Black rights...will have to be advanced by liberal arguments & liberal jurisprudence in this liberal arena.
7/
"Rather than taking for granted or even dismissing liberal democracy’s historic achievements, we need to preserve them..."
Read the whole interview with Charles Mills, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at The Graduate Center, CUNY, here:
"Seven of the wealthiest eight ethnic groups in the U.S. today are populations of color, even as affirmative action broadly defined serves as a counterbalance to much of the residual bigotry within society.
3/
"In the real world, simply adjusting mathematically for mundane characteristics such as median age and study time closes almost all of the large racial—and gender—performance gaps glibly attributed to bigotry or genetics.
Frederick Douglass "saw free speech as 'the great moral renovator of society and government'.”
2/
" 'Slavery cannot tolerate free speech,' [Frederick Douglass] declared in 1860. 'They will have none of it there, for they have the power.'
He pointed out that slave societies required 'violations of free speech,' but was confident that 'truth must triumph...
3/
"...under a system of free discussion.'
Unfortunately, the trend among colleges is to tell students what to think...rather than to equip them to discuss important topics from a range of perspectives.
Why prevent the 'free discussion' that Douglass argued was essential...
"Elevate Black voices, but only when they support the right narrative. Our lived experiences should be heard, but only when they portray Blackness as endless suffering. Our opinions matter, but only when we affirm the belief...
2/
"...that all Black people think the same. When we remind the world that we’re whole human beings—capable of reasoning, nuance, & making mistakes—suddenly our thoughts seem nonessential to these people.
Articles about race should enforce the belief that to be Black is...
3/
"...to live in a constant state of fear & oppression. They should make Black people feel angry, helpless, & victimised. Or ideally, some combination of the three. We’re getting so used to this idea that some see any other message as anti-Black.
In this moment we must remind ourselves of the headline behind the headlines:
We live in a multi-ethnic society where people from every imaginable national, ethnic, & racial background co-exist, despite rare incidents, in abiding harmony.
We should value this.
Thread.
2/6
In Commentary, @wil_da_beast630 recently went thru stats for hate crimes:
While most violence is intraracial, "Asian Americans take it on the chin from everyone else in terms of criminal victimization. Asian Americans committed only 24.1% of all violent acts against Asians.
3/6
"Whites (24.1%), blacks (27.5%), & Hispanics + 'others' combined (21.4%) all attacked Asians roughly as often as other Asians did."
According to BJS, from 2011-15, 7.5% of hate crimes were against Asians, 24.7% against Hispanics, 14.5% against blacks, & 53% against whites.
The World Socialist Web Site and MLK's legal counsel and righthand man, Dr. Clarence B. Jones, both address California's new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC).
Dr. Jones:
“I write this letter to you with great dismay, and great concern for the perversion of history...
2/7
"...that is being perpetrated by the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. If this model curriculum is approved, it will inflict great harm on millions of students in our state.
It is a fact that the Black Freedom Movement of the '50s & '60s under Dr. King's leadership...
3/7
"...transformed our country, overthrowing a century of Jim Crow segregation and white supremacist terror throughout the former Confederate States. This fact, which I had thought was well known to all educated persons, has been removed from the ESMC.
White people "are highly confident that they have the ‘correct’ answers to racial questions. Contemporary white college students (& increasingly college-educated people writ large) skew liberal and...
2/
"...tend to be more ostensibly ‘woke’ on racial issues than most people of color. So when racial issues come up, most whites know what they ‘should’ say, and fully expect that their expressed opinions will be endorsed and celebrated by their white peers and...
3/
"...any minorities in the room. For African Americans, the situation is much more difficult.
Most black people do not live in poverty or inner cities. Most African Americans do not feel as though they have ever been stopped or detained by police...