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

Re: Exhausting discussion

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Oh, good lord. Will we ever stop talking *past* one another and ever talk *to* one another? It seems in that discussion, a lot of it (I'm thinking of the Hoyle dude, particularly) are not reading closely and are responding to what they *think* people are saying instead of what people are actually saying.

*sigh*

Re: Exhausting discussion

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

Well, my own experience is that talking to white people about racism gets like that frequently and rapidly.

Plus, there are the occasional bonus experiences of having people you trusted bust out with the most surprising nastiness when you least expected it.

Like the one who assumed that rape was "more accepted" in black communities.
Or the one who basically figured that black people were (all!) just crying wolf about racism, because, you know, she didn't see any.
Or the many who assume that any reference to racism constituted calling HER racist.

It's horrible, absolutely horrible.

Re: Exhausting discussion

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear it.

I have people say to me (here on LJ and fairly recently) that the new generation isn't racist, that once the old people like their grandparents die off, racism will be gone. Uh, yeah right.

Re: Exhausting discussion

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/14/115441/195

Re: Exhausting discussion

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I'd read that back when the Imus flap was still fresh. Good stuff.

Re: Exhausting discussion

[arkaycee.livejournal.com]

Or the many who assume that any reference to racism constituted calling HER racist.

That brings up something I've noticed in discussions on any similar society-wide disparity to racism -- sexism, or many discussions of rape regarding the power imbalance... for me (white male), sometimes the discussions start to feel like "all {whites|males} do this..." (a few times they actually explicitly go that way). I have to fight a knee-jerk defensiveness.

And sometimes there's a discussion of some subtle aspect of sexism or racism, and I feel that defensiveness that's more the "holy shit, I probably DO that once in a while, they're RIGHT." Last time I remember having that feeling was -- I don't even remember now in what forum I saw this mentioned, but a black man was saying something to the effect of, "why is it that every white man who has a conversation with me has to throw 'man' in the first sentence?" (like "hey, man, can you help me over here?") I don't think I always did that, and there are times I did that with white men too, but I'm sure I did that more often if the person I was talking to was black). Then I felt that guilty "yeah, I never realized -- how stupid of me," ... but then I stopped doing it.

Re: Exhausting discussion

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things where, after awhile, you really stop caring about people's good intentions.

The first time someone steps on your toe, it's all cool. When it happens again, immediately, it's irritating. When it happens again right away, you don't care much whether they're clumsy, inconsiderate, malicious or ill, you just want them to stay off your %$@#* feet!

I've seen that puzzle clueless whitefolk (as distinct from 'all whitefolk') time and time again. "Why so hostile? I didn't mean anything?"

{Sigh}