The racial debate cycles through antiracist and postracialist attacks with assimilationists self-positioned as moderate

Evidence

The postracial attacks triggered counterattacks from antiracists, pointing out racial discrimination from Twitter to Facebook, from Hip Hop to Black Studies scholarship, from shows on MSNBC to Sirius XM Progress, and from periodicals like The Nation to The Root, which then triggered counterattacks from postracialists, who called these antiracists divisive and racist. Assimilationists, stuck in the middle, considered themselves the voices of reasonable moderation. They kept up the drumbeat of the ill-conceived allegory of how far the nation had come and how far it still had to go. The actual American history of racial progress and the simultaneous progression of racism still did not suit their ideology. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1234

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that assimilationists consider themselves ‘voices of reasonable moderation’ while actually endorsing a flawed ‘how far we’ve come’ story exemplifies exactly the reader’s stated discomfort — that well-meaning middle positions are themselves racist. — connects to: Anti-Semitism is debated between racial and assimilationist doctrines, neither fully correct.; Moderate-sounding native-born critics of their own countries reinforce imperial racism
• DEFINE: Clearly illustrates the three-way scheme in action: postracialists belittle Black folk, antiracists name discrimination, assimilationists split the difference with a progress narrative.