E-Balla wrote:Nate505 wrote:E-Balla wrote:My definition of racist goes as far as you treating someone differently or acting differently around people of different races. What separates the other 10% is that they act comfortable, don't really change up when they're around different people, and if they did and you said something about it they actually listen and don't respond with hostility like the poster right after you. That's not something easy to achieve when you're raised in the US and constantly taught to be hostile towards people of color in all situations.
Hmmm...I don't believe most people are taught to be hostile towards people of color in all situations. Especially some absurd percentage like 90%. I also believe most people act different around people they don't know, people tend to be around people who are similar to them (be it based on race or class or ethnicity or religion or whatever). I wouldn't call that racism though. To me racism is the belief that one race is superior to another or that race inherently imparts negative characteristics on a person.
No everyone is taught that. 100%. And this isn't what I think its what I know and what's obvious. 90% of the time it works. And when I said different I should've specified I meant in a negative or ignorant manner.
Yeah when I read this combined with the rest of your comments and general race related discussions in other areas of the forum I think you meant its beneath the surface teaching and people dont even realize it the implications and representations of minorities given are effecting people.
There's just a huge amount of push-back because odd as is it to say racism has been caricatured into only the KKK and Nazi's where subtle behaviors in white people reacting to interactions with black people with extra apprehensiveness and people in a parking lot late at night might see a young guy in front of him and, the guy turns around is he's black and the guy walking to his car grabs his keys extra firm or speeds up.
The stuff is under the surface level and is much less of a conservative / liberal issue than certain outlets would characterize it as, many liberals are fine championing themselves as civil right supporters but take many actions unknowing that prove their implicit biases. An instance of " subconscious racism or unknowingly offending someone" doesn't necessarily mean you are a piece of garbage it just means the conditioning hasnt been broken in ways that you can recognize the inequalities related to experiences with POC or minorities of any kind. The thing most frustrating in white black relations
is the whole defensiveness of an amount of white Americans that treat some criticism of their ideas of race or subtle prejudices as a full on accusation that they are basically a scumbag. It's almost as if certain people cannot entertain the idea that they arent already treating everyone fairly if they work on a surface level. The whole " I dont see color" and any derivative of that is deflecting away from any honest discussion on racism and an attempt to actually educate someone about why such a mindset can have many effects and how all these little biases can add up and have a tangible effect on the experience of being black in america.
I haven't really said any outright racist things because like most americans that have even a pedestrian understanding of the civil rights era that " I believe all men were created equal" just being a dick to someone because they are black will get you a bunch of dirty looks. however if someone is dressed urban and is behaving in non typical american cultural way and someone disguises there diatribe because of political correctness ( as eballa already stated the welfare queen, thug, etc. ) then most people wont be that worried and some people may even applaud it as some beneficial colonial type encouragement BS. But when Ive accidentally said some stupid "unthinking before i talk" thing to a black person that is borne of more thoughtlessness than hate or anything and someone calls me out and I apologize or I realize 10 seconds later most of the time they dont get pissed, just give me a " its cool bruh" or "you good" because the act of understanding what you did was wrong and just apologizing without any moral bargaining or trying to sidestep yourself as the person at fault is probably a lot more rare than white people in general end to think.
The main point is that being racist without thinking about it doesnt make you necessarily a bad person but being the kind of person that gets all defensive, throws out BS false equivalency, " respectability " arguments, deflects, and is generally an a-hole or belittling about it makes you a real jerk to those people and if you're quick to respond to such behavior with malice or belittling someone and it depends on race as to how you respond then you basically are a racist.
Was the whole dismissive
