#oncriticalracetheory — Public Fediverse posts

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 8/...)

“Many white families have indeed worked hard and sacrificed. But Black families were often legally locked out of the wealth-generating mechanisms white families accepted as their birthright. Racial inequality arose not out of a superior white work ethic but from aspects of struetural racism that transmuted whiteness into property.”

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 7/...)

#WhitenessAsProperty is not easy reading as a White person

But the exclusion of Black Veterans from the GI Bill, of certain predominantly Black domestic workers from Social Security, as well as well-known redlining stories… well read Ray on this

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 6/...)

“For much of U.S. history, whiteness meant one could legally enslave people, and their children, in perpetuity- and whiteness protected one from being so enslaved. Whiteness meant that supposedly binding treaties were mere suggestions... Whiteness allowed people to eliminate economic competition through the mob violence of lynching, or through riots destroying Black communities, and face no legal consequences…

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 5/...)

Ch 6: #WhitenessAsProperty

#CherylHarris in a classic article developed #WEBDuBois's notion of "the wages of Whiteness"

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1341787?seq=1?seq=1

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 4/...)

and examines data on #MedicaidExpansion suggesting some White Americans are willing to give up real benefits as long as giving up those benefits hurts Black Americans worse

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 3/...)

Ray cites #MaryDudziak's historical research showing, for example, that State Department pressure against segregation came as Soviet propoganda was hammering the US overseas about its racial hypocrisy

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 2/...)

This is not the claim there are no allies or antiracists of good faith

But it is the claim that the story of civil rights is best understood as more than just a moral reckoning

Some more notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (S2, 1/...)

Chapter 5: Interest Convergence

Derrick Bell: "the interest of blacks in achieving racial equality will only be accommodated when it converges with the interests of whites"

Part of what makes #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory such a #delight to read is his humility and genuine respect and affection for the foundational scholars whose brilliant work he is explaining

Another note from #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology

Even ineffective “antidiscrimination programming [has been ruled by courts as] a good-faith effort and can protect companies from legal liability.”

Arrgghhh

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (19/...)

Chapter 4: racial progress

We ain’t gonna get anywhere without work

“Like most effective #propaganda, America’s reigning narrative of racial progress takes partial truths, and attempts to elevate them to incontestable facts”

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (18/...)

Let’s pause for a word from #ThurgoodMarshall on the #constitutionality of race-aware policies:

“During most of the past 200 years, the #Constitution, as interpreted by this #Court, did not prohibit the most ingenious and pervasive forms of discrimination against the Negro. Now, when a state acts to remedy the effects of that legacy of discrimination, I cannot believe that the same Constitution stands as a barrier”

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (19/...)

Chapter 4: racial progress

We ain’t gonna get anywhere without work

“Like most effective propaganda, America’s reigning narrative of racial progress takes partial truths, and attempts to elevate them to incontestable facts”

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (17/...)

which brings us back to a key point from the introduction

Although "fighting against racial is also a central to American history",

"opponents of racial equality sought not simply to destroy antiracist messengers, but to make understanding and fighting against racism unthinkable"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (16/...)

"#ColorblindRacism [rhetorics] also allow their users to claim their opponents are bringing race into otherwise race-neutral situations. Highlighting the codes, dog whistles, and evasions of colorblindness can bring accusations of 'pulling the race card', which [falsely] equates noticing racial inequality with perpetuating racial inequality"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (16/...)

"#ColorblindRacism [rhetorics] also allow their users to claim their opponents are bringing race into otherwise race-neutral situations. Highlighting the codes, dog whistles, and evasions of colorblindness can bring accusations of 'pulling the race card', which [falsely] equates noticing racial inequality with perpetuating racial inequality"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (16/...)

"#ColorblindRacism [rhetorics] also allow their users to claim their opponents are bringing race into otherwise race-neutral situations. Highlighting the codes, dog whistles, and evasions of colorblindness can bring accusations of 'pulling the race card', which [falsely] equates noticing racial inequality with perpetuating racial inequality"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (16/...)

"#ColorblindRacism [rhetorics] also allow their users to claim their opponents are bringing race into otherwise race-neutral situations. Highlighting the codes, dog whistles, and evasions of colorblindness can bring accusations of 'pulling the race card', which [falsely] equates noticing racial inequality with perpetuating racial inequality"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (16/...)

"#ColorblindRacism [rhetorics] also allow their users to claim their opponents are bringing race into otherwise race-neutral situations. Highlighting the codes, dog whistles, and evasions of colorblindness can bring accusations of 'pulling the race card', which [falsely] equates noticing racial inequality with perpetuating racial inequality"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (15/...)

