Hey, thanks for reading.
Fwiw, I have no animosity towards you, or anyone really. Just the kid I punched, but even then I'm angrier at myself. I also don't think all white people are bad.
Hopefully to constructively engage:
1) the book is about historic and systemic issues in the US. I think I make it pretty clear that it may not be our fault (I'm a male too, which means I benefit from biased systems) that these systems are in place but we so benefit from them. So it's on us to equalize things. I'm really not finger pointing here. As someone who grew up pretty lucky and as a male I have just have different priveleges. I have read some pretty extremist left books that I don't agree with, just because I would like to read something doesn't mean I take it as gospel. But there's probably something to learn. Right wing economics has some interesting parts, but I have little tolerance for the lack of inclusiveness in right-wing politics (not just western countries, either). So far as I can tell a large part of right wing politics is uniting against a common other. And to be clear, right wing politics isn't unique to white people or Canada or the west. In this article I'm speaking to a very very local issue. The Shore.
2) I think the point your missing is that racial identity is already woven into everything, for everyone. The point of these conversations is to unweave it. I think so economics point hits that home. If people systemically make less money, of course they're less likely to participate in expensive hobbies. The parallel I can provide is gender identity in engineering. There is still significant under representation of women in the field. The fact that it hasn't been a 50/50 split for history of humanity indicates that gender identity is already woven into the profession. This is why so many people have put work into unweaving (or to use your cancer analogy, irradiating) gender identity from the profession. It's way too convenient an explanation to say "people like that just dont like this."
Feb. 19, 2021, 8:14 a.m. - Sanesh Iyer
Hey, thanks for reading. Fwiw, I have no animosity towards you, or anyone really. Just the kid I punched, but even then I'm angrier at myself. I also don't think all white people are bad. Hopefully to constructively engage: 1) the book is about historic and systemic issues in the US. I think I make it pretty clear that it may not be our fault (I'm a male too, which means I benefit from biased systems) that these systems are in place but we so benefit from them. So it's on us to equalize things. I'm really not finger pointing here. As someone who grew up pretty lucky and as a male I have just have different priveleges. I have read some pretty extremist left books that I don't agree with, just because I would like to read something doesn't mean I take it as gospel. But there's probably something to learn. Right wing economics has some interesting parts, but I have little tolerance for the lack of inclusiveness in right-wing politics (not just western countries, either). So far as I can tell a large part of right wing politics is uniting against a common other. And to be clear, right wing politics isn't unique to white people or Canada or the west. In this article I'm speaking to a very very local issue. The Shore. 2) I think the point your missing is that racial identity is already woven into everything, for everyone. The point of these conversations is to unweave it. I think so economics point hits that home. If people systemically make less money, of course they're less likely to participate in expensive hobbies. The parallel I can provide is gender identity in engineering. There is still significant under representation of women in the field. The fact that it hasn't been a 50/50 split for history of humanity indicates that gender identity is already woven into the profession. This is why so many people have put work into unweaving (or to use your cancer analogy, irradiating) gender identity from the profession. It's way too convenient an explanation to say "people like that just dont like this."