Premmy's Big-Long Anti-Racism thread.

[Premmy]

I really wasn't going to do this.
But hey, It's still February, I missed the final day of my town's Black Heritage Festival,( no swag for me )
and I saw Get on the Bus, at like, four AM, so here I am.

I'll try to outline some basic concepts of racism and how it works in our culture, as well as my own ideas about these topics, both for my own sake, and as a means to further discussion.

Preems is weird.

^^^^^
My personal views on Anti-Racism are tinted, like everyone's opinions on anything, by my personal experiences, and I greatly disagree with quite a few of the tenants and ideologies of Professional and Scholarly Anti-Racist theory. If you want more insight into these subjects from a more scholarly perspective, I'd advise going to those sources for it.


Racism Is Complicated

Racism recquires Serious Discussion, not talking about it, or not talking about it extensively is counter-productive in every sense of the word.(this means you should un-hide all these tags)
Racism is a multifaceted thing, containing elements of Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, and even Religion. Simple ideas create more problems than they could ever solve. TL,DR is going to do nothing but make things worse for everyone. If racism was a simple thing, it wouldn't still be a problem, and it IS still a problem. It also means a simple understanding of things doesn't get to what the REAL problems are.

What this all means, is you're going to need to do a lot of SERIOUS thinking, a lot of SERIOUS reading and listening, and a lot of questioning of the way you and other people think. Avoiding talking about issues of race altogether is no better. If you avoid, deny, or ignore it, you set yourself up to contribute to it by dint of not having any sort of adequate knowledge of the topic.You set yourself up to reacting negatively to the topic when it comes up.

Imagine you have an illness, if you get upset and close yourself off every time the subject is brought up by your doctor, you're not going to get the proper treatment, because you're preventing yourself from addressing the problem.

I Don't care about you, Dick

Racism is bigger than individual hate
I really really don't, and neither does anybody else. The constant misconception that Racism ONLY=Dickishness is dangerous in that it limits the conversation about it(racism) and drives the focus toward something that is, as far as I know, impossible to change in any way. Individuals being blatant assholes is just a fact of life, some people are dicks, some people aren't.
What's there to talk about? What's there to do about it?

Pretty much the only thing to address in individual dickishness is making sure none of those people get in charge of anything important to our society, and we more or less do that,( or rather, we do on paper.)
That's done. What's there to address in individuals being hateful?

“That guy sucks”
“Yup”
“Well, that's done”


We might be able to discuss what makes them that way, but individual personality is as influenced by our culture at large as it is by personal experiences. So, yes, it's possible to look at what causes their behavior, and if that helps you gain a greater understanding of the issue, then good, but they're hardly the real issue.Who do rude people hurt? Others, certainly, but only if you let them. By and large hateful people disadvantage themselves by alienating those around them. The issue is not at all one of individuals being hateful, as that's entirely a personal issue.


White People Rule the world

The Majority of racism stems from the dominance of white culture over all others, instead of a more equal representation
I often see people discuss racism as a form of culture clash: “Two groups of people fighting each other.” This implies that both cultures are on equal footing, that two people, both in the same situation, are having a dispute. But this isn't the case. Racism isn't a fight, it's a beat-down.
Racism is all about one group, being over another. And in the case of America, That's white people.

I'm sure you have a personal story about how you, yourself, don't rule anything, but, it's rather hard to argue that the dominant force in our culture isn't one of European influence, and hasn't been for the longest time.
This extends to every aspect of our lives. Music, Fashion, Language, Food, Pop Culture, Literature, Art, Government, and Interpersonal Relationships.

Think of our culture like a Stew.You make it with beef broth, Add in vegetables, chopped beef, all the good seasonings. It's still gonna taste overwhelmingly like beef.

White People Aren't Normal

Our culture treats people of color differently than white people, your personal experiences as a white person do not indicate those of a non-white person.
They're different, just like everyone else. I've already mentioned the western dominance of our culture. Viewing oneself and one's experiences as “normal” or in other words, a standard to judge by, instead of one of many options, Is an example of this. “White Privilege” is a phrase that pops up at this point in more serious debate, and it encapsulates what I'm describing here. You personally may think yourself to not have any privileges, but it's better to think of it in this mind-frame:

White Privilege is the absence of race-based oppression.

Unless you want to tell me how a white person can experience being marginalized for being non-white, It's a fair assessment to say white people aren't privy to these experiences, and also, that their own experiences aren't indicative of what others are going through.

So, while you may be a poor white man, and you may have class-based oppression,you still lack personal experiences of Race-based oppression.
You might be wondering about a situation, where, a person of Color can be rude to a white person. You might view it as an example of an individual white person experiencing race-based oppression.

But think of it this way. Let's say you're the only white person in a given area. Fine, you're in the minority in that particular situation. The people in your area mistreat you specifically because you're white. Fine, you're subjected to racist treatment. Did you stop being white? Did you suddenly have your ethnicity be marginalized by the entire culture of your country? No, you were called something mean by individual people being rude. You, as a white person, can always walk away from those individuals and go live your life in a world that has no special animosity towards you.

Try this experiment. Spend about seven days, actively avoiding people of color. Be careful of course, to not be an ass or be blatant about it. Just guide your daily activities so that you don't deal with people of color to any significant degree. Under all but the most extreme of conditions, you shouldn't be terribly inconvenienced. Now, do the opposite. Spend a week, ONLY dealing with people of color. Don't do business with any white-owned establishments. Don't socialize with any white people. That will probably cut out most of your favorite restaurants, services, and hobbies.

Everybody's a little bit racist.

Our society is inherently racist, Living in it will force everyone to do and think certain racist things.Our culture is built on concepts of Racism, sexism, and Hetero-sexism that skew in favor of Straight, White, Christian Men. All of us have to live with this, because we live in that culture. We internalize a lot of the images and ideas that this culture is built on. This means all of us have issues with the racism in our culture. Every one of us, dealing with this is a part of the solution.

Intentionally or unintentionally, we all engage in or contribute to behaviors and ideologies that are a part of the racism of our culture. If you live in a racist society, you're going to do racist things. The key is to not let it penetrate who you are, and what you really think, and to try to change it in your own life as much as you can.

* I'll be adding sources,expanding, and doing edits on this post over time, I just needed to quit procrastinating.

Edit: after reading other sources on discussing racism, I'm gonna add this here.

I kind of hope that everyone can approach this discussion without using ad-hominem attacks or disregarding others point of view.
So, it's kind of like old Discussion forum rules in that I don't want to see any "Waa waa, cry moar" or anything to that effect. If you have a point, make it, but don't go accusing people of things and insulting people.