A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition | Erec Smith

[@just_another32]

So good to hear a dissenting and unpopular voice. This is interesting and informative, thank you. Please continue speaking truth to power whatever the cost!

[@barrycohen311]

Well said Victoria.

[@willmercury]

Parrhesia!

[@BrianDonato]

Yes. What's sad though is that his voice is actually the popular voice - notice the like/dislike ratio. Unfortunately the mainstream media only seems to highlight the unpopular voices right now so they trick people into thinking that's how most people think you know?

[@Steve_Jarrett-Jordan]

I would highly recommend check out Dr Sheena Mason's KZbin page then. She's doing amazing things with her Theory of Racelessness that uses much of what Erec speaks to here plus much more.

[@zzzaaayyynnn]

You are the kind of voice we need in the academic community!

[@viramandybur4915]

Outstanding, Professor, please keep speaking out!

[@bestany5517]

I can’t tell you how grateful I am to hear this developing discussion. Thank you.

[@DavidAsh42]

"Anti-racism framed in a theory of empowerment." YES! I'm so glad to have discovered your work Professor Smith. Your expertise and willingness to speak truth is really needed right now. Your words give me hope and help me come to terms with the painful loss of friends I've recently experienced, based on these issues. Thank you

[@emmalouie1663]

You are losing friends? How can this complicated psychology stuff help anybody mend friendships though. I think anti-racism is ruining relationships. It's not healthy whatever it is.

[@philipsdeb]

Maybe we should all accept we are simply human and move on.

[@sandrakessler5499]

Language is being used to obfuscate not to clarify! This has always been a hallmark of academia. But it is now totally out of hand. It’s what grifters do.

[@NoNameNo.5]

It comes from the French Marxist tradition.....where the more esoteric something is, the more brilliant it must be! Insanity

[@RandsomeHam]

Yeah I know; I watched the first two minutes of this vid and I came to the same conclusion. Brother likes the sound of his own voice and the smell of his own farts.

[@Holly-days]

Sandra, please see my comment to RandsomeHam and clarify if I've misunderstood you. Thanks.

[@matthewreeves6084]

@@RandsomeHam Translation: “this guy is talking above my comprehension level, therefore, I’ll just dismiss him with a ‘clever’ quip to make myself feel better about my own ignorance”

[@RandsomeHam]

​@@matthewreeves6084 I see your Rosetta Stone was broken so you went for a projector instead. Your man is selling the same onanistic, self-aggrandizing drivel Thomas Sowell was only somehow less thought out. I address it at length in another comment as a reply to the vid itself, the gist of which was to point out that his argument is informed by and rationalized through value judgments and moralistic grandstanding both of which could be flipped and used _against_ his argument.

[@markvanderbilt7483]

This is exceptionally good, and jives with the parenting philosophy of many immigrant parents whose children find success despite some degree of disadvantage.

[@juana7035]

Yes! I'm a Refugee in the US whose parents couldn't speak English, have elementary school educations and were able to own successful businesses in South Florida. Decades later their PNW is higher than most US born individuals- hard work and living within their budget created generational wealth. No time for victimhood when you have little kids to feed!!

[@mljrotag6343]

@@juana7035 Me too. Both parents were in their mid 30s zero English, zero education...my mother didn't finish middle school and my father didn't finish HS. Bought two houses and gave my brother and I every chance to make a better life for ourselves...which we did.

[@davidgardner4779]

You have NO IDEA how nice it is to hear someone such as yourself who is black and who has an academic background of a discipline applicable to our current race situation. A number of the thoughts and ideas that you have shared are conclusions I have come to myself as a white person who is NOT an academic in this area. Thank you again. I have subscribed and will be listening to probably almost everything you put out just like I do with Thomas Sowell, Colemn Hughs, John Mcwhorter and Glenn Lowry, amongst others. 🙏🏻

[@just_another32]

Michael Jackson was right after all wasn't he? It doesn't matter if your black or white (or mixed race of anything else, for that matter) :-)

[@BushaBandulu]

There are lots of blacks who think the same, but are labeled/attacked with adhominims🙏🏾💯

[@a_lacan6870]

@@just_another32 MJ's "Black or White" is about racial tolerance, which implies that racial intolerance exists. Therefore, thinking critically about how racism plays apart in our society seems to be a logical progression.

