I do not hold racist beliefs, but I freely acknowledge that I have benefited from institutional racism and from other people’s racism. I would not be surprised to learn that despite my efforts, I respond differently to white people than to Black people, Asian people, and so on.
Living in the Gulf has definitely made me racist towards specific groups from specific countries. i think its healthy to be just a little racist when dealing with humans on a daily basis… its not like im going to crucify or treat anyone like shit purely based on where they are from, but would kind of talk to them or observe them with a sort of precaution like “this guy probably smells like shit” or “typical fucking (insert racial slur here)” its unhealthy and fucked i know but it is what it is, maybe ill shed it off one day when im truly contempt with myself.
This poll is a good example of why this board is longer worth participation.
I’m aware that I have some degree of racial bias, but I’m working to decrease that bias, and I make sure never to act on that bias. Is that a binary “yes”, or a binary “no”?
There is much less of a hardened legacy of racism as in the social isolation and social dysfunction that often characterizes the African American community in the US. Yes it’s a different history, and a much bigger community in the US, and a different composition of background beyond simple skin color. African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the US tend not to labor as much under those inherited social disadvantages either, but people of those backgrounds also comprise much more of Canada’s smaller black community.
But the idea there’s less casual racism in Canada than the US? I used to work with a lot of Canadians, and that wasn’t my experience at all. They’d say stuff (about all kinds of non-whites not particular blacks) similar class whites in the US would rarely say. Of course what somebody says doesn’t equal their real thoughts. Same applies to the stereotype of Asians (in Asian, the US or Canada or elsewhere) being ‘more racist’. Maybe but what people say v think is part of it.
Your pride in country is a good thing, I mean that sincerely, since seems what you describe is what what you want Canada to be, which would be good. But I don’t think it’s too realistic in this case. Note: I’m not saying there’s some huge gap in the other direction, again in people’s actual inner feelings. I don’t actually think Canada or the US are very racist countries in that sense, bad will based on tribalism. Again embedded legacies in social patterns is IMO another thing. Not an unimportant thing at all, but not solved by just changing current attitudes.
Dude it’s CANADA. Not exactly a multicultural Mecca. I associate “Canada” with “white people”. Lol
Im sorry but I have to take issue with this. Racism means something specific, namely a belief of superiority over another group of people based on skin color exclusively. By making the term means basically “white people”, actual racists will blend in and have less stigma associated with their racism.
But “white privilege” is a completely distinct concept from “racism”. I am not disputing white privilege and I know I haven’t experienced the same hardships that many minorities face. We need a separate term for this because it weakens our ability to clearly see racism by making it mean “white people”.
Exactly.
Racism does not mean hating another race. Sure, many racists ARE hateful to certain races but that is in addition to their beliefs of inferiority towards those races. How many times have we heard about people who are obviously racist but deny the charge because they have “black friends”? Or like the slave owner who treated his slaves compassionately? But those black people are still considered slaves who are the property of their white slavers. They don’t hate those slaves despite believing them to be be property only worth a fraction of the worth of white people (3/5 to be exact).
OK - I know you were joking but I actually thought along those lines before I got to visit there. I am still shocked at how many different cultures blend, and work well together, in our northern neighbors.
I think I am occasionally prejudiced about some things*, but not about race or nationality. I have no doubt done or said some ill-advised things in my youth, but those were out of ignorance rather than racism.
*Prejudices include: Sexual orientation, occasionally. Socio-economic status, definitely. Intellectual ability, too often.
Sorry. You’re wrong.
Cities like Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are very multicultural.
I didn’t answer this poll because for one thing, what is considered “racist” these days has gotten watered down to extreme levels of absurdity.
I have said this already elsewhere in on this board, but just to give a quick frame of reference as to why I feel the way I do, I grew up in South Georgia in the late 60s & 70s, went to 85% black public schools because my father thought the private, 98% white schools that sprang up after integration were counterproductive. Plus, he was heavily involved in local politics and on the school board himself, so his kids went to public school.
