tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26145735.post7303028745642885158..comments2024-03-28T03:32:52.949-07:00Comments on unapologetic conjecture: We Can’t Achieve Equality through DisdainBenjamin Gormanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15690290533167718706noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26145735.post-32879612405327086492013-03-05T19:58:55.598-08:002013-03-05T19:58:55.598-08:00Partisan is a convenient replacement for divisive....Partisan is a convenient replacement for divisive. And divisiveness is the easiest charge to dismiss anyone who objects to the current political situation.joel.hobsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00408995999465164166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26145735.post-2012205510815751072013-03-05T16:53:10.883-08:002013-03-05T16:53:10.883-08:00You're right. Come to think of it, in a couple...You're right. Come to think of it, in a couple of the online debates I've had about this subject, I've been accused of viewing the issue through a partisan lens despite the fact that I didn't ever mention Democrats or Republicans in those conversations. That seemed odd to me at the time, but I didn't push back much. Now I wonder if that really was the crux of it (or hinted at it): that any challenge to the status quo must be summarily dismissed as divisive in some way, and "partisan" was a convenient synonym for "divisive."<br />Benjamin Gormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15690290533167718706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26145735.post-25862863300946603272013-03-05T05:24:28.774-08:002013-03-05T05:24:28.774-08:00Disdain, I suppose, is a good word for the concept...Disdain, I suppose, is a good word for the concept. I think your final paragraph gets closest to the mark. There is an assumption, somehow, that all of the history is the same. There is the presumption, by those who would do away with Black History Month,that the playing field was leveled long ago. The high court will strike down section 5 of the voting rights act because it appears that some of the justices have not set foot outside their chambers for the last 30 years. If it is disdain that causes such acute willful blindness then we should call it that. I call it an effort to paper over the experienced history of whole swaths of citizens to reinforce the history the hegemony wants. That doesn't make for easy coinage though. <br /><br />If there is a motive I would ascribe to efforts to ignore historical prejudice it is this:the assumption that we live in a just world and that I therefore deserve the advantages I have necessitates a belief that systematic oppression, if it existed at all, was solved so long ago that the current state of things is inherently just and I don't have to listen to anyone's insistence that it might be otherwise. That is disdain, but we can't miss that the effort is to ensure the status quo. Claims of divisiveness are arguments against change. That's disdain and so much more. joel.hobsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00408995999465164166noreply@blogger.com