This was originally posted in my livejournal. You are free to argue with me over any of these points, in fact, I welcome the arguments.
This is a very ethnocentric viewpoint, in that I am specifically speaking about American culture in the United States.
1) All white people are racist.
1a)Racism is not a dichotomous category, its not are you racist or are you not. Racism is a continuum, between more racist and less racist. By giving up the idea that someone can be “not racist,” everyone is able to examine why they might be racist, and where they fall on that spectrum. By continuing to use the “racist/not racist” dichotomy, one does not examine what things they are doing that might be a result of growing up in the institutional racism system.
2) Racism is institutional, and systemic.
3) White people are the racist ones in the American system, because white people have the current, and historical power.
4) Other races may have prejudices against other races, however, without the institutional power, they are not “racist.” Racism= prejudice + power.
5) Class has a lot to do with it. There are some things that I think are the result of socioeconomic. However, minorities are overrepresented in lower classes, and underrepresented in upper classes. This is because of institutional racism.
5a) This was rebutted by using “demographic inertia” as a cause of the educational/income gap among minorities. As such demographic inertia was caused by actual racist practices, I still count this among institutional racism.
5ai)In addition, there are several instances where black people are given worse interest rates in loans, specifically car and home loans, so that even with the same credit and income, they cannot afford as much as a white person with the same credit and income, due to higher interest rates.
5aii)There are also many instances of real estate agents showing black people and white people different homes, even with the same pre-approved mortgage amount. These are examples of how institutional racism perpetuates in society.
6) Insinuating that black people are poor (or, more specifically, poor black people are poor) because they are lazy is insulting. By saying that the reason why poor people are poor is because they do not work hard enough, you are saying that white people do work hard enough, which is not necessarily the same thing. Poor blacks have to work much harder to achieve the same levels of prosperity as whites.
There are barriers that many people have to overcome. Until the same amount of effort produces the same results for all races, there is institutional racism.
7) White privilege is an extension of the institutional racism in society. This might be mediated by other ways you are disadvantaged, and there are other ways in which you are privileged (say, cisgender privilege, educational privilege, shape privilege), it does not negate the fact that if you are white, you carry privilege on the basis of that race.
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*sigh*
I took a Social Issues class with a professor who believed in this very same train of thought. It is an opinion, not fact, that “reverse racism” does not exist. Your clinical speak and vague examples do not make this opinion into an institutional truth.
I have an “almost 4.0″ from college. The reason? I wouldn’t write that same opinion as an answer on my final.
A black person is president. Now tell me about race+ power.
Sociology is about creating shared definitions so that we can quantify and qualify the vague ideas that we are speaking about. Thus, my “clinical speak” comes from that arena.
Yes, Barack Obama is black, and is president of the US. The fact that it is notable speaks of the racism that is inherent in society.
How long have black people had voting power? And how racially diverse is our Congress? In the entire history of the United States, only *five* black men have served in the Senate. Minorities are also underrepresented in the House of Representatives.
I am fully aware that the idea that there is not “reverse racism” is an opinion, just as the definitions of “racism” are an opinion. It is shared among many, if not most, social scientists, but as with most things in sociology, we cannot “prove” it.
Sorry, outdated information. Obama’s replacement is black, so there have been Six black men as senators. And three were from Illinois (Interesting).
As a black American, I feel it important to state that all white people are NOT racist. Furthermore, claims that they are only make things worse — giving credence to the most virulent strains of black prejudice (yes it exists) and reactionary white anger (where do you think Rush Limbaugh’s people get their ammo).
Saying that all of any type of person is one thing is ridiculous. It’s the sort of thinking that got us Prop 8.
Please think this over.
I can agree that the statement is inflammatory. Do you agree with the subheading of the “more racist to less racist” category? Or do you think there are people who have completely overcome the institutional biases inherent in the society to not have any racial differences in their own lives?
Ive met several people who have claimed to be not racist. Yes they have never dated a person of color, they have never served under a minority boss, they havent ever had black teachers (except for “multicultural” classes.) Without these types of exposures, there really cannot be this type of “not racist” people.
Granted, I come from Texas in which there are not that many black people. It might be different here in New York, but I still haven’t met anyone. My classes are overwhelmingly white (and female, but that tends to be the nature of social work). Most of the minority students are immigrants or here from other countries.
Not sure what the Prop 8 comment was about, care to explain?
(P.S. Amazing work. I don’t think I have said this enough
Your statement isn’t inflammatory…It’s wrong. I don’t agree with the “more racist to less racist” category either. Either you’re a racist or you aren’t. If there weren’t people who have gotten past racial nonsense, I wouldn’t be able to do the work that I do: I’m a black man who tells white women to take off their clothes so I can photograph them in the most frankly sexual manner I can. If there were as much overt racism as you think, I’d be dead. Don’t believe me? Ask Emmit Till.
Not dating someone of another race doesn’t make someone a racist. People have the right to date who they want to — politicizing personal intimate behavior is just dumb. I’ve never dated a black woman…Does that make me a racist?
I think your requirements for someone to be “not racist” are fanciful, at best. We don’t get to choose most of the world around us, penalizing people for not doing the impossible is intellectually dishonest — is that what they teach in sociology classes today?
Are there racist white people? There most certainly are. There are also racist black people, racist Asian people (ask a native Japanese person what they think of Koreans), racist people come from all corners of the globe, it’s not something that only applies to white people. I think the “no racism without power” tack is a cop-out. The last time I saw the KKK in my town there were 18 guys surrounded by a cyclone fence and 80 cops…to protect THEM from US…how powerful were they if they had to hide behind the police?
Proposition 8 is about one group of people stigmatizing another entire group of people for reasons that are less than rational. Sorry, but I think your claim that “all white people are racist” does the very same thing.
Basically I think you need to get out of the classroom and deal with some real, live people. If your sociology teachers knew anything important, they would be doing something other than teaching sociology.