‘To be white is to be racist, period,’ a high school teacher told his class

[Graham2001]

I think I understand what the teacher in this instance was trying to say, I will highlight the key passage in the quote below:

Am I racist? And I say yeah. I don’t want to be. It’s not like I choose to be racist, but do I do things because of the way I was raised.

To be white is to be racist, period"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...high-school-teacher-told-his-class/?tid=a_inl

But he has fallen into a very old trap, one of letting his eloquence run away with him. I have read about similar things happening in Spain during the period of the Spanish Inquisition. One of the more common things in their files is priests getting into the pulpit and accidentally blaspheming, while trying to glorify the Angels or the Virgin Mary.

I can also see why some students would be very offended by this. There are any number of pundits who argue that only 'white people' can be racist because they 'have the power'.

I myself once confronted an Australian Aboriginal woman who was abusing Asian students on a bus and part of her attempts to deflect my criticism was a statement to the effect that she was 'part white' and that the abuse was her '...white blood talking...' (Eg Racism is genetic...)

 

[Delphic Oracle]

This is a position I find myself mostly in agreement with, but I'm constantly disappointed at people's lack of ability to articulate it very well.

Racism is attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Racism is not a skin color.

Yes, most people in the majority group end up perpetuating the problem by unintentionally teaching (through example) others through subconscious cues. But to presume that ethnicity (or any immutable quality) itself can tell you something about a person is a form of argument that has a dirty history going the other way. It does not help us heal this divide to use language this is likely to just deepen resentments.

ETA: Likewise, "minorities can't be racist" is a comfortable rationalization for ill behavior, which again also has a nasty history.

 

[Graham2001]

ETA: Likewise, "minorities can't be racist" is a comfortable rationalization for ill behavior, which again also has a nasty history.

I've heard it expressed as "oppressed peoples cannot be racist/sexist", but I agree I have seen it used to justify some pretty horrible statements.

 

[Loss Leader]

I like this expression of the idea:

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is

 

[Shiner]

I think there's a missing word in the teacher's statement. That word would be 'American'. I still think it's a preposterous thing to say to your students.

As an Australian, I resent being included in the apologies for slavery. America needs to remember (constantly) that they are NOT the voice for the world.

Cue silly comparisons to Australian indigenous policies of the past

 

[Skeptic Tank]

He's not entirely wrong.

Racism is universal to all human beings, first of all.

However, when people single Whites out as being uniquely racist they are perceiving something real.

A group with delicate, recessive phenotypic traits that everyone else finds desirable will inevitably be either racist or will be consumed by other genomes. Especially if their birth rate is low by comparison.

A group which has (for whatever reason you want to believe) created the most prosperous and desirable living spaces and has held some of the most fertile and desirable land on the planet will be seen as racist if they attempt to hold these territories because only through exclusion of brown people who outbreed them will this be accomplished.

To be White and wish to stay White and live among other Whites is to be racist. What people have lost sight of is that racism is not only inevitable and natural, but also good and desirable. It is the key to preserving beauty and diversity. It is the only force which can prevent the process of "to the most recklessly fecund goes the planet."

A child with wealthy parents who have passed good genes to him and have stayed married and have been careful and responsible and not had more children than they could afford or lower back tattoos or heroin addictions or powerball tickets or McDonald's every night and send him off to school with nice clothes, nice school supplies, nice lunch food, and nice expensive toys - will be seen as greedy and selfish by his inferiors for not sharing these things.

If he does share them, they will be broken and stolen and ruined. He is put in the position of having to be the A-hole in order to preserve nice things. Exactly as Whites have been.

We have switched from master to slave morality and become a society which no longer prizes excellence but now despises and targets excellence for destruction. We will either return to a hierarchical, racist patriarchy (feminism kills birth rates) or we will go the way of all dead civilizations.

 

[bigred]

lmao @ the astronomical stupidity of that bonehead and this entire thing. Not that any of it surprises me in the tiniest. Bow down before the race card or be swept aside in it wrath!

 

[theprestige]

I think there's a missing word in the teacher's statement. That word would be 'American'. I still think it's a preposterous thing to say to your students.

As an Australian, I resent being included in the apologies for slavery. America needs to remember (constantly) that they are NOT the voice for the world.

Cue silly comparisons to Australian indigenous policies of the past

Obviously as an American I cannot really see my own smug sense of superiority. But if it's anything like the Ozzie and Kiwi expressions that are becoming increasingly common, I begin to understand why the rest of the world hates us so much.

I can only assume our friends down under are tolerated for the simple reason that they lack the global influence to match their USian-tier arrogance.

 

[psionl0]

To say that "To be white is to be racist, period" is racist, period.

Seriously, racism is nothing to do with power or privilege or any of the other good things that accrue just because the "right" person happened to be racist (talk about a circular definition!) it is simply about your opinion to people who's race is different to your own.

But **** Yeah! Let's pick on white people because they are a different race to ours.

Edited by Agatha: 

Edited to remove breach of rule 10

 

[Graham2001]

To say that "To be white is to be racist, period" is racist, period.

