Romance is Racist

[RDKirk]

According to this Black Studies professor, romance is racist because romantic practices as we know them in American culture were invented in France.

The basis for her asserting that means those practices are racist is rooted in the Critical Race Theory assertion that everything about European culture is for the purpose of establishing their race as oppressors of all other races.

 

[chevyontheriver]

According to this Black Studies professor, romance is racist because romantic practices as we know them in American culture were invented in France.

The basis for her asserting that means those practices are racist is rooted in the Critical Race Theory assertion that everything about European culture is for the purpose of establishing their race as oppressors of all other races.

That was painful to watch!

 

[RocksInMyHead]

I encourage you to read her work rather than watching youtube videos with an agenda (her name is Dr. Sabrina Strings, not Springs). Some of her conclusions are a bit out there, but she makes some good points as well. Such is the case with many academics.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

That was painful to watch!

QFT! I only watched 3 mins.

 

[iluvatar5150]

That was painful to watch!

It was painful to watch, but not because of the academic's argument (regardless of how founded or unfounded it may be). The hosts were antagonist, uninformed about the subject, and generally awful, and then that guy interjecting over the top of it... why? Why is he there?

Here's the interview without the added commentary:

What I infer from the beginning of the interview, before it goes off the rails, is that her argument is that we in the west are conditioned to see white women as more worthy of romantic gestures than black women.

 

[RDKirk]

What I infer from the beginning of the interview, before it goes off the rails, is that her argument is that we in the west are conditioned to see white women as more worthy of romantic gestures than black women.

No, that's not what she said.

 

[iluvatar5150]

No, that's not what she said.

Yeah, that's pretty close to it - at least in the little bit of time they actually spent talking about the subject and not going off the rails because the hosts were jerks (I'd use much stronger language, but for forum rules - they're pretty disgusting). Going by the time stamps in the video I linked to (i.e. the one without the extra commentary), from about 1:30-2:30, she talks about how white, pretty Queen Gwynevere was set up as the idealized object of romantic gestures, then at 5:45, she talks about how slavery conditioned white men to feel entitled to "access to black women's bodies without having to go through the romantic cultural institution", then claims that black women have to deal with a situation where men don't want to "show them respect and love."

Though feel free to give us your take on what her argument was.

 

[Servus]

She's helping to keep racism going full throttle. Might as well still be 1975.

 

[AlexB23]

According to this Black Studies professor, romance is racist because romantic practices as we know them in American culture were invented in France.

The basis for her asserting that means those practices are racist is rooted in the Critical Race Theory assertion that everything about European culture is for the purpose of establishing their race as oppressors of all other races.

The excessive amount of wokeness in 2024 make centrists such as myself wanna do the following:

 

[mourningdove~]

Life is better with romance!

 

[IceJad]

I encourage you to read her work rather than watching youtube videos with an agenda (her name is Dr. Sabrina Strings, not Springs). Some of her conclusions are a bit out there, but she makes some good points as well. Such is the case with many academics.

"Some of her conclusion are a bit out there". The last time I read something to the effect of "a bit out there". It caused the collapse of an entire continent and led to one of the most costly wars in history. Another time such "a bit out there" was given breeding ground my forefathers had to flee our ancestral land in China. On both occasions, the ideology that led to them also contained some good points too but ultimately the bad was so overwhelming whatever merit the other points were are moot. Maybe there are certain things that should be thoroughly mocked.

 

[IceJad]

According to this Black Studies professor, romance is racist because romantic practices as we know them in American culture were invented in France.

The basis for her asserting that means those practices are racist is rooted in the Critical Race Theory assertion that everything about European culture is for the purpose of establishing their race as oppressors of all other races.

So far what do we have now?

1. Exercise is white supremacy
2. Outdoor activity is white supremacy
3. Mathematics is white supremacy
4. Traditional family is white supremacy
5. Romance is white supremacy

Is there anything that is not white supremacy? Because as an ethnic Chinese I engage in all the above.

So hello fellow white people! What's the white agenda today? Bring back slavery? World domination? I could use a bit of evil today been too much of a non-white goodie twoshoes.

 

[MrMoe]

She is just another Ibram X kendi type. Seeing race and racism is just about everything. Here she is connecting racism with fatphobia.

 

[FireDragon76]

According to this Black Studies professor, romance is racist because romantic practices as we know them in American culture were invented in France.

It's actually of Persian and Arab origin.

 

[RDKirk]

So far what do we have now?

1. Exercise is white supremacy
2. Outdoor activity is white supremacy
3. Mathematics is white supremacy
4. Traditional family is white supremacy
5. Romance is white supremacy

Is there anything that is not white supremacy? Because as an ethnic Chinese I engage in all the above.

So hello fellow white people! What's the white agenda today? Bring back slavery? World domination? I could use a bit of evil today been too much of a non-white goodie twoshoes.

That is the point I'm making. In the Chinese Cultural Revolution, what from Europe was not "Imperialist?"

This is the same ideology that propelled the Cultural Revolution. It's not just similar, it's fruit from the very same tree.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I encourage you to read her work rather than watching youtube videos with an agenda (her name is Dr. Sabrina Strings, not Springs). Some of her conclusions are a bit out there, but she makes some good points as well. Such is the case with many academics.

If, as you say, some of her conclusions are a bit "out there", if she's an academic worth her salt and put legitimate analysis and study into it, that would mean that her premise or hypothesis had flaws, or she was operating off of some bad data, correct?

