I think it can be possible to be racist to white people on an individual scale, for sure. Or within small scale systems, like for example a school in a poor neighborhood where 95% of kids and staff are black, I definitely think white kids could experience discrimination from other kids in that specific microcosm.
But this is a technicality, a drop in a bucket, really. On a broader scale it's simply not a systemic issue.
I think that when we talk about racism (or patriarchy, for that matter) we're talking about wide systemic oppression, when liberals talk about it in their mind it's the 4th grade version of people being mean to each other based on skin colour. That disconnect between relations to power and individual acts of prejudice really trips people up, especially if they haven't been exposed to leftist (both communist and anarchist) thought.
when liberals talk about it in their mind it's the 4th grade version of people being mean to each other based on skin colour.
I think the question "Can you be racist towards white people" is about exactly this, though. I think when we're talking about whether we're racists for using the word "cracker", this is what we're talking about as well.
And it's not an illegitimate question either, it's not like people treating you differently because of your skin color stops being a thing past 4th grade.
I'm mostly being pedantic here. I think you can be racist towards white people, and I even think that white people can experience discrimination in our current world, but that is mostly hypothetical. It's delving into "What if the only way to save a child's life is to say the n-word" territory, honestly.
Right, but I think the larger point is that until white people become the victims of systemic oppression based on race, it's currently not possible to be racist towards white people by the definition of the word that includes power dynamics. Maybe that's why we have to clarify it as systemic racism.
Racism in the sense that we use it refers to systemic oppression, whereas an individual would be expressing prejudice or bigotry. Discrimination at such a small scale generally would not be considered racism because the neighborhood, at least in America, would still be part of the systematic oppression of black people in the US, and racial animus between the black students and white students would need to be understood within the context of the much larger system of racial oppression.
People get confused because there are multiple definitions of racism and the definition has shifted from racism on an individual level to systemic racism. You can be racist to white people if you define racism as being on an individual level, but on a systemic level being racist to white people is impossible. Because these definitions are not clearly set out, people get confused.
Oh hey you're about to start the "can you be racist to white people" discourse again even though last time the answer was a resounding no.
I think it can be possible to be racist to white people on an individual scale, for sure. Or within small scale systems, like for example a school in a poor neighborhood where 95% of kids and staff are black, I definitely think white kids could experience discrimination from other kids in that specific microcosm.
But this is a technicality, a drop in a bucket, really. On a broader scale it's simply not a systemic issue.
I think that when we talk about racism (or patriarchy, for that matter) we're talking about wide systemic oppression, when liberals talk about it in their mind it's the 4th grade version of people being mean to each other based on skin colour. That disconnect between relations to power and individual acts of prejudice really trips people up, especially if they haven't been exposed to leftist (both communist and anarchist) thought.
I think the question "Can you be racist towards white people" is about exactly this, though. I think when we're talking about whether we're racists for using the word "cracker", this is what we're talking about as well.
And it's not an illegitimate question either, it's not like people treating you differently because of your skin color stops being a thing past 4th grade.
I'm mostly being pedantic here. I think you can be racist towards white people, and I even think that white people can experience discrimination in our current world, but that is mostly hypothetical. It's delving into "What if the only way to save a child's life is to say the n-word" territory, honestly.
Right, but I think the larger point is that until white people become the victims of systemic oppression based on race, it's currently not possible to be racist towards white people by the definition of the word that includes power dynamics. Maybe that's why we have to clarify it as systemic racism.
:this:
Racism in the sense that we use it refers to systemic oppression, whereas an individual would be expressing prejudice or bigotry. Discrimination at such a small scale generally would not be considered racism because the neighborhood, at least in America, would still be part of the systematic oppression of black people in the US, and racial animus between the black students and white students would need to be understood within the context of the much larger system of racial oppression.
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People get confused because there are multiple definitions of racism and the definition has shifted from racism on an individual level to systemic racism. You can be racist to white people if you define racism as being on an individual level, but on a systemic level being racist to white people is impossible. Because these definitions are not clearly set out, people get confused.
Hence why I am unconcerned with it, whatever other arguments there are here.