A Woke New World
By Michael Dahlen
On May 25, 2020, four police officers arrested George Floyd, a black man, for using a counterfeit $20 bill. While Floyd was lying face down on the ground, handcuffed, officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, killing him.1 This flagrant injustice spurred nationwide riots and protests. Many Americans were outraged over what they assumed was a racially motivated murder. The sales of books on racism soared, from Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist to Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race, to Robin DiAngelo’s _White Fragility:_Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. According to a Monmouth University poll taken shortly after Floyd’s death, 78 percent of Americans believed the protesters’ anger was justified, though they didn’t fully agree with the protesters’ actions.2 And a Pew poll showed that two-thirds of Americans support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.3
The riots, the unrest, the protests, the turmoil, however, overshadowed something else. Floyd’s killing accelerated an ominous trend that has grown in recent years. Started in universities, this trend has spread like a virus throughout our culture. One example is the story of David Shor, a political data scientist who worked for Civis Analytics.
On May 28, 2020, Shor tweeted research by Princeton professor Omar Wasow. Summarizing Wasow’s findings, Shor wrote that peaceful civil rights protests have led to more votes for Democrats whereas riots have led to fewer votes.4 This crossed the line for activists such as Arianna Trujillo-Wesler who tweeted, “This take is tone deaf . . . and reeks of anti-blackness.”5 She also tagged Civis Analytics CEO Dan Wagner, writing, “Come get your boy.”6 Shor then backpedaled, tweeting, “I regret starting this conversation and will be much more careful moving forward.”7 After reviewing what happened, Civis Analytics fired Shor. A couple of weeks later, the electronic mailing list “Progressphiles,” which Shor participated in, announced that it kicked him out for his “racist tweet.”8
Yes, you read that correctly. In some circles, examining the repercussions of riots is considered racist. . . .
This was not an isolated incident but just the tip of the iceberg. Welcome to this brave new world, a world without room for dissent or debate, a world that punishes independent thought while demanding intellectual conformity. This is the world toward which we are heading—thanks to the woke social justice movement.
Being “woke” means being hypersensitive to any alleged injustices concerning group identities. According to the woke view, a person’s identity is determined not by his choices, actions, and convictions, but by his race, gender, and sexual orientation. Being woke does not mean merely opposing racism, sexism, and the like; it means embracing a particular ideology. If you oppose racism and sexism, yet don’t embrace this ideology, you’re not woke; you’re part of the problem.
You might wonder: Aren’t woke social justice activists just calling for equal treatment for marginalized groups? Isn’t their main goal a laudable one: combating hate, bias, and discrimination against women, racial minorities, gay people, and transgender people? The social justice movement may appear noble because it ostensibly takes the right side of a legitimate issue. But this is a facade. The problem with the movement is that it illegitimately redefines basic concepts, trumpets false narratives, and peddles a toxic ideology. It projects a virtuous, shiny aura that masks a corrupt, rotten core.
1
Floyd’s autopsy showed that he had high levels of fentanyl in his system. Some have argued that this is likely what killed him. However, in the autopsy report, the county medical examiner listed the cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” The examiner also listed the manner of death as “homicide.” See Erin Donaghue, “Two Autopsies Both Find George Floyd Died by Homicide, but Differ on Some Key Details,” CBS News, June 4, 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-floyd-death-autopsies-homicide-axphyxiation-details/.
2
“Protestors’ Anger Justified Even If Actions May Not Be,” Monmouth University Polling Institute, June 2, 2020, https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_060220/.
3
Kim Parker, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, and Monica Anderson, “Amid Protests, Majorities across Racial and Ethnic Groups Express Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Pew Research Center, June 12, 2020, https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/.
4
On May 28, 2020, David Shor tweeted, “Post-MLK-assasination _ race riots reduced Democratic vote share in surrounding counties by 2%, which was enough to tip the 1968 election to Nixon. Non-violent protests *increase* Dem vote, mainly by encouraging warm elite discourse and media coverage. http://omarwasow.com/Protests_on_Voting.pdf.” See https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1265998625836019712.
5
On May 28, 2020, Ari Trujillo-Wesler tweeted, “Yo. Minimizing black grief and rage to ‘bad campaign tactic for the Democrats’ is bullshit most days, but this week is absolutely cruel. This take is tone deaf, removes responsibility for depressed turnout from the 68 Party and reeks of anti-blackness.” See https://twitter.com/TheReFTW/status/1266146619805728768.
6
On May 29, 2020, Ari Trujillo-Wesler tweeted, “@danrwagner Come get your boy.” See https://twitter.com/TheReFTW/status/1266442248826138624.
