Kendi talks a lot about how there's nothing wrong with black people or black culture and, therefore, there must be another explanation (i.e. racism) for their unequal wealth, education, etc. I completely agree with that. But how does that square with the oft-repeated claim that cultural traits such as punctuality or perfectionism are white supremacist values rejected by many blacks. How can both things be true? I'm going to speculate that Kendi and DiAngelo might explain the contradiction as follows: Yes, those traits reflect white supremacist values but that doesn't mean they're desirable, nor does it mean that black culture is wrong to reject them. Those are traits that serve the capitalist work ethic (extracting as much value as possible out of workers by extoling the virtues of workaholism). Blacks, with the historica memory of slavery, can see who these values benefit and are making an ethical rational choice not to buy into it.
I'm not even convinced that punctuality or perfectionism are white supremacist values. How does one demonstrate that claim? I've also heard rationality is an expression of "whiteness." I personally think those arguments have more to do with the proponents than anything empirical.
I think you're right about that. Whenever I press the issue in unlearning racism trainings, I get vague answers. It seems to come from the Peggy McInytre invisible knapsack concept she invented in the 90s. I think some of the things in that knapsack are legit reflections of white skin privilege but others are sketchy. What seems to have happened is that the contents of her knapsack have been accepted in full, w/out close examination of each item.
Yes exactly. I've pressed the pefectionism as white supremacy many times and never get a convincing answer. What bothers me the most is that there's a way in which it mirrors racist dog whistles --i.e. blacks are poor b/c they're lazy and whites have a stronger work ethic.
Kendi talks a lot about how there's nothing wrong with black people or black culture and, therefore, there must be another explanation (i.e. racism) for their unequal wealth, education, etc. I completely agree with that. But how does that square with the oft-repeated claim that cultural traits such as punctuality or perfectionism are white supremacist values rejected by many blacks. How can both things be true? I'm going to speculate that Kendi and DiAngelo might explain the contradiction as follows: Yes, those traits reflect white supremacist values but that doesn't mean they're desirable, nor does it mean that black culture is wrong to reject them. Those are traits that serve the capitalist work ethic (extracting as much value as possible out of workers by extoling the virtues of workaholism). Blacks, with the historica memory of slavery, can see who these values benefit and are making an ethical rational choice not to buy into it.
I'm not even convinced that punctuality or perfectionism are white supremacist values. How does one demonstrate that claim? I've also heard rationality is an expression of "whiteness." I personally think those arguments have more to do with the proponents than anything empirical.
I think you're right about that. Whenever I press the issue in unlearning racism trainings, I get vague answers. It seems to come from the Peggy McInytre invisible knapsack concept she invented in the 90s. I think some of the things in that knapsack are legit reflections of white skin privilege but others are sketchy. What seems to have happened is that the contents of her knapsack have been accepted in full, w/out close examination of each item.
Yes exactly. I've pressed the pefectionism as white supremacy many times and never get a convincing answer. What bothers me the most is that there's a way in which it mirrors racist dog whistles --i.e. blacks are poor b/c they're lazy and whites have a stronger work ethic.