"Of course ALL white people are racist" (Barf alert)

The Guardian ^ | 3 July 2002 | Joseph Harker

[Tomalak]

Comment

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Of course all white people are racist

Only by acknowledging the influence of subliminal stereotypes can we eradicate their pernicious effects

Joseph Harker
Wednesday July 3, 2002
The Guardian

When the head of the crown prosecution service said he believed almost all British people were racist, he was roundly condemned. It was a moment of political correctness gone mad, commentators said. But one thing no one seems to have paused to consider was the possibility that he was right. In fact, what about: all white people are racist.

I don't mean they are all wilful bigots, of course. But racism is a combination of prejudice and power. And sadly prejudice is a deeply ingrained human trait.

Globally, white people are the dominant group, and in politics, economics, the media and all aspects of society, this power is used every day. It starts from the top and filters down to white people everywhere, regardless of their individual economic situation.

At the highest level, when President Bush tells Palestinians a different leader must take the place of the man they elected, he's treating them as second-class human beings. When the leaders of western economic powers deny fair trading terms to African countries, they are doing exactly the same. And the images of these pathetic victims help fuel more stereotypes about their "inferior" status.

Every day the white power structure - be it global, national or local - makes decisions which impinge on the lives of black people. Take the Metropolitan police, who last year decided to allow people to go unpunished if caught smoking dope in Brixton, south London. This scheme was brought in without the backing of the local black population, who fear the effect on their children of scenes of overt drug taking. If the police want to experiment with drugs, why choose black people as guinea pigs?

The actions of those in power create a constant drip of negative images which seep into the national consciousness. Why is it that every time a TV news report mentions unemployment, or school exclusions, or crime statistics you are virtually guaranteed to see a black face? Black and Asian people are seen far less often on reports on the health service, for example, where they make up a high proportion of nurses and doctors. Do you question it each time? Has this negative imagery become normalised in your own mind?

Only last week, a train crash in Tanzania which killed 200 people received the tiniest of mentions in the media. The Times ran a paragraph in its "In Brief" column. What impression does this give about the value of black life?

But the media is not entirely to blame. It is a chicken-and-egg situation in which editors know that their readers care less for non-white lives - they see the evidence in their sales - and hence devote less time and effort to covering them. Which makes the hypocrisy of their response to the crown prosecutor all the more stark.

And despite changes since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry - with black faces now regularly seen on TV in adverts and as presenters - the negative imagery still persists. Take the World Cup, where Egyptian and Ecuadorian referees were treated as second-rate, yet the Scottish official who missed a blatant goal-line handball was still somehow up to the job.

Some "non-racists" like to pretend that racial differences don't exist - they even proudly claim not to notice skin colour. This is manifest nonsense. Purporting to be "colour blind" is as ludicrous as suggesting you wouldn't notice a person's gender. What's important is what you do, not what you see.

It is naive to believe that the long history of racial distortion - which goes back to the days of slavery and colonialism - has not had a lasting effect on the individual subconscious. We receive these messages virtually from birth, and as children's thought processes develop, they build up into a bank of subliminal stereotypes. A black man and white man walking down the street: Which one is the doctor? Which one is good at sport? Which one does drugs?

Reaching adulthood, how can people realistically cast off all they've come to believe as a child? Even black people themselves are not immune, and these images have had an impact on their own self-esteem.

White people need to accept that, no matter how many anti-racist demos they've marched on, they inevitably make assumptions, however subconscious, which are influenced by a racist society and which help to form their views and opinions. To refute this is to be in complete denial. But this is not a blame game. Institutional racism is now an accepted term, but it's not the inanimate "institutions" which are racist; it's their staff who perpetuate the overall inequalities by their actions. The acknowledgement of personal racism is simply a prerequisite before anyone can begin to eradicate its pernicious effects.

As a black man, I admit I am bound to suffer from prejudices of my own. I cannot be racist, however, because in the global order I do not belong to the dominant group. If I were to mistreat a white person, no matter how low in social status, the weight of this country's white power structure would come down against me. As Stephen Lawrence's parents found, this force does not come to the aid of black people.

And how could I be racist anyway? I assure you, some of my best friends are white.

[Fzob]

....Jared Taylor, among others:

The guy writes great stuff.

Have you read "Paved with Good Intentions"?

[Mudboy Slim]

"My day is never complete unless some liberal calls be me a racists or fascist conservative pig."

Nawww, I like to make them lame-brained Lib'rals go speechless..."Make 'em STAMMER!!"'s my motto...

"One of my best friends, a rare critter, a black conservative, will call once a week to talk to the old honky, red neck racist who kills spotted owls to go with his Red Legged Frog dinners."

You ever gigged 'em yerself?! Man, fresh-kilt frog legs are a mouth-waterin' Kansan treat!!

"He really knows how to make my day for me!"