7
On May 29, 2020, David Shor tweeted, “While I strongly admire @owasow ’s work, it’s clear that I have not been, due to both my background and words, an effective messenger of his findings about the power of non-violent protest. I regret starting this conversation and will be much more careful moving forward.” See https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1266448606321664004.
8
Jonathan Chait, “The Still-Vital Case for Liberalism in a Radical Age,” Intelligencer, June 11, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/case-for-liberalism-tom-cotton-new-york-times-james-bennet.html.
9
“‘I Have a Dream’ Speech, in Its Entirety,” NPR, https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety (accessed January 30, 2021).
10
Ekow N. Yankah, “Can My Children Be Friends with White People?” New York Times, November 11, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/opinion/sunday/interracial-friendship-donald-trump.html.
11
George Lipsitz, “The Sounds of Silence: How Race Neutrality Preserves White Supremacy,” in Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines, edited by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw et al. (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), 42.
12
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 3rd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 2017), 91.
13
Maria Krysan and Sarah Patton Moberg, “Trends in Racial Attitudes,” University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, http://igpa.uillinois.edu/programs/racial-attitudes; Changing America Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being by Race and Hispanic Origin, Council of Economic Advisers for the President’s Initiative on Race, September 1998, 68, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-EOP-CHANGINGAMERICA/pdf/GPO-EOP-CHANGINGAMERICA.pdf.
14
Jonathan Turley, “Revolution Redux? How a Movement for Reform Is Becoming a Platform for Radicalism,” June 8, 2020, https://jonathanturley.org/2020/06/08/welcome-to-french-revolution-2-0-how-a-movement-for-reform-is-becoming-a-platform-for-radicalism/.
15
Mike LaChance, “VP for Research at Michigan State U. Forced to Resign after Blog Posts Deemed ‘Racist,’” Legal Insurrection, June 21, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/06/vp-for-research-at-michigan-state-u-forced-to-resign-after-blog-posts-deemed-racist/.
16
“What Defunding the Police Really Means,” Black Lives Matter, July 6, 2020, https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-defunding-the-police-really-means/.
17
On June 5, 2020, Ilhan Omar tweeted, “The Minneapolis Police Department has proven themselves beyond reform. It’s time to disband them and reimagine public safety in Minneapolis. Thank you to @MplsWard3 for your leadership on this!” See https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1268945330139209729?s=20.
18
Catherine Kim, “Minneapolis Mayor Is Booed Out of a Rally for Rejecting Calls to Defund the Police,” Vox, June 7, 2020, https://www.vox.com/2020/6/7/21283089/minneapolis-mayor-protests-frey-booed-rally-defund-police; https://twitter.com/LPDonovan/status/1269432888564551680.
19
John Daniel Davidson, “The Monument-Destroying Mobs Don’t Hate the Confederacy, They Hate America,” Federalist, June 15, 2020, https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/15/the-monument-destroying-mobs-dont-hate-the-confederacy-they-hate-america/; Kemberlee Kaye, “Mob Vows to Tear Down DC Emancipation Memorial,” Legal Insurrection, June 24, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/06/mob-vows-to-tear-down-dc-emancipation-memorial/.
20
Aaron Briley, “Bullies, Looters, Mobs: The Anti-American Essence of BLM,” The Objective Standard 15, no. 4 (Winter 2020–21), /p/bullies-looters-mobs-the-anti-american-essence-of-blm; Stacey Matthews, “Flashback 2020: Six Months of Antifa/BLM Looting, Rioting, and Chaos,” Legal Insurrection, January 9, 2021, https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/01/flashback-2020-six-months-of-antifa-blm-looting-rioting-and-chaos/; Tom Winter and Andrew Blankstein, “Police Describe Anarchists’ Extensive Prep for Violence, Including ‘Bicycle Scouts,’” NBC News, May 31, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/law-enforcement-plays-catch-stop-violence-radical-groups-protests-n1220486.
21
Victor Garcia, “Black Lives Matter Leader States if US ‘Doesn’t Give Us What We Want, Then We Will Burn Down This System,’” Foxnews.com, June 24, 2020, https://www.foxnews.com/media/black-lives-matter-leader-burn-down-system.
22
William A. Jacobson, “Princeton Report: Several Hundred Violent Black Lives Matter Demonstrations in 220 Locations in Past Three Months,” Legal Insurrection, September 5, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/09/princeton-report-several-hundred-violent-black-lives-matter-demonstrations-in-220-locations-in-past-three-months/.
23
Mary Chastain, “BLM Riots Could Cost Insurance Companies up to $2 Billion,” Legal Insurrection, September 17, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/09/blm-riots-could-cost-insurance-companies-up-to-2-billion/.
