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Is there such a thing as “too much anti-racism”? Cornell and prestigious private school in NYC (and Biden Administration)

J

JBG

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The murder of George Floyd and similar incidents have led to an epidemic of breast-beating an hair-shirt wearing. It has to stop before we destroy not only education, but any hope for racial healing. Remember, Derek Chauvin, not the U.S., Brearly School or Cornell University killed Derek Chauvin.

Recently, Brearly School, a prestigious all-female NYC private school required one parent of each child to take anti-racism training as part of their daughters’ admission process (link). One of the fathers withdrew their daughter, and sent an open letter to all parents that was published (link) stating in part:
In a similar vein, the U.S. Department of Education has proposed the following rule, Proposed Priorities-American History and ... - Federal Register, (link), excerpted below:
This was my comment that I filed with the government, with certain identifying information redacted:

Finally, this emphasis on race is the exact opposite of what we need; a color-blind society.
 

If the American society was TRULY color-blind, then we would no longer need to talk about race. That hasn’t happened yet.
 
Color blind is a nonstarter. The answer to moving forward is not to deny the past.
 

Is there such a thing as too much opposition to an authoritarian regime? How about too much opposition to murder, or rape, or other violent crimes? Should we try to compromise with evil?
 
JBG said:
Why?
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We are social creatures, denying where we come from is false. Why not move forward with acceptance instead of denial.
 
As long as we have black and white neighborhoods, we won't be colorblind.
 
I wouldn't be too quick to make sweeping generalizations about the US being a negative or positive force in the world. But the propaganda and myths taught for generations needs to be challenged. Critical race theory does that and it is healthy.

The history of racism in this country as something akin to a history of alcoholism in a family. It is good and positive to recognize this disease and how it runs, respectively, in the family and nation.

The important thing about learning the truth about the past shouldn't be about looking back and judging whether it was good or bad, but to use it to look forward, and make the future better.
 
The most important and difficult step in solving the problem, as they emphasize in AA meetings, is acknowledging you have a problem. Folks like the dad in the OP who wrote the letter are good examples of people who just don’t want to acknowledge the problem.
 
mrjurrs said:
Color blind is a nonstarter. The answer to moving forward is not to deny the past.
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Judging people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character is not moving forward.
 
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mrjurrs said:
We are social creatures, denying where we come from is false. Why not move forward with acceptance instead of denial.
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The whole color-blind, "I see no color" routine always struck me as dense, intellectually lazy, and reality denying, no matter which side was pushing it.
 
JBG said:
Why?
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Because people don't think or act that way. Most people treat the "other" differently, however they define that "other," no matter what stories they tell themselves.

Recognizing one's prejudices and reacting accordingly is of course an admirable thing to do, but I think there's a reason that Martin Luther King called his speech a "dream."
 
The aim should be not to threat the "other" differently until someone, whether the same or the "other" proves a necessity for such different treatment.
 
JBG said:
The aim should be not to threat the "other" differently until someone, whether the same or the "other" proves a necessity for such different treatment.
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Okay. My point is just that our brains aren't built that way. We aren't completely rational creatures. Part of the crazy in us is our biases. A lot of it is unintentional, I believe.
 
Athanasius68 said:
Judging people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character is not moving forward.
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People shouldn't be judged by the color of their skin. But if you are judging people only by the content of their character, you are still going to find general disparities in success between black and white people. Then you have to explain this disparity. What causes it if we choose to be color blind?

This disparity IS due to skin color: Not because people of the dominant skin color are intellectually, biologically, or emotionally superior, but because they used to believe they were and passed laws to ensure their beliefs were validated by devastating the culture, education, and economic prospects of people of another culture and skin color. Simply saying "whoops" and rescinding those laws later on doesn't suddenly put everyone back on equal footing.

Trying to be "color-blind" discounts the long-lasting effects that hundreds of years of slavery, racism, and discrimination have on a culture. Decades of civil rights movements and cultural integration is lessening the impact of this legacy, but we are far from being able to be a color blind society yet. People's prospects in the United States are STILL affected by the color of their skin to this day, and we need to acknowledge that. We can't do that with the idealistic but naive notion that if we could just forget about racism that it would no longer be a factor in our lives.
 
Athanasius68 said:
Judging people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character is not moving forward.
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I never said anything about judging. i would suggest it's more about recognizing a community.
 
Yakshi said:
Okay. My point is just that our brains aren't built that way. We aren't completely rational creatures. Part of the crazy in us is our biases. A lot of it is unintentional, I believe.
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I don't know. When I worked side by side with my Jamaican law partner I did not see "black." Ditto when sitting in Bankruptcy Court with Judge Blackshear of blessed memory.
 
JBG said:
I don't know. When I worked side by side with my Jamaican law partner I did not see "black." Ditto when sitting in Bankruptcy Court with Judge Blackshear of blessed memory.
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That's cool. I'm sure with associates and close friends, superficial differences fade away. And maybe that's how it is for you with everyone.

My goal with myself is to be aware of my biases and to try not to let them influence my actions.

I mean, if I lived in a white town and my only perception of another ethnicity was what I saw on a particular news channel, one takeaway, even if I tried to reason with myself, might be that that ethnic group is out to start a riot, steal my car, attack white women, and kill one another. And if I saw that channel regularly, that would be my only real input about that ethnic group. And when that same channel encouraged people not to see color, I might not even notice the contradiction in its reporting. But there are good odds that it would create a bias in me, whether or not I wanted that to happen.

In the end, I just think that if it very difficult for people to admit their biases, what chance do they ever have at overcoming them?
 
Yakshi said:
In the end, I just think that if it very difficult for people to admit their biases, what chance do they ever have at overcoming them?
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So you're saying that you have to inculcate a bias first to defeat it?
 
JBG said:
So you're saying that you have to inculcate a bias first to defeat it?
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I think it more often becomes absorbed, and yes, if it doesn't become a part of you, then there's no need to defeat it.

If we choose bad inputs, we absorb negative influences.
 
watsup said:
If the American society was TRULY color-blind, then we would no longer need to talk about race. That hasn’t happened yet.
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We could get there if the leftwing would just shut their yaps about the subject. But that's their goal. The left's goal is to foment division and chaos wherever possible
 
j brown's body said:
As long as we have black and white neighborhoods, we won't be colorblind.
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That's ridiculous. People choose to live with those like them, both black and white. That's why school busing died a well-deserved death. Nobody from either side wanted it.
 
Mashmont said:
We could get there if the leftwing would just shut their yaps about the subject. But that's their goal. The left's goal is to foment division and chaos wherever possible
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No, the left wants to solve the problem, a lot of conservatives just want to ignore it.
 
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