madstobias
Jessi Danger
madstobias
Jessi Danger
The Sky Does Not Bow
Okay, none of you know better than people who have attained degrees in this subject, kay? You're all a bunch of posturing high school-level schmucks.
When those degrees have the same seriousness and legitimacy as chemistry or calculus I'll consider taking their opinion seriously.
Same way as racism and sexism are terms that everyone can use as a vague way of saying they've been discriminated against, chemistry and calculus are just degrees that aren't any different than degrees in graphic design or liberal arts. They all share the same level of seriousness and legitimacy.
Racism and sexism have fairly clearly defined words actually. I don't see how they are vague in any meaningful way. And no, those other degrees are far more useful to the world. Graphic design is nice, but will it get you to the moon? Will it create medicine? Will it engineer the next great technology? Probably not.
Racism and sexism are terms that are clearly defined yet debated upon. But in a realm where things aren't distinguished from each other, I would say that yes, a degree in graphic design will take me to the moon, will create medicine, and will engineer the next great technology. Racism is racism, sexism is sexism, and a degree is a degree.
In terms of the overall helping of people, the sociological definitions and application of sexism and racism helps highlight racial and gender disparity so that those things can hopefully be expressed and corrected without other groups hijacking the terms and draining them of their seriousness. Those terms help to distinguish one group from another. I mean, one instance of racism and sexism is the same as any other. Some black person called me a cracker today, so I forced him into slavery. That’s equal racism.
I see, so you want nuance where it suites you but don't like it where it doesn't suite you. Well I say you take your masters in sociology and go submit a resume to be a chemical engineer.
It feels like you are draining the term of its seriousness by robbing of it its universal "badness," and transforming it into yet another tool for some political praxis. If a group of white kids beat up a black kid we would rightly call it a racist attack, or we would if they did it because the kid they beat up is black. However if a bunch of black kids attack a white kid, because he is a white kid, it doesn't get the much more terrible definition of "racist attack," heck if we buy into Tim Wise, its even understandable and slightly acceptable.
Hence why I don't buy into that line of thinking. You are in effect bastardizing the word and making it less of a general word for something bad and in essence making it look like merely a tool to claim moral superiority in all things and allow the bad actions of one group to be seen as less terrible. So if women advocates (As one Swedish professor did) having all men spend a year in jail just because, it isn't a sexist idea. But if a man suggests the same thing, a male professor from Sweden it would be considered a sexist idea via the magical property of selectively choosing what actions, ideas and hatreds are really bad based on who does them. If racism and sexism is bad, then ALL RACISM AND SEXISM IS BAD. Advocating that attitudes, actions and ideas should not be called racism or sexism (Which in a sense makes them sound less severe) because of who said them to whom is just a weasly self serving cop out.