I just wanted to appreciate this comment and note my own mixed feelings on things like RBAA. I don’t think RBAA is all that unfair, I just think it’s both ineffective and unpopular, and I think the lack of popularity is due to people understanding quite well how and why it fails to work (at least today). It stigmatizes black college grad…
I just wanted to appreciate this comment and note my own mixed feelings on things like RBAA. I don’t think RBAA is all that unfair, I just think it’s both ineffective and unpopular, and I think the lack of popularity is due to people understanding quite well how and why it fails to work (at least today). It stigmatizes black college grads, it puts kids in situations they’re not prepared for, and I think everyone (black, white, whatever) can see that the problem is far upstream of college.
But my meh feelings on RBAA and worse for stuff like “abolish the police” don’t mean I don’t understand the strength of structural racism. I don’t think it’s the only factor, although the history of racism in America is integral to the history of many of the cultural problems holding back black progress today. That doesn’t make for an easy solution, any more than you could deal with the US Mafia by pointing to its roots in poverty and violent trauma in Sicily. At some point people have to change their behavior. But it’s useless to pretend that the history didn’t happen, too.
I just wanted to appreciate this comment and note my own mixed feelings on things like RBAA. I don’t think RBAA is all that unfair, I just think it’s both ineffective and unpopular, and I think the lack of popularity is due to people understanding quite well how and why it fails to work (at least today). It stigmatizes black college grads, it puts kids in situations they’re not prepared for, and I think everyone (black, white, whatever) can see that the problem is far upstream of college.
But my meh feelings on RBAA and worse for stuff like “abolish the police” don’t mean I don’t understand the strength of structural racism. I don’t think it’s the only factor, although the history of racism in America is integral to the history of many of the cultural problems holding back black progress today. That doesn’t make for an easy solution, any more than you could deal with the US Mafia by pointing to its roots in poverty and violent trauma in Sicily. At some point people have to change their behavior. But it’s useless to pretend that the history didn’t happen, too.