My pov is that CRT (critical race theory) and related policies, like DEI, put an undue emphasis on race instead of on poverty, and the resulting effect is that policies which are aimed at helping minorities seem like “favoritism” (and called as such by political opponents), which makes a growing population of poor whites (due to the adverse effects of wealth inequality) polarized against minorities.
Separately, the polarization is used by others who want to weaken a democratic nation. For democracies, a growing immigrant population of more poor people will cause further polarization because the growing poor white population believes that “they’re taking our jobs”. This happened during Brexit, this happened with Trump, and this is happening now in Germany and other western democracies.
I know that there are racist groups who have an agenda of their own, and what I am saying is that instead of focusing on what are painted as culture war issues, leftists are better off focusing on alleviating systemic poverty. Like, bringing the Nordic model to the U.S. should be their agenda.
So, maybe I am wrong about CRT and DEI and how it’s well-meaning intentions are being abused by people who have other goals, but I want to hear from others about why they think CRT and DEI help. I want to listen, so I am not going to respond at all.
— Added definitions —
CRT: an academic field used to understand how systems and processes favor white people despite anti-discrimination policies. Analysis coming out of CRT is often used to make public policy.
DEI: a framework for increasing diversity, equity and inclusion; DEI isn’t focused on race or gender only, but also includes disability and other factors (pregnancy for example) which affect a person.
— —
Okay , so end note: I appreciate the people who commented. I questioned the relevancy of CRT/DEI previously out of an alarmed perspective of how aspects that highlight group differences can be used by others to create divisions and increase polarization. But I get the point everyone is making about the historical significance of these tools.
Imagine a hundred runners entering an insanely long footrace. Before the race starts, the official says that due to his complexion, one runner will start running at the second gunshot, and the other runners will begin at the first gunshot. The darker skinned runner contests, but those are the rules and if he wants to race, he must follow them.
BLAM
The palest runners are off and running while the other one anticipates the second gunshot. He patiently waits, but it doesn’t come. After ten minutes, the runner complains to the official, but he repeats that these are the rules, and if you just wait patiently, it’ll be your turn. After an hour the crowd is outraged by the injustice and begin to protest.
BLAM
The official fires the second shot in order to deescalate the situation and prevent the stadium from being torn apart. The runner is off and he is determined to gain as much ground as possible as the other runners.
At the end of the day, the runners meet up at a checkpoint to rest before the next section of the race. When they announce the official times, the darker skinned man is 50 minutes behind the other runners. He mentions to the officials that he had to wait an hour to start, and that he would have had a better time than many of them if they had started at the same time.
Fine, they say, not wanting another scene like they had at the starting line, “from now on, all runners start at the same time.” That’s great! So, can I deduct an hour from my time?
WHAT!? WE ALREADY CHANGED THE RULES TO MAKE IT EQUAL. EVERYBODY STARTS AT THE SAME TIME! AND NOW YOU WANT MORE? THE OTHER RUNNERS DIDN’T NEED ANY TIME DEDUCTIONS!
I now see I went too heavy on the caps, but I’m not typing it again.
Anyway, DEI is the one hour time deduction. It’s making up for holding them back for so long while everyone else was sprinting ahead. But, those other runners, they were so busy running that they don’t know how long it took for that second gunshot to go off. All they see is a runner with a mediocre time getting a 1 hour deduction which moves him to the top 3. The guy getting bumped to fourth is REALLY going to feel cheated, and resent the system that gave that guy an hour just because of his skin color.
The analogy would be more accurate if everyone started at a random time, but darker-skinned runners started later on average. Then, the event organizers decide to deduct an hour from every dark-skinned runner’s time regardless of when they actually started.
Yes, they started an average hour later meaning when an hour is deducted from the darker skinned People’s times, the results are more fair overall.
And even though for some indivules it is unfair, the starting situation is allready unfair and this alteration is a net positive for fairness.
It is not just skin colour that has effects on the starting time of course.
I don’t think this is wrong, but it doesn’t force the perspective of “That guy got screwed.” The point of it all is to get people who are unconsciously doing/supporting racist things, say, “I never thought about it like that”
Those same people reading your version will immediately turn it into, “Some of those minorities are getting an unfair advantage!” Or “I was one of the white men who didn’t get an advantage”, (those don’t exist)
I like how you made all about a race. Nice touch.
