Read on Twitter
With respect to the findings, I need to highlight a really important disagreement with this particular point on ideology.
Black people are *extremely* sophisticated political thinkers, even when carrying problematic ideological beliefs. 1/7 https://twitter.com/fivethirtyeight/status/1313455694843125762
Black people are *extremely* sophisticated political thinkers, even when carrying problematic ideological beliefs. 1/7 https://twitter.com/fivethirtyeight/status/1313455694843125762
Turning to Dawson’s _Black Visions_ (which is cited), we see his point on page 3: Black people can use the exact same language and mean completely different things.
Understanding Black politics, then, requires context - including a history of being presumed incompetent. 2/7
Understanding Black politics, then, requires context - including a history of being presumed incompetent. 2/7
When we address context and are explicitly (and without equivocation) recognizing Black political brilliance, then this leads us to very different questions.
It’s no longer “how do we teach/interpret politically unsophisticated Black people”. Instead, it becomes 3/7
It’s no longer “how do we teach/interpret politically unsophisticated Black people”. Instead, it becomes 3/7
“What barriers are Black people navigating? What have we overcome? What adjustments have we made & what do they teach us about the US? About the descent into authoritarianism? About resistance and domination?” The questions change to “what are Black people teaching us?” 4/7
This is the base importance of grounding our work (even public pieces) in political theory. The easy example is @IsmailWhitePhD & @chryllaird recent _Steadfast Democrats_, which asks these questions and identifies nuanced social pressures at the core of Black partisanship. 5/7
White & Laird make clear that it doesn’t take radical and revolutionary perspectives to recognize that Black politics are about much more than a standardized model of ideology. And to be fair, I have (very much smaller) disagreements with their interpretations. 6/7
So, while I’m hopeful this is simply an unforced error, we must vigorously resist anti-Blackness and promote an anti-oppressive view at every turn. In sum, this dog won’t hunt. 7/
