In Reply to: DEI isn't illegal posted by DSCBruin on January 02, 2025 at 11:37:40
I just became aware of a book by some economist that came out in 1991 that breaks down how conservatives argue. It places their forms of argument in three main categories:
- argument of perversity: what liberals want to do would actually cause the opposite of what they want to achieve.
- argument of futility: what liberals want to achieve cannot be achieved anyway because it is against the nature of things.
- argument of jeopardy: what liberals want to achieve would actually create worse conditions for people they want to protect.
Hearing this was eye opening. So when I see the right's claim regarding DEI, affirmative action, or any attempt that tries to counter the generational impact of racist history of this country being an act of racism itself, I can see exactly what they are doing. It is the old school "argument of perversity" at work here.
Noticing the impact of the nation's racist history and trying to correct it, however awkwardly, is in itself an act of racism.