Comment by malcolmgreaves
5 years ago
Why would your reaction to the phrase "black lives matter," not be one of immediate support if you're not a racist? Do you think that black people's lives don't matter? This isn't a game of semantics or something that's up for "debate" (what is there to debate?): real people are being murdered.
It's religious semantics:
"[T]hird-wave antiracism is a profoundly religious movement in everything but terminology. The idea that whites are permanently stained by their white privilege, gaining moral absolution only by eternally attesting to it, is the third wave’s version of original sin. The idea of a someday when America will “come to terms with race” is as vaguely specified a guidepost as Judgment Day. Explorations as to whether an opinion is “problematic” are equivalent to explorations of that which may be blasphemous. The social mauling of the person with “problematic” thoughts parallels the excommunication of the heretic. What is called “virtue signaling,” then, channels the impulse that might lead a Christian to an aggressive display of her faith in Jesus."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/why-third-...
You just made my point with these types of absolutist statements. Thanks, saved me some keystrokes!