The dismissal of reverse racism can silence what the marginalized are actually saying
Evidence
It is too easy to say that Denico’s discomfort around naming ‘race’ must simply be an effect of racism – even if this too was my own initial reaction. Indeed, my intuitive response to both Denico and Ricardo (who was also uncomfortable talking about ‘race’) was to say: ‘you cannot be racist to white people … that is not how it works’. But it is important to pause here and reflect on what is elided by this closure. Put simply, stating that black people cannot be racist to white people might shut down other, more productive, questions – as ever, questioning what is and is not racist is not the most fruitful line of enquiry – and it might represent a failure to really listen to what people like Denico and Ricardo are saying. — Luke de Noronha, The conviviality of the overpoliced,…, 61
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely nuanced challenge to a progressive orthodoxy: the standard ‘black people can’t be racist’ retort may be a way of not listening rather than of defending the weak. Reframes an intellectual reflex as a possible closure of inquiry.
- corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Luke de Noronha, The conviviality of the overpoliced,…, 61
- XREF: connects to: Convincing people racism is over ensures that racism persists — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 1142; Antiracialism requires forgetting and wiping out the vocabulary of racist harm; Antiracialism demands abandoning race discourse while leaving racist conditions untouched — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 123 (+4 more)
Related
- Racialized people can practice a vernacular anti-race-ism refusing racist categories (similarity 0.83)
- Postracial ideology functions as the most sophisticated silencer of antiracist speech (similarity 0.83)
- Convincing people racism is over ensures that racism persists (similarity 0.82)
- Believing race should end can substitute for fighting racism itself (similarity 0.80)
- Race’s rendered irrelevance stigmatizes antiracist invocation as the real racism (similarity 0.80)
- Cordial racism works by erasing race as a category and denying harm (similarity 0.80)
- Whiteness being the unspoken norm makes naming it feel racist even to racialised minorities. (similarity 0.79)
- Color-blind rhetoric revived segregationism by condemning discussion of racism as itself racist (similarity 0.78)
- Colorblind mestizaje narratives re-suppress already marginalized racial subjects (similarity 0.78)
- Antiracialism demands abandoning race discourse while leaving racist conditions untouched (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Postracial ideology functions as the most sophisticated silencer of antiracist speech
#exemplifies(0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1233 - Color-blind rhetoric revived segregationism by condemning discussion of racism as itself racist
#corroborates(0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1162 - Convincing people racism is over ensures that racism persists
#expands(0.80) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1142 - Antiracialism requires forgetting and wiping out the vocabulary of racist harm
#expands(0.80) - Antiracialism demands abandoning race discourse while leaving racist conditions untouched
#expands(0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 123 - Cordial racism works by erasing race as a category and denying harm
#corroborates(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1798