quirk
03-23-2008, 07:26 PM
by Mike Ely
One of the most common myths of conservative thinking is that there really are no white racists left. This is done by insisting that a white racist is someone who pathologically hates Black people on sight, uses the word n*gger with fearless insistence, and upholds crude arguments of racial segregation and Black inferiority. By those standards, there are (of course) few white racists left — since even the people most hostile to Black advancement and equality no longer publicly use those arguments.
But in fact, white racist arguments are multiple and actually insisted upon throughout the public discussion. And millions of people will aggressively parrot those arguments back, when confronted with outrage over Black people’s continuing oppression. And, actually and ironically, a pivotal argument of modern white racism is that white racism no longer exists!
It goes like this: legal obstacles to Black equality were abolished with the destruction of Jim Crow (poll taxes, formal segregation, etc.) And so one the legal playing field was leveled, the only obstacles Black people face are self-imposed (by a culture of victimization, by a cultural lack of willingness to succeed, and by, it is often left unsaid, other forms of innate or cultural inferiority.)
In other words it is clear that there is not “equality of outcome” (black kids end up far more often in prison, not in college) and yet there is (supposedly) “equality of opportunity” — and so (the argument goes) we have to look at the pathologies of Black people for the source of the problems (supposedly the black family, the failures of black men to be fathers, the lack of a culture of intellectual achievement or whatever.)
A key conceptual part of this is the confusion between the ideologies of white racism (verdicts on Black people residing in the minds of people) and structures of white supremacy (embedded and functioning, often without intent, in the objectively-existing institutions, operations and laws of property, class and other social relationships of this society.)
In short, the denial of continuing STRUCTURAL white racism is directly linked to the often-unspoken assertion of continuing Black inferiority.
When someone STARTS their discussion asserting (in a massive exercise of conscious indifference and malignant blindness) there are no longer massive build-in racist obstacles oppressing Black people, i recognize that as the most prominent and unselfconscious form that white racism now takes.
How is it insisted upon? Well, first this racist argument is everywhere… in the assumptions that gush at us from TV and official opinion. Look at the outrage over Obama’s casual mention of his grandmother being a “typical white person” — the kind who clutches her purse when a young Black man approaches. You would think that WASN’T typical! And that this WASN’T the typical and degrading experience of young Black men. Once again the simple experience of Black people is portrayed as paranoid (and itself as just “Black racism) and the suppression of this truth is demanded.
You don’t gotta say “n*gger” any more, dude. All you gotta say is “Racism? Racism? Don’t give me that shit all the time. It is just a culture of self-victimization. Just roll on, get over it, and lift yourself up.”
http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/racism-dont-see-any/
One of the most common myths of conservative thinking is that there really are no white racists left. This is done by insisting that a white racist is someone who pathologically hates Black people on sight, uses the word n*gger with fearless insistence, and upholds crude arguments of racial segregation and Black inferiority. By those standards, there are (of course) few white racists left — since even the people most hostile to Black advancement and equality no longer publicly use those arguments.
But in fact, white racist arguments are multiple and actually insisted upon throughout the public discussion. And millions of people will aggressively parrot those arguments back, when confronted with outrage over Black people’s continuing oppression. And, actually and ironically, a pivotal argument of modern white racism is that white racism no longer exists!
It goes like this: legal obstacles to Black equality were abolished with the destruction of Jim Crow (poll taxes, formal segregation, etc.) And so one the legal playing field was leveled, the only obstacles Black people face are self-imposed (by a culture of victimization, by a cultural lack of willingness to succeed, and by, it is often left unsaid, other forms of innate or cultural inferiority.)
In other words it is clear that there is not “equality of outcome” (black kids end up far more often in prison, not in college) and yet there is (supposedly) “equality of opportunity” — and so (the argument goes) we have to look at the pathologies of Black people for the source of the problems (supposedly the black family, the failures of black men to be fathers, the lack of a culture of intellectual achievement or whatever.)
A key conceptual part of this is the confusion between the ideologies of white racism (verdicts on Black people residing in the minds of people) and structures of white supremacy (embedded and functioning, often without intent, in the objectively-existing institutions, operations and laws of property, class and other social relationships of this society.)
In short, the denial of continuing STRUCTURAL white racism is directly linked to the often-unspoken assertion of continuing Black inferiority.
When someone STARTS their discussion asserting (in a massive exercise of conscious indifference and malignant blindness) there are no longer massive build-in racist obstacles oppressing Black people, i recognize that as the most prominent and unselfconscious form that white racism now takes.
How is it insisted upon? Well, first this racist argument is everywhere… in the assumptions that gush at us from TV and official opinion. Look at the outrage over Obama’s casual mention of his grandmother being a “typical white person” — the kind who clutches her purse when a young Black man approaches. You would think that WASN’T typical! And that this WASN’T the typical and degrading experience of young Black men. Once again the simple experience of Black people is portrayed as paranoid (and itself as just “Black racism) and the suppression of this truth is demanded.
You don’t gotta say “n*gger” any more, dude. All you gotta say is “Racism? Racism? Don’t give me that shit all the time. It is just a culture of self-victimization. Just roll on, get over it, and lift yourself up.”
http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/racism-dont-see-any/