For what it's worth, the opening of this early (2014) Jeff Holiday video is worth listening to. His reason was that after the Ferguson shooting, several people came up and told him that he should not comment on the event because he was 'white', listening to those comments, compared with some of his later videos, show that he had every right to, because he does think there is something wrong with American police...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CTc3GHkofM

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Gotta love those self-loathing white guys, someone has to.

 

[Klimax]

I like this expression of the idea:

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is

You link to Scalzi? Apparently precise counterpart of Vox?

 

[catsmate]

I like this expression of the idea:

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is

I was about to post that. Scalzi puts it well.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

...ETA: Likewise, "minorities can't be racist" is a comfortable rationalization for ill behavior, which again also has a nasty history.

As an aside, exact same is true in geopolitics. People from countries/ethnicities that are small or for whatever reason haven't had colonial sway near or far in recent history tend to think of themselves as above the fray. Bollocks. Power corrupts universally; just haven't had a turn at it.

... Racism is universal to all human beings, first of all...

Well, we agree on one thing in this topic. The rest, not so much.

To say that "To be white is to be racist, period" is racist, period.

Totally agreed. Not a blanket excuse, but agreed.

 

[Graham2001]

Someone pointed me to a four-part video which is a classic example of the 'only white males are racist/sexist' meme.

Zarna Responds Parts 1 - 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvKAe-iFOMs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrvNYUTTpw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swumabAjkWM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVSwSJJZJS0

 

[Bikewer]

I do agree that "fear of the other" is one of the built-in, hard-wired aspects of human nature.
Anthropologists see this even in our cousins... When one chimp troupe encounters another, there is immediate threat display, hooting, posturing, etc. Much like the opening sequence of 2001.

However.... At the very same time researchers have observed cross-breeding between members of different troupes.... Male and female individuals crossing territorial boundaries to have little trysts away from the prying eyes of the Silverback....

So that fear of the other can be moderated by culture and proximity and knowledge.

To the degree that individuals of other groups start to act like everyone else, I would say that this reinforces the level of inclusion. To the degree that they act, dress, worship, talk....Differently.... Tends to reinforce the feeling of "otherness".

Note that "race" is not necessary to this feeling of otherness. We see the sorry history of religious and ideological wars fought among peoples that are ethnically identical....

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

'White' is a social construct with no relation to race. That's why it's racist.

Remember that milk-pale Irish were not white for a long time.

 

[pipelineaudio]

Someone pointed me to a four-part video which is a classic example of the 'only white males are racist/sexist' meme.

Zarna Responds Parts 1 - 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvKAe-iFOMs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrvNYUTTpw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swumabAjkWM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVSwSJJZJS0

bwaahahahaha!!! That's the Hugh Mongous lady!

 

[332nd]

A group with delicate, recessive phenotypic traits that everyone else finds desirable will inevitably be either racist or will be consumed by other genomes. Especially if their birth rate is low by comparison.

Not necessarily. See avatar

group which has (for whatever reason you want to believe) created the most prosperous and desirable living spaces and has held some of the most fertile and desirable land on the planet will be seen as racist if they attempt to hold these territories because only through exclusion of brown people who outbreed them will this be accomplished.

Your argument here seems to boil down to "No fair taking it back! You're even cheating by not gaining a technological advantage & forcibly removing us!"

To be White and wish to stay White and live among other Whites is to be racist. What people have lost sight of is that racism is not only inevitable and natural, but also good and desirable. It is the key to preserving beauty and diversity. It is the only force which can prevent the process of "to the most recklessly fecund goes the planet."

There's that "No fair!" Thing again.

A child with wealthy parents who have passed good genes to him and have stayed married and have been careful and responsible and not had more children than they could afford or lower back tattoos or heroin addictions or powerball tickets or McDonald's every night and send him off to school with nice clothes, nice school supplies, nice lunch food, and nice expensive toys - will be seen as greedy and selfish by his inferiors for not sharing these things.

By some sure. Others will be happy he has such things because they count him as a friend.

If he does share them, they will be broken and stolen and ruined. He is put in the position of having to be the A-hole in order to preserve nice things. Exactly as Whites have been.

Or, they will be made better than than ever before. See avatar.

We have switched from master to slave morality and become a society which no longer prizes excellence but now despises and targets excellence for destruction.

Well, obviously you have. Tick, tick, tick.

 

[Graham2001]

bwaahahahaha!!! That's the Hugh Mongous lady!

So I found while searching YouTube.

There are quite a few people commenting on this set of videos, most of them seem to be suggesting that she may be mentally ill but high functioning.

Ironically, I can remember reading in a history of the Victorian 'Little Wars' an excerpt from one account of the Indian Mutiny, where a loyal Sepoy referred to himself as an 'Irishman of a different color' (or something like that), I really must remember to track that book down to confirm the quote.

Then again there are the words of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on confronting racism in America "I am an Englishman", understanding just why he said that might raise questions that 'Social Justice' types would find uncomfortable.