There are two parts flawed in your analysis. First, the idea that Japanese are “respectful” towards each other all the time is Orientalist fetishism, based on the fact that foreigners are usually the “paying customer.” Ask a Japanese serviceperson and they will tell you Japanese are no more polite than other countries. The fact is each country due to its history has a different way of organizing “class”; in the US it’s purely wealth (regardless of where you come from or how you get rich). In parts of Europe mostly you’re born into it. In much of Asia it’s education level, and in Japan your social standing is mostly based on your job (an idea partly stemming from ancient China). In fact Americans have a reputation of being courteous outside the US due to deeply held ideals of equality.
Secondly, the fact is “Wokeness” mostly emphasizes inequality around race over class. An extreme woke position is saying a poor white person deserves less help over a middle-class black family due to, you know, structural racism. So your surmise that Wokeness is a response to the disrespect within US society is strange, since here more than elsewhere, respect is afforded to those who can pay for it regardless of any other identity.
A good idea continues to develop. This goes for countries, too. And, the strongest leader doesn't hoard respect, the way that despots do; the strongest leader gives away respect, and thereby gains strength.
Thank you for articulating my problem with wokeness. Being racist against whites will just makes things worse. This is probably why the LGBT movement has been so successful; they didn't try to bring any other group down.
The woke movement has been massively damaged by the fact so many ppl (as above) became its most vocal proponents while being terrible ppl and/or ppl who learned some new buzzwords like ‘colonialism’ ‘imperialism’ ‘white supremacy’ etc while not bothering to learn what the words actually mean or just have no concept of terms like nuance when using words or any understanding of the academic work that lies beneath some phrases
This is a great and novel viewpoint that adds a lot to the debate on wokeness. I learned a valuable perspective from this, though I recall reading an article long ago that presented strong evidence based on civil rights era interviews that a lot of Southern white resistance to removing Jim Crow was also based on zero-sum thinking, that extending rights to Black people would reduce white people’s rights, a position that seems absurd to us today.
I do think it is an issue that a lot is done or said in the name of wokeness is unlikely to increase the broad sum of racial respect. In my 40’s I have already achieved old-timer status by believing that race does not define or essentially describe anyone, that we should not use skin color to alienate anyone, and indeed that we should focus on individual self-actualization rather than group identities. And I am Black, so if this is all bewildering to me, imagine how it is to many others.
Critical Race Theory derived from the Frankfurt school which wokeness embraces seems to reorient everything in terms of oppressor and the oppressed. White people are the oppressor and minorities are the oppressed. Not only is this nonsense it is deeply disempowering for minorities, and is divisive, resulting in the very opposite of "respect". We see this nonsense in k-12 education now.
I've always viewed the woke movement as a racist movement and I think it's pretty obvious that that is true now. MSM is a never ending stream of "whiteness" articles.
I agree with just about all of this. There’s a habit in progressive/left rhetoric of thinking the solution to oppression is to oppress the oppressors in the same way the oppressed has been oppressed. You point out the rhetoric part of that (tweeting about treating white people badly), but there’s also a policy component. So many of my liberal/progressive/leftist friends were FURIOUS that the Colorado shooter was brought in alive. And I understand the frustration; when we hear so often about Black people who did nothing being get by police, while white people who go on murderous rampages get brought in just fine, that’s a clear sign there’s something wrong with the system. But the solution isn’t that the cops should have killed this shooter in the name of balance; it’s that they should kill significantly FEWER people. The same thing with the Brock Turner case. It got framed as how terrible it was that Turner got such a light sentence, but in reality, the problem was that OTHER people—especially people of color—get sentences that are far too long compared to the crimes we commit. We shouldn’t be ratcheting up the system to be more barbaric to everyone in the name of equality; we should be ratcheting down the system to treat everyone better.
That said, the one nit I’d pick with the post is that I don’t think we should ignore redistribution altogether, even though it’s true that respect isn’t zero sum. A world where everyone is treated with the maximum amount of respect is ideal, obviously. But you can also imagine, on the way to that, falling into a “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” situation, where the overall aggregate level of respect is high, but it comes at the expense of certain people in a way we shouldn’t consider fair. There’s at least an argument to make that a world where everyone gets a certain level of respect (Universal Basic Respect? haha) is better than a world where the aggregate respect level is higher, but substantial portions of the population don’t get to access any of it.
Great analysis. I’ve been reading a few of your pieces and at this point I’m sold! By which I mean I’ll read more, as I’m curious about, and interested in your takes. Can’t yet afford a paid subscriptions ... 👀 Not sure if you’ve ever explored this, but you may want to explore/write/think about the way social status and respect in the UK and mainland Europe differs culturally compared to the US. In fact, the cultural variations anywhere are of interest. And I’d say you hit the nail on the head in understanding a driver behind the organic aspects of so-called ‘wokeness.’ (How I hate that term!)
I'm surprised at the claim that the US is less respectful than other countries. Maybe compared to Japan, but to a typical country? I think it's more ok to be openly sexist in most countries than in the US. I'm not sure how good this data on street harassment is, but this puts US lower than some countries that don't surprise me (Mexico, Turkey) but some that do (Australia, Ireland, Canada). http://www.winmr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WIN_2018_Gender-Equality.pdf
Completely agree that respect isn't a zero-sum game. Thanks for sharing Noah! :)
I have to say I approve of the trend of rabbit photos at the end of articles lately. You caught those two mid-groom!
