I don't think many in HN would deny these racist events, but is the answer the current "anti racism wokeness"? Arguably not... It seems to be causing more problems than its solving.
As usual in a decaying society, Jews are the canary in the coal mine. Traditional racists don’t think we’re white. The Woke think we’re super white. Yet per capita, Jews are the most likely to be victims of hate crimes. Yet I don’t see “Jewish Lives Matter” anywhere.
The whole thing is bullshit and just based on the guilty feelings of rich white progressives and their ordering of the universe.
It’s also increasingly incoherent as people mix. I’m part Hispanic, I’m Jewish, and gay. But I’m a cishet white male as far as anyone cares any more. It’s all fake.
People who are worried about racism. There seems to be a growing acceptance of racially-charged policies in institutions.
Even if we accept the occasionally-made argument that meritocracy is an illusion, explicitly racist policies seems like a step down from at least attempting to evaluate individual merit. Attempts at race blindness in the institutions are much better ideas than the ideologies that currently seem to be incubating.
> explicitly racist policies seems like a step down from at least attempting to evaluate individual merit.
It is a result of the observation that the usual methods for evaluating individual merit are themselves racially biased and, therefore, require a correction factor applied.
> Attempts at race blindness
This ignores the environment factors around the development of minority individuals that impact the measured merit.
> It is a result of the observation that the usual methods for evaluating individual merit are themselves racially biased and, therefore, require a correction factor applied.
What exactly causes these methods to be biased in favor of Asians over whites, and in turn biased in favor of whites whose ancestors did not speak Spanish over whites whose ancestors did speak Spanish?
The observation is cool and all, but the remedy is silly. If the observation is that some people have entrenched advantages because of their race, locking in entrenched advantages based on race is, making them official, socially accepted and broadcasting them ... it is difficult to describe how unhelpful that is.
We could try to make the problem smaller, rather than permanent.
It's a problem for civilization at large when there is flailing trust in institutions.
I used to trust most mainstream media outlets almost infallibly.
I trust none of them now.
I'm suspicious of every headline involving sensitive issues, and I believe that they are mostly manipulated to some extent.
In fact, when I watch the news, I'm now mostly curious about how they have spun the story, the nature of their bias, why they would spin it (i.e. personal view, relationships, audience, editorial, corporate sponsorship / pressure, 'election season', producers, click bait, playing for audience, emotional reasons etc..)
Erosion in trust of public institutions is a problem that can be measured in the 'division of the country' and likely even issues with vaccine uptake.
A headline in 2002 about something negative would have evoked my sympathy, but essentially I 'don't believe them anymore' and I'm not sympathetic until I've done my own due diligence to learn about a story.
Specific to this article: I have noticed this editorial problem as well. I used to read SA as a kid and was inspired by it, even if I never really understood it. Some of the editorial positions have been disturbing. It makes me doubt the integrity of the institution. I don't know if it is or not, but there's a cloud of suspicion in my mind.
