Blame-shifting is where you are accused of doing something wrong and you immediately shift the blame on to someone else. Children do it: “Tommy did it too!” Wife beaters do it: “You made me do it.” And so do racist white Americans: “The Arabs traded slaves too.” This post looks at how it is used to defend white racism.
Some things white people say when faced with a case of white racism:
- Blacks are racist too.
- You are the racist one.
- I was beaten up/robbed/called names by blacks.
- Blacks have a high crime rate.
- Blacks carry knives.
- Blacks are to blame for their own troubles.
- Blacks like to “blame whitey”.
- Black parents do not care about education.
And so on. The argument is moved from what whites do to what other people do, mainly blacks. It is just what whites accuse blacks of doing when they say that blacks like to “blame whitey”.
At one level it is just a cheap attempt to change the subject, to draw attention away from what whites do. But at a deeper level it is also a moral argument – directed not at you but at themselves.
White Americans know they live in an unequal society where whites benefit and blacks get screwed. They feel guilt about that at some level because they believe in equality and believe that racism is wrong. Since they want to believe they are good people they either fight against that inequality – or make up excuses. Making up excuses is way easier.
If they can blame blacks for their troubles, then they have no reason to feel guilty at all. Then they can still see themselves as good people. Case closed!
Otherwise, if that does not work, they try to make blacks or Arabs or whoever seem just as bad if not worse. It becomes the everyone-does-it argument. Whites, then, turn out not to be so bad after all – and again there is little reason to change.
The following are everyone-does-it arguments, which do not so much shift the blame as spread it to others, which is almost as good:
- It has always been done this way.
- Blacks have it better in America than in Africa.
- All human societies are racist.
- The Arabs traded slaves too.
These are moral arguments but they are at the level of everyone-beats-his-wife or I-only-beat-my-wife-on-Tuesdays-and-Thursdays. As if that makes it all right. Pat Buchanan loves this kind of argument. Did the nuns teach him it in Catholic school?
So in the end we know all about what is wrong with blacks, because that makes white people feel better about themselves, but very little is said about what is wrong with white people and the white racism built into society. Where is the CNN special on that? Still waiting.
Blacks are not perfect, as everyone knows, but given the imbalance of power in American society, it is noticing the mote in your brother’s eye and not considering the beam in your own.
See also:
- white guilt
- stuff whites say
- stuff whites say blacks do
- The slave trade was immoral
Abagond 
i see that happen wayyyy too much…only racists and those who condone racism, use those kind of arguments…because obviously someone has something to hide, when they cant stay on topic. why get defensive and shift blame, unless you are guilty of something?
i also noticed, the blame game is the highlight of the political parties (especially republicans). its bad enough political powers dont compromise (lets face it the “all or nothing” game is not working), but on top of that, all they do is blame eachother for everything. no wonder america hasnt been going anywhere but down lately for the last 9 years.
you know abagond, you have done lots of these types of posts, but you havent done one, on how to deal with them.
so we know now about blame shifting, but what about the remedy for it? how does one fight back against that, especially when outnumbered?
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Good question.
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Firstly, diverting a conversation with these type of arguments means that they know that they are wrong and are trying to divert attention from the topic at hand.
I find this happens a lot when talking about subjects such as inequality and racism. They will throw out retorts like Africans sold slaves or crime statistics. In fact many of the post responses on this blog remind me of this.
You can be having a mundane conversation which may or may not touch on ‘race’ subjects. I find this to be bizarre. Or if you are talking about race in particular, I particularly enjoy the refrain that ‘if a person works hard enough, anyone can make it in this country’ and other comments of this ilk. What this type of comment illustrates to me, is that this person has no inkling or empathy as to what racism entails and has no wish to. What they are really saying but without the profanity is to ‘STFU’ and stop complaining, your problems have no bearing on my reality and I could care less about what you think’,know your place, you are of no consequence and should consider yourself lucky to live here’! I would have more respect towards those that actually said these thing(or something similar)than those who speak in ‘code’ and use these counter-argument tactics to divert the topic at hand.
How do you counter their responses?
