Social-justice pedagogy is driven by one overwhelming reality: the seemingly intractable achievement gap between whites and Asians on the one hand, and blacks and Hispanics on the other. Radical feminism, as well as gay and now trans advocacy, are also deeply intertwined with social-justice thinking on campus and off, as we have just seen. But race is the main impetus. Liberal whites are terrified that the achievement and behavior gaps will never close. So they have crafted a totalizing narrative about the racism that allegedly holds back black achievement.https://www.city-journal.org/social-justice-ideology
The aforementioned race-and-the-law professor, after announcing the class’s social-justice commitments, added: “We engage in race talk here.” That was an understatement. “We talk about white fragility,” the professor explained. “What is the purpose of white fragility? What does it mean to live in a white culture, with white norms and a white power structure? What does it mean that we are in a culture dominated by white folks?”
A more pertinent question would be: What does any of this have to do with legal training? Living in a Western culture dominated by whites simply means that, if one is not white, one is in a minority; conversely, in Uganda, say, someone who is not black is in a minority. If being in a racial minority in a majority-white country is so inimical to one’s flourishing, plenty of places exist where a nonwhite person would be in the racial majority. Non-whites the world over are beating down the doors to get into Western countries, however, with no comparable corresponding traffic moving in the other direction. The very politicians and academics who in the morning denounce America’s lethal white supremacy in the afternoon demand that the country open its borders to every intending Third World immigrant, with no penalty for illegal entry. These two positions are contradictory: The U.S. cannot be at the same time the graveyard for nonwhite people and an essential beacon of freedom and life-preserving haven from oppression for these same people.
What are the “white norms” and “culture” that “race talk” seeks to deconstruct? Objectivity, a strong work ethic, individualism, a respect for the written word, perfectionism, and promptness, according to legions of diversity trainers and many humanities, social sciences, and even STEM faculty. Any act of self-discipline or deferred gratification that contributes to individual and generational success is now simply a manifestation of white supremacy. The New York Times recently singled out parents who had queued up hours early to visit a sought-after public school in New York City. “Why were white parents at the front of the line for the school tour?” asked the Times headline. The article answered: their white privilege, not their dedication to their children’s schooling.
The test for whether a norm is white and thus illegitimate is whether it has a disparate impact on blacks and Hispanics. Given the behavioral and academic skills gaps, every colorblind standard of achievement will have a disparate impact. The average black 12th-grader currently reads at the level of the average white eighth-grader. Math levels are similarly skewed. Truancy rates for black students are often four times as high as for white students. Inner-city teachers, if they are being honest, will describe the barely controlled anarchy in their classrooms—anarchy exacerbated by the phony conceit that school discipline is racist. In light of such disparities, it is absurd to attribute the absence of proportional representation in the STEM fields, say, to bias. And yet, STEM deans, faculty, and Silicon Valley tech firms claim that only implicit bias explains why 13 percent of engineering professors are not black. The solution to this lack of proportional representation is not greater effort on the part of students, according to social-justice and diversity proponents. Instead, it is watering down meritocratic standards. Professors are now taught about “inclusive grading” and how to assess writing without judging its quality, since such quality judgments maintain white language supremacy.
[...]
The only precedent for our current resentment-driven war on the West’s magnificent achievements is the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and that didn’t turn out well. The Cultural Revolution, however, was waged mostly by the less educated against the more educated. The oddest feature of today’s social-justice crusade is that it is being prosecuted by the elites against themselves. Every college president, law firm managing partner, and Fortune 500 CEO would rather theatrically blame himself and his colleagues for phantom bigotry than speak honestly about the real causes of ongoing racial inequality: family breakdown and an underclass culture that mocks learning and the conformity to bourgeois values as acting “white.” Anti-racism has become the national religion, with the search for instances of racism to back up that religion becoming ever more desperate. Over the last year alone, ladies’ flats, sweaters, keychains, and Adidas and Nike sneakers have been purged from the marketplace for their imaginary connection to racist symbols. Innocent schoolboys have been tarred as bigots by the national media, and a robust traffic in hate-crime hoaxes has thrived.
[...]
The claim that every feature of our world rests on racial oppression—the thesis not just of social-justice education, but of the entire Democratic presidential primary field and of the New York Times’ high school-destined 1619 project—undermines the moral legitimacy of our country. All accumulation of wealth is suspect; every technological breakthrough and business success becomes nothing more than rank exploitation.
