In this episode Dara thought he was going to keep it light and stay firmly in the positive psychology territory of inspirational quotes and personal motivation, but he ended up being led by the recent mass shooting in Buffalo to look at the ideologies of hate and division that are currently enjoying a disturbing level of popularity amongst certain demographics.
After looking at a couple of interesting quotes from the composer Arthur Sullivan and the French cleric Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, Dara begins to see some connective tissue between their advocacy of self-determination and the radicalisation of unhappy young men.
Digging deeper, he discusses White Replacement Theory, an insidious ideology of racial hatred that can be traced back to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. WRT has become a central tenet of radicalised and hyper-violent white men who commit mass shootings in the name of white pride. It has also gained traction in some areas of mainstream media.
Critical Race Theory is looked at as a rebuttal to the very idea of race and racism, and Dara finds himself needing very little encouragement to endorse it. He talks about his own relationship to and understanding of racism through the lens of American movies and the civil rights movement, Irish history and political cartoons.
Throughout it all, the chickens at Hashtag Blessed keep crowing!
This week’s links:
The ClearOut Episode 27 – https://shows.acast.com/theclearout/episodes/acting-out-in-the-extreme-or-when-private-pain-becomes-publi
On White Replacement Theory and mass shooting: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/15/buffalo-shooting-white-replacement-theory-inspires-mass
On the legalisation of fascism in USA: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/22/america-fascism-legal-phase
On Critical Race Theory: https://theconversation.com/why-does-critical-race-theory-make-people-so-uncomfortable-176125
Emma Dabiri on Blindboy podcast: https://play.acast.com/s/blindboy/thereturnofemmadabiri