[ExI] powerful image

[Mike Dougherty]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 1:28 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> The only black people I have ever known in any capacity have been low
> class people - laborers on the farm or at the railroad station and so on,
> most of them illiterate.  I cannot speak for blacks of higher classes, but
> from my limited experience I can attest that for kindness of heart they are
> at least our equals.  bill w
>
>
i was already "smh" and about to just brush the whole thread off...  but
that falls under the idea of silence equals acceptance.

the first problem is seeing "blacks" as "they" - you need to fix that kind
of thinking.  And if you don't like my use of singular you, then how about
"we"  as in "we need to fix that kind of thinking"  I propose that you have
the discipline to replace all future expression of "blacks" as "black
people" so you are constantly reminded that color is an adjective and not a
noun.  The common thing between "black people" and "white people" is that
we're all "people".  It should be a simple enough change that it might even
be possible.  We should at least TRY.

If you are going to say something about "black people" that would also be
true of "white people" then you shouldn't even mention color.  "I cannot
speak for [unnecessary qualifier] people of higher classes..." because the
point you might be making is about classism or economic privilege, and in
that case there is no need to confuse the point with racist-sounding
rhetoric.

If you were to make the point that you don't know any "black people" from
higher classes than those laborers, then I will conclude that you either
live in a place that is remote/sheltered or very privileged to have
maintained isolation from an entire demographic of people.  That's not in
itself wrong; but it's a bias that you should be able to check at the
door.  After that, you're then admitting that there might be a systemic
imbalance in the opportunity afforded to a subset of the population such
that you've lived a life of uneven distribution and equal access.

I think the reform that #BLM is looking for, needs to start in the ideas
that separate as well as unify.  I think #BLM has too much momentum to
redefine their message at this point, but as far as memes go I think #BLM
will unravel and fly apart before it achieves a self-sustaining change.
Maybe that will create enough space for the next seed to grow to maturity.
I can't see that far ahead.
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