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When I was young ppl used to say racist shit about Asians around me all the time and then be like ‘Oh sorry! But you’re not reeeally Asian so…’ and I think they sincerely thought that would make me feel better. I’m not exactly sure why I brought that up but I think…
…it’s because I want to say that I grew up in a time when there was zero political correctness. I literally saw political correctness being invented right in front of me (at certain schools) and then distributed and eventually enforced as a mindset and ideology. I want to say..
…that one might have imagined at the time that the politically correct mindset and resulting implementation and enforcement would lead to a better society in which cultures and peoples were more integrated and more mutually understanding.
But it is often the case that seemingly obvious solutions fail and even make matters worse—I often think about the terrible track record we have in science of artificially modifying an ecosystem in order to ‘re-balance’ a problem we created but ultimately wind up making things…
…worse by creating bigger unforeseen problems. ‘The road to hell is paved w good intentions.’ We’ve been trying this kind of morality policing for awhile now & I would posit things are arguably getting worse. Race relations seem to be in the middle of a ‘two steps back’ moment.
I say this not only because it seems clear from news events and statistics that race relations in this country are particularly terrible, but also because my DMs have never been more filled with bizarre WWII era bullshit (like chink and jap, or whatever).
I am very sad that I feel like I have to say the following but here goes: Asians are not the problem. Blacks are not the problem. Jews are not the problem. And yes, Whites are not the problem either. No race or culture is ‘the problem.’
I have lived in many cities and countries and I can say from experience that there is an EQUAL distribution of shitty ppl and good ppl in EVERY human population. Most are good, some aren’t great, and a very small number are clinical sociopaths you absolutely need to avoid.
When I grew up New York truly felt like a melting pot. It wasn’t perfect, but ppl did not self segregate along tribal lines to the degree that I am seeing today. There is something wrong with the strategy and direction we have chosen, in academia, in politics, and elsewhere.
It’s not working. And to be clear I am not blaming all of the bad things we are seeing in culture today on political correctness. Yes we inherited a problematic history (yada yada) and I think PC culture has achieved some good and some progress for society.
I am simply saying we should check our strategy if we are not getting the results we intended. I don’t know what the solution is, but I suspect that over sensitizing ppl to arbitrary characteristics like skin colour may be doing more harm than good.
I know very well that the idea of being ‘colour blind’ is out of fashion, that MLK’s vision of character over skin colour is considered to be naive. But that vision surely made our society better. I’m not sure the modern vision of ‘race consciousness’ is making things better.
Someone smarter than me told me about the idea of ‘the least interesting, interesting thing.’ We humans tend to be pre occupied with the least interesting interesting thing. When you get to know someone, their race, or where they were born, very quickly becomes less…
…interesting than what they think, and—to use a cliché—who they really are on the inside. Their arbitrary birth status may be interesting at first but is ultimately the LEAST interesting, interesting thing about them. That is always true.
If you are still reading this, congratulations, you have an attention span, (please give me some). I don’t often talk about race, especially my own, because I feel attention is like water in a garden: whatever you give it to will grow.
I pray this thread does not ignite some kind of melt down (if it does I’ll just delete because I have no more energy for that kind of thing atm).
Okay that’s it. Peace and Love to all. I mean it.
And one more thing…just remember who benefits from the ‘divide and conquer’ paradigm. It ain’t us that’s for sure.
