# Despite horrible treatment, why don't African-Americans hate white people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2015, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753 "2015-02-27T07:55:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/21 "2015-02-27T19:20:36Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Heck, white people hating black people didn’t really get white people anywhere did it? > > I think “If you can’t beat them, join them” sounds a little defeatist but that’s kind of what happened no? Seriously? Dude. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/22 "2015-02-27T19:22:22Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > This thread is making this black person hate certain Dopers, that’s for sure. Explain please. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/23 "2015-02-27T20:31:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Explain please. No. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/24 "2015-02-27T20:32:33Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > Seriously? Dude. I must be expressing myself poorly. I apologize. The subject of the thread is one thing (asking about hate) but the OP starts off with violent uprisings of cultural groups. I was coming at the question from that angle, why hasn’t there been a violent uprising of black people in America. That’s all. I do sincerely apologize if I was offensive, I did not mean to be. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/25 "2015-02-27T20:34:27Z")
I just listened to **Stuff You Missed in History Class** ’s three part series on [Brown v Board of Education](http://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/). If you want to feel really sad and angry about something. Here are my half-assed theories: After the Civil War, blacks were not as well-armed as they could be today. They were poor, weak, and scattered compared to the overwhelming militant white population. It would have taken a much longer occupation of federal troops to make an impact, and they withdrew. The KKK and other hate groups were everywhere–in the schools, in the voting districts, in the town halls. The fear of death was very real, and there was no financial recourse (as someone mentioned, revolts are usually bankrolled by middle class idealists.). Those threats didn’t really lessen until the late 1970s. Throughout the Civil Rights movement, plenty of people died, lost their jobs, lost their freedom, mobility, families, etc. And there was more to lose. While the “average black american” life might have been shitty, it wasn’t third world shitty. There were communities to protect, people to take care of. They had something to lose. Revolutionaries usually have less to lose. The people who could call for violence–MLK, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP–didn’t call for violence, overall. They might today, inspired by the Arab Spring, but back then the non-violent approach was a central part of their civil action. As to why they aren’t rioting now, given the number of blacks in prison, or still in non-integrated schools, or chosen last for jobs, or punished disproportionately to white children, or underrepresented in politics and industry… Probably because there is no one “black identity.” There are thousands of credos, ranging from the projects to the upper class. It’s the same issue that the women’s rights movement faces today (and did even more in the 2nd wave). There’s not just one army or general. At best, there’s a neighborhood. As others have said, the average white person isn’t a very satisfying target for rage. Hate isn’t going to get a lot done. As someone said, whites hating blacks hasn’t had much of a social impact lately, either. We would have to unite and rise up against the government, not have race wars between the races. I don’t think that’s going to happen on anything but a local scale. Which is sad, because there’s a fucking lot of injustice. Even if individuals are doing just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/26 "2015-02-27T21:19:55Z")
Was going to say something similar to Monstro about “you are not alone” though I’m kind of new here and not sure I’d quite use the word “hate” to describe how some of these posts are making me feel, since I don’t know anybody here at all and am reluctant to judge anyone based on a comment or two rather than entire commenting history. That said, what surprises me is that nobody (unless I missed it) challenged the assumption built into the question itself. In other words, what makes you think plenty of African-Americans DON’T hate white people? Also, Monstro, thanks for posting the PL Dunbar poem, as the question made me think of it and similar. If only some people knew. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/27 "2015-02-27T21:21:38Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > No. About what I expected. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Doyle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doyle/32/439_2.png) [@Doyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doyle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/28 "2015-02-27T21:36:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think one factor is that racism tends to be depersonalized in modern American society. A black American might resent the way he’s been treated by our predominantly white society in general but he doesn’t have any animosity towards the white people he knows. And this is reversed as well; a white person might hold racist beliefs about black people in general but not hold those beliefs about the black individuals he personally knows. As someone who has lived in the Deep South all my life and has had interactions with Black Americans all my life, Little Nemo seems to have nailed it. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/29 "2015-02-27T21:47:41Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Explain please. Maybe later, but the thing is, I’m increasingly of the opinion that it doesn’t really matter. Our experiences and how we perceive them are continually questioned as if we’re children noting monsters under the bed. Now I’m having one of my dark periods so that’s probably effecting how perceiving some of this, so as usual when we have one of our what’s up with them darn negro threads, I have to continuously count to 10. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/30 "2015-02-27T21:58:21Z")
