28 Common Racist Attitudes And Behaviors

[MrScorpio]

28 COMMON RACIST ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS THAT INDICATE A DETOUR OR WRONG TURN INTO WHITE GUILT, DENIAL OR DEFENSIVENESS.

Below is a list of 28 common racist attitudes and behaviors that indicate a detour or wrong turn into white guilt, denial or defensiveness. Each is followed by a statement that is a reality check and consequence for harboring such attitudes.

1. I’m Colorblind.

“People are just people; I don’t see color; we’re all just human.” Or “I don’t think of you as Chinese.” Or “We all bleed red when we’re cut.” Or “Character, not color, is what counts with me.”

REALITY CHECK + CONSEQUENCE:

Statements like these assume that people of color are just like you, white; that they have the same dreams, standards, problems, and peeves that you do. “Colorblindness” negates the cultural values, norms, expectations and life experiences of people of color. Even if an individual white person could ignore a person’s color, society does not. By saying we are not different, that you don’t see the color, you are also saying you don’t see your whiteness. This denies the people of colors’ experience of racism and your experience of privilege.

“I’m colorblind” can also be a defense when afraid to discuss racism, especially if one assumes all conversation about race or color is racist. Speaking of another person’s color or culture is not necessarily racist or offensive. As my friend Rudy says,
I don’t mind that you notice that I’m black.” Color consciousness does not equal racism.

The rest: http://www.stcloudstate.edu/affirmativeaction/resources/insights/pdf/28ToolsChange.pdf

Cross posted from the AA Group.

[MrScorpio]

2. Welcome to DU! nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. can't read attached pdf

[MrScorpio]

7. Try it with a different browser

I'm using Safari and it's working for me

[Feral Child]

71. Displays fine in Chrome. n/t

[bullwinkle428]

5. I see that "#1" all the time at other sites I visit,

where you have conservatives & wingnuts throwing their two cents in!

Often in reference to some "horrible scourge" ( ) like affirmative action.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Stephen Colbert riffs on the first one

as in, "You say you're black and I believe you. People say I am white..."

[RobinA]

8. Wow

Something there to piss off just about everyone. I especially like "brown people can't be racist because they aren't in power." Talk about looking at everything through the white experience. Asia and Africa - secretly run by whites.

[1StrongBlackMan]

77. Not so secretly. n/t

[Deep13]

9. Very good summary of the common racist memes.

The fact is most white people in America at some level are racist. Most of them do not know they are racist because they have no actual animosity toward non-whites. Even the ones that do have animosity think they are not racist because they do not actually use the word "n****r," at least not in mixed company. They just do not see how culture constructs racism.

[Niceguy1]

42. so white people

Are racist even when they aren't?

[FrodosPet]

46. Sorry, but even when we don't want to be

Any objective observation of even the most progressive white people will inevitably turn up racism. It may not be as profound as the cross burning asshole, but I hate to say it - racism, differential treatment, disrespect of THEIR opinions, replacing them with our own, is still there.

[Decaffeinated]

48. So the answer is yes...

[Niceguy1]

49. really?

So even if I have biracial children, and may have one more, but of a different race I am still a racist?

Wow. So no matter how open minded I am?

[notadmblnd]

101. I know you didn't ask me, but I'm going to toss in my two cents.

Yes, I think all people are racists. I think it is sort of an animal instinct based on fear that goes back to our tribal beginnings and survival.

However I think the real questions should be: Can we recognize that racism/bigotry is a trait that is no longer needed? Can we recognize that it is wrong to have animosity against those that seem different than us- simply because of that difference? Finally, can we as individuals consciously work towards eliminating that fear and work towards becoming better human beings?

In my opinion, some people have traveled further down the road and have come a long way in eliminating racism/bigotry in themselves, others- not so much.

[treestar]

79. True. Can we ever get over it ?

That is something we don't see. How about an article on what it will look like when we aren't ? Or will we always be racists. Is it our DNA? Or can we modify our behavior ?

[Niceguy1]

115. I know for a fact that I am not

A racist despite what some blogger writes or based on a colorful chart someone makes.

Sorry, they can't label me. The only person they can label is themselves.

[Deep13]

113. No.

Since race is a social construct and since we construct norms and even ourselves based in part on how we construct race. So if one goes through life assuming that the white experience and perspective is the norm, and that hegemonic culture has the ability to impose itself on others, then one is being racist even if he or she does not know it.

In this country we tend to construct race around skin color, but not exclusively so. We also construct race around religion, in the case of Muslims, and around language, in the case of Spanish-speakers. This country was founded and built on slavery and genocide. Our whole national perspective exists in that context.

[Decaffeinated]

10. Judging people based on merit and not skin color is racist..

That's just adorable...

[Nye Bevan]

11. It used to be that treating people differently based upon their skin color was racist,

but now lots of people are pushing this new thing that treating people the same regardless of their skin color is now considered racist. And all of a sudden MLK's most famous quote is now "misleading" when "taken out of context". Go figure.

