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Bi-Weekly Discussion - The "Great Awokening" & CRT Debate

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Brian B.
Bi-Weekly Discussion - The "Great Awokening" & CRT Debate

Details

This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

Here's the link to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88693271278?pwd=RjEzVWVqKzRWczdMOHRXNW10b3krdz09

Meeting ID: 886 9327 1278
Passcode: 345386

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UNDERSTANDING THE "GREAT AWOKENING" & THE DEBATE OVER CRT/DEI TRAINING

INTRODUCTION:

In the first half of this discussion, we'll look at the so-called "Great Awokening", a term coined by former Vox journalist Matthew Yglesias to refer to a major shift in the political views of white liberals in America since 2014, particularly among those who are young and/or college-educated, towards an increased concern about "social justice" issues, most notably issues of police brutality & racial injustice raised by the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the plight of refugees and undocumented immigrants, the issues of sexual assault & sexual harassment broached by the #YesAllWomen & #MeToo movements, and an extension of the struggle for gay rights to transgender rights. Yglesias' term is a riff on the "Great Awakenings" - i.e. several major periods of religious revivals & creation of new religious sects that occurred in America at various points in the 18th & 19th centuries. Specifically, he drew an analogy with the "Second Great Awakening" of the 1830s-50s in the Northern & Upper Midwestern states that was closely related to various social reform movements such as temperance, abolition, and women's suffrage. The "Great Awokening" is related to the new terms "woke" and "wokeness" which indicate an awareness of left-wing social justice concerns. These terms were popularized by the refrain "I stay woke" in Erykah Badu's 2008 song "Master Teacher" which was turned into the "stay woke" slogan by the nascent Black Lives Matter movement in 2014 shortly after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

As we'll see in our discussion, there's now a variety of theories among social scientists, journalists & pundits about the various driving factors behind the "Great Awokening" as well as where they think it might be headed - i.e. is it a flash in the pan or a historic shift? There's also a lot of disagreement between about whether it will be beneficial or harmful for race relations & gender relations in America, as well as how it will affect the political fortunes of the two major parties in the upcoming elections in 2022 & 2024.

In the second half of this discussion, we'll talk about how previously obscure academic concepts like "intersectionality", "privilege theory", "microaggressions" and "critical race theory" (CRT) have rapidly entered the mainstream political discourse and are being incorporated into "diversity, equity & inclusion" (DEI) training seminars in public & private schools, government agencies and major corporations. We'll consider bother whether or not CRT has empirically validity and to what extent DEI programs even use it. We'll also look at mass opposition to CRT by Republican leaders and at the local level with parents showing up a school board meetings, and whether they're opposed to any teaching about racism in America or merely oppose the demise of the older Civil Rights era model of racial reconciliation based on principles of "color blindness" and "equal opportunity" in favor of quasi-Marxist theories that treat whites as oppressors & non-whites as the oppressed.

We'll also look at some alternative frameworks for understanding racial & gender conflicts devised by those who reject "critical race theory" as too wedded to empirically suspect claims about pervasive racism & sexual violence in America and/or too socially divisive to foster greater sensitivity & reconciliation. The most prominent alternative is Irshad Manji's "Moral Courage Project", but we'll also consider Erec Smith's "empowerment theory", Chloé Valdary's "theory of enchantment", and Frank Dobbin's work on structural reforms that improve diversity without trying to change minds.

RELEVANT MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:

The Heterodox Academy had 2 panel discussions on DEI programs in June 2021 that went over the empirical research on what is effective and what is counterproductive for fostering diversity in universities & corporations:
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/278089851/
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/278090166/

The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) screened 2 films recently, "Better Left Unsaid" and "The Woke Reformation", that take a critical look at the "Great Awokening":
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/278476997/
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/278637802/

Back in Aug. 2020, we had a meetup entitled "Is Cancel Culture a Real Threat?" where we looked at whether attempts to control the social environment through deplatforming, firing & blacklisting people for objectionable speech is harming the "marketplace of ideas".
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/xhzwsrybclbmb/

Also back in Aug. 2020, the Skeptics had a meetup entitled "Is/Was There a Campus Free Speech Crisis?" that looked at the debates over free speech on college campuses given the spike in deplatforming of conservative speakers between 2015 & 2017, as well some high-profile riots on college campuses. While many liberal pundits like Matt Yglesias, Jesse Singal & Matt Taibbi said they thought this behavior would remain confined to college campuses, in retrospect they've said this now looks like the prelude to the "Great Awokening".
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/djzwsrybclbmb/

Back in July 2020, we had a meetup entitled "The Debate Over Reparations", and the re-emergence of this debate is tied to the Great Awokening, since it appears to have shifted more white liberals to favor reparations.
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/xhzwsrybckbjc/

In May 2018, we had a meetup entitled "Does America Offer Equal Opportunity?" where we looked at the effects of family upbringing & residential factors, college admissions & graduation rates, hiring biases & career decisions, and how all of these factors contribute to the racial & gender wage gaps. In general, it looks like upbringing has a big role in determining income mobility and racial hiring biases are still prevalent. But there's also a misplaced tendency to see college as a panacea for problems, and a lot of the information in the news media on wage gaps neglects the role of individual educational & career choices on racial/gender income disparities.
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/xvbrznyxgbtb/

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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major debates over the social & political factors behind the so-called "Great Awakening" and the spread of "critical race theory" and "diversity-equity-inclusion" initiatives in schools, government agencies & businesses. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 52 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. As you can see, I've listed some questions under each topic heading to stimulate discussion. We'll do our best to address most of them, as well as any other questions you might have. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. WHAT IS THE "GREAT AWOKENING" AND WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

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  1. The Hill w/ Richard Hanania, "The Origins Of Woke Capital" (video - 10:25 min.)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84oLmJqj-0I

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II. WHERE IS THE "GREAT AWOKENING" HEADED, AND HOW MIGHT IT AFFECT RACE & GENDER RELATIONS & AMERICAN POLITICS?

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2a) CNN w/ Chris Cillizza, "Why ‘wokeness’ is the biggest threat to Democrats in 2022" (video - 6:41 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AxDv3Eoj2Y

2b) Gail Heriot & Richard Hanania, "How to Stop Wokeness" (video - 11:34 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPLXNtifPKU

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III. WHAT IS "CRITICAL RACE THEORY" AND ARE "DIVERSITY-EQUITY-INCLUSION" INITIATIVES BENEFICIAL OR HARMFUL?

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3a) Marc Lamont Hill w/ Imani Perry, "Princeton Professor Explains Critical Race Theory" (video - 8:42 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2KL8oHxW8A

3b) James Lindsay, "What Is Critical Race Theory?" (video - 5:05 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zy6DQoRYQw

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IV. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ALTERNATIVES TO "CRITICAL RACE THEORY" & DO THEY OFFER A BETTER APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING & AMELORIATING RACE & GENDER CONFLICTS?

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4a) NBC News w/ Irshad Manji, "Diversity Based On Labels Is Not Diversity At All" (video - 3:33 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo4OBDmlkRY

4b) Heterodox Academy w/ Frank Dobbin, "A Deep Dive into DEI: Research, Interventions, and Alternatives" (video - 1:13:18, listen from 40:00 to 46:15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkUkEIS0FTQ&t=39m59s

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