Are most white Americans racist?

[Herman Munster]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-124racism,0,2900070.story

Nearly all white Americans have what Feagin calls "the white racial frame," an extensive set of stereotypes, images and emotions that white people have used since the 1600s to justify holding black people as slaves and later treating black citizens unequally.

And even in an era of political correctness, Feagin says, white Americans cannot escape the socialization. "It's drilled into our heads from the time we're 1-year-olds, by friends, relatives, and, often by the media, by schoolteachers," says Feagin.

Typical of the "white racial frame," says Feagin, is the image of the dangerous black man. "A black corporate executive can be walking down the street at dusk and white people will lock their car doors almost without thinking about it," says Feagin.

Feagin says Americans have learned it's unacceptable to make racist comments in public -- in what he calls a "frontstage" arena. Yet "backstage," in small groups of friends or family members, white people regularly use racist language and tell racist jokes.

"That white racist frame did not die the way public-opinion pollsters have suggested," Feagin says. "It went backstage."

"What happens -- and I suspect this is something like the Richards case -- is frequently whites let the backstage crash into the front stage," Feagin says. That slip, he says, might be caused by alcohol or when a person feels relaxed and loose, even in a mixed crowd.

[Orsino]

1. I think most people are, deep down.

There was probably an evolutionary advantage to closing ranks against the outsider. While I suspect that upbringing counts for more, some racist thought is probably inherent in our genes. I don't think it has a place in civilized society, and is a shameful legacy that we should work to overcome.

[Deja Q]

2. What justifies one and not the other?

I have a non-white coworker who hates any accidental examples of racism or even an inference (!), but believes she can say what she wants because she is not white.

[EFerrari]

46. How do you know what she believes?

[Deja Q]

64. Simple - she SAID it.

Seemed pretty straightforward at the time.

[BoneDaddy]

61. I know plenty of people like that

ya see it is fashionable and acceptable for anyone who considers themselves to be part of a "victimized" group to not be accountable in the way that they demand of others, thereby allowing them to be racist, sexist or any other ist because they think they are entitled to be so because it was done to them or their ancestors.

A totally irrational and illogical way of thinking.

[Deja Q]

65. Agreed.

At some point everybody has to wipe the slate clean.

It's just easier for some than for others. I've observed both sides.

[DireStrike]

3. that piece is racist

EVERYONE has frames, and almost all of them are racist.

[kiahzero]

8. Yup. (n/t)

[BoneDaddy]

68. Yep

Go far enough into anyone's history and you will find they came from both kings and slaves. To claim you deserve something because what happened to your ancestors is ridiculous...Then I deserve land in England cause the English persecuted my Irish ancestors for over 700 years.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. If it's not >50%...

then I bet it's close.

[mike_c]

5. I think so-- I'm speaking as a white American-- but I think the roots...

...of racism are deep in the human psyche and affect everyone, regardless of race or culture. Human sociality is basically family driven. We view other people as inherently distrustful based on perceived genetic distance. Racial differences accentuate that.

I think we can change our acculturated responses to racism, but I honestly don't think we can stop being racists. But again, I think racism is just part and parcel of our inate sociality. I don't see it as a separate phenomenon at all.

[QuestionAll...]

34. pecking order and dominance.

whoever you are, wherever on earth, there is a slot for you in the hierarchy established by the establishment.

I really don't think there would be near as much racism, classism, sexism or any ism if it didn't serve the few who profit in some way by divide.

[EFerrari]

47. It boils down to fear of difference. And since most of living is change,

one might call it fear of living.

[Captain Hilts]

6. We're sexist, sizeist, racist, heightists. But most know not to act on this initial

impressions. Our minds want to take shortcuts. Smart folks don't act on those initial responses.

In the workplace, overweight people are the ones most discriminated against in hiring. So, folks aren't good at getting over that one.

[notadmblnd]

10. You're right, as long as we categorize and lable

our differences, we'll be racists, sexists, heightists, etc.

[melm00se]

78. that sounds like Bill Clinton

he spoke at our national meeting and said that we should celebrate our commonalities rather our differences...

[uppityperson]

13. good summary mookie

[HughMoran]

49. You aren't afraid of reality

funny how most people won't admit they have biases when pressed...

[annabanana]

7. A fish is the last to discover water, they say.

And only learns of it in a sudden, deadly, lack of same. Being surrounded by privilege, as by the air that you breath makes it very difficult to see or understand.

When people become aware of the inequities, they can respond in many ways. Some go into denial and refuse to deal with the implications. Some recognize the truth of the situation, and join in the struggle to bring fairness where it is lacking.

[AngryAmish]

33. What about a mudskipper?

<>

[notadmblnd]

9. The white race is not the only race to have cornered the market on racism

It runs across all nationalities, races and even within races themselves. I think to some extent that all people have a little racist in them. The question I think is, can we recognize it in ourselves.. acknowledge that it is wrong and make conscious changes in our lives to rid ourselves of it.

[ComerPerro]

22. thank you

[B Calm]

26. I heard a black guy today calling another guy a dumb Pollock!

[B Calm]

51. It's in all races to feel superior, not just whites!

[murielm99]

11. Speaking for myself, yes.

It is unconscious. I don't want to be racist. I have to think about my assumptions and overcome them consciously.

