The End of America's Racial Détente

[GSOgymrat]

Very insightful article.

This Election Marks the End of America's Racial Détente

http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/14/election-marks-end-americas-racial-detente/

... Within the past few years, as privilege theory took hold, many whites began to think that no matter what they did they would be called racist, because, in fact, that was happening. Previously there were rules. They shifted at times, but if adhered to they largely protected one from the charge of racism. It’s like the Morrissey lyric: “is evil just something you are, or something you do.” Under the détente, racism was something you did; under privilege theory it is something you are.

That shift, from carefully directed accusations of racism for direct actions to more general charges of unconscious racism, took away the carrot for whites. Worse, it led to a defensiveness and feeling of victimization that make today’s whites in many ways much more tribal than they were 30 years ago. White people are constantly told to examine their whiteness, not to think of themselves as racially neutral. That they did, but the result was not introspection that led to reconciliation, it was a decision that white people have just as much right to think of themselves as a special interest group as anyone else. ...

[Baruch]

The US has no leader like Nelson Mandela .. .and no Truth & Reconciliation commission.  Colored folks who still think they have to aspire to Whiteness ... aren't free people.  Cornel West is vastly superior to Barak Obama.

[Nonsensei]

There's also the fact that making it a trait rather than  a behavior slams the door shut on being able to do anything about it. If you're doing something that's wrong, you can stop doing that thing. If you ARE something that's wrong, there's really no solution to that.

By asserting that all white people are inherently racist, white people have essentially been freed of any obligation to think about or be concerned about racism. After all, white people will always be white, and therefore always be racist. No matter what. If there's no solution to a problem, why work on it?

[Baruch]

There's also the fact that making it a trait rather than  a behavior slams the door shut on being able to do anything about it. If you're doing something that's wrong, you can stop doing that thing. If you ARE something that's wrong, there's really no solution to that.

By asserting that all white people are inherently racist, white people have essentially been freed of any obligation to think about or be concerned about racism. After all, white people will always be white, and therefore always be racist. No matter what. If there's no solution to a problem, why work on it?

There were particular historical injustices in American history, and they weren't color neutral.  But the shit show that is contemporary African-American life (if you aren't collegiate) is worthy of being revenged, not just resisted.  Collective revenge isn't a fiction, nor was collective victimizing.

[Absurd Atheist]

There's also the fact that making it a trait rather than  a behavior slams the door shut on being able to do anything about it. If you're doing something that's wrong, you can stop doing that thing. If you ARE something that's wrong, there's really no solution to that.

By asserting that all white people are inherently racist, white people have essentially been freed of any obligation to think about or be concerned about racism. After all, white people will always be white, and therefore always be racist. No matter what. If there's no solution to a problem, why work on it?

How do you suppose we address racism besides simply ignoring it for a few generations?

[Baruch]

How do you suppose we address racism besides simply ignoring it for a few generations?

Middle Class Hypocrisy ... born 1968 ... died 2016.  It isn't just race, it is class (oh no, we don't have that in the US).

[Nonsensei]

How do you suppose we address racism besides simply ignoring it for a few generations?

We don't. There is no other way. Deep racial divide takes time to mend. Just like a wound, while its mending its going to continue to hurt. But you know enough not to pick at a wound because that will just make it heal slower. What we did to the wound that is racism in this country is rip the bandage off and furiously punch it as hard as we could with the bewildering expectation that doing so would somehow make it better faster.

By asserting that racism is absolutely everywhere, that white people are universally and unavoidably racist, the issue of racism was inflated well beyond its reality. At the same time, it was converted into an issue with no solution.

What do people do when faced with a huge problem that they can't actually do anything about? They ignore it. They learn to live with it. They accept it because there's no other option. By asserting that white people are all racist and theres nothing that can be done to change that, liberals created a situation in which white people were free to stop caring about racism.

And so thats what they did. And because of that Donald Trump could say all the racist and sexist shit he wanted without being automatically disqualified. On the contrary, it boosted his chances of winning.

The only way to properly heal a racial divide in america is TIME. Lots and lots of time. A long ass period of uninterrupted stability in which people steadily shed racial bias. That means that members of minoritie alive today would probably never see the day when racism was truly gone. Maybe even their kids wouldn't see it. Some people couldn't accept this so they tried to force the issue and it backfired. Now we have to start over again from square one, and we cant even do THAT until the current racial climate changed, which could take years.

