I don’t get this. They hold reprehensible views and yet when they are criticized, they act like victims. Why is that?
Because they believe they are right. ‘It ain’t [del]biggitry[/del] [del]biggatry[/del] racism if it’s true!’
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Yes. Keep in mind that nobody thinks that the views that they hold are wrong. (On this, see Kathryn Schulz’s book or TED talk.)
And when people criticize you for your views, you can examine them to see if your critics have a point, or you can get defensive. It’s human nature to react the second way, especially if you have a vested interest in the views you hold, or a lot of your personal identity is tied up in them. And the more people criticize them, the more you feel ganged up on—the more you feel like a victim.
One of my rules of thumb is that most people tend to think that other people operate mentally like them.
So a bigot is fine with harassment and bullying. He thinks everyone else does it all the time. Ergo, anyone confronting him is merely harassing him. The idea that the other person is helpful/factual/merely different doesn’t occur as a first thought.
E.g., an anti-semite will tend to think that Jewish people are strongly anti-goyim. And therefore one needs to “protect” oneself from them.
Facts have no affect on how most people operate mentally.
Because they’ve learned that it works. No matter how racist they are, if they cry victim when someone points that out, they inevitably find people who fall for it, and stick up for them.
Because bullies like to get their martyrdom in first.
But then, who exactly is a bigot?
How about the group banning white students from the University of Berkeley? If someone tried to tell me where I can or cannot walk there would be trouble.
First in with the obligatory “They do it too!” response. Here’s a clue: If you do something bad, it does not become less bad if someone else someplace else also does something bad.
And if it bothers you that for an hour or so, a handful of white people were inconvenienced, then it should bother you even more that for generations, millions of people were oppressed. It should also bother you that, while things have gotten better, most of these students encounter far more formidable obstructions to their pursuits every single day.
It’s a very common technique in domestic violence cases and nasty divorces. It not only serves to imply the violence or reason for the divorce was perpetrated on both sides, it interrupts the “narrative”, obscures the facts and course of events, and is so fucking annoying people will settle to just end the whole frustrating and humiliating process.
Guess what? That was a limited time protest. I guess you must think those bigots blocking the Selma Bridge were in the wrong also.
Bigotry is trying block the entry of black people into schools permanently. Bigotry is lynching. Bigotry is killing civil rights workers. Bigotry is burning down churches.
The defenders of all those things got real upset by pushback from the federal government and from “outside agitators” from the North.
So what DO YOU CALL telling students they have to alter the way they go to school?
Do racist actions of the past justify racist behavior now?
Curious, if you were one of those students kept from attending class that day, what would you have done?
So what should “white” people do about the sins of the past? Should I get down on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness?
If it is everyday, and it is supported by the community and those in authority, as were jim crow era laws and policies, then that would be bigotry and racism. A small group of people for a short time, I’d call a demonstration.
No, but the continuing effects of past racism, combined with current racist attitudes that still exist more than justify a demonstration that causes a slight amount of inconvenience to a handful of people over a short period of time.
I, and nobody in my family, EVER did anything racist. So why do you dump the blame for Selma Alabama on me?
So just how far can the left go in racist actions like this BEFORE you finally agree that is enough?
This characterization of the events recounted at the link is categorically false and is in no way supported by the information provided at the link.
The students protesting were told where they can and cannot gather; consequently, there was trouble. I take it, then, that you agree with their goals and methods, right?
I would have realized that the slight inconveniences that they are posing me reminds me of the obstacles that society has put in their paths. I would have either stopped and talked to them to encourage them that not all white people are racists, and that some white people can even empathise with their challenges, or if I were in a hurry to get to class, I would have made my way around the best I could.
Acknowledge that they happened, that they have effects that are still evident, and that they are still ongoing.
If you feel, in your conscience, that you have significantly contributed to the problem, and that is what you need to do to clear your conscience of the damage that you have inflicted upon others, then sure, do what you need to do.
Otherwise, no one is asking you to do anything like that.
No a demonstration is standing somewhere holding signs. However when it targets people just on the basis of skin tone, THAT is a racist action and should have been immediately stopped by police.
Plus it wasnt just a one time thing. They are pushing the school to have “safe spaces” for only “persons of color”.
How? Do you think the white people humiliated by this action are now going to suddenly feel sorry for black people? Heck some of the articles I was reading showed it probably hurt their cause and created a greater racial tension than before.
Neither did in the past, nor do now, virtually anyone in the disempowered groups do anything to deserve the way they were (and in some aspects still are) treated unjustly. Now, sure, the idea ideally is ***not ***to “dump the blame on you”, but rather to give the dominant group some idea of what it felt like, so maybe they can understand where the others are coming from. Of course there will always be some ass who decides to make it about blind payback or who comes up with a daft display to try and show off, but that is peripheral.
Going back to the OP: the bigots consider it entirely unacceptable to have it thrown back in their faces, because they consider it a counterpunch and an attempt at now subjugating them. They will stand on the position that there is nothing wrong about what they thought, said or did, and that everyone just has to get over it. And if their positions are now socially unacceptable, it’s not that society has weighed them and found them wanting, but merely that “the other side” has the upper hand for now.
What do you mean? White students were told “go around” while students of color were told “let him thru”. The video very clearly shows white students being told to go around while non whites were allowed thru.