What do YOU consider to be a racist act?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m curious to know what Dopers’ thresholds are on what constitutes a racist act.

Several threads have emerged as of late discussing Michael Richards’ meltdown, the power of the word “racist,” and in this thread there was initially some debate about whether the situation described in the OP was racist. (In fairness, there now seems to be a consensus that this was a racist act.)

First, a definition. I find the definitions in online dictionaries essentially limiting. They tend to focus on the racial superiority aspect, but I find that concept way too abstract for most interactions. I prefer this one:

For purposes of this discussion, I’d like posters to share:
[ul]
[li]their location (nation will do)[/li][li]age (roughly)[/li][li]racial/ethnic identity[/li][/ul]
Then, an example of what you would consider to be:
[ul]
[li]a mildly racist act (you detect it, possibly would confront the person or complain, but might equally choose not to get involved)[/li][li]a clearly racist act (you detect it and would certainly act in some way - confrontation, write a letter, report to the media or other organization)[/li][li]an extremely racist act (something you would report to the police, end a relationship or employment over, choose never to patronize an establishment over)[/li][/ul]
For the sake of argument let’s eliminate acts of violence. I can see that being the extreme for most folks.

I’ll go first:
Location: USA
Age: mid 30s
Race/ethnicity: African-/Jamaican-American, raised in the UK and USA

Mild: a wholesale dismissal of an art form with strong linkages to a culture (i.e., “Hip-hop culture is crap”). There’s more to a cultural movement than really bad commercial music. It includes poetry, art, literature, and dance. Not saying that one can’t hate 50 Cent but to dismiss the entire genre without understanding that commercial stuff is often the most soulless, vapid example and that one can not particularly like a genre but respect the talent, creativity, and worth inherent. But yeah, I’m not going to put someone on blast about this, most of the time.

Clear: when someone is agitated and resorts to racial or ethnic name-calling, whether alcohol is involved or not. (See Gibson, Mel; Richards, Michael)

Extreme: if an institution I worked for took actions against one group of people resulting in severely limiting opportunities, but meted out less significant punishment for another group. For example, plagiarism is a serious charge at my school. If I learned that international students were being expelled over issues that US-born students were simply being reprimanded over, I’d no longer want to attend school here. I’d add the caveat that I would have to see a pattern over time and know details of the case…

2

Location: USA
Age: mid 40s
Race/ethnicity: Hispanic

Mild: Someone using derogatory language about a race with no one of that race present and without any attempt to cause action against or cause discomfort to the mentioned race.

For example, if the person in the linked thread had quietly used the term “those people” with a friend after leaving the premises.

Clear: Using racial language in an attempt to coerce, harm or demean an individual in a public setting. Strictly verbal, strictly short term effects here. Nothing that can cause lasting harm except to the psyche which is bad enough.

Extreme: Any action, not words, designed to cause the lessening of the circumstances of a minority in any tangible way simply because they are a minority.

A company not hiring a more qualified minority when they’ve already met their “quota” of that minority. A company laying off a minority to keep someone of a preferred minority who is lesser qualified ( this happened to me. I was the lesser qualified and I promptly quit ). Putting something in someone’s food because they are of a different race. Stealing their personal items for the same reason. Anything that has a negative effect on someone’s life outside of their feelings is extreme to me and unacceptable. It becomes a racist act when the reason the act is performed is race based.

3

Location: USA
Age: 29
Race/Ethnicity: Black/African American

Mildly racist: Subconsciously giving different evaluations of two cases that are practically identical except when it comes to race of the players involved.

Example: A teacher views a low-performing white student as “bright but lazy”, but views an equally low-performing black student as remedial.

Clearly racist: Consciously acting on prejudiced thoughts and skewed perceptions.

Example: At the beginning of the year, the teacher automatically puts all the black students in the slowest reading group and all the white students in the advanced reading group, defending her actions by citing her negative experiences with black students.

Extreme: Preaching and teaching the benefits of clearly racist actions so that they can become policy.

Example: The teacher recommends to the principal that no more black students be enrolled in the school, since everyone knows they’re uneducable and incorrigible.

4

Location: USA
Age: 29
Race/Ethnicity: Black/African-American

Mild: Extrapolating past experiences with one or more members of a particular racial group to future encounters, and not showing this same tendency to those in their race.

Example: The person who distrusts all black men because they were once robbed by one.

Clearly Racist: Having the opinion that inherent differences exist between the races and only looking at data which confirms that view at the expense of good science and common sense.

Example: A person touting national crime statistics to support their belief in a white defendant’s innocence on the basis that such data lends probative value to the case’s credibility without respect to the actual evidence at hand.

Extreme: Consciously believing that people outside your racial membership have less life value than those within it and acting on this belief knowingly.

Example: Firefighters who save the white people from a burning building first and then go after the black folks.

5

Location: Canada
Age: 30
Race/ethnicity: About as Caucasian as one can get without glowing at night

Mild: Racist one-time joke/comment told without member of oppressed race present - allowing someone to tell said joke/make comment also slightly racist

Medium: Telling one-time joke or making single comment with minority present/allowing it to happen

Extreme: Repeated verbal assault, or obvious dismissal/shoddy treatment due to race

6

USA
27
Indian/Canadian-American

*Mild: these don’t really enter my consciousness…I guess I’d say something along the lines of asking me a really idiotic question but in an innocent rather than belligerent way. “Do your women work?” or “Are you having an arranged marriage?” etc. I can’t really think of one. Maybe assuming I’m good at math?

