Are you racist?

[blueerica]

I would actually agree with you, GD, quite a bit. There are things that I do, food preferences, sense of humor, that I share with family members I only see occasionally... but I see those similarities on a micro level, not a macro level. It is the society in which these various ethnicities grow through that creates a label on themselves as a group, and the labels we apply toward one another, as groups.

For myself, I have a hard time justifying having a belief about someone before I get to know them, based on their ethnicity. I cannot know the circumstances of how someone's life has affected them, or how someone's genetics may or may not have played a role. DNA within an ethnic group plays a far greater role in terms of biological function, shared genetic weaknesses (diabetes, various diseases and "syndromes"), or even strengths, than personality, or ability to think, which is where the center of most "racist" thought comes from. Crazy is as crazy does, and crazy can be genetically transferred on (loose terms) in the micro level, whether you're black, white, red, yellow or brown. I just don't see the argument genetics even playing a deciding role on a person's behavior.

On a side note, a long looong time ago I dated a black man. When I decided that we would be better off as friends, the first thing out of his mouth was "It's because I'm black, right?! I didn't pin you for being a racist..." I was shocked. My reasons were only because the conversation was a little dull for my tastes, but I never did forget his immediate reaction - the assumption that *I* was racist, likely only on account of my being white.

[Alex]

An personal anecdote on how "racism" is a term with many definitions to many people.

Back in college I took an expository writing class and one of the papers was on Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing. I forget what the exact topic was, but when explaining the assignment the instructor explained that we could not make an argumen that any of the black people in the film were racist since it is, by definition, impossible for a black American to be racist. Part of racism is being in the dominant power group.

Any paper that made such an argument would fail.

Me being me I made such and argument just because this pissed me off so much. Got and F on the paper, got a C in the class and never stepped foot in the University of Washington Department of English again.

I don't have a problem with the idea of ambigous concepts with fuzzy areas around the edges, but when being labelled as "racist" or "racism" has only strongly negative impacts then I think the term needs to be narrowly defined so that everyone knows what you mean by it. For many saying "some types of racism are more acceptable or understandable than others" is like saying "some forms of rape are more ok."

Just as the expansion of the word rape to include increasingly less rape-like activities dilutes the horror of actual rape, the expansion of "racism" to include increasingly less "racist" behaviors dilutes the horror of actual racism.

The expectation that we all react with equal horror to the statement that perhaps there are racial difference in native intelligence or athleticism (which generally would only show up at the extreme ends of the distribution curve) as with the statement that blacks shouldn't be allowed in the same room with whites will, if nothing else, lead to outrage fatigue.