Hey. New article. A sort of sequel to my "You're Not Black" article from a while back.
Also I write for a website in Boulder now. Yaaaay.
It's a good piece. Nicely done. Speaking as someone who is too white to be anything else, regardless of how many cultures he dips his toes in, allow me to offer a little perspective: It's a rare thing to spend much time within a social group other than the one you're native to. Sure, you can visit. Sure, you can hang with friends. But I can drive a red sports car. Unlike my neighbor, who gave up on sports cars in his 20s because he was sick of being pulled over by the LAPD for driving while black. And I can understand that, because he's my neighbor. And I can internalize that, because he's my neighbor. And I can speak to that, because he's my neighbor. But if you don't have a black neighbor, it probably doesn't occur to you. The other thing to keep in mind is that when you "bring up race" amongst white folks, there's absolutely, positively no way for them not to be the villains. None. It's a rare thing for the honkies/crackers/gringos/gaijin/farang to be on the side of angels when it comes to race. And most of them are not actively attempting to perpetuate racist stereotypes. So the conversation, from their perspective, isn't "racism exists" it's "your ethnic group is oppressing my ethnic group even though we're friends." I'm not saying there's a better way to do it. I don't think there's a comfortable way to remind your friends that they live a more privileged life than you do, or that those of your color have it harder than those of their color. But I think it's important to recognize that it's often more complicated than "willful ignorance." "Defensive ignorance" maybe. "passive/aggressive ignorance." "Knee-jerk ignorance." Forgive them, 8bit, for they know not what they do.
I get where 8bit is coming from and I see your point too. It's hard to make it clear to people that passive racism cuts a lot deeper for some than overt racism. Talking about it won't change the fact that things are the way they are. Discomfort is sometimes a sign of growth. Just as often, that growth is a cancer. Well-meaning people have told me that they forget I'm not white in the same tones they've used to tell me they forget I wear glasses. Even if a lot of people say they don't see color, that they're "colorblind", some of us can't un-see it. Living abroad, I got to see some of my friends experience that for the first time and be utterly shocked by it. All I could do was shrug and say "now you've had a taste. How is it?"
People often ask me if I found more racism in the south having moved here from Michigan. My answer is that there is not more racism, just more overt racism. In Michigan it's something whispered in circles that will tolerate it. Down here it's a bumper sticker. I prefer the bumper sticker, good to know who your enemies are and where they are. The first time I was ever in the south, I was at a wedding in Chattanooga. I was downtown and an elderly woman stopped and asked me what time it was. She heard that I was a northerner from my voice and started telling me all about how wonderful Chattanooga was. She pointed out areas I should go to that were particularly beautiful. Then she pointed out the area that I should avoid because "there are too many niggers". I could not believe it. I had never experienced anything so jarring in my life. I must have turned pale white in shock. I simply backed away and exited the conversation. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in Michigan. However, in Michigan they would use coded words like "thug" or "gangsters" or even "crime" to mean "blacks." I prefer the lack of "code." I like my evil men to be overt in their idiocy.
Got to disagree with you here. I much prefer a world where racists at least know that they should be ashamed of holding those views (until, via code words, they realise that others hold similar views). I think it's a step in the right direction, when racists have to be closeted. Sets a better example for the young ones. TMBG put it well.
First of all, thank you very much for the walk down memory lane. Haven't listened to TMBG in far too long. What a great song. In regards to kids, I'd much rather know who is and isn't racist overtly so that the closet racists have as little interaction with my children as possible, preferably none EVER. If racism is unannounced and beneath the surface it can spread more easily and cannot be confronted head on.
You can't shelter your kids forever, they will meet racists out in the world. It's a still matter of knowing your (more subtle) enemy. But I see your point exactly.
A child's mind is a fragile thing and if I can prevent it from encountering hate and ignorance, I will. There will be plenty of time left in their life when such things will not be able to be kept at bay. For now, I'm on duty and I'm going to do my best.You can't shelter your kids forever, they will meet racists out in the world
Re-exploring this thread via the BestOf2014 list. I don't think that anyone would ever suggest I was "sheltering" my children by not allowing them to, for example, spend the night at a friends house whose parents are overtly racist. That's just good parenting in my opinion. If they're 10 years old and I'm actively trying to prohibit them from knowing that racism exists, then sure that's sheltering.
Why is that, do you think? Now that you mention it, I've seen it, but honky that I am, it hadn't occurred to me. Is it because overt racism you can dismiss as idiocy and antagonism?It's hard to make it clear to people that passive racism cuts a lot deeper for some than overt racism.
Overt racism is like a formal declaration of war whereas passive or ingrained racism is like fighting the War on Terror. Overt racism has a face and can be attributed to that one person's or small group's upbringing and life experience. It's something you can lash out at and break the teeth of, or report to the police or the community at large. Passive racism has no face. You can try to fight it, but if no one else sees it then suddenly you're crazy, or overly sensitive, or making mountains out of molehills. For me, one clear example is the difference in the way people of color are treated if they speak with an accent vs. how white people are treated if they speak with an accent. On some level, it's a psychological trigger that lets the listener know that the speaker is not from wherever "here" is. The almost automatic assumption for most people would be that the white with an accent must be intelligent, because they speak more than one language. The automatic assumption for the person of color is that they don't speak English correctly.
