Am I Racist?

[ajax18]

The problem I have with people like Matt Walsh is that they are the mirror image of the most extreme activists among their opponents. It seems like lots of these people, Walsh included, are trying to trade on controversy to gain notoriety. Gender arguments, something Walsh is famous or infamous for weighing in on, are really a clustereff. So far I am unimpressed with arguments coming from both sides. It seems to me that a lot of work needs to be done before we really understand what is going on. In the meantime, a lot of rage mongers get to call each other evil and stupid until better science emerges. I will sit most of these arguments out just as I do with most arguments about Israel. To enter the debate is to lose too much. Race is another fraught subject that almost everyone gets wrong to a degree. Strident voices sometimes seem like they are looking for cover to indulge their inner asshole.

Beyond saying I will treat all people with respect and watch on politely as they do what they want to do, I feel to stay out of the fray most of the time.

What did you think about the Covington Catholic case when CNN initially reported on it? Did you have an opinion on Jussie Smollett being lynched in southside Chicago by a couple of men wearing MAGA hats? What about Duke LaCrosse? Do you trust what CNN reports to you?

Have you never attended one of those workshops taught by a certified DEI expert? Did your job ever require it? I pictured you being down with the self-flagellation part of the DEI training.

Even though it took paying them $30k/interview to get people like Robin Diangelo to admit it, one of the most important conclusions is that no matter how many $5k antiracist training sessions you pay for, no matter how much you pay in reparations, no matter if you voted for Obama, you can never be considered not racist by these people if your Fitspatrick skin tone is three or less. Because if we ever got past racism in America, they'd lose their power and more importantly their source of income.

Jersy Girl have you ever put down $5k for one of those "Decolonize yourself," upscale dinners?

Res Ipsa there's some really good quotes from Ibraihm X Kennedy in this movie. This was one of my favorites,

The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.'

[Gadianton]

Have you never attended one of those workshops taught by a certified DEI expert? Did your job ever require it?

My jobs of the last 16 years have required DEI training and one of those was one of the first employers in the country to offer SS benefits and had lots of gays in top management positions. It's somewhere between twenty minutes and an hour a year of clicking through online courses and answering multiple choice questions. Both employers California based. Most of it common sense. None of the questions ever required that I admit it's wrong to be white, or straight, cis, or male.

I'd never heard of the Diangelo person you mention in this post, but one of the first hits brings up this article by the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ty/614146/

I am not convinced. Rather, I have learned that one of America’s favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract.

If this is what the Atlantic is saying about her work, it doesn't sound like she's the undisputed face of corporate America and represents everyone who isn't MAGA. I've never seen anything in all my years of working for liberal CA companies that suggest in the slightest way that those of us who are white should seriously think about our privileged status. In other words, I don't think we need to worry about DEI Nazism taking over the nation unless we vote for DJT and believe the weather is controlled by Democrats.

[Moksha]

Ceeboo and Ajax, what can we do to make the Herrenvolk great again?

[ajax18]

Have you never attended one of those workshops taught by a certified DEI expert? Did your job ever require it?

My jobs of the last 16 years have required DEI training and one of those was one of the first employers in the country to offer SS benefits and had lots of gays in top management positions. It's somewhere between twenty minutes and an hour a year of clicking through online courses and answering multiple choice questions. Both employers California based. Most of it common sense. None of the questions ever required that I admit it's wrong to be white, or straight, cis, or male.

I'd never heard of the Diangelo person you mention in this post, but one of the first hits brings up this article by the Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ty/614146/

I am not convinced. Rather, I have learned that one of America’s favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract.

If this is what the Atlantic is saying about her work, it doesn't sound like she's the undisputed face of corporate America and represents everyone who isn't MAGA. I've never seen anything in all my years of working for liberal CA companies that suggest in the slightest way that those of us who are white should seriously think about our privileged status. In other words, I don't think we need to worry about DEI Nazism taking over the nation unless we vote for DJT and believe the weather is controlled by Democrats.

Have you seen the movie? If you watch CNN or MSNBC, surely you've seen Robin Diangelo or Ibrahim X Kenadi promoting their own book sales.

It's somewhere between twenty minutes and an hour a year of clicking through online courses and answering multiple choice questions. Both employers California based. Most of it common sense.

If it's common sense why should a worker have to pay someone preach this in order to keep his job?

Do you also believe that "The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination?' Is this something you want kids being taught in public school? Do you think Ibrahim X Kenadi deserves $10 million to force people to agree with this or be labeled a racist? And how much is this approach really helping race relations? Both Kamala Harris and Barack Obama are quoted endorsing the ideas of Ibrahim X Kenadi and Robin Diangelo.

There's a clip of the ladies on the "The View," advocating for a black mother suing a parade mascot for $20 million because the mascot didn't hug her black girls when he walked by them.

[Gadianton]

surely you've seen Robin Diangelo or Ibrahim X Kenadi promoting their own book sales.

Never heard of either one of them. I'm not bound to any news source, by the way. Whatever problems there are with mainstream news, Donald Trump and the MAGA movement will not fix it, but only make things worse.

