Everything Is Racism
I finally figured out the point -- the way tiny little actions, no matter what their intent, are considered racist and fodder for social prosecution (and possibly firing and other ruin).
The point -- as I see it -- is to socially criminalize and have unearned power over others. Especially white others, but not necessarily just white others.
I'm reading about how this plays out in "The Coddling of The American Mind" -- and I've been reading about it in countless news stories over the past few years. Here's a bit from the book:
As for how this plays out in the racism domain, if you are white, you are in danger of being deemed racist -- no matter what you do. No matter what you do.
In the theater world -- if you try to, say, include black characters in your play. You are guilty of racism. If you don't include them. Also guilty of racism. Either way, you are racist and terrible. The only solution can be for you -- if you are white -- to bow out entirely. Which maybe was the point.
If this sounds too nuts to be believed, think again. And read on.
Libby Emmons writes at Quillette about casting decisions in plays she and her fellow students were writing in college:
Talk started building through the academic theater community that there was something wrong with casting directors, and we had to do something about it. The issue was that when a white playwright's work was produced, casting directors were assuming that they should cast white actors. We were all aghast. That was so exclusionary! As a method writer, I wrote for actors, still do. My favorite thing is when an actor tells me they want to play one of my characters. We did not want our work to be made unavailable to actors on the basis of some casting director's prejudice. The horror, really. So we writers in our square-tabled room on the 6th floor of Columbia's Dodge Hall decided to get it sorted. The white writers in the room started adorning the character list pages of our scripts with words to the effect of: Unless otherwise specified, actors can be of any race or ethnicity.That was the thing for a while, but then the more we started to think about it, and to hear back from the community at large, and by "we" I mean basically the entire student body and faculty of all of the grad school drama departments in American universities, which was also "the community," it turned out that our simple phrase on a character page was insufficient, and even a little bit racist.
By saying the characters could be of any racial or ethnic background, we were saying that they weren't specific to any of them, and if they weren't specific to any of them, in the era of critical race and gender theory, then we were basically erasing their identities. Not cool, thought we. After that, we made absolutely sure to designate characters with specific racial or ethnic labels in order to force casting directors to cast across racial lines.
The idea then became that we needed to give specific thought and consideration to a character's race and ethnic background before we wrote them--that these identifiers were in fact so essential to every human being that they needed to be set before we created the character so that we didn't risk writing up someone of a specific identity wrong. The idea was that if you simply conjured a character up out of your imagination and began writing about them without knowing about their background, your own bias would have an unhealthy impact on the way the character was written. For the white writers in the group, the risk we were teaching ourselves to avoid was the possibility of writing, say, a black character without adequately understanding the black American experience.
Given the prevalence of privilege theory at the time, and the concern over the unconscious bias inherent in whiteness, this was an acute concern. I started to ask myself, "Can a white writer ever write black characters in an honest and truthful way?" In the past, I had written black characters based on people I knew, as well as black characters made out of whole cloth in my imagination, as well as characters who were Asian or Hispanic. Now I started to think that I hadn't done enough research, that perhaps my plays that featured black, or other racial or ethnic minorities, were unintentionally biased. This bias could be made apparent if the character adhered too closely to cultural stereotypes about their race. Which would be bad, obviously, and show that the character was more a conglomeration of biases than an artistic creation.
This was a serious, academic arts concern, and it spilled over into the indie scene. I wasn't the only one tying myself up in knots trying to figure out if I was a racist asshole too steeped in whiteness to ever again pick up a pen.
I have to wonder, with this kind of thinking, with this prosecution even of the most well-intentioned people, are we creating racists out of people who were previously anything but? If not people who are resentful of those who socially prosecuted them, then those who see skin color first in a way they never did before?
via @CHSommers
When the Twilight book says the vampires were pale white and you point out one of them had olive skin so he could be played by a black actor because, hey, BLACK OLIVES ...
You might be in show bidness.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 2, 2019 1:08 AM
Yes, I think the point is that the people who make these complaints are sick of both stories about and by white people, and stories about people of color by white people, and want some stories about people of color by people of color.
So instead of hyping up some stories by people of color, they get angry about stories by white people.
NicoleK at February 2, 2019 2:31 AM
"Can a white writer ever write black characters in an honest and truthful way?"
Sure. Larry Correia does (actually of Portuguese descent, he is insufficiently Hispanic to matter to SJWs). See several of his blog articles here. Scroll down for hilarity!
He and his readership welcome all offense with a big grin; in person, he is a refreshingly positive and all-around competent guy, of whom Heinlein would be proud.
Read a little bit of Target Rich Environment to get an idea of his style.
Yes, the queen of the elves lives in a double-wide trailer in Mississippi...
Radwaste at February 2, 2019 3:21 AM
Whenever someone starts talking about race, they're usually talking about culture. However many "races" there are, there are thousands of cultures.
Spartan culture demanded that certain babies be thrown off a cliff. Certain cultures demand that all actions be blamed on ancestry rather than free will. Etc, etc.
Atomic at February 2, 2019 6:46 AM
A good playwright, a good writer really, writes for the human condition. That's why Maya Angelou grew up thinking Shakespeare must be a black girl. His writing, specifically Sonnet 29, spoke to her.
That's why Denzel Washington could play Hamlet and Sir Laurence Olivier could play Othello to great fanfare. On the surface, the characters were respectively white and black, deep down they were human. Everyone in the audience could empathize with their predicaments and weaknesses.
That's why The Cosby Show succeeded. It was about a family man trying to raise his family. The Jeffersons was successful, not because George Jefferson was black, but because Sherman Helmsley was funny.
Conan the Grammarian at February 2, 2019 6:52 AM
In the Church of the Sufficiently Woke, white cishetnormative is the original sin. It is less so if you're a white woman, but the whiteness is a problem. A sin that can never be forgiven, apologies are not accepted, and there is no baptism to wipe it away.
