I, Racist
December 30, 2015 6:52 PM Subscribe
I, Racist is a transcription of a speech by John Metta.
"Despite what the Charleston Massacre makes things look like, people are dying not because individuals are racist, but because individuals are helping support a racist system by wanting to protect their own non-racist self beliefs... There’s a headline from The Independent that sums this up quite nicely: “Charleston shooting: Black and Muslim killers are ‘terrorists’ and ‘thugs’. Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?”"
Did you catch that?"
This post was deleted for the following reason: Turns out it's a double. -- goodnewsfortheinsane
"No, her response is self-protection: “That’s not my fault, I didn't do anything. You are wrong.”"
"Not personally racist" can exist within a larger state of "Complicit in/benefits from racist system, and perceives that system as normal/neutral." A self-protective "Not all white people" denies personal racism, but it also denies and preserves that baked-in complicity, and shuts down conversation.
Worse, apropos of the linked quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ("...We don’t even tell our white partners the small things that piss us off and the things we wish they understood better, because we’re worried they will say we’re overreacting, or we’re being too sensitive...."), to bring this up risks confirming that the people you love best, or whose friendship you enjoy, have a fundamentally different and irreconcilable understanding of how (whether) racism is in America. Interesting reflection, Deoridhe; thanks for posting.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:35 PM on December 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Not personally racist" can exist within a larger state of "Complicit in/benefits from racist system, and perceives that system as normal/neutral." A self-protective "Not all white people" denies personal racism, but it also denies and preserves that baked-in complicity, and shuts down conversation.
Worse, apropos of the linked quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ("...We don’t even tell our white partners the small things that piss us off and the things we wish they understood better, because we’re worried they will say we’re overreacting, or we’re being too sensitive...."), to bring this up risks confirming that the people you love best, or whose friendship you enjoy, have a fundamentally different and irreconcilable understanding of how (whether) racism is in America. Interesting reflection, Deoridhe; thanks for posting.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:35 PM on December 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
It was only in the last year our two that I became aware of white privilege as a thing... which shifted my view of things a bit as I began to realize just how much slack I get as a large middle aged white guy.
This story shifted things a skoash more... thanks for sharing.
posted by MikeWarot at 7:42 PM on December 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
This story shifted things a skoash more... thanks for sharing.
posted by MikeWarot at 7:42 PM on December 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's easier to deal with bad individuals than with societal problems.
Also liberalism is utterly fucking obsessed with individual solutions to systemic problems.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:59 PM on December 30, 2015 [16 favorites]
Also liberalism is utterly fucking obsessed with individual solutions to systemic problems.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:59 PM on December 30, 2015 [16 favorites]
Also liberalism is utterly fucking obsessed with individual solutions to systemic problems.
...don't you mean neoliberalism?
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:08 PM on December 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
...don't you mean neoliberalism?
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:08 PM on December 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
there is a fundamental difference, at least from sociological definition, of being racist and being prejudiced. one is propped up by the system surrounding the person, and the other is native/cultured bias and i speak as a malaysian, where we're very proud to joke how we're all a little racist.
posted by cendawanita at 8:33 PM on December 30, 2015
posted by cendawanita at 8:33 PM on December 30, 2015
(it's a terrible joke, masking a host of intersectional issues, obvs)
posted by cendawanita at 8:35 PM on December 30, 2015
posted by cendawanita at 8:35 PM on December 30, 2015
MetaFilter: I blame television.
posted by firechicago at 9:28 PM on December 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by firechicago at 9:28 PM on December 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
we're very proud to joke how we're all a little racist.Relevant (SLYT)
(it's a terrible joke, masking a host of intersectional issues, obvs)
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 9:38 PM on December 30, 2015 [1 favorite]
I learned in cultural anthropology about ethnocentrism. Seems we are all wired to think that "us" is always better than "them".
Too bad we can't come to the realization that it really is just "us."
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 9:47 PM on December 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
Too bad we can't come to the realization that it really is just "us."
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 9:47 PM on December 30, 2015 [2 favorites]
I learned in cultural anthropology about ethnocentrism. Seems we are all wired to think that "us" is always better than "them".
I'm not sure that's necessarily the case. In this culture, yes - but one of the interesting theories I heard about the late development of the frontal lobe was that it enables a part of our brain to be almost entirely culturally, rather than biologically, driven. I don't think we can overemphasize the effect culture has on us and how we think, both consciously and not.
The basis of colonialism is we is better, that is why we get their stuff/labor/bodies/etc... It began with strict class delineations and spread out from there along racial lines as white Europeans created the idea of "the white burden". What we know of cultures like the Iroquois point to a very different way of viewing both members of their society and other societies; something closer to the "all people created equal" ideals that the US has always fallen short of. There's no reason to believe that the cultural hangups we have about in-group superiority are genetic; they are far more likely developed culturally.
posted by Deoridhe at 10:20 PM on December 30, 2015 [5 favorites]
I'm not sure that's necessarily the case. In this culture, yes - but one of the interesting theories I heard about the late development of the frontal lobe was that it enables a part of our brain to be almost entirely culturally, rather than biologically, driven. I don't think we can overemphasize the effect culture has on us and how we think, both consciously and not.
