19th August 2014, 2:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 19th August 2014, 2:55 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
The president is nothing. Look at all the black kids getting shot on a daily basis.
Here's the thing. "Racism" is a bad word now, but a lot of people who are racist don't seem to realize that that's the word that describes them. "I'm not racist but black people are statistically more likely to commit crimes!" They don't seem to realize that everything after the "but" was completely racist. For these sorts of racists, we've done an excellent job convincing them that racism is bad, but we failed to define exactly what racism is at some point along the way.
Then there's the more subtle racism. Let's say that racism as a word evolves over time, and as the old horrors of it start to fade, there are always leftover bits, or even new bits coming along, and thus racism needs new definitions to expand into those new territories. So, you get the people who are confused when they are called racist for merely saying they don't see a problem (literally, they don't, they don't live the problem so they can't see it, and I'm certainly willing to bet they aren't actually the ones directly contributing to it in this example). Racism, as a word, has expanded to include those who passively enable a problem by being blind to it. That's why the concept of "privilege" is evoked instead, to avoid this confusion of terms.
However, it is important anyway. Yes, being unaware of the problem is itself a problem. Not that those who are unaware of it could help it a lot of the time, but sometimes they can. If someone is unaware, then a LOT of women, black people, or others come forward, time after time, to explain that they do in fact have a problem and it starts to becoming significant, and that person still refuses to acknowledge it, it is an unfortunate fact that this individual is starting to become responsible for their ignorance with each passing denial. Compare it with global warming deniers. Every single time a new piece of evidence demonstrates it's reality, and it is ignored, they become more and more culpable for their own ignorance.
That said, I am very willing to allow that most people outside a group are just genuinely ignorant of the problems that group faces. It's human nature, and very hard to correct. It's also a fact that while there is just one internet, no one person has been to every single activist cause ON that internet. Sure, a specific group may have already talked to death one specific topic to the point that it's just OLD, but there's just far too many who haven't even read the sites that link to the sites that link to THAT site to KNOW that they even HAVE such a gap in their knowledge. I'm really not sure what to do on that one, so I just post screeds on random forums when people ask questions.
Here's the thing. "Racism" is a bad word now, but a lot of people who are racist don't seem to realize that that's the word that describes them. "I'm not racist but black people are statistically more likely to commit crimes!" They don't seem to realize that everything after the "but" was completely racist. For these sorts of racists, we've done an excellent job convincing them that racism is bad, but we failed to define exactly what racism is at some point along the way.
Then there's the more subtle racism. Let's say that racism as a word evolves over time, and as the old horrors of it start to fade, there are always leftover bits, or even new bits coming along, and thus racism needs new definitions to expand into those new territories. So, you get the people who are confused when they are called racist for merely saying they don't see a problem (literally, they don't, they don't live the problem so they can't see it, and I'm certainly willing to bet they aren't actually the ones directly contributing to it in this example). Racism, as a word, has expanded to include those who passively enable a problem by being blind to it. That's why the concept of "privilege" is evoked instead, to avoid this confusion of terms.
However, it is important anyway. Yes, being unaware of the problem is itself a problem. Not that those who are unaware of it could help it a lot of the time, but sometimes they can. If someone is unaware, then a LOT of women, black people, or others come forward, time after time, to explain that they do in fact have a problem and it starts to becoming significant, and that person still refuses to acknowledge it, it is an unfortunate fact that this individual is starting to become responsible for their ignorance with each passing denial. Compare it with global warming deniers. Every single time a new piece of evidence demonstrates it's reality, and it is ignored, they become more and more culpable for their own ignorance.
That said, I am very willing to allow that most people outside a group are just genuinely ignorant of the problems that group faces. It's human nature, and very hard to correct. It's also a fact that while there is just one internet, no one person has been to every single activist cause ON that internet. Sure, a specific group may have already talked to death one specific topic to the point that it's just OLD, but there's just far too many who haven't even read the sites that link to the sites that link to THAT site to KNOW that they even HAVE such a gap in their knowledge. I'm really not sure what to do on that one, so I just post screeds on random forums when people ask questions.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)