[Matariki]

12. No, the problem really is pretending like you 'politely' don't notice

as if a person's race were a character flaw you were making an effort to overlook.

It shouldn't be a bad thing to recognize race as part of what makes a person who they are.

[Decaffeinated]

13. Race only matters to racists...

I could give a shit...

If you are who you are based on the fact that you are white, black or Eskimo you sound like a sad sorry person who never bothered to develop a personality of their own and had to pick up what was lying around on the floor from others...

And it's not a fault to be overlooked. It's like being right handed or left. Statement of fact and nothing else...

Talk about a encouraging a culture of victims... No matter what someone is oppressing them if they take notice of race or not.

Pathetic...

[Matariki]

15. Wow. No.

Just no.

[ismnotwasm]

18. + 1,000,000

[Decaffeinated]

22. Do you have a point?

[kwassa]

30. The point is that your post is vastly ignorant of the history of this country.

Or, the effects of historic institutional racism on opportunities for minorities in the US.

You don't have a clue.

[Number23]

107. That poster is one of a handful of folks here that have made it perfectly clear they don't get

racism and don't think racism is important. Of course, arguing with these people that this view could only be reached by accessing the hallowed halls of white privilege would be a waste of time.

And yet, this same small handful is one of the first ones that rush to EVERY SINGLE THREAD about racism and dazzle all of us with their particular brand of privileged cluelessness.

I don't get it. If you don't understand racism, if you don't care about it, if you don't think it's important, then why troll every single racism thread in this forum???

[kwassa]

108. Yes, their actions reveal them, don't they? Racism is their pet issue, and they don't know the issue

I am beginning to see the pattern of WHO is involved in these threads, I haven't paid to much attention to the specific personalities before. Perhaps the who is more important than the what, in this case.

[Matariki]

21. I agree with your "It's like being right handed or left. Statement of fact" statement though.

Nobody dances around 'noticing' whether another person is right or left handed because they aren't carrying a bunch of internalized social baggage regarding handedness.

[LeftyMom]

37. The color blind act probably works better when you don't use a racial slur.

[Capt. Obvious]

55. Ding!

[laundry_queen]

57. No kidding.

The veil is slipping...

[Dorian Gray]

118. bingo!

[uponit7771]

88. No... no, I'm pretty proud of white people in America.. well, the progressive ones that is...

...I have to notice their skin color and I don't hold onto racist attitudes or tendencies

[Nye Bevan]

19. I notice someone's race. I notice their hair color. I notice their height. I notice lots of things.

But none of that stuff affects how I view them or how I treat them. That's really driven by whether or not they are a nice person.

[gollygee]

53. Then why are you complaining about the list?

You apparently aren't pretending to be color blind. What on the list is bothering you?

[Nye Bevan]

60. Because "character, not color, IS what counts with me",

and according to the list, feeling this way somehow makes me a racist.

[gollygee]

62. What number on the list makes you feel that way?

Although I think a point of the list is that everyone is affected by racism as it's such a big part of our country and our country's history, I don't think that means "everyone is a racist." In fact, I don't really understand using "racist" as a noun. It seems more like an adjective to me. People can do racist things, or hold racist opinions, and everyone is affected by the existence of racism in this country, but I've never understood the word being used as a noun like that.

[Nye Bevan]

63. The phrase "character, not color is what counts with me" was condemned in #1 (nt)

[gollygee]

64. Ah yeah I see that

I think it's trying to get at an underlying point rather than focusing on those particular words. Often when people say stuff like that, they're fooling themselves. They say only character counts and they don't notice color, but then as they're sorting resumes, the ones from Farmington and Rochester go in one pile and the ones from Detroit go in another without them even noticing that they're actually judging on race. (I'm from Michigan so that example is from here but you get the idea.) It isn't those specific words such as how they're often used. I have no idea how you specifically use them as I obviously don't know you.

[YoungDemCA]

103. +1. It's the denial and hypocrisy...

...that rubs people the wrong way.

[ismnotwasm]

14. Excellent!

Thank you for posting this here

[MrScorpio]

16. I can only give it a shot

Even if some might refuse to listen.

[ismnotwasm]

24. I'm through with this thread already

You gave it excellent shot, but none so blind and all that...

[Blue_In_AK]

17. More helpful would be to describe how white people can possibly not be racist

given this list.

[Decaffeinated]

20. That's the intended point...

The author is just trying to insure the continuation of his industry and livelihood...

[ismnotwasm]

26. Why? Because racism is a thing of the past and we don't need to bother paying attention anymore?

?

[Decaffeinated]

28. No, it's because of people like the author who needs to expand the definition...

... to not only something new but something that literally encompasses every other behavior.

There is no way not to be racist by those standards and it creates a culture of victimhood and provides guys like the author a steady paycheck...

People like the author are as actively contributing to racism in America as the klansman burning crosses.

[ismnotwasm]

31. Then what would you suggest?

[sibelian]

116. Addressing ACTUAL racism?

It's not as if blatant ACTUAL racism doesn't exist.