[@just_another32]

@@a_lacan6870 I see your point, but it doesn't address mine. That isn't what I was referring to

[@ReallyNFW]

@@just_another32 I liked what you said :) that smooth brain can go play in the corner by himself/themself. Anyways the Professor's video is amazing and makes me feel a lot better about the world and less crazy for coming to some of the same concussions.

[@selfwhiteous8660]

Kendi and di angelo didn’t like this...

[@just_another32]

No but I kinda think they might like you name :o

[@willmercury]

They only like their own reflections.

[@roberthodgins6584]

The two thumbs down, are mad cuz they can’t use Kafka traps or any of the other classic ‘isms’ from the meme ‘discourse diagrams’, anymore.

[@just_another32]

Hehe!

[@Nevila-v7n]

Yasssssss

[@Bornearth75]

💖💖 this gives me hope.

[@EricSmith9000]

Thank you for your brave voice, and for connecting your work to other fields of research in such an interesting way.

[@basementmadetapes]

I appreciate your analysis here and your alternative offering. If the effect of CRT is to impose some victim identity on ppl, then I definitely agree it's lost its way. Obviously u appreciate a distinction form the original contributors to the concept and the emergent neoliberal monstrosity that it's become. And while a lot of the comments in the feed are valuable, I do find a number of them are here more so to use your analysis to forgo their own work to understand CRT or other notions that otherwise might challenge their prior biases. And I know that's not your fault or that u have somehow encouraged a number of bad faith actors to use your work to justify their belligerence, but it's always one of those things that I wish wasn't so. There's a coolness, a nuance to your work and ppl take it to reinforce their own already stodgy, imbedded opinion and that's a shame.

[@dustinirwin1]

Such a thoughtful essay. So much of this is beyond my expertise, but I really enjoy your approach and found your essay though-provoking.

[@keithtokash6431]

Empower this moderate voice please.

[@juana7035]

Can I clone you? Can I rent space in your brilliant mind? I'm subscribing, I can learn so much from you. Thank you. The US needs more strong, intelligent men like you, we have a deficit right now.

[@CoreyChambersLA]

People are not black and white. We are all different shades of the same color. There is one race: The Human Race

[@johnsiman5063]

0:57 parrhesia = παρρησία , ἡ, (πᾶς, ῥῆσις) = outspokenness, frankness, freedom of speech, claimed by the Athenians as their privilege

[@literatious308]

Thanks for posting definition & derivation. I was unfamiliar with the term & imagine most listeners find themselves in the same boat.

[@rifrafbarker]

If it hasn’t happened yet, I’d love to see a conversation between Erec and Peter Begossian on Parrhesia. They are both advocating for it, and it’s so important. So many of us are scared to bring in good faith inquiry for fear of being shut down and demonized.

[@niallmackintosh1053]

Jordan B. Peterson?!?

[@TheArtemis07]

Yes! What a great suggestion!

[@deedeeequestrian8482]

It's wonderful to see a person in academia pushing back against some really bad ideas that have become so prevalent. So many professors seem to be indoctrinating rather that teaching critical thinking. Thank you for shedding some light on how differently whites and blacks identify. .

[@zgobermn6895]

Wow, excellent analysis! Keep speaking up, the academy needs more of your kind of voice.

[@earlanderson4002]

I'm so glad to hear you return to "logical fallacies." I used to teach a dozen or more logical fallacies in composition courses and they always met with a collective rolling of the eyes. Decades went by and "logical fallacies" gave way to "personal expression" as the basis of composition. Now, in this postmodern age, all the logical fallacies appear in "social justice" speech, no fallacy being omitted. It's as if those old-fashioned modernist lists of fallacies, which we were meant to avoid, now serve as a handbook of how to think and what to write, say, and do.