Even Max Weber might not have foreseen where the politicization of education would land us. He would certainly have been astounded that the hard sciences are now worrying about microaggressions and heteronormativity. We are jeopardizing the creation of new knowledge. But the most important function of schooling is to pass on an inheritance, as Michael Oakeshott explained, and that function is now all but obliterated. Serious humanistic learning has been decimated. When I speak at college campuses, I ask students what their majors are and what their favorite classes have been. Their answers are profoundly depressing: a shallow stew of communications studies, psychology, presidential debate-scoring masking as political science, and syllabi featuring comic books and the young adult literature of dysfunction. The focus of student attention is relentlessly presentist.
Our cultural past is full of wonderful mysteries, however: how, for example, did Western literature evolve from Medieval romance to the realistic novel—the romance peopled by allegorical figures who roam Classical landscapes, the novel showing acute attention to individual character and the details of everyday life? What did such a change mean for how human beings think of themselves in the world? The evolution of form, whether in literature, art, or music, is a grand adventure story, whereby we trace the ever-changing reflection of human experience in the mirror of human imagination. The greatest sin of the social-justice and diversity crusade is to teach students to hate this cultural inheritance. The social-justice crusaders are stripping the future of everything that gives human life meaning: beauty, sublimity, and wit.
Socialdemokratin är på väg att bli ett parti som alltmer för en politik för en välmående urban medelklass kombinerad med tycka synd om-politik för ekonomiskt marginaliserade grupper. Det har lett till att S i allt mindre utsträckning bevakar de breda löntagargruppernas intressen, menar LO-ekonomen Torbjörn Hållö.Transferism satt i system av de som inte behöver arbeta ihop sin inkomst utan kan enkelt äska mer från statens skattebas.
Socialdemokraternas stora väljartapp bland klassiska kärnväljare rapporteras ofta i termer av vilka effekter det kan få på valresultat och regeringsbildning. Men lika intressant är samspelet mellan väljarbas och policyutveckling:Detta visar på White flight också inom politiken. Ingen normal person vill vara kvar i grisbrottningen. Att tjafsa med Mona Sahlin och hennes anhang skrämde bort en hel generation politiker från S.
Vilken politik bedriver en socialdemokrati som förlorat arbetarklassen?
I takt med att S, precis som progressiva partier i andra länder, förlorar sina traditionella kärnväljare förändras också vilka som är aktiva inom partiet och vilka referensramar som valda S-företrädare och politiska tjänstemän har.
Det pågår en självförstärkande process där de traditionella kärnväljarnas intressen blir allt mer obegripliga för aktiva S-företrädare; vilket i sin tur gör S-politiken som utformas allt mindre relevant för de forna kärnväljarna; vilket i sin tur leder till fortsatta tapp bland kärnväljarna; och så förstärks processen…Krympandets radikalisering.
Medias oförmåga att spegla arbetarklassens villkor gör att S-politiker och S-tjänstemän får ännu svårare att förstå och uppmärksamma sina forna kärnväljares legitima intressen och behov.Oförmåga? Medierna har en agenda. Oförmågan LO visar upp är att de inte vill erkänna utåt att medier drivs av agendor. Aftonbladet driver en agenda för LO och SAP som exempel. Ingen oförmåga där inte.
Ett annat illustrativt exempel på hur svårt Socialdemokraterna har att förstå och värna sina forna kärnväljares legitima ekonomiska intressen är pensionerna.Där kom den. Men han glömde att säga att anledningen till detta är alla dessa invandrare som belastar systemet trots att de jobbat färre år än pursvenskar i industrin.
I korthet har Sverige nu ett pensionssystem som gör att växande grupper av arbetare och lägre tjänstemän efter 40 års arbetsliv på heltid får en pension på samma nivå som den som inte jobbat alls. Pensionsmyndighetens generaldirektör har beskrivit pensionssystemet på följande sätt: ”Kopplingen mellan arbete och pension är svag, trots målsättningen om det motsatta.”
Kan man då som gråsosse ha något hopp om att socialdemokratin hittar tillbaka hem till sina kärnväljare?Och vad är det som är det mest tydliga budskapet från Socialdemokraterna i Danmark?
Ja absolut! Utvecklingen i Danmark visar att även en vilsen socialdemokrati kan forma en politik som vinner stöd hos traditionella kärnväljare och sedan också genomförs i regeringsställning. Men det är en resa som kommer att kräva en rejäl dos självrannsakan och S-företrädare som orkar säga till de väljare som försvunnit:
Det var inte ni som lämnade oss, det var vi som lämnade er.
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