[kwassa]

33. Bullshit. Did you even read the list?

It does not remotely encompass every behavior in the world. I don't think you even looked at this list.

The culture of victimhood?

oh, tell us more.

[Decaffeinated]

34. I didn't say the list...

I said number one... It literally encompasses all behavior possible within human interaction..

Author will be set for quite a while. Phew...

[kwassa]

36. No, it doesn't.

Unless you can provide specifics within that very limited quote, you are full of it.

Your critique makes no sense whatsover, and you clearly don't understand the quote. This is a reflection on you, not on the quote.

White people, who are unlikely to experience disadvantages due to race, can effectively ignore racism in American life, justify the current social order, and feel more comfortable with their relatively privileged standing in society (Fryberg, 2010). Most minorities, however, who regularly encounter difficulties due to race, experience colorblind ideologies quite differently. Colorblindness creates a society that denies their negative racial experiences, rejects their cultural heritage, and invalidates their unique perspectives.

Let's break it down into simple terms: Color-Blind = "People of color — we don't see you (at least not that bad ‘colored' part)." As a person of color, I like who I am, and I don't want any aspect of that to be unseen or invisible. The need for colorblindness implies there is something shameful about the way God made me and the culture I was born into that we shouldn't talk about. Thus, colorblindness has helped make race into a taboo topic that polite people cannot openly discuss. And if you can't talk about it, you can't understand it, much less fix the racial problems that plague our society.
Colorblindness is not the answer

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/colorblind/201112/colorblind-ideology-is-form-racism

[Decaffeinated]

65. I deigned to read the rest of the list...

This one in particular is funny...

"22. Smoke and Mirrors.
You use the current PC language; you listen to the right
music; we state the liberal line; you’re seen at the right
meetings with the right people. You even interrupt racist
remarks when the right people are watching and when there
is no risk to us. You look like an anti-racist.


REALITY CHECK + CONSEQUENCE:
This is the “Avon Ally,” the cosmetic approach. People of color and other white anti-racists see through this pretense quickly. This pseudo-anti-racist posturing only serves to collude with racism and weakens the credibility of sincere white anti-racists."

__________________________

Even those who act correctly are really just racists hiding their evil side...

This author knows exactly what he is doing...

[gollygee]

67. The key words there are

"When the right people are watching and when there is no risk to us"

That's the part that makes it only cosmetic. If someone were really trying to be anti-racist, he/she would interrupt racist remarks even when no one else is there, when no one will see, and when there is risk to them.

[Decaffeinated]

68. There is no disclaimer in that statement...

No * to read at the bottom. That is the entirety of it.

It is basically carte blanche to claim that anyone is a racist no matter what they do...

[gollygee]

69. Yes, it's in the part you quoted.

Read it again. You quoted those words - I copied and pasted them out of your post.

[kwassa]

96. You have a great talent at completely misinterpeting what you read.

gollygee is right.

There is no carte blanche.

All this author is talking about in this one is hypocrisy, about not being anti-racist all the time.

I think you are part of the problem, quite honestly.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

72. The problem is, the author is revealing his own distrust

If the "right people" aren't watching, he'd never know, right? So he can just assume that's what's happening....

It's like the old Eddie Murphy skit from SNL where he gets made up as a white guy and whenever the black guy leaves the bus, white people start throwing parties, or get free stuff at a grocery store when black people aren't around.

[gollygee]

73. Well I can think of ways he'd know

for instance if someone is overheard and isn't aware he's nearby, or if a white friend overhears and tells him, etc. But he might be talking about human nature rather than specific people.

[Hoyt]

27. Now that is a common white wing meme. One of the most racist professors I had

said that same crap in 1969.

[Decaffeinated]

29. How is it wrong?

It is literally encompassing of all behavior possible..

Either you notice someone's race and let it affect your reaction (which is racist) or you don't notice it which is also now apparently racist.

It is a literal 100.00%

[gollygee]

51. That is odd logic

Why does it have to affect your reaction.

How about you notice someone's race (which people certainly notice as much as height and weight) and treat them well even as you notice it? That possibility doesn't even occur to you?

[sibelian]

117. How is that functionally distinguishable from just treating them well?

What has been added? Other than anextra attention to something that by rights shouldn't be used to establish how any individual person should be reacted to?

How can preferring to react to the history of someone's race EVER be anything more than an occlusion of their actual personal qualities?

And WHY are you so keen to define black people by their ancestors and their past? Do you wish them to remain in one story for ever? Or should they have the same opportunities to seem themselves as distinct from their ancestry as ever other person on the planet?

[uponit7771]

89. winger much ?! tia

[ismnotwasm]

23. It's best to assume as a white persons we've internalized white privilege

That may expresses itself in overt, or covert racism. In a society where inequality is a standard, it actually takes work not to be racist. It take self examination and introspection. It takes acknowledging racism when it occurs-even if it's a stray thought at the grocery store, and placing it in proper context.

