But to your point. YES. Exactly. Take a second to consider what I mean here though, and I'd love if Mumbles can give his opinion on what I'm going to say.
Well, Okay...
The unconscious racism is a problem because people are unaware that they are doing it, but everyone is racist especially here in the US. Everyone judges races by stereotypes and even if a person doesn't fit into the stereotype, there's still something in the back of our minds.
The difference between "white racism" where people stereotype white people and "black racism" is extreme.
To some extent, yes. Obviously, racism against black people is no real extreme. Sadly,it's normal, much like prejudice against other groups in the US.
But there is a difference between the obvious racism eg."I'll never hire a black person", and the subconscious variety, as in the manager who whenever presented with a qualified black person, says "I just don't think he'd be a good fit for the company", regardless of the black guy's attitude and demeanor.
As another example, when I was...probably 12, I was big into roll-playing games, and related crap. One of my favorite stores was Games People Play, in Cambridge. One time, when my mother drove me over there, the cashier (a man who is either retired or dead by now) had been showing a number of pewter statuettes to a customer. They had moved across the store, to the cash register, so he could pay for whatever he had bought. I walked up to the statuettes to look...and the cashier dashed across the store in order to put them back under glass, where I couldn't touch them. My mother had seen all of this, and simply walked up and stood behind me with a disapproving stare. And the cashier, rather than being defiant, looked embarrassed with himself.
In other words, his thinking was not "I hate black people". Rather, he saw me looking at the statuettes, and immediately thought "He's going to rob the store!", without noticing my mother walking in behind me, or even consciously thinking "black men are all thieves". After all, if he really did think the latter, why would he feel so humiliated when my mom stared at him?
Those sort of things are probably my worst experiences with racism. As a guy in his mid-30s, it's not going to be Jim Crow nonsense, but rather the things that you don't know, and where the racist might not even know. The clear-cut bigots are easy to see, and easy to call out. It's the "I'm just not sure you fit" folks that you really need to worry about, because the nasty part is that you don't know if they're right, or if they're letting subconscious bias sneak out.
ETA: There's a joke some black folks say - we'd rather deal with the outright racist, than the subconscious sort. With the former, you know exactly where you stand, while the latter stands ready to sneak out and stab you over any perceived slight. The person who sees me and starts screaming "the N-word", I know he's hostile, and I can deal with that. Complaints, lawsuits, leaving the business, whatever. But the guy who freaks out over a joke I made, or because I was around when he injured himself? I simply can't deal with that.
Ex. For me I used to get really frustrated as a lily white blonde haired blue eyed chick, how most black people I met used to tell me how much easier my life was than theirs. I felt it was disrespectful and presumed way too much and it pissed me off.
In a very serious way, I'd say that you were correct. The point behind racism isn't "I've had it rougher than you", but rather that if you take two people from the same background, in the US, people will prefer the white person over the black person.
But a black woman's experiences with racism is going to be much more severe. IOW Not being able to get a job, being treated like a shoplifter on a regular basis, etc etc. It's got a much harsher impact on a persons self image in life when these "head under the water" versions of racism impact your everyday life.
I can agree with this.
Obviously when she left I went up to see what had happened and he flat out told me he would never hire a black waitress because "they're lazy, they don't know how build a check, and the customers up here don't like them."
As I said, that's a form of open and obvious racism. And yes, it certainly still happens today, although not so much for me in interviews (for the record, I have an MSEE from a prestigious university - at my level, my skin color may actually help me in job searches and the like. Won't help with the cops, though.)
These are not "jokes" these are direct impacts on the very basics of living.
Yep.
The difference between Chapelle's joke and Julianne Hough dressing up in black face is that his was a thoughtful decisive real speech. Hers was a careless thoughtless action. She obviously didn't mean it to be racist, but that's the problem with unconscious racism.
I'm not even sure that she was being subconsciously racist. She was ignorant, and messed up due to that. Once called out, she immediately apologized. And that should be the end of the matter. Now, if she rolls out in blackface next Halloween, *then* there's a real problem, but for now, this isn't even worth fighting.
