How much of an institutional racist are you?

[MrSquished]

Honestly I put black history month on the chopping block list as well. How are you supposed to advocate for everyone assimilating and eliminating racial bias/segregation when you have an entire month to talk about how different you are instead of how we are all the same?

What's your point, nobody should have a unique culture to celebrate? What next banning Chinatowns from cities? Little Italies...gone?

\The argument isn't about assimilating to the point we are all drones with one mono-culture, it's about all being treated equally as humans in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of each other, civil rights, economic opportunity, education, etc...

 

[brycejones]

Honestly I put black history month on the chopping block list as well. How are you supposed to advocate for everyone assimilating and eliminating racial bias/segregation when you have an entire month to talk about how different you are instead of how we are all the same?

Why can't they just be more like me, you know more white? This is your basic argument.

People of all kinds of different origins celebrate aspects of their history. I guess we should stop that as well.

 

[mikeymikec]

None if these sound wrong to you? None of these sound like you are making a problem out of nothing? None of these sound like a contribution to the problem and not a contribution to the solution?

None of these sound like anything I've said, let alone any kind of valid counterpoint to any of my responses on this topic.

If you persist in this kind of ridiculousness, please don't bother quoting me, just make your own quotes up like this:

I think all white people should have to endure slavery for a year and give up all their possessions to non-white people! That's the only way to learn why racism is bad!

Also, inter-racial toaster marriage should be legal

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

The concept of race is anti-science...which makes 'racism' effectively a misnomer.

 

[UglyCasanova]

The concept of race is anti-science...which makes 'racism' effectively a misnomer.

Agreed. We could say skin color or culture but as far as race goes we are all human.

 

[Commodus]

The concept of race is anti-science...which makes 'racism' effectively a misnomer.

Not strictly speaking. It's like creationism -- it's not real, but the term reflects the views of those who espouse the ideology.

 

[Atreus21]

The thread about Trump thinking that pretty much everyone on welfare and government assistance programs was black got me thinking because when I was younger, I thought that as well.

I'm a 40 something white male from Northern NJ. I grew up here. I grew up about 20 miles west of NYC in what was basically a middle-middle class to upper middle-class town that was by far majority white. In my high school of approximately 1,000 students there were only a few African-Americans in total. I had no black friends growing up.

My father was a far-left progressive and liberal who showed zero racism that I remember, and only showed concern for the plight of the African-American in a socio-economic and political sense. Like very strongly as well. He was very very political. My parents took us to the city often enough to expose us to more culture, we were not sheltered at all. I too turned out to be a left-leaning progressive as well....but yet

....I still have racist thoughts. They just pop up sometimes. Sometimes I can get frightful of a black person when walking around my city at night. Or sometimes think some negative thoughts when driving through the ghetto. I have to push them out of my head in disgust. The thing is, I was never taught these things in my tight-knit familial unit. They all must have come from our society - hence the name institutional racism. It's very very strong stuff. And these days all my friends are white and Asian, and not by choice. It's not like I rejected a non-white friend from entering my life. And it's not just me - when I hang out in larger groups with my friends' friends and their larger networks nowadays, they are also predominantly white with a couple of Asians thrown in. This is totally normal as well and not racist. But it goes to show how little the races can mix. Even in a very very progressive area of the country.

Eventually I did learn that welfare recipients were not pretty much all black. From probably talking with my dad about politics and that thing called a liberal arts education. But society taught me to think otherwise for years into my twenties at least until when I went to college. What's crazy is that a lot of folks are much older, supposedly educated, and in positions of power and are still ignorant. Thanks to my dad, and school, I've been on the right side of things and argued with many people against racism and being respectful of the uphill battle African-Americans have to fight more often than not. But so many people don't get it.

Everyone wants to think they aren't a racist - and we see some pretty racist folks that think that, but what about the rest of us that are actually liberal and progressive socially and more advanced? How much has the system ingrained some racism inside of you?

Police your actions first, always and carefully. Don't be so keen on policing your thoughts, because you quickly get lost. Or at least I do. Consider the implications of fretting that you don't have black friends. Are black friends valuable and desirable first of all because of their skin color? Isn't that a racist sentiment? One gets tied up in contradictions - in trying not to be racist you have to be racist.

Treat each individual person which as much justice and decency as you can. If you have a nasty thought about someone because they fit a nasty stereotype, simply don't express it.

 

[Commodus]

Police your actions first, always and carefully. Don't be so keen on policing your thoughts, because you quickly get lost. Or at least I do. Consider the implications of fretting that you don't have black friends. Are black friends valuable and desirable first of all because of their skin color? Isn't that a racist sentiment? One gets tied up in contradictions - in trying not to be racist you have to be racist.

Treat each individual person which as much justice and decency as you can. If you have a nasty thought about someone because they fit a nasty stereotype, simply don't express it.

Friends outside your own ethnic group can provide a much-needed sense of perspective. Don't seek them out just because they don't share your skin color, but do be open to it.

Trump and others like him get elected in part because there are many white people who never associate with ethnicities beyond their own. It's easy to pretend Muslims/Mexicans/LGBT people are evil when you never actually see them as the humans they are.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Friends outside your own ethnic group can provide a much-needed sense of perspective. Don't seek them out just because they don't share your skin color, but do be open to it.

Trump and others like him get elected in part because there are many white people who never associate with ethnicities beyond their own. It's easy to pretend Muslims/Mexicans/LGBT people are evil when you never actually see them as the humans they are.

And they don't segregate themselves into groups? Hell, I've had employers (actually all my employers) whom SPECIFICALLY make social groups for black people, and SPECIFICALLY make social groups and meetings for LGBT. That is segregation. That is tribalism. Don't act like one group is doing it and the others aren't.

