Race and Beyond: Antiracism Increasingly a Black and White Affair

It's an interesting point. That is, racism isn't merely personal bias, but the ability to stick that bias into someone else's business and shape what their life is like. It can be by a noose, by a bank loan application, by a neighborhood deed restriction, or by the power of a hiring decision. It can also be structural without even being carried out by a person, as with one neighborhood's greater economic capacity to address a problem compared to another's in a racially divided community.

I say this to point out that the white perception of black bias against whites may be on the increase, while black perception of the same is more or less constant, simply because more blacks are in position today to make their prejudices known. But it seems almost a truism that people are going to be more aware of the prejudices they perceive against themselves than they are with those directed at others--particularly given the fact that we live in a culture that profoundly values naval gazing over objective social awareness.

thought of as racism. It's NOT just personal bias, but it's the ability of the power structure to take a racial bias and make it the basis of laws and regulations that keep a particular racial or ethnic group under the thumb of another. And it's not limited to laws and regs either. It's an entrenched power structure WITH those personal biases who control who gets hired, promoted, bonused, laid off and fired.

Obama becoming President didn't change the laws and regulations nor indeed the REST of the entrenched power structure that results in racism. Ergo, racism is STILL in place.

IOW, bias is between you and me. Racism is between you and the SYSTEM.

But often those making that claim fail to consider context. Or, rather, they go context hunting to prove their claim.

In the past, I've argued this point often with colleagues. I would point to where a person of color (or a woman) did something racist (or sexist) and they justify the action and say it wasn't racism (sexism) because that same person, in a different context, lacks power. A police chief does something racist? Hey, he was discriminated against as a kid; he's considered a dangerous person by a white woman walking on a street at night; he has trouble getting a cab. A woman won't hire a man because, well, they have all the advantages anyway and she really would have trouble working with a man, and she's not sexist because in some other setting she's perceived as a powerless victim.

Yes, you need power to operationalize your racism. On the other hand, a lot of "racism" in society is expressed by people with no power to affect their erstwhile victims. My mother's clearly a racist. All blacks are lazy, stupid n****rs (except Obama; she's never voted anything other than (D) in her 60 years of voting). Yet she has no authority whatsoever over anybody else outside her own family, and never has had any authority.

Then again, "power" is a subtle thing: If you think badly of yourself or are unsure about your group's standing, just having a peer, somebody with no power, express a rude thought can impact your behavior.

Once I had a boss who told me that he had been against hiring me. He wanted somebody of a different ethnicity, believing that people of my ethnicity couldn't be trusted and were lazy. He had held the application window open for a few weeks in hopes of getting somebody at least as qualified as I was but with the right skin color. He said I worked out, after all. That was a zero-sum game.

People don't just perceive prejudices against themselves. They perceive prejudices against their group. The stronger the group boundaries, the easier the perception. And perceptions don't change quickly--a lot of teenagers talked about discrimination in work, in school, but few had ever worked. They were *expecting* to be discriminated against. It's very easy to confirm a bias you already hold.

I had an Iranian friend. He applied for a job. He was interviewed. He was turned down. A white guy got it, a guy who arguably was less qualified. He was told by colleagues that it was racism. He asked me what I thought. "Nah, probably not. You know the people on the hiring committee--are they racist?" He said his resume was perfect for the job, that they seemed to like him during the interview. I said the people calling it "racism" saw racism everywhere. If the traffic light changes when they approach, it's a racist act. They fail a test, it's racism. He was troubled, called a fool for not seeing the racism that was obvious for all to see. They very nearly convinced him. A few weeks later he got a call: They thought his resume strong but the job he applied for was too small. They took a few weeks to cobble together the funding for the position they created for him, at a salary significantly higher than the one he applied for. They knew they had money for a position and were sure the chancellor would sign off on it; they didn't know how much they'd scrape together, so they couldn't make him an offer, nor could they tell him until the chancellor had actually placed his imprimatur on the idea. The Iranian had no strong bias to be confirmed or denied; many of his colleagues assumed everything was racist, it was just a matter of figuring out how it was racist. They worked hard to find a way to make the job offer he got a racist act. "They realized you were qualified, and wanted to avoid a lawsuit." Yeah. Right.

As for the article, the point is that blacks perceive, according to the researchers' stats, less racism. It's not held more or less constant, it's decreased sharply.

We've made great strides dismantling the legal vestiges of our apartheid years, but racism is still ingrained in the culture and social structure of our society and thus still a significant impediment to national progress- Despite the color of the president's skin.

Addressing personal attitudes is important, but we have to change the institutional realities first. Discrimination is a result of the institutional nature of racism and it is http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html">us.

I just received a settlement from a lending company for Mortgage discrimination after the Justice department threatened to http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/December/10-crt-1406.html">sue them. $1050.00 for a higher interest rate that local lenders colluded on...:bounce:...:puke:


You're mother may not have power, but how many times was she or someone like her not discriminated against? That's an advantage even if you're dirt poor and the reaches of your power extend from a one room shack to and 6x6 plot of dirt as a front yard. Power and access to institutions are the key. If we fix that our attitudes will follow.

Racism is racism regardless of power. To claim otherwise is an apologist at best.

Unfortunately, discrimination and such seems to be part of the human condition. Consider:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1124573&mesg_id=1124573
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1121647&mesg_id=1121647

Laws can fix one and not the other.

Your links are an example of an extreme response to a common problem. White teachers can teach students of any color, but they'll do it well if they are color conscious rather than color blind. They need to be aware of and respect the differing historical roots of their students. This means you have to respect their narrative and not do stupid shit like Pilgrims and Indians or slave auctions.

If the teachers are not on board with that approach, then you move em, if they're not down with that, post em.

"Apologist"--sheesh, ease up on the emotional projection, Professor. There are no apologists for racism on DU. Sadly, I think you're missing the critical idea conveyed by the sign. Let me break it down for you.

The main idea isn't that a powerless racist isn't really racist. The anger and hatred of racism, along with the violence such ideas are inclined to inspire, have all the power they need. The point is that you don't have to actually buy into explicit racist philosophies or ideologies in order to perpetuate racial discrimination--that is, you can be a banker or doctor or school official with "plenty of black friends personally" and still be an agent of structural racism by perpetuating social institutions that reinforce the constriction of equal opportunity. There's lots of racism in society that isn't labeled as racism, per se. The point of the slogan is that racism is more prevalent than we generally recognize, not that it's ignorable where it's powerless.

And please, Prof, take that chip off your padded tweed shoulder. It's safe to assume that most DUers are the good guys... even the ones who inadvertantly perpetuate racism. People need education more than they need chastising.

I imagine some trailer park denizen in the backwoods has little power in the grande scheme of things. But that doesn't prove he can't be a racist.