I, too, retain a small cadre of Lib'ral buddies solely for the purposes of amusement...armed with nothing but nonsensical, emotional arguments and no factual documentation whatsoever, these stubborn Leftists flail about in a pitiful attempt to create a meaningful thought, as I chuckle deviously from my perch in the MudCave.

Please have a Happy and Safe 4th, my FRiend...MUD

[Grampa Dave]

Actually my Dad taught me a way to catch our frogs for frog legs in a sporting manner.

You attach a big red fishing fly to some stout tippet and then attach it to your fishing fly. Then when the frogs came out to laugh at you and go ribbet out of gig range, you tossed the red fly out to them. They jumped on that red fly like liberals jump on our tax $'s.

You had a fun battle bringing them into you, before you sent them to frog heaven. Then, you had sauted frog legs for dinner or breakfast.

[Mudboy Slim]

"They jumped on that red fly like liberals jump on our tax $'s."

With similarly-catastrophic results for both, I might add...

"You had a fun battle bringing them into you, before you sent them to frog heaven. Then, you had sauteed frog legs for dinner or breakfast."

Fried fer these arteries, please, with apple butter or honey-mustard fer dippin'...MUD

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Us honkies are naturally racist, from cradle to grave; therefore, black people naturally deserve a compensatory leg up on the competition </SARCASM>

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I'm 1/16th Cherokee. Does that mean I oppress myself less than you oppress yourself, or does that simply mean I have twice as much "Native American" to oppress? And to think that I was responsible for running myself ragged on the trail of tears (sob!)...

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I'm 1/16th Cherokee. Does that mean I oppress myself less than you oppress yourself, or does that simply mean I have twice as much "Native American" to oppress? And to think that I was responsible for running myself ragged on the trail of tears (sob!)...

[mindprism.com]

Whites are a minority on the planet, what irks these people is that we happen to be sitting on, and YES in 'control of' the civilization WE CREATED and strive to propogate throughout the world.

So bite me. And excuse the hell out of me for daring to be more than a bit skeptical on the ideas of 'racial equality'.

I judge every man by the same measure, but not by the same expectations. To hold the same expectations would be nonsensical, cruel and an impediment to individual compassion.

[Republic of Texas]

Actually, the most racist people I know are black, but I don't presume that all black people are racist.

[Twodees]

Wait until you get a few AIMsters into the mix. To these radical skins, white people are inescapably racist and inferior, but so are black people. The difference is that the AIMsters have to pretend that black radicals are their brothers, but a skin is the noblest of all victim classes.

The only people held in less esteem than whites (and secretly blacks) are breeds. A breed is a wannabe by definition, especially that thin blooded sort of breed known as a nosebleed, black or white. To these radicals, a wannabe is the most evil and contemptible sort of person in existence.

[Republic of Texas]

Actually, the most racist people I know are black, but I don't presume that all black people are racist.

[xm177e2]

As a black man, I admit I am bound to suffer from prejudices of my own. I cannot be racist, however, because in the global order I do not belong to the dominant group. If I were to mistreat a white person, no matter how low in social status, the weight of this country's white power structure would come down against me.

This is just another example of the looney fringe-left ignoring completely individuals and looking only at groups. Idiots, the lot of them.

[xm177e2]

Here's the problem, though: If all whites are condemned as racists, no matter what they do, where is the incentive for them to do justice?

Because we don't want to be racists? Our reward is an inner one? We like being righteous?

[Reactionary]

"Make "racism" something that a member of a minority can never be, no matter how bigoted, and you rinse away that moral force. And of course, who says that minorities don't have "power."

Yes. The left would certainly like to maintain that no member of a minority group (however defined) can be racist. However, given the logic involved I guess they would also have to admit that the Nazi Party wasn't racist when they didn't have political power (that is, when they didn't enjoy a "democratic" majority).

Or perhaps not.

I will have to say, though, that it appears to me that what the liberals are really asserting is that only white people can be racist (since they never seem to apply this "logic" to countries in which whites are a minority).

If that's true, their argument merely boils down to the so-called Genetic Fallacy. And that fallacy is certainly popular with the "enlightened" left.

[Jonx6]

Ping

[Sabertooth]

Well, I guess I can stop hiding it now.

[Tom Bombadil]

But racism is a combination of prejudice and power

Not.

Power may make it hurt more but it doesn't perform any alchemy on prejudice, suddenly turning it into "racism".

By conviently adding power as a necessary ingredient, it is possible to excuse one's own racism by claiming to be powerless. If you hate someone because of their color and are powerless, you are still a racist..... picking up a gun (power) and killing them doesn't make you any more racist.

[Fzob]

My copy is autographed by the author!

I would have liked to meet Mr. Taylor. "Paved with Good Intentions" was one of those books that had a great impact on my views. Not exactly an epiphany, but it opened my eyes to some hard truths about race in America.

[RWG]

And sadly prejudice is a deeply ingrained human trait...which means that ALL human beings are racist. I don't know how sad it is that an efficient symbol can keep a person from becoming a victim. If I saw certain types of people at one place or another I probably would not visit.