One doesn't have to be a demonstrator for equal rights to take a stand to correct the course of the nation.
“Today we remember Rosa Parks’ (click here) bold stand and her role in ending racism,” tweeted the Republican National Committee’s official account on Sunday. Whoops.
There’s a generous interpretation of this tweet: Rosa Parks’ bold stand played a role in the ongoing and perhaps endless project of ending racism. About four hours after the initial tweet went out, the RNC sent out a clarification to this effect.
To be clear about the problem: The original tweet conflates the end of statutory discrimination with the end of racism. It suggests that changing government policy changes all the attitudes that led to that policy, and all the social arrangements that were built around that policy. It’s a view often held by conservatives, which is odd, because it requires a tremendous belief in the government’s power to cleanly reshape whole societies.
Much government action remains, shall we say, racially uneven, even if the underlying law has become colorblind. Take marijuana policy. Statute makes no distinction between marijuana usage by blacks and whites. And usage among blacks and whites is very similar — but arrests are not....
There’s a generous interpretation of this tweet: Rosa Parks’ bold stand played a role in the ongoing and perhaps endless project of ending racism. About four hours after the initial tweet went out, the RNC sent out a clarification to this effect.
To be clear about the problem: The original tweet conflates the end of statutory discrimination with the end of racism. It suggests that changing government policy changes all the attitudes that led to that policy, and all the social arrangements that were built around that policy. It’s a view often held by conservatives, which is odd, because it requires a tremendous belief in the government’s power to cleanly reshape whole societies.
Much government action remains, shall we say, racially uneven, even if the underlying law has become colorblind. Take marijuana policy. Statute makes no distinction between marijuana usage by blacks and whites. And usage among blacks and whites is very similar — but arrests are not....
Conservatives and Structural Racism (click here)
Responding to some of the discussion (my own contribution perhaps included) around Jonathan Chait’s controversials thoughts on conservatives and “12 Years a Slave,” The Daily Beast’s Jamelle Bouie tweeted: “Empathy about racial issues is nice, but actual policy to ameliorate effects of structural racism would be better, and I’m not sure conservatism is equipped to do that. I would be happy to be wrong though.”...
