TheGoldcountry
Philosopher
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I have a few family who would insist they're not racists, and to make sure you know that, preface half their statements with "I'm not racist, but....."
At least I'm prepared.
"I hate white people"
- Thread starter William Parcher
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I have a few family who would insist they're not racists, and to make sure you know that, preface half their statements with "I'm not racist, but....."
At least I'm prepared.
You need to study up on what white supremacists actually means.
You have posted plain old racism and your particular example of it tends to be older people from all political sides going on about how everything was so much better in their day.
I am actually find it quite annoying people are bending the two these days, not even sure what the motive behind it is.
It is the same with labeling every piece of prejudiced faeces a nazi.
All both do is down play the scumminess of white supremacists and nazis.
Sure, lots of things create anger. I'm not going to tell people what sort of emotional responses they should have to events in their lives. But when they act out violently based on that anger I can certainly think they're wrong to do so.
If you weren't excusing the assault with this: "Some people find the concept hard to grasp but living with racism all your life can make you angry. I know victims of racism are supposed to show superior grace and wisdom but that doesn't always happen." Then what exactly were you attempting to express? Did you think that some people really didn't grasp that the person engaging in violent assault was angry?
Sideroxylon
Featherless biped
OK, Boomer.
I don't actually consider it racism to treat race as a data point that can add information to a Bayesian analysis of a situation. There are statistical trends, and knowing those trends can actually tell you something. As an individual I don't have a problem with using that information.
There are a couple of issues though. One is that other information can be much more robust and informative, and should supersede whatever initial assumptions were made. If you don't update your priors based on new information you're doing a bad job of anylising the situation.
Another issue is that if institutions use race as a data point they will tend to perpetuate the situation that leads to those differences. I know you don't actually agree with this because we disagree about the causes here.
A third issue is that some of those statistics may actually not reflect the reality of the situation. I'm skeptical that all of the differences in crime rates are down to judicial bias, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some effect. That's a difficult effect to estimate, so how much should you alter your estimation of the actual rate based on it? Tough question.
Another issue is that it's possible that reactions to those perceived situations are actually a causal factor. By crossing the street when you see a group of young Pakistani men, you show fear and make yourself a target. The same would have happened with groups of young men of other races, but people don't actually cross the street when they see them, so it doesn't happen as often, and as such the crime rate goes up. The perception leads to the reality. (I'm not saying this mechanism is actually at play, but it is possible for stereotypes to perpetuate themselves and it's going to be hard to tease them out in the data).
For all of these reasons I think that in most situations we should all take much less notice of race than we actually do. The situation that you mention may be an exception, but for some of the reasons mentioned above I do think police should be color-blind.
I'm not even a boomer but can guess you are a Doomer
Sideroxylon
Featherless biped
Old white racists angered and scared of changing demographics that vote for Trump and Brexit. They might not be formal members of a white supremacy group but believe other races are lesser.
I fully appreciate you want to believe this but believe me. At least here it can be a bit universal.
Maybe you live in some utopia where everyone wears black and white hats depending on which particular ****** up views they hold.
Congratulations.
No one else does.
Sideroxylon
Featherless biped
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Sideroxylon
Featherless biped
Got a recommended reading list?
Mumbles
Philosopher
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More importantly, now that nearly everyone has a camera on them to shoot decent video, there's more or less proof of what we've been saying for the past...hundred years or so ,particularly concerning police abuse/brutality. Not everyone is stupid enough to basically record themselves chasing people like George Zimmerman, but people look particularly stupid and racist when they shrug off Eric Garner being choked out for saying "C'mon, leave me alone" when cops rolled up on him for no reason (no, he was not selling loose cigarettes that day), or Tamir Rice getting gunned down by cops who drive right up next o him, but claim that they were terrified of him - among many other examples. Up until recently, the conversation usually consisted of the black person discussing an obvious example of racist behavior, and several white people swooping in to explain that the black person "must have been up to something"
In this case, it's some bigot punching a semi-random person, and then being arrested and charged. Okay, that's how the justice system ought to react. Nobody's calling the victim a "thug" or claiming that she "deserved it" or "must have done something wrong". No fantasies of the victim leaping out from behind knee-high bushes, no whining about how she "smelled like weed" and thus must have been incredibly violent and a threat that had to be dealt with. Nope, she was sitting there when someone walked up and punched her. As I said, CaptainHowdy's post captures this sort of white supremacist thinking perfectly - of course it's the black person's fault, they're all superstrong subhumans, and the males all want to rape "our" women. Ida B Wells trashed this entire idea a century ago, but far too many people cling to it.
Mumbles
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No thanks, I've dealt with enough of them to know what I'm seeing - and the "<n-word>s and spics just can't obey the law" view is classic US white supremacism - and has been for well over a century. It's the sort of thing you'd hear from people that advocated deporting US-born Hispanic people to Mexico (huh, still hear that one) or screeched about "negro domination" (still a big fear among white conservatives - and a smaller fear for some white liberals).
Obviously, this isn't the actual person using white supremacism to make money (which is what white supremacism is actually about) No, this view is the guy who gets convinced to vote against their own self interest, to give up health care and give their money to the wealthy, to fly into a rage at the mere idea of a black person above them in social status. This is the Barbeque Becky, the Pool Patrol Paula. In short the one who leaps to the front line to oppress others, so the rich can get richer.
I have no idea what this is even in response to.
Man, I just love when people who don't even live in the US show up to lecture my Afro-Latino behind on the niceties of US racism.
Shush.
Why just that topic?
A) Your post I replied to doesn't even reference the"n" word.
B) It is obviously racist nationalistic scum
Sideroxylon
Featherless biped
Yeah, reckon that’s only the Americans in your imagination. No one in this thread.
Mumbles
Philosopher
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No kidding.
Surprise! White supremacists, not known for their kind and welcoming attitudes towards nonwhite people immigrant or not, tend to use this argument as well.
CaptainHowdy
Graduate Poster
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Who are these "old White racists" who were scared of changing demographics of whom you speak? Racist Mexicans who don't allow foreigners to purchase real estate? Islamophobic Israelis who won't open their border to millions of Syrians? Sub Saharan Africans who resisted European multiculturalism in the 19th century? Indigenous North Americans who wiped out the Roanoke colony? Muslims who fought back against the Crusaders?? Are these people reacting the way they do because they believe they are superior to everybody who has different colored skin?
Besides, my sociologist told me that race is a meaningless social construct so I don't even know what a "White" person is. Does anybody else? Because I sure don't.