Of course you can help being affected by racist beliefs. Look at any totalitarian society, the government controls the schools, the media, entertainment, police, and yet people find ways to think for themselves and reject the state’s programming.
Our society is not sending racist messages. When is the last time the hero of a movie, tv show, or popular book was an unrepentant racist? George Washington Carver the first scientist students study in school. 42 is the only number retired from every team in MLB. There hundreds of schools named after MLK, Rosa Parks, GW Carver, and Thurgood Marshall. There are only two holidays in the US celebrating the births of people, one is Christmas and the other MLK day. There was a black president for two terms. Black people are or have been recently the most popular TV hosts, athletes, movie stars, and singers. Our society is permeated in anti-racist messages.
And we currently have a President who is an unrepentant racist, who hires unrepentant racists and who praises unrepentant racists, and millions of people voted for him despite it being very clear that he was so. We have people who are deliberately slandering those engaged in a peaceful protest intended to raise awareness of the disproportionate shooting of innocent black men by the police. We have self-proclaimed Nazis marching in the streets. Hell, we have people losing their shit because a black guy starred in a Star Wars film and there was a mixed-race couple in a Cheerios commercial.
We are better as a country than we once were, but if “Obama got elected, therefore we’re not racist as a country” is considered a legitimate argument, what does Trump’s election and concerted efforts to erase Obama’s entire legacy say about us? *Yes, I know.
You are just touching on OVERT racist messages. The subtle ones that still pervade society are a hangover of the overt and legislated racism of the past. The overt ones certainly haven’t vanished either they are just confined more now to the individual than collectively.
It’s a reaction I sometimes have, when someone mentions their race in passing or talks about something in a way that heavily implies what they are. Sometimes it’s in a conversation with a third person, in which the third person mentions their ethnicity in a way that assumes that I already know what it is.
When you’re in a mixed group of people it’s not unexpected to find yourself making a stray comment that implicitly acknowledges your race in some way.
I’m trying to imagine this “overt racism-free” utopia, because I sure as hell ain’t living in it.
It’s not as bad as it used to be, true. But I can’t spend more than five minutes on Reddit or online article commentary without seeing an overtly racist post.
My psychology training makes me dismissive of people who claim that hidden messages all around us are controlling our minds. I don’t believe they live was a documentary.
And you’ll see I didn’t say anything about all the overt racism being “pro-white”. Try reading for comprehension and not putting words in other poster’s mouths, bub.
This seems entirely a non-sequitur. I said no such thing. You very well might have the intent or interest in fighting racism, but by focusing on your status as a non-racist, you are not contributing to fighting racism.
Our society is absolutely steeped and soaked in racism. If you are a member of this society, then most of the conditions of your life and your interactions with other people are influenced to one degree or other by racism.
And racism has multiple manifestations, for example (non-exhaustive list):
Overt proponents of racist ideas and institutions
Proponents of racist ideas and institutions who generally don’t admit to it in public.
Those who profess or want to believe that they are free of the stain of racism, but nevertheless behave in ways that perpetuate racism.
You may be none of these things, but these kinds of indivdiuals don’t constitute the totality of the problem of racism in our society.
A huge factor is the racism institutionalized in our societal groups, institutions, processes, etc. These are the kinds of things that are often disguised by seemingly color-blind processes. And there is also the unwitting reinforcement of these things by people who want to believe that they are free of racism. And then there is a lot about human nature that is subject to instinctive tribalism, which may manifest in actions that reinforce structural racism.
If you are focused on making sure that no one thinks of you as an individual as racist, you are very likely to contribute to these kinds of structurally racist factors. And the more you fight to defend yourself as a “not racist,” the more likely you are to overlook your own actions that support racist structures and to defensively deny the racism in your actions.
What we should be doing as individuals is not only looking for overt and structural racism in society, but also self-policing of our own actions, attitudes, thoughts, and decisions. By seeking “not racist” status, we are really giving ourselves a pass and making it more likely that we will contribute to racism.
The thing is that pretty much every aspect of our society was created in a context of racism. That does make everything suspect. Racism is not just an undesirable trait in people and institutions; it’s a part of the building blocks that created our institutions. There is nothing in our society that hasn’t been profoundly influenced by racism.
If you see racism as an individual crime that some people are innocent of and some people are guilty of (but it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt if so), then you are basically giving racism the freedom to continue existing. No one is an innocent; nothing is above suspicion when it comes to racism.
The key to being an enemy of racism is not to seek the status of a “not racist,” but to be constantly vigilant.
There is no way anyone can know this. As a non-white person, you can never be sure that racism isn’t affecting some particular condition, transaction, or relationship. And there’s nothing another person can do to prove it isn’t. Seeking to do so is a waste of time. The task is to do one’s best to not let racism color one’s decisions or perceptions, but that only works if you are continuously self-critical, and not giving yourself the comfort of the status of “not racist.”
I don’t say that. What I say is the person who insists that he or she isn’t racist is insufficiently aware of the nature of racism in our society and is seeking to be absolved of his or her responsibility and role in a fundamentally racist system.
Another person’s identity is certainly not irrelevant. But statements drawing attention to it are off-putting.
So, you discover that Person X is a Y, and you didn’t know that. Okay fine, take it in stride. Responding with “I didn’t know you were a Y” is just a minefield of implicated questions.