[FrodosPet]

47. How can any white person avoid feeling soul crushing guilt?

We are nothing less than monsters. You, me, everyone reading this - we have accepted or white privilege (thereby feeding it), and we think a couple phrases here and there will absolve our guilt.

[whathehell]

58. My African-American boss once said that, in America, at least "Everyone is racist" and she did

include her own race in that statement.

Certainly White people still enjoy, even unconsciously, White privilege -- kind of like men, even unconsciously,

enjoy Male Privilege, but I'd say it's false to say that other races "can't be racist"...That's just nonsense because

racism can be systemic and structural, but it can also be quite personal and individual.

[gollygee]

66. My understanding

is that racism goes in one direction - from powerful to less power. And people of color are raised in our world and can internalize that but if they had internalized racism, it would still be in that direction. They could have personal discriminatory feelings toward white people, but that isn't racism because there isn't societal power behind it. If they had racist feelings, those feelings would be toward other people of color. Think of Dinesh D'Souza (if I'm spelling his name right) and his racist book about the President.

[whathehell]

76. I understand what you're saying, but my understanding is that a person of minority status

can have INDIVIDUAL power over an individual who is of majority status.

For example, a minority person may hold PHYSICAL power over one of majority status, and, if

that person has the inclination and the opportunity, the former can beat the latter to a bloody pulp.

That's what I mean by "individual" power. This is the way it can go in both directions.

[uponit7771]

91. SIMPLY AND BEAUTIFULLY STATED!! The essence of being human

[Nye Bevan]

25. I think you hit upon the actual point of this kind of list.

For whatever reason, some people seem to have an awful lot invested in loudly proclaiming the continued pervasiveness of racism. Not so long ago, in the days of separate drinking fountains and blacks being denied the right to vote and sit at lunch counters it was easy to be an anti-racism crusader (and it was of course a very worthy thing to be). Nowadays (especially with a black president) it's a little harder, so you get the faintly ridiculous spectacle of people earnestly denouncing the evils of "colorblindness" and claiming that Martin Luther King didn't actually mean what everyone thinks he meant in his most famous quote.

[kwassa]

35. Having a black president doesn't change everything.

as you speak about "some people" you might look at yourself.

The famous MLK quote is always taken out of the context of the rest of the speech, in which he launched into a critique of racism in America. That part isn't quoted so much. Colorblindness is just blindness, the reason it is critiqued. It isn't an affirmative anti-racist behavior, is is a passive claim of non-racism that requires no knowledge or insight on the part of the observer. It also simply isn't true. Everyone sees color.

The heritage of hundreds of years of racism is with us in the defacto segregation in housing and educational opportunities that have become entrenched and still exist.

The idea that this has somehow been cured is fantasy.

[uponit7771]

92. AMEN!! The tenants of racism today are STILL econmica equality and education, even Bush saw this

[Number23]

110. FYI, that poster would be Exhibit B as per our conversation upthread

[kwassa]

111. Indeed. I do agree.

[treestar]

78. A question worth considering

Will there ever come a day when we are not racists! Is there hope for that?

[moriah]

32. I don't know if anyone black would agree with me on this....

... but I think I figured out a simple definition for "white privilege".

It's the luxury of growing up/living now not being reminded of your race on a daily basis -- the *ability* to be colorblind -- rather than reminded constantly that you're different from what's expected in first-world society... and everything that leads from that.

[hfojvt]

38. reading that list just leads me to think

wow, no white person is ever good enough, are they?

Of course, the list mentioned white guilt and defensiveness. Well, when they list all those things that white people apparently say and do wrong, how is one NOT supposed to feel white guilt? And when one is apparently berated for doing and/or saying all those things wrong, how is one NOT supposed to be defensive?

It reminds me of the joke I heard last weekend. This guy said "whenever I argue with my wife, I always get the last words - 'yes, ma'am'."

[Niceguy1]

43. after reading the list I came to the same clonclusion

The author implys that it is impossibe for white people to not be racist

[hfojvt]

44. but aren't we really just the same person?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4171327

No, we are not, but I am quite amused that I posted that about an hour ago and then you appeared.

[treestar]

90. True and if so

What is the answer? I would hate that non white people are always going to suffer it.

[moriah]

50. South Park had it right. "I get it, Token. I don't get it. I'll never get it."

The point is we can't "get it".

Privilege-holders grow up unaware of their privilege, and that's the luxury of being privileged in that fashion, I think. I didn't grow up constantly seeing people who looked different from me in most of the starring roles on sitcoms, commercials, etc -- they were all pretty much like me. I didn't have to wonder why I was different. Today, I don't have to go to a channel that specializes in "my" programming to see people who are of my race on TV, or get profiled for driving while white.

We just can't get it, and we never will. Doesn't mean that we should give up addressing it when we see it.

A video one of my very dear friends sent out recently:

&list=PL318092AA483EE7E2

The first one in the playlist is the one to watch. While there aren't any Safeways around here anymore, and few people write checks, it's an example of how a person should act when they see blatant racism. Us white folks are some of the few that can call out another white person on obvious racism and not get accused of trying to "play the race card".

