NY Times: Is everyone a little bit racist?

[gollygee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/opinion/nicholas-kristof-is-everyone-a-little-bit-racist.html

Let’s start with what we don’t know: the precise circumstances under which a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., shot dead an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown.

But here’s what evidence does strongly suggest: Young black men in America suffer from widespread racism and stereotyping, by all society — including African-Americans themselves.

Research in the last couple of decades suggests that the problem is not so much overt racists. Rather, the larger problem is a broad swath of people who consider themselves enlightened, who intellectually believe in racial equality, who deplore discrimination, yet who harbor unconscious attitudes that result in discriminatory policies and behavior.

(snip)

Yet an uncomfortable starting point is to understand that racial stereotyping remains ubiquitous, and that the challenge is not a small number of twisted white supremacists but something infinitely more subtle and complex: People who believe in equality but who act in ways that perpetuate bias and inequality.

[Faux pas]

1. BS

the times is painting everyone with a broad brush to take the heat off the racist right.

[gollygee]

2. The specific author of this article

is not from the right at all. Google him. He's done great work.

[Warpy]

14. Yeah, don't you hate it that he's right?

I grew up in the Jim Crow south. It would be absurd to suggest I'm completely free of racial prejudice.

I don't like it but I have to acknowledge it's there. I just try like hell not to act on it.

People who deny it often act on it, I've noticed.

[leftyladyfrommo]

30. So do I.

I catch the strangest thoughts running thru my brain. I was raised in the NW and there weren't any other races in our town.

I notice it, too. And then I recognize it and shut it down. Unconscious mind is full of all kinds of shit that has been dumped there and I think it just kind of bubbles up sometimes.

One time in a college class I had a black guy (class was about 50/50) ask me if I noticed he was black. That was supposed to prove I was racist. I just asked him if he noticed I was white. Of course he did. You just do.

[el_bryanto]

15. That's a unique perspective

We all live in a society that privileges white males, don't we?

Bryant

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. if you think racism is only a right wing problem, then you know nothing about racism. nt

[gordianot]

3. Probably true, rascism also works well in declaring potential angelhood.

A little bit of racism is still not an excuse for poorly written obituaries.

[KamaAina]

27. 'rascism' = racism + fascism

[hifiguy]

4. I think most people have prejudices

but racism is a different and much more virulent thing.

[gollygee]

6. No, I think that's the problem.

Racism is a system of oppression, and people's behaviors and actions can contribute or not, and can contribute in big ways or smaller ways. To say racism is only people with white pointy caps, or people who are otherwise over-the-top overtly racist, is to ignore the bulk of racism.

[hifiguy]

8. You got it right.

Racism is systemic. Individual prejudices not so much. Hard to do long posts on a phone.

[loyalsister]

5. Herman Cain, Ben Carson

even Bill Cosby have all made statements that I consider racist.

[gollygee]

7. I don't think the author's point was to focus on African Americans

but just to point out that racism is a huge part of our society and affects everything and everyone. Many people see racism as something small that Bad Guys do, and everyone else is not affected by. But it's bigger than that - it's built into all of our institutions and into our culture in ways that we can't avoid.

[loyalsister]

10. Sorry got derailed

when someone mentioned blacks being racist toward blacks. Ben Carson and Herman Cain make criticism of blacks based on stereotypes part of their talking points.
Bill Cosby, unfortunately wrote a book that has been frequently cited as a justification for racism. Not to mention his criticism of eugenics, the wardrobes of black youth, etc.
Enabling white privilege is one their when members of a race perpetuate it with their denials and reinforcement of stereotypes it is contemptible.

[Atman]

9. Interesting report on, of all places, CNN today.

I've been cable free all summer. It's been great. But I've got SiriusXM back temporarily during a free promotion to lure me back as a paying subscriber. Anyway, no MSNBC, but I was listening to CNN today. They did report about police training, trying to figure out what makes cops go ballistic (literally). I found it to be mostly bullshit...they interacted with video screen, know full well their lives were never actually in danger. But one finding stood out more than all the rest of the bullshit...every cop, black or white or brown or yellow, found black men to be far more threatening then anyone else.

I still can't understand why Wilson wouldn't have just aimed for a leg or otherwise tried to disarm Brown -- oops, Brown had no weapons. Anyway...what's the deal? The deal is, when you dress up as Superman and drop a lot of Power Acid, you think you can fly. Wilson thought his armor and weaponry made him a god.