I make sexist assumptions, too. And I am a woman.

I tried not to raise my kids with the assumptions that were part of my upbringing. I hope I was at least a little bit successful.

Is any of that an excuse? No. Sorry, Michael Richards.

[dysfunctional press]

12. EVERYONE is racist to some degree.

it just can't be helped- we're human.

[k_jerome]

14. yes. nt.

[liberati]

15. I can't agree with the frontstage/backstage thing...

No one in my house or in my circle of friends makes racist comments period. I simply wouldn't allow it. Surely this is not a common thing in current day white families.

"Feagin says Americans have learned it's unacceptable to make racist comments in public -- in what he calls a "frontstage" arena. Yet "backstage," in small groups of friends or family members, white people regularly use racist language and tell racist jokes."

[notadmblnd]

28. Sure they do, maybe not in front of you, knowing how you feel...

My mother never made a racist comment to me during all the years of my marriage. I remember shortly after my husband passed, she sat at my table and started using the "N" word. I flew into a rage and told her, "listen old woman, you didn't use that word in my house when my husband was alive and I won't have it now." It was the first and only time I ever went off on my mom. I haven't heard her use the word since.

[liberati]

37. Of course there is a bad apple in every bunch...

but he said that white people "regularly" gather in groups to make racist comments and tell racist jokes. Your situation with your Mom doesn't fit into that scenario. Now if you and your Mom and family regularly get together to swap racist jokes that would be one thing but of course you don't. You don't engage in backstage behavior and neither do I.

There is a question raised though, does my family or my friends engage in racist converstation when I'm not around? I don't believe so. I think I know them well enough to say that.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. I am aware of other's skin color

and at times I feel uncomfortable around African Americans, but I don't get the same feeling around black Africans (and I've been around them since I was 8 or 9 years old). Go figure. I try to forget the bigoted and racist remarks I heard from my paternal grandparents while growing up, but you're right-some of their tirades stick to you somehow, and you have to work to overcome them.

[porphyrian]

17. That question is.

Everyone's a little bit racist. Unless we were raised under extremely diverse conditions, we will always show bias towards those who are most like ourselves and against those most different. This bias doesn't equate to hatred automatically, though, and it is important to make this distinction.

[Swamp Rat]

18. "Race" is a construct.

Those who believe in that construct are racists, whether prejudiced or not.

[Gwerlain]

29. YES!

Scientifically speaking (specifically in terms of evolutionary and molecular biology), "race" is non-existent. It is a social grouping, or, as the social scientists say, an "ethnicity." Ethnicity is self-chosen, not imposed from outside.

[EFerrari]

42. Exactamundo.

:hi:

[Spider Jerusalem]

58. Actually, that depends on what one means by the term.

"Race" in the colloquial sense, as something that defines socio-cultural identity, IS a social construct (as is "gender"). "Race" in the sense of "population group of common ancestral origin and shared genetic heritage", on the other hand, is NOT a social construct (recent work in population genetics, particularly the results of the Human Genome Project, shows consistently identifiable differentiation in specific markers among geographically separated population groups, most particularly in Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA--see for instance The Genographic Project).

It's quite possible to accept the fact of tens of thousands of years of genetic divergence between human populations without believing that that divergence has any social significance, or that any particular human population group is better than any other. Those who believe that the difference between human populations means that some are innately superior to others, or who judge people based on whether they had European or African ancestors, rather than as individuals, are racists; it's not necessarily "racist" to acknowledge that some difference does exist as long as one also realises that whatever variation there is is so slight as to be completely meaningless.

[sarge43]

19. As others have pointed out, there seems to be an inherent hard wiring to

fear and distrust the 'other'. I'd call that xenophobia rather than racism and we all may suffer from that. Racism seems more specific, targeting a particular group. To say all whites fear and distrust all blacks, or vis-a-vis for that matter, is an extreme stretch. FWIW

[many a good man]

20. Racism is NOT inherent

It didn't exist until the trans-Atlantic slave trade started. Before Elizabethan times Africans were seen as exotic and powerful, not inferior. Degrading others based on skin color is relatively new to the human condition.

Most people are prone to conflate racism with the innate "fear of other." That's always existed but it is based on "otherness" not specifically skin color or "race." There are many "others" in relation to your social group, but racism was intentionally developed and propagated in order to rationalize the dehumanization of African slaves in a "Christian" society.

[Hosnon]

21. I disagree (to an extent).

I agree that xenophobia is deeply rooted in our species. And, as you point out, xenophobia can be caused by many different things, many different "others".

Where I disagree with you is whether or not skin color is one of those "others". I think it is. In fact, it may be one of the most prevelant. Back in the dim times (a.k.a. dawn of man, etc.) skin color was probably one of the first noticeable traits indicating this person is not part of your social group.

Perhaps racism as degradation is not inherent but racism as a subcategory of xenophobia has been around for quite some time.

[sendero]

25. I agree...

.. two of my sons grew up (until 2nd grade ish) in a private school with many races. My oldest's best friend was black ( he's white) and neither of my sons seemed to give a flip one way or another about anyone's race.

