Without denying any history of racism and ethnic hatreds both here and in every other country of the world, the current BIPOC construction, as Reihan Salam gently insinuates, is indeed a top down construct created by (mostly white) elites to manipulate and divide. Until we get beyond these superficial frontiers, many Americans will not reach their full potential. Most Latinos instinctively reject this nonsense, and anglos (whites) do not at present have the cred currency to move American cultural progress beyond a race-centric paradigm. That will have to come from the African American community, which is slowly figuring out that the faux flattery, open borders, opposition to school choice and milk bone handouts from the left are really the new plantation.
I never understand the PIPOC idea. I am your ally. Im the one who included everyone equally my whole life. My wife - one of the "POC" you court - adamantly rejects pretty much everything BIPOC. To be clear, she is "Black" and certainly not a POC. One thing i have learned from 25 years of marriage is not to assume anything based on color of skin.
I think the blacks of self-imposed victimhood are now far too dependent on tax-payers and guilt-ridden elites to change their way of life. A handful will make it thanks to pity and quotas, fewer still based on their own merit. The great rest will be father-less, divorced, incarcerated or shot. Doubt me? Come to Philly and see for yourself.
Just call "progressivism" what it is....its a New Age religion for bored and / or lost (and mostly white) overfed suburbanites and the rich desperate to add some meaning and purpose to their lives. Like Scientology only far more toxic and hard to quit. Jim Jones and his utopia were just a pilot run for what the modern Democratic Party has become. No rational human being believes there are 33 genders or that men can get pregnant, and yet there are now literally millions of Americans who believe you should be destroyed financially, socially, and even physically harmed if you state the obvious.
The idea that people would be of one mind simply because they are non-white sounds a bit, well, racist. It implies a complete lack of agency among those peoples, requires total fealty to a specific set of beliefs, and leaves out that there are whites who share some of those beliefs. It's almost like human beings are individuals first, not members of an identity class. The left hates that idea. A person who can think independently is the single greatest threat to authoritarians who believe they know what's best for everyone else but seldom live by the rules they impose.
Beyond that, how many others upon hearing "people of color" noticed that it's about a half-step from 'colored people'? Actually, a black friend came up with that thought. By today's calculus, my Greek heritage makes me a person of color since I can pass for about a hundred different ethnicities but there is no special check block for the likes of me.
IMO, this discussion is insane, simply because the mass of BIPOC and white folk do NOT have the ability or the sensitivity....... or the disposition to logically sort the discussion.
The future must be entertain simple standards that most can recognize.
Standards and vocabulary and understanding must speak to the condition/perceptions of all people, regardless skin color and tribal identity. If this is impossible, as I suspect, then we should simply withdraw to our own corners of identity and prepare for eternal struggle. Logic, or even the pretense of logic, will have no role.
The street crowds are instructive examples --- why there is so little hope.
"And when that happens, new political alignments and forms of social organization may emerge that make the “BIPOC” coalition impossible to maintain. "
Ah, but there are people who have a solution to that. When "people of color" fall out of line politically, if they start expressing ideas that conflict with the interests of the race police, if they start voting in ways that the Democratic Party doesn't approve, those people of color will just be labeled white. Its already happening. Latinos and asians who don't vote for the Democratic Party are labeled "white adjacent." So, no problem with the BIPOC coalition. All the BIPOCS who aren't part of the coalition are not really BIPOCS, they are white supremacists.
Rationally, this may be a problem, but I don't think rationality is really a big concern these days. Race is following a similar path that sex/gender already has trail-blazed: transforming something that is objective into something subjective. The definition of race is becoming whatever is politically valuable to the race demagogues. If it is valuable to turn Tim Scott into an Irishman, so be it. Its not like the people who think men can turn into women by simply declaring it in their twitter bios are going to object to that -- that is, unless they don't like the political effects. And if the size of the BIPOC coalition is going to require letting in white people who "identify" as black, like Rachel Dolezal, then it shall be done. After all, isn't that what inclusion is all about?
Reihan Salam makes the key point about top-down progressivism. It isn't organic and people are being forced to take positions that they don't agree with. That strategy might work for a religion because they promise you an afterlife. Not sure the same approach works in a secular setting as all they can promise you is a social benefit of membership in the collective. That isn't worth anything if you don't care about being in the collective.
My spouse is an immigrant from southeast Asia, and she views "BIPOC" politics as hostile to her interests. In particular, she is unhappy that Asians are penalized in admissions to elite schools (directly, and indirectly by getting rid of standardized tests).
The term "BIPOC" puts Asians and Latinos in their place. It says Black and Indigenous interests get top priority, and other POC come second. Maybe that would be okay if woke activists represented everyone, but many of their proposals are unpopular with ordinary people of all races.
Or is it a fantasy in the minds of a small bunch of dope-smoking former grad students? Mostly white, actually, but for the few token hangers-on with fantasy African names.
