My experience of the problem.
There are some arguments that I have seen involving racism that I think need addressing. I’ve specifically seen people, usually white people like myself, try to control how racism is used at a social level. While there are several stereotyped examples they seem to center on fear based reactions.
It’s reasonable to be afraid of how racism gets used, it’s supposed to feel bad. But it just has to be accepted that if racism is to be overtly and publically dealt with there are some words that have to be used as openly and commonly as needed: racism, racist, overt/covert, implicit/explicit, conscious/unconscious.
Since I have a personality that tends to the aggressive (a neutral) I commonly also use things like direct/indirect, object/context, dominant/subordinate, aggressive/defensive as well. What racism does makes it a legitimate thing to objectify for social purposes and to do that you have to look for racists.
The subject/object.
This is the internet. Our experience of other people is objectified by its very nature. Like it or not we have to accept that we treat people as objects as a result of how the internet is used. I try to be moral and ethical about it because I accept that there is an inherent amount of dehumanization to our experience of other human beings on the internet and actively adapt accordingly. I actively shape my empathy.
I also actively strategize against racists. Empathy actually attaches to that, and you have to accept that parts of empathy are supposed to feel bad.
Racism is a characteristic. Anyone who considers going to a dictionary has to keep in mind that it’s a thing that has to be detected over a period of time. Anyone thinking about pointing at a dictionary better be able to use it in contexts involving current real-world use. Words only represent things and they are not the things. If you want to limit the usage of the words you have to know about the things they actually attach to.
That gets us to reputation. This is the experience of racism over time. I’ve seen rumblings about avoiding the word racist. Fuck that, a racist is a person with a demonstrated pattern of behavior over time. How can it be anything else? That is our target on the internet.
Racists as a collection of symbols attached to an object-person and progressing through time.
This gets us to bias. Racism is a form of bias based on race. Don’t worry my fellow melanin-challenged apes, racism comes in many forms when attached to racists. You get to defend yourself. But if you don’t take the opportunity to understand the shapes you will have no idea what racism looks like. Then you become one of the people I see on the internet that act like they were insulted but have no idea what the insult is shaped like.
*overt/covert
*implicit/explicit
*conscious/unconscious
This is important shit and I can even describe how my overt anti-racist aggression searches for implicit/explicit objects when it comes to objects that constitute racism on the internet. I define my targets like any socially responsible person with socially aggressive instincts should, so I take the conscious/unconscious range into account as much as I can (I still want to change society).
This is how your personality is shaped and operates over time. Those are neutral things and to know them is to learn how to control yourself on a level that gives you skills. If you stay ignorant it will always be painful for you because of all of the parts of the biases that generate racism. That fucks with your ability to detect real social threats. I see you, you fellow white people who had actual characteristics applied to you. Not just insult. What racism is suggests much deeper ways that your reasoning and logic processes are legitimately damaged. You want this.
Bias is a neutral.
Bias mucks with a bunch of things that are observable in culture, that means objective in a functional sense. Like bias that takes place in comment boxes on the internet. Bias on the issue of race as a part of reputation is a contextual element indispensable to any discussion. And indispensable to actually change society. And bias is representative of how our moral and ethical minds work. Good and proper reasoning and logic is biased by nature. You want to be in control of yourself.
So how you do you apply bias to yourself when ruminating about your life? You accept that bias comes in good and bad forms and that it represents how our reasoning processes work. You actually spend time thinking about why you make the decisions that you do and you make sure that they have connections to the people you interact with.
That is legitimately scary shit. But it does get easier over time. You see the value in accepting the experiences of others on a provisional basis and in many forms, that only includes criticism. “Provisional basis” is not wiggling or waffling. You get to choose how you feel and believe about what other people tell you. I’m saying that there is value in being able to recognize other people saying that you understood what they said, and to actively work to carry that knowledge into the future. It’s how you look for flaws, mental preening.
