The r-word is the word “racist”. It is in effect the n-word for white people: they get upset when you call them that and lose all sense of reason. Even on the Internet it pretty much ends any fruitful talk about race.
And yet whites are often racist and this needs to be pointed out to them. But how?
As Restructure points out in her wonderful post, “Stuff POC do: restrain ourselves”, calling acts instead of people “racist” does not help, nor does avoiding the word altogether:
I realized that even if you use a less offensive word, they still became defensive because they could not accept the idea that racism isn’t over or that they could be racist.
So even saying something like “That is such a stereotype!” can get some of them seriously upset – because they know you are calling them a racist.
They get upset and then they say you are being oversensitive, that you see racism behind everything, that you are the racist one, that you are angry:
When I point out racism, I do not do it freely without self-consciousness and self-censorship. Many white people seem to think that white people restrain themselves, and that people of colour are emotional children with undeveloped self-awareness who cry all the time about hurt feelings or yell all the time with unrestrained anger. However, this is a colonial stereotype that is projected on to what people of colour are really saying.
Far from being oversensitive most people of colour will hold their tongue and let things pass because whites have made “racist” such a costly word to use. As Restructure points out, you have to pick your battles.
What to you is mere description, like calling a box blue, is to a white person questioning their very character. When you are saying “you made a mistake you should know about”, what they hear is “you are a bad person”.
Two things are going on here:
- Many whites seem to think “racist” means joining the Ku Klux Klan, flying the Confederate flag, using the n-word, stuff like that. The old Jim Crow sort of racism that was common in America before 1970. Most white Americans born since then are colour-blind racists. It is this subtler racism that most people of colour have in mind when they use the word “racist”.
- White Americans have a self-image of themselves as fair and just, of not being racist. So when you say they are racist it threatens their self-image. That is why they get so upset.
But that self-image stands in the way of any further progress.
It is like the kind of patriotism where people feel threatened when you say anything bad about their country. It is a false patriotism that stands in the way of making their country better. Most white people are like that when it comes to their race.
Disclaimer: Yes, blacks are racist too. I know that. Nearly everyone in America is racist – it is just a matter of degree.
See also:
I don’t understand the use of the Intel ad, with this particular entry. Can you explain?
Yeah, any American has the potential to harbor racially prejudiced thoughts and/or feelings, but how can any non-white actually be racist without the actual instutional power to do so?
If Tyrone down the streets hates white people, what can he really do to injure their lives in a meaningful way (outside of physical violence) in result of his hatred?
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I guess the Intel ad was a little too subtle, so I replaced it with a picture of Tintin in the Congo.
For those interested in the Intel ad there are several posts about it (each with the picture of the ad):
http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-do-you-see.html
http://shadmia.com/2007/07/31/perception-in-advertising/
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If Tyrone down the streets hates white people, what can he really do to injure their lives in a meaningful way (outside of physical violence) in result of his hatred?
*************
I agree, Tyrone can’t deny certain people loans needed for a house or a car or a new buisness. Tyrone can’t red-line entire neighborhoods, etc.
People keep thinking if I just don’t say the n-word, I am not racist. It’s more than that. I also don’t care about stupid cartoons about monkeys in the New York Post.
INSTITUTIONALIZED racism still exists today, there are STILL disparities in health, education, and criminal justice between whites, black, and hispanics, etc and THAT is what we must fight against. That is what I wish people would focus on.
I really do feel minorities especially black people have to pick our battles and blurting out racist to every questionable action will backfire.
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Recall back in about 2002: in an effort to muster support for a proposed trillion $ deficit-busting lunatic fiasco, the Smirking Chimp and the Dark Lord were juking intel in the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans and using the fudged data to lie to the American people about WMD in Mesopotamia .
Besides the Big Lie concept itself, the two primary propaganda tools used by the hawks were (a) fear mongering and (b) an aggressively expansive use of the word “(un)patriotic.” The strategy was to loudly decry, as unpatriotic, anybody who questioned the accuracy or reliability of the so-called intelligence cited by the administration relative to Iraq. “Yer either fer us or agin’ us. Ya cain’t fool meh twahce.” Anybody who questioned whether that fuzzy satellite photo of a truck was really just a truck and not Megatron was “unpatriotic,” tantamount to being a terrorist, might as well tie a towel around your head, move to the desert, and take up an AK-47 against Pat Tillman.