Without denying any history of racism and ethnic hatreds both here and in every other country of the world, the current BIPOC construction, as Reihan Salam gently insinuates, is indeed a top down construct created by (mostly white) elites to manipulate and divide. Until we get beyond these superficial frontiers, many Americans will not reach their full potential. Most Latinos instinctively reject this nonsense, and anglos (whites) do not at present have the cred currency to move American cultural progress beyond a race-centric paradigm. That will have to come from the African American community, which is slowly figuring out that the faux flattery, open borders, opposition to school choice and milk bone handouts from the left are really the new plantation.
I never understand the PIPOC idea. I am your ally. Im the one who included everyone equally my whole life. My wife - one of the "POC" you court - adamantly rejects pretty much everything BIPOC. To be clear, she is "Black" and certainly not a POC. One thing i have learned from 25 years of marriage is not to assume anything based on color of skin.
I think the blacks of self-imposed victimhood are now far too dependent on tax-payers and guilt-ridden elites to change their way of life. A handful will make it thanks to pity and quotas, fewer still based on their own merit. The great rest will be father-less, divorced, incarcerated or shot. Doubt me? Come to Philly and see for yourself.
Just call "progressivism" what it is....its a New Age religion for bored and / or lost (and mostly white) overfed suburbanites and the rich desperate to add some meaning and purpose to their lives. Like Scientology only far more toxic and hard to quit. Jim Jones and his utopia were just a pilot run for what the modern Democratic Party has become. No rational human being believes there are 33 genders or that men can get pregnant, and yet there are now literally millions of Americans who believe you should be destroyed financially, socially, and even physically harmed if you state the obvious.
The idea that people would be of one mind simply because they are non-white sounds a bit, well, racist. It implies a complete lack of agency among those peoples, requires total fealty to a specific set of beliefs, and leaves out that there are whites who share some of those beliefs. It's almost like human beings are individuals first, not members of an identity class. The left hates that idea. A person who can think independently is the single greatest threat to authoritarians who believe they know what's best for everyone else but seldom live by the rules they impose.
Beyond that, how many others upon hearing "people of color" noticed that it's about a half-step from 'colored people'? Actually, a black friend came up with that thought. By today's calculus, my Greek heritage makes me a person of color since I can pass for about a hundred different ethnicities but there is no special check block for the likes of me.
IMO, this discussion is insane, simply because the mass of BIPOC and white folk do NOT have the ability or the sensitivity....... or the disposition to logically sort the discussion.
The future must be entertain simple standards that most can recognize.
Standards and vocabulary and understanding must speak to the condition/perceptions of all people, regardless skin color and tribal identity. If this is impossible, as I suspect, then we should simply withdraw to our own corners of identity and prepare for eternal struggle. Logic, or even the pretense of logic, will have no role.
The street crowds are instructive examples --- why there is so little hope.
"And when that happens, new political alignments and forms of social organization may emerge that make the “BIPOC” coalition impossible to maintain. "
Ah, but there are people who have a solution to that. When "people of color" fall out of line politically, if they start expressing ideas that conflict with the interests of the race police, if they start voting in ways that the Democratic Party doesn't approve, those people of color will just be labeled white. Its already happening. Latinos and asians who don't vote for the Democratic Party are labeled "white adjacent." So, no problem with the BIPOC coalition. All the BIPOCS who aren't part of the coalition are not really BIPOCS, they are white supremacists.
Rationally, this may be a problem, but I don't think rationality is really a big concern these days. Race is following a similar path that sex/gender already has trail-blazed: transforming something that is objective into something subjective. The definition of race is becoming whatever is politically valuable to the race demagogues. If it is valuable to turn Tim Scott into an Irishman, so be it. Its not like the people who think men can turn into women by simply declaring it in their twitter bios are going to object to that -- that is, unless they don't like the political effects. And if the size of the BIPOC coalition is going to require letting in white people who "identify" as black, like Rachel Dolezal, then it shall be done. After all, isn't that what inclusion is all about?
Reihan Salam makes the key point about top-down progressivism. It isn't organic and people are being forced to take positions that they don't agree with. That strategy might work for a religion because they promise you an afterlife. Not sure the same approach works in a secular setting as all they can promise you is a social benefit of membership in the collective. That isn't worth anything if you don't care about being in the collective.
My spouse is an immigrant from southeast Asia, and she views "BIPOC" politics as hostile to her interests. In particular, she is unhappy that Asians are penalized in admissions to elite schools (directly, and indirectly by getting rid of standardized tests).
The term "BIPOC" puts Asians and Latinos in their place. It says Black and Indigenous interests get top priority, and other POC come second. Maybe that would be okay if woke activists represented everyone, but many of their proposals are unpopular with ordinary people of all races.
But what IS the “BIPOC” coalition?
Is there really such a thing?
Or is it a fantasy in the minds of a small bunch of dope-smoking former grad students? Mostly white, actually, but for the few token hangers-on with fantasy African names.
We will find out, probably sooner than later.
Does Brown still have the TWC and the TWTP? This was my experience in the mid-2000s, which foreshadowed the woke revolution we are living through today: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-groom-commissars