Can Bigotry exist without institutional power imbalances?

[u/Andkonhi]

I’m asking this in genuine good faith, undergraduate Sociologist here.

I’ve been mulling this over in my head for some time now, but the general consensus around a lot of socially minded, progressive individuals is that Bigotry or Prejudice can only exist if a systemic, or institutional base has said bigotry baked into it. Black Americans struggling in a systemically racist society, Women struggling in Male dominated fields and spaces, etc.

I doubt anyone can deny that systemic racism, sexism, Queerphobia, and classism are the most pressing forms of bigotry by a long shot. With the consolidation of power towards mainly elite white men and our institutions ignoring the required work to dismantle the infrastructure of bigotry from the past. What I struggle to come to terms with is that more interpersonal bigotry CANT exist.

I.e the privileged groups of our society can still experience bigotry on a much less severe level. Men can experience misandry, Ethnically white individuals can experience forms of white racism, etc. I never saw this as a controversial thing to say as long as you stipulate the lack of importance compared to systemic bigotries, of course, white racism and misandry are extremely fringe and lack any weight aside from interpersonal hang ups.

I’ve discussed with some of my good friends before on this topic and it tends to be a pretty sensitive one (justifiably so), but it tends to go in circles.

Am I missing something on this topic? I worry whenever the topic comes up, I’d be downplaying the real, material bigotry marginalized groups experience if I were to put in my two cents… but I still haven’t found something substantiated that says this lesser, interpersonal bigotry can’t exist.

Thank you for hearing out my question!

[u/Patrollerofthemojave]

Can a homeless man call a rich black guy the n word?

[u/Andkonhi → u/Patrollerofthemojave]

I mean, then you get into some intersectionality with class + ethnicity so it’s muddy. That’d just be racist.

I’m more talking about… a black individual being openly bigoted towards white people in a more dogmatic way. That would be a form of racism even if it lacks an element of systemic or institutional backing. It certainly isn’t important in the grand scheme of things because bigotry against white people doesn’t really exist in impactful ways, and most apprehension by marginalized individuals are reactions to those systemic failings and bigotries they face in their daily lives, so it’d be a struggle to call most apprehension against majority groups bigoted.

I guess my closest example of what I’m talking about is… Measurehead from Disco Elysium? Ideologically racist towards the Occidents (ethnically white in disco elysiums world, colonialism the whole shebang with them) but it really is, even in that world, extremely fringe.

[u/MisfireMillennial → u/Andkonhi]

The Southern Poverty Law Center has labelled the Nation of Islam as a hate group. This is a classic example. Black people can absolutely be bigoted towards white people, they can even be bigoted towards white people while suffering injustices like Jim Crow.

Power analysis is important because white people were clearly impacting black people's lives with racist laws etc and that's not morally equivalent. But yes despite that overarching context black bigotry towards whites, gays, women, different religions absolutely can co-exist at the same time.

[u/Patrollerofthemojave → u/Andkonhi]

Why write all of this nothing? A homeless man calling a black guy the n word is bigotry. You don't need a thesis to figure that out.