I'm sure the school went out of their way to not teach racism, as did their parents (that would be me, for one), but it changed my mind about the "inherent" thing.

[Kelly Rupert]

23. That article is incredibly racist.

"WHITE PEOPLE ALL DO THIS." "WHITE PEOPLE ALL THINK THAT." "WHITE PEOPLE ARE ALL SCARED AND IGNORANT." "WHITE PEOPLE OBEY A BS THEORY THAT IGNORES MODERN COGNITIVE SCIENCE."

If you're proposing that only whites are racist, then you're just ignorant. If you're proposing that everyone can be racist, then creating these cracker-constructs kills your credibility.

[BoneDaddy]

69. Exactly

It is so amazing how this simple point is missed on people. I find that "studies" like that are racist in themselves.

[Quantess]

71. I agree. The article itself is racist, for singling out a certain race as being any more racist

than any other group of humans.

[uppityperson]

24. What is "race"?

Am I white? If you say yes, you are racist.I have sort of a beigey color to my skin. Does this make me "white"? Do you mean skin color?

I think that we categorize everyone by differences, otherwise we could not tell each other apart. Now, what to do, how to deal with that categorizing is what is important, determines how we let ourselves use those differences, are we any sort of "ist".

[BuyingThyme]

27. Yep. The only reason we have a holiday season

is so white folk can get together and tell racist jokes.

What a loon.

[Rockstone]

30. Yes - I am racist

and I am the most anti-racist person I know.

Racism is imposed on every person in one way or another.

[drm604]

31. Backstage.

"Yet "backstage," in small groups of friends or family members, white people regularly use racist language and tell racist jokes."

This should be changed to

"Yet "backstage," in small groups of friends or family members, some white people regularly use racist language and tell racist jokes."

I don't do it. My family doesn't do it. Most of my acquaintances don't do it. I occasionally hear it from others who for some reason assume I'll agree with them, but it's occasionally not regularly.

[cynatnite]

32. I think we all are to a degree...

no matter our skin color. It just seems like all there is one country doesn't like another, whites don't like blacks, blacks don't like whites and so on. This reaches all across the spectrum to include women, gays, religion and so on. We all have biases and are bigots in one way or the other.

What's important is having the ability to recognize it for what it is and dealing with it in order not to spread it to your children, family, neighbors and so on. So much of this is imbedded in us that it's become a part of ourselves that we pass on to others whether it's intentional or not.

[jannyk]

35. I'm the white half of an inter-racial marriage

and let me tell you racism is definately not confined to 'white' folks.

My Chinese MIL did everything she could to break us up before we married. My husband, in her eyes, married beneath himself when he hooked up with a white girl. She eventually got over it (we've been married 20 years), but it was never a 'warm' relationship.

[Cleita]

44. One of my friends in college was a "Mandarin" chinese student

from Taiwan. Her father was super wealthy. I had to teach this girl how to make a bed, pick up after herself and do her laundry. She was very independently minded though and married a local Chinese American. Daddy disowned her because of the class dishonor or some such crap. I mean it was serious.

[Karenina]

36. ...

:popcorn:

[LoneDriver]

38. Wow, what a guilt ridden bunch,

Seems to me when people say "most people are.....(or say, think, feel, etc.) they mean I am..... If you are, you are, work on getting over it, but don't project it on "everyone".

[Ron Green]

41. I think many people were answering the question, which is

"Are most white people racist?" Some of them owned up to their own stuff, but it's useful to examine the larger question too.

[Jcrowley]

39. The invisible knapsack

Racism and racial slavery

MAKING USE OF the latest research, Blackburn's work confirms the outline developed by Williams. Williams had argued that "slavery was not born of racism: rather racism was the consequence of slavery".2 Blackburn outlines the various ways in which the relationship between skin colour and slavery developed to produce racist social formations and ideologies.

The extremely hard conditions of the plantation colonies meant that the owners, and the colonial authorities, always faced the possibility of revolt. As long as black slaves and white servants worked alongside each other this included the possibility of joint action, however temporary. In 1676, for example, Bacon's rebellion in Virginia had involved servants, slaves and freemen.

Rare as such risings might have been, they terrified those in authority. Increasingly, laws were passed to enforce racial segregation. Such laws helped to create a form of racial solidarity among the white colonists. Increasingly whites, even poor whites, could identify themselves as a part of the privileged race. The privilege of their colour exempted them from slavery and granted them certain civil rights. The plantation owners' fear of resistance and rebellion evolved into a more general white fear of black rebellion. In these ways slavery was crucial to forming the new racial identities in the American colonies.

These new identities and structures tended to undermine white opposition to slavery. Slavery came to be identified with black Africans. In turn, black people were identified as slaves or potential slaves. These racial divisions were sharpest in the English-speaking colonies in the Caribbean and North America. In the Spanish, Portuguese and French territories there developed a far bigger free black population. Here blacks could begin to demand some of the rights of the white citizen. In the English colonies such a blurring of the racial boundaries was not allowed to emerge and the number of free blacks remained small.

http://www.socialismtoday.org/33/slavery33.html

It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it's critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system.
 
