Monday, June 15, 2009
Drop the "Reverse" in Racism
I'm way behind in the blog as usual but there's a topic which has been on my mind. With all the talk about the new Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonya Sotomayor and her supposedly racist views why is it when a minority is accused of racism it is called "reverse racism"? Do whites have a monopoly on racism? Some people would say yes. I say call it what it is, racism. There's nothing reverse about it. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics etc have the same standings Whites do. I think that should also translate over to the topic of racism too. Those groups can be racist towards one another just like white can. I don't think it would be called reverse racism if a Hispanic was racist toward an Asian. By assigning the "reverse" to it, people make Whites the eternal bad guy when it comes to racism and I don't believe that's true.
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Hey CP... in case you miss it, I left an apology to you on TP for my selective quoting.
ReplyDeleteYou were right to call me out on it, and if your fundamental point is that racism ( or at least racial prejudice) isn't the exclusive province of "Whites" I'd have to agree and history will back you up on that.
The classic examples of outright Racism would be that which resulted in the Anglo-American Slave Trade, and in the actions of the Nazi regime.
Racial prejudice/bigotry is less extreme, but still consequential. It is often expressed as "Nativism" which is really just simple xenophobia--but which can easily lead to the quite elaborate and especially dehumanizing constructs of pure racism, given the chance.
I'm not sure that 'racism' is really the word you want to use to get your point across, if I understand what you are trying to say.
The trouble is, that's the word that comes to mind and that everyone uses.
Oh! I'm such an idiot!!!
I just paid proper attention to the title of your post. THAT explains your point! DOH!
Blogging is such a minefield, there are no cues beyond those contained in the words you write. But you can't be so damn circumspect when you write that you have to qualify every damn thing otherwise everything you write will be pages and pages long.
My apologies once again for being a dick in this matter.
If I may offer some general advice (as someone who blogged a lot but then got rather exhausted by it all), by all means write what you want to, but consider that what's obvious to you may not be obvious to other people and take that into consideration when you write.
Try to imagine how someone other than yourself might construe your words and then see if you can adjust them to avoid some misunderstanding. (I say this from just a couple of years of experience).
BUT don't over do-it either! It's your blog!
But in an established forum like TP where so many have had and still have to put up with a lot of crap over the past 5 years, patience and consideration of 'newcomers' can be pretty thin these days and emotions easily triggered.
I'm an example.
Anyway, blog-on, CP, blog-on!