Blogging Against Racism Week

[sarahmichigan]

I've seen it noted in a few places that this is "Blogging Against Racism Week."

Of course, I think Racism is Bad. And I can come up with a fistful of personal anecdotes as well as statistics to counter anyone who says that racism is a thing of the past and isn't a problem today.

But there are so many issues where I just don't know what to think. Here are some issues I'm conflicted or confused about:

-Racism and humor. What's the difference between a joke about racism and a racist joke? Who's allowed to make jokes that are racially charged? Should white people lose their jobs over making racist jokes?

-Racism and "The N Word". For the most part, only white people who are rednecks (yes, I know this is a racially charged word as well- I come from redneck stock and think I'm allowed to use it) or blatantly racist use this term with any regularity these days. Should Blacks stop using it as well? Should there be MORE use of it to diffuse the charge of the word, kind of like diffusing other epithets like "bitch" or "slut" or "dyke"?

-How to talk about race. How do we start a dialogue about racism and race without ending up in accusations, shutting people down, and making people feel like they can't talk about it at all?

Maybe some of the blog posts I'll read this week will shed some light on one or more of those issues. I'm not sure if I'll post more about the topic or not; it seems like there are plenty Guilty White Liberals posting about race already.

Comments

[arkaycee.livejournal.com]

One thing that feels in its infancy about sexism or racism is that the discussion is pressured against talking about any differences. We so have to pretend they don't exist (and maybe that's what's needed as a society about these things for now anyway). When you're first educating a child, you give them much broader rules that as they grow have nuances and exceptions.

What if that coach years ago was right, that black men *statistically* tend to have a slightly different musculature that enables them to {do some aspect of something to do with football I think it was, better} (I'm hoping someone with a better memory than I tend to regarding things sportslike can help me fill that in more accurately)? We pretty much can't have that conversation as a society right now.

I think what it is, is that if differences are acknowledged, they can be misused as reasons to make value judgments and discriminate ("ummm, I dunno, we can't go hiring black men for this job, as with their statistically larger muscles, we'll need to on the average buy larger uniform sizes that cost more" -- ok very contrived example but I hope it's illustrative).

Also, sometimes we walk a tightrope -- some women get severe PMS for example. So do we ignore that? Or do we pay attention to it, and then risk some people's dismissal of every woman's strong emotional point of view as "she must be PMSing"?

I'm hopeful of someday a society where we can acknowledge the legitimate differences between any groups of people, and yet not misuse them.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

I get what you're saying, but:

The reason is because the vast majority of speculated differences are racist bullshit, and it gets oppressively exhausting for black folk to be burdened with refuting them all the damned time. And yes, the burden falls disproportionately on black people. Being able to ignore racist bullshit at will is part of white privilege.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I think the biological differences between men and women are much more legitimate and real than any phyiscal differences between the races (cultural differences- well that's a different story), especially since I believe race is a sociological construct rather than a biological fact.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

[arkaycee.livejournal.com]

I think we're in agreement here. I should have been clearer that, while I hope for said time, I don't think societally we're close to there yet.

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

I think so too.

It just needed to be said.

[stacycat69.livejournal.com]

See, this is where sociology comes in. I love my field sometimes.

Why does it seem like black men are better athletes than white men? Why are black men overrepresented in sports such as basketball and football, and white men bigger in individual sports like golf or fencing or cycling?

Part of it is class, and part is the social construction of race. Black kids may be subtly pushed into 1) team sports, and 2) sports in general, because, no, they arent smart enough to get into college based on academics, right? (sarcasm). Whereas the rich white kids are encouraged to get into academics, and individual "thinking" sports.

DNA wise, I am more similar to the black woman down the street than I am to my white roommate. There is more differentiation within a "race" than between the races. There are biological differences between sexes with hormones. (And, I piss off a lot of feminists by saying that :-)