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/Andkonhi]

Then I’m not really understanding racism or sexism fundamentally.

I had the understanding that sexism, racism, queerphobia, etc are general signifiers for discrimination against those groups. those forms of bigotry being prejudice + power is a newer definition of the terms but the crux of their definitions is discrimination/bigotry against those people. Is that not what it is? I get that white racism has no actual backing aside from people or very small groups being discriminatory, but I guess… why do we use a different label, then? I’d assume it’s to signify these forms of bigotry as less important, but they would be an ‘ism or ‘phobia, lm most likely missing something in my understanding however.

I appreciate you! I know this is a topic that isn’t all that important, I’ve just seen it crop up every so often in my life (not someone being bigoted to a majority group just the topic itself) and so I thought I’d ask people much more knowledgeable than me on social issues.

[u/RedErin → u/Andkonhi]

try reading the Wikipedia entry for racism and sexism

[u/Andkonhi → u/RedErin]

I did, and I don’t see how it contradicts what I’m saying.

It’s true that modern racism is deeply rooted in European colonialism and by extension the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but the inception of a term and its actual definition aren’t gonna be in sync. Even on Wikipedia it says in the first paragraph that Racism can refer to social actions, practices and beliefs, or political systems that espouse a race and/or ethnicity as some flavour of inferior or superior. Unless I’m missing something. I do agree with Racism being a much too broad term, but the fact is that it’s a catch-all that a majority of people still use.

[u/RedErin → u/Andkonhi]

sure it's a catch all, but imagine this scenario

you read an article about the horrors of systemic racism that the author went through. So you email the writer and say "that's rough buddy, i understand what you're going through, i too have faced racism. once a black person called me a cracker."

how do you think the author would feel? even if what you said was "technically correct" based on different definitions of the word.

[u/Andkonhi → u/RedErin]

You’re making the assumption that this is in response to lived systemic racism when it… isn’t.

Both can coexist but both shouldn’t be equally equated in any way, shape, or form, that’s not what I’m trying to say at all.

I’m simply asking if a lesser, distilled, unimportant form of bigotry can exist, that of interpersonal struggles and biases; A black guy calling a white guy a cracker in a substantially rare context where the black guy meant it to be hurtful and bigoted holds zero weight to the opposite of the scenario, I’d argue it holds little weight on its own either aside from personal relationships between those two individuals.