[gollygee]

82. What a great video!

Good example! If we (white people) are trying to be conscious of our white privilege, we're more likely to see scenarios like this, and we are better able and more apt to do something about it. That's the benefit of being aware. It's like the saying, "You can't stand still on a moving train." If you don't do something about it - if you don't get off the train - you are moving right along with the train, like it or not.

[hfojvt]

83. Did you grow up in the 1940s or something?

I grew up watching The Jeffersons, Good Times, and listening to Bill Cosby and watching people like Chuck Foreman and OJ Simpson and Duane Thomas and Bob Hayes on Sundays.

It never once occured to me to whine "hey, those people don't look like me". Well, personally I think I looked more like JJ, than I looked like Lou Grant.

Well I dunno. I just wrote a check to the County Treasurer, and they asked to see my ID, even though I just ran for that office. I wrote a much smaller check to a toy store, where I know the owners, and was asked to show ID. At the credit union they are constantly changing tellers, and so I am asked to show ID.

Now this woman is telling this story, and she starts out with "the checker is chatting away with my sister in law" and then "there is no conversation with me". Can we be sure that the sister-in-law did not initiate the conversation and that the other woman did NOT? Conversations can go both ways. Did SHE try to say anything to the checker or did she walk up to the checkout thinking, "this blond white girl might be a racist, so I have to be prepared". Is THAT possible? She has shopped there for years, then why didn't SHE know the checker already? Why didn't she say, "Hi Debbie, how you doin' today?"

Sure, white people NEVER face any kind of harrassment. So here I will go with a BWAME. I shopped at the Dollar General regularly for many months. I always wear a backpack so I can carry my stuff home on my bicycle. One day I go in and the checker is all stern with me "you can't wear that backpack in here, take it off, policy, bla, bla, bla."

Been shopping there for months, now suddenly I am treated like a shoplifter. I could blame that on racism, except I am white.

The point of sharing a story like that is that black people might not be aware that sh*t like that sometimes happens to white people too.

[gollygee]

85. Yeah but if you compare experiences

you'll see that for every 5 times it happens to us, it happens to people of color 30 times. (Not specifically those numbers, but when talking to people it's clear it's much more frequent for people of color than white people.) It isn't always easy to tell which times it's due to racism and which time it's someone having a bad day or whatever, but the difference in people's experience shows that racism has to be involved a good part of the time. But it is hard to respond to it. You can't assume it's racism because maybe it isn't - maybe that's one of the 5 times it would have happened anyway.

This case though, even if she had responded to chatting rather than instigating the chatting, that doesn't explain needing the IDs when the sister-in-law hadn't had to show hers even though she hadn't been shopping there as long, and then even when there were IDs looking through the list of bad checks. That was a huge difference in how they were treated and it wasn't coincidence.

If we have our radars on and notice when we are treated differently than someone behind us or in front of us in line, when we can tell it's racism because of how differently we were treated, we have the power to do something about it and fight against racism.

Or we can pretend it's never racism and white people have it just as bad.

[hfojvt]

93. I find it odd that Kathleen was NOT asked for ID

But maybe she had gotten to know the checker in just three months of shopping there. Length of time is not the only factor. Some people, like my brother, are far more sociable than other people, like me.

My own store policy was to ask for ID from everybody that I did not know. People used to get offended at that too. I could not understand that. I mean, if you lost your checkbook wouldn't you want stores to check ID before taking a check?

Still, it has got to be kinda tough to get to know customers in a big, busy store like a grocery store with many employees too.

[moriah]

86. I grew up in the 80s, and if you choose not to believe her story, that's your choice.

If that's the only way you can attack what I had to say, that no, we don't get it... well, you don't get it.

I can name many, MANY sitcoms and commercials that were on when I grew up (in the 80 and 90s, I was in high school when OJ was on trial) with all-white families. The fact you have to come up with Good Times, the Jefferson's, and Cosby as the only examples you can think of (my dad was fond of Sanford and Son, and there was Different Strokes) from when you were growing up with black families, that says something right there -- and what other shows did your family watch? Here's a list of the top 25 sitcoms from the 80s. http://www.imdb.com/list/EKcnaRj0-YI/ -- But how many of those shows were all-white cast members, or only had a "token" character? Honestly, Webster was more daring than Cosby for the time (even if the reverse, a white child being adopted by a black family, hasn't been seen much, and we already saw our own racism when a "white" child was found with Gypsies).

Choosing to implement "policies" only on minorities is wrong, and if you saw it and didn't speak up, as a white person, I'd say you were in the wrong, too. It's one place where we CAN make a difference, even if we'll never "get" what it's like to be a minority.

BWAME? Is that supposed to be a mockery of "blame" or is it some acronym Urban Dictionary hasn't heard of?

[hfojvt]

97. BWAME was one of the 28 from the link in the OP

But What About ME?

Yeah, and I did not mention the Roots miniseries that almost all of America watched.

