[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
On the one hand, I totally agree with those who believe that Richards’s use of the word “nigger,” especially in the context in question, indicates that he has some repressed racial shit going on.
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Just like every other person in the world, you and me included. Evolutionary psychology tells us that we were all born with an innate fear (and thus dislike) of “otherness”, including people who look different from ourselves. It is deeply, profoundly futile – totally against the reality of evolutionary human nature – to expect anyone to be entirely free of all hints of racist thought. As I wrote far up thread, all we can ask – and we each have a right to demand this – is that people don’t act on these thoughts. That we “repress” them, in your words.
[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
I agree because I’ve long believed that anyone who is raised and educated in American society has been exposed to some really virulent–if somewhat backdoor–racist inculcation, and absorbs what they’ve been exposed to entirely without knowledge or volition. (I like to refer to this as acculturated racism.)
[/quote]
I agree, but I’m not at all sure this is a universally bad thing. Again, as I wrote far upthread, I became an anti-racist precisely because I’d witnessed it and it repulsed me. And it repulsed me as strongly as it did because even at 8, I recognized an echo of my uncle’s racism in myself. I don’t think there can be a more powerful form of learning.
[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
So no, I don’t know if this dude is racist, but like I said, I believe that he, like many (most?) Americans, harbors at least some degree of racial animus, so I wouldn’t be as quick as some others on this board to dismiss the possibility.
[/quote]
I’m with you on all counts thus far, as long as “racial animus” does not equal “racism”.
[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
And, for those who claim/are tempted to claim that merely thinking the word “nigger” is not indicative of racial animus, consider this…
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There, I think we part ways, because it does seem (and of course I may be wrong) that you feel that “racial animus” = “racism”. It may be hairsplitting to disagree with that equation, but hairsplitting is sometimes necessary. As indicated above, I hold that (to use your term) “racial animus” is innate in every single human being to one degree or another, and that it’s “instinctive” and thus immune to complete conscious control. “Racism”, on the other hand, is an intellectual belief system that is under conscious control. Thus, there’s an important distinction to be made: not all people who feel some sort of “racial animus” are racists.
[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
Now, mind you, the people who do this (and a whole lot of white folks and some non-black folks–perhaps even some of you on this very board–do this, and probably without even realizing it) don’t *say * anything. I know what they’re thinking, though, and they’re thinking the only thing they could possibly be thinking in situations such as I’ve described: nigger.
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Just like Chris Rock and Rev. Jackson. Don’t get me wrong, though. There’s no question that many (most?) non-blacks experience distinctly racial undertones in such situations, but the fact that many (probably not most) blacks also feel very similar apprehension should tell us all something. And that something is that there’s a significant factor involved that shouldn’t necessarily be equated to racism.
But please don’t think I’m saying there is no racism or racial animus involved! Black racial animus or even racism towards other blacks is by no means hard to believe. Hell, there’s plenty of self-loathing gays (ask Rev. Haggard) and self-loathing Jews and who knows how many other self-hating people; why not self-loathing blacks? After all, if the media and/or something else is inculcating racial animus against blacks in America, why shouldn’t many of these same social forces apply to blacks as well as whites?
I know exactly what produces my added bit of unconscious and conscious, if irrational, feeling of distaste towards blacks: hip-hop and rap. The fact that I feel the same thing towards white rappers doesn’t change the basic reality that I despise misogyny and homophobia and prideful ignorance and the glorification of violence for violence’s sake. (And I think the musical form itself is cheap and ugly, too.) I used to think black rappers didn’t realize what a horrible image they were painting of African-Americans and African-American culture, but now I’m pretty sure most know damn well what they’re doing and are doing it out of some twisted kind of pride and/or prideful arrogance. It’s a classic Langian “knot” that should have been untied a long time ago. I know perfectly well that it’s pretty much forbidden to criticize any popular art form, and that one does so at his peril. Witness the Pit thread on the subject a while back: people can be incredibly hateful and intolerant of dissenting opinions in that arena, especially when it comes to rap and hip-hop. So expect my view to be roundly condemned, even here. But I’m just telling you…
[QUOTE=Li’l Pluck]
Do you think it’s so harmless now to merely *think * the word, that it’s not indicative of some seriously fucked-up shit?
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Perhaps some monks in the Himalayas can utterly control their minds to the point where unbidden, shameful thoughts and words never arise. But it’s futile to demand, or even expect, everyone else to be able to do so! Does the word ever intrude itself into my mind on occasion? Yep. Does that make me a racist or indicate “some seriously fucked-up shit”? Nope. It just indicates I’m a member of the species Homo sapiens and grew up in a culture where the word is unfortunately not uncommon enough.
