1. I’ve been considering this quote, transcribed from recent memory—so it’s approximate—and wonder how it impacts you:
“Incompetent leadership is bad and dangerous enough. But leadership full of malice, deliberate evil, is beyond what a genuine democracy can tolerate… our situation now invites despair, but our work is to keep showing up, to keep refusing that invitation by living a life that is wholehearted for the good.”
To keep a private discussion private, I won’t reveal this source, but it’s someone I’ve known a long time and who contains more wisdom than most. What is your reaction in the face of malevolence?
2. “We bitch about our difficulties along the rough surface of our path, we curse every sharp stone underneath, until at some point in our maturation, we finally look down to see that they are diamonds.”
~Frank Jude Boccio, Mindfulness Yoga
3. I received lots of appreciative feedback regarding last week’s CxD #131 which focused on the complexities of our current #1 anti-racist best-seller White Fragility. Since then, I’ve read a much more brutal and less diplomatic critique of the book. Here’s a short excerpt:
The book’s most amazing passage concerns the story of Jackie Robinson:
The story of Jackie Robinson is a classic example of how whiteness obscures racism by rendering whites, white privilege, and racist institutions invisible. Robinson is often celebrated as the first African American to break the color line…
While Robinson was certainly an amazing baseball player, this story line depicts him as racially special, a black man who broke the color line himself. The subtext is that Robinson finally had what it took to play with whites, as if no black athlete before him was strong enough to compete at that level. Imagine if instead, the story went something like this: “Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.”
There is not a single baseball fan anywhere – literally not one, except perhaps Robin DiAngelo, I guess – who believes Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier because he “finally had what it took to play with whites.” Everyone familiar with this story understands that Robinson had to be exceptional, both as a player and as a human being, to confront the racist institution known as Major League Baseball. His story has always been understood as a complex, long-developing political tale about overcoming violent systemic oppression. For DiAngelo to suggest history should re-cast Robinson as “the first black man whites allowed to play major league baseball” is grotesque and profoundly belittling.
Robinson’s story moreover did not render “whites, white privilege, and racist institutions invisible.” It did the opposite. Robinson uncovered a generation of job inflation for mediocre white ballplayers in a dramatic example of “privilege” that was keenly understood by baseball fans of all races fifty years before White Fragility. Baseball statistics nerds have long been arguing about whether to put asterisks next to the records of white stars who never had to pitch to Josh Gibson, or hit against prime Satchel Paige or Webster McDonald. Robinson’s story, on every level, exposed and evangelized the truth about the very forces DiAngelo argues it rendered “invisible.”
It takes a special kind of ignorant for an author to choose an example that illustrates the mathematical opposite of one’s intended point, but this isn’t uncommon in White Fragility, which may be the dumbest book ever written. It makes The Art of the Deal read like Anna Karenina.
Which, of course, invoked outrage:
I subscribed to this site b/c I admire *Hate, Inc.*: that news media leverage hate to score readers is exactly right. But this is such a dismissive slam of DiAngelo. It doesn't address her argument; it's not clear whether or not Taibbi has actually read the DiAngelo's book. This is just "Let's get nasty about something naughty to get nasty about!" Using random quotes from DiAngelo for target practice. What a bumper crop of Hate. Why so defensive, Matt? Do you think racism is over now? If not, what are your ideas for how to stop the people in power from continuing to edge out whomever they can, i.e. those with the least power, a group that consistently includes blacks? If you've never seen a white person freak out when confronted with whatever demeaning/racist thing he or she said or did, then I think you're not paying attention. This is what DiAngelo's book describes: how people in power can stop defensively clinging to their power. How to recognize the knee-jerk discomfort/embarrassment/shame of being called out for acting superior-- and then let it go, and so maybe we might learn something. You've got the knee-jerk discomfort/embarrassment/shame part down pretty good, Matt, I think.
To which I thought this comments exchange is worth our consideration:
The humble CxD view is that extreme reactions are rarely useful “on either side”; however, our work is to find a way to connect as a top priority, above being right. The difficulty is in a larger context when people are taking actions that are causing immense harm, regardless of their intentions. When that behavior and its consequences becomes visible—in the case of White Fragility, experts in the field of race relations are calling out the book as having toxic consequences—its flaws must be unshadowed and addressed. Good intentions do not equal appropriate action, and defensive righteousness is often the result. I often struggle with this very error and need to call it out when I see it, especially in myself.
4. In less tense matters, have you ever encountered a thing that made you want to dance with Joy that someone, as an expression of their being, said “I need to bring this existence?” because it makes the universe a better place for existing and because if doesn’t, it MUST? Here is an example of that kind of thing. I introduce you to the PLANTYFLUTESIZER! Homage to _bichopalo_ over on Instagram for creating this wonder. Please click on the photo to watch the Magic in action!
Still in progress, I can’t really tell how many hours, days and months I've spent working on this. The entire structure is a combination of different instruments but the main one is a sort of sequencer with 8 notes limit that can be combinated on different patterns. An electric impulse actives a motor with an arm connected that hits a sensor running a pre-recorded note.
There’s a lot to speak about this but on this particular post the real rockstars are my little partners: Pico and Verdi.
This two little fellas have been with me from a while, making me laught and giving me incredible presents every single day. It’s incredible how these little creatures can emit such an intense light. If you have pets you know what I mean. They are family, pure unconditional love, no matter what, specially these weird days of quarantine is needed more than ever.
If you had three months to work on a project, uninterrupted and with your full heart, what would you want to create? What’s stopping you, exactly? Naming those reasons might be a way to discern what’s true from what you only think is true.