It’s honestly why I enjoy questioning rude people so much. I like understanding the experiences of others. I enjoy watching everyone discuss how they experience the world in feeling as well as content, my experience of the world includes an excess of feeling. I like thinking about social morals in both general and situational forms. But I also accept that if I want to change society I have to make decisions about how I interact with others, including how I shape my social criticism. Or how I react to and use criticism when among people I want to help. Bias is not always bad and you should be ready to think about how yours work. For your own skills and ability if other human beings are not good enough.
But either way you better accept that fixing racism and it’s cousins sexsim, mysogyny, the phobias associated with LGBT+ people, ablism and more will require public criticism of racists in general and specific language. I want that gone, in myself and in others.
I’m one of the people who’s saying we need to cool it with the accusations of racism. As such, I disagree with most of what you say above. Here’s why.
Historically, the Democrats have been made up of a loose coalition of minorities, overeducated coastal types, and Midwestern blue-collar workers. What last month’s catastrophe proved conclusively is that, if you subtract the blue-collar workers, what’s left of the coalition is NOT enough to win national elections.
The most depressing thing about election night was seeing the maps that showed county after county that voted for Obama in the last two elections, then voted for Trump this time around. Now, can you be a white voter who voted for Obama, yet still be a racist? Sure. But the fact is, those people undoubtedly think that voting for him kind of inoculated them from charges of racism. They’re also going to react, really viscerally, to charges of racism. As you say, a lot of their racism is probably unconscious. Even if their Trump votes were partially motivated by sexism or racism, their conscious minds have provided them with what they believe to be good reasons for voting for the cheeto.
Four years from now, we’re going to need to go back to these people and say “Come back to the Democratic party, white blue collar workers.” But if the message they’ve been getting from hardcore Democrats in the meantime is all about how they’re a bunch of racists, their reaction isn’t going to be “Gee, you know, maybe I do have some subconscious racism that I need to work on.” They’re just going to say “screw you, Democrats, I’m never going to vote for you guys again.” And we will lose in 2020, and 2024, and by that time our country and our planet may well be screwed beyond repair.
What does “cool it with accusations of racism” look like? I need to know if I should give a fuck about the specific things you want cooled sans metaphor. I talked about other social variables that I take into account and I’m not going to cooperate with people that have certain arguments on an implicit basis.
Why should I be concerned about your problems with democrats and elections? I am not a person associated with blue Ds and donkeys by party interaction, I just tend to like them better on social issues 90% of the time. The rest of the time I am selective in my criticism because like every other homo sapiens I want to change society in some way.
What part of my blog post made you believe that I did not care about the intense feelings of accusations of racism? I said things about feelings and accusations up there. An accusation of racism is a specific thing and I need to look for the irrational biases in reasoning and logic that constitute the ways that racism is expressed. I’m content being an individual working on needling racist expressions when I see them.
I’m personally comfortable as an individual when it comes to many of the predictions about a Trump win. I am white, male, aggressive by personality in a society that likes to saturate aggression, enjoy making social statements consistent with my personal morals and ethics and other things that apply social advantages. I mostly feel bad for people that Trump voters have bigotries against because they will bear the brunt of it, so I unapologetically take advantage of the psychological reality of being an aggressive white male raised in an aggressive conservative and religious military family. I basically shame the fuck out many at the implicit and indirect level of society and when they respond I tell them why it’s not personal for me while being personal for them. It’s part of how things work in terms of social evolution. I’m always willing to provide my reasons, data, opinions, impressions or whatever the other person seems to want outside of specific things in my ethics related to changing society in the long term.
I do not need Trump voters, and the people I care about fear them for reasons I accept. I believe that Trump voters are more damaging to society than a Trump presidency. I don’t care about the president as much as I do the individual interactions that led to the decision to vote for him. I play things “long game” and “short game” when it comes when it comes to how I try to change society.
I’m years late coming across this blog, but I’m gonna drop my two cents anyway:
I agree with all this, 100%. However, I’d like to clarify that racism and all other forms of similar superficial discrimination such as misogyny, homophobia, ableism etc. can occur in forms other than the normal social conceptions people are most often envisioning when they hear those terms.
