Thursday, June 25, 2020

ostentatious diversity

Trying to think about what's so annoying about the current push for racial diversity and it seems to me that the problem with it is that it presupposes that we're all racists who need to be told what to think.  Seeing someone demonstrating against racism is boring and puzzling.  Who - besides a few chucklefucks whose opinions can be ignored - is actually in favor of racism?

So when I see an earnestly angry post in favor of racial diversity, I react the same way I would if someone were angrily demanding that I be in favor of the sunrise tomorrow.  I never had a doubt that it was going to rise, so I don't need reminders about it. Screaming at me that the sun will rise tomorrow merely makes me question your sanity and want to get the hell away from you. 

Nor do I need a strident voice telling me that black lives matter, especially when that message is accompanied by the strong taint of condescension and superiority and delivered publicly for maximum feedback to the screamer in search of validation, with such validation feedback drowning out all other voices.

Perhaps we need less ostentatious diversity messages and more matter of fact depictions of life as we would have it lived. Show me some sunrise photos and let me comment on their beauty.  Likewise, show me the beauty of world you want, and then shut up and let me admire it without you demanding that I do so.

Edited to add: Charles Love has a much better explanation than mine when he writes:

"Efforts to stop discrimination and stereotyping perpetuate the perception that black lives really are inferior. The implication is that black life is hard, black life is poverty, black life is scary, and black life is sad. Woke whites aren’t saying that black lives matter. They’re saying that it’s up to them to make black lives matter."

Here's the link: https://www.city-journal.org/white-wokeness

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