NYT opinion piece - this time, have we reached peak “wokeness”?

donaghs

Interesting, coming from the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/opinion/peak-woke-antiracism-canceled.html

Not in Ireland , but since this is an American created phenomenon, and changes to it will probably originate there too.

doesnt quite get stuck into Ibrahim x Kendi, but he’s still something of a Saint in some “progressive” circles.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/18/like-other-antiracist-activists-ibram-x-kendi-proves-hes-only-in-it-for-himself/amp/

This the guy who promote divisive racist (never ending) ideas like this:

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/19/the-fight-to-redefine-racism

Some of the articles are from September, but the fallout from Kendis financial revelations rumbles on

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/opinion/ibram-x-kendi-racism.html

maik3n

Hmm, not sure it's that interesting.

The NYT article is light on facts/evidence and high on casting aspersions on Kendi/the foundation.

There is an anecdote from 1 staff member about feeling overworked and underpaid. (In other news, water is wet).

The fact that Kendi got $32k to speak at some event means nothing.

Commentators fees for people of all stripes and none, run a very wide gamut from $5k for Michael Moore, to the likes of Jordan Peterson at $50k.

It's anyone's guess how these figures are tabulated.

Also, they tried to shoehorn in that fake news/conspiracy theory about the BLM founder and her mansions.

http://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/04/19/fact-check-misleading-claim-blm-co-founders-real-estate/7241450002/

Even if there was any truth to her story, it doesn't take away from the overall intent of peoples support for the movement, which was about fighting racism.

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121220068#Comment_121220068

The NYT was never going to make any serious critical analysis of Kendi, because as mentioned, he still something of a Saintly figure.

So, its natural that they'd show a different side of criticism, i.e. a black employee who alleges he wasn't paying enough, treating people unfairly, was ignoring people, etc etc.

I thought it was interesting as it was least some admitance from the NYT that the Kendi brand of wokeness had run its course.

The other articles have more useful information.

A key difference with other well-paid speakers is hypocrisy on the part of Kendi. his pessimistic view of humanity and race relations. i.e. that nothing will ever really change. white people will always be racist and so on. But he's happy to show up at these institutions and walk away with a nice payday for making a speech.

In relation to the BLM "fact-check" article. Those allegations surfaced in early April 2021 - the "fact check" article appears to be from 19th April 2021, when BLM we're organising their deflection strategy , outlined here: Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought a $6 Million House (nymag.com)

All the recent news articles seems to be saying they did spend lavishly on themselves: Why did Black Lives Matter ‘buy a $6m California mansion’? | The Independent

I wouldnt take the idea of "fighting racism" at face value. Especially if "anti-racist" ideas like Kendi's seems so divisive and race essentialist, and also to-be-honest, to be the original dictionary definition of "racist".