E-Pluribus | Apr. 29, 2021

Here is a round up of the latest and best writing and musings on the rise of illiberalism in the public discourse:

Bari Weiss: What Is Systemic Racism?

Over on Substack, Bari Weiss’s latest Common Sense post presents six writers to whom Weiss posed the above question. As ubiquitous as that bit of jargon has become, a common definition would be indispensable in solving the problems implied by the term. But since even using the term can be read as a tacit acknowledgement of systemic racism’s impact on society, definitions diverge broadly based on the perspective of each writer. In spite of a lack of consensus, the short essays are worth reading.

Glenn Loury excerpt: Users of the phrase seldom offer any evidence beyond citing a fact about racial disparity while asserting shadowy structural causes that are never fully specified. We are all simply supposed to know how “systemic racism,” abetted by “white privilege” and furthered by “white supremacy,” conspire to leave blacks lagging behind.

[…]

Lara Bazelon excerpts: Let me tell you about how the criminal justice system operates in the state of Louisiana. Forget the Fourteenth Amendment that guarantees everyone the right to due process and equal protection. In this state, a “habitual offender” law allows prosecutors to double the maximum sentence of anyone convicted of a felony if they have a prior felony on their record.

[…]

My client’s case is not an anomaly. Neither is the system in Louisiana. Our legal system is based on indifference and animus toward Black lives, fueled by cruelty so casual that it is depraved, and white supremacy so systemic that it is foundational.

Chloé Valdary excerpts: Slavery was America’s original version of systemic racism: the dehumanization and enslavement of African Americans because of their color.

Jim Crow was another: the disenfranchisement by law of black Americans because of their skin. Jim Crow laws in the South meant, for example, that not only was it legal to discriminate against black Americans, but that it was also illegal to treat them humanely. Prejudice was mandatory. Segregation, public humiliations, and lynchings were encouraged by the political establishment whose social anxieties and deep-seated insecurities required the systematic degradation of others. It was, quite literally, systemic.

[…]

Perhaps for this reason alone, it is worth considering the limitations in using the metaphor of a mechanical “system” to describe racism, since racism becomes more likely when we are cold and mechanical, machine-like, numb to the conundrum of our own lives and those around us. If we want to combat the scourge of prejudice, we ought to commit to reversing this process, and take responsibility for the beauty of our own lives, both its tragedies and its joys.

Read it all here.

Conor Friedersdorf: Not Everything Should Be a Moral Reckoning

Writing at the Atlantic about the kerfuffle over Elon Musk’s upcoming gig hosting Saturday Night Live, Conor Friedersdorf doesn’t actually use the words “lighten up,” but the meaning comes through. When hosting an irreverent, late-night TV comedy sketch show is spoken of in solemn tones as “bestowing that honor,” a shark has been jumped. Even if SNL is a legend and classic show in its genre, it’s still just an irreverent, late-night TV comedy sketch show, not a public trust. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.

I suppose late-night comedy shows could reserve hosting duties as an honor for the morally irreproachable, and Americans could exile from TV comedy anyone who has spoken less than responsibly about COVID-19. But the society that results is going to be rather humorless, and I see no reason to think it would be more moral. King Solomon couldn’t reliably sit in moral judgment of every prospective SNL host. Neither can Lorne Michaels. Yet many commentators are encouraging the SNL producer to put a thumb on their side of the culture war as if justice demands it — as if any other choice will traumatize families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.

This is histrionic moral grandstanding.

Obeidallah is right that this controversy is not about Musk’s freedom of speech. It’s about the dysfunction that follows when a country lets differences in values color everything. But the failure to heap enough stigma on Musk and other cultural lightning rods of the moment is not what ails us.

Read the whole thing.

Elizabeth Bruenig: The Rise of ‘Woke Capital’ Is Nothing to Celebrate

While Elizabeth Bruenig is careful to mock Republicans for crocodile tears over the dangers of “woke corporate America,” she does not dismiss out of hand the notion of “the rise of activist industry.” While noting some satisfaction for the “lovers’ quarrel between big business and the right,” Bruenig also cautions Democrats not to fall for corporate America’s overtures to progressives, warning that capital can be a fickle beau.

The corporate defense of democracy is still mostly talk — none of which means the occupants of America’s finest corner offices are misrepresenting their political views. I assume that, like their highly educated and well-heeled peers, a good number of these titans of industry tend to lean blue and earnestly cultivate enlightened views. And yet that, too, is vaguely disconcerting. At a moment when Democrats are attempting to court the working class, publicly marrying their fortunes to those of capital is not only unsavory but unwise.

A reasonable counterpoint: What choice do right-thinking liberals have? American democracy is badly broken — unresponsive, unaccountable, broadly disconnected from the will of the people. Decades of gerrymandering have fractured many voting districts to favor the right wing, and the results of the 2020 census may well advance Republicans’ redistricting strategy even further.

[…]

So why not a marriage of convenience — at least a temporary one? For one: Capital is unfaithful. It can, and does, play all sides. Many of the courageous businesses that protested North Carolina’s 2016 “bathroom bill,” for instance, also donated to political groups that helped fund the candidacies of the very politicians who passed the bill. It isn’t possible to cooperate with capital on social matters while fighting them in other theaters; capital can fight you in all theaters at once, all while enjoying public adulation for helping you, as well.

Read it all here.

Around Twitter

Twitter’s application of its policy against “[r]epeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone” seems to have been suspended in the wake of Tim Scott’s response to Joe Biden’s speech Wednesday night:

Some Republicans ramp up their offensive against politically active corporations:

Update on the cheerleader case before the Supreme Court:

A short thread on a disturbing fake TikTok account: “Cancel culture as a content strategy.”