24
Tim Fitzsimons, “Black Lives Matter Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize,” NBC News, February 1, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/black-lives-matter-nominated-nobel-peace-prize-n1256322.
25
Adam Ford, “Video Surfaces of Black Lives Matter Founder Saying, ‘We Are Trained Marxists,’” Disrn, June 20, 2020, https://disrn.com/news/video-surfaces-of-black-lives-matter-founder-saying-were-trained-marxists; “A Short History of Black Lives Matter,” YouTube, July 22, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=374&v=kCghDx5qN4s&feature=emb_logo (emphasis added).
26
Some people make a distinction between BLM the organization and BLM the movement, arguing that the movement is defined only by support for the idea that black lives matter, not by the far-left agenda of the organization. Although the distinction between the idea and the organization is important, the distinction between the movement and the organization is not. The BLM organization is the foundation for the BLM movement. Even if the majority of BLM supporters oppose violence and reject the organization’s far-left agenda, that’s irrelevant. Why? Because those people are not leading the movement, defining the movement, or setting the agenda for the movement. Observe that when “moderate” BLM supporters try to question the violent tactics of BLM rioters or question the propriety of defunding the police, other BLM supporters denounce, silence, and purge them for doing so. The BLM movement is led by radical, woke leftists. As long as this continues, it is inaccurate to claim that the BLM movement is defined only by support for the idea that black lives matter.
27
On June 8, 2020, Harald Uhlig tweeted, “Too bad, but #blacklivesmatter per its core organization @Blklivesmatter just torpedoed itself, with its full-fledged support of #defundthepolice: ‘We call for a national defunding of police.’ Suuuure. They knew this is non-starter, and tried a sensible Orwell 1984 of saying.” See https://twitter.com/haralduhlig/status/1270199700071821312; On June 8, 2020, Harald Uhlig tweeted, “and creationists. Oh well. Time for sensible adults to enter back into the room and have serious, earnest, respectful conversations about it all: e.g. policy reform proposals by @TheDemocrat and national healing. We need more police, we need to pay them more, we need to train.” See https://twitter.com/haralduhlig/status/1270199702861099010.
28
On June 9, 2020, Justin Wolfers tweeted, “I don’t think it’s just or fair that Uhlig, as an editor at the @JPolEcon is an important gatekeeper for economists trying to make their mark. I don’t think the profession’s resolve to look more deeply into racial justice will get a fair hearing under his editorship.” See https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/1270454652816015361.
29
Michael S. Derby, “Chicago Fed Ends Ties with Scholar Who Criticized Black Lives Matter,” Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/chicago-fed-ends-tie-with-scholar-who-criticized-black-lives-matter-11592003706.
30
William A. Jacobson, “The Bloodletting and Wilding Is Part of an Agenda to Tear Down the Country,” Legal Insurrection, June 3, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/06/the-bloodletting-and-wilding-is-part-of-an-agenda-to-tear-down-the-country/.
31
William A. Jacobson, “Reminder: ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ Is a Fabricated Narrative from the Michael Brown Case,” Legal Insurrection, June 4, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/06/reminder-hands-up-dont-shoot-is-a-fabricated-narrative-from-the-michael-brown-case/.
32
William A. Jacobson, “There’s an Effort to Get Me Fired at Cornell for Criticizing the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Legal Insurrection, June 11, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/06/theres-an-effort-to-get-me-fired-at-cornell-for-criticizing-the-black-lives-matter-movement/; “LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Cornell Law Clinical Faculty Respond to Racism and Police Violence,” Cornell Daily Sun, June 9, 2020, https://cornellsun.com/2020/06/09/letter-to-the-editor-cornell-law-clinical-faculty-respond-to-racism-and-police-violence/; William A. Jacobson, “Anti-intellectualism at Cornell Law School: Student Groups Organize Boycott of My Course,” Legal Insurrection, June 17, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/06/anti-intellectualism-at-cornell-law-school-student-groups-organize-boycott-of-my-course/.
33
Nico Grant and Ian King, “Cisco Fires Workers for Racial Comments during Diversity Forum,” Bloomberg, July 17, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-17/cisco-fires-workers-for-racial-comments-during-diversity-forum.
34
“Mt. Ascutney School Board Statement,” Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, June 12, 2020, https://www.wsesu.net/supervisory-union/posts/~board/su-news/post/mt-ascutney-school-board-statement.
35
Tim Camerato, “Board Ousting Windsor Principal after ‘Insanely Tone-Deaf’ Posts on Black Lives Matter,” Valley News, June 12, 2020, https://www.vnews.com/Windsor-High-School-Story-34741525.