Race relations in this country were dealt a devestating blow. That blow was delivered by the very people trying to improve them.

[Baruch]

No, by the people cynically taking advantage of African-American voters ... but then this was the D party ... the party of Jefferson Davis.  What is more tragic is the failure of Reconstruction, and the abandonment of the Free Black to jim Crow by the R party.

[Cavebear]

"Racist" is what you are AND do.  You can't be one without the other.  It is a whole in mind and act.

[Nonsensei]

"Racist" is what you are AND do.  You can't be one without the other.  It is a whole in mind and act.

Not really the point. The point was that an environment was created in which no white person wasn't racist.

[Baruch]

Not really the point. The point was that an environment was created in which no white person wasn't racist.

My point ... as posted before ... of course White people are racist, everyone is (as in bigoted, not as in historical racism).  What is annoying is non-Whites pretending they aren't.  Once we all acknowledge we are assholes ... we might be able to move on.

[Shiranu]

"Racist" is what you are AND do.  You can't be one without the other.  It is a whole in mind and act.

Except it's not. You can do racist things without being racist, if you live in a society where those behaviours are the norm. "Being" a racist implies that there is rationalization and reason behind your actions, whereas there are many "racist" things we all do without a thought about it.

[Mike Cl]

My point ... as posted before ... of course White people are racist, everyone is (as in bigoted, not as in historical racism).  What is annoying is non-Whites pretending they aren't.  Once we all acknowledge we are assholes ... we might be able to move on.

It has been my experience that racism knows no boundaries.  All hues of skin color can be (and some are) racist.

[Atheon]

Not really the point. The point was that an environment was created in which no white person wasn't racist.

Except that's pretty much only at the fringes of SJWism. In mainstream society, it's not like that.

I mean to claim that white people are born racist implies that racism is in our genes, which is, well, racist.

Racism is learned. Not everyone learns it, thankfully.

[widdershins]

Except that's pretty much only at the fringes of SJWism. In mainstream society, it's not like that.

I mean to claim that white people are born racist implies that racism is in our genes, which is, well, racist.

Racism is learned. Not everyone learns it, thankfully.

But it's not on the fringe.  This last decade, especially, it has been everywhere.  Republicans lived the first half of the last 8 years in constant fear of being called racists before they finally just said, "Fuck it!", and it started LONG before that.  In 1992 Ross Perot's presidential bid and career was instantly killed when he said, "...you people..." to a room full of black people instead of saying, "African-Americans", as was expected of you at the time.  And then there's the term "African-American", which the left started demanding we use in the '90s in lieu of any other benign term because people were even then hyper-sensitive about what label to use, and if you didn't use that label every time, you were a racist.

I would like to agree with you that this is just a fringe thing, but it's not and it hasn't been for a long time.  For decades now it has only taken a slip of the tongue to become labeled racist or bigoted or misogynistic.  I don't believe that transgender people should have the freedom to choose whichever restroom they are "more comfortable in" for a couple of reasons, chief among them being that because the current system no longer reflects our understanding of gender I would rather re-work the system.  It's not that I don't care about their plight, it's that I see a flawed system and want to FIX the system, not apply a problematic, poorly defined patch which is GUARANTEED to cause problems.  I want to fix it and what I want is actually more comprehensive, actually addressing the root issue that the idea that gender is binary and absolute is outdated and needs to go.  But the first gut-reaction I get when I express an opinion which is not, "Transgender people are absolutely right and I am with them 100% and on board with whatever it is they want" is that I'm bigoted and against transgender rights, which is absolutely not the case.  I'm actually FURTHER LEFT on the issue than transgender people, but my opinion is different and therefore I hate transgender people.  The left even attacks ITSELF for not holding the right opinion.

And this isn't a new thing, nor is it limited specifically to race.  Nonsensei is right, we do live in an environment where we not only have to be hyper-sensitive to race issues, in many circles we have to be openly ashamed of being born white.  If you don't think any of this is true, just look at who our next president is going to be.  He could speak his mind and when someone called him racist, just shrug it off like it didn't bother him, and that appealed to a shitload of people.  So many that it was enough to get him elected, and that is because of the issue Nonsensei is talking about.