The article shows that support peaked in early June 2020 and has declined since, primarily among Republicans. Of course Republican politicians have demonized #BLM, but there is a deep problem with the concept of "racial justice" itself. A short thread: nyti.ms/34afsBf
My thinking is influenced by Racecraft by Barbara and Karen Fields. In an essay on Woodward's Origins of the New South, Barbara Fields writes, "'equality' and 'justice', once modified by 'racial', become euphemisms for their opposites." (Racecraft, 159) versobooks.com/books/1645-rac… Image
The racecraft in this NYT essay resides first in reifying racial categories - endorsing race with a false reality and abstracting it out of the social and political process that makes it seem real; and second in the folly and ambiguity of measuring "racial attitudes"...
Support for #BLM has declined among white people, but it has also declined across the board since early June 2020, and white people are sharply divided on partisan lines, with support among white Republicans presumably dropping much more than among white Democrats... Image
Charts like this are classic racecraft, in both the confusion (Hispanic? Other?) and crystallization of racial categories. What would this look like by region? By class? By level of education? By age or gender?... Image
"Racial justice" will only get you so far. It cordons off the problems of oppressive policing and other ills to black people while ignoring the fact that injustice crosses racial lines and hits all poor people especially hard. Build bridges not walls. dissentmagazine.org/online_article…
It is not too surprising given the backlash against #BLM, the entrenched interests that support the machinery of policing, and the failure to conceive of a politics of solidarity beyond "racial" justice, that killings by police haven't budged since 2015. washingtonpost.com/graphics/inves…

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More from @arothmanhistory

22 Sep 20
Thank you to Thaddeus Russell for having me and Barbara Fields on #Unregistered. Please watch. We discuss the Hannah Fizer case, racecraft, and history.
Here's the episode. If you've never heard Barbara Fields speak about racecraft before, you are in for a treat and an education. @ThaddeusRussell #Unregistered
As a reminder of what sparked this conversation, here's the essay that Barbara Fields and I wrote for @DissentMag dissentmagazine.org/online_article…
Read 4 tweets
26 Aug 20
Teaching a grad class for @GUHistory on the US to 1900 this semester. Just had an invigorating first class, despite being on Zoom. Always fun to get to know a new group of students. Let's go!
Kicked off the semester with *Our Declaration* by @dsallentess. All historians should reflect seriously on this line from the book: "While history can serve to help us understand many things much better, it can also function as a barrier to entry."
Book #2 in my grad class on US to 1900 is Robert Parkinson's The Common Cause, which shows how fears of slave revolt, Indian war, and foreign mercenaries inspired the patriot rebellion against Britian. Great on revolutionary-era information networks. uncpress.org/book/978146962…
Read 15 tweets
18 Aug 20
I was struck by this passage about historians' love of contingency in this essay by @jbf1755 in @TheAtlantic. I have something to say about this idea of contingency... theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… Image
Historians often invoke contingency to imply that nothing is inevitable. Things could have gone one way or another. The concept goes hand-in-hand with agency, that all things are possible. Except that all things are not possible...
As Marx famously wrote in the 18th Brumaire, "Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please..." The historians' task is to explain why things happened as they did. That isn't our only task, but it is an important one...
Read 5 tweets
8 Aug 20
RIP Bernard Bailyn, quite a historian. I would like to add one point about his contribution to the historiography of slavery...
In his landmark book, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, published in 1967, Bailyn recognized the centrality of the idea of slavery in Anglo-American political thought... Image
Moreover, slavery was more than an abstract metaphor. The Revolution put tremendous pressure on actually existing colonial slavery, he argued. Here's Bailyn's conclusion to this part of the book... Image
Read 4 tweets
11 Jul 20
Nobody can seriously believe that the U.S. system of policing and punishment provides either the due process or the equal protection promised by the 14th Amendment. We are in serious perpetual violation of our own Constitution.
Another flagrant instance of unconstitutional incarceration. theappeal.org/mississippi-te…
Read 5 tweets

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