36
“Mt. Ascutney School Board Statement.”
37
Anna Merriman, “School Board Fires Windsor Principal over BLM Facebook Post,” Valley News, October 16, 2020, https://www.vnews.com/Mount-Ascutney-School-Board-fired-principal-over-BLM-comments-36835441; “Vermont Principal Officially Sacked over BLM Social Media Comments,” WCAX News, October 19, 2020, https://www.wcax.com/2020/10/19/vermont-principal-officially-sacked-over-blm-social-media-comments/.
38
“Letter to the Poetry Foundation from Fellows + Programmatic Partners,” June 6, 2020, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4u5Ns8Blz0gutuanOHF6I026Xi0dE9lT36HQtg5pDKeT5uQ/viewform.
39
John Maher, “Poets Call for Change at Poetry Foundation,” Publishers Weekly, June 8, 2020, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/83534-poets-call-for-change-at-poetry-foundation.html.
40
Some universities, including Ohio State University and the University of Southern Maine, have asked students to sign a pledge supporting BLM. See Josh Blackman, “University of Southern Maine Asks Students and Faculty to Sign ‘Black Lives Matter Statement and Antiracism Pledge,’” Reason, August 7, 2020, https://reason.com/2020/08/07/university-of-southern-maine-asks-students-and-faculty-to-sign-black-lives-matter-statement-and-antiracism-pledge/; Lucas Shepherd, “University Asks Students to ‘Pledge to Practice Antiracist Behaviors’ in Full-Throated Endorsement of BLM Movement,” Campus Reform, August 23, 2020, https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15505.
41
Christian Schneider, “After Tweet Supporting ‘Good Police Officers,’ Arizona State Revokes Journalism Dean Offer,” The College Fix, June 9, 2020, https://www.thecollegefix.com/after-tweet-supporting-good-police-officers-arizona-state-revokes-journalism-dean-offer/.
42
Meshea L. Poore and W. P. Chedester, “VP of DEI and UPD Chief Issue Letter: Fostering a Safe, Diverse and Inclusive Culture at WVU,” WVU Today, June 5, 2020, https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2020/06/05/vp-of-dei-and-upd-chief-issue-letter-fostering-a-safe-diverse-and-inclusive-culture-at-wvu.
43
W. P. Chedester, “Statement from WVU Police Chief W. P. Chedester,” WVU Today, June 10, 2020, https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2020/06/10/statement-from-wvu-police-chief-w-p-chedester.
44
Mckenna Dallmeyer, “Profs Demand University Police Chief Resign after Seeing Blue Lives Matter Flag in His Office,” Campus Reform, July 15, 2020, https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15266.
45
Philip Galanes, “Can We Talk to Our ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Neighbors about Black Lives Matter?” New York Times, September 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/style/black-lives-matter-lawn-sign-police.html.
46
David Theo Goldberg, “Why ‘Black Lives Matter’ Because All Lives Don’t Matter in America,” HuffPost, September 25, 2015, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-black-lives-matter_b_8191424.
47
Ashley May, “#AllLivesMatter Hashtag Is Racist, Critics Say,” USA Today, July, 13, 2016, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/13/why-saying-all-lives-matter-opposite-black-lives-matter/87025190/.
48
“‘Safety of All Lives Matter’ Traffic Sign Met with Backlash in Massachusetts Town,” Transportation Nation Network, July 11, 2020, https://www.transportationnation.com/safety-of-all-lives-matter-traffic-sign-met-with-backlash-in-massachusetts-town/.
49
On May 31, 2020, Grant Napear tweeted, “Hey!!!! How are you? Thought you forgot about me. Haven’t heard from you in years. ALL LIVES MATTER . . . EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!” See https://twitter.com/GrantNapearshow/status/1267297328949387265.
50
Marcos Bretón and Jason Anderson, “Grant Napear Out as TV Announcer for Sacramento Kings, Also Done with Talk Radio Show,” Sacramento Bee, June 2, 2020, https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article243214801.html.
51
Mike LaChance, “UMass Lowell Nursing Dean Reportedly Fired after Saying ‘Everyone’s Life Matters’ in Email,” Legal Insurrection, July 2, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/07/umass-lowell-nursing-dean-reportedly-fired-after-saying-everyones-life-matters-in-email/.
52
“A Letter on Justice and Open Debate,” Harper’s Magazine, July 7, 2020, https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/.
53
On July 7, 2020, Emily VanDerWerff tweeted, “I sent a version of this to the editors of Vox. (I have redacted some bits that are internal to Vox and shouldn’t be aired publicly.)” See https://twitter.com/emilyvdw/status/1280580388495097856.