[@gorgo4910]

You are not wrong. I feel like this entire last year was a refresher course from debate and geometry classes. Or a new game show: “Can You Catch the Invalid Inference?”

[@markpaul1383]

👍

[@saiello2061]

Who is the audience for this piece? If its for academic peers then fine, as it would be using familiar language, terms and concepts. If for the general population, then it would benefit greatly from expansion and explanation with concrete examples. McWhorter is excellent in this regard.

[@willievanilly2122]

We salute you Erec Smith! Keep speaking the truth! No matter the cost!

[@mcscronson]

Problem-based learning as a mode of collective bonding, competence/confidence building and self-transcendence - yes!

[@lifewasgiventous1614]

We need reasonable voices now more than ever, God bless you my man. Gonna have to watch this again to really mull through it.

[@RandsomeHam]

My man, all you had to say is that you think that there may be performative aspect to the approach of certain proponents of aspects of anti-racism/CRT, because everything else in this vid is moralizing conjecture and name dropping. For real, what makes you think that the criticism you levy on them for supposedly feeding their narcissism by perpetuating a victimhood narrative, can't be applied to you as you fueling your own narcissism through the fetishization of individualism? That you're merely engaging in self-aggrandizing moralism by pitting your "empowerment" paradigm against a strawman of supposed, emotionally vulnerable peons seeking a rationalization of victimhood for their "lack of fulfillment"?

[@galaxytrio]

Interesting, but I prefer plainer, less elevated "academic" language. It's tiresome.

[@jtalbainWSA]

Seriously, if he wants to reach the "unwashed masses" and fight back against the current parasitic ideology, speak plainly.

[@freeyourmind9997]

@@jtalbainWSA I'd assume his goals are to penetrate academia. Which seems to be the root of the problem. You have to be precise and use flowery language to an extent.

[@kenyafromcali]

His audience IS academia my friend. :)

[@richware1]

This video was obviously produced originally for an academic audience, so I can understand all the academic jargon. I would suggest if you plan to post to KZbin you consider your audience and use plain language. There are many intellectual academics that post to KZbin and are able to use language that effectively communicates their points so that non-academics can understand. I'll watch some more of your videos, hopefully this is an exception.

[@canopeaz]

Remember kids...your victimhood, and its ability to induce feelings of guilt in others, is your power.

[@jesboogie]

I am coining a new term: racial racketeering.

[@cjpapasito]

Superb work professor, very insightful and helpful

[@jeeed6390]

Where has this guy been?

[@Johnzen03]

I'm sure there are a lot of professors who feel this way, however, they're afraid to speak up OR if they do they are swept under the rug; their voices silenced.

[@TheArtemis07]

I love this so much! One of best talks I have heard on this topic. John McWhorter is my hero, and I am sure he is on board!

[@kevincurrie-knight3267]

I DEEPLY appreciate this approach, especially because Dr. Smith makes (deserved) note of CRT's positive contributions. I am a scholar in the field of Education, and some of the best histories to do with race and its effect on history have been written from CRT perspectives. I share Dr. Smith's worry that CRT has potential to overstep the norms of healthy discourse and even to backfire relative to its generally stated goals of weakening racism. But I also worry that our contemporary culture has this "either laud or wholly reject" stance toward CRT and toward folks like Ibram X. Kendi. I am REALLY glad to see some voices that come from that lonely middle position. Thanks, Dr. Smith!

[@arquilli1]

“I’m not here to make enemies, but I’m not necessarily here to make friends either” Well taken. Rescue what kernel of truth is embedded in the anti racism pedagogy (perhaps rebrand it?) and dispatch with the dogmatic excesses. This country needs your voice and the unbridled truth. This must have taken a lot of courage. Thank you

[@caljader3388]

Truth works for me!🤓👍

[@MaryMcDonaldLewis]

Dr. Smith, I have dubbed thee the "Kendidote." Thank you.