The tactic was remarkably successful. The media was utterly, staggeringly, maddeningly compliant (this was perfectly skewered by Colbert in his famous White House Correspondent’s Dinner toast with his line, “…you know, fiction!”), allowing the administration pretty much free rein to steer the conversation via its use of this single word.
As a result, there was virtually no real public conversation about whether the (absurd and patently false) claims being made by the administration about Iraq had any factual support (which they did not). The substance of the matter was never reached because war opponents were left battling allegations that they were “unpatriotic,” or, more often, especially with democratic congressmen facing elections in the next year or two, they were voicing false support for the war precisely to avoid being called “unpatriotic.”
The word “racist” is used in exactly the same way. Anybody who attempts to discuss the viability or continued applicability of any of a number of by now hallowed concepts – such as the economic effect of WSP in 2009 America – in the grab back of threadbare tropes about race that have been gospel in this country since the 1950’s, regardless of the level of discussion or the data cited, is immediately branded “racist.” We don’t see “you’re failing to consider X” or “your data is flawed/inadequate/drawn from a skewed sample,” or even just “you’re wrong.” We see, “only a racist would make that argument, therefore you are a racist.”
In fact, the “racist” application is more insidious than the “unpatriotic” was because the “racist” issue has been around longer. It is much more deeply infused into our national vocabulary and it is exacerbated by a media and a white populace that are terrified of race and that are incapable of distinguishing between discussions that are racial and discussions that are racist.
This phenomenon is truly unfortunate. It remains one of the large hurdles standing in the way of any open, honest discussion of race.
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I meant to ask before, but what is WSP?
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White Skin Privilege
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege
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This article or section contains weasel words, vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information.
I’ll say.
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This article or section contains weasel words, vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information.
That is from the top of the WIkipedia article on white privilege that Blanc2 gave the link for.
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Blanc2: Interesting. It seems we both agree that the word “racist” is used to cow people into silence about race, but who is being cowed and who is doing the cowing is different.
I can only speak for myself, but I know when I use the word I mean for people to open their eyes and see what is going on, but unfortunately it has almost the opposite effect – especially with white people who see it as a put down and not as a simple description, which is how I mean it.
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I am of course playing the devil’s advocate to some level here. At home, I am generally quicker to voice racism as a motive for something that somebody has said or done to my wife than my wife herself is.
Also, I am aware that among white people I am unusual as to the level of my experience among and with black people. I have dated or been married to BW for over 30 years. This includes very large amounts of time in and among extended black families, black churches, etc., never mind all of the work on diversity committees at work, community educational and outreach programs, etc. That large black middle class you often reference, the hard working folks quietly trying to raise their families and live their lives, that is my extended family and has been for a very long time.
As a result, I sometimes forget the level of ignorance among whites with respect to black people and the issues facing them. The ignorance is often both shameful and truly embarassing. I recall a parent at our kids’ school telling my wife, upon first meeting her, that they made it a point to teach their kids “about slavery and stuff.” Or the white matron who approached my wife in the gym, as my wife was jogging on a treadmill, and said something to the effect of, “You should play tennis with Venus Williams.” Right. Because they’re both tall, athletic and black (and fine, though I doubt the matron considered that last point). Would the same stranger approach me at the gym and suggest that I should play tennis with Andre Agassi? After all, we’re both white and bald.
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Simple enough. Watch this video to the very end and you’ll understand why whites are frustrated. In the video, the black guy even admits of doulbe-standards against whites. Listen to the last seconds especially.
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“Yeah, any American has the potential to harbor racially prejudiced thoughts and/or feelings, but how can any non-white actually be racist without the actual instutional power to do so?”
Believe it or not, there are many black and other non-white owned and operated businesses out there. There are many political structures created by blacks, for blacks. Ask any white candidate in a gerrymandered black district, or any white “civil rights” attorney. Look up the story of the white politician who was denied entry to the Congressional Black Caucus, even though his district is almost entirely black. Or just open up a newspaper to the Jobs section and see how many of them brazenly say “Must Speak Spanish”.
“If Tyrone down the streets hates white people, what can he really do to injure their lives in a meaningful way (outside of physical violence) in result of his hatred?”
