负责任的非裔知识分子在担心什么

负责任的非裔知识分子一直在担忧the dumbing down of education. 下面McWhorter演讲很长,30:40 他讲到Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters (熟悉吧?)haven’t done a thing for the black community, so why do blacks keep voting democrats. 36分钟,他说到没人敢批评黑人,since everything can be blamed on racism. He also Discussed “Acting white”, before 1964, no one teased a black nerd saying “acting white”.


https://youtu.be/_pCePlFT1KI

 

According to McWhorter, Black pathology from the 1960s ruined black kids. 


在四十多分钟McWhorter从历史角度讲了Black race feeling inferior then六十年代后左派认为什么都是制度歧视(institutional),要改变制度,两者相加更加剧了self hate。


尤其说到很成功的非裔人士要把racial preferences 进行到底,因为athletes and legacies get such preference, 他反问“why do u want to compare yourselves w athletes and legacies?” 真有自信!


How do you give a race confidence?

 

Check white guilt: ie, don’t let white guilt hinder black’s self esteem. 

这里提到伯克利一半的教授都不喜欢affirmative action (he was at UCB) other faculty supports AA because of white guilt. “I don’t want u to pity me, or my children”

 

 

He is asking the whites regarding Affirmative action: no matter how good the intention is, do you want to do it to your children? 

 

讲到acting White, 可以看看McWhorter的研究,这完全是从1960s开始的,以前可以tease a Black nerd as being a nerd. 

 

如果我是McWhorter那样的非裔intellectural,也会从心里为自己族裔着急。 下面是群里对话节选,群友关于民族自豪感的发言很精彩,比我一直说的莫妄自菲薄有说服力多了。

 

转群友:“@燕子相当棒,我从头听的,刚听到他讲“african American 是全世界最完美的种族,因为所有我们做错的都是因为white racism",  简直入木三分。另一个印象是他一点黑人口音都没有,应该出身中上层吧?

 

转群友:前面那篇还提到黑人青少年不愿好好学习,因为不想act white, 亚裔小孩其实也常听到don't want to be too Asian 的想法,感觉是少数民族都会有点身份认同的困惑。关于身份认同,前段时间的cultural appropriation旗袍事件,是不是亚裔二代们维护亚裔身份的一种努力呢?虽然我觉得他们过于敏感了,但我们一代不是作为少数民族长大的,我怀疑我们有时根本无法理解二代的出发点。

 

燕子回复:很好的分析,虽然都以白人对照,这两个反叛act white or non Asian)刚好相反,也恰恰呈现出非亚两族群的norm。关于二代维护亚裔身份,也有可能现在的identity politics 太过了,二代就是这么被培养大的,扭转不易,尤其现在又加上intersectionality,亦即:除非你是我,你不会知道我怎么想,也没权利评论我做的事,除了race,又加上gender, class


转群友:”@燕子,如果我是McWhorter那样的非裔intellectural,也会从心里为自己族裔着急很同意,我觉得他一直试图宣扬的其实就是(非裔的)民族自豪感,这的确是增强一个种族,特别是少数族裔自信心和身份认同的好办法。我们华裔尤其是一代,其实大部分也是有中华民族自豪感的,如果这种自豪感能传给二代,那么他们也许就能更平常心对自己的种族,而不是尽量避免act too Asian. McWhorter 多次提到黑人这么多年的成就,的确媒体很少报道这些。


转群友:“@燕ོ子 听完了McWhorter的讲话,Q/A没听完. Bright man, very articulate. 他提到有些非裔自恨,非裔超过90%投票给民主党,和“主流”意见不一的conservative black的声音被质疑被忽略—虽然这些才是真正为自己族裔的进步发出的声音。这些听起来是不是似曾相识?”


