Shifting the Frame
I sat down to write about the death of Jason Arday, but my emotions kept overwhelming my pen. Our times are so cruel and the days so dark, and I have grown weary of responding to rank racism. Moreover, I am about to begin another semester at an institution shadowed by the belief by so many in this country that I do not belong there. It is, at once, depressing and enraging.
What bothers people like Nick Cofnas (the man who accused Arday of plagiarism and the self-described “race realist” who imagines himself, after the “revolution,” as the chair of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard), beyond the plagiarism claims, is the simple fact that Arday had been hired by Cambridge in the first place. For them, he did not belong there.
And now that Arday is dead these monsters trample on his grave and announce that DEI killed him.
To hell with them and their so-called arguments.
What might it entail to respond to such claims? I am reminded of David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829) and his response to Thomas Jefferson’s declaration to the world, “that we are inferior to whites, both in the endowments of our bodies and our minds.”
Walker rejected the idea that such claims could be debated rationally. And he bluntly responded to Jefferson and to those who embraced his view, “You are not astonished at my saying we hate you, for if we are men, we cannot but hate you, while you are treating us like dogs.”
Dispassionate engagement with vile claims made little sense to Walker. Instead, he voiced what he felt in his gut and shifted the frame.
It is a lesson, I think, we should all learn, especially in politics.
How many times have Democrats, for example, found themselves arguing within the framework established by Republicans? Defending themselves against the charge that they are communist or socialist, or walking back their commitment to diversity and inclusion, or conceding the criticisms of so-called “wokeness”? They move as if the label of liberal or progressive is a scarlet letter and, as such, they fight for the center in our politics that has long ago moved to the right.
How is it possible that Republicans, whose policies and leaders literally threaten the very foundations of American democracy, have the political standing to determine the frame of the debate? These people have revealed repeatedly that their political souls have been corrupted – that their policies benefit a select few and that they are willing to undermine democratic processes for the sake of power.
But they can demand that people denounce Hasan Piker as they embrace Nick Fuentes and his ilk? They describe the election of members of DSA or the Working Families Party as an existential threat to the country as they support a war of choice, allow Trump and his family to rob the country blind, burden working families with high gas and grocery prices, dismantle the institutions of governance, destabilize the country’s standing in the world, and lie through their damn teeth daily.
Meanwhile, as if they have no spines or bones, Democrats contort themselves to respond to the accusations and avoid the condemnation of these morally corrupt people.
This is the long-term effect of triangulation. The constant co-optation of Republican issues has, like cigarette smoke on the lungs of a long-time smoker, compromised the body of the Democratic party. These folks can barely breathe.
Democrats, if they can muster the courage and break free from their consultants, need to go on the offensive.
Stop responding to the nonsense of MAGA and their enablers. Stop presuming the reasonableness of their claims (about communism and socialism) and address directly who they are and what they support. MAGA should be forced to explain why they shouldn’t be banished from our politics as Democrats and others present an alternative vision of how we are to live together.
I am tired of arguing with racists and mean-spirited people who could give less than a damn about our democracy. I am exhausted by the idea of treating them as rational actors.
It is time to give voice to what we feel in our gut and shift the framing.
As for Cofnas, Rufo, and all the others who do not believe that people like me have earned our place – that the tragic death of Arday signals the deadly consequence of DEI – letters don’t kill people. People do. Beyond that, they can kiss my ass.
And that is a passionate response to an irrational claim.
~
Keep up the great work, Professor. You are my north star morally, spiritually and what a decent human being should be like in this world! I love your books as well, but we need your voice so badly, so I am grateful you are not afraid to speak up and speak out. God bless you, Sir.
You are so right on every point.