> Magically attributing significant qualities to people because of their race is racism.
Oh, please.
Listen and believe. I've been racially bashed, to the extent that police investigators got involved. I've literally been told that I am a less real and inferior order of human, with less real feelings. I've been in times and places where I could reliably predict what people would be saying to me in the near future, because so many of them would jump to conclusions about me due to race. I literally broke down sobbing in the shower just before I graduated high school, so convinced I was of my inner lesser-humanity -- and all of it was based on things directly said to me.
Racism is reducing someone to their race. To be Liberal is to honor the value of people and to attempt to see a person for their character.
This is why the recent trend of attributing racism and other guilt to people on the basis of their racial characteristics is just about the most racist thing I've ever seen. The fact that such ideas can propagate is another stark indictment of the failure of the education system to get people to actually think.
Your argument seems to be that racism is perpetuated by any discussion of race.
Another perspective is that race is obvious, and racism is a particular view of race that is passed down through family and culture--so therefore we can only fight racism by consciously acknowledging and addressing it.
Your argument seems to be that racism is perpetuated by any discussion of race.
No. What I'm actually saying is that it's acerbic groupthink that engenders more acerbic groupthink. It's blame and acrimony that engenders more blame and acrimony. It's an eye for an eye making the whole world blind, as Ben Kingsley's character said in the movie. If it happens to be about race, then it's racism.
so therefore we can only fight racism by consciously acknowledging and addressing it.
We can only fight toxic group-think by acknowledging it. It's hard to acknowledge and easy to fall into. The danger that the struggle against racism would itself fall to such group think is something that both MLK and Gandhi were keenly aware of; a level of self awareness which is starkly lacking today. Ascribing guilt to people on the basis of their skin color, eye shape, nose shape, or any other indelible characteristics is obnoxious and wrong. It's bigotry. People should be judged on the content of their character, not on their characteristics.
Oh, please.
Listen and believe. I've been racially bashed, to the extent that police investigators got involved. I've literally been told that I am a less real and inferior order of human, with less real feelings. I've been in times and places where I could reliably predict what people would be saying to me in the near future, because so many of them would jump to conclusions about me due to race. I literally broke down sobbing in the shower just before I graduated high school, so convinced I was of my inner lesser-humanity -- and all of it was based on things directly said to me.
Racism is reducing someone to their race. To be Liberal is to honor the value of people and to attempt to see a person for their character.
This is why the recent trend of attributing racism and other guilt to people on the basis of their racial characteristics is just about the most racist thing I've ever seen. The fact that such ideas can propagate is another stark indictment of the failure of the education system to get people to actually think.