The first, and perhaps most crucial, fear is that of facing the fact that some of what we white people have is unearned. It's a truism that we don't really make it on our own; we all have plenty of help to achieve whatever we achieve. That means that some of what we have is the product of the work of others, distributed unevenly across society, over which we may have little or no control individually. No matter how hard we work or how smart we are, we all know -- when we are honest with ourselves -- that we did not get where we are by merit alone. And many white people are afraid of that fact.
 
A second fear is crasser: White people's fear of losing what we have -- literally the fear of losing things we own if at some point the economic, political, and social systems in which we live become more just and equitable. That fear is not completely irrational; if white privilege -- along with the other kinds of privilege many of us have living in the middle class and above in an imperialist country that dominates much of the rest of the world -- were to evaporate, the distribution of resources in the United States and in the world would change, and that would be a good thing. We would have less. That redistribution of wealth would be fairer and more just. But in a world in which people have become used to affluence and material comfort, that possibility can be scary.
 
A third fear involves a slightly different scenario -- a world in which non-white people might someday gain the kind of power over whites that whites have long monopolized. One hears this constantly in the conversation about immigration, the lingering fear that somehow "they" (meaning not just Mexican-Americans and Latinos more generally, but any non-white immigrants) are going to keep moving to this country and at some point become the majority demographically. Even though whites likely can maintain a disproportionate share of wealth, those numbers will eventually translate into political, economic, and cultural power. And then what? Many whites fear that the result won't be a system that is more just, but a system in which white people become the minority and could be treated as whites have long treated non-whites. This is perhaps the deepest fear that lives in the heart of whiteness. It is not really a fear of non-white people. It's a fear of the depravity that lives in our own hearts: Are non-white people capable of doing to us the barbaric things we have done to them?
 
A final fear has probably always haunted white people but has become more powerful since the society has formally rejected overt racism: The fear of being seen, and seen-through, by non-white people. Virtually every white person I know, including white people fighting for racial justice and including myself, carries some level of racism in our minds and hearts and bodies. In our heads, we can pretend to eliminate it, but most of us know it is there. And because we are all supposed to be appropriately anti-racist, we carry that lingering racism with a new kind of fear: What if non-white people look at us and can see it? What if they can see through us? What if they can look past our anti-racist vocabulary and sense that we still don't really know how to treat them as equals? What if they know about us what we don't dare know about ourselves? What if they can see what we can't even voice?

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=8698

"Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.



Poor whites are rarely typified as pathological, dangerous, lazy or shiftless the way poor blacks are, for example. Nor are they demonized the way poor Latino/a immigrants tend to be.

When politicians want to scapegoat welfare recipients they don’t pick Bubba and Crystal from some Appalachian trailer park; they choose Shawonda Jefferson from the Robert Taylor Homes, with her seven children. And according to reports from a number of states, ever since so-called welfare reform, white recipients have been treated far better by caseworkers, are less likely to be bumped off the rolls for presumed failure to comply with new regulations, and have been given far more assistance at finding new jobs than their black or brown counterparts.

Poor whites are more likely to have a job, tend to earn more than poor people of color, and are even more likely to own their own home. Indeed, whites with incomes under $13,000 annually are more likely to own their own home than blacks with incomes that are three times higher due to having inherited property.

None of this is to say that poor whites aren’t being screwed eight ways to Sunday by an economic system that relies on their immiseration: they are. But they nonetheless retain a certain “one-up” on equally poor or even somewhat better off people of color thanks to racism.

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-06/24wise.cfm

[AspenRose]

40. Man, that's worthy of its own thread.

:yourock:

[Karenina]

50. Seconded!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

53. Thirded

Excellent article

[countryjake]

55. kicking & recommending Jcrowley's response!

What your post has described is one of the "founding" tenets of this nation's capitalism...it would have never worked without it.

[CitizenLeft]

70. AWESOME post

...and triple thanks for posting Maya Angelou's poem - I'd read it years ago, and should've copied it then. THANK YOU.

[JacksonWest]

79. "It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society.

There are so many things wrong with that statement. Things are tough all over. Can we get over the sophomoric attitude that white people get a free ride? That being white is a privilege? I would love to get my white prize. It would be great. But it hasn't happened yet. There are only two ways to make it in this country. Get born into wealth, or work your ass off. Racism sucks. So does life. And in the end, we all end up dead. But a company will always want someone that can make them money. And a bank will always loan money to people that can pay it back. And working your ass off is the best way to make money for someone else or yourself.

[Jcrowley]

81. The fears of poor people

which I as a white male also face are world's apart from the fears involved when discussing racism, though they are very real and relevant to the daily lives of those who suffer from these fears like you and I. However it's a very different topic which is why that sentence you refer to is quite accurate when one leaves aside the individual and examines the entire system at work. I see nowhere in any of those articles where it is implied that white people get a free ride, that's not the discussion at all. Now one can use your banking example and examine numerous studies that show the bias banks have towards lending people of color money no matter their personal situation. There are numerous studies on this and countless examples to prove

To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege the key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these subject taboo. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.

It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.

[JacksonWest]

82. We don't live in a "white supremacy" society.

The United States is FAR more tolerant of different races and cultures then almost any country in the world. Really. I know this might strike some people as apocrypal, but it is the truth. We are a melting pot by design. We are not as progressive as Canada, but we're more diverse. We're not as peaceful as France, but we allow more immigration and haven't made any laws forbidding religion shawls in public schools.