If it's common sense why should a worker have to pay someone preach this in order to keep his job?

this is really two questions. Yes, it's mostly common sense stuff. What I mean by that is only the most wigged out MAGA nutcase would find the material that I've been subjected to offensive to their conservative values. But in another sense -- well, people do thoughtless things all of the time, and so it's not a bad idea to have a sanity check once a year regarding how you interact with people of different backgrounds. Perhaps you'll like this little reveal from my perspective; but white males in my experience are generally pretty good at keeping their -- issues should they have them -- under the table. The few workplace conflicts I've seen erupt have been among non-American ethnicities. In a global corporation, you can be interacting all day long with people from other countries who work for the company.

corporations with thousands or tens of thousands of employees or more can either choose to develop education materials in-house or purchase them elsewhere. Along with training on subjects like workplace safety, security, financial fraud, and whatever else, the program isn't going to be 5$ to cover 20 thousand employees. Of course the cost of the program is going to sound like a lot of money if you're considering one's personal budget. Again, I'm talking about programs that I have been a part of that have taken place in the religious right's most hated state, and over a lot of years. I'm sure this other stuff exists somewhere, but I've never heard of it and nobody I've ever worked with has said, "hey, at this other company you've got to see the DEI training, it's insane.."

' Is this something you want kids being taught in public school?

No. But I'll take the risk over the risk of the religious-right making Trump Bibles part of the classroom and completely re-write American history to make it look like George Washington was a born-again Christian.

I will tell you this, however. The left seriously underestimates just how much power the right has when making their stand on social issues and how disturbed people are by progressivism. Years ago, at our school, there was a trans-kid who was allowed to use the girls restroom. Many of the girls were sure the kid was faking it to be a perv or a troll, and had their reasons for that. Because they were so afraid of the situation, they all vowed together to quit using the restroom at school and so had to suffer until they got home. It had nothing to do with hate (the kids). Most of the parents are simple working class traditional people and mostly Latino. Trump has all of them in the bag for that one thing and nothing else could conceivably matter enough to counter it. If we end up with a dictator, it's going to be because the left expects society to turn on a dime and become an altruists paradise.

[ajax18]

Trump was already president and he didn't become a dictator, as many of you claimed he would.

You should watch the movie. It's the biker guys with Confederate flags who were advocating to treat each other equally like human beings regardless of race. It's the left that is now insisting on current and future racism justified in perpetuity because of centuries old wrongs. And if they are given the power to continue Ibrahim X Kenadi's policy of current and future revenge racism, race relations will continue to get worse not better. Just as you never pay a kidnapper what he demands initially because it will simply embolden him to demand more, no reparations will satisfy them. Reparations will only embolden them to demand even more.

[Gadianton]

Trump was already president and he didn't become a dictator, as many of you claimed he would.

I never claimed that. I never even claimed he would try to be one. Part way into his term, my left-wing pro-musk friend told me that Trump would refuse to leave office and claim the election was rigged and try to stay in power indefinitely. I blew it off because he makes his fair share of extreme announcements, but it felt concerning. And then that's what happened. At this point, Trump is doing little else other than trying to find ways to cheat and become president and break down institutions to be subservient to himself and he's got much of the party and its associates working tirelessly to figure out how to cheat and do just that. The fact that he has failed so far doesn't give him any moral credibility. What you're saying amounts to saying that a guy who failed to rob a bank as somebody else predicted is no criminal because while he went in with a gun and pointed it, the security guard was able to stop him.

You should watch the movie. It's the biker guys with Confederate flags who were advocating to treat each other equally like human beings regardless of race. It's the left that is now insisting on current and future racism justified in perpetuity because of centuries old wrongs. And if they are given the power to continue Ibrahim X Kenadi's policy of current and future revenge racism, race relations will continue to get worse not better. Just as you never pay a kidnapper what he demands initially because it will simply embolden him to demand more, no reparations will satisfy them. Reparations will only embolden them to demand even more.

Do the biker guys with Confederate flags give pause at waging war on legal Hatians in Springfield if Trump wins?

There is no indication to me that reparations activism is a serious threat. If it becomes anywhere near what Heritage is, then I'll start to worry.

In general, there is a growing problem with technology rendering huge swaths of workers as unnecessary, and wealth concentrating into fewer and fewer hands. This will make welfare state topics only more relevant as time moves on. Topics like universal income aren't just for speculative fiction anymore. I don't have a great solution, I'm just pointing out that as inequality accelerates, people will worry more and more about fairness, and that will come in various guises.

[ajax18]

Gadianton I wish you'd just watch the movie. All Matt Walsh does is let these people talk. I'd like to know if you agree with what the have to say.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Gadianton I wish you'd just watch the movie. All Matt Walsh does is let these people talk. I'd like to know if you agree with what the have to say.

[Gadianton]

Gadianton I wish you'd just watch the movie. All Matt Walsh does is let these people talk. I'd like to know if you agree with what the have to say.

It would be a waste of time. From what I've seen so far, I'm sure I wouldn't agree with a lot of or most of what they have to say. I'm not surprised there are social justice warriors out there going overboard. I don't see why I should be worried about it. If there is an extreme left version of project 2025 trying to steal the election and erode institutions to make Kamala all powerful, and Kamala is on record giving the green light to this organization to go ahead and write all her policies, then I'll start to worry.