Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibby
also, PH45, i take it from your description there that you think it's possible to be racist against white people. That's not true.
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You should really take what I say with an open mind and not assume you know what I believe. These -isms are very complicated and much more vast than the popular labels used here in the states. (Note, this post is much longer than I intended....I'm rambling)
First of all, before throwing around other people's views, we need to talk about the definition of racism. Racism is social doctrine that is held and enforced by a population. This has a MUCH wider scope than the white versus black racism that we usually refer to. For example, if my community thinks Italians are lazy and routinely pass them up on job applications, that community (generalized) is racist against Italians. If a community thinks Chinese people are mathematically smart and only hire them for mathematically based work, that is racism. It doesn't matter the intention or severity, it a group of people enforce a stereotype (social doctrine), it is by definition racist.
I don't want to go too far into this because it is extremely controversial, but I strongly believe our society's narrow definition of racism does more harm than good. We need to realize that since our society is racist, everyone is going to pick up some racist behavior no matter your skin color. I have had discussions with multiple "pro-revolution" black people and they have all admitted that they harbor racist thoughts against themselves as well. Only then, can we have a intelligent discussion about how to address the current state of racism in our society because we need everyone on the same page. Right now, everyone is all over the place so naturally, no one can agree on the best course of action. This why I said earlier in a different thread that racism has changed and so the reaction against it needs to follow as well.
Second, "colorblindness" can mean many different things so we need to figure out what we are talking about. As I said before, there is a difference between acting in a color blind manner and marginalizing racism. Right now, as a graduate student in engineering, I study with people from all over the world. I would never treat the black person I study with any different than the Chinese person I study with. If I did, it would be racist and condescending to the black person because he is just as capable as the Chinese student. On a person to person basis, I try my best to treat every person, regardless of skin color or background, the same.
On the other hand, I recognize the racism in our society and do not try to marginalize it. This line between colorblindness and marginalizing is subjective so there will naturally be some overlap and disagreements but that is another discussion. However, I feel it is best for society and federal institutions to address and equalize the racist inequalities in our society, not individuals. Individuals can take part and support our institutions in doing that, which I do, but I will not take it upon myself, as a white person, to dictate what is best for black people since I have no perspective.
As for the entire "there can be no such thing as reverse racism" crap, that entire discussion is stupid in my opinion because it is narrow minded. Especially now, we cannot quantify racism within a society due to its complexity and fluidness. You can not just assume that racism is flat and equal. There are some parts of our white versus black racial interaction that is racist against white people and some parts that are racist against black people. I just believe that the parts that are racist against black people are MUCH more severe and have a MUCH greater effect on a person's life. So, if you take the "average", yes, it one way, but to claim that racism can only go one way limits discussion of how racism really works and therefore ends up hurting the fight against racism due to lack of understanding.
As a last point, and don't take this as an insult, but I think your signature line "show me a problem you don’t think is caused by white people and i’ll show you how you missed hundreds of years of cultural hegemony and imperialism/colonialism." is racist. Now, I don't believe it is racist against white people, but racist against people of color. By claiming that all of the world's problems are caused by white people is extremely condescending towards people of color by claiming they have no control over their lives. Now, white people have done a lot of fucked up shit and still continue to do fucked up shit to other countries (the not marginalizing part...), but people of color have much more control over their world than you are making it out to be and by denying them that claim of control, you imply that they do not have the ability of self-determination. Just so you realize, white people do not have full control over everyone's lives. We have had a major influence, but people from other countries are no different from us. They have politicians who are lying sacks of shit and opportunist who will fuck over their entire population for wealth and power too.
Thankfully for us, the United States has institutions that protect us to a much greater extent from these fuckers and unfortunately, many third world countries do not enjoy these institutions (partly because of white people...). I know full well that white people can fuck over America and I damn well believe that black people can fuck themselves over as well.