Yes, there’s an obvious systemic bias that heavily favors straight, white men over all other demographics. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean all straight white men are to blame. This point gets missed out on a lot, and I often see people incorrectly take this paragraph’s opening statement about privilege to mean, “Straight white men are the enemies of equality.”
In reality, it takes members of all demographics to maintain the status quo. Nobody is immune to spreading hatred. Hatred doesn’t pick a favorite gender or race and then only effect that group. It arbitrarily finds a reason to hate, and then hates for that reason no matter what a person looks like or which naughty bits they were given. People choose to hate first, then they find a reason for it retroactively. If a person’s short, they’ll hate tall people. If a person’s skinny, they’ll hate muscular people. Whatever someone is, they’ll pick something they’re not and hate that no matter what if they decide they wanna hate.
Very often, I find myself trying to explain to well-intentioned folks how a meme they’ve posted or something they’ve said in a comment is actually racist and hateful, which means it’s actually damaging the struggle for equality in the long run. The problem is, because the racism is pointed at white men and I’m a white man, they refuse to hear it from me. Here’s one of the more egregious examples I can think of off the top of my head:
(This was a meme intended to refute the claim that the shooter crisis was a mental health issue rather than a gun control issue)
“Mass shootings aren’t a mental health issue. The vast majority of shootings are carried out by straight white men.
Mental health isn’t a straight white man’s issue. The group that has the most trouble receiving adequate mental health treatment is black females. Mental health isn’t an issue for white men. Mental health is a black woman’s issue.
Mass shootings aren’t a gun control issue either. They’re a white man control issue. They’re an oppressive patriarchy issue.”
Okay so, using your terminology, this is overt, explicit, conscious racism and sexism. As a white man who struggles with mental health issues, I found this offensive on so many levels.:
1) It straight up blames100% of white men for actions carried out by less than .01% of white men. (Unfair demonization due to race/gender)
2) Inadequate mental health care is a problem for everyone with mental disorders in America, and trying to change that is easily the cause I’m most personally attached to. The meme essentially says my biggest problem isn’t my problem, and I’m not allowed to fight for that cause on the grounds that it’s the issue most directly causing me suffering. (Invalidates personal convictions due to race/gender)
3) Most importantly, the mental health community is one of the few places I see people setting their differences aside and connecting with one another without giving much regard to race. This meme essentially fragments the only undivided community I’m a part of along racial lines. (Literally doing the exact opposite of the struggle for equality’s main objective)
That shit right there, even though it was made with the intention of promoting equality, only serves to help spread hatred. It teaches the members of minority demographics who read it that hating white men is okay, and tells the white men who read it that they’re being hated for their race/gender, which means they’re allowed to hate others for the same reasons because all that nonsense about equality is a lie. The meme is actually damaging to the struggle for equality. In reality, it’s making the fight harder and not easier.
This was just the most blatant example I have in recent memory; I see this sort of overt hatred pointed at straight white men all the time. When I try to confront people, the response is almost always something along the lines of, “Yeah, it’s racist and hateful, and that’s the whole point! Straight white men’ve been making racist and sexist attacks on us for centuries! It’s about time they get theirs! Let’s see how they like it!”
The problem with that logic is I haven’t been making attacks on anyone for centuries, and I’m one of the victims of the counter-attack. In fact, I’ve been speaking up for equality for over a decade. I’m essentially being punished for something someone else did, and then being told I have no right to complain about it because of my race/gender/sexuality. When I try to explain how that’s ultimately damaging to the cause I generally share with the person I’m addressing, I’m accused of mansplaining/whitesplaining/privilege denial and given a lecture on why it’s okay for them to be racist and sexist, as long as the racism and sexism is pointed at me.
Most white dudes aren’t as tolerant of that bullshit as I am. The majority end up becoming embittered and racist BECAUSE of shit like this. They aren’t gonna get insulted and belittled into enlightenment, they’re gonna take the argument that says hatred is okay as long as it’s pointed at them, and use it to justify spewing hatred back out towards all the groups fighting hardest for equality.
