To recognize Blackness as a social fiction, yet to embrace its legacy is to embrace a centuries long striving for freedom. To recognize Whiteness as a social fiction, yet to embrace its legacy is to . . . ?
This to me is the question at the root of the present cultural crisis /n
This to me is the question at the root of the present cultural crisis /n
around CRT. To embrace the legacy of Whiteness, notwithstanding its fictive nature, one must decide what aspects of Whiteness are worth embracing. To return with an answer of “nothing” is psychologically, if it culturally destructive to the point of instilling /n
a sense of nihilism, much less detachment with the American Democratic project How does one distinguish American values from “white” (as a concept) values? For those frustrated by such questions, is it not better to seek to be left alone altogether, to avoid the /n
discussion in public spaces (eg public schools), to pretend Whiteness is at root American-ness, than face this kind of existential crisis? Equally so, and here it gets complex for me, is there a conception of Blackness divorced from Whiteness? Or, to go even further, /n
what does it mean to be American without the concept of Whiteness and non-Whiteness in our political imagination? Can capitalism exist without Whiteness, or some similar sorting mechanism (likely framed by racial ideas) that establishes owners and non-owners/workers? /n
Is the social contract that undergird the American political economy shaped by Whiteness? To be sure, other forms of government have “equally” wreaked havoc, but nevertheless, was our democratic constitution established by a true democracy? /n
These are scary questions that CRT uproots, but call into question so much that even I am frightened - more afraid of not knowing what we could be than recognizing what we are. These are deeply moral questions. What should America become?
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