Right, because physical violence never hurt anyone…
Most young white people harbor no racist ideas. In fact, they’ve simultaneously been taught to ignore skin color and also to glorify and revere all non-whites. They look forward with glee to the day when whites slip below 50% of the population in this country.
However, as long as it is considered okay for non-whites to be openly racist and hate-filled, there will be some whites who resist and demand “equality” in this regard…
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mike, are you under the impression that the guy in the video represents all Black persons? I am pretty sure that the reason whites are frustrated is because we are making very slight losses in our privileges, and demographics are shifting. It threatens the social supremacy of whites.
All things are not equal. Events have a context. A few Black people saying they want to kill whitey will never provide Black persons the institutional power to oppress white people. In order for that to happen, society would have to change so dramatically that it would be undeniable. However, the fact is that just won’t happen in your lifetime.
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this whole thread is misleading, since “the r-word” is generally taken to mean “retard(ed)” in english.
on a board which moderates “the n-word”, “the f-word”, etc., it is reasonable to assume this thread will be about allowing or not allowing variants of “retard” to be used.
if you’re gonna start using “r-word” to mean racist, you’re gonna confuse the heck out of most readers. just like if i started calling slavery “the s-word”.
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I believe that if this is confusing then the individual reading it was not that bright to begin with.
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gee, thanks. THAT wasn’t ad hominem enough!
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I’ve lived in Blacklandis all of my life. The reactions and attudes from many blacks towards non-black is horrible when an anglo or of white character heads turn , aloof attitudes/behavior. Many times this has been seen straight out with no chaser or “as a matter of fact” with the seniors here .
I’ve seen unprovoked hard aggression behavior towards non-Blacks in this community inching its RB since 1976 and it has grown into what it is today horrible.
We are the undercover Jim Crow of the north. It shames me that RB should have a been allowed to continue to children of black parents that lived in the struggle of the civil rights movement and oppression. What did all those black and white activists work tiredIess for.
I would have thought RB would have no place in modern day society but it has been nurtured and passed on by many RB’s in the north.
Lets remember that Black lives matter so lets end the vicious practices of the R word all around.
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@julie id
“gee, thanks. THAT wasn’t ad hominem enough!”—Look at it that way, but it really is not that complicated. You took a simple thing and made it into a national disaster. Something so simple only a truly slow person would not get it.
@kingRaized
“so lets end the vicious practices of the R word all around.”—Then what word shall we replace racist with? Frankly a person who fits the bill should not go on without something to announce them.
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You get it! But I have to disagree with black ppl being racist bit but great read!
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“… I have to disagree with black ppl being racist …!”
__________________
I HEAR that! Thank you.
And thank you to Sharinalr for this:
“Frankly a person who fits the bill should not go on without something to announce them.”
I’m still waiting for anyone to inform me WHEN it was – EXACTLY – that Black people became racist?
Was it during the transatlantic slave trade?
Was it during the Civil War?
Was it during the Black Codes?
Was it when Slavery was supposed to be over – but it wasn’t in the South – because it wasn’t called ‘slavery’? (Slavery, By Another Name)
Maybe it was during the beginning (or the middle) of the SunDown Towns phenomenon that swept across the entire AmeriKKKan landscape?
Was it during the Jim Crow era?
Did Black people become racist towards whites during the Civil Rights era when they collectively refused to accept their roles as docile 2nd and 3rd class citizens?
Was it when Black people finally acquired the power, savvy and will to deny large groups of whites from employment, education, loans, housing, retirement funds, fair/equitable treatment in civil and criminal court cases?
Or, did Black people finally become racist when the newly designed (by whites) and constructed ‘on and off-ramps’ for the Interstate hi-ways that intersected American cities, communities and neighborhoods had a particularly disastrous, calamitous effect on Black residences and businesses??
Perhaps it was when all those WWII GI bill housing/education loans were largely denied to Black veterans of the war who fought for the good ol’ USA – and had to suffer the indignity of living in public projects – while their white counterparts were given a jump start in new housing and college educations.
Anywho, here I sit, still waiting (not for 40 acres and a mule, but) for anyone to tell me WHEN it was EXACTLY that Black people BECAME racists – against white people!
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