An Indian client expressed regret about moving from Flint, Michigan to London. He told me that the racism in Britain was extraordinary to what he faced here. I've lived in other countries(Italy and Kenya) and the racial attitudes are far more pronounced and discriminatory.

Please don't look to the rest of the world as an ideal for racial harmony. We're one of the few countries that has a diverse population that is not filled with violent infighting.

I work in finance. I can not discriminate against someone based on their skin color. My bank's loan policy is governed by a numerical system that does not compute race. my job is to bring in clients. My hands are tied when it comes to granting them.

Yes, there is racism. Always will be. But this is not a white supremacist nation.

[Karenina]

85. "...a diverse population

that is not filled with violent infighting." :spray:

[JacksonWest]

86. Oh sorry.

I wasn't aware of any race wars that were going on, or ethnic cleansing. My bad if I missed that. I appreciate your thoughtful response.

However, I can take solace in your reply's lack of substance that I am right. It saddens me that your world view is shattered without the precept that we have factions of ethnicities in this country that are fighting each other.

But maybe I'm wrong. By all means, if the majority of the people on this board characterize this nation as a place where there is violent infighting among the different and diverse groups, I'll stand corrected.

[Karenina]

88. Have you never heard of the

"War on Drugs?" And perhaps we differ on the definition of "violence."
And how 'bout that class war with its vortex of "race" and economic status, eh?

[Cleita]

43. Amazingly no.

However, about half of white Americans I would say have degrees of racism, you know how far they go into accepting someone different than them into their lives.

[Skittles]

45. I do not believe this

in my life, my family and circle of friends/aquaintances do not utter racist remarks, nor has any place I have ever worked tolerated racism for a SECOND. Yes there's the occasional conservative asshole bigot but I don't consider them my friends.

[unkachuck]

48. yes....

....most whites everywhere, are racist....that's how we maintain our dominance over the people of the world while being a minority....

....we've controlled most of the worlds' land and wealth, started most of the worlds' grand wars and have made a science out of slaughtering human beings with our war machines and technology....

....from the spin of our religions to the arrogance of our science and culture we wreak with racism....

....if you're not white, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know....

[Countdown_3_2_1]

52. I call Bullsh*t on this article

Maybe this would have worked in the 60's, but not today.

[PVnRT]

54. Ain't nothin' like some good flamebait

n/t

[Brewman_Jax]

56. Tim Wise acknowledges that point

in his essay here: http://www.alternet.org/story/15223/

[AspenRose]

90. Tim Wise is EXCELLENT and he 'gets it'

He should be required reading for white liberals.

[Brewman_Jax]

94. Molly Secours is another writer who "gets it"

her latest article is here http://www.blackcommentator.com/208/208_richards_50_shots_secours_guest.html

[donheld]

57. racism has been deeply ingrained in most of us

from the time we were infants we were taugh covertly and overtly to have racist feeling. It takes a hell of a lot of work to over come that.

[BoneDaddy]

59. I think we could easily change this around to say

Are all people inherently prejudiced. And the answer would be yes.

The author talks about "white framework". Well, isn't there a black framework, a woman framework, a male framework, a Jewish framework and so on and so on.

I could equally argue that most blacks grow up with a set of stereotypes about whites, heterosexuals about homosexuals, jews about the non-jewish community, men about women, women about men.

None of us can totally escape the conditioning we are raised with and each of us are given a set of stereotypes about people we need to transcend.

[xultar]

60. YES!

[Zynx]

62. Racism is hardly confined to just whites.

Virtually everyone deep down has some level of racist feelings on a visceral level. It is our intellects that are supposed to go beyond that.

[Limelight]

93. Amen

You speak the truth.

[eridani]

99. You're talking about bigotry, not racism

Racism = bigotry + social power. It's that other part of the equation that people of color in this society don't have. A black man with no jail record can have a whole ignorant set of bigoted notions about white people, but a white man with a jail record will still get more job application callbacks.

[donsu]

63. yes

nt

[Evoman]

66. I'm a Latino who "looks white". And I've seen enough racism to make me cynical and maybe racist

myself. I mean, I don't want to judge white people and call them all racists or whatever, but seeing as how I can easily "get behind the enemy lines" I've heard too much. And its affected how I see white people. My own brother is quite dark and hispanic looking, and I've heard comments from other people about him. Its almost been enough to provoke me to violence.

Don't get me wrong...most of my friends are white, as is my gf (lol..the ultimate racist intro, I know), but sometimes I feel uncomfortable around them. And many white people don't KNOW their racist...but will get immediatly defensive when you talk about affirmative action or social services. Its not that they are intentionally bad, or want to be racist..I think that having the white frame of reference in many ways hinders you from understanding your own advantages. Its easy to see the other personsraces advantages, but not your own, because they are so ingrained.

I think that I have many advantages looking white. In fact, in many ways, I see more racism more than my dark relatives, simply because I see both the on-stage, and backstage, racism. And sometimes people don't KNOW they are being racist. So everyone who automatically says that they have never been privy to racism backstage....maybe you just need to look a bit deeper.

