racism
by Eli
last month’s racist rant by michael richards got me thinking about racism, in general. i’ve been tossing it back and forth for a few weeks, i read this article, read this article, and i’m just now getting the chance to formulate and express.
here goes nothing:
everyone is racist. everyone. of course, it’s much greyer (like the kinsey scale) and less black and white (no pun intended) than people like to imagine.
you and me and all of us have our preconceived notions about people, especially people that are different. it’s nothing that we should be ashamed of. after all, finding patterns in the world around us is what makes us human, and using those patterns to make life easier makes sense. naturally, we are going to find patterns in groups of people because groups of people tend to group themselves by race. most of the people that i have any personal knowledge of in this world are white. what color are you? what color are your friends?
i just don’t like it when people say that they aren’t racist at all. they try to play it off like they are totally indifferent to the color of the skin, the language that is spoken, or the customs that are followed; and somehow they don’t make one single racial judgment. they also usually make the outrageous claim that “we’re all human beings, we are all one race, we are all the same, and that is what matters.” that is actually pretty insulting because it says that there is no culture distinction and that because we are “all so similar” that it should be really easy to get along.
obviously, we aren’t the same at all: we’re black and white and all shades of brown, we live in different environments all around the world, we believe different things, we worship different gods, we speak different languages, we eat different foods, and we are influenced by millions of different things in millions of different ways.
some kinds racism (and speciesism and sexism and ageism and haircolorism and culturism) are unavoidable, and those kinds are OK. but there are also much different kinds of racism: kinds that hate, kinds that enslave, and kinds that kill. those kinds of racism are wrong. this distinction is utterly lost in our world of overwhelming PCism.
obviously there are kinds of racism that are wrong and hurtful (and that’s where richards was teetering), but there are also many kinds that are totally alright.
Eli, I first of all think this is a pretty well-written piece. But I don’t agree with what you seem to be saying that “racism” is. If you ask me, racism and sexism are hatreds based on skin color and gender, plain and simple. If you hate someone based on those things alone, then you are a racist, but if you don’t, then you are not a racist (and I might even tag an “at all” at the end there). For example, Mel Gibson blamed the Jews for all the world’s wars. That reflects a hatred for a certain kind of people (and an ignorance I find unfathomable). He’s a racist. Michael Richards was a white comedien attempting to be funny by using the “N” word to describe black people in his audience. People were offended, and he wasn’t funny, but I’m not convinced he hates black people. Do I agree with him using that word? No, but only because white people aren’t allowed to use that word. That’s the price we pay for enslaving a people and then creating that very word to dehumanize them. We don’t get to use it casually, but he is certainly not the first white person to do so, nor even the first white commedian (Sarah Silverman did it, for example). I think what you are referring to as racism is more an awareness of the social and cultural conditions that seperate people of different races in our country. Here’s an example. Whether or not they would ever admit it, even to themselves, most white people would have at least a flutter of concern about passing a young black man on the streets at night. Surely, some of those people will be racists, and hate that man just because he is black. But irrational fear, even based on skin color, doesn’t make you racist. There may be some black people that disagree with me, but fearing something doesn’t mean you hate it. Now, I realize that’s kind of a slippery slope. But, geez, you know how easy people are to scare in our society. Most people in prison are black or hispanic, and the media has made no secret of that fact. Doesn’t make all blacks and hispanics criminals. What it actually means is that blacks and hispanics have fewer opportunities in our society, live in greater poverty, and seek crime as an outlet with greater frequency than whites. These are their coniditions now because a century and half ago, they were slaves. After they were “freed” it took 100 years for them to gain basic civil rights, and 40 years after that, we are still working out the kinks imposed upon us by those previous centuries of slavery. But that just isn’t the story that most white people know, so a few of them treat black people differently. We are all victims of that; those are the social conditions that create our preconcieved notions about those that are different than us. But I don’t think having preconcieved notions, even based on skin color, makes you racist. I make judgments about people based on the clothes they wear or the cars they drive, but I don’t hate people who don’t dress nicely or drive nice cars. I don’t hate people that are poorer than me (though I think they smell). Airgo, I’m no classist. I just think that if you don’t hate someone for the color of their skin, if you are in fact caught up in the same social constructs that make everyone so hyper-aware of race in the first place, then you aren’t a racist.
thanks drew. i see what you are saying, and i think that i agree with you. i guess it all comes down to how you define racism, let’s see what oxford has to say about it:
so the first half (before the “esp”) seems to fit in somewhat with what i’m saying. do you see that? of course members of a race are going to posses characterstics specific to that race. now, the key word there is “all,” and of course, not ALL members of any race are the same. so in that regard it differs from what i’m saying.
then it goes on more along the lines of what you were saying, after the “esp.” i guess i can see it both ways.