Either walk away from the conversation and refuse to engage them (this particularly enervates them) and refuse to entertain their remarks or arguments.
You can also ask them what this has to do with the topic at hand. It can be amusing when they become progressively flustered as you are not taking the ‘bait’.
At all time remain calm and collected.
People who engage in this type of conversations/arguments have no inclinations to being enlightened in either an academic or illustrative manner. They also lack the very qualities for which such debate would be constructive, empathy.
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I agree. Excellent comment. They are pretty much admitting you are right. Remaining calm is important. Also ask yourself if they are just trying to defend their self-image, in which case they are not interested in the truth.
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Herneith,
Great comment. It’s been bugging me for awhile but do you know the origin of the “anyone can make it if he pulls himself up by the bootstraps” saying? I know it originated as the theme of several novels written at the beginning of the 20th century (not positive on the date, could be the 1920s), but I can’t remember what the novel series is called! I know that the title is the name of the protagonist, and I feel like it’s called Henry something, but I cannot for the life of me remember it!
Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I had to ask because when that kind of thing pops up I’d like to give it it’s proper label (instead of using the long quoted example), plus I want to read up a bit more about it. 10 million bonus points to whomever figures it out! 🙂
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People who engage in this type of conversations/arguments have no inclinations to being enlightened in either an academic or illustrative manner. They also lack the very qualities for which such debate would be constructive, empathy.
Henrith—your analysis is at the core of why Racism will remain a permanent fixture in America and beyond is essentially correct—lack of Empathy. J.D. Trout talks about this very thing in his book Empathy Gap in which American philosophy is very individualistic and ultimately narcissistic (inability to see beyond the self), thus the only reality that exist is the self at the expense of the collective. The belief that an average person can overcome all manner of obstacles is a delusional argument because human history would not have been able to advance without group effort. Therefore outside circumstances and internal conflicts are given short shrift as weaknesses and not being able to pull oneself up by their bootstraps is grounds for derision, scorn, and public censure. You will notice in everyday language the words kindness, empathy, and understanding are seen as weaknesses’ while self promotion, getting to the top and having a competitive edge by showing overt dominance are seen as positives and viable strengths.
It is unfortunate that Racial Diversity is seen as a bane that prevents American citizens from willingly cultivating empathy in order to understand the each other. Rationalizations and seductive justifications have been used for too long to condone cruelty and denigration of others who are not White. I don’t think this insidious cultural meme will change anytime soon, therefore the same stock answers of why Blacks are not this or that will continue to be used to justify their own narcissism.
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I remember one such incident which illustrates this type of argument albeit in an anecdotal manner. Years ago a white co-worker asked me a disturbing question which would have been comical if I didn’t know that the person was serious. The question she asked was this. ‘How come black people never have identification on them’? After a ‘what the hell’ nanosecond, I replied;’I don’t know, I don’t know every black person in the city so cannot speak for them’. Needless to say this woman’s response was comical. She became flustered and was literally at a loss for words. She was also angry that I had answered her in this flippant manner.
Now ask me, did I give two hoots in Hades? In a word, no. There are several things at play with her question. First, the question in of itself is stereotypical in nature. Did she realize this, who knows? However, I got the distinct impression that she was asserting her superiority in that she assumed that all black people were the same and therefore monolithic. She imputes her stereotypical notion of black people as not carrying identification to myself, therefore I would be able to confirm her notions by answering her question in an educational manner. In effect I would be confirming this stereotype. Who knows, she may have gone on to ‘educate’ other white people using me as her reference! Based upon what I knew of her intelligence quotient, her malapropisms and clueless nature in general, she was, is, to put it mildly an idiot.
I had nor have any intentions of engaging such a person in conversations relating to race or inequality as it would have been a waste of time and precious energy. I have had similar exchanges since and I don’t engage with these people.
I’ve seen it happen with other people who choose to entertain these questions and it wasn’t pretty. Two things happen. The person being asked these types of questions becomes flustered, or they become progressively enraged. Either way the outcome only serves to reinforce the questioner’s stereotypes of black people as being ‘stupid’ or ‘aggressive’. Also the questioner feels insulted and the onus is on the black person to ‘inform’ them of ‘blackisms’ (my word). What you are being reduced to is something akin to an alien or as an ‘other’. They are reminding you of this.
