Minutes of a Monday #58
#minutesofamoday
Brain Food > Colour Blind
“To the uninitiated, the word “antiracism” would suggest simple opposition to racism. But antiracism is much more than that. It’s an elaborate worldview that has developed over decades in media and academia, where it has festered in relative obscurity, until recent events enabled it to spread into the mainstream.
Like all cultish creeds, antiracism is Manichean, which is to say, it neatly divides reality into good and evil. Antiracists believe there is no such thing as a not-racist person or policy, only racist or antiracist. As Kendi puts it in his bestselling book, How To Be An Antiracist, “Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity.”
Kendi’s use of the word “equity” is important here; he is not content with equality of opportunity; he wants equality of outcome. This is because antiracism teaches that all racial disparities in social outcomes are a result of systemic racism. As Kendi states: “When I see racial disparities, I see racism.” This view is not supported by the data.
For instance, many Asian Americans have better social outcomes than white Americans in both academic achievement and median household income, while also being less likely to be incarcerated for a crime. To believe that these social outcomes are a result of systemic racism would necessitate believing that Asian Americans have more white privilege than white Americans.
The antiracist claim of systemic racism is thus undermined by a gaping blind spot: its failure to recognize that racial disparities in outcomes are, like all social phenomena, multivariate in cause, and cannot be explained by racism alone. The inability of antiracists to understand this leads them to do what conspiracy theorists often do, which is to ascribe a social phenomenon to a single, typically nefarious plot by some group. In this case the group is white people.”
Extract from article ‘Why Antiracism Failed’ in light of the news this month that the Boston University (BU) centre for Antiracism Research, led by author and activist Ibram X Kendi, laid off the majority of its staff following an underwhelming level of credible research output, despite receiving almost $43 million in grants and gifts.
Soul Food
“work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do.”
Oscar Wilde
LOL
Seinfeld reminding us why all awards are stupid:
Appendix
“There’s a myth among amateurs, optimists and fools that beyond a certain level of achievement, famous artists retire to some kind of Elysium where criticism no longer wounds and work materialises without effort.”
Mark Matousek
AOB
Thanks for reading and mind how you go out there - Niall
P.S. My next article on the dawn of AI and acting is coming out next week. It’s the third part of a trilogy on making a living as an actor. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 here.