"... upon guilty—or H.R.-constrained—white people hungry to be lashed for (and then duly absolved of) their supposed racial sins. To hear some of these so-called D.E.I. consultants speak is to want to rip your ears off. They speak a fuzzy, specialist language, meant to be minimally refutable and maximally emotionally manipulative. If this is anti-racism—in fact, it isn’t—you might find yourself quietly resolving to give racism another chance.... A gag that comes up a couple of times during 'Am I Racist?' is Walsh’s encounter with the 2002 book [with the N-word as its title] by the brilliant legal scholar Randall Kennedy. The joke is that it’s hard for a white person to buy the book because of how it’s hard to say the title. Get it? But Walsh never cracks the book. If he were to give Kennedy’s work a try, he might find a probing, refreshing antidote to the thinking set forward by DiAngelo’s simplistic, overly binary, and often quite patronizing work—and a total refutation of the blithe, resentful attitude of quick-twitch cultural reaction that produces a world view like his own."
Writes Vinson Cunningham, in
"Is Matt Walsh Trying to Make “Am I Racist?” the “Borat” of the Right?/In his work with the Daily Wire and in a new movie, the conservative podcaster and activist tries to expose the hypocrisies of the left" (The New Yorker)
Cunningham writes out the name of Randall Kennedy's book, but I can't.
Here's an Amazon Associates link to it.
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35 comments:
Ok, Mr. Cunningham, who made Kendi and D'Angelo the face of anti-racism instead of Randall Kennedy? Matt Walsh didn't pick those teo off the street.
Also, as noted in the comments on a prior thread about "Am I Racist?" "Borat" was punching down at random people simply trying to cope with SBC's deliberately bizarre antics. Walsh went straight at supposed "experts" in al"anti-racism".
I'm glad you've given Cunningham a tag. His perspective is interesting.
He limited his audience by calling it that - and maybe that was the point. It’s 88,642 in Amazon rankings (worse than poor Bill Gates’ yet unpublished autobiography). I’m not going to buy it. I lend my phone to my coworkers and I can’t risk a book with that title being on my kindle and audible.
Shows you derrick bell wasn't the worst hire at Harvard, but in the top 5
Tl;Dr Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah, stop noticing!
Has Robin Diangelo been thrown under the bus? Shouldn't someone apologize that she was taken seriously by so many people, indeed shoved down the throat of so many innocents?
Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class bigotry) refers to class-disordered ideologies not limited to racism. #HateLovesAbortion
ah the New Yawker, a cornucopia of grifters and those who celebrate them,
its a terrible word, reciting it doesn't 'take away it's power' thats the most ridiculous thing Chris Rock said in the 90s, hold my beer,
A narrow truth. So narrow we can safely ignore the truth.
see aaron mcgruder, tennessee coates,, barack obama
The headline seems biblical (“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”. Matt. 7:13-14), but that's probably not what the writer was intending.
"...and in a new movie, the conservative podcaster and activist tries to expose the hypocrisies of the left" (The New Yorker)"
Really? 'Tries' is doing quite a bit of heavy lifting, there, not so? I'd say the theater rushes show a slightly different take on the effectiveness of the exposé. As for the book, well. Is there any other word in any other language that has such a tight prescription? The word is taboo, but only if you're not black. Then it's a tonic to cure all ills, it would seem. I can't say much for authors that choose outrageously sensational titles, like this one. I won't be reading it.
The writer of the article states "But the message is oddly timed: D.E.I. jobs, which peaked after George Floyd’s death, in 2020, are already on a steep decline."
This is akin to NYT's Fox Butterfield's infamous article "Despite Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates."
Yes, DEI is dropping, but it is because of the criticism and ridicule of it, like in this movie. The writer is unable to see the cause/effect relationship. Keep it up!
If this is anti-racism—in fact, it isn’t—you might find yourself quietly resolving to give racism another chance....
The opposite of "anti-racism" isn't racism. "Anti-racism," as implemented by the Left, is a synonym for racism.
The New Yorker grudgingly does what their ideological brethren won't and reviews this popular film. Posting a label "WARNING: IT'S ONLY NARROWLY TRUE" is about the best you can expect.
Bad words are bad because they reference atrocities.
The N word references kidnapping, slavery, rape, and lynchings.
The F bomb references the dark side of human sexuality, when you have sex without any love. Rape and infanticide is what happens.
That's why those words have power.
So a diversity book is touted as different, but no differences are explained or explored showing that it is any better than those denounced by Walsh. I, for one, remain convinced ALL diversity officers are grifters, all DEI efforts are classically racist, and race hustlers in my lifetime (from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton forward through BLM and all DEI iunitiatives) have used the tag of racism solely to enrich themselves. To hell with all of them.
