Listen now (76 min) | In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Brian Lowery about racial equality and equity, privilege, and selfhood. They discuss the major data points and reasons for continued racial inequities, systemic racism, and different types of privilege. They also talk about the differences between equity, equality, and equality of opportunity. They also discuss the efficacy of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments in academia and in the workforce. They also discuss the self and how one defines the self, why a social context is important, the uniqueness of individuals, and many more topics.
Little disappointed with the softball questions to your guest. Few examples: why do certain "asians" earn more than "whites"? What steps would he take to reduce these inequities? He would probably say they are educated and how outcomes are caused by multiple factors but that's a good way to challenging him to say what is the role of racism in outcomes. Is it 10%? 1%?
Or how about asking him to explain why men are stopped more often than women by police? If stopping blacks--he completely ignores the fact they have the highest crime rate per capita--is his evidence of systemic racism, then this must be evidence of systemic sexism!
You might be interested in this piece on colorblindness. It's a more flushed out version of the argument than the one you discussed.
His argument that the police exist to protect the privileged class is utterly bizarre to me. I wish that was expanded on. Do "black" people not benefit from lower crime rates as well? These are the same people who will complain about food deserts and not put two and two together. In my city--yes we are flirting with criminal justice reform-- we're seeing huge increases in crime and it's largely in "black" and "brown" communities. And we're going to keep continuing on this path because people like him will never get any push back.
Thanks for listening! I am definitely not an expert on the topic and so I was not trying to give an exhaustive review in a time-limited discussion. That said, we both agreed in the discussion that if folks come in good faith to discuss these issues, it is worth having. Thanks for the comment and for listening and engaging.
Little disappointed with the softball questions to your guest. Few examples: why do certain "asians" earn more than "whites"? What steps would he take to reduce these inequities? He would probably say they are educated and how outcomes are caused by multiple factors but that's a good way to challenging him to say what is the role of racism in outcomes. Is it 10%? 1%?
Or how about asking him to explain why men are stopped more often than women by police? If stopping blacks--he completely ignores the fact they have the highest crime rate per capita--is his evidence of systemic racism, then this must be evidence of systemic sexism!
You might be interested in this piece on colorblindness. It's a more flushed out version of the argument than the one you discussed.
https://www.thefp.com/p/actually-color-blindness-isnt-racist
His argument that the police exist to protect the privileged class is utterly bizarre to me. I wish that was expanded on. Do "black" people not benefit from lower crime rates as well? These are the same people who will complain about food deserts and not put two and two together. In my city--yes we are flirting with criminal justice reform-- we're seeing huge increases in crime and it's largely in "black" and "brown" communities. And we're going to keep continuing on this path because people like him will never get any push back.
Thanks for listening! I am definitely not an expert on the topic and so I was not trying to give an exhaustive review in a time-limited discussion. That said, we both agreed in the discussion that if folks come in good faith to discuss these issues, it is worth having. Thanks for the comment and for listening and engaging.