There have been a couple of recent threads in which I’ve happily helped derail by nitpicking whether racism was accurately described, or whether the behavior was simply racial bias, bigotry or discrimination – which are terms I believe are often incorrectly conflated with racism but are usually only indicators of racism and should never be synonymous with racism, common usage be damned.
This thread hopes to tackle this issue ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! (Yeah, right.)
Now… I believe that racism is an ideology that purports the belief that there exists a pedigree of races and a hierarchy of races; that these races very generally include white, Asian, Native American and black peoples in a wide cast worldwide diaspora with some degree of intermixing and some isolated instances of so-called racial purity. Racist thought generally flows from white to black, or Asian to black, or black to white; whichever comes first was the highest. Racist thought generally holds that there exists quantifiable biological evidence of differences in these races to support their beliefs that cannot be explained by socioeconomic resources or cultural conditioning or diet or geographical adaptations.
Everybody with me so far?
Typically white supremacists believe in such as things as the “bell curve” are indications of some innate biological deficiencies common to darker races; that white races are more intellectually and cognitively evolved and morally superior to darker races.
Conversely, black racists believe in such theories as the “ice man inheritance”; that there is a genetic disposition towards more innate aggressive behavior among whites; that melanin imparts special properties beyond sun-protection, including more spirituality and harmony with nature.
Asian racism seems to follow a general cultural xenophobia and exaggerated, extreme ethnocentrism common in Oriental culture: again, very generally speaking, among Asian racists – whatever Asian culture you grow up with is best, then (some) neighboring cultures are okay, then white folks, then maybe Native Americans and black people.
Racists of whatever creed frequently share various degrees of distaste with racial intermarriage and what was once called miscegenation.
Men being perpetually horny, however, there is always a convenient willingness to overlook this fact when there’s an attractive oppressed race female nearby to have sex with, and mixed race children of racists are, to me, one of the most puzzling of all human hypocrisies. Miscegenation interferes with racist notions of blood purity, by at least half.
IF you wholeheartedly subscribe to one of the above racist philosophies, you are most likely racist. Congratulation: your parents must be proud. Then again, they probably passed such beliefs to you.
Historically, racist doctrine is accompanied by a willingness to oppress, dehumanize, socioeconomically marginalize, segregate from (by force of law) and violently suppress the rights of so-called lesser races. This is done with what I’ve decided to call a number of racist indicators: racial bigotry, racial discrimination, racial prejudice, racial bias, racial xenophobia and racial ethnocentrism.
Of course, you can easily be a religious bigot, or a discriminator of gender, or have an age prejudice, or a socioeconomic bias, or cultural xenophobia or a regional ethnocentrism. As I said, bigotry, discrimination, prejudice, bias, xenophobia and ethnocentrism can be applied to a lot of things, because they are simply indicators of a possible intolerance, be it sexual orientation, genealogy or intelligence.
Some things we mock and discriminate against are protected. Many are not.
Anyway – the more you align these indicators to another person’s skin color – the more racist you likely are to be.
Again (I’m going to type this in caps. I feel like shouting.) YOU CAN HAVE CERTAIN INDICATORS AND NOT NECESSARILY BE AN OUT-AND-OUT RACIST. Your kindly old grandmother who teaches your kids to say “Eeny meeny miney moe, catch a nigger by his toe…” may not be racist. At very worst this would indicate intracted bigoted behavior. A black dude who says stuff like, “The Jews own all of Hollywood and control all the media!” is equally bigoted – but may not feel especially superior, so isn’t racist (or particularly Anti-Semitic.)
Bigotry more accurately explains a lot of what is commonly and mistakenly so- called “racist” behavior. Bigotry is a perfectly good word that gets overlooked for the overused term racism. Bigotry is better applied than racism in MOST cases. Dopers should be a HELL of a lot more discrimi-- I mean, discerning than to just use “racism” indiscriminately. Nuance is everything. A bigot is much a different creature than a racist. For one thing… no mater that crap that flies out their mouths, most bigots won’t violently oppress people to assure their own supremacy. A racist will in a heartbeat.
A racist’s entire belief system is dependant on oppressing someone else. Not so with someone who’s a bigot, who’s discriminates, who’s xenophobic, who has racial bias, etc.
If you have – occasionally – some of the indicators of racist thought, you well may not BE wholly a racist. Sometimes an indicator is problematic just by itself. But make no mistake – I believe contemporary America is still very much in the grips and death thrones of a lot of paralyzing, debilitating, narrow-minded racist ideologies that have permeated public policy and private thought. The sooner we own up to THAT, the better off we’ll be freeing ourselves from seeing racism everywhere. The first step to quit seeing racism everywhere is to NARROW its scope, not increase it.
So to all the critics who have said to me that I am using a narrow, unrealistic definition of racism, cool.
Let’s hope it catches oh, hm?