[Karenina]

83. Great post, Evoman!

:toast: The fly on the wall! The FOG of DENIAL is thick, eh?

[Maestro]

67. I don't think I agree with what that Feagin fellow is proposing.

I find this exceptionally offensive and disgusting.

Feagin says Americans have learned it's unacceptable to make racist comments in public -- in what he calls a "frontstage" arena. Yet "backstage," in small groups of friends or family members, white people regularly use racist language and tell racist jokes.

I'm as white as they come and the white people with whom I associate rarely, if ever, do this in public or private at least with me. I know those that do, but I can say that I know people of all races that are racist. I don't think one race over another is more racist than others.
Faegin seems to be making some very large generalizations. Where is the research to back this up? Racism is certainly STILL a problem in the US and the world in general but to say that whites are racist simply because they are white is wrong in my opinion.

[Jed Dilligan]

72. I'm white, went to mostly-white schools

Yeah, I think most whites are racist. My parents always had black, Chicano, and Asian friends--I played with their kids when I was little. We're part Native American and went to the local powwow every year. So I was pretty shocked around second grade to find that all the other kids in my school were raging racists. The boys more than the girls, but it was all of them. I'm also half Jewish and the anti-Semitic stuff that went around was pretty devastating as well. These were rich, private school kids. The only places I've seen where blatant racism doesn't prevail among whites are colleges and college towns.

[chaska]

73. No one is exempt from what I call 'otherism', but....

Everyone of us when angry with someone will look for the differences between ourselves and the other, and if it's race that's what leads to racist reactions, behaviors, etc. The best of us will check ourselves and let our brains choose to call the person a dickhead rather than a racial epithet. Unfortunately, some folk's brains don't work fast enough to check themselves.

[chaska]

74. That said, I have noticed that older folks sure do love the n-word.

Greatest generation? To whom?

[butterfly77]

75. Yes.

and mostly every race in this country is but a majority of all races still are racist against American blacks, even black africans, some seem to be taught to hate homegrown blacks for their indocrination into the country.

[Alexander]

76. Most PEOPLE have racist and/or prejudiced ideas buried deep down.

Regardless of race, we all tend to gravitate towards people who look like us. Skin color, gender, facial features, height, weight, etc. And we fear and assume what we don't know. Hence biases against religion, culture, sexual orientation, etc.

How we cope with these unconscious prejudices, and whether or not we decide to let them influence us, determines how racist or prejudiced we are.

There have been a few white people who told me racist jokes or used racist language when speaking of another ethnicity. They wouldn't use such language in mixed company, and why they thought I would be more tolerant (maybe just because they considered me "one of them") is beyond me.

I've also experienced more subtle (if you can call it that) racist comments, like "why do X people tend to..." or "I've found most Y people I meet are...". It boggles the mind how they think this will slip past other people.

The reason articles like this get taken seriously is that white men in the United States have usually been the majority, at least until recently, and certainly at the top of the power structure. Therefore, as Howard Dean said, if a white guy is insensitive about race, it has a much larger and profound effect than if a black guy is.

[JacksonWest]

77. Here's the problem with your(Feagin's) Theory

"White Americans cannot escape the socialization"

Thus, there is behavior attributed to an unconscious receptor whose only identifier is race. If this trait can be manifested in "whites", can other traits be identified in other races? This line or reasoning is specious and sounds eerily familiar to the rhetoric of white supremacists who openly discuss traits that are found in African-Americans that are negative.

Racism is a conscious choice, and has to be an acknowledged behavior. It is a belief that one races is superior-thus all others are inferior.

Unconscious behavior can not be racist-racism has intent and purpose. While it can be argued that deliberate racist behavior may trigger an unconscious action, that unconscious action is not in and of itself racist. Intent is implicit in racism. Without an understanding and meaning of an action that appears to be racist, it cannot be racist. It can still be wrong, brutal, or just plain rude. But these are important distinctions.

Suffice to say, there is plenty of racist behavior in our society. But I find it to be a highly fallible argument that a meme creates a universal sphere of racism.

[Karenina]

84. Unconscious aggression

is STILL AGGRESSION. Unconscious hostilities are STILL HOSTILITIES. Unconscious racism is STILL RACISM. Unconscious intent and purpose, particularly when it comes to unconscious issues such as preserving white privilege, REMAINS INTENT AND PURPOSE.

[JacksonWest]

87. Intent must be conscious-it is intent.

Racism is a belief system, not a simple behavior. In order to be racist, you have to believe that a race is inferior because of and only because of their race. There are many actions, such as locking car doors, that can be motivated our of racism, or something less lascivious. Such as common sense, experience, or reflex. Motivation is a key issue. Look at hate crime legislation. If person A hits person B with a bat, that's assault. If person A hit person B because he was Arab, that makes it a hate crime, and a racist act. In both scenarios, the action was the same. It's the motivation that distinguishes an innocuous offense from a racist act.

At the end of the day, you have to decide to let yourself be offended or not. Overtly racist acts are easy to spot and assess. Subtle ones or perceived actions are not. If you want to believe that the hardships in your life are a result of the white majority being racist, fine. That's not going to make you a better person or improve your life. It's just going to give you an excuse to stay bitter.

