Are you Racist

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You can be prejudiced about things other than race.

Of course, but if you're prejudiced against people because of their racial identity - that's racism, isn't it?

ETA - I'm not saying you are.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Of course, but if you're prejudiced against people because of their racial identity - that's racism, isn't it?

ETA - I'm not saying you are.

IMO, they go hand in hand to a some extent, but the definitions differ. If I think all white people hate black people, or Asians are superior to whites, that's racist. If I think that blacks wearing dreadlocks are all thieves, that's prejudice. Racism encompasses the entire race, prejudices can be more specific. It that makes any sense. This may be a bad example.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

What's the difference between being prejudiced and being racist?

I mean... if you're prejudiced against black people that sort of is racist, isn't it?

When John McCain said "I hate the gooks, I will hate them as long as I live" - was that prejudiced or racist?

If he meant all Asians, then it was racism. If he meant North Korean soldiers, that was prejudice.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

If he meant all Asians, then it was racism. If he meant North Korean soldiers, that was prejudice.

I believe Sen McCain was referring to the Viet Cong or more than likely his captors in the NVA.

Edited August 27, 2014 by The Nature Boy

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

If he meant all Asians, then it was racism. If he meant North Korean soldiers, that was prejudice.

This is interesting.

Recently I had a conversation with a white man in his fifties who took issue with the n-word being considered unspeakable, sparked by this post on Racism Review. His problem with the strong reaction many black people have to this word, especially when directed at them as an insult by white people, is rooted in his belief that the n-word is an insult like any other. He suggested that using it is no different than calling someone a “dumb blond,” and that people need to “move on” from believing that race and racism are issues that deserve attention in today’s world. This conversation alerted me to the importance of clearly delineating the differences betweenprejudice and racism.

From a sociological standpoint, the dumb blond stereotype, and the jokes that celebrate and reproduce it, can be considered a form of prejudice. The Oxford English dictionary defines prejudice as a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience,” and this resonates with how sociologists understand the term. Quite simply, it is a pre-judgement that one levies of another that is not based in reality.

The man I had this conversation with argued that as a blond person of German heritage, he had experienced pain in his life due to this form of prejudice aimed at blond people. While that may be true, it is not true that calling someone the n-word is equivalent to, and no more harmful or noteworthy, than calling someone a dumb blond. Sociology can help us understand why.

While calling someone a dumb blond might result in feelings of frustration, irritation, discomfort, or even anger for the person targeted by the insult, that’s about where the negative implications of this prejudice end. There is no research to support the hypothesis that hair color might influence one’s access to rights and resources in society, like college admission, ability to buy a home in a particular neighborhood, access to employment, or likelihood that one will be stopped by the police. This form of prejudice, most often manifested in bad jokes, is not consequential from a sociological standpoint.

By contrast, the n-word, a term popularized by white Americans during the era of African enslavement, encapsulates a wide swath of disturbing racial prejudices, like the idea that black people are savage, dangerous brutes prone to criminality; that they lack morals and are compulsively hyper-sexual; and that they are stupid and lazy. The wide-sweeping and deeply detrimental implications of this term, and the prejudices it reflects and reproduces, make it vastly different from insulting a blond for being dumb. The n-word was used historically, and still used today, to cast black people as second class citizens who do not deserve, or who have not earned, the same rights and privileges enjoyed by others in American society. This makes it racist, and not simply prejudiced, as defined by sociologists.

Race scholars Howard Winant and Michael Omidefine racism as a way of representing or describing race that “creates or reproduces structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race.” Racism begets a structure of domination based on race. Because of this, the n-word is not simply a prejudice, like the suggestion that blonds are dumb, but is racist, as it suggests that black people are inferior to white people, and in the minds of many, to people of other races too. The term reflects and reproduces a hierarchy of racial categories and peoples, and black people are placed at the bottom of this hierarchy.

Use of the n-word and the still widespread belief--though perhaps subconscious or semi-conscious--that black people are dangerous, sexual predators and sluts, and pathologically lazy and deceitful, both fuel and justify structural inequalities of race that plague society. The racial prejudices encapsulated in the n-word are manifested in the disproportionate policing, arrest, and incarceration of black men and boys (and increasingly black women); in racial discrimination in hiring practices; in the lack of media and police attention devoted to crimes against black people as compared with those committed against white women and girls; and, in the lack of economic investment in predominantly black neighborhoods and cities, among many other problems that result from systemic racism.

