Racism and Individual Responsibility

 I wrote a piece for Newsweek about how fashionable it is to talk about racism as if it's something we are born with, something that is endemic to skin color. Some of the most popular writers--think anti-racism and white fragility--seem to suggest that for white or light-skinned people, racism is something that they will always uphold whether they want to or not, simply because they were born with less pigmentation, because they move through the world with the immutable characteristic of "white" skin. But such a fact would mean that we are, then, less responsible for racist behavior. If we're born with it, we can't in a philosophical sense be absolutely responsible for it. Children's books about becoming anti-racist don't help, no matter how trendy they are. There are so many beautiful stories about and written by important Black figures that do more to fight racism, in my opinion.

But I'm mostly concerned about the question of ethical responsibility here. If you've followed my scholarly work you know that Emmanuel Levinas is central to how I see things. I don't *always* do the right or best thing, and I certainly don't always get it right (I am, after all, continuously learning), but I try to always keep Levinas's ideas about responsibility at the forefront of my thinking and writing and, hopefully, my own behavior.

For Levinas, we aren't simply responsible for all of our own actions, but also for the responsibility of the Other. It's a tremendous burden in some ways, I suppose.

At any rate, it seems to me that arguing that humans are born racist makes people less responsible for racist behavior. Racism is not imprinted on our DNA. It is learned and cultivated in racist environments. We must be responsible for our actions rather than our biology if we want to build a more inclusive and equal society.

From the piece: "It should be obvious that taking away the culpability we bear for racist behavior, just like insisting that babies and children should notice people's race before anything else, is dangerously close if not downright identical to the justifications and processes that enabled the overt racism of darker times."

Critical Race Theory Should Not Have the Only Seat at the Table

"Outrage is vital. But if not carefully calibrated, moral outrage can quickly descend into something less moral and increasingly unethical."

Discussions of Critical Race Theory are all over social media the past few months. Some see it as the greatest of all evils, while others think it's the only way to analyze every societal problem. In both cases, polarizing perspectives are shaped more by outrage than critical thought. What if CRT is a good thing, as long as it's not occupying all seats at the table?

My piece at The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: Let's Do it the Right Way

 

Efforts to support diversity and inclusion are some of the most important work we can undertake. But it has to be done right or it will backfire and cause immeasurable harm to all communities, especially those it claims to help. Especially when "social justice" has a political agenda, the outcome is often division and resentment rather than community and meaningful dialogue.

In schools, the issue is especially fraught, as many institutions that should be educating children have put academics on the back burner and are instead teaching them to analyze their peers based on race, and on whom is oppressing whom. We need to get beyond seeing everyone as part of the oppressor/oppressed dichotomy. We need to stop making judgments about people based on the color of their skin. We need to see people as individuals rather than inseparable from racial groups. 

My piece on this topic is featured as half the "Debate of the Week" in NEWSWEEK. Read it here. And also check out the other side as well, from Pamela Denise Long -- also a great essay with important points.

The Bias of Anti-Bias Training

Over the past six months we've seen an exponential increase in people calling themselves experts in "anti-bias" and "anti-racism" training. Schools and businesses have rushed to bring in these facilitators not necessarily to fix something that is wrong in the culture of the school or business, but to signal that they are "anti-racist," the buzzy phrase made popular by the work of Ibram X. Kendi (and rejected by a growing number of Black and other intellectuals). As in many cases, it's more important to create a show of solidarity with trendy causes than it is to actually address the very real issues of racism, antisemitism, and bigotry of all kinds.

Two months ago, my son's LA school hosted one of these so-called anti-bias training sessions for parents and the result was disastrous. The big takeaway? Antisemitism always gets a pass. So I wrote a piece about what happened and the ongoing fallout. Read it over at The Forward. It's the first of three pieces that will be published in different venues. Buckle up.