Believe me, I could write pages about the good and bad things about this situation, about the rights and wrongs committed on both sides, but at the risk of getting all “tl;dr”, I’ll say this:
Most of our teachers back then really never used that dreaded “R” word which has become so over-applied today. Instead, they talked about how we should not be be prejudiced towards each other. We should all see each other as individuals and make no assumptions about anybody until you get to know them. I always had the sense that this was applied to ALL of us equally, both black and white. It wasn’t a lecture to the white kids.
I have carried these ideas, instilled in me by both black and white teachers in the early days of integration in the South, with me all my life.
Nowadays, it seems that somewhere along the way the focus has shifted to this notion that all white people, no matter their background, are racist and need to exorcised of their innate evilness, and no matter how much a white person tries to explain they aren’t a racist, well that just shows how really racist they are and need to be broken down and re-programmed so they are able to gain the capability to see their inner rotten core. Said core of which, only exists in white people.
Whatever. Like I said, I got tons of personal anecdotes to dispute all that. Treating all white people like some big monolith of thought and experience is just 42 layers of wrong. I don’t treat others like that, and in turn, I don’t expect to be treated that way, either.
I am a white female, my current SO is a black male, and we laugh about the ridiculousness of this all the time. He was complaining to me the other day that his brother (who I have not met) is turning into one of these black men who thinks EVERYTHING is happening to him because he is black, no matter how innocuous. He has tried to talk to him but it does no good, his brother believes what he believes. My SO doesn’t want me to meet this brother because he is so hypersensitive about race. He said if we were sitting at dinner and I passed his brother the salt before the pepper he would be sure that was evidence I was a white supremacist.
This is all just a sad state of affairs and we are all worse off for it. If a black guy wants to wear leader hosen and a black girl wants to dress up like a Swedish milk maid, and an Asian dude wants to wear a sombrero, and my white Irish ass wants to braid my pony tail, and if an Indian guy wants to rock a kilt, and white guy wants to put on a Nehru jacket, well put all that shit on and let’s party! What better way to celebrate the mish-mash that is America?
Am I a racist because I don’t see any of that as “racist”? I know what real racism is, and wearing a sombrero on Halloween ain’t it.
Well, 17 have so far. The others are all liars, according to one school of thought.
My own personal policy is never to vote in a public poll regardless of the topic.
I’m not KNOWINGLY racist…which probably equates to being a little bit racist, even if unconsciously.
I certainly have white privilege. And I have biases and can be prejudice…but what color or race someone is doesn’t matter to me in the long run. It’s not something I would knowingly have count for or against anything. But as a few have answered in here, there are probably things I don’t notice or see based on how I was raised.
In any event, I try not to be.
Anyone brave enough to take the Implicit Association Test for race? You can find it and others after you agree down at the bottom of this page:
I am. I have my inherent, unrecognized biases that work below the level of consciousness. I work to overcome them. And I make progress.
Biggest progress I made was in admitting I had them in the first place, rather than loudly declaiming my lack of racism.
We all have such characteristics.
Well I agree we almost all have biases, I think if we work to overcome them and are successful that means we are not a racist. The question of the Ops is tricky to define.
Yes, I’m human.
My slightly more evolved monkey brain loves pattern matching even when the result isn’t scientific or applied appropriately. Something as blatantly visible as skin color s is fuel for how it operates. Like all of us I make massive amounts of tiny decisions a day that don’t rate taking time to fully evaluate with the care needed to try and overcome my cognitive biases. I like to think I do a pretty good job of mitigating and appropraitely channeling my natural tribalistic urges to metaphorically climb trees, howl and fling poop at the other tribe.
At the core, I’m still a human.
I am now going to think of Dennis Leary every time I see you post now. 
But what you are describing is simply NOT racism. Human beings all have biases and perspective-limiting factors. But to expand the meaning of “racist” to include all of our prejudices and biases is counterproductive. IMO.
To frame the human instincts toward biases as a whites-only problem of racism not only poisons the well and has a hackels-raising effect but its simply untrue. If the issue is raising awareness for white privilege then it is counterproductive to frame it in a way that is guaranteed to elicit defensiveness from that most-needed to-be-reached group of people (which is white people).