For instance, if a scientist gave full time and attention to the scientific method while testing/researching a hypothesis, and came up with a conclusion that's way off the mark, one would be safe in assuming that they were operating off of some bad input data, correct?


However, the more likely scenario is that people (even PhDs) can fall victim to constructing an over-arching narrative, and tailoring research/study to fit inside the box they've built.

Here's another conclusion she's come to

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/893006538

She also had a few other published articles where she claimed that research involving BMI and health outcomes is a "pseudoscience" (for racial reasons), and one where she concluded that the popularity explosion of Yoga was a means for society to "fetishize white femininity over black femininity".


While the hosts of whatever show she was on (shown in the OP) were beyond rude, that aside, he body of work seems to resemble the old saying about
"Everything looks like a nail to a person who only has hammers"

 

[RocksInMyHead]

If, as you say, some of her conclusions are a bit "out there", if she's an academic worth her salt and put legitimate analysis and study into it, that would mean that her premise or hypothesis had flaws, or she was operating off of some bad data, correct?

Or that her data is incomplete and there's the possibility to draw multiple conclusions from it. Unfortunately, that's frequently the case with sociology. I think she also plays up the racial side of things in interviews for publicity/controversy purposes.

That doesn't mean that her observations are incorrect though. For instance, I think there's a kernel of truth in her work on fatphobia - in one article of hers that I've read, she points out that the root cause of health problems for Black women is their environment - they typically live high-stress lives due to poverty, they live in areas that frequently have higher levels of pollution and health hazards (i.e. pests, mold), and they often lack convenient access to healthy food. If you just say "Oh, the problem is that you're fat!," that doesn't address the underlying issues. I think there's a misconception that losing weight is an easy thing for anyone to do - after all, all you have to do is change your diet and exercise more. But that can be easier said than done. In other words, she's not saying that being fat is necessarily healthy, but rather that we would see better overall health outcomes if we focused more on solving the root causes of poor health rather than just telling people to lose weight.

 

[civilwarbuff]

According to this Black Studies professor, romance is racist because romantic practices as we know them in American culture were invented in France.

The basis for her asserting that means those practices are racist is rooted in the Critical Race Theory assertion that everything about European culture is for the purpose of establishing their race as oppressors of all other races.

I wonder if the students in these classes ever call out these so called 'professors' for the garbage they spew?.....or are they really that gullible?

 

[RDKirk]

Or that her data is incomplete and there's the possibility to draw multiple conclusions from it. Unfortunately, that's frequently the case with sociology.

But the way professors in black and gender studies professors teach it these days, no other conclusion but their own is permissible. I say "teach" but actually they "preach," and with the same inviolability of their own viewpoints as a preacher of religion. You want a good grade? You want even to be permitted to stay in the classroom? Do not question them, just absorb their message and squeeze it back out on their tests. I had a sociology professor like that even back in my time; it took only one test to realize that the best way to ace the course was to repeat back to him verbatim what he'd said. I also noted that the blind kid with the tape recorder had the highest class average, because that's precisely what that kid did.

I think she also plays up the racial side of things in interviews for publicity/controversy purposes.

And that kills people. I'm not even being hyperbolic, I'm being literal.

That doesn't mean that her observations are incorrect though. For instance, I think there's a kernel of truth in her work on fatphobia - in one article of hers that I've read, she points out that the root cause of health problems for Black women is their environment - they typically live high-stress lives due to poverty, they live in areas that frequently have higher levels of pollution and health hazards (i.e. pests, mold), and they often lack convenient access to healthy food. If you just say "Oh, the problem is that you're fat!," that doesn't address the underlying issues. I think there's a misconception that losing weight is an easy thing for anyone to do - after all, all you have to do is change your diet and exercise more. But that can be easier said than done. In other words, she's not saying that being fat is necessarily healthy, but rather that we would see better overall health outcomes if we focused more on solving the root causes of poor health rather than just telling people to lose weight.

Watching what happens from a black point of view...because this is what I see and hear around me from other blacks, including my own family (and especially from women, who seem prone to this): "It's genetic...I can't help it." "It's racism....I can't help it."

If you give people an excuse that's beyond their individual means to resolve, they will cling to it.

But here is what I point out regarding the current epidemic of black obesity: Black obesity is a recent phenomenon, just as it actually is for whites.

Do a Google image search for young black women before the 1980s. Use search terms like "African American protests" so that you get images of ordinary women, not celebrities. You will find that young black women prior to the 1980s all the way back to the late 1800s, almost without exception, were slender (the same is true for young white women, but I'm debating here the "genetic" and "racism" rationales proposed specifically for black obesity).

I lived during the transition period, so I saw it while it was happening; I can personally remember the time before black female obesity was the case. As social changes go, black female obesity was nearly instantaneous.

It's not racism; it's ludicrous to claim objectively that the racism is worse today than it was 50 years ago. However, stress is very much a subjective phenomenon. You can make an argument that people can be convinced they're living a more stressful life than they really are (the "First-World Problem" phenomenon). That's certainly happening to black people today.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

Watching what happens from a black point of view...because this is what I see and hear around me from other blacks, including my own family (and especially from women, who seem prone to this): "It's genetic...I can't help it." "It's racism....I can't help it."

If you give people an excuse that's beyond their individual means to resolve, they will cling to it.

That's a fair point, but the flipside of it is true too - if you give people the excuse that it's personal responsibility, they'll cling to that and resist any systemic changes to address the situation. And, frankly, the government is better positioned to make a real difference in this scenario than relying on millions of people exercising their personal responsibility.