Posted: 22 January 2020 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | 8
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Much of the discourse these days is derailed by people confusing racism with race hatred. Race hatred is definitely racist, but the term Racism itself doesn't necessarily mean lynchings, white robes, and murder in the streets. It's far more prevalent and wide-spread than that. Racism is subtle, insidious, and pervasive. It invades every level of society as assuredly as issues of class, wealth, and poverty do.
The constant need to discount Racism as a factor in events and to insist, "Well, I've never hanged anyone, so I can't be Racist" or "Britain isn't beating Blacks in the streets*, so our take on Meghan can't be racist" points to how omnipresent and misrepresented racism truly is. Those narrow, defensive rants are, in and of themselves, racist in that they deny the reality of something affecting the lives of countless millions. Racism is vast, and race-hatred, violent and pathetic as it is, is only one component of it.
Someone saying you're racist doesn't mean you're one tiki-torch sale at Wal-Mart from taking to the streets. No one is saying you're personally evil** for having blind spots, but it does mean you need to take a step back and re-evaluate the degree to which race is coloring your thinking and your reactions. Proceeding without doing so is wrong. The racism that lurks in those blind spots is evil, and these defensive, knee-jerk denials only perpetuate it.
"I don't see color," and "I was raised to see all people as equal," turn up a lot these days in discussions of racism. Don't kid yourself that you're the one guy who's somehow above it all or that your family figured out the secret code to put yourselves past it while the rest of the world languished in ignorance. You're not that hot.
So you're not actively engaged in race hatred. Good for you. Keep that up. Racism itself, however, is too deeply rooted in our culture to pretend that it isn't playing a part in your daily life, whether you see it or not.
There are apparently more tiki-torch asshats walking around than optimistic Whites realized, yes, but racism itself is more than just that. It is multi-dimensional and multi-generational. It works against us all in ways large and small.
We have a few dimwits on this board who insist their anti-SJW stances against diversity in pop culture are fueled by this niggling bit of reasoning or that, but so what? Maybe that is the line they've sold themselves on why they do what they do. Doesn't matter. The echo chambers they dwell in are run by actual racists, stirring the pot to work these morons into a froth and say things that only racists would say except that, of course, nobody's being racist. They're just... you know... preserving storytelling and don't like being lectured to and stuff like that... White Supremacist dupes, every last one of them.
Maybe they're not race-haters, but the guys they happily work for are, and they're just too f*cking stupid to see it.
Base racism is everywhere, make no mistake, and its influence upon our daily lives is immense, whether we choose to whistle past the issue or not. The very least we can do is check ourselves to make certain we're not spreading racism by pretending that it would impossible for someone as nice and open-minded as us to do so and to stop giving others credit for maybe not being racist. Everyone is to some degree or another. And more people own it than would ever admit to doing so.
* Actually, it wasn't that long ago that's exactly what was happening, and we were hearing then how pleasant and fair-minded Britishers were. I don't blame Meghan for wanting to get out.
** Although, hell, you might be. I don't know.
Edited by Brian Hague on 22 January 2020 at 6:16pm
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