One thing I think your example of your friend illuminates is the pervasive adoption, across the activist class but increasingly across society at large, of something like Kendi's "you're either antiracist or you're racist" binarism. The resentment your friend felt over being made to take a stand or endur…
One thing I think your example of your friend illuminates is the pervasive adoption, across the activist class but increasingly across society at large, of something like Kendi's "you're either antiracist or you're racist" binarism. The resentment your friend felt over being made to take a stand or endure odious labels wasn't due to some latent racist indifference (as far as I can tell), but due to being put in a position where he either commits to the specific goals, designs, and practices of the activists, and thereby potentially suffers intolerable financial costs, or he becomes vulnerable to reputational costs that are both financially *and* personally agonizing. From the activists' perspective, they are advancing the cause of justice. But your friend just wants his business to run and to maybe support justice in a way that is less totalizing than the vision the activists have.
The only way out of this predicament, at least currently, is to apply counterpressure of various forms. Your suggestions to your friend were good, but sometimes those measures aren't enough to satisfy the demands. Backlash to activism can work. Setting up support systems where people who are financially or reputationally harmed can recover funds or undergo reputation rehabilitation are other techniques.
I think your point about focusing on the *incentives* of activism is a smart one and worth some more thought.
This is a really thoughtful reply.
One thing I think your example of your friend illuminates is the pervasive adoption, across the activist class but increasingly across society at large, of something like Kendi's "you're either antiracist or you're racist" binarism. The resentment your friend felt over being made to take a stand or endure odious labels wasn't due to some latent racist indifference (as far as I can tell), but due to being put in a position where he either commits to the specific goals, designs, and practices of the activists, and thereby potentially suffers intolerable financial costs, or he becomes vulnerable to reputational costs that are both financially *and* personally agonizing. From the activists' perspective, they are advancing the cause of justice. But your friend just wants his business to run and to maybe support justice in a way that is less totalizing than the vision the activists have.
The only way out of this predicament, at least currently, is to apply counterpressure of various forms. Your suggestions to your friend were good, but sometimes those measures aren't enough to satisfy the demands. Backlash to activism can work. Setting up support systems where people who are financially or reputationally harmed can recover funds or undergo reputation rehabilitation are other techniques.
I think your point about focusing on the *incentives* of activism is a smart one and worth some more thought.