While many forms of prejudice are troubling, not all forms of prejudice are equally consequential. Those that beget structural inequalities, like prejudices based in gender, sexuality, race, nationality, and religion, for example, are far more troubling and worthy of critical address by sociologists.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Hail Ming!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I believe Sen McCain was referring to the Viet Cong or more than likely his captors in the NVA.

That's probably what he did mean.

I had a brain fart. He fought in Vietnam, not Korea.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

This is interesting.

IMO, the N word is like calling an Italian one of the popular slurs used to refer to Italians. Or the slang insults used to refer to Asians. Or Jews. The harsh words meant as a supreme insult and intended to be as derogatory as possible. Dumb blonde isn't in the same category, IMO. Neither is Redneck, Liberal, Conservative, etc. Calling a gay man a cksucker is.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

IMO, the N word is like calling an Italian one of the popular slurs used to refer to Italians. Or the slang insults used to refer to Asians. Or Jews. The harsh words meant as a supreme insult and intended to be as derogatory as possible. Dumb blonde isn't in the same category, IMO. Neither is Redneck, Liberal, Conservative, etc. Calling a gay man a cksucker is.

I think the power certain words have stems from their use in past oppressions. Would the N word have any power if it weren't for it being used as a label for black slaves?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I think the power certain words have stems from their use in past oppressions. Would the N word have any power if it weren't for it being used as a label for black slaves?

My guess is, probably not. It would just be another derogatory term for a race or nationality. Like most whites will never be offended by the term cracker to the same degree as blacks will be by the N word. The N word started as a term for something that was less than human, not a fellow human being but an expendable piece of property, like a horse or a mule, only the animals were treated much better in most cases.

[rlogan 2,036]

I wasn't going to look at the video but the right people were condemning it, and it was great!

Wow, that black guy really creamed that journalist.

And wow, is it still spot-on with current events. Being against illegal immigrants is not the same thing as being racist, bigoted, prejudiced... we're marrying immigrants. But we don't have to like illegal immigration.

Edited August 27, 2014 by rlogan

[decocker 7,198]

If I killed someone 18 years ago does that mean it was not murder... ?

SMH

i don't understand why you're offended by this. this woman sounds like english is not her first language and she was asking a question during an obviously tense protest. why is that guy's head bleeding?

[GandD 5,966]

I don't think I'm racist, but I do have my stereotypes, prejudices and profiling to a degree. It's something that one needs to be aware of and work on to be a better person.

Word, no one's perfect.

I think the power certain words have stems from their use in past oppressions. Would the N word have any power if it weren't for it being used as a label for black slaves?

My racial term can beat up your racial term.

If he meant all Asians, then it was racism. If he meant North Korean soldiers, that was prejudice.

Vietnamese. My dad still calls them gooks.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

My guess is, probably not. It would just be another derogatory term for a race or nationality. Like most whites will never be offended by the term cracker to the same degree as blacks will be by the N word. The N word started as a term for something that was less than human, not a fellow human being but an expendable piece of property, like a horse or a mule, only the animals were treated much better in most cases.

and then Negro became the proper word. Then that when out and colored was ok. Then that was offesive, and we had to say black, now if you are really a person of compassion you say African American. Unelss you are the preznit, and want to pretend you are talking about all minoties, then you can say young men of color.

I wonder what term will not be acceptable in 30 years.

Word, no one's perfect.

My racial term can beat up your racial term.

Vietnamese. My dad still calls them gooks.

Speak for yourself. I think it is clear I am the only truly un biased poster here

i don't understand why you're offended by this. this woman sounds like english is not her first language and she was asking a question during an obviously tense protest. why is that guy's head bleeding?

because he is a racist

[decocker 7,198]

clear as mud.

because he is a racist

i thought we had already established he is not a racist because he's standing next to a black man. really why is his head bleeding?

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I wasn't going to look at the video but the right people were condemning it, and it was great!

Wow, that black guy really creamed that journalist.

And wow, is it still spot-on with current events. Being against illegal immigrants is not the same thing as being racist, bigoted, prejudiced... we're marrying immigrants. But we don't have to like illegal immigration.

The Liburul statue of limitations has expired. It did not have a date. english is her second language... LOL. everything and anything to deflect