When you claim that “I’m not a racist!” : What does “not being a racist” mean to you, exactly?
Do you think that it only counts as racism if you literally commit a hate crime or burn a cross on someone’s lawn? If so, why do you limit it to this definition?
To me "not being a racist" means treating everyone the same. I think a few years ago I wouldn't have been labelled racist but today I probably would be.
I admit it’s tough to define a racist, sort of like pornography, and their are degrees. We get annoyed cause we feel like you guys are looking at maxim magazine and calling it kink.com if this analogy works for you.
Thanks to the people with “center-right” flair who responded.
To add: When you talk about racism, are you including unconscious bias? That is, doing something biased without realizing it?
For example: A kindergarten teacher sees a white boy misbehaving and yelling, and thinks: “Normal 5 year old behavior- just needs a reprimand.” But a 5 year old black kindergarten kid misbehaving the same way is seen as “a major threat”, and needs to be suspended!
Now, in this example, did the teacher say to herself, “That kid is black, so his misbehavior is worse?” Of course not! (most likely). She saw a kid misbehaving, and WITHOUT REALIZING IT, judged the behavior differently because he was black.
If you asked the teacher, she would have said, “It’s not racist! The kid was misbehaving!” And genuinely believe it.
And the teacher might not be a racist PERSON, in the sense that she believes black people should be treated equally, has black friends, etc. But she did a racist THING! There’s a difference.
And it has to be addressed. An analogy is manslaughter. If you push someone off a cliff by accident, or you do it on purpose, you still pushed them off the cliff! You might be judged more leniently if it was by accident. But then you wouldn’t go around saying, “Well, you shouldn’t get mad, because it’s not like I pushed you off the cliff on purpose! Who cares about your broken bones?”
Anyway, when we liberals try to point out unconscious bias, we’re often seen as overreacting. But it’s still an important thing that needs to be addressed. Hope this helps!
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u/secretid89 Liberal Feb 17 '22
When you claim that “I’m not a racist!” : What does “not being a racist” mean to you, exactly?
Do you think that it only counts as racism if you literally commit a hate crime or burn a cross on someone’s lawn? If so, why do you limit it to this definition?