You said that black people could not see black people on TV and I proved that that was not true even in the 1970s. And the Cosby from my childhood was not on TV, he was on an LP titled "Bill Cosby is a very funny fellow".

I just find it odd that as a child I never divided the world into "people who look like me" (and even if I did that would include people like Lou Grant, Capt. McHale, and The Skipper? and would not include skinny guys like JJ and Roger from "What's Happening"?) and "people who don't" and never once complained when I was watching "Good Times" - "why aren't there any white people in this show?"

I also proved that I have experienced the horror of being asked for ID.

And this is your point - not that "WE don't get it", but really that "I don't get it and you do".

My point about kicking up dust on the story is that sometimes the simplest and the favorite explanation is NOT the only truth. You say that the story involves a minority and a non-minority. I say that maybe, just maybe, the story involves a woman who was friendly and another woman who was defensive. And thus it might not be all about race.

[moriah]

99. I'm truly appalled that you would come to that conclusion from the video.

If you notice, it wasn't until the ID was being compared to every person in the bad check registry that even the woman's sister-in-law spoke up. When it wasn't done, or ID even asked for, for other people checking out that day. The story seems to show that even the manager disapproved, even if it might have been disapproving of her violating policy with the sister-in-law rather than it actually being racial. Except I still think it was obviously racial and am surprised you don't see it.

If you work in retail, as you seemed to indicate in another response, you know how important it is to be consistent in implementing policies.

I don't get it, I'll never get it. But I *can* speak up for someone who might be afraid to speak up and seem like an "angry Black person" when injustice is done to them. You seem to be disapproving of even that.

[gollygee]

87. Oh and

I was born in the late 60s.

[hfojvt]

98. sure,

rub it in, you youngster.

Even though my post is below yours, that question was not for you, it was for the person I was replying to. The person who said it was hard to see black people on TV like I did growing up in the 1970s.

[moriah]

100. What I said was that you didn't often see them in starring roles, or in commercials.

It was rare. "Tokenism" was far more common when TV shows tried to become more inclusive. Still the default race in every movie seems to be white, most commercials, most talking heads, etc, are white. And that's not reflective of the actual demographics in this country.

As far as Roots, did you ever read/watch A Raisin in the Sun? It might be a little more enlightening.

And it's good, too.

[Skip Intro]

39. Oh bla bla bla.

Nobody can be un-racist and judge on character alone, because those who claim that are really denying their racism. This is the kind of logic that got us into Iraq.

Wait, I don't mean nobody, I mean no white person, as OP is about white people and white people only. This is clearly because only white people can be racist, and evidently, we're that way from birth and can never recover.

Such bs.

The severe irony with these kinds of things is that it promotes a (not so) subtle racism under the guise of anti-racism.

[CreekDog]

81. people of any race can be prejudiced

but when white people do it, it has a far greater impact because they are the majority population, are also a strong institutional majority.

so while it's not pleasant and can be harmful to experience prejudice as a white person, it's a far different experience overall in the course of one's life not being in the minority.

for example, do i think that there were black slaves in the 1800's who hated white people? sure. did that matter as much as what white people thought of black people? because white people were ruling the nation, it didn't really matter that much what black slaves thought of white people because there was no power to do anything about it.

you seem to not be able to think about this topic without being offended and because of that, it's blocking a full understanding and appreciation of the issue and its disparate effects on different races and ethnicities.

[MrScorpio]

40. On Reverse Racism:

[ismnotwasm]

41. +1

Perfect.

[uponit7771]

94. +1

[MrScorpio]

45. Looks as if quite few people missed the summary

Each anti-racist action we take brings new racist action and challenges. People of color will continue to demand their rights, opportunities and full personhood. But racism in the United States won’t end because people of color demand it. Racism will only end when a significant number of white people of conscience, the people who can wield systemic privilege and power with integrity, find the will and take the action to dismantle it. This won’t happen until white people find racism in their daily consciousness as often as people of color do. For now you have to drag racism into your consciousness intentionally, for, unlike your sisters and brothers of color, the most present daily manifestation of your white privilege is the possibility of forgetting about racism. We cannot.

[el_bryanto]

52. Boy that sounds like fun doesn't it?

Honestly I read stuff like this and just want to give up.

I am white, of course.

Bryant

[arely staircase]

54. "‘He happens to be black.’

Like it’s a fucking accident, you know. He happens to be black? Yes, he happens to be black. Ah, yes, yes, yes. He had two black parents? Oh, yes, that’s right, two black parents. And they fucked? Oh, indeed they did. So where does the surprise part come in? It would be more of a surprise if he was Norwegian. And 'openly gay' You know, you wouldn't say someone was "openly black." Well, maybe James Brown. Or Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan is openly black. Colin Powell is not openly black. Colin Powell is openly white - he just happens to be black."

George Carlin RIP

[Capt. Obvious]

56. How shocking - is that the word I'm looking for? -

to see some almost (or outright) angry members of this board reacting so defensively.