As Patrick has stated, the proper course is to tell these neo-Puritans to go fuck themselves. I would add with the barbed cock of Satan.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 2, 2019 7:54 AM
Wait, Galadriel lives Mississippi? huh.
A good playwright, a good writer really, writes for the human condition.
Shhh! That's white male privilege talking!
Assuming modern society survives for another century, at some point literary historians will look at this time frame with a certain amount of befuddlement. How could they produce so much that no one really wants to read?
To coin a phrase, get woke, go broke.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 2, 2019 8:15 AM
Been having a semantics problem for quite some time now with this “unearned power over others” thing.
Exactly how does someone go about *earning* the powder to tell me what to think or do?
If I was to state the case, I might use the term “illegitimate authority” over others as no one elected these people, or gave them a government appointment to be a culture cop or the language police.
Isab at February 2, 2019 8:51 AM
"Whenever someone starts talking about race, they're usually talking about culture. However many "races" there are, there are thousands of cultures."
You can't make as much MONEY exploiting a culture. That's why the SJW must insist that all blacks are African-American. They buy into the hoax.
Meanwhile: the culture advocating continued dependency, illiteracy, illegitimacy, profanity and violence is not mine, and I refuse to excuse it.
Radwaste at February 2, 2019 8:51 AM
"Exactly how does someone go about *earning* the power to tell me what to think or do?"
Well, for one, by earning enough money that they can meet your price for doing what they want. Money is just a marker for power.
Or, by doing something you want, which, if you have any morality, leaves you owing them consideration in return.
Or, by being elected to a position of authority.
Or, by earning your respect sufficiently that you wish to please them.
bw1 at February 2, 2019 12:19 PM
"if you are white, you are in danger of being deemed racist -- no matter what you do. No matter what you do."
Translation:
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against—then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them.”
bw1 at February 2, 2019 12:33 PM
From what I can tell Isab the phrase came about as a way for atheists to discuss religion and morals without admitting they are discussing religion and morals. Which is why it is such an awkward phrase. Honestly it is very similar to people talking about intersectionality. It feels good and significant. But at the end of the day it is actually hollow and meaningless.
Ben at February 2, 2019 1:08 PM
In the same way that the business of feminism is the creation of as many misogynists as possible, the business of those spouting "critical race theory" is the creation of as many racists as possible.
Both ideologies have been quite successful so far, but with an important difference. Feminism continues to spread its poison because men find it very difficult to actually oppose women. If pushed too far, however, I think it much more likely that whites would actually and actively oppose blacks. That would not end well.
So, women have reason to be confident in a positive outcome. For blacks, not so much.
God help women and blacks if white men ever do what women and blacks (and others) have done -- form an identity as whites, and as men, which is as adversarial and antagonistic as the other identity groups have become. If you don't feel that you are "punching down", then you don't feel any need to pull your "punches."
Jay R at February 2, 2019 1:34 PM
I wasn't the only one tying myself up in knots trying to figure out if I was a racist asshole too steeped in whiteness to ever again pick up a pen.
That's your problem, lady.
I love the title of her essay: "Why Do People Tell Me I'm Not Allowed to Write?" What a victim. Once again Quillette tweezes out victimology in a long, lugubrious whine of an essay.
You're a playwright and someone tells you you're "not allowed" to write? The correct answer is "Take a flying fuck at a rolling donut. Take a flying fuck at the moon." And do your thing.
Kevin at February 2, 2019 1:48 PM
I R A Darth Aggie: In the Church of the Sufficiently Woke, white cishetnormative is the original sin. It is less so if you're a white woman, but the whiteness is a problem.
This reminded me of a great scene/line in the TV show Modern Family a few seasons ago. The gay couple, Cameron & Mitchell, were trying to get their adopted daughter Lily into an exclusive school. The school wanted diversity and they figured they had a pretty good shot at getting her in because, although they were both white men, they were gay and Lily was Asian.
Then, while they were in the waiting room, in came two women (as I recall one was white and one black) in wheelchairs with a black son. Dismayed, Cameron turned to Mitchell and said, "Disabled inter-racial lesbians? With an African American kicker? I did not see that coming."
JD at February 2, 2019 2:34 PM
In drama and literature, there are infinite opportunities to explore the human condition. No two humans are alike. They all have a story, limitations, interests, abilities, traumas, loves, hates, experiences. But the intersectionality crowd sees humans as cardboard cutouts, defined only by their oppression points. They cannot imagine a black man who does not feel oppressed and feels sorry for bigots (my friend). Or the experience of a black musician who is rich rich rich and famous. Or a black intellectual or (no, it can't be) a black conservative. Nope. All black people are the same and all white people are the same. Asians are not worth noticing for some reason. I'm glad I'm not a writer--it would be impossible.
cc at February 2, 2019 3:11 PM
"In the same way that the business of feminism is the creation of as many misogynists as possible, the business of those spouting "critical race theory" is the creation of as many racists as possible."
Of course, due to the Gilligan's Island problem of all activists (Gilligan and his friends try to get off the island, but if they ever succeed, the show ends. If there were no racists, then all those fighting racism would have to go out and get real jobs.
bw1 at February 3, 2019 1:26 PM
Remember, in Marxism, the only legitimate purpose of art is to propagandize on behalf of the Party and the State. Everything else is bourgeois and deserves to be suppressed.
Cousin Dave at February 4, 2019 6:23 PM
I think the white lesbian was actually indian
A saw a Modern Family a few weeks ago where the principle told Cam being gay didnt carry the same status it used to when admonishing for using insults to motivate the football team
lujlp at February 5, 2019 3:16 PM
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