zlacker

> Talking about racism makes white people uncomfortable.

When the basic premise of the argument is that white Americans are born irredeemably flawed[1], you're unlikely to win many white supporters other than the most guilt-ridden.

I suppose the tactic is to impart as much guilt as possible. But that doesn't make the argument a good one.

[1] https://twitter.com/DisrnNews/status/1266857347567190016

>>Press2+(OP)
That is not the starting premise of all who oppose racism. It's not even the starting premise of the majority. It's the starting premise of a few loudmouths who unfortunately were given a microphone. They're doing their cause more harm than good by saying stuff like that.

Why are they doing more harm than good? Because, after a claim like that, the conversation is over. There's absolutely no point in talking to someone who makes claims like that. And it makes you less likely to be willing to talk to the next person, either. So the net amount of whites willing to learn and talk about race and racism goes down when people say stuff like this.

(It's also factually untrue, blatantly unfair, and bigoted...)

>>Press2+(OP)
Van Jones was right (even the best intentioned are conditioned by forces beyond their control), and you added the word "irredeemable". No one said there isn't a fix. Culture racism is learned, it can be unlearned.

>>Press2+(OP)
I think just about all white people would do well to look around the neighborhood that they grew up in and think about the politics of how it got to be that way. I went to a high school of 1400, and in 4 years there were all of 3 black kids. Turns out this is because no black family was allowed by any bank to get a loan for a mortgage in the area until 1974. White blindness to their privilege is a huge impediment to change - people have literally no idea how different people are treated when there's a different skin color.

The tactic is to get people to actually listen so that they might agree its an actual problem and then actually do something about it.

>>Press2+(OP)
What do you mean win over? I see proponents as an educational mistake.

>>taurat+8D
You identified a legitimate issue that was corrected in your area in 1974. That's good. However that does not impose decades or centuries of penance on an entire race of people, the vast majority of which had nothing to do with it.

To do so is scapegoating and white Americans have every right to resist it.

>>Press2+wQ1
Imagine playing monopoly for 400 years with someone, and they got to go around the board for the first 300 years without you making a move, buying up all the property. Then for the next 50 they allowed you to start to make moves, but every time you started to gain just about any money they would push you over and rob you (see: sundown towns, lynching, the tulsa massacre, segregation, jim crow, redlining, police brutality, poor neighborhoods and absolutely awful schools).

There's been no penance. There's been no justice. And people aren't even asking for that, they're asking for a seat at the table and a chance to play the game, which is STILL constantly being denied. Its not scapegoating, its fighting against systematic oppression that you yourself continue to support.