The basis of colonialism is we is better, that is why we get their stuff/labor/bodies/etc... It began with strict class delineations and spread out from there along racial lines as white Europeans created the idea of "the white burden". What we know of cultures like the Iroquois point to a very different way of viewing both members of their society and other societies; something closer to the "all people created equal" ideals that the US has always fallen short of. There's no reason to believe that the cultural hangups we have about in-group superiority are genetic; they are far more likely developed culturally.
posted by Deoridhe at 10:20 PM on December 30, 2015 [5 favorites]
ArmandAkimbo, you will be unsurprised to know how well (and affirming) that piece has been received amongst the anglophone Malaysians. Because if Americans say it, then it's totally okay!
posted by cendawanita at 10:37 PM on December 30, 2015
posted by cendawanita at 10:37 PM on December 30, 2015
I know of several typical reactions to the privilege/fragility/structural explanation used in the essay.
One is "You have no good evidence for such an abstract and unprovable allegation, just anecdata at most" - for example, claiming that microaggressions are not real (real relative to what? Sociopsychologically? The hell I know) would fall under this category.
The other is essentially "Other (e.g., poorer, or more geographically remote) members of X minority group do not have such experiences, so it must be that you (as a white-collared or otherwise highly educated minority wielding these extremist, politically-correct, theoretical terms and concepts) are making this an issue to your political advantage, creating a distraction from real problems (e.g., explicit racism, or class conflict, etc.) and real solutions (e.g., use common sense/speech, stop agitating, and find ways to effect real change), towards your selfish motives".
The third is "Yes, such implicit biases are real, but obviously if you always focus on this it will (gasp!) take away your individual agency!"
So the conceptual indigestion ranges from #1: outright denial of the idea, #2: denial with a purported counterexample, with a dash of personal/political undermining, #3: acceptance of the idea but immediately cancelled by realpolitik rationalization.
The next step is to explain why these reactions are mostly bullshit - since kernels of truth that could be salvaged from them exist in spite of those attitudes - but at that point I usually feel the people saying these things aren't truly interested.
Lived experience is a thing that maybe no amount of words can convey.
posted by polymodus at 1:47 AM on December 31, 2015
One is "You have no good evidence for such an abstract and unprovable allegation, just anecdata at most" - for example, claiming that microaggressions are not real (real relative to what? Sociopsychologically? The hell I know) would fall under this category.
The other is essentially "Other (e.g., poorer, or more geographically remote) members of X minority group do not have such experiences, so it must be that you (as a white-collared or otherwise highly educated minority wielding these extremist, politically-correct, theoretical terms and concepts) are making this an issue to your political advantage, creating a distraction from real problems (e.g., explicit racism, or class conflict, etc.) and real solutions (e.g., use common sense/speech, stop agitating, and find ways to effect real change), towards your selfish motives".
The third is "Yes, such implicit biases are real, but obviously if you always focus on this it will (gasp!) take away your individual agency!"
So the conceptual indigestion ranges from #1: outright denial of the idea, #2: denial with a purported counterexample, with a dash of personal/political undermining, #3: acceptance of the idea but immediately cancelled by realpolitik rationalization.
The next step is to explain why these reactions are mostly bullshit - since kernels of truth that could be salvaged from them exist in spite of those attitudes - but at that point I usually feel the people saying these things aren't truly interested.
Lived experience is a thing that maybe no amount of words can convey.
posted by polymodus at 1:47 AM on December 31, 2015
"I, Tiberius Racist Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Racist the Idiot", or "That Racist", or "Racist the Stammerer", or "Ruh-Ruh-Racist" or at best as "Poor Uncle Racist", am now about to write this strange history of my life..."
posted by Captain l'escalier at 2:42 AM on December 31, 2015
posted by Captain l'escalier at 2:42 AM on December 31, 2015
This is why I don't like the story of the good samaritan. Everyone likes to think of themselves as the person who sees someone beaten and bloodied and helps him out.
I'm surprised at his reaction: the story is really about racism, not about helping people. Jesus is basically saying "Most of you don't want to have anything to do with Samaritans and don't think they're part of our community. But picture this: a guy lies wounded by the side of the road..."
Obligatory Mitchell & Webb
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:03 AM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised at his reaction: the story is really about racism, not about helping people. Jesus is basically saying "Most of you don't want to have anything to do with Samaritans and don't think they're part of our community. But picture this: a guy lies wounded by the side of the road..."
Obligatory Mitchell & Webb
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:03 AM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by Rangi at 7:30 PM on December 30, 2015