> [@Lee\_Q](#): > > That said, what surprises me is that nobody (unless I missed it) challenged the assumption built into the question itself. In other words, what makes you think plenty of African-Americans DON’T hate white people? I would assume that a certain percentage do, since there’s always a certain percentage of any group that hates. It’s just human nature. I was interested in why that percentage wasn’t a lot higher and/or visibly manifested. Personally, I have encountered very little animosity from black people in my life. I can really think of one incident, and that was when I was young and involved other kids. What _has_ shocked me is the racism and anti-Semitism I’ve seen from whites on, for example, YouTube comments and even on the SDMB (racism couched as science). White people have a long way to go… ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/31 "2015-02-27T23:42:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think one factor is that racism tends to be depersonalized in modern American society. A black American might resent the way he’s been treated by our predominantly white society in general but he doesn’t have any animosity towards the white people he knows. A useful phrase might be ‘institutionalised racism’. At least that’s what has become the common term in the UK. And you are correct, it is at the root of the issue; it dehumanises the victim ethnicity, it implicity condones individual racism and it diminishes the state. From afar, it looks the the US military has done a lot of work on this so maybe that could be an exemplar … ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/32 "2015-02-27T23:44:12Z")
I think it’s more subliminal racism. African-Americans are disadvantaged and resent that disadvantage, but since it’s mostly subconscious, it’s hard to hate anyone in particular. ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/33 "2015-02-27T23:51:47Z")
subliminal? What the hell are you talking about. It’s institutional. You don’t get it yet, but then nor did we 25 years ago: > **[Institutional racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_racism)** > > Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is defined as policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education and political representation. > The term institutional racism was first coined in 1967 by Stokely Carmichael and ... p.s. if you put the phrase in Google it comes up with a bunch of scholarly works as well. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/34 "2015-02-27T23:55:29Z")
I mean that people make subconscious choices about people based on their race. If you are claiming direct institutional racism then that means there’s individual racists in the institutions powerful enough to direct those institutions to discriminate. ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/35 "2015-02-28T00:00:22Z")
Not necessarily. It can be unintended and just inherent in the system - see link. Take underpaid, poor quality or briefed public defenders as an easy example. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/36 "2015-02-28T00:02:47Z")
That’s sort of what I was talking about. The system isn’t racist in intent, it just has disparate effects. ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/37 "2015-02-28T00:03:50Z")
The link 3 posts up talks about that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/38 "2015-02-28T01:21:08Z")
> [@BOOM](#): > > A useful phrase might be ‘institutionalised racism’. At least that’s what has become the common term in the UK. I don’t know if I agree with this. Maybe the term has a different meaning in the UK than it does in the US. But here in the US, institutional racism was the idea that organizations collectively would have racist policies that were independent of what individuals were doing. A bus driver who told a black passenger to sit at the back of the bus wasn’t enforcing his own personal prejudice; he was enforcing the company policy that dictated black passengers received second-rate service. Because this racism was often overt and was conducted in big patterns, it was usually the easiest form of racism to identify and prohibit. As a result, I think institutional racism has been widely eliminated. It’s very hard to point at any policy that’s being carried out by any organization that’s racist as drafted. Even if an organization is carrying out a policy that’s having a racist effect, the racism is arising from the way the policy is being carried out rather than from the way it’s written. Racism still exists but now it’s being conducted by individuals rather than organizations. You no longer have a bus company telling its drivers to put black passengers in the back. But you’ll have cab drivers who won’t pick up a black passenger - and they’re doing so by personal choice not because there’s a company policy telling them to. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/39 "2015-02-28T01:25:35Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > This thread is making this black person hate certain Dopers, that’s for sure. > [@Stuffy](#): > > You’re not alone. Speaking for myself, if I’ve written something that’s offensive I’d like to know. It was not my intent to offend anyone so if I have I’d rather be told so that I won’t unintentionally offend somebody that way in the future. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/40 "2015-02-28T01:29:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Speaking for myself, if I’ve written something that’s offensive I’d like to know. It was not my intent to offend anyone so if I have I’d rather be told so that I won’t unintentionally offend somebody that way in the future. It’s not you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753.md?page=3)