The Woke Aughebung

     It seems almost contradictory, and in fact is, that the Woke Left declare that race and gender are “social constructs” while their entire praxis is based on race and gender essentialism. In a way, it is as if the designated enemies (“Whiteness” and “cis-heteronormativity”) “constructed” race and gender thus giving it a magical form and effect, with the only conceived of option to oppose this artificial essence by equal and opposite measure until the form and effect are neutralized and race and gender spontaneously disappear in an immanentized puff of eschaton!

     Philosophy professor and Twitter user “Eve Keneinan” puts it into more classical dialectic form:

@benshapiro described the Woke as “race essentialists.”

He’s not wrong, exactly, but in a way, he is. Enough to clarify.

Race essentialism is the THESIS, race non-essentialism is the ANTITHESIS, and what the Woke hold is the SYNTHESIS. They both are and are not essentialists.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

Essences can’t be got rid of by dispelling them.

But yes, they do think than race and racism are *like* a cast spells, which are permanently and autonomously operating.

That’s actually a very accurate way to think about it.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

The CRT position is the Aufhebung of race essentialism and race social constructivism.

They formally hold race to be a social construct, but since human identity itself is constructed by means of race, it functions as an essence, being a prior reality to a person’s being.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

     Her uninterrupted complete thread:

@benshapiro described the Woke as “race essentialists.”

He’s not wrong, exactly, but in a way, he is. Enough to clarify.

Race essentialism is the THESIS, race non-essentialism is the ANTITHESIS, and what the Woke hold is the SYNTHESIS. They both are and are not essentialists.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

The way the Woke ARE race essentialists is that the treat race is as indelible characteristic of a person that marks and defines them, that cannot ever be escaped (consider how the Woke view transracialism).

The Woke aren’t race essentialists by not appealing to essence.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

So the Woke can claim *technically* not to be essentialists, because essence isn’t what does the work for them, the same work that essence would do, but rather IDENTITY does the work.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

But FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES the Woke are race essentialists. They just let Identity to the load bearing rather than Essence, but in their weird metaphysics, Identity can do that (it really can’t)—but the EFFECT is that they are in practice race essentialists.

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

This should work to easily SHOW the point, if TELLING it was too confusing. pic.twitter.com/DXHQgPAs1d

— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) June 29, 2021

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