Name the five greatest linebackers of all time. Getting ahead is not a meritocratic process. Asian immigrants go through a double selection process that blacks do not.) Merit may count, in the US more than elsewhere perhaps, but we do not live in a meritocracy or anything close to it. If one race isnt getting ahead to the same degree its only because they arent trying as hard. The most common fallacy you hear from racists and supremacists is that the US is a meritocracy. The word that I believe fuels racism the most is seldom mentioned merit. The latter has context and cannot be conflated with nothingness. It is meaningless and clearly not on a par with black lives matter. Of course all lives matter, but there is no context to that phrase. But that is why words must be understood in the context of those with the power to shape the vocabulary. Which means that we made them up in our own image, to rationalize our personal worldview. We made words up to assist in our communication. Words do not exist naturally, like rain or bauxite. The second issue is the whole institution of vocabulary and the words on which it is built. (Did you follow the election on either side?) There might even be more of the latter, even on a per capita basis. And while there must certainly be angry black men, I have met no shortage of angry white men as well. The race of the participants is meaningless. But there is plenty of white-on-white violence, too. Of course there is black-on-black violence. In any data pool there is never going to be one of anything. I think there are two issues that give rise to this argument/confusion. How could we possibly live in our current world and it not be systemic? Many of the questions have to do with the whole notion of systemic. He uses the word uncomfortable a lot but if this book makes you uncomfortable there is no honest book on this topic that is going to be acceptable to you. Emmanuel starts each chapter with the kind of question on a lot of white minds (questions that he has actually received, not softballs of his own making) and then proceeds to answer that question in a rational, common sense way. The book is true to its title, which you dont always find these days. The answer is yes, figuratively speaking, but first a little about the style and structure of the book. Not that we dont need to have it, mind you, now more than ever, but how can that be? Is somebody putting something in the water? And like a lot of people of every race I am at a loss to explain why we are still having the black/white conversation. I was, however, intrigued by the title of this book, in part because I have always found every occasion with the greatest opportunity to teach us about ourselves just a little uncomfortable. Im much older, white, and watch little NFL football. And, I must admit, Ive never heard of him. Emmanuel Acho is the son of Nigerian immigrants who went on to play in the NFL, became a popular television sports analyst, and started an online video series with the same name as this book.
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