{"id":29810,"date":"2022-12-07T22:53:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T06:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29810"},"modified":"2022-12-07T22:53:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T06:53:19","slug":"thou-shall-not-infantilize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/thou-shall-not-infantilize\/","title":{"rendered":"Thou shall not infantilize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diversity is beautiful. Yet with diversity comes the potential for bias. Indeed, bias is so widespread today and in history that even philosophers like Aristotle and Philo have been credited with \u201cstarting\u201d gender polarization[1]<\/a>. Thanks to the civil rights, anti-apartheid and other movements, explicit bias or discrimination is generally recognized and condemned. What is not so easy to identify is subtle discrimination, which is sometimes done unconsciously, yet is still damaging in its effect. This can be done across races, ethnic groups, professions, political parties, social classes and a variety of groups. For example, high school pass rates in South Africa are lower than before. They currently stand at a minimum of 50% in four subjects, at least 40% in the candidate\u2019s home language, and at least 30% in two other languages including the language of instruction at the university the candidate hopes to study at[2]<\/a>. \u00a0One of several South Africans questioning this government decision sees it as \u201cfailing to equip our young people to compete \u2026 in the global economy[3]<\/a>.\u201d I sympathize with the government as they wrestle with unacceptable levels of failing students. However, given the significant potential in the country in terms of current and retired teachers willing to assist, it seems clear that a better approach is to strengthen the learning process. Indeed, lowering passing standards borders on infantilizing the electorate, particularly the poor, and could greatly compromise the future of high school students.<\/p>\n

Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America<\/em> argues that by infantilizing minorities, antiracists (mainly white, but also elite blacks) may be working hard to fight racism, but are going about it the wrong way. McWhorter insists that this antiracist ideology, pursued religiously by adherents, is detrimental to the self-esteem of Black Americans and hinders their ability to maximize their potential. The author condemns the belief that \u201cif black people lag behind whites in some way, the only reason must be racism, even if it\u2019s hard to perceive its role[4]<\/a>.\u201d Like McWhorter, I believe that racism is evil, but it is not<\/em> the root of all evils. Indeed, if we blame racism for all problems confronting minorities, we risk leaning on this as a \u201cconvenient excuse to avoid self-examination,\u201d as Kishore Mahbubani warns[5]<\/a>. Agreeing with McWhorter, Steele highlights the impact of racism on black success but argues that it is family breakdown, manifesting as female-headed homes, that is at the root of \u201cgangsterism, drug abuse, low academic achievement, high dropout and unemployment rates, high crime and incarceration\u201d[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But McWhorter does not just highlight the problems of Third Wave Antiracism. He also suggests several solutions to challenges confronting black people, including \u201cvocational training for poor people and battle the idea that real people go to college[7]<\/a>.\u201d I support this position because some situations attributed to racism could easily be addressed with appropriate literacy interventions. In 2001 I was invited to be part of the management team of a multi-racial mission agency run mainly by white followers of Jesus. Although this group was composed of godly men and women, I was the least educated, youngest and least experienced member. I was honoured to be part of this group but also felt out of place. During most of the meetings I listened to the conversations with very little contribution because they were speaking \u201cover my head.\u201d Today I reflect on that part of my history with the feeling that given that opportunity now, I would be in a much better place to make meaningful contributions. Although I was the only black person in a group of about ten individuals with several white people and one Asian, when we had awkward situations, I would argue that it was more out of limited life experience\/education than racism. This is not to deny the reality of racism in our world because even the Hellenistic Jews were discriminated against by the Hebraic speaking Jews in Acts 6. However, my experience and that of many minorities living within a dominant culture shows that education is an important factor in many so-called racial situations.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, McWhorter, like Martin Luther King, Mandela, Tutu, Shelby Steele, Pragya Agarwal, and many others warn us of the dangers of racism in its explicit and subtle forms. Given the widespread and volatile nature of the subject, taking heed seems like a wise choice.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Agarwal, Pragya. Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias. <\/em>(London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020), 190.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> News 24. https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/no-the-required-matric-pass-mark-is-not-30-angie-motshekga-20220111<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> McWhorter, John. Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America<\/em>. (New York: Penguin Random house LLC, 2021), 120.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Mahbubani, Kishore. Can Asians Think<\/em>. (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2009), 209.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Steele, Shelby. Shame: How America\u2019s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country<\/em>. (Basic Books, 2015), 33.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> McWhorter, Woke Racism, 149.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diversity is beautiful. Yet with diversity comes the potential for bias. Indeed, bias is so widespread today and in history that even philosophers like Aristotle and Philo have been credited with \u201cstarting\u201d gender polarization[1]. Thanks to the civil rights, anti-apartheid and other movements, explicit bias or discrimination is generally recognized and condemned. What is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2464,1997,2465],"class_list":["post-29810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mcwhorter","tag-steele","tag-woke-racism","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29811,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29810\/revisions\/29811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}