It's tough out there. Life isn't easy. Giving yourself an excuse on why it isn't easy doesn't help anyone. For every minority that is convinced that the majority is keeping him down, there's a white person convinced that favorable treatment of minorities is holding him back. You can hang onto these ideas or let them go. Sometimes it's best to believe in yourself. Don't count on society to do you ant favors, and accept that there are idiots out there that will never give you a fair shake. And idiot is an idiot. You're not going to win those hearts and minds. A racist feels inferior everyday of his or her life. Don't buy into the mentality that they control you, your life, or where you want to go. It's pathetic.

[Karenina]

89. PREACH IT, Bro JacksonWest!

:silly: Love your style!

[WI_DEM]

80. I think every person has some form of racism and it's something that

we need to deal with.

[AFRIMERICAN]

91. Afrimericans opposed by White Privilege

In the past two, three years, I have written extensively about
the Afrimerican word and definition on various internet
forums, and have repeatedly had to address various forms of
covert, and overt American racism, American, which equals
White, the racism of White Privilege. 

When the Afrimerican word and definition was conceived and
first presented to the public as the only academic and legally
accurate term of description and definition of the race, and
offered as the most accurate alternative to other terms used
on/by the race, there was a blind naiveté that did not imagine
such racist opposition from U.S. government, legal, scholarly,
and corporate entities and individuals that know the
Afrimerican word and definition history, who’ve done the
research, and who know the claims concerning the Afrimerican
word and definition are true. In all honesty, it was presumed
these and others would be open and willing to correct wrong,
inaccurate, centuries old lies, and adopt, and adapt to the
truths of this term to eradicate the falsehoods, real and
implied, past and present, that are entwined with other terms
used on/by the race. I have gotten a wake up call to the
thread and weight of aversive, negative, exclusionary racism
toward Afrimericans, that on the surface, everyone likes to
act no longer exists, but it does. It is alive and well, and
thriving in a lot of behind the scene machinations of the
hundreds of institutions in the aforementioned categories that
call America home.

Most of the early discussions and submissions regarding the
Afrimerican word and definition were done via direct mail, and
the internet, and these have had their moments of denigrating
racism, but the larger acts of racism have been in the real
world. The Afrimerican promotions, and business activities
have been hindered in every imaginable way, and while I could
see it very easily, I was hard pressed to describe it because
it couldn’t be pinpointed, or chronologically detailed per a
continuous thread of connected action from a single source.

I was so blinded by the search for a single source that I
overlooked the obvious of there not being one but many sources
that work in unison and collusion with each other, from
Banking, (Bank of America), Government, (Congress, Copyright,
Courts, FCC, Patents, SBA, Trademarks, C.I.A. ad infinitum),
and medias, (AT&T, Paramount/Viacom, Time/Warner, Gannett,
Associated Press, AOL, wikipedia, etc…) and worse of all is
the government protected monopolies of the major credit
reporting agencies, like Experian, Transunion, and Equifax,
which work in colluded unison, and who have been given a legal
exemption from adhering to the Constitutional amendments
concerning rights to privacy, and they work under
multi-leveled, multiplicit internal and external collusion
involving all of the above, and similar entities. 
 
In the continuing saga of efforts to promote the Afrimerican
word and definition, and to acquire funding and other support,
these and related entities have hindered every action the
proponents of the Afrimerican word and definition have taken,
and the irony is, while such actions are being mandated by
Executive decisions at the highest levels, the actual acts are
being carried out by low level workers per instructions of
their supervisors, and supervisors above the supervisor; And,
I dare to say, if this was a white creation of this level of
importance and official recognition, and exclusively self
serving of white interest, the Afrimerican word and definition
would not be subject to the conditions as noted.

Some say this is just a common business practice, good
business sense. I say it’s a perpetuation of written, and
unwritten, past and present exclusionary racism of White
privilege the United States and it’s White privileged
business, academic, and government leaders, past and present,
have operated under to the unwarranted detriment of
Afrimericans that, per some quirk of mental instability, they
see as their duty to do. 

This is very much similar to the acts of the KKK in the early
1900’s, and the white Supremist attitude of Jim Crow that was
very visible, and even written into American law up to the mid
1960’s. While the laws have changed, the behavior has not,
it’s just become more polished and professional, and carried
out by legal manipulation of the ambiguous rules that are
designed and manipulated to disqualify Afrimericans that don’t
serve White Supremacy.

On the flip side, Afrimerican corporate, educational, media,
and civic entities and personalities have been eerily silent,
not weighing in, and not commenting publicly pro or con. Why?
One reason is they have been co-opted, and today, as in the
days of slavery, they have eagerly, and willingly embraced the
role of “House Negro”, with many knowingly selling themselves
and other Afrimericans out for a few dollars, and some
delusional belief they have been accepted as equal; And/or,
they have adopted or acquired a disassociative identity
disorder, per a blind assimilation of all the Eurocentric
attitudes, beliefs, and practices, that they become, in
essence, White people in Black skin. Those who would like to
be more supportive, are afraid to suffer loss of life, limb,
and property, so to maintain an understandable self safety,
they remain silent, and distant.