54
Tom Cotton, “Tom Cotton: Send in the Troops,” New York Times, June 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html.
55
Marc Tracy, “Senator’s ‘Send in the Troops’ Op-Ed in the Times Draws Online Ire,” New York Times, June 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/business/tom-cotton-op-ed.html (emphasis added).
56
On June 3, 2020, NYTimesGuild tweeted, “The @nyguild and @NYTimesGuild issues the following statement in response to a clear threat to the health and safety of journalists we represent. New York Times employees will send a letter directly to Times management about their concerns.” See https://twitter.com/NYTimesGuild/status/1268365059253833728 (emphasis added).
57
Bari Weiss, “Resignation Letter,” https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter (accessed January 31, 2021).
58
On May 31, 2020, Lee Fang tweeted, “Seeing so many manipulate the MLK quote that riots are the ‘language of the unheard.’ Read the actual speech. It’s a passionate argument against riots and in support of nonviolence at a time when much of the radical left despised MLK and embraced violence. https://gphistorical.org/mlk/mlkspeech/index.htm.” See https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1267151629955952641.
59
On June 3, 2020, Lee Fang tweeted, “Asked everyone I spoke with today if there was anything they wanted to get off their chest about the movement. Max from Oakland, a supporter of BLM, had a measured critique he wanted to share.” See https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1268390704645943297.
61
On June 4, 2020, Akela Lacy tweeted, “Tired of being made to deal with my coworker @lhfang continuing to push narratives about black on black crime after repeatedly being asked not to. This isn’t about me and him it’s about institutional racism and using free speech to couch anti-blackness. I am so fucking tired.” See https://archive.vn/NuoR8.
62
On June 6, 2020, Lee Fang tweeted, “Several people have told me the font is way too small and hard to read in the link above. Gahh . . . my bad. Here is a version that is hopefully easier to read.” See https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1269336247387877377.
63
Daniel Roberts, “Drew Brees on Potential Return of NFL Kneeling Protests: ‘I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag,’” yahoo!finance, June 3, 2020, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/drew-brees-on-potential-return-of-nfl-kneeling-protests-i-will-never-agree-with-anybody-disrespecting-the-flag-172424082.html.
64
Nancy Armour, “As Protests Rage over Racial Inequality, Drew Brees’ Tone-Deaf Comments Show Saints QB Is Willfully Ignorant,” USA Today, June 3, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2020/06/03/drew-brees-saints-willfully-ignorant-flag-national-anthem-george-floyd/3137613001/.
65
“Drew Brees Stands by Apology over Flag Comments in Response to President Trump,” ESPN.com, June 5, 2020, https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29273182/drew-brees-stands-apology-flag-comments-response-president-trump.
66
Scott Greer, No Campus for White Men: The Transformation of Higher Education into Hateful Indoctrination (Washington, D.C.: WND Books, 2017).
67
Bari Weiss, “When the Left Turns on Its Own,” New York Times, June 1, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/opinion/when-the-left-turns-on-its-own.html; for an excellent three-part documentary on the events at Evergreen, see Mike Nayna, “PART ONE: Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying & the Evergreen Equity Council,” YouTube, January 17, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH2WeWgcSMk; Mike Nayna, “PART TWO: Teaching to Transgress,” YouTube, March 6, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0W9QbkX8Cs; Mike Nayna, “PART THREE: The Hunted Individual,” YouTube, April 24, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vyBLCqyUes.
68
Andrew Sullivan, “We All Live on Campus Now,” Intelligencer, February 9, 2018, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/02/we-all-live-on-campus-now.html.
69
Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity (Durham, NC: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020).
70
Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education, 2nd ed. (New York: Teachers College Press, 2017), 203.
71
Why a Pedagogy of Emotional Engagement Is Necessary,” in Seeing Race Again, Countering Colorblindness Across the Disciplines, 327.
72
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 125.
73
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 62.
74
Ioanide, Seeing Race Again, 328.
75
“bell hooks on interlocking systems of domination,” YouTube, January 7, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUpY8PZlgV8; Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2000), 18, 231, 274, 276, 299.
76
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (July 1991), https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/734f/8b582b7d7bb375415d2975cb783c839e5e3c.pdf.
77
To be sure, the government violates rights in countless ways, but most of these violations don’t discriminate based on identity. Regarding sodomy laws, although they remain on the books in some states, they’re not enforced.
78
For information on social attitudes toward gays, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_attitudes_toward_homosexuality#United_States. Many people think that racism grew under President Donald Trump, but some evidence shows otherwise. See Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Racial Prejudice Has Declined as a Reaction to Trump’s Presidency, a New Study Suggests,” Washington Post, May 24, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/24/racial-prejudice-trump-presidency-study/.