If you are masochistically inclined, go ahead and engage these people who ask these types of questions in their guise of seeking ‘knowledge’. Then proceed to debate them and perhaps give them a platform to spew statistics about crime, blacks enslaved other blacks, with hard work anyone can make it and so on and so on the list is not exhaustive. If you enjoy abuse carry on to the point of becoming so enraged that you may resort to speechlessness and in the extreme, violence.
I liken these ignorant questions to that old conundrum; What came first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, stupid questions from stupid twits. Falling for the ‘bait’ only serves to invigorate their sense of superiority they have no intentions of learning anything, the nature of these questions attests to this.
An intelligent and empathetic person would not ask these types of things to start. Unfortunately, such people are few and far between.
My motto in life is ‘I’m not here to be abused’ and I practice this diligently.
I reiterate, don’t engage these people who pose ignorant questions based on stereotypes or to enhance their sense of superiority, run! Believe me it is an exercise in futility and by extension a total waste of your time. Anyone with a sense of self would not give such queries a platform and should recognize these questions for what they are.
You have nothing to prove to people of this ilk.
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That is my experience too: most people like that are not serious and it is nearly impossible to get through to them.
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Jasmin:
You are thinking of Horatio Alger:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger,_Jr.
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Hey Mayhue and Herneith are posting really good comments on the behaviors behind how racism works. I personally believe that most people especially people in America do not care about others or have empathy for others who have an injustice that they might face on a daily basis unless there is an injustice that they face personally on daily basis. Sometimes us humans are very narcissistic and selfish. We only care about things when it happens to us. So we really do not seek for justice and equality for others because some people have the privledge to not have to go through certain obstacles like others. So therefore we really seek to have upperhand over others. Which goes back to Mayhue’s response about out capitalistic country.
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Empathy is a rare quality in Canada and the U.S.. I don’t know much about Mexico so cannot comment on it. Narcissism is rife and as Mayhue says,’The belief that an average person can overcome all manner of obstacles is a delusional argument because human history would not have been able to advance without group effort’. This is what capitalism entails. The bottom must support the top, hence the materialistic and consumer driven society. This in turn lends itself to a myriad of social ills with racism being but one of them. One dysfunction feeds off the other in order to maintain the status quo. People are deluded into thinking that hard work makes for upward mobility not taking into account these social ills. It takes a group effort in order to facilitate upward mobility as Mayhue states. This group effort lends itself in turn to power struggles resulting in racism, poverty etc. After all the dominant power wishes to stay on top. They will do anything they can to realize this to the detriment of others such as racialized people. The current rash of foreclosures in the States is but one aspect of this. This is indicative of consumerism and materialism, the ‘keeping up with the Jones’ mentality which caused people to purchase homes which they could not afford and over-financed. In order to screw people over en-masse, you can not afford to be empathetic. As Mayhue says this is seen as a weakness rather than an admirable quality.
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Thanks Abagond! 🙂
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To Herneith Says:
Empathy is a rare quality in Canada and the U.S..
So where do you think it exists in abundance and why…?
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To Abagond:
I was beaten up/robbed/called names by blacks.
After posting on your blog for about two months I brought up one of my personal experiences.. partly as an emotional reaction to what I considered was insistence that the reason white people in the US have negative/racist feelings towards blacks was due to the media. Do you think that my post (if you remember it) was “blame shifting”?
I have been around white people when they talk about blacks.. for the most part almost non of what they have to say has anything to do with what appears on (fictional) TV shows or movies.
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“for the most part almost non of what”
Should read
for the most part almost none of what
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i see that happen wayyyy too much…only racists and those who condone racism, use those kind of arguments…because obviously someone has something to hide, when they cant stay on topic. why get defensive and shift blame, unless you are guilty of something?
Of course white people (of which I’m one) use the above mentioned responses, and why not? Numerous books, white privilege conferences and blogs insist that white people-even from birth-are little racists in training. Of course what we have here is the age old concept of group guilt. From biblical days to the Nazi death camps, social issues and unrest are easier to handle when every person of a particular group can be blamed for real and perceived problems.