E.g., you didn’t think? What did you think I was? Why did you think that? Because of some physical characteristic of mine?
The list you give of proof is so stupid, it looks like something straight out of a Gamergate troll handbook, a collection of exceptions, incomplete pictures, and tokens. If you don’t know about racist messages that our society sends, then you haven’t bothered to study the issue.
There are schools named after King? Well, there are plenty of schools named after Lee and Stuart and Jefferson Davis. There is a holiday on King’s birthday? Well, guess what, in Alabama, that’s also Robert E. Lee day. A black president was elected for two terms? Well, the next election was won by a candidate who overtly appealed to racist resentments. Black people have been popular entertainers? Well, why do black performers still find it difficult to find roles, the vast majority of which are reserved only to white performers?
This is either immensely naive or deliberately deceptive. This is not about “hidden messages controlling our minds.” This is about overt and implicit attitudes that perpetuate and confirm both spoken and unspoken biases about people.
The fact that you can’t even think of things that are otherwise well-known is evidence that you don’t really want to look to closely at things. For example, you say that black people being popular entertainers is a sign of non-racism. So, okay, take Will Smith, a popular black actor, loved by the public. Indeed, possibly the only black actor who for many years is seen as being able to “open” a movie based only on his name. Many people have pointed out that film producers are very reluctant to give Will Smith a love interest played by a white actor.
Take another set of experiences, illustrated for example in one episode of Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None” series, which show that non-white actors always have to face casting limits—“Well, we can cast one Asian actor in a major role, but not two, because then people will think it’s an ‘Asian’ movie.”
And the feelings that underly these things do occasionally erupt, such as when there’s a hint that, say, Spider-Man, or Johnny Storm, or characters in the Hunger Games might be played by non-white actors.
Yeah, that’s me. I’m a misanthropic asshole, not a racist. I don’t give a fuck about your problems, but I don’t care about anyone else’s problems either.
That sounds like way too much work. I think I’ll just keep being an asshole.
Sure, if *all *you do is focus on your own status then by definition you are not doing anything else, but can one not assert one’s status as a non-racist and at the same time fight racism? I find it fairly easy to do, what a low opinion you have of people.
that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Again, one can assert one’s lack of racism and at the same time fight against racism in all it’s forms.
You have not supported your case at all. and despite your protestations it is clear to see that you do think those claiming to be “non-racist” are most likely racist. You disguise it rather clumsily but the implications of your words are clear.
You could be explicit of course, you could clearly state in your reply that you will accept that someone can honestly claim to be “non-racist”…would you care to do that?
I don’t “seek” that status, it isn’t something that can be bestowed on me by a third party. I merely state it as a fairly banal fact. Do think it impossible for anyone to state that they are not a racist?
So in other words, seeking to be accepted as “not racist” must mean that one is not being constantly vigilant. What a black and white world you live in (clunky pun very much intended) You again seem incapable of accepting that someone is quite easily able to do both, why is that such a difficult concept for you?
No, I don’t have a low opinion of people. It’s that racism is too big and too deep for me to believe that anyone can declare themselves free of it. It’s a basic fact of our existence for at least 500 years. It’s soaked into us.
Anyone who declares himself or herself free of it is either ignorant of the depth of racism or is just fooling himself or herself. That doesn’t mean that that person is the worst racist in the world, or even is a bad person. It’s just someone who either doesn’t understand the depth of the problem or is too quick to declare himself or herself free of something that is basically impossible for us to be completely free of.
Nope, not “most likely.” Just not sufficiently introspective, and because of that likely to slip up.
Racism is simply not about whether any particular individual is racist or non-racist. It’s about how society and culture and institutions are structured. Anyone who is thinking in terms of “am I racist or am I not racist” is simply missing the point.
As soon as you say it, you want people to accept it as a label or description for you, so, yes, you are seeking it as a status marker.
I do not accept “not racist” as a status for an individual person. It’s like saying “It’s blue o’clock” or “The post office is soggy miles east of here.” That does not mean I believe “everyone is racist.” It means that “not racist” is a status that has no meaning.
Racism is a cultural condition and a characteristic of a society and its institutions. So long as racism is structurally part of the institutions we interact with and live with we are part of a racist system.
So in other words, seeking to be accepted as “not racist” must mean that one is not being constantly vigilant. What a black and white world you live in (clunky pun very much intended) You again seem incapable of accepting that someone is quite easily able to do both, why is that such a difficult concept for you?
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Teachers impose harsher punishments on black students. Medical professionals are more reluctant to give black people pain killers, because of an inherent belief that they can tolerate more pain than white people. Both black and white cops perceive more danger from black men than white men. Babies are less trustful of people of a different race.
This is not because they are bad people. It’s not because (most of them) explicitly adhere to a racist ideology. It’s because of the entire society they have grown up in. They are perpetuating racism, but there is likely nothing specifically racist about any particular belief or attitude of any one of these individuals. If asked, the majority would say something like “I am not a racist” because they genuinely don’t perceive racism in themselves.
So to actually make progress on racism, you have to get beyond this lane of thinking. It’s not about you. It’s not about a label or status that is given to you. It’s about the totality of the society we live in. Concern about whether “I am a racist” does nothing to help make things better and likely keeps things from getting better.
It doesn’t matter whether you think you are a non racist as a matter of status. That doesn’t prevent you from taking actions, making decisions, playing roles that perpetuate the harms of racism in society.
