What We Need Are Anti-Racists - By Gene Robinson

[DonViejo]

After Ferguson, we all must renew our efforts to eliminate the scourge of racism from American life.

Listen up, white people: we’ve got some serious work to do.

Three weeks ago I wrote a column on racism, following the choking-to-death by police of an African-American man, whose “capital” crime was selling cigarettes singly on the street. No piece I have ever written for The Daily Beast has resulted in more responses. Lots of people of color wrote to say: “Welcome to my world.” Lots of white people wrote to call me every name in the book, attacking me personally as an idiot and a reverse-racist, but—and this important—never actually offering a counter argument to the observations I was making.

One responder accused me of not even knowing what racism is. So let’s be clear. Any person or group can be prejudiced against another group, for any reason and based on any characteristic. But if a prejudiced group has the power to instill its own set of prejudices into the laws, culture and societal norms of the larger community, then it is an “ism.” It becomes a system which does the discriminating on behalf of the powerful majority.

If women are regarded as less than men, and men have the power (they do!) to set the system up to benefit men at the expense of women, then we have sex-ism, or gender-based discrimination: unequal pay for the same job, wives-obedient-to-their-husbands understandings of marriage, and efforts to diminish access to birth control and the freedom for women it brings.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/24/what-we-need-are-anti-racists.html

[cbayer]

1. Hits it right on the head again.

Early on, he makes a good point about "isms", which I think i worth noting. We often have a discussion here about bigotry, but maybe what we are often talking about is prejudice. He says:

Any person or group can be prejudiced against another group, for any reason and based on any characteristic. But if a prejudiced group has the power to instill its own set of prejudices into the laws, culture and societal norms of the larger community, then it is an “ism.”

Prejudice is a bad thing no matter what group you are prejudiced against, but the power that allows you to impose your prejudice on others is where you really step it up a notch.

Thanks so much for posting this.

[AlbertCat]

9. but the power that allows you to impose your prejudice on others

is where you really step it up a notch.



Oh the irony

[cbayer]

10. Again with the rolly eyes and comment about irony.

You never seem to want to explain what you mean.

Are you saying that I have power and use it to impose my prejudice on others? I feel quite certain this is personal, but if that is not what you are saying, then I don't get it.

I'm still waiting for a further explanation about when I freaked and reported you as well. Are you still looking into that?

You seem to love to make these brief comments but appear to have a lot of difficulty backing them up.

[Hoyt]

2. The folks that need to read/understand this are ignorant and/or don't care.

[cbayer]

3. I disagree. I think the people that need to read this are people just like you and me.

It's instructions for liberals and progressives, imo. He knows better than to try and preach to the racists.

[d_r]

5. Yep.

he ends with "what are you going to do?"

[cbayer]

6. And it's a good question. We can start by trying to do some

of the things he is going to do.

He's such a wonderful man.

[oldandhappy]

4. Good.

Thank you for this post.

[CrispyQ]

7. An excellent commentary.

Kick!

[MellowDem]

8. Racism is not well defined....

So it's hard to address it as a problem when people can't even agree on what it is.

My opinion is that racism is a form of bigotry. Specifically, an idea that says one race is superior or inferior to others. This requires not only thinking that race is real in a biological sense, but that the differences are so vast as to create superior and inferior "races".

I think it's important to make a distinction between people who believe the idea above and people who don't but are prejudiced against another race for all sorts of other reasons having to do with how humans categorize and stereotype unconsciously.

I think racial bigotry is far more widespread in the US currently than racism. I think that it creates a system that privileges some races over others in many ways, whites being the most privileged in many instances.

I think we really need to crack down on racial bigotry, which is far harder to solve than racism as an idea. Racism has been disproven through science. Race as a biological construct isn't convincing. An idea can be targeted a lot easier than instinctual categorization and stereotyping.

I think without making that distinction, a lot of effort is often wasted by not targeting the reason someone is prejudiced against another race.

Defining racism merely as prejudice plus power makes no distinction between why people are prejudiced against another race.