[gollygee]

59. White people are sensitive about the concept of white privilege

And I get that. First, it's hard to see. I could always see how I had class privilege, but I didn't see how things were much if at all easier for me than a person of color with the same money. But my eyes are now more open, although I think it's a constant learning exercise. But a friend of mine and my husband's was pulled over by the police for absolutely nothing, which we had a hard time understanding as we've never had that experience and have always found the police to be really nice. And my husband asked him, "Do you think it's because you're black?" And he said, "of COURSE it's because I'm black!" And then he told us about his driving experiences. His many driving experiences. This is a friend my husband met at his work, and they have parallel jobs, so the difference here is race, not money or what kind of car he's driving. In face, the friend wonders if driving a nice car when you're black makes things worse. And his experiences were so different from ours, and not just getting pulled over but how the police interacted with him, that we really saw the difference. If a police officer pulled me over for no reason and got mouthy with me, I'd flip out on him and feel entitled to do so, and he'd most likely come back with, "Oh, sorry ma'am" or something. But again, a totally different experience and sex of expectations.

And that's just one conversation from one friend who is a person of color. I've paid attention to other friends' and neighbors' experiences better as well so that I see how their experiences have differed from mine.

So once I saw it, I started noticing my privilege more and more. It's like the door was open and I started seeing it. And it's still a learning process, but I think keeping my eyes open to the world and my ears open to people of color and their experiences can help me understand what a big difference there is in experience. And I'm starting to try to educate myself better about our country's history because a lot of stuff, like how police treat people of various races, makes more sense in context of a complete understanding of US history. This is, like noticing privilege, a work in progress for me.

Then we're left with trying to figure out what to do with this knowledge of white privilege. Should I feel guilty for having entirely different experiences with police, for instance? But I don't feel guilt. I don't feel like I should feel guilt for stuff that happens outside of my control and I couldn't possibly stop no matter what. I just feel like the more I notice, the more I live differently in the world. Like I can notice if I'm being helped at a shop before someone else who was there first (and I'm a bit ADHD so this isn't necessarily something I would notice without being conscious of the potential. I don't pay attention to things well.) And if I were in a position to hire people or supervise people in a work setting, it could make a great deal of difference.

So for the people wondering what good it does to acknowledge white privilege, I'd say it's just about having your eyes open because I think it does make you notice things and therefore live differently, even in slight ways, that make the world a better place. If we all do it, it can make the world much happier and healthier.

I guess that's why the whole concept of "color blind" bothers me. I was "color blind" but really I was just blind - or I had a blind spot would be a better way of putting it. I feel like my job is to keep trying to reduce that blind spot.

[MrScorpio]

61. There's a word for what you're experiencing and what you've freely opened yourself up to...

It's called enlightenment.

[whathehell]

104. Not as much, it seems, as Men are to the concept of Male Priviliedge, if this website is any

indication...

[Feral Child]

70. Excellent article, Mr

Thanks for posting it.

[Feral Child]

74. I've read through the posts

and I'm dismayed at the amount of denial and rejection I'm reading.

The people who object so strenuously to this article aren't even aware of their racism, and will never overcome it because of their rationalization.

They need to make peace with themselves.

[hunter]

75. Very good list. 1, 15 & 16 are common when I cross paths with people who never left my home town.

1. I’m Colorblind.

“People are just people; I don’t see color; we’re all just
human.” Or “I don’t think of you as Chinese.” Or “We all
bleed red when we’re cut.” Or “Character, not color, is what
counts with me.”


15. Not Here in Lake Wobegon.

“We don’t have a racism problem here at this (school,
organization, community).” or “We didn’t have a racism
problem in this town until that Mexican family moved
here.”

16. I Was An Indian In a Former Life.

“After that sweat lodge I really know what it feels like to be
an Indian. I have found my true spiritual path.”

My hometown was, and still largely is ninety-nine and a quarter percent white. The majority of people would consider themselves "liberal."

But the city was, and still is to some extent, a place of institutional racism. DWB's were a favorite sport of the police. Rental, real estate, and loan agents would direct people to neighborhoods they'd be "more comfortable in" or simply wouldn't show some places to people who were not white.

It's the kind of color blindness that doesn't see why the Disney's Pocahontas or James Cameron's Avatar might be offensive.

[Nye Bevan]

84. Yeah. Avatar is racist because the blue-skinned aliens supposedly represent black people.

Pocahontas is racist because the Europeans were depicted too sympathetically.

Star Wars Episode 1 was racist because of Jar Jar Binks.

The Lion King was racist because one of the evil hyenas was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg.

King Kong? "King Kong feeds into all the colonial hysteria about black hyper-sexuality".

etc......

[Number23]

109. Having fun?

[Shandris]

112. I don't know any Na'vi myself...

...so I'll have to assume they're fine with their portrayal. I'm not sure which ones James Cameron consulted with for authenticity, though.

