Peterson's 12 Rules for Life v2.0-- actual book discussion

[bennyboy]

I'm not blind.  I know black people have it bad.  But the solution to racism isn't more racism-- it's blanket policies that support the rights of all citizens equally.

Policies aren't enough, buddy. Attitudes need to be addressed, privilege needs to be acknowledged, you can't just talk equality for all, when some of us are happily privileged in one or more ways, and many others are not. Address the root of the issue first before you try to solve the problem overall.

Right now, the root of the problem is largely the dickish stance of the PC left. If you make self-demonizing a moral criterion, or expect individual citizens to extend rights to others that they are not afforded themselves because of their skin color, then you are doing it wrong.

Do you really think you're going to reduce racism overall by telling people that because of the color of their skin, you expect them to accept differential treatment from other citizens? Is that really your solution to the problem of racism? This is so obviously wrong that it shouldn't even need to be mentioned.

The truth is, you and I live in a different universe because words just don't mean what you are trying to make them mean.  When you say, "A should be protected, and B doesn't need to be," then this is differential treatment-- which you claim to support because of your love of equality.  Do you not see the irony of trying to get people to be treated equally by endorsing a policy which is designed to treat them differently?

If you mean affirmative action and such, these are necessary (albeit flawed) temporary solutions to swing the [symbolic] pendulum a bit more towards the center. Without enacting these "solutions", the pendulum is just going to continue to linger at one end and never hit the center.

I'm clearly talking about your assertion that since white people are privileged, they do not require or deserve protection from racism. What's the harm in extending equal privileges and protections to ALL citizens?

As for affirmative action-- what happened to your pleading that people be valued according to their personal merits and abilities? Why doesn't some white kid in a trailer park get the same scholarships that a black kid in the projects can get?

How about this, and I'll keep saying it, and you'll keep not getting it-- if you target for socioeconomic issues, you can improve the plight of black people preferentially without actually having to make a racist policy. Make scholarships for poor kids. Rich black kids aren't particularly disenfranchised. Yale accepting one of the Obama kids to fill a quota isn't really going to do much for the problem, is it? Let Bubba Smith Jr. have a chance, right along with Shaniqua Jones.

Overall, since black people are poorer, then making policies that tend to reduce the advantages of wealth WILL in fact benefit black people more. So do that. Why do you have to make it a race thing?