Let's imagine Pete. He's 50 years old, he is middle class, and he's white, and from what we know about him, he's never done anything bad to a black person or a person of color in his life.
But he refuses to participate in any kind of active anti-racism. His opinion: "I am not a racist, so I don't need anti-racism in order to cleanse me of something that I don't have or am".
My question: is Pete nevertheless racist, since he is, after all, a representative of the white system that gives him white privilege, whether he is aware of it or not?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Not enough info.
What constitutes “active anti-racism”?
Voting for liberal candidates?
Does he refuse to vote, because racism is not his problem?
I never heard of political activism for the purpose of self-cleansing. I thought it was to improve the society we all live in.
I don’t think every person is required to work on every cause. But if he singles out anti-racist activities to specifically avoid, then he might be racist, but I don’t think any human can know that for sure about another human just because of absence of evidence.
skado
Level 9
June 5, 2022
0
@Matias
Sincere apologies from my country to yours.
I don’t qualify as a political activist, on most days. but I do make a conscious effort to embody my counter-racist worldview in my everyday dealings with other human beings.
If someone else wants to judge me for not living up to their standards, that’s their burden to bear - not mine. There are likely ways in which they don’t live up to mine, but I don’t lose any sleep over it, or try to shame them.
My answer is that Pete is probably not actively racist in how he treats people, but he is also part of the problem by remaining oblivious and not caring to become part of any solution. When it comes to power and privilege, neutrality IS taking a side against oppressed minorities, because it is upholding the status quo. I feel the same frustrated way about my liberal friends who are all financially comfortable and in the top 15% as far as economic class. Capitalism has treated them fine and they want no significant change in the economic system, so they vote blue and support any kind of centrist corporate Dem, and also love all the PC stuff and identity politics the Dem Party substitutes for any real change on economic justice or inequality, but they hate progressives like me for demanding anything socialist from the Dem Party and they never would have supported Bernie if he had gotten the nomination. They would have either not voted for prez or voted for Trump, secretly...
TomMcGiverin
Level 8
June 5, 2022
2
@Matias Spoken like a true Libertarian or conservative.. Your sane selfishness is at the root of our sick society and its problems. Individualism to the extreme is also at the root of our problems..
Oblivious maybe. Hey I get it. I thought racism had receded after Obama was elected and projected my own assumptions and preferences upon others. I was so very wrong. Racism went covert for a while but has gone much more overt.
The birth certificate thing was front and center as the right rebranded to the Tea Party. Apparently having a black president who I voted for twice is sufficient to make a country lose its shit. So we got the narcissistic sociopath as a response. And now a very old credit card corporation shill. Great.
Scott321
Level 7
June 4, 2022
2
You see the truth and also say it so clearly... And I promise you the next prez, which won't be Biden, will probably be worse than Trump or Biden. I'm hoping it's not Trump.
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