As for colorblind, the character of a person is, has been, and will be the determining factor in what I think of someone. They don't get an easier -- or a harder! -- evaluation because of their skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other of these highly-divisive social justice terms. That's not the same as saying you are 'overlooking' their skin color, ethinicity, et al, either. Those things educate a person's character, but they do not -replace- it.

I question the actual intent of anyone who thinks that it's just fine to define people by the broadest strokes of their 'racial identity'. It smacks of silencing voices, and if there's one thing we white people do quite well, it's silence the individual voices of people we should give an ear to. Thats, you know, kind of how we got into the whole racism problem in the first place. I'm not convinced it's intentional, but it is becoming more and more common.

[Glassunion]

95. I disagree with her re-definition of racism in #3.

I generally like her work, yet in two essays of hers that I have read, she redefines the common definition of racism. Which to me seems to sully it a bit. From my perspective, I feel that I can be racist. But according to her definition, she states that I cannot simply because I'm black. I disagree. To the point that I fear she simply does not understand the common definition of the words "Racism" and "Prejudice". Prejudice is defined as an emotion (unless used in a legal sense), and Racism is the action.

Racism (Miriam Webster):

: poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race
: the belief that some races of people are better than others

Full Definition of RACISM
1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2: racial prejudice or discrimination

She has redefined it:

(In this article)
Let’s first define racism with this formula:
Racism =racial prejudice + systemic, institutional power.
To say people of color can be racist, denies the power
imbalance inherent in racism. Certainly, people of color can
be and are prejudiced against white people. That was a part
of their societal conditioning. A person of color can act on
prejudices to insult or hurt a white person. But there is a
difference between being hurt and being oppressed. People
of color, as a social group, do not have the societal,
institutional power to oppress white people as a group.
An individual person of color abusing a white person
– while clearly wrong, (no person should be insulted, hurt,
etc.) is acting out a personal racial prejudice, not racism.

In her other essay, Detour Spotting for White Anti-Racists she defines it as:
Racism, the system of oppression (of people of color), and advantage (for white people).

In my angry youth, I will say that I was quite racist towards white people. This was my feeling, a good chunk of that anger was justified, but it was unfair of me to broad brush an entire race because of it. I hated white people. I saw and experienced injustice, racism, hate, and damn it if I did not just turn it right around and do the same thing. Sure, I could not oppress a white person, but I could discriminate against them. I'm not proud of my youth, and it is one of my greatest regrets. I'm glad that I never did get physical, but the things I did and said were nothing to be proud of. My father turned me around, and helped me realize I was wrong in my thinking, in fact that I was doing far more harm than good.

Personally, I feel that she could have acknowledged everything in #3, and called it what it is. Racism and prejudice, are what they are, no matter what direction they may flow. Oppression is what it is and can only flow in one direction.

Other than me nitpicking that one topic, I feel that this is an excellent essay, and would encourage folks to read her other works.

Side note... She is also the Chief of the Latir Volunteer Fire Department in New Mexico. Which was actually how I found her works. Strange how the internets work from time to time. One minute your looking at Lulz Catz, and six clicks later your reading essays on social injustice. It is much like a box of chocolates.

[One_Life_To_Give]

102. Why wouldn't I feel guilty

I benefit from unfair privilege in most anything I do. My ancestors were privileged to have landed upon a largely unpopulated (if only recently) lands which a fat guy on the other side of the pond said could be theirs. My father benefited from not being excluded from consideration in hiring and promotion. Mom and Dad were free to live in a suburban neighborhood as opposed to a "african american" neighborhood. etc.

At some point I have to recite the Serenity Prayer and focus on those items I can control. IMO there is a fine line between accepting what privilege has done vs calling it Racism. Tossing about the charge lightly could turn off the prospective audience. $0.02

[Donald Ian Rankin]

105. A good deal of this is bilge, I'm afraid.

Noteably, the attempt to redefine "racism" in 3 is simply wrong - racism has nothing whatsoever to do with power. And whoever wrote #21 should really have read the rest of the article first...

I find it hard to imagine this doing any possible good for anyone whatsoever, except making the author feel faintly righteous.

[kwassa]

106. Definition #3 is a pretty common definition, I've been hearing it for 30 years or so.

and it makes a good deal of sense. Racism, from the black point of view, is entwined with power. It is the defining dynamic of the history of African-Americans that still has current impacts on their lives today. If one is both a racist and in power, one can cause incalculable damage. Without power, not so much.

[Kurska]

114. I'm jewish, but I'm also white. I'm white, but I'm also gay.

Since apparently only people from groups with enough social power can be racist, tell me is it possible for me to be a racist? I have a ton of racism points cause I'm white, but you think maybe the gay and Jewish bit means I gotta refund a little right?

At best I can be half a racist, that really isn't much to aspire to is it?

Gee, it is almost like it is incredibly dumb to try and break down the entirety of the human experience into a binary category of "powerful" or "not powerful". Maybe people are a little more complicated than that.

I also try to judge people only based on the content of their character, without letting racial concerns enter the equation. That apparently makes me a raging racist according to this.