79
The proponents of this view argue that these biases are not necessarily intentional but “unconscious” and “implicit.” Researchers measure this alleged bias with the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which purportedly shows that 90–95 percent of people have implicit biases. The IAT, however, has two major problems. First, it’s not reliable. Often, a subject who takes the test again will have a widely different score than the first time he took it. Second, the test is not valid insofar as it fails to measure what it claims to be measuring. The creators of the IAT now admit that even if a person has a bias, the test does not predict that he will act on it. For a detailed discussion of the IAT’s problems, see Heather Mac Donald, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2018), 87–93, 96, 98.
80
According to the Census Bureau, the average income of non-Hispanic white Americans in 2019 was $59,376; for Asian Americans, $66,679. See “Table P-4. Race and Hispanic Origin of People (Both Sexes Combined) by Median and Mean Income,” United States Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-income-people.html (accessed March 31, 2021).
81
Robert S. Chang, “Toward an Asian American Legal Scholarship: Critical Race Theory, Poststructuralism, and Narrative Space,” in Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge, 3rd ed., edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013), 472–73.
82
Ibram X. Kendi, “Pass an Anti-Racist Constitutional Amendment,” How to Fix Inequality, https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/how-to-fix-politics-in-america/inequality/pass-an-anti-racist-constitutional-amendment/ (accessed February 6, 2021).
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Anthony Tommasini, “To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions,” New York Times, July 16, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/arts/music/blind-auditions-orchestras-race.html.
84
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (New York: One World, 2019), 19.
85
Amy Sun, “Equality Is Not Enough: What the Classroom Has Taught Me about Justice,” everyday feminism, September 16, 2014, https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/equality-is-not-enough/.
86
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 71.
87
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 70.
88
Riki Wilchins, Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer (Bronx, NY: Magnus Books, 2014), 43.
89
Dwanna L. McKay, “Masking Legitimized Racism: Indigeneity, Colorblindness, and the Sociology of Race,” in Seeing Race Again, 90.
90
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 132, 134.
91
Michael Harriot, “‘Diversity of Thought’ is Just a Euphemism for ‘White Supremacy,’” The Root, April 12, 2018, https://www.theroot.com/diversity-of-thought-is-just-a-euphemism-for-white-supr-1825191839.
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Ibram X. Kendi, “The Heartbeat of Racism is Denial,” New York Times, January 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/opinion/sunday/heartbeat-of-racism-denial.html.
93
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 197.
94
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “Unmasking Colorblindness in the Law: Lessons from the Formation of Critical Race Theory,” in Seeing Race Again, 68.
95
Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory, 179.
96
Marzia Milazzo, “On the Transportability, Malleability, and Longevity of Colorblindness: Reproducing White Supremacy in Brazil and South Africa,” in Seeing Race Again, 106.
97
Devon W. Carbado, “Colorblind Intersectionality,” in Seeing Race Again, 10.
98
Lipsitz, Seeing Race Again, 23.
99
Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, 9.
100
Lynn Lemisko, “Unpacking Presuppositions for Social Justice,” in Educator to Educator: Unpacking and Repacking Generative Concepts in Social Studies, edited by Todd A. Horton and Lynn Lemisko (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2015), 193.
101
Aileen Moreton-Robinson, “Toward a New Research Agenda? Foucault, Whiteness, and Indigenous Sovereignty,” in Seeing Race Again, 300.
102
Crenshaw, Seeing Race Again, 53.
103
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 91.
104
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 72–73; Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory, 174.
105
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 92, 181.
106
Alison Bailey, “Tracking Privilege-Preserving Epistemic Pushback in Feminist and Critical Race Philosophy Classes,” Hypatia 32, no. 4 (Fall 2017), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319605183_Tracking_Privilege-Preserving_Epistemic_Pushback_in_Feminist_and_Critical_Race_Philosophy_Classes.
107
Sherwood Thompson, Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 568.
108
Glenn Adams and Phia S. Salter, “They (Color) Blinded Me with Science: Counteracting Coloniality of Knowledge in Hegemonic Psychology,” in Seeing Race Again, 276.
109
Toni Airaksinen, “Profs Warn That ‘Commitment to Empirical Science’ Hurts Women,” Campus Reform, March 23, 2018, https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10680; Jill Bowling and Brian Martin, “Science: A Masculine Disorder?” Science and Public Policy 12, no. 6 (December 1985), 308–16, https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/85spp.pdf; Nicola Gaston, Why Science is Sexist (Wellington, NZ: Bridget Williams Books, 2015).
110
McKay, “Masking Legitimized Racism,” 93.
