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‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

theguardian.com

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Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#151

Post by komali2 »

Miner49er wrote: post #138
cabraca wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

Well that's the thing. These diversity training people do use a different definition of racism then what you are thinking of. The diversity training definition of racism doesn't simply mean prejudiced, it means a part of a system of power that benefits people considered "white" at the expense of others. By that definition, most white people are probably "racist". If you understand the context used when they call them…

Why didn't they use the term "privileged" then? I'm very happy to acknowledge my privilege, but I'd have to push back if someone was asking me to declare that I'm racist. I'm also happy to hear about times I was unintentionally so, but to lump me into the same boat as the people that were screaming in my face that I'm a race traitor for holding a black lives matter sign doesn't feel fair.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#152

Post by WhompingWindows »

Any diverse media ecosystem is going to have a wide variety of quality and stance of writings and media, the issue is: is our populace well-educated enough to contextualize and understand it?

What if we levied an information fee -- any entity which dispenses information for profit must then pay into public education tax funds to enhance the discerning capabilities of the populace.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#153

Post by dTal »

Miner49er wrote: post #138
cabraca wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

Well that's the thing. These diversity training people do use a different definition of racism then what you are thinking of. The diversity training definition of racism doesn't simply mean prejudiced, it means a part of a system of power that benefits people considered "white" at the expense of others. By that definition, most white people are probably "racist". If you understand the context used when they call them…

That's not even slightly what "racist" means, though. The accepted term for what you are describing is "privileged". If you're going to assert that every white person is "racist" regardless of their beliefs, you render the term meaningless and might as well just say "white".

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#154

Post by pessimizer »

goatinaboat wrote: post #71
arethuza wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was replying to the assertion that "that is done by the “large majority”, the voters electing a government." The government picks the wars without any reference to the voters?

Whether true or not, my point about those who fight in real wars stands. Whereas in a so-called culture war, those who do the “fighting” are also the instigators.

White zoomers and media studies professors didn't start racism.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#155

Post by toss1 »

alex_c wrote: post #142
another-dave wrote: post #56

I think the main culprit exacerbating this is the main stream media. "Vox pops" have formed part of filling air-time or column inches for a long while, but this is largely replaced now by journalists looking at Twitter and either a) using that as a stand-in for 'this is what the public think' or b) making it the story itself. Social media is no longer just "second screen" below-the-line commenting on events, it's hel…

Sometimes I wish I had a way to block Twitter from my life completely. I don't even use it, but I wish for an AdBlock-like tool that would: - block Twitter content in news articles - block links to articles with Twitter content from ever being shown to me in the first place Most news articles provide little value to my life anyway, but I don't think I've ever read an article referencing Twitter quotes that was worthw…

OTOH, if you spend sufficient effort to curate your lists, you can enjoy a BETTER news feed than from major media, who even if they aren't straight-up biased, are full of their own constraints to fill airtime, not offend sponsors, etc.

It takes work to filter out the noise, (& there's plenty of noise to avoid!), but one can select the actual scientists diong the research, who will link to their key findings & papers, answer questions, etc., or direct to current & former officials, key industry/govt players, the journalists themselves and get their comments directly, without the scaled editorial slant. (private lists, to avoid the algorithmic feed is the key; I don't think it is possible on FB)

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#156

Post by megaman821 »

Miner49er wrote: post #138
cabraca wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

Well that's the thing. These diversity training people do use a different definition of racism then what you are thinking of. The diversity training definition of racism doesn't simply mean prejudiced, it means a part of a system of power that benefits people considered "white" at the expense of others. By that definition, most white people are probably "racist". If you understand the context used when they call them…

So the first thing you do to combat racism is to make a negative generalization of people based on their skin color? I can only imagine how effective this program is.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#157

Post by komali2 »

barrkel wrote: post #98
pornel wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been in such trainings, and I've seen lots of people get offended at hearing "you benefit from racism" as if it meant "you're racist". Racists in positions of power may tilt the playing field in your favor whether you've asked for it or not. And it may not even be you personally, but people in your neighborhood, your social groups in general.

Jumping from generalizations about groups to specifics of individuals is inherently unjust - as is the inverse, generalizing about a group from a few individuals. Generalization from systematic group aggregation is useful for exposing systemic biases, but action should be specific to the circumstances of individuals independent of group membership or the risk of injustice is very high. Unsafe generalization is at the…

Let's get down to the core of your argument, which to me seems to be that white privilege doesn't exist. I can spend five minutes on google and turn up a cornucopia of studies that demonstrate otherwise, so why deny the exist of racial privilege?

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#158

Post by LanceH »

pessimizer wrote: post #143
pvaldes wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I had to "confess" that I'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. So, basically inquisitor wannabees and pseudoscience cultists. Your colleague dodged a bullet. The idea that claiming that you are racist makes you not racist is totally gaga, random, and based in magical thinking, not in science. It only helps to hide in plain sight the real racists making much easier to admit…

If you go around asking who the "real racists" are, you'll never find any. Turns out self-reporting is dubious.

The alternative is hardly declaring people such based on skin color.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#159

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

charlesu wrote: post #130
barry-cotter wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elite colleges relying on high school grades and letters of recommendation instead of objective blindly marked tests open to all is replacing one test with others. The others allow much more room for picking the right sort of person. That was the entire point of instituting holistic admission at prestige US universities, to keep out Jews. The modern drive to eliminate tests is in large part to keep out Asians. Nothin…

Standardized tests could also be considered a way for picking the right kind of person: namely, people who know that standardized tests are something to prepare for. I’ve tutored students at both elite and underperforming high schools. Students at elite schools, irrespective of their socioeconomic status, are highly aware of the importance of standardized tests. Some of the underperforming high schools don’t even adm…

> "As for affirmative action being an effort to keep out Asians...have you been to Harvard’s campus? There are many, many Asian students there. In fact, nearly one in five students at Harvard are of Asian descent. The idea that elite schools are purposely excluding Asians is absurd on its face. The people pushing the idea have an axe to grind and it usually isn’t actually in the interest of Asian-Americans."

If you're Asian and you're reading this, never forget that the above is what progressives believe about how society treats Asians: transgressions against you get simply waved away. Think twice about supporting them.

For the record, I am Asian and a liberal but definitely not progressive.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#160

Post by dTal »

leftyted wrote: post #131
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example instead of "discriminate minority groups" they say "disadvantage minority groups" But to intentionally disadvantage a minority group is to discriminate against that minority group. Are you suggesting that intentionally disadvantaging a group is not discriminating against that group? Or are you suggesting that unintentionally disadvantaging a group is not only not discriminating against that group, but t…

> Or are you suggesting that unintentionally disadvantaging a group is not only not discriminating against that group, but that also it is is also excusable and needs no correction? i.e. that the consistent, albeit unintentional, disadvantaging shall continue? It depends on the policy. Is the height of a basketball hoop a policy that is unintentionally discriminating against me because I can't jump that high? Is the…

>Why is it correct for tests to attempt to discern innate ability rather than current ability?

The issue was that they were testing for neither; rather, they were testing knowledge irrelevant to the thing ostensibly being tested (but specific to a class group).

From Wikipedia: "For example, questions about the role of household servants or classical composers were far easier for middle-class children to answer than for those from less wealthy or less educated backgrounds".

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