*Medium: these generally focus on trying to mock me. For instance, replying to me in Apu-speak though my accent is clearly NOT Indian and I speak perfectly clear English.

An excellent example would be when I was at the Hoover Dam with my parents a couple of months ago, and my father, whose accent is more English, like Englandy English, and in fact, speaks perfect English (as does everyone in my family) asked the cop wandering around for directions out of the visitor’s center. The cop responded to him in pidgin. As in “you walk-ah like this and you go outta they center and then you man-ah and youssa wimmin-ah” and so on and so forth. And yes, I realise I’m supposed to take it from anyone with a gun because they’re god’s gift to society but I interrupted the fathead and told him we were all citizens and spoke perfect English and he could communicate to us in a discernible form of said language or I’d be happy to communicate with his supervisor. The he tried to respond to me in pidgin, me the North American raised coconut, but I cut him off in 5 seconds.

Most curiously, he was African-American.

*Excessive: generally the excessive acts of racism

These are generally when people mistake me for Middle Eastern and the last one occurred at an airport. However, because I prefer to be alive, I put up with it.

7

Old guy with not much skin pigment who got lucky and was born in the US of A.

Well, anytime I do something to any life form other than humans.

All humans are the same race. Biological fact no matter what 'Wiki" says…
If we go with the false assumption that humans are of different races, then any harm I do to others for any reason that includes the fact that I just don’t like them, then I am being racist according to the OP.

YMMV

8

Age 38, female.
Current location Basel (Switzerland) but I just got here.
Ethnicity: Hispanic. If you want more detail, Navarrese; 50% Basque, 50% other. The other includes Celtic, Iberian, Italian and (perhaps but not confirmed) Lorraine.

Not-exactly-racist: jokes which don’t go “with evil intent” (you can tell by the tone); jokes directed “against” one’s own (you know, “I can say whatever I want about my own people, but don’t an outsider dare”). Things that take race/culture into account as a factor, but which do not consider one race better or worse than another.

Racist: any instance in which race/culture is used to discriminate against or for someone, period. I don’t believe there is such a thing as mild racism. It can be violent or non-violent, but racism is racism is racism.

9

Assuming that a black college student has a sports scholarship.

10

Location: Born and Raised in the Northeast US
Age: Early 20s
Race/ethnicity: Black

Mild: Expressing an inoffensive stereotype in a casual and indirect manner.
“You know how to snowboard? Wow, that’s surprising.”

Clear: Either a racial joke or slur that is expressed solely for the purposes of soliciting a reaction.

Extreme: Physically assaulting someone because of their background or denying them the same opportunities afforded to people of your own background.

11

Age: 46
Ethnicity: Whiter than White
Location: Saint Paul, but grew up in the SF Bay Area

Mild: Giving less candy to black kids at Halloween
Clear: Not giving any candy to black kids at Halloween
Extreme: “Get off my goddamn property and go back to your own side of the freeway, ya dang TTOC*!”

  • Trick or Treaters of Color
12

You know, this is really hard. I thought of a bunch of things, but then I had to think on them more because a lot of them struck me as more complex when I broke them down … some were maybe not a racist act in and of itself, but possibly more a an act that is defined by a historically racist society. Others were more jerky with only a hint of racial undertone.

Location: US (Northeast)
Age: mid 30s
Race/ethnicity: White

Mild: Locking the car door when stopped at a traffic light when a black person walks by. And I think a lot of the time it happens in a “it’s a good idea in general to keep one’s car doors locked, and sometimes one forgets, and then simply suddenly remembers” kind of way … so what is it about the black person that makes one “suddenly” remember?

Clear: Anticipating a situation to go a certain way (usually poorly) based on the race of the participants. In a job situation, employees receive 1 verbal warning for poor performance, and then 1 written warning after two weeks if there is no improvement. If a supervisor would wait two weeks for employees of one race, but would go ahead and fill out a written warning immediately after the verbal warning for employees of another race, I would think that clearly racist even if the supervisor didn’t actually submit the written warning until the required time.

Extreme: In the “clear” example above, if an executive knows that the situation is happening repeatedly, and doesn’t care and doesn’t do anything about it. There’s something about apathy on behalf of people who are in theory in positions of authority to guide policy and behavior and they don’t do it that strikes me as more extreme than some random guy assuming a certain employee is going to respond in a certain way.

13

Location: US (Indiana)
Age: 32
Race/ethnicity: White

Mild: Using someone’s race as a descriptor, but only if they are non-white, ex., “I was at the store talking to the cashier and this black guy comes up and interrupts us because he couldn’t find the pickle aise.” Or avoiding a person of color because it makes you uncomfortable, ex., “Well, the bar is dead except for a couple of guys, and one of them is black, so you know…” No, I don’t know!!!

Clear: Any use of racial epithets, especially when they just roll off as if that’s the only way the person ever refers to people of a different race. Passionate negative opinions on topics such as immigration, affirmative action, the welfare system, crime, etc.

Extreme: Actually, to me, if it’s clear it’s also extreme. I guess the line would be drawn where the bigotry extends to having the power to affect other people in a negative way. For example, being in a position to hire or promote/demote people, beign in law enforcement, being a teacher or a parent and furthering your ignorant views.