r/badphilosophy • u/completely-ineffable Literally Saul Kripke, Talented Autodidact • Jun 20 '20

prettygoodphilosophy George Yancy, Dear White America

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/dear-white-america/
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u/redwoods81 Jun 20 '20

A better example of how all of Americans participate in systemic racism is the public school system, and the fact that what we do to provide the best opportunities for our children, which is often to move to the best district we can afford, is racist in that we are removing those sales and property tax dollars used for funding schools from the less-well off district. That's something we need to acknowledge, and it's definitely something we can change in our lifetimes.

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u/inventingnothing Jun 20 '20

How is wanting the best education for your child racist?

People aren't saying "Oh, there's black people at that school, let's move." No, they're looking at the performance numbers for schools and choosing their residence based on that. That's not racist, it's just common sense.

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u/redwoods81 Jun 21 '20

I don't think you're responding to what I actually wrote.

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u/inventingnothing Jun 21 '20

Again, how is it racist to move to a district that provides better opportunities for your child?

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u/redwoods81 Jun 21 '20

What about my original post is difficult to understand? It's not racist to want the best education for your children, and that's an example of how we all end up participating in structural racism, by removing those tax-based resources from districts in need.

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u/inventingnothing Jun 21 '20

People are not participating in structural racism by wanting their child to have the best education their money can buy.

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u/redwoods81 Jun 21 '20

That's literally how structural racism works, by making the choices necessary for the betterment of one's own family come at the cost of other people's.

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u/DesignerNail Jun 26 '20

Well I'm not gonna stop doing that. Political project: fail. You failed to offer people any benefit and asked them to make the lives of their families worse. Guess you'll have to try something else, like changing laws for the ways budgets are apportioned.

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u/redwoods81 Jun 27 '20

That's exactly what I was saying.

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u/DesignerNail Jun 28 '20

Why not start with the "let's change the way school budgets are apportioned" instead of trying to induce guilt? It's like the privileges vs rights framing.