[@GuitarSchoolVideo]

Yay! I learned some stuff I didn’t know. I would feel good about sending my kids to this professor’s class…

[@just_another32]

Wow, fascinating. This explains a lot. Post-traumatic slave syndrome is an interesting concept. It might explain why racial identity politics and CRT have hitherto (at least till 2020) not gained much traction in UK politics and culture.

[@just_another32]

@Nathan Wilcox who is we sorry?

[@just_another32]

Just to explain what I meant in my comment... this post slavery syndrome thing he talks about... it can explain why CRT has such traction in the US - since African Americans have that history. Many Africans who have recently immigrated to the UK and other countries (including the US) are not descendants of slaves. So they do not share that part of history and thus this "syndrome" may not be applicable to them.

[@just_another32]

I don't think it is scientific! I am talking about the difference between black people in the US and blank people in the UK, and how racism identity politics took a long time to get any foothold here in the UK. I do think one of the reasons for that might be the fact that many black people do not have descendents that were slaves in the UK. I'm not really making an argument. I'm just reflecting / thinking aloud having listened to this gentleman. All the best :)

[@just_another32]

*black not blank

[@just_another32]

@Nathan Wilcox I don't know where here is or who they are! :D

[@royhurst1004]

Excellent, Eric Smith. I became aware of you about 6 months ago. I don't hear from you enough.

[@benaiahwright937]

A real CRT debate is going to have to happen.

[@sandrakessler5499]

Glad I just found this! Had no idea Heterodox Academy has a You Tube channel! I’ve seen Erec speak before. I studied rhetoric in all its forms in grad school many, many moons ago. But it equipped me to have a successful career in policy and fundraising.

[@scottl6384]

We need MORE of this. Keep speaking!!

[@jonathanbell7287]

there is so much so to digest here. Bravo. Will actually need to watch/listen twice to absorb all points...a transcript would be helpful- perhaps I need to get his book. while I'm not a Marxist finely tuned

[@nickgeva8225]

One of the best videos I have seen this year! You should be way more popular than you are 👌

[@114Riggs]

I've seen you on a panel. I admire your patience sir!

[@ForeverYoungKickboxer]

This needs 10 million views!

[@mlovmo]

Getting activists together to solve problems that are mundane and "not existential or exciting." Ha. "Existential and exciting" is exactly the reason young people join the CSJ movement in first place and NOT Churches!

[@darthkahnobis]

Thank you! And thank you to all who have commented. Be decent to one another.

[@jehugo66]

They used to call them “The Four R’s,” which has been cheapened to “The Three R’s.” Wow, thank God you are bringing back Rhetoric. I saw you on NBC News and love your approach. I embrace All and know things were worse and need to improve. This discord we’re having could spiral into the same violence and self-oppression as Post-Apartheid South Africa has had. My Ancestor, Robert Dakin, fought from Boston to Yorktown , VA with the Pennsylvania troops of George Washington’s army who were at Cornwallis’s surrender there. After the Revolution he returned to York. Glad to see such a Wiseman in Academics there, a great Professor of Rhetoric. Thanks.

[@geangarcia2673]

Thank you. I just failed a program here in Texas because my “rhetoric” program was really an indoctrination into woke social justice politics. Really turned me (a liberal) off of the humanities and liberalism.

[@FreeYourMindTR]

💛💛💛

[@allyourbase888]

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@johnbeaubien8826]

Thank you for this late Birthday present!! (I thought it was just me .I used the term: multi-colored-white-people way back in the early 90's)... A Critique of Anti-racism in Rhetoric and Composition: The Semblance of Empowerment - probably the most expensive book I have seen on Amazon in a long time - but after that analysis you just provided, am probably going to buy it for sure. Empowerment Theory sounds really interesting - you gave a lot of practical solutions to a very, very complicated subject, Really excellent presentation: lots of technical terminology - but well defined.

