Yeah. A problem with “everyone is racist” is if people believe that, they are likely to give up on fighting racism at all because there’s no point. Or start acting destructively towards themselves and others. If people people believe they are racist no matter what they do then they are likely to either then dismiss racism as important because that’s “just how the world works”, or hate everyone including themselves as irredeemably evil. You can control your actions and correct erroneous beliefs; you can’t control history much less some sort of inherited burden of evil.
It’s the left wing version of “Original Sin”, which doesn’t lead people to try to make things better just to hate themselves and humanity in general as innately vile.
Those are your words. They say exactly what I said they say.
You are the one insisting that all racism has to be rooted out or else you have an unacceptable level of racism. By my reading, everybody else here agrees with the rest of your post but breaks with you at this unachievable point.
It’s to contrast with the stereotype of working class “Joe Sixpack” - Ardbeg is an expensive Scotch.
The everyone is racist formulation isn’t hitting the mark even here, a crowd that is more likely open to it than the general populace. Maybe not the effective way to message it? Just blaming it on everyone not understanding doesn’t help.
@Czarcasm’s reaction is not unreasonable. The challenge of demonstrating and becoming aware of our actions (and inactions) that have racist impact despite our lack of any explicit racist beliefs is an easier challenge to meet.
The notion that one is innocent until proven guilty seems to me to be a sound starting point. Maybe one IS a racist or frequently thinks racist thoughts. Then again maybe not. Since we don’t know what their thoughts are, we can only judge by one’s words and actions. Making an a priori assumption of guilt flies in the face of this with no evidence presented beyond ‘well, there’s a whole lotta racism going on in our culture. Stands to reason you think racist thoughts all the time too simply by virtue of existing within this culture’. That kinda reasoning has a certain weakness.
Jumping in to agree with the OP, other than the idea that you can really eliminate your biases completely. Also, I would change “racist” to “biased” or “bigoted”, because it could be ethnicity or gender or orientation that show up in ones biases. Inherent biases are very deep in our evolutionary history – tribes have been warring with each other forever.
The best I can do is think about what biases I have and try to work against them, listen to feedback if someone tells me I’m biased or bigoted, and do what I can to point out those unconscious biases in others.
But, all people of inherent biases based on race, ethnicity, sex, gender, etc. The best we can do is try not to let them affect how we interact with people.
I’m trying my damnedest to state my position, but Dopers keep misreading it. It’s an ongoing process. We keep running into this assumption that the anti-racism project is one and done, forevermore. Rather, it’s an ongoing process. It has no endpoint. There is always more to do. It’s the same as sanitation workers hauling away garbage. It’s the same as housekeeping. In my OP I drew the analogy with the immune system. Your immune system never thinks, self-satisfied, “Now that I’ve killed off all the germs, I’m permanently done and can retire.” There are always more germs. What’s so hard to understand about that?
Ongoing process. Please confirm you understand this. I’m starting to feel like I’m talking to the wall.
Once again, almost everybody here agrees with you when you say that. It was your other statement about partial antiracism being equivalent to zero antiracism that we have a problem with. We are reading your words exactly as you wrote them. Since almost everybody here has exactly the same interpretation of those words, perhaps you did in fact write them that way.
My point is that most people who hear “everyone is racist” and believe it aren’t going to think there is a process. Just that everyone is evil, forever. That there’s nothing you can do or try that will mean you are anything other than a monster, that everyone is and always will be a monster.
There’s no room in “everyone is racist” for good people.
I’m arguing that no level of racism is acceptable. If you disagree with that, does it mean you’re arguing that some level of racism is all right? I’m trying not to put words in your mouth. I’m really trying to understand what’s the logical outcome of your criticism. I’m standing on the principle of not tolerating intolerance. Refer to Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance. It’s a soundly established principle. Given that, it’s logically impossible to establish any acceptable level of racism.
Whenever a racist thought scuttles like vermin through the basement of my mind, I squash it immediately. It takes vigilance. We need a mental immune system. Not pushing the loathsome filth back into the darkness to ignore it and allow it to fester. Force yourself to look at it for the purpose of seeking and destroying it on sight.
Absolutely 100% fucking wrong as hell. What a pernicious and self-defeating attitude. A good person actively seeks and destroys any trace of racism in themself. Is there any other way?
Personally I don’t give a shit about people’s private racist or other -ist thoughts that they are aware of or are beneath their conscious awareness. Actions and inactions are the concern that matters to me. Mine in particular.
There’s that copula is again. I warned yous about that right off, but yous didn’t listen. Am I using too technical terminology? Nobody knows what a “copula” is? (Hint: it has nothing to do with copulation or cupolas).
Then l’ll put it in words of one syllable: Don’t say “you are” X. Say: We all have this task to share, let’s get on it.
But how do you convince people who don’t think they share this task (because they don’t think they’re racist) that they do, in fact, share this task (because they actually are)? Feels like this is a good way to preach to the converted but not very useful for convincing anyone who isn’t already on the same page.