111
“Peter Thiel at R.N.C.: ‘I Am Proud to Be Gay’/The New York Times,” YouTube, July 22, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWzRjI2Yy4Q.
112
Jim Downs, “Peter Thiel Shows Us There’s a Difference etween Gay Sex and Gay,” Advocate, October 14, 2016, https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/10/14/peter-thiel-shows-us-theres-difference-between-gay-sex-and-gay.
113
Mohamed Ali, “Prescriptive Racialism and Racial Exclusion,” Quillette, April 1, 2019, https://quillette.com/2019/04/01/prescriptive-racialism-and-racial-exclusion/.
114
On May 22, 2020, Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted, “There is a difference between being politically black and being racially black. I am not defending anyone, but we all know this and should stop pretending that we don’t.” See https://twitter.com/JamelTheCreator/status/1263895293654941697/photo/1.
115
Suzanna Danuta Walters, “Why Can’t We Hate Men?” Washington Post, June 8, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-cant-we-hate-men/2018/06/08/f1a3a8e0-6451-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html.
116
“Ginsburg Hopes for Nine Women Justices,” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/02/11/rbg-on-women-justices.cnn/video/playlists/supreme-court-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg/ (accessed February 6, 2021).
117
Salma El-Wardany, “What Women Mean When We Say ‘Men Are Trash,’” HuffPost, February 5, 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/why-men-are-really-trash_uk_5ae97b12e4b081860d8ca14d.
118
Stephanie Pappas, “APA Issues First-Ever Guidelines for Practice with Men and Boys,” American Psychological Association, 2019, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/ce-corner.
119
Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory, 86.
120
Barbara Tomlinson, “Powerblind Intersectionality: Feminist Revanchism and Inclusion as a One-Way Street,” in Seeing Race Again, 178.
121
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” The Atlantic, June 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/.
122
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 132.
123
Barbara Applebaum, Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2010), 140.
124
“‘Whiteness Studies’ Professor Outlines How People Can Avoid Being Racist: Step 1, Stop Being White,” Pluralist, May 29, 2019, https://pluralist.com/robin-diangelo-white-people-racist/.
125
Ian F. Haney López, “White by Law,” in Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge, 780.
126
George Yancy, “Dear White America,” New York Times, December 24, 2015, https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/dear-white-america/.
127
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 61, 66, 124.
128
Paul Rossi, “I Refuse to Stand By while My Students Are Indoctrinated,” Common Sense with Bari Weiss, April 13, 2021, https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/i-refuse-to-stand-by-while-my-students.
129
“Grace Church Whistleblower,” Foundation against Intolerance and Racism, https://www.fairforall.org/grace-church-whistleblower/ (accessed April 26, 2021).
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Milazzo, Seeing Race Again, 109.
131
Robin DiAngelo, “White Fragility,” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3, no. 3 (2011), 54, https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/249.
132
One subcategory of social justice ideology is critical race theory. See https://criticalrace.org/ for a database tracking the adoption of critical race theory in higher education.
133
Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory, 2.
134
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 72.
135
“Tool: Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send,” https://academicaffairs.ucsc.edu/events/documents/Microaggressions_Examples_Arial_2014_11_12.pdf.
136
“Tool: Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send.”
137
Bailey, “Tracking Privilege-Preserving Epistemic Pushback in Feminist and Critical Race Philosophy Classes.”
138
Bailey, “Tracking Privilege-Preserving Epistemic Pushback in Feminist and Critical Race Philosophy Classes.”
139
“Toni Morrison–Nobel Lecture,” NobelPrize.org, December 7, 1993, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-lecture.html.
140
Lisa Feldman Barrett, “When is Speech Violence?” New York Times, July 14, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/opinion/sunday/when-is-speech-violence.html.
141
“Free Expression on College Campuses,” Knight Foundation, May 13, 2019, https://knightfoundation.org/reports/free-expression-college-campuses/.
143
Haruka Senju, “Violence as Self-Defense,” Daily Californian, February 7, 2017, https://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/violence-self-defense/.
144
Desmond Meagley, “Condemning Protesters Same as Condoning Hate Speech,” Daily Californian, February 7, 2017, https://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/condemning-protesters-condoning-hate-speech/.
145
Anonymous, “Plurality of Tactics Contributed to Cancellation of Milo Yiannopoulos Event,” Daily Californian, February 7, 2017, https://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/plurality-tactics-contributed-cancellation-milo-yiannopoulos-event/.
146
Neil Lawrence, “Black Bloc Did What Campus Should Have,” Daily Californian, February 7, 2017, https://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/black-bloc-campus/.