[@JorJorIvanovitch]

Booker T. Washington had the most functionally effective approach toward obtaining results: Focus on hard work, pragmatism, demonstrating competence, trustworthiness, thrift, etc. and the desired feelings of equality will be granted from the target group. Of course, W.E.B. DuBois was correct in the inherent equality between blacks and whites. Declaring that a priori, and insisting on that approach when a large segment of the audience had prejudice was like insisting on an outcome without a plan on how to achieve it. DuBois would say there is nothing to "achieve" because it is a "self-evident truth." Yet, it was not a truth that was self-evident to the target audience---white society---one was trying to persuade. Some people are persuaded by rational argument, abstractly or analytically. Most people, though, require observed experience. Witnessing people exhibit virtue is a more potent means of persuading someone that you are good rather than a logical argument. Washington understood the limits of psychology in this way that Dubois did not. As such, Washington's approach was the means to achieve Dubois' ends. Once white society saw the worth of blacks and viewed blacks as earning their respect, whites then realized it was a truth that should've been self-evident to them all along. It is unfortunate that in order to persuade people, we sometimes have to prove ourselves to earn their respect rather than declare it from the start. This, however, seems to be an inescapable component of human nature and social relations that pervades our thinking and existing in the world at times. Not all the time. Nor is it an omnipotent force, but it is a component.

[@stanleymcomber4844]

All this talk of racism, aka, slavery. Why has no one exposed and created a front to attack and end it in the continent that still has it functioning today, NOW. Real slavery, not “thought - slavery”, real slavery, - being bought and sold. Address that and maybe I’ll start to listen to these “thought” issues.

[@andrearivas8605]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic. Please keep sharing so others may hear this perspective.

[@CoreyChambersLA]

Truth

[@stacyisaak2258]

Yes the truth finally! Thank you Professor!

[@Bolaniullen]

i never heard of this kind of teaching. finally i have a word for it that is not ''get over yourself'' or ''get into the real world'' because it sound a lot more mean than i actually want to be.

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

Volunteers are lining up to be working with me because I'm providing them with good self esteem feedback

[@j53iliff2]

Spot on

[@lunibombom4551]

Why can't we wait till the children are older to teach them anti racism and non white washed history? Shouldn't we allow them to grow strong mentally, emotionally, and physically prior to receiving extremely touchy information that may damage the child regardless of their phenotypes????

[@thomaspayne7617]

Excellent to the Nth degree. We need more of this.

[@jsedmonds256]

What is the best way to buy your (Eric Smith) book? If it contains clear and thoughtful ideas like you share in this video I want to read it.

[@GrumpyGrebo]

Putting discrimination in the mirror makes discrimination. Anti-racism and racism are different sides of the same coin. Throw away that dirty penny.

[@Wisemuse]

If you don't like racism, don't be racist.

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

And how am I doing that? Because I did the work so u didn't have too but he won't stop talking about raice

[@horaciomontes6154]

Excellent!!!

[@endigosun]

It’s already framed in a theory of empowerment for many of us... why do you assume that it’s not?

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

And people constantly bringing him down constantly

[@MrCzto]

Sadly this is way to complicated for the hustlers on both sides of the isle...

[@tabsis9017]

I'm so sick of the racial grift people use to get laws made and for politicians to get in power.

[@gratuitousfootnote1183]

thank you so much for your critiques, average citizens are not allowed

[@just_another32]

Be braver. We all have to be. Otherwise this nonsense never ends until it reaches something terrible.

[@gratuitousfootnote1183]

@@just_another32 doing what i can

[@arquilli1]

Wowowow

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

Instead they all gosip and hate because I got out here and I talked to them so I can get to the root of the problem

[@-Nos-]

The concept of anti-racism foolishly or with malicious intent commits the false dichotomy/black and white fallacy (excuse the puny-ness). It does this by not offering not-racist as a more evident position for one to hold.

