Vocabulary

A great word to know for this portion of the lecture is agency. Agency is a pretty beautiful concept.

OK, on to some concluding thoughts...

With any lecture, sometimes things get left out or could have been expressed with greater clarity. So here are a couple points I would like to add to round out the lecture for this week.

Larry Elder said the difference between democrats and republicans is that democrats think the systemic is rigged and preach victimhood, while republicans believe hard work wins. I would like to add that I think with respect to systemic racism, democrats are accurately identifying an injustice and accurately identifying the level at which a solution should be pursued.

At the same time, I believe Larry Elder makes an excellent point about attitude, and the implications of attitude to personal success.

David Coleman talks about how it is important for a culture emphasize education and how it is problematic when a culture that devalues education. I deeply agree with him here. I think it is very problematic when a cultural group begins to denigrate the value of education and the role of science in understanding the world.

On the topic of victimhood. I think this is a really really important and also quite complicated issue. In my personal position, I fundamentally believe that Black people were, and still are, victims of racism at the interpersonal and systemic level. I recognize I'm saying this as a white dude, but based on the social psychology of it, the paradoxical component of it is that I do think that conceiving of oneself as a victim can be problematic. The following is a passage from the Scientific American Article Understanding the Mindset of Victimhood, "Rahav Gabay and her colleagues define this tendency for interpersonal victimhood as 'an ongoing feeling that the self is a victim, which is generalized across many kinds of relationships. As a result, victimization becomes a central part of the individual’s identity.' Those who have a perpetual victimhood mindset tend to have an “external locus of control”; they believe that one’s life is entirely under the control of forces outside one’s self, such as fate, luck or the mercy of other people." This last point, I think, is critical and illustrates the problem with a victimhood mindset: it can foster a sense that life's outcomes are not within your control. The system is rigged (outside of my control), so why should I try? This type of mindset can undermine someone's sense of self-determination, which I believe can, indeed, hold people back. Conservatives just raaaaaaaiiiillllllllllll against 'victimhood culture'. Because they recognize, accurately I think, that a mindset of victimhood can be disempowering. So as I think about this topic, I find an inherent tension in the duality that exists: I believe racism is perpetrated against Black people - it is real and it would be accurate to say that many black people in many instances are victims of racism. While at the very same time, conceiving of oneself as a victim can be a disempowering mindset. So how do I make sense of this all? Again, I try to approach this with a nuanced view: I do believe we can both accurately describe the systemic injustice that exists due to the compounding effect of policies that segregated and disenfranchised Black people, and also espouse beliefs in agency, personal responsibility, and hard work. Because hard work and effort and the attitude that you can do it IS empowering. But that also does not mean that we shouldn't try to dismantle systemic racism.

Lastly, in my lecture, I spend some time explaining how I think in addition to hard work, "government intervention" should account for a large proportion of variance to solve the problem of systemic racism. On this point: I do support reparations as a matter of principle, decency, and justice. In what form? I haven't done enough research on this aspect of the topic to provide a fully informed, intelligent response. But my initial thoughts are that I would support policies that invest in Black communities and communities of color, i.e., investments in education as the main one, along with investments in social services, increased access to healthy food, entrepreneurial opportunities, etc. However, as I think about this issue, the pragmatist in me begins to think about the politics of it. I do think this is a very difficult political issue. I think the backlash would be intense. I mean, the backlash among republicans from Obama passing Obamacare was crazy, and that program was designed to allow more people access to healthcare - it was not even a racial thing. With reparations, I believe the reaction among conservatives and many white liberals would be very intense. Unfortunately, I think this issue in general elections, at this point, will not win races. This is not to say we should not pursue it, investigate it, advocate for it, and seek to raise awareness to try to change the hearts and minds of people in this country. I believe we, as a country, have a moral imperative to do so. Ben Shapiro, a conservative political speaker, argues against white privilege and systemic racism and on the topic of reparations, he says, "The solution to racism is not more racism." What I would say to him is that the solution to injustice is justice. Germany offered reparations. We should too.

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