Instead, he's in hiding, cowering, fearing for his life. As it should be. Maybe he'll understand how Michael Brown felt before his last breath. His only crime being that he was black.

[treestar]

11. It could come into play insidiously

Would Zimmerman or Wilson have considered the thread so deadly had the same things happened with young white men? Hard to say, but very possibly, the "threat" wouldn't have been enough to kill.

[Vattel]

22. Brown didn't pose a threat when he was shot.

So it's not clear Wilson considered him a threat at all when he killed him.

[treestar]

24. that's another issue

I was thinking of the propensity to find someone else a threat. Obviously a gun zealot thinks there are threats everywhere. One that I know informs me I am foolish to go into the city of Philadelphia without a gun. But he's the type who would be sure a black man was a threat but maybe not so sure of finding a white man in the same situation to be a threat.

What amazes me is that even armed, they can find an unarmed person a threat (he tried to take my gun excuse).

[daredtowork]

12. GOP Engineering US to Be More Racist

Ever notice how remarks on welfare subtly elide into the idea all people on welfare are black?

And then there are studies showing scarcity makes us more racist:
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2014/06/scarcity-might-make-people-more-racist.html

And then the GOP pumps all the money out of the welfare system to make people desperate:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/23/why-are-47-million-americans-on-food-stamps-its-the-recession-mostly/

The GOP pumps all the money out of the middle class, gives it to themselves, and ships it to off shore tax havens:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-street-look-whos-cashing-in-on-the-bailout-20110411

The GOP says it is creating scarcity at the bottom to "motivate" people to work - i.e. to justify their existence in the eyes of GOP fat cats who just get to keep getting richer at the taxpayer expense.

But the real effect of this scarcity is to create radical competition for basic resources at the bottom: that fragments society. The general idea is probably to keep the little people fighting each other so they don't notice who their real enemy is. However, the immediate effect is scarcity-driven racism.

Ferguson is just the beginning.

Please see my petition (in my sig) for proof that welfare rules are not written to encourage people to work or extract themselves from welfare. They are written to grind people down into homelessness and destroy them.

[hunter]

23. I think you are correct there...

"The general idea is probably to keep the little people fighting each other so they don't notice who their real enemy is."

[shedevil69taz]

13. Yes we are

[NuclearDem]

21. Damn it, you beat me to it.

[Yavin4]

17. Having racists thoughts does not justify killing people.

What you think is different from what you do.

[gollygee]

18. Uhm, yeah

Do you think the article says otherwise?

[GeorgeGist]

19. Poor whitey didn't know he was a racist.

[NuclearDem]

20. ...

Plus, how the hell did I know this was Kristof without even clicking the link?

[Rex]

25. Extremely privileged white guy, never worked a hard day in his life?

He should self-identify.

[valerief]

26. Fuck you, NYT. nt

[KamaAina]

28. I am racist, and so are you.

Most of the responses to this thread were of the "OMG! How dare you call me a racist!" variety.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025417660

[gollygee]

29. Yes, when I saw this other article, I thought of your thread. n/t

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

31. I didn't answer in that one.

Not because I don't think every person who is part of American society and is part of the 'in-group' race (ie, white) isn't racist, but because I don't think they're all racist in the same sort of way that excerpted text talked about. There are plenty of white people who wouldn't flinch away from black people at night, or instantly assume that it might be black people breaking in if they hear something at night. But we all still contribute to, and profit from, racist societal structures. We simply haven't gotten anywhere near tearing down even the most blatantly racist systems in the country, like the 'justice' system's cradle to jail pipeline for black men. And because I knew the thread would be exactly what it was, a whole bunch of 'How dare you call me a racist's.

Same thing with misogyny - it applies to all men, no matter how 'enlightened', until such time as we actually tear out the entrenched systematic misogyny in our culture. And we're probably even farther away from that than we are from eliminating racism. Ignoring even the blatant 'nearly naked woman selling hamburgers' commercials on tv, we've got the (slightly) more subtle 'ooma' 'free telephone calls' commercials whether the hardware device has a sultry female voice, and makes noises of sexual appreciation when the male caller 'presses her buttons'.

And then, of course, for comedic gold, we have our resident 'I'm against racism' (if you let him define what racism is, and, btw, 'white privilege doesn't actually exist') poster, who, I see in a newer misogyny thread is also a 'feminist' (if you let him define 'feminism'). I wish he'd actually take that offer of the $50 to simply quit posting his nonsense every time a privilege thread pops up.