Their thinking operates like this:
“I tried to be on the side of social justice, but they’re a bunch of hypocrite bigots that’re just looking out for their side in a war. I don’t like , but since every side of the battle is taking part in I might as well stick to the winning team, which just so happens to be my team anyway!”
Then their hatred leads others in the minority demographic to hate white men, whose hatred of white men leads a well-intentioned white dude into a pattern of hatred, and that cycle of hatred feeds off itself.
The part that’s most racist about it though is people automatically assuming that because I’m a white man, I don’t know what it’s like to be the victim of hatred. I grew up in a neighborhood where whites were the minority, and I got bullied heavily for my skin color on up through high school. I’ve probably received more ass whippings and been the victim of overt racism more often than most black people you’ll ever meet. I’m also bisexual. I’ve also dated more than one black person, and experienced the reflected racism from the white community that comes along with that.
Yes, I know what it’s like to hide my sexuality because I know coming out to a certain group will end in extreme negative consequences. When I first came out, a large segment of my social circle swore they’d never speak to me again, and most kept that promise. Others said they’d hang out with me, but only if I didn’t have my boyfriend around. If I tried to maintain the friendships under that set of rules, most of the people who made that stipulation would spend that time with me where my boyfriend wasn’t around preaching to me about how my boyfriend and I were freaks and abominations so they had a moral obligation to try and save me from my own monstrous nature.
Really though, being bi didn’t draw anywhere near as much direct hatred or as many threats of violence as being a “n***** lover” and a “race traitor” did. I understand the amount of hatred my black partners received was orders of magnitude higher than what I went through in these situations, and that they didn’t have the luxury of occasionally being out in public without them around the way I did. I also know what it’s like when someone is being unconsciously racist while thinking what they’ve said is actually open-minded, and I get that just bringing up my past black partners reads that way in a lot of heads.
(The whole “I’m not racist, I have three black friends!” which gets met with > “People who aren’t racist don’t count their black friends” thing. I promise, I didn’t bring up my dating resume in that sort of context even though I’m aware of how the last paragraph reads to strangers)
Neither of those were anywhere near as bad as being a white boy in a black neighborhood. As a kid, I was basically not even considered human. My brothers and I, along with our best friends (the only two other white families in the neighborhood) were essentially just oddities that the rest of the neighborhood kids fucked with for group entertainment. Some of my earliest memories were when I was in kindergarten and first grade, and my older brother would say, “Okay, they already told me they’re gonna fuck with us when we get off school so as soon as you get off the bus start running,” and then sure enough the moment we stepped off the bus it was a straight up sprint back to our house and if we didn’t move fast enough or ran out of breath, that meant an asswhipping. Sometimes it meant any money in our pockets got taken too. A few times I had to give up my coat. One time they took my backpack. Eventually I learned not have or wear things that looked cool, because it’d act as added incentive to call me a white boy and whip my ass for it.
In my early teens that turned me bitterly racist. :Like. KKK Neo-Nazi, no the least the bit ashamed or remorseful over it. If you’d try telling me about white privilege, I wouldn’t deny it the way most people these days do, I’d say it’s a blessing that I deserved because I was a superior breed than those ignorant monkeys. Whenever you make the argument that hating straight white men is okay because straight white men are the sources of all hate, or say that only straight white men can be racist/sexist/homophobic/otherwise bigoted, you’re actually adding to the problem.
The struggle for equality is a fight for a world where everyone is equal. When people are fighting for a world where everyone’s equal except the group they’ve all agreed isn’t, they’re not fighting for a change. They’re fighting for the same system we’ve already got, and no matter what target point they’re hatred at, in the end hatred is the winner and equality loses ground.
I understand that I’m privileged. I understand acknowledging my privilege and using it to confront others who were born with it when they deny the facts of our society is a responsibility of mine. More than that though, it’s my job to fight all forms of whenever I see it, and speak up for the struggle of equality whenever I see someone hurting the cause.