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I came across today a movie trailer today which is/was The American Society of Magical Negroes. It really showed me how much the elite black class is grifting. The story apparently revolves around black people using magical powers to keep white people from chimping out and attacking black people. I'm not going to sit here and say black don't have grievances in America and against whites, but I don't think this whole type of thinking helps blacks. It makes it clear to me (and many other instances obviously) that the black elite and black academics define themselves against whiteness. Like they can't imagine blackness without white people in America. An America with no racism against blacks isn't possible to them, and the DEI and all that kind of stuff is necessary to keep them safe. This leaves many kinds of positions for more or less grifting that are basically only open to blacks and leave them a position to cry about racism and also benefit from it handsomely in terms of salary.
Working in Silicon Valley has given me the opportunity to work with a bunch of Nigerians that make insane salaries and live luxurious lifestyles. One thing I've noticed from them is that they don't think about the black/white distinction the same way. At my current company, the director of security is a Nigerian and half of the staff is Nigerian. Obviously they are hiring their own ethnics at a preferable rate, but I haven't seen one of them be part of the "Black at XYZ Company" groups or really care about that. They actually seem to be pretty happy with the current state of affairs in the US an have integrated pretty well.
I'm going to sound like a boomer conservative here, but it seems to me black elites in America seem obsessed with keeping the race divide front and center and their bloated salaries are a direct benefit to them. I don't think that black performance or lack thereof has anything to do with racism. I've never met a single normie person that is anti-black and hates them. I myself am pretty racist and HBD minded and I don't hate blacks at all. I find ghetto criminal blacks to be a nuisance and I don't like that, but even I would have to admit the vast majority of blacks are just normal people who want to live their lives and be happy. When I lived in Chicago, other than a few really unsafe areas I didn't mind walking around majority black neighborhoods.
It seems to me that there is an elite black class that was raised on the Civil Rights movement that can't move on. Their world view of racism is hopelessly outdated and most people would be fine hiring blacks and living near them. However, as currently constructed there is an elite black class that wants the status quo because they benefit from it Being a civil rights activist and a socila justice advocate is beneficial for these people instead of telling blacks they can succeed or fail on their own merits and to just be normal Americans.
Yup. It's uncomfortable for either side to admit this, but wokism is a Western value.
The levels of Wokism as seen in the US? Sure.
But I assure you that we have a sizeable number here in India, both aligning with their American counterparts and adjusting for local conditions. We had Social Justice movements for decades, for our own "systemic disparities", but of course the matter has been inflamed as yet another portion of the American memeplex uncritically imported to these shores.
Well, at least they don't run things for the most part.
The original justification for the SC/ST stuff was certainly a kind of progressive leveling ideology around class and race inequality by Westernized Congress elites.
But the system remains because simple ethnic/caste spoils logic makes it politically impossible to remove. Nigeria is in a similar position. In India, even the BJP doesn’t dare end affirmative action for fear of angering its own lower caste voters. Modi isn’t a firm believer in western progressivism, but he knows he can’t remove the policy. Aren’t like 75% of Hindus included in reservation now?
The US is different, black people are only 14% of the population and most elite Hispanics (ie the rest of URM) aren’t strong affirmative action / DEI activists even if they somewhat support it. Affirmative action in America isn’t a political necessity, it’s an act of charity engaged in for ideological reasons.
I think it’s a political necessity in the sense that one of the political parties needs it to maintain its present coalition.
Incidentally, what’s the AA situation in Nigeria?
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