147
Juan Prieto, “Violence Helped Ensure Safety of Students,” Daily Californian, February 7, 2017, https://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/07/violence-helped-ensure-safety-students/.
148
On June 2, 2020, CBS News quoted Nikole Hannah-Jones, tweeting, “‘Violence is when an agent of the state kneels on a man’s neck until all of the life is leached out of his body. Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence. To use the same language to describe those two things is not moral’ -@nhannahjones on CBSN.” See https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1267877443911778306.
149
On September 30, 2020, APStylebook tweeted, “Focusing on rioting and property destruction rather than underlying grievance has been used in the past to stigmatize broad swaths of people protesting against lynching, police brutality or for racial justice, going back to the urban uprisings of the 1960s (2/5).” See https://twitter.com/APStylebook/status/1311357912078585858.
150
On May 31, 2020, Kimberlee Kruesi tweeted, “Feels like a good time to post AP’s guidance on the word looting.” See https://twitter.com/kkruesi/status/1267124085517099010.
151
Steven W. Thrasher, “Proportionate Response: When Destroying a Police Precinct Is a Reasonable Reaction,” Slate, May 30, 2020, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/george-floyd-protests-minneapolis-police-fires.html.
152
Arwa Mahdawi, “If Violence Isn’t the Way to End Racism in America, Then What is?” Guardian, May 30, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/30/if-violence-isnt-way-end-racism-america-then-what-is-george-floyd-protests.
153
Natalie Escobar, “One Author’s Controversial View: ‘In Defense of Looting,’” NPR, August 27, 2020, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/27/906642178/one-authors-argument-in-defense-of-looting.
154
Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals Were False When They Were Written. Black Americans Have Fought to Make Them True,” New York Times Magazine, August 14, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html.
155
Leslie M. Harris, “I Helped Fact-Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me,” Politico, March 6, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/06/1619-project-new-york-times-mistake-122248. In September 2020, without any explanation, the Times removed the central claim that 1619 was the nation’s “true birth date.” See Mike LaChance, “NY Times and Nikole Hannah-Jones Quietly Dropping Central Claims of 1619 Project,” Legal Insurrection, September 23, 2020, https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/09/ny-times-and-nikole-hannah-jones-quietly-dropping-central-claims-of-1619-project/; Bret Stephens, “The 1619 Chronicles,” New York Times, October 9, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/opinion/nyt-1619-project-criticisms.html.
156
Elliot Kaufman, “The ‘1619 Project’ Gets Schooled,” Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-1619-project-gets-schooled-11576540494.
157
Adam Serwer, “The Fight over the 1619 Project Is Not about the Facts,” The__Atlantic, December 23, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/historians-clash-1619-project/604093/.
158
On June 20, 2020, Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted, “It would be an honor. Thank you.” See https://archive.vn/htE19; Victor Morton, “New York Times 1619 Project Leader Calls it ‘Honor’ to Inspire Riots, Statue Attacks,” Washington Times, June 20, 2020, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jun/20/nikole-hannah-jones-new-york-times-1619-project-le/.
159
Jeff Barrus, “Nikole Hannah-Jones Wins Pulitzer Prize for 1619 Project,” Pulitzer Center, May 4, 2020, https://pulitzercenter.org/blog/nikole-hannah-jones-wins-pulitzer-prize-1619-project.
160
On July 4, 2020, Colin Kaepernick tweeted, “Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of “independence”, while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all.” See https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7/status/1279463720318570497.
161
Ibram X. Kendi, “The American Nightmare,” The Atlantic, June 1, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/american-nightmare/612457/.
162
Nate Nesbit, “White America: What More Can You Possibly Ask of Us?” Rolling Stone, October 11, 2020, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/black-lives-matter-george-floyd-breonna-taylor-1070417/.
163
Milazzo, Seeing Race Again, 123
164
Delgado and Stefancic, Critical Race Theory, 102.
165
Unfortunately, the alt-right and woke left fuel each other. Each one points to the other as proof for why its movement is needed. The alt-right points to the woke left’s antiwhiteness as justification for its pro-whiteness. And the woke left points to the alt-right’s pro-whiteness as justification for its antiwhiteness. Both are wrong, and both should be rejected. For a brief critique of the alt-right, see Craig Biddle, “A Note to the Right Regarding the ‘Alt-Right,’” The Objective Standard 12, no. 1 (Spring 2017), /p/a-note-to-the-right-regarding-the-alt-right.
166
Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peace and Freedom, July/August 1989, https://psychology.umbc.edu/files/2016/10/White-Privilege_McIntosh-1989.pdf.
167
Sensoy and DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal?, 195.
168
For a detailed exposition of such a philosophy, see Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (New York: Dutton, 1991).