Comments on: Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist?

By: Kylopod

Kylopod — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:38:41 +0000

I quoted this post in a recent blog entry of mine:

http://kylopod.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-bigotry-chopping_16.html

By: Shell Goddamnit

Shell Goddamnit — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:37:26 +0000

The conversation about all-or-nothing racism struck home; I quote a friend from a recent conversation – day before yesterday, in fact:

> I’m thinking you and I have different definitions of racism, hence some confusion. When I think of racism, I equate it with irrational discrimination, stuff like the segregation and Jim Crow laws of the South, or the way voting laws were manipulated against blacks. The way “chinks” were treated in the Old West, or Jews just about anywhere in Europe. That sort of shit is intolerable and Needs To Go.
>
> This “subtle racism” you seem to be implying, though, I disagree with. It reminds me of the “discrimination” in the word “woman” or using “he” as a gender-neutral pronoun. Not liking something about another group’s _culture_ does not make a person a racist, in my book. I’m repulsed by people who are coated in tattoos and piercings; that’s acceptable. Saying I don’t like gangsta rap makes me a racist? Nuh-uh, I don’t buy it.

There it is. The pathology here is pretty clear; the denial of the “subtle” form of racism as racism has the corollary that this person is not racist. That in turn has the corollary that people who claim discrimination are frequently over-reacting or “playing the race card.” That in turn means that there is no such thing as subtle racism, it’s all just people over-reacting & using racism as an excuse for…whatever. It’s a nice tight little circular thingiebob.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:06:25 +0000

It’s true everyone has their biases, prejudices, and stereotypes. They are all natural, and all formed from personal experiences. If someone’s first few experiences with black individuals are all negative, that person will quickly develop negatives biases, prejudices and stereotypes of all blacks based on his sample of experiences. They can change with additional experiences. Racism, however, is one form of bigotry, which is HOSTILITY toward an individual based on some trait of that individual, whether the trait is the color of his skin, his (or her) gender, his political beliefs, etc. I believe bigotry to be unnatural. Negative biases, prejudices, and stereotypes, and the experiences that formed them, may help feed the hostility behind various forms of bigotry, but they are definitely distinct. Maybe someone can expand on this.

By: Brian Macker

Brian Macker — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:19:52 +0000

“A Klansman burning a cross? Adolf Hitler? George Wallace barring the schoolhouse door? Images like these are iconic, easy to invoke, and extreme.”

That’s what springs to your mind, white people? You racist. What about Hutus and Tutsis?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:17:29 +0000

You realize that your argument places Avenue Q on the cutting edge of social thought. I think the notion of everyone being a little racist is actually less daring than trite. It’s true that racism is so (rightly) deplored that people have too binary a view of it, but that doesn’t mean that someone who recoils from recognizing racism in himself because he thinks it makes him like Hitler is anything other than an idiot. I wonder if we could impute less pure motives than urbane discomfort: some people simply have high standards of what qualifies as racism because they like being moderately racist without having to consider themselves as such.

I think you gloss over an important point when you say that this goes for class signifiers too. Actually, it goes for lots of things. Racial prejudice of course has particular significance for historical reasons, but the ways in which a person might be discriminated against at a temp agency are fairly endless: race, class signifiers, weight, a weak chin, a bald head, short height, simple ugliness. I think the historical attachments of racism cause us to make it more unique than it is. Racism is one (especially pernicious) species of judging substance by superficial appearance. That we should all be conscious of when we judge someone superficially seems uncontroversial; that we cannot hope to eliminate this from our nature also seems uncontroversial.

This is why your dilemma seems a little overwrought to me. What’s so uncomfortable about the thought that I might be, in some sense, at some moments, a racist? As the saying goes, I contain multitudes.

I’m skeptical that anyone really took Obama to mean that all white people are racist. The enthusiasm with which people took offense at that comment suggested to me a satisfaction with the tables being turned that was itself racist. A lot of right-leaning whites think blacks over-claim racism, or are overly belligerent about claiming it, and this perception itself feeds into racism. This could be called whites considering blacks distastefully uppity, but the fact that it’s actually based on a bit of truth makes the problem more difficult.

This was the really notable aspect of Obama’s race speech. He put forth the idea that most race-related grievances have a kernel of truth, and that the solution is not to attack each instance of racism in turn, but to recognize the symmetries and analogues that abound in black/white relations in the country, and to empathize as well as criticize.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:02:58 +0000

As a man I get a taste of what black people,get when you sometimes get treated as a potential rapist. No fun. I also often encounter black people who are trying to be extra nice.They are fighting this stereotype. For instance in Boston my wife and I were always looking like we were lost. Two separate times black people asked if they could help us. I’m from Georgia and my wife is from MS. Stuff like that happens there too. People of any race dressed like thugs are scary and intend to look that way.

By: jbd

jbd — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:21:05 +0000

I have to reflect a little on the substance. But I just want to say, in all sincerity, that the writing style shown in this post is very fine indeed.

By: A. Mathew

A. Mathew — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:54:32 +0000

Speaking as a parent of a young son and as one who was born in India, what I sense these days, especially among my son’s classmates, is not racism but social exclusion, a social exclusion based on differences in home life and cultural style between children who do not share the prevalent cultural background. For example, the other children assume that my son is interested in hanging out at the swimming pool, fishing, all sports and sports teams in a way that he is just not and never could be–based on the fact that at home, we do not regularly expose him to the same things as the parents of these other children.

By: Mike P

Mike P — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:57:24 +0000

John Bragg,
That sounds like the Dave Chappelle formulation about how the most dangerous dude on the street is the one white dude you see with a crew of black dudes. DC says we can’t have any idea of what kind of crazy shit the white dude had to do to get the respect of the black guys.

By: Jeffrey Harris

Jeffrey Harris — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:36:21 +0000

Interesting topic. I popped over from Andrew Sullivan’s website. I think that this is one of the better explanations I’ve seen written about this subject. In many ways, I agree that everyone harbors racial biases. But it is the devil to get folks to acknowledge them. I live in DC, I am black, and I am just as likely to be mindful of the brotha I don’t know. Yet, I can still have some difficulties catching a cab, or I’ll be asked where I am going before I go in. Luckily Logan Circle passes muster. I hope this discussion continues, because most of us get where you are coming from. It’s the containment of those biased feelings that indeed is the issue.