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Comment by high_derivative | Hacker News Reader

Pushing back against ideas of critical race theory is important lest they dominate all our discourse and turn us all into victims.

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Define the "critical race theory" against which you wish to push back and explain how it relates to this post.

(also note that "minoritized background" is a very broad descriptor; people who are the first in their family to go to university and have a white-collar job often experience the same problem of missing pieces of tacit knowledge and not knowing what they are expected to do)

Although I agree with your interpretation of the term "minoritized background", I think the author's choice of words was unfortunate. "Disadvantaged" or "Less Privileged" would be more appropriate.

Could you explain why?

This stuff is vulnerable to the "euphemism treadmill", where as soon as someone comes up with more "appropriate" language the same people get upset again because the actual real referent hasn't changed.

It's my opinion that the working class is not a minority. Although "minoritized" does not necessarily mean minority, that's the idea that comes to mind when people read the word (also, my opinion). The word "marginalised" is perfectly adequate.

I'll admit it's kind of nit-picking. But someone did get the wrong idea from it.

I don’t think I had encountered the term before reading this article, it certainly isn’t in my vocabulary. I immediately took it to mean “people with a role or characteristic which may not make them a fractional minority of the population but experience similar disadvantages because that role or characteristic is imbued with a minority of power”. Sure, that’s more or less the same as “marginalized”, but having synonyms is part of what makes language expressive, and at least for some of us that makes life a little less dull and talking about challenging subjects more accessible.

It's where you define people by a group identity. Then compare outcomes across groups. Any inequity is then provided as evidence of discrimination against that group.

A lot of people these days are using 'critical race theory' to mean 'any discussion of race and racism', and sometimes they don't even insist on the 'race and racism' part.

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