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One bonus of having a whole day without power is that I got quite a bit of reading in SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE finished. This thread will be my highlights, rapid-fire. #WantTalkAboutRace #ReadWhiteFragility #AccidentalBookClub
Finishing chapter on police brutality: "...remember that the police force can be trustworthy public servants to one community, and oppressors to another community..." (96) On a somewhat unrelated note about duality, if you haven't watched the Dutch version of VANISHED...
...go do so. I can believe Oluo here in no small part because I saw that film long ago (and yeah, it takes fiction to teach me about nonfiction. Tim O'Brien totally got me.)
Into chapter on affirmative action. Like all chapters, Oluo begins with a highly personal story about how systemic racism around the topic directly impacted her. For people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people and other marginalized communities...
..."if you are exceptional by the standards put for by white supremacist patriarchy, and you are lucky, you will most likely just barely get by." (112-113)
She gives a long discussion about how affirmative action de facto cannot be "reverse racism" (ain't no such thing, people!), how it was initially limited in scope, and how it's had all of its teeth legislated and regulated away. When it does work, however, it can be great.
Some evidence that America is not "less racist" than it used to be can be found in the objectively calculated wage gaps among people of color as compared to white men.