"#ColorblindRacism is a characteristic of many of the most damaging rollback of civil rights law. By co-opting civil rights language, reactionaries attempted to seize the moral high grant while undermining affirmative action, voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and school desegregation"

Remember that #MalcolmX quote from above?

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (15/...)

"#ColorblindRacism is a characteristic of many of the most damaging rollback of civil rights law. By co-opting civil rights language, reactionaries attempted to seize the moral high grant while undermining affirmative action, voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and school desegregation"

Remember that #MalcolmX quote from above?

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (15/...)

"#ColorblindRacism is a characteristic of many of the most damaging rollback of civil rights law. By co-opting civil rights language, reactionaries attempted to seize the moral high grant while undermining affirmative action, voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and school desegregation"

Remember that #MalcolmX quote from above?

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (15/...)

"#ColorblindRacism is a characteristic of many of the most damaging rollback of civil rights law. By co-opting civil rights language, reactionaries attempted to seize the moral high grant while undermining affirmative action, voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and school desegregation"

Remember that #MalcolmX quote from above?

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (15/...)

"#ColorblindRacism is a characteristic of many of the most damaging rollback of civil rights law. By co-opting civil rights language, reactionaries attempted to seize the moral high grant while undermining affirmative action, voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and school desegregation"

Remember that #MalcolmX quote from above?

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (14/...)

Ray is also sometimes very very funny, as in presenting the “White Cultural Aphorism: Some of my best friends are Black”

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (13/...)

"Once biases are built into seemingly legitimate social sorting mechanisms, no ill intent is needed--following the rules reproduces racial inequality"

[#TextToSelfConnection: like for medical devices like pulse oximeters in triage, #PulseOx:

https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj-2021-069775

or @AshFawzyMD's https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2792653]

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (12/...)

"What matters in these cases is not just the dislike potential employers have toward people of color. What matters is that they are empowered by their role as gatekeepers responsible for distributing resources"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (11/...)

"The stakes of #IndividualRacism are changing people's #feelings. The stakes of #StructuralRacism are, fundamentally, life and #death"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (10/...)

"Seeing racism as a negative individual quirk makes it difficult to understand the depth and #resilience of racial inequality"

"Structural racism is a distributional system that combines ideas about race with unequal access to social and material resources"

[on which last point, @hauschildt has some amazing institutional data that are kinda mind-blowing, but that is for a different thread]

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (9/...)

"Seeing #education alone as a #SolutionToRacism ignores the fact that many of the most sophisticated manifestations of racism--from eugenics to mass incarceration and immigration restrictions--were developed and implemented by the moser educated people in American society"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (8/...)

Really nice discussions here and in the next chapter (Ch 3: #ColorBlindRacism of fundamental concepts)

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (8/...)

Really nice discussions here and in the next chapter (Ch 3: #ColorBlindRacism of fundamental concepts)

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (8/...)

Really nice discussions here and in the next chapter (Ch 3: #ColorBlindRacism of fundamental concepts)

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (8/...)

Really nice discussions here and in the next chapter (Ch 3: #ColorBlindRacism of fundamental concepts)

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (8/...)

Really nice discussions here and in the next chapter (Ch 3: #ColorBlindRacism of fundamental concepts)

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (7/...)

Chapter 2: Structural racism

Oh this #MalcolmX quote: "Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (6/...)

That is, Jack editorializing here, the eternal #MedTwitter and medical conference conversations about the "right" way to measure race are EVIDENCE that race is political not biological

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (5/...)

"From a scientific perspective, the #incoherence of racial categories is a weakness, undermining claims about the connection between biology and outcomes

But for political actors, #malleable racial categories are a strength, as the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion can expand or contract according to the needs of the powerful"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (4/...)

"Race is biologically insignificant, but it does not follow that it is _socially_ insignificant. Race is politically and socially real because, as with currency, people have imbued the concept with a value"

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (3/...)

Chapter 1: clarifying "Race as a #SocialConstruct"

Metaphor 1: Another term for #SocialConstruct is a collective hallucination that we are all acting on

Metaphor 2: money is also a social construct, but just saying "I no longer believe in money" will not make inequality in resources go away

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (2/...)

It’s short and punchy, organized around 10 basic insights

Some notes on #VictorRay’s #OnCriticalRaceTheory, cc:ing @sociology (1/...)

1st, it's just really good

2nd, it's thoughtful about how to try to articulate what #CriticalRaceTheory is without getting sucked into pseudo arguments with #BadFaith opponents

3rd, he's writing as an empirical sociologist who applies ideas from legal #CriticalRaceTheory to other fields