In America, white people with an accent - unless it's a few very specific hillbilly or redneck accents - come from somewhere likely to be more civilized than where you are. Accentless English is best found in NorCal and the Pacific Northwest, places that were hinterlands until the 1950s. Even a Philly accent speaks of a culture more refined than yours. Sweden? Ireland? France? Forget about it. In America, non-white poeple with an accent are upstarts and foreigners from somewhere less civilized. It doesn't matter if Dr. Singh attended Harvard medical school; we're going to hearken back to Apu on the Simpsons because frankly, negative stereotypes are all we know. The accent matters more than you'd think. I've worked with black producers from the UK and everyone treats them as Brits, not as blacks. A South Indian with a British accent will encounter a great deal less racism than a South Indian with an Indian accent. Gilmore Girls featured a black gay man with a French "gay" accent for seasons; to the best of my knowledge, "race" never figured into the show but "gay" and "french" did. While acknowledging that this is a conscious choice made by a team creating fiction, I think it's also important to note that they were following norms.
Points well taken. Out of curiosity, have you read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman? I just started reading it and I don't know that it deals with racism at all, but it is very interesting to read what this guy has to say about human behavior and how the mind works. It reminds me a bit of Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, which I'm pretty sure we've talked about in the past.
But this is really an offensive statement, right? In a way it says that "white" is both the norm and something that everyone should aspire to, that "seeming white" is a place that we want everyone to go. It's diminishing your own culture and what it means to you. With that in mind being "colorblind" is also in a way negative or pejorative. Being colorblind means: I see you as associating to the norm. or I see you as white. It diminishes your personhood as a person of color and culture. It says, "I don't see you as belonging to your own culture." It says, "I don't see you - at all."they forget I'm not white
It's almost impossible for White people to see the racism that is ingrained in society, it subtle and if it isn't happening to them the knife is too keen to feel. A leftist paper in my town did a survey of the media many years ago. I don't remember all the statistics but one thing they noted was that if a criminal was black the odds of his race being mentioned in a news report was orders of magnitude higher. I never noticed this until I read the piece. It's a pretty fucked up thing to start noticing.
Well you kind of should take it personally. Radio, TV and print have been programming our brains to see the world through a certain lens. It's easier to see through car and toothpaste commercials or the bare jingoism of Kiefer Sutherland's 24 but learning to resist this kind of subtle programming that make us hate/fear a race of man will probably have a bigger effect than most things.
Fucking fabulous! I read this not realizing you were the author. You said what I have been unable to put into words. Expanding this point to explore the larger truth is great. There are expectations of people based on their race and they are treated differently. As much as we would like to chose to say "racism is in the past", we shouldn't until we stop having expectations of how individuals should act based on their race (or gender, or any superficial trait). I despise when someone accomplishes something notable but somehow their accomplishments are only presented as notable because of their traits. While ignoring the issues may be better than being willfully, violently, or purposefully hateful, we cannot fully overcome any problems by ignoring them. We've made huge strides in overcoming racism. Some of that is due to making things legally unacceptable, socially unacceptable, and then ignoring it and being willfully blind. We shouldn't negate the progress we've made since the years of slavery and violence. Rather, we should choose to look at the issues today and approach these issues in terms of where we are currently. Sometimes I think people focus too much on the differences between today and 100 years ago instead of looking at today and 10 years ago; just because we're better than we were 100 year ago, doesn't mean we can't be better than we are today.What is very funny about this is that songs like Under My Thumb and Stupid Girls by the Rolling Stones, or Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines,are as misogynistic as any rap found on the Billboard 100. Yet when these songs are criticized, it is on the basis of the artists personally being bad people, as opposed to broadly brushing an entire genre – like hip-hop – as being sexist.
I wonder though, and please point me to my ignorance if I say this wrong, but is racism a result of the assumptive nature of the human brain? As in, we're hard-wired to rapidly make judgements and to categorize the world around us based on images (sterotypes) which are shaped through experience, direct or indirect (e.g. media). I started reading Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow just like humanodon and the 'faster' aspect of the brain, making quick judgements, seems to facilitate prejudice. I'm not saying this means racism is any less of an issue, I'm just wondering what aspect of human nature makes it possible.
I'm just wondering what aspect of human nature makes it possible. I was thinking along similar lines, which is why I mentioned the book in the first place! The shorthand you're talking about is sometimes called "attribution" and it's a huge source of conflict in human life. At some level, I think we're all somewhat aware that we do this, though not to the extent. For example, the common response to getting caught doing something is to say something along the lines of, "this isn't what it looks like!"I started reading Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow just like humanodon and the 'faster' aspect of the brain, making quick judgements, seems to facilitate prejudice.
I'm not saying this means racism is any less of an issue,
This documentary "A Conversation About Race" is one of the best things I've seen about racism from an American point of view.
Whenever people are uncomfortable, you can almost always find the cognitive dissonance. It's easier and nicer to think "he's overreacting, it's not that bad", instead of "society is more racist than I am comfortable with". We don't even know we do it sometimes. It might be less willful ignorance than you suppose. But I probably just think that, to make myself feel better ;-)