[@just_another32]

Yep, well spotted. Most people just swallow it.

[@mrage22r]

In regards to getting opposing groups to get together and solve real problems, or as you put it “getting over ourselves to solve material and social issues” - one counter argument I think is often made is that some of these social issues are specifically race related. Thus, race needs to be focused on, or at the least included, in the problem solving. To go further, people may also say that all social problems have a fundamental race component because America was founded upon racially-based slavery. Therefore, the compounding effects of this carry on to the present whether it is apparently obvious or not.

[@mercantilistic]

You appear to have missed the point completely. Don't choose those problems to work on. Choose boring things not racially charged things.

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

Not down misersery likes company

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

And if u are protected by God deamonds can't face u

[@prybarknives]

"I'm not here to make enemies..." (unfortunately) *enemies gather Professor Smith, is the idea of an inability to discontinue a fight, against a destructive paradigm (that has been substantially mitigated), until that paradigm has been completely reversed (regardless of the obvious impossibility of the task), any part of your thinking? Particularly, the idea that if any racists, of any degree of racism, exist and behave racistly (regardless of how few), no minority is free of racism. Obviously this is something an exaggeration in regards to some anti racist theory/platform, but not much of an exaggeration to many. And I don't mean to imply that the number of acting racists, is so miniscule that they are of no consequence. The idea is more that, as a society we have come a long way, as a 51yo I can remember overt racial hostility toward blacks, from certain classes of whites, as a kid. Similar behaviors wouldn't be tolerated today, at least in the same town/situation. But this improvement seems unseen or at least unacknowledged, by many anti racists. As though today is no better, racially, than the 50's, or even that today is possibly worse. It seems like the tendency to require/expect rapid perfection, as opposed to slow progress, is a common trait. And it has it's benefits surely, but the more these expectations become widely held, and impatiently demanded, the more exponentially counterproductive becomes the seeking. Anyway, rambling over, great video, will look for more from you!

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

That's the only way u'll be strong enough not to let the deamonds get to u

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

But they took care of me when my family wasn't there

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

So u might give a man a pill but that isn't going to help his selfasteem

[@jacobbritton7359]

Excellent lecture, professor!

[@FreeYourMindTR]

Yes. Just. Yes.

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

Why because if ur standing in my way ima take u out

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

The men that I'm treating are all hurting and they are all been hurt

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

Cuz they soon came to realise that love dosent hurt

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

Because our DNA is all connected tru God

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

But I'm treating people with trauma

[@citizencaitlin7240]

This is so helpful. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@hustlehustlehustle]

One who listens to people like professor Smith, Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter and Glenn Loury vis-a-vis the work of people like DiAngelo and Kendi, can't honestly deny that the former are much more eloquent, nuanced, coherent and ultimately intellectually profound.

[@marcusTanthony]

I totally agree that without the intrapersonal foundation, there is no true empowerment. You mention mindfulness and meta cognition, which is great. But what’s lacking here is that genuine presence or mindfulness isn’t possible unless we embrace a healing journey. This means there’s a need to acknowledge our own pain and suffering - the pain body - and come into right relationship with it. If we don’t do this we can’t really be fully present, and we end up projecting our pain onto others, blaming them for it, or asking them to save us from it.

[@niallmackintosh1053]

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

[@richardfeit8296]

I've been using the term "post identity" to refine the difference between age, gender and "content of character", from identity. We are people first, and therefore it is simple meanness to attack an individuals personhood (toxic-masculinity for instance), however once we self-identify, the figurative gloves come off. Individuals do not have to respect identities. Allowances for one another for peaceful purposes is great, but once identified as Jew, White, Gay, Black, Trans, etc., the tribal instincts of venality demand "Pre-figurative Politics" (Never heard the term. Thank you for that.) Keep talking please. :)

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

I'm talking about humans

[@msstephaniediazcortez9701]

So in order for u to start to focus on ur self and do self work