If you want less racism, stop using race by government for all purposes. Society will accept that, and will follow along quite easily compared to the present BS over skin color.
Here at Major Corporation, where I work, we get only DiAngelo and Kendi giving their $1000/minute canned talks, no Randall Kennedy. So, who is the marginal figure?
No True Scotsman alert: “If this is anti-racism—in fact, it isn’t….”
Less Borat, more Ali G.
DEI is just a rehashed Marxism, which is invalid in its priors and in its conclusions. Anything written using that discredited ideology is prima facie invalid. One needn't spend time reading Marxist books as there is no knowledge or wisdom to be gained from them.
All those DEI "professionals" are no more than Soviet-style komissars and are owed no more deference or attention than that discredited class of social parasites.
"Cunningham writes out the name of Randall Kennedy's book, but I can't."
What if you did? Would that be "racist"?
Bingo.
Walsh is responding to what is, what people have to deal with.
You want a better "anti-racism" movement? Then YOU destroy the grifters
Thanks for Randall Kennedy reference. Was not aware of him or his works. Would be SO nice to see [the word that shall not be mentioned] defused - at very least to have a consistent and well understood meaning.
Words naturally vary over time, geography, and demographics; but lack of consistency and uniformity impede effective communication.
Personally, I see intentional linguistic chaos as another tool of "progressives", another manufactured real or imagined "crisis," on the road to public acceptance of forfeiture of Liberty in hope to receive "safety." George Orwell had it right with New-Speak in "1984."
"Nazi" began life describing "a member of or adherent to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party)." "Fascim" originated about the same time (1930's) to describe a strong central government, government control but private ownership of the means of production. Today "Nazi" and "Fascist" are slurs slung by "Progressives" against any who oppose them - principally against those who favor individual Liberty and a Free Market economy.
Moving backward in time from the (now thankfully suppressed) rage of "my pronouns are..." through obfuscation of words descriptive of gender or sex, the demolition of "marriage," and replacement of the perfectly descriptive "homosexual" with the unaccountable "gay."
Well, if DEI were based on the work of Randall Kennedy rather than Kendi and the grifter lady, this guy's argument might be worthwhile, but it's not so it's not.
"Cunningham writes out the name of Randall Kennedy's book, but I can't."
Really? Wait till you get to Joseph Conrad.
Mr. Cunningham is not the only staff jackass typing stuff like this:
1. "The Obamas’ Rousingly Pragmatic Call to Action at the D.N.C.
For better and for worse, the former First Couple are still the best communicators that the Democrats have."
2. "The Kamala Show On Television
How Vice-President Harris’s public persona has evolved, from tough prosecutor to frozen interviewee to joyful candidate.
3. "Was Abraham Lincoln Gay, and Should We Care?"
McPhee no longer visible in the rear-view mirror.
When I was 15, 1972, I was discussing race relations with a Black teacher who later became a Vice Principal. He asked me if I had heard John Lenon’s Woman is the N of the world. Only he didn’t say N, he said the whole word. I’m glad I grew up in a more civilized time.
"Writes Vinson Cunningham, in "Is Matt Walsh Trying to Make “Am I Racist?” the “Borat” of the Right?/In his work with the Daily Wire and in a new movie, the conservative podcaster and activist tries to expose the hypocrisies of the left"
Was "Borat" supposed to be an expose of hypocrisy?
Ann, you took note recently when Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times described Robin DiAngelo as "risible." Cunningham goes farther: her book White Fragility is "now-infamous," as well as "simplistic, overly binary, and often quite patronizing." If three instances counts as a trend, a third example of a bien pensant organ as influential as the Times or the New Yorker dismissing DiAngelo would signify that she is now effectively un-personed.
Everyone knows what is meant when we write "the N-word." We hear it in our heads, so it's present in our consciousness, every bit as much (maybe more) for that evasion. So it's the visible letters themselves or the sound of the word in our ears that is so powerfully corrupting? It seems like a primitivism we are told to practice by this rule about "the N-word." I say this as someone for whom Huckleberry Finn was my favorite book growing up, one my father read to me parts of OUT LOUD when I was stuck in a hospital room recovering from having my appendix removed. I do not regret that experience, I cherish it.
“Cunningham writes out the name of Randall Kennedy's book, but I can't.”
In the land of the free, home of the brave.
This is classic motte-and-bailey defense. Now that Robin DiAngelo has been exposed, NOW she is considered "fringe".
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