Afrimericans in all strata agree with the claims concerning
the Afrimerican word and definition, yet still have a Willie
Lynch slave mentality of, “… that’s the way it is”, which
translates to “they”, (The White Power Structure) are not
going to allow the Afrimerican word and definition to attain
any prominence so you should forget it, give it up, and fall
in line like expected, and except the terms given Afrimerican
like the rest of us. Behind, and beyond that are levels, upon
levels of miseducation, diseducation, self/world delusions,
and limited depths of intelligence that have created a wall of
fear, and/or ignorance that cause Afrimericans to self bar
themselves from breaking such bonds of limitations, and they
have become conditioned to supporting the failure to support
anything that demonstrates Afrimerican sovereignty. Thus, they
fearfully fail to support a creation that is actually in their
better interest per ethnic autonomy than the imposed, and self
imposed limitations and barriers commonplace now, to whitch,
more than not, these same folks adhere to, and advocate a
systemic means of existence that continually perpetuates the
subservient position given them, with more concern for
“fitting in”, disguised as, and self deluding as “overcoming”,
“getting over”, or “making out’. 

These dynamics are just a small sampling of bigger and longer
term actions being engaged by unseen powers that hide in the
shadows, some (most) in White face, and some in Black face.
The overall purpose of this writing is to ask the question,
“Why do White powers work so adamantly against what’s right
and true about the Afrimerican Word and Definition, or against
Afrimerican autonomy”? When will Afrimericans of major
academic, government, corporate, media prominence and
importance, stand up for truths that are beneficial to
Afrimericans at large? 

“Afrimerican” is opposed by White Privileged because it
exposes centuries old lies, and institutionalized racism and
misinformation America is built on. Why is this American
racism still being fostered to keep Afrimericans confused,
ignorant, afraid, and divided? Why is the White privileged
powers opposed to Afrimericans becoming more self realized,
and self governing, breaking the invisible chains that still
hold their lives and minds in bondage? To quote Rhett Butler
from “Gone with the Wind”, the answer seems to be the
unwritten/unspoken code of, “…gotta keep those darkies in
line.”     11/11/06

[Limelight]

92. EVERYONE has their prejudices.

I say this as a black man, knowing damn well I have my own. The thing is I know I have them which allows me to stop myself in mid thought or action when I know I'm about to do or say something uncalled for just because of who this person is. I know better and because of that I force myself to get over my issues and treat others better.

I'll go so far as to say this. I think a great many of us have a whole bunch of misconceptions about people of other groups because we're not familiar with them and also the history of this country that has ugly stains on it when it comes to race, sex and other issues. I don't think that most white folks are out running around in bed sheets burning crosses. I think that they (like a lot of ethnic groups) tend to be isolated to themselves and that seperation allows people to carry misconceptions about people who don't look just like them.

In other words the thing that's wrong with our melting pot is it seems to have a lot of clumps that havent' really melted.

[hunter]

95. White people creep me out, especially great crowds of them.

Mind you, I grew up in a community that was 99% white (judging by my yearbooks) and I'm white, but I haven't lived in such a community for about twenty years now.

I see racism and sexism all of the time, even from people who proclaim they are none of these things. My grandfather was quite obviously upset that I was marrying, as he put it, "a Mexican girl." He didn't attend our wedding. He probably didn't consider himself a racist. So often it's the little things... like especially when I'm with my wife. For example, she will buy something, she will pay for something, and I'll be standing beside her silently, and the clerk will hand ME the change! Huh?

[lumberjack_jeff]

96. Stereotype, bias, predjudice, discrimination, bigotry, racism, hate.

I think everyone (not just whites) fall somewhere on this spectrum, whether they acknowledge it or not.

At what point one thing becomes another determines the answer to your question.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

97. No.

[BlueStorm]

98. I don't think that everyone is really clean from racism...

I admit that I have had the 'N' word run through my head or some derogatory words about Hispanics cross my mind, usually when I am driving :shrug:. I usually squelch those thoughts by assuring myself that this isn't what I am and that I believe that I am being psychically attacked at the moment.

Does it mean that I am a racist? I certainly hope not. Anyone that knows me knows that I am far from being someone that is cruel or derogatory. I have been raised by a very open minded mother who taught me the evils of prejudice since I was little.

An example: When I was 11, my neighbor was outside, in my yard taunting me for some reason, she was a black girl that lived across the street from me. I was inside my house at the door and not knowing what to do or say I just stared back at her. Then out of nowhere I called her the 'N' word at least a few times. I knew it was a bad word and that it was directed towards black people though I didn't have an understanding of why or how it got into use in that form. Anyways the next thing I know is that my mom was behind me. She grabbed me by the arm, whirled me around and slapped me a few times on my face. She yelled at me told me never to use that word again, in her presence. Later on she explained why and from then on I never used it again.

I do admit that in sixth grade, a year after that incident I told my counselor that the girl made me "feel prejudiced" against blacks, it wasn't until after my mom married "Speedo" that my view was wrong, that the girl's actions towards me was a product of her own self and not all black people.

The girl was a bully, straight out.

[omega minimo]

100. Not all white Americans are raised in segregated conditions assumed in the OP