Tell me if I’m wrong but I would like to clarify something based on what Rhynoplaz said above that I feel they meant,
to clarify: I believe the CRT and DEI ideally have nothing to do with historical events.
(P.S. I don’t know how the DEI and CRT work currently, this is my own opinion on a hypothetical best solution. (Open to ideas if I’m wrong))
The DEI and CRT have nothing to do with past events. It is not about putting everything in reverse, giving the darker skinned man a time cut for every future race because of all the 100s of past races he had to wait.
it is simply about the situation now, the current race, the current job application.
the DEI and CRT should ideally only be about removing the bias of the judge for that specific event, so that the final scores represent each person’s actual time, there is not retribution, there is no repayment for past wrongs, it is only about making the current event, the current job market, fair for everyone.
So that when the scores for that specific day are finalized everyones time is what they actually ran.
The CRT finds what makes the specific event unfair, and the DEI fixes it so everyones time is what they actually ran.
It is only removing the current bias in the Official.
Poverty is a completely different (though somewhat related) issue.
Dealing with poverty isnt about removing the bias, it is about rebuilding the very constructs of our society into a place that does not rely on some working 24h to put food on there plate while others sit around ruling those below.
Capitalism does not exist without poverty, if everyone’s rich, nobody is.
The only solution to this while keeping capitalism is to ensure every person has access to their human rights free of charge, but then our rulers would complain that these people living free of charge are lazy and sapping up your precious tax payer dollars that you worked your but off for.
no government organization can fix poverty, the entire current system for every current country is flawed, in order to get rid of poverty we must rebuild these systems from the ground up.
We’ve done it before and made the lives of millions better. and we can do it again.
What are you referring to? No arguing, just curios.
Don’t worry I wouldn’t have thought you were arguing, I’m glad you asked.
Woman’s rights required huge societal reform, from being a mans property to being one’s own self. I know we aren’t all the way there in terms of woman’s rights, but we have come a long way. (let’s not go backwards now)
I was also thinking that the current capitalistic system is also much better than a system where power is based on bloodline like in many old Monarchy’s but then I realised that if money is power, and money is inherited its not much different.
However one of our main societal reforms is using reason, logic and ethics over the supposed word of god. I have nothing against the notion of god (other than that it is objective truth), what I do take issue with is using God to manipulate people, people who think they must have faith in the word of god for them to be good people.
This puppetering of god by those in power and the blind trust of those below caused thousands of atrocities; the burning of witches, the rape of people, hundreds of conquests in the name of spreading gods word, and so, so many wars.
This again is not fully resolved in many countries. Such as Israel, were blind faith in the twisted words of god, twisted by a corrupt pollitition, has caused tens-of-thousands of innocent deaths.
But for the most part, developed countries have left gods word as secondary advice, and have not tried to manipulate the people by puppeteering their creator.
This is (imo) a crucial step for a more transperant society. Were you don’t feel you are challenging your creators ideals, but just the ideals of a snob in a suit.
There’s a video I watched that explains the concept very similarly here: https://youtu.be/4K5fbQ1-zps
What’s interesting is that in the video, none of the questions even mention race, but you can see how the racial minorities are affected more than the rest.
A better analogy would be that they do an entirely new race, forgetting about the results of the previous one. Would it now be fair to give the guy a 50-minute headstart?
I am confused how your analogy is different to the original one? the original one was also not affected by prior races.
A headstart would never be fair if gone untreated.
that’s why the final results are calculated to eliminate the affect of anyone’s headstart.
I think I must have misunderstood something with your comment. If you dont mind could you explain what I missed?
But it isn’t. That’s just changing the scenario to fit your own expectations.
The race began before any of us were born. WE DIDN’T SEE THE STARTING LINE. There has been no global reset. Nobody zeroed out the scores between then and now.
Tell me when black people were given enough money to make up for 200 years of making white men richer, or when racism was erased from the world, and I’ll consider that you might be even a little bit right.
Thank you
This is such a big non-answer lol
It’s alright that you weren’t looking back, just take his word when he says he’s not as far ahead as he should be.