General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: No, racism and sexism don't "go both ways" [View all]Igel
(35,443 posts)To call a black person arrogant is racism. Because, well, black people can't be, it seems, arrogant. Melanin is an anti-arrogance remedy.
When a group of blacks attack the house and car of a Latina, telling the native-born American to go home, go back to Mexico, beating the door and car with bricks, that's not power? Esp. when the harrassment continues at school and at home.
When a group of blacks continues by shouting in front of a white family's house, "I hate white people", that's fine? Coupled with beating up the family's kid and intimidating the father and mother?
When black-owned houses aren't broken into, but white and Latino-owned houses are? When black houses aren't tagged, but white and Latino houses are?
When this goes on for years until the racial mix is finally changed in the neighborhood, making it more segregated (which the families call "diverse", because ultimate diversity is 100% black), that's not power?
This is the problem with "institutional" racism. And sexism. When the institutions are racist but not white-controlled, immediately some higher institution that is white controlled is considered to trump the lower one. When a white applies to a company and then, after being asked over and over if he really wants to leave the application, only to realize that in a mostly white area every single one of the 40 or 50 people visible working for the company--management, secretaries, sales, etc., are black--you get the idea. It's racist. But whatever a black business does cannot be racism, because there's a larger society that isn't black controlled and can be construed as white dominated.
Sorry. I considered it racist when I was told that my employer didn't want to hire me. Because of my race. We're all lazy and stupid. They held the position open for weeks longer than necessary waiting for a candidate of the right race to apply. I worked out, and he actually said I was a credit to my race. He was Chinese. I'm white American. At least, he said, they didn't have to hire a black. (Hey. That's not racism, right? The boss was Chinese! Or was it not racism when he said what he did to me about my race, but suddenly and only racist when he said he was glad that they didn't have to hire a black person?)
It works the same for sexism. When an employer says that she won't hire a male for management positions, refers to all male employees as "boy", when a faculty search committee rejects male applicants' applications without reading them because they want to encourage female scholars, this is sexism. It doesn't matter what the rest of the institution or society is. Even if you don't want it to be a personal thing, so that only whites can be personally racist but melanin = sainthood, you shouldn't go level-seeking for the right exculpatory definition of "institutional."
It's a convenient justification for a lot of separatism, hate, and, well, racism. It's a dodge. The second the balance of power shifts, all the hate, separatism, and racism that's there suddenly will become "institutional"--and you know, not a single heart or mind from the new dominant or hegemonic group is suddenly going to change to eliminate that hate and racism. "I could be biased and angry before, but now I'll be supportive." No, it'll be like what you see in academia wrt sexism in college admissions--another excuse will be made by those who are biased and hateful to excuse themselves and continue to inculpate those they hate. If it's wrong to have more than 50% of the student body male when society is 50-50, it's wrong: But the minute it goes mostly female, nobody cares about the actual percentages, we have to make up for other injustices. A group that required and demanded proportional representation on tv shows because such things need to be strictly proportional to be fair, any non-proportionality is bad and discriminatory suddenly stopped issuing its report card because it's now overrepresented--that's okay, heck, that's good, it's not discriminatory at all! "My grievances are good; yours don't count."
It's why it's convenient to have a definition that immediately means hate, anger, bigotry, stereotyping, prejudice, bias are suddenly all forgiven, until power shifts. Then these things aren't a problem because the moral crew's in charge.