When was Clarence Thomas on the left? I understand that there were strong left-wing currents in the black nationalist movement but is black nationalism inherently left-wing? His early influences...
This vision is what sets Thomas apart from his fellow-conservatives on the bench, who believe that racism is either defeated or being diminished. It’s a vision that first emerged during Thomas’s early years, when he was on the left and identified, on a profound level, with the tenets of black nationalism.
When was Clarence Thomas on the left? I understand that there were strong left-wing currents in the black nationalist movement but is black nationalism inherently left-wing? His early influences were Sowell and Ayn Rand? I'm not seeing it.
From the article: It reminds me of "horseshoe theory", the idea that far-left and far-right people have a surprising amount in common (namely, political radicalism). Thomas used to be a radical...
From the article:
His first trip to Washington was to march on the Pentagon and against the Vietnam War. The last rally he attended, in Cambridge—one of the most violent in the city’s history, in which two thousand cops assaulted three thousand protesters—was to demand the release of the Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale and the Panther leader Ericka Huggins. “I was never a liberal,” he said at a talk in 1996. “I was a radical.”
It reminds me of "horseshoe theory", the idea that far-left and far-right people have a surprising amount in common (namely, political radicalism). Thomas used to be a radical who focused on causes popular among the left, now he's a radical who focuses on causes popular among the right.
Civil rights movements are some form of left-wing because by definition they're not conservative, they're trying to change things and not take them back to how they used to be. Even if the...
Civil rights movements are some form of left-wing because by definition they're not conservative, they're trying to change things and not take them back to how they used to be. Even if the movements hold some form of conservative values otherwise, advocating for racial equality when there is currently none is by definition not conservative.
Honest expression requires empathetic reception, and I just don't see how this mindset can co-exist with the way that racism has been tabooed in society at large. When people are labeled racist...
Whites—Southern and Northern, liberal and conservative, rural and urban—are racists. Racism, Thomas would tell students at Mercer University, in 1993, “has complex and, to a certain degree, undiscoverable roots.” Not knowing its beginnings, we can’t know its end. The most that can be hoped for is that whites be honest about it. Honesty is demonstrated through crude statements of personal animus or intellectual suggestions of racial inequality. Dishonesty is demonstrated through denial of one’s racism and sympathetic extensions of help.
Honest expression requires empathetic reception, and I just don't see how this mindset can co-exist with the way that racism has been tabooed in society at large. When people are labeled racist (legitimately or not), they stand to lose friends, social currency, status, and jobs. Unless we can create a culture of empathetic understanding for those brave enough to be honest with themselves about implicit bias and privilege—rather than a culture of equating all forms of racism and vilifying anyone accused of it—honest expression will only be punished.
On a related tangent, I've felt for a while that the term "racist" needs to be de-weaponized and diversified. Racial inequality and discriminatory ideas take so many different forms that one umbrella term can't possibly represent it all. A woman subconsciously clutching her purse and a Klansman burning a cross could both be labeled "racists," but the nature of their discrimination clearly isn't equal. If we're talking about dishonesty, automatically lumping that woman in with the most extreme forms of racism by terminological limitation feels dishonest.
Idk. I'm conflicted on some of this stuff. Happy to discuss if anyone cares to expand.
When was Clarence Thomas on the left? I understand that there were strong left-wing currents in the black nationalist movement but is black nationalism inherently left-wing? His early influences were Sowell and Ayn Rand? I'm not seeing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas
From the article:
It reminds me of "horseshoe theory", the idea that far-left and far-right people have a surprising amount in common (namely, political radicalism). Thomas used to be a radical who focused on causes popular among the left, now he's a radical who focuses on causes popular among the right.
Civil rights movements are some form of left-wing because by definition they're not conservative, they're trying to change things and not take them back to how they used to be. Even if the movements hold some form of conservative values otherwise, advocating for racial equality when there is currently none is by definition not conservative.
Honest expression requires empathetic reception, and I just don't see how this mindset can co-exist with the way that racism has been tabooed in society at large. When people are labeled racist (legitimately or not), they stand to lose friends, social currency, status, and jobs. Unless we can create a culture of empathetic understanding for those brave enough to be honest with themselves about implicit bias and privilege—rather than a culture of equating all forms of racism and vilifying anyone accused of it—honest expression will only be punished.
On a related tangent, I've felt for a while that the term "racist" needs to be de-weaponized and diversified. Racial inequality and discriminatory ideas take so many different forms that one umbrella term can't possibly represent it all. A woman subconsciously clutching her purse and a Klansman burning a cross could both be labeled "racists," but the nature of their discrimination clearly isn't equal. If we're talking about dishonesty, automatically lumping that woman in with the most extreme forms of racism by terminological limitation feels dishonest.
Idk. I'm conflicted on some of this stuff. Happy to discuss if anyone cares to expand.