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 Originally Posted by bigred
I removed some of the quote for minimizing size.
I agree with your first paragraph. It has become clear to me in my last week's research (such as listening to the WSJ opinion podcasts and reading other slightly conservative news sources) that the definition of racism is not consistent across the country and there is a large part in America that only considers and/or understands overt racism. Anything less than calling someone the n-word or directly coming out and saying you hate a race is not racism and often a tool of the "biased media." It saddens me that people hear phrases from Trump like "I love the Hispanics. The Hispanics are going to get great jobs." and thinks it's not racist. When you add a modifier of the to groups, you're creating a divide. You're implying an us and a they and you're perpetuating less overt racism.
I struggle with many other points you make in this post. I was taught to treat all people equal regardless of race, sex, religion, etc. As a consequence, I was taught not to use the n-word because it treats a specific race as less than and has a lot of implied hatred.
I would encourage you to challenge the statement you made, " I still haven't rooted it out entirely, I think deep down were all racist in some way or another." To me this feels like a cop out. It feels you're making the statement, I've removed the overt racism and as much of the more subtle racism. Nothing left to do. I realize you're not directly saying this but it's implied.
I've learned through exposure, experience, and travel across the world that regardless of where you're from, your socioeconomic standing, your gender, etc, etc that people are generally good and they want the same things in life. They want to be treated fairly, pursue happiness, love and be loved, and provide these opportunities to future generations. However, typically through fear, they lash out when they feel these values are threatened. Until we can recognize we're the same, truly the same with no hint of an us vs a them, although I will acknowledge people are dealt different cards in life, we cannot progress as a society.
I appreciate your input and think you have some, definitely valid points, on what I said earlier.
What made me self-reflect on my own racism in my past as a White, was just doing lots of research if you will, on the racist history of this country.
Two of the books in my personal library reflect this, "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander for one, which outlines a Criminal Justice system which may not be overtly racist and is thus more covert in it's very nature, but still extremely racist at it's very heart.
I love racist jokes, one racist joke I've told is "What did the Black guy do after sex? 15 to life" This is outlined in Michelle Alexander's book, that we have an inherently racist Criminal Justice system. Meanwhile we got White Brock Turner serving a mere 3 months in jail for the exact same crime, and Sam Dubose's killer, simply for the virtue of being a White cop, getting a mistrial in what is pretty much a cut and dry case of 1st degree murder at least for an ordinary civilian, and prosecutors are stymied to only charging him with manslaughter simply because he's White and a Police Officer.
The other book that influenced my belief system today is "Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse". I honestly would LIKE to believe that White Lawmakers had NOTHING but the NOBLEST of intentions when they passed Mass Incarceration laws over the past 2 generations of American History, but it wound up, at face value, being an extremely racist policy of mass incarcerating Blacks. The War on Drugs, based on who's been incarcerated, charged, and imprisoned under these policies, can easily be called "The War on Blacks".
Part of why I had such a hard time voting for HRC in the first place, as well as probably her lackluster performance among Blacks too in the election, was because of how inherently racist the 1994 Crime Bill was. That single bill destroyed probably over a million Black families, when much more productive ways to handle with substance abuse were at her husband's disposal in 1994, namely, legalizing illicit drugs.
Another book that influenced my thought on how I have contributed to the racism in this country, was a book in my library called "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces".
The people who have bore the brunt of this militarization, weren't the Al Queda terrorists who had started sleeper cells within our nation, but a major component was in fact the Black community.
I've tried to deal with my own racism, and actually study the racist history of this country. In light of Trump's victory, I read up on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, it was a race riot in the wealthiest Black neighborhood in the entire country at the time. And I think it basically boiled down to the concept of Blacks having things as nice as Whites, Whites found deeply offensive and a privilege that should be relegated to Whites and Whites only. The Whites wanted to carry out a lynching in the wealthy Black neighborhood, regardless if they had very loose evidence, as by today's standards there is absolutely no evidence the Black teenager that sparked the riot, did in fact rape a White female teenager.
Because the Whites couldn't carry out their lynching without facing an armed uprising from the Blacks in Tulsa, they massacred them and destroyed their wealthy neighborhood in retaliation.
This country does in fact have a deeply racist, double standard history, in regards of Whites vs People of color, based on my readings.
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