There are two parts flawed in your analysis. First, the idea that Japanese are “respectful” towards each other all the time is Orientalist fetishism, based on the fact that foreigners are usually the “paying customer.” Ask a Japanese serviceperson and they will tell you Japanese are no more polite than other countries. The fact is each country due to its history has a different way of organizing “class”; in the US it’s purely wealth (regardless of where you come from or how you get rich). In parts of Europe mostly you’re born into it. In much of Asia it’s education level, and in Japan your social standing is mostly based on your job (an idea partly stemming from ancient China). In fact Americans have a reputation of being courteous outside the US due to deeply held ideals of equality.
Secondly, the fact is “Wokeness” mostly emphasizes inequality around race over class. An extreme woke position is saying a poor white person deserves less help over a middle-class black family due to, you know, structural racism. So your surmise that Wokeness is a response to the disrespect within US society is strange, since here more than elsewhere, respect is afforded to those who can pay for it regardless of any other identity.
A good idea continues to develop. This goes for countries, too. And, the strongest leader doesn't hoard respect, the way that despots do; the strongest leader gives away respect, and thereby gains strength.
I appreciate that! We need to respect everybody, even people like me who don't have rabbits as pets!
What about bald men?
Thank you for articulating my problem with wokeness. Being racist against whites will just makes things worse. This is probably why the LGBT movement has been so successful; they didn't try to bring any other group down.
The woke movement has been massively damaged by the fact so many ppl (as above) became its most vocal proponents while being terrible ppl and/or ppl who learned some new buzzwords like ‘colonialism’ ‘imperialism’ ‘white supremacy’ etc while not bothering to learn what the words actually mean or just have no concept of terms like nuance when using words or any understanding of the academic work that lies beneath some phrases
"Color blind" is the only thing that can possibly work for America.
This is a great and novel viewpoint that adds a lot to the debate on wokeness. I learned a valuable perspective from this, though I recall reading an article long ago that presented strong evidence based on civil rights era interviews that a lot of Southern white resistance to removing Jim Crow was also based on zero-sum thinking, that extending rights to Black people would reduce white people’s rights, a position that seems absurd to us today.
I do think it is an issue that a lot is done or said in the name of wokeness is unlikely to increase the broad sum of racial respect. In my 40’s I have already achieved old-timer status by believing that race does not define or essentially describe anyone, that we should not use skin color to alienate anyone, and indeed that we should focus on individual self-actualization rather than group identities. And I am Black, so if this is all bewildering to me, imagine how it is to many others.
Critical Race Theory derived from the Frankfurt school which wokeness embraces seems to reorient everything in terms of oppressor and the oppressed. White people are the oppressor and minorities are the oppressed. Not only is this nonsense it is deeply disempowering for minorities, and is divisive, resulting in the very opposite of "respect". We see this nonsense in k-12 education now.
I've always viewed the woke movement as a racist movement and I think it's pretty obvious that that is true now. MSM is a never ending stream of "whiteness" articles.
Are those rabbits - was gonna write "yours" but rabbits don't cotton to being owned. Anyway, good post and lovely rabbits!
I agree with just about all of this. There’s a habit in progressive/left rhetoric of thinking the solution to oppression is to oppress the oppressors in the same way the oppressed has been oppressed. You point out the rhetoric part of that (tweeting about treating white people badly), but there’s also a policy component. So many of my liberal/progressive/leftist friends were FURIOUS that the Colorado shooter was brought in alive. And I understand the frustration; when we hear so often about Black people who did nothing being get by police, while white people who go on murderous rampages get brought in just fine, that’s a clear sign there’s something wrong with the system. But the solution isn’t that the cops should have killed this shooter in the name of balance; it’s that they should kill significantly FEWER people. The same thing with the Brock Turner case. It got framed as how terrible it was that Turner got such a light sentence, but in reality, the problem was that OTHER people—especially people of color—get sentences that are far too long compared to the crimes we commit. We shouldn’t be ratcheting up the system to be more barbaric to everyone in the name of equality; we should be ratcheting down the system to treat everyone better.
That said, the one nit I’d pick with the post is that I don’t think we should ignore redistribution altogether, even though it’s true that respect isn’t zero sum. A world where everyone is treated with the maximum amount of respect is ideal, obviously. But you can also imagine, on the way to that, falling into a “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” situation, where the overall aggregate level of respect is high, but it comes at the expense of certain people in a way we shouldn’t consider fair. There’s at least an argument to make that a world where everyone gets a certain level of respect (Universal Basic Respect? haha) is better than a world where the aggregate respect level is higher, but substantial portions of the population don’t get to access any of it.
Great analysis. I’ve been reading a few of your pieces and at this point I’m sold! By which I mean I’ll read more, as I’m curious about, and interested in your takes. Can’t yet afford a paid subscriptions ... 👀 Not sure if you’ve ever explored this, but you may want to explore/write/think about the way social status and respect in the UK and mainland Europe differs culturally compared to the US. In fact, the cultural variations anywhere are of interest. And I’d say you hit the nail on the head in understanding a driver behind the organic aspects of so-called ‘wokeness.’ (How I hate that term!)
I'm surprised at the claim that the US is less respectful than other countries. Maybe compared to Japan, but to a typical country? I think it's more ok to be openly sexist in most countries than in the US. I'm not sure how good this data on street harassment is, but this puts US lower than some countries that don't surprise me (Mexico, Turkey) but some that do (Australia, Ireland, Canada). http://www.winmr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WIN_2018_Gender-Equality.pdf