If you want to integrate into society stop segregating yourself. Stop making groups. Stop saying you're a loyal member of the LGBBQWTF group for exclusive members only. That is part of why you aren't accepted, and that is because you literally aren't joining the normal population. You want to be seen as special. You want to be treated differently.

 

[nickqt]

And they don't segregate themselves into groups? Hell, I've had employers (actually all my employers) whom SPECIFICALLY make social groups for black people, and SPECIFICALLY make social groups and meetings for LGBT. That is segregation. That is tribalism. Don't act like one group is doing it and the others aren't.

If you want to integrate into society stop segregating yourself. Stop making groups. Stop saying you're a loyal member of the LGBBQWTF group for exclusive members only. That is part of why you aren't accepted, and that is because you literally aren't joining the normal population. You want to be seen as special. You want to be treated differently.

You're oblivious that:

1. Conservatives by their very nature are exclusive, and go out of their way to exclude groups of people who don't share their same exact values.

2. These groups you're speaking of who describe themselves separately do so because they've been excluded by society as "others" for hundreds and/or thousands of years.

3. These groups are invited into the liberal political parties and integrated. Which then causes Conservatives to bitch and cry about identity politics. Which is hilarious, and tragic, and still hilarious. Because they've grouped themselves together because TRADITIONAL society has shunned them.

Cognitive Dissonance and Projection: the twin pillars of modern US conservatism.

 

[Muse]

You're oblivious that:

1. Conservatives by their very nature are exclusive, and go out of their way to exclude groups of people who don't share their same exact values.

2. These groups you're speaking of who describe themselves separately do so because they've been excluded by society as "others" for hundreds and/or thousands of years.

3. These groups are invited into the liberal political parties and integrated. Which then causes Conservatives to bitch and cry about identity politics. Which is hilarious, and tragic, and still hilarious. Because they've grouped themselves together because TRADITIONAL society has shunned them.

Cognitive Dissonance and Projection: the twin pillars of modern US conservatism.

This is bold, and I won't say you are in any way wrong but it makes me wonder.

Are you implying or saying that these conservatives are Republicans?

It does seem that the LGBTQ aren't Republicans, many vote Democratic, many certainly other political affiliations, maybe Green, for instance.

If the Republicans are the party of our kind and the others can go to Hell, what if the Democratic Party is the only one that's sane? Are we better off as a one party country? Why in the hell is the USA essentially 2 party? Isn't that a disease in itself? Do we need 3 or more powerful political parties in the USA? Yeah, these kinds of ideas team through my brain when I think about the political winds here. I live where the % of people voting Republican is probably under 4%. If I were in Iowa, PA, LA, Michigan, FL... I might think a lot differently.

 

[nickqt]

This is bold, and I won't say you are in any way wrong but it makes me wonder.

Are you implying or saying that these conservatives are Republicans?

It does seem that the LGBTQ aren't Republicans, many vote Democratic, many certainly other political affiliations, maybe Green, for instance.

If the Republicans are the party of our kind and the others can go to Hell, what if the Democratic Party is the only one that's sane? Are we better off as a one party country? Why in the hell is the USA essentially 2 party? Isn't that a disease in itself? Do we need 3 or more powerful political parties in the USA? Yeah, these kinds of ideas team through my brain when I think about the political winds here. I live where the % of people voting Republican is probably under 4%. If I were in Iowa, PA, LA, Michigan, FL... I might think a lot differently.

First-past-the post elections, paired with the electoral college means that third parties are essentially nothing but spoilers.

Want to fix that, have instant runoff voting. I'm all for it.

And yes, the Democratic party is sane. It's just as corrupt as any typical political party, but it is sane. Unlike the Republican party.

What this country needs is a "conservative" party that isn't right-wing authoritarian reacting to whatever the liberal party does as inherently bad. Especially when the "conservative" party offers no solutions except, let's just not worry about it, and let FreeMarket™ fix it.

The conservative party should act to prevent the liberal party from attempting to insta-fix problems with solutions that make things worse. Not actively pursue policies that have been shown over and over again to make things worse.

The Democratic party would make a wonderful conservative party, which, it essentially is when compared to foreign political parties in any other western, first-world democracy. Unfortunately, the south has been a monolithic region that tends to vote for one party or another, and the base voters who come out for primaries have drastically reduced what a Republican can actually stand for, without being thrown out as a RINO, libruul, America-hating communist traitor.

Hell, there was a time when the conservative party operated as it is supposed to, and politicians of that caliber are now stuck in the big-tent Democratic party.

Liberal/progressive policies poll well. But, they are represented by the Democratic party, which is socially liberal, and economically conservative-to-centrist. So there's a huge disconnect there. Strongman Trump slipped right in with economic populism.

 

[MrSquished]

Turns out I turned out pretty ok for growing up in my town. Keep in mind this is a suburb just 18 miles west of NYC. This ain't the boonies. I was talking to an old friend of mine today, call him Jim, about some politics and some other old acquaintances we used to hang with had recently posted on my facebook as well - so my buddy Matt told me about some of the people we used to hang out with a lot. This was during the doing lots of drugs raving party days. All right-wingers now it turns out. Far right for the most part. Big Trumpers it turns out now.

So John is a far right winger. After Obama won the election, one guy's sister told Jim that he was dead to them because he voted for that n*****. Another guy told Jim, while being serious, that he was starting an all-white's club in order to resist the Obama presidency. Another guy's wife stopped talking to Jim after he called out her racist father for well, being racist.

WTF!!! I can't even imagine what it's like in the south.