Another digression on -isms
Jan. 25th, 2007 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomToday's subject: racism.
First, let's establish that I'm very aware that I am in a sheltered and privileged position, growing up white in a state that was white by law until late in the 20th century. Along with being born in this time and place, a citizen of the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation at the height of its empire, this means I already hold a winning lottery ticket just by being here. I know this.
Despite this, I've been exposed to racism. Ironically (or maybe not so), most of this has been online, where skin color and ethnic/cultural heritage and self-identity are only an issue if one chooses to make it so. Still, we all carry our baggage with us wherever we go, whether we acknowledge it or not - this includes the "brave new world" of cyberspace, which, being a reflection of our desires and psyches, is mostly about sex, greed, and prejudice.
I have seen some argue the position that one cannot, as a matter of definition, be racist without power. (That is, the power to do more about it than mutter slurs, give dirty looks, and post interminably on message boards.) If a person is not a member of the ethnic group that enjoys the most privileged position within their society, they simply can't be (a) racist. If you believe that, or call them that, you are mistaken.
I believe that this is a facile justification for attitudes which would otherwise be called exactly that. It is possible to hold a belief without being in a position to make society conform to it. One can be an environmentalist without belonging to, or being on the board of, the Sierra Club; one can be a capitalist without being a business owner or Alan Greenspan; one can be a Marxist and a communist without being a member of the Politburo; one can be a feminist without being Gloria Steinem. And, I believe, one can be a racist without being the Man.
Those who know me know that I'm not generally a believer in thoughtcrime or sins of the heart; everyone has impulses, some of them very bad. What matters is whether we act on them. I believe, however, that racism and sexism and other forms of discrimination and prejudice are an exception to this rule. If you have these thoughts and attitudes, whether you can make society listen to them or not, you are racist.
As I am. I wish it wasn't so, I really do, because I'm ashamed of those thoughts... but there it is.
Everyone has justifications and reasons and excuses for believing the things they do. Some beliefs, while excellent for maintaining shared identity and purpose and so on within a group, are divisive and destructive when that group is expected to be part of a larger community. It is not practical, in this time and place, for all of us to live in our own little tribes of right-thinking people; the world is too big, and too interconnected. And most of us, when you look closely, belong to many different tribes at once.
So for the good of the larger community - and I realize, again, how incredibly privileged I am in making this statement - it would be really nice if we could all just get over it, stop hating and judging each other on ultimately superficial differences, and move on.
Except, of course, I don't believe this will ever happen. We need an Other to hate and to blame for all of our problems (because it certainly isn't our fault). We hate those above us in the social order, while coveting their position, and seek someone, anyone, to be below us - and use whatever means at our disposal to keep them there. This happens in every group, every society and subculture; it is apparently hardwired into our pack-forming primate brains. Even within groups that appear homogenous to outsiders, people find reasons and differences and excuses. There are parts of the world where people have been finding reasons to hate each other back and forth for hundreds if not thousands of years, playing the childish game of "he hit me first" for keeps.
Is our reason and our manufactured morality irrelevant before the facts of our biology and behavior? I wish it was not so, but I fear that it is.
So where do I get in line for the reparations owed to generations of nerds for being kept down by the strong and the beautiful?
First, let's establish that I'm very aware that I am in a sheltered and privileged position, growing up white in a state that was white by law until late in the 20th century. Along with being born in this time and place, a citizen of the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation at the height of its empire, this means I already hold a winning lottery ticket just by being here. I know this.
Despite this, I've been exposed to racism. Ironically (or maybe not so), most of this has been online, where skin color and ethnic/cultural heritage and self-identity are only an issue if one chooses to make it so. Still, we all carry our baggage with us wherever we go, whether we acknowledge it or not - this includes the "brave new world" of cyberspace, which, being a reflection of our desires and psyches, is mostly about sex, greed, and prejudice.
I have seen some argue the position that one cannot, as a matter of definition, be racist without power. (That is, the power to do more about it than mutter slurs, give dirty looks, and post interminably on message boards.) If a person is not a member of the ethnic group that enjoys the most privileged position within their society, they simply can't be (a) racist. If you believe that, or call them that, you are mistaken.
I believe that this is a facile justification for attitudes which would otherwise be called exactly that. It is possible to hold a belief without being in a position to make society conform to it. One can be an environmentalist without belonging to, or being on the board of, the Sierra Club; one can be a capitalist without being a business owner or Alan Greenspan; one can be a Marxist and a communist without being a member of the Politburo; one can be a feminist without being Gloria Steinem. And, I believe, one can be a racist without being the Man.
Those who know me know that I'm not generally a believer in thoughtcrime or sins of the heart; everyone has impulses, some of them very bad. What matters is whether we act on them. I believe, however, that racism and sexism and other forms of discrimination and prejudice are an exception to this rule. If you have these thoughts and attitudes, whether you can make society listen to them or not, you are racist.
As I am. I wish it wasn't so, I really do, because I'm ashamed of those thoughts... but there it is.
Everyone has justifications and reasons and excuses for believing the things they do. Some beliefs, while excellent for maintaining shared identity and purpose and so on within a group, are divisive and destructive when that group is expected to be part of a larger community. It is not practical, in this time and place, for all of us to live in our own little tribes of right-thinking people; the world is too big, and too interconnected. And most of us, when you look closely, belong to many different tribes at once.
So for the good of the larger community - and I realize, again, how incredibly privileged I am in making this statement - it would be really nice if we could all just get over it, stop hating and judging each other on ultimately superficial differences, and move on.
Except, of course, I don't believe this will ever happen. We need an Other to hate and to blame for all of our problems (because it certainly isn't our fault). We hate those above us in the social order, while coveting their position, and seek someone, anyone, to be below us - and use whatever means at our disposal to keep them there. This happens in every group, every society and subculture; it is apparently hardwired into our pack-forming primate brains. Even within groups that appear homogenous to outsiders, people find reasons and differences and excuses. There are parts of the world where people have been finding reasons to hate each other back and forth for hundreds if not thousands of years, playing the childish game of "he hit me first" for keeps.
Is our reason and our manufactured morality irrelevant before the facts of our biology and behavior? I wish it was not so, but I fear that it is.
So where do I get in line for the reparations owed to generations of nerds for being kept down by the strong and the beautiful?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 10:34 pm (UTC)I was once informed that, being the "cracker you is", that I was a racist, the young lady in question could not be a racist, by virtue of her being black.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 10:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-26 02:17 pm (UTC)http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/1176591/
http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/1179512/
And of course the Duke lacross rape case: http://tinyurl.com/2kvhph
Most people in other states don't realize that OR was white by law for so long. There's a reason the white supremicists want to make the PNW their homeland...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-26 10:53 pm (UTC)