转群友:“McWhorter 对于AA的总结也很到位:1. 对于从种族AA受益的人来说,AA=降低标准,降低的标准必然带来降低的成绩。(说白了,就是对受照顾者的歧视,不降低要求你不行)2. AA将Diversity 当作神圣的目标,这是错误的目标,excellence should be the goal。 ”


转群友:“@燕子 又看了一遍那一段,大概明白了,你解释的对。McWhorter所说的self hate 更像我理解的low self esteem,当然这俩本来就相关。他真敢说,说很多非裔文化里不好的东西始自60年代民权运动后,还有数据支持。回答“怎样改善非裔孩子的教育”,他的回答令人大跌眼镜—establish racially segregated schools,but his reasoning actually makes sense. 联想到Boys Adrift 的作者大力推荐单一性别的学校。”

 

转群友:“听完后的感想是,少数族裔的文化跟主流相比还是有竞争劣势的,他提出segregated school 的本意,有点类似于贸易保护使用关税保护本国民族企业不受竞争力更强的外国公司冲击,他是建立黑人学校,以在这个小环境中专心培养黑人青少年的自信,这个如果能实施,可能的确有效,美国历史上也曾用高关税发展本国制造业,不过在现实环境中不太可能实现。”


燕子回复:我一位二十多年的非裔朋友(也是教授)在我FB上批评我不了解AA本意是inclusion, 我们的一位理事去反驳他。我还想把McWhorter 的视频和文章转过去呢,估计我这位朋友就是McWhorter 指出的成功非裔喝着鸡尾酒要捍卫racial preference. 这真是我边写文章,现实就在我眼前上演。”


转群友:“@燕子 你就用McWhorter 的反问法吧,"do you want this apply to YOUR kids?" 看他怎么自圆其说。”

 

布朗教授Glenn Loury and 哥大教授John McWhorter对话,两位intellectuals in the true sense。注: Prof Loury interviewed UPenn’s Prof. Amy Weiss at the height of her controversial articles. 


非裔学者Sowell,Walter Williams, Ward Connerly 也值得我们学习。Williams在2017年八月份纽约时报报道亚裔升学困境后还写文章支持亚裔诉求。

 

https://youtu.be/DPjsGQC5zWM

 

注意到McWhorter 是因读到了他的文章,目前为止最好的一篇,我成段贴到notes准备仔细学习。

 

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2018/06/28/affirming-disadvantage/

 

From a friend:”Yes, I am familiar with McWhorter. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, but he never fails to be interesting, his intellectual integrity is beyond reproach, and his independence is admirable. He has a number of very frank and nuanced discussions on youtube with Glenn Lowry, another similarly qualified Black intellectual, an economist at Brown University. There are a number of other Black intellectuals who speak honestly and truthfully about race & slavery matters, but they have all been blacked out (pun intended) by the liberal-dominaed media.”

 

文章节选~~

 

Much can be said about how slavery, Jim Crow, and white racism have conditioned a people to underestimate their own cognitive abilities. However, the nasty truth is that racial preferences, in being maintained so far past their sell-by date, now maintain rather than break with toxic preconceptions we should be long past. To wit, lowering standards for black and Latino applicants is now a retrogressive rather than progressive approach.

 

I know of no more vivid hypocrisy on the part of those who style themselves black people’s fellow travelers than to earnestly dismiss claims that black people’s average IQ is lower than other peoples’ while in the same breath nodding vigorously that a humane society must not subject the same people to challenging tests. Moreover, I know of no more tragic indication of a people’s internalization of the oppressor’s racism than a bright black NAACP lawyer arguing with proud indignation that if black people don’t do well on a test it’s society’s job to eliminate the test or make it easier.

 

Any who brand this article as “anti-affirmative action” reveal themselves as having failed to read up to this point.

 

While racial disparities certainly exist, there is now far too much black success, and far too many different kinds of people in our population since the Immigration Act of 1965, for it to ever again make sense in any real, lasting way to maintain different standards for black and Latino people, specifically, in perpetuity.

 

This regime is now supportable only via doubletalk, agitprop, silencing, lies, suspicion, condescension, and recurrent challenges in court stirring up hollow, manipulative justifications that sound more Orwellian by the decade. 

 

Racial preferences should be thought of as a kind of chemotherapy, targeted very specifically for a sternly limited period of time, due to the massive collateral damage that comes with its healing properties.

 

 

Do I oppose affirmative action? Not at all. But I suggest that what we now “affirm” is disadvantage suffered by all kinds of people. Few will resent or question adjusting standards because of true, obvious and incontestable obstacles to success. Those who do will mostly be educable; the sliver who continue to resist will classify as mere static—there’s always some.