As in the past, as one group is demonized the other group is lauded for its sensitivity and uniqueness. Thus it is fine to tell the stories of those horrible Europeans who brought sickness and death to the New World but let’s kinda ignore the many thousands men, women and children sacrificed by the Mexica.
Racism is part of the human condition and this focus on white privilege/guilt won’t do anything to change our society.
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henry is the exact type abagond speaks in his post…its obvious he has nothing worthwhile to say, since he is essentially justifying racism…typical…just come out and say it instead of hiding behind blame shifting.
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[…] blame-shifting […]
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Good day.
I happened upon your site while searching the word blame.
You may dispense with the ‘tricks’ to determine my ethnicity, I am a middle aged white male.
The irony of this page is the perpetuation of stereotypes; white of course. It is a subtle thing and easily overlooked, if everyone reading the page has the same disregard for their own racism.
Here is a quote from the article:
“Some things white people say when faced with a case of white racism:”
Do all white people say this or just racist white people?
Do only racist white people shift blame or do all racist people shift blame?
Is this article devoted to ending racism or ending racism by white people?
Perhaps you believe that all white people are racist.
Or perhaps you never expected a white person would read this article.
If the quote from above (and similar throughout the page) was changed to one of the following, I would not be commenting:
“Some things racist people say when faced with a case of their racism:”
Or “Some things racist white people say when faced with a case of white racism:”
I have only read this one article from this site, but it appears that the site is much more than blame and white racism and I can appreciate that.
This subtle difference may sound trivial, but as a parent, leader, employee, supervisor, neighbor, friend, citizen and middle aged white male trying not to be offensive I choose my words carefully.
You seem adept at distinguishing between husbands that beat their wives and husbands that do not. There is nothing that implies all husbands beat their wives, however the implication that all white people are racist is rampant.
Though I am not Catholic your implication that Catholic nuns teach fallacious arguing is offensive.
Do you believe that only white children attend Catholic school?
Do you believe that white children are sent to Catholic school to learn stupidity and bigotry?
“So in the end we know all about what is wrong with blacks, because that makes white people feel better about themselves…” Offensive.
“Blacks are not perfect, as everyone knows…”
Speak for yourself; I have known some pretty perfect black people.
“…it is noticing the mote in your brother’s eye and not considering the beam in your own.”
Does the beam in your eye make it difficult to type? I had to put an eye patch on.
So far my wife and I have had nine refugee children in our home (not all at once). Some form Mexico and some from African countries. I will not pretend to know how it feels to be profiled or hunted or to live in fear. I do not claim to be adversely effected by some form of discrimination. I am just an average Joe trying to make ends meet in this failing economy. I do not know what makes a man hate another man. I do not hate those that hate, nor do I judge them. But for the grace of God go I there. We all live on a knifes edge and could fall into regretful circumstances at any time. If I had lived the life of those that hate, I may hate as well. I applaud your efforts to make this world a better place. I hope that you are not fighting hate with hate. As you quoted the bible so will I. “Do good to them that hate you.” The purpose of this life is not to live in a perfect world, but to live perfectly.
May your sorrows, pain and injustices be swallowed up in the joy of Christ.
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@ Grat3fu11
1. I never said ALL whites anything. It is not a rule of English that if I leave out the word “all” I mean “all”:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/the-not-all-whites-argument/
2. As it turns out, it is something like 80% of whites who blame blacks for the effects of white racism. Read Eduardo Bonilla-Silva:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/colour-blind-racism-the-four-frames/
3. I am Catholic myself. I know full well that not only whites go to Catholic schools. I also know that Buchanan went to one. The statement about nuns was meant to be sarcastic. I thought that was clear from the context.
4. I do choose my words carefully. Yet no matter how carefully I choose them, no matter how clearly I write and no matter how patiently I try to explain myself, there are still SOME whites who miss my point. I suspect they know all too well what I mean but choose not to admit it, particularly to themselves.
5. Get offended. Learn that your feelings are not the centre of the universe. Through that may come wisdom – and maybe a better understanding of this blog.
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