All white Americans are racist. Well, at least 95%.
That is an extreme statement. It seems that most whites think that few of them are racist while most blacks would not go so far: sure, most whites are racist, but maybe not that many.
Not all whites are equally racist and it is more than just whites: anyone who has lived in America long enough is racist. I am racist too. It is too much a part of America, like it is in the water or something.
Racism is so widespread and so much a part of America that some Asians can move there and be just as bad as everyone else in just two months. You would think that not being white they would have more sense than that since the same racism works against them too.
I have met only one white person who did not seem racist, an old Jewish man. Everyone else that I have known long enough has turned out to be racist, even those who married black.
When you say “racist” many whites think you mean joining the Klan, saying the n-word, things like that: the old Jim Crow racism. There are still whites like that, but most are not that bad. Their racism is more subtle.
Most whites are colour-blind racists. They say things like, “It does not matter what colour you are – white, black, green or purple. It is the person that counts.” Yes, unless you want to marry their daughter, live next door or work for them. Then suddenly it is no longer the “person” that counts, but one’s “background” or “values”. Suddenly.
It is the kind of racism that believes that blacks do not work hard, do not care about their neighbourhoods, are naturally violent, lack intelligence, money, education or morals.
Since these things are generally true of blacks as seen on television, they think they must be true of all blacks. So it is no longer “racism” but just being hard-headed or “realistic”. Not knowing that most of what they see on television is made by and for white people. It is white people, by and large, who pick the news stories and write the characters for shows. Television is just as racist as its creators.
But it is more than just the stereotypes televised coast to coast. It is also the feeling that there must be something wrong with people who do not look like you. So you look down on them, you do not feel comfortable with them, you do not accept them as they are. Or even see them as they are.
This is so much a part of how white people think that they cannot step outside of it and see it. It is like refrigerator noises or like water to a fish.
And if they do not see it, then it must not be there. Who will tell them that they are wrong and be believed?
May I ask what is the point of posting such racist drivel? If the intent was to show the incoherent ranting that passes for thought on the web, I think that most of us are aware that the web's lowest common intellectual denominator is very low indeed. If the intent was to inspire political debate, how can anyone debate a rant that applies four (possibly five) different meanings to the word racist? If the intent was to demonstrate a writer who is deeply, sincerely racialist, there are so many thousands of racialist rants out there on the web that they need no publicity from this site.
Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 1763 } Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posted: Sun 16 Aug 2009 14:00 Post subject:
fwsweet wrote:
May I ask what is the point of posting such racist drivel? If the intent was to show the incoherent ranting that passes for thought on the web, I think that most of us are aware that the web's lowest common intellectual denominator is very low indeed. If the intent was to inspire political debate, how can anyone debate a rant that applies four (possibly five) different meanings to the word racist? If the intent was to demonstrate a writer who is deeply, sincerely racialist, there are so many thousands of racialist rants out there on the web that they need no publicity from this site.
May I ask what is the point of posting such racist drivel? If the intent was to show the incoherent ranting that passes for thought on the web, I think that most of us are aware that the web's lowest common intellectual denominator is very low indeed. If the intent was to inspire political debate, how can anyone debate a rant that applies four (possibly five) different meanings to the word racist? If the intent was to demonstrate a writer who is deeply, sincerely racialist, there are so many thousands of racialist rants out there on the web that they need no publicity from this site.