(no subject)

[novapsyche]

What this means is that a racist may not know if and when he's being racist, which isn't really very surprising.

'What I said was racist - but I am not a racist. I am an idiot'

Comments

[techno-shaman.livejournal.com]

When I was living in the South I met a man named Brito.
He worked at a body jewelry pagoda in the mall.. tattoos on his arms marked a history of violent acts, and facial piercings spoke of his experiences at Pitbull tattoo and body piercing.
After some social maneuvering, we eventually became friends, and he told me his story. I wont go too deep into details, but as a young kid he lived a bit furthur deep in the South and was a member of a community allied with (but not explicitly apart of) the KKK.
Raised with white supremicist dogma, he was taught lots of buzzwords to alienate different ethnic groups and religious followings.
Niggers, gooks, spics, and kikes were all of the weaker race and their very presence sapped the people of purity and strength.. mutts (the offspring of a multi-ethnic relationship) were less then dogs, as they were living embodiments of the vision of man's future they fought against.
He told me stories of acts of violence committed for the cause, and how he honestly felt he was fighting a good fight.
One day though, he attained a kind of clarity and realized exactly what was happening and turned his back on the twisted teachings he was raised with.
Here in Seattle, I knew a street kid named Raven who had a similar upbringing, but had not yet shattered the grip of control his poison had over him.. last I heard of him this poison cursed him with a blood clot in/near his heart and it was speculated on the streets that he might not make it.
These kinds of white supremicist (or any other prejudiced group for that matter) factions, though horrifying in their principles and actions do serve one positive purpose I feel.
They serve as a bad example.. they show us in a very tangible fashion the dangers an undisciplined and unchecked mind can pose to us, completely taking over our choices and perceptions with dogmatic beliefs and social conditioning. They show us exactly what we can become if we are not vigilant and do not question what we believe to be true. As such, for the most part we are in the same boat as they.. though the symptoms are different and perhaps not as severe, the disease is the same, and I feel in reaching people like that, it is only from that understanding that any real progress can be made.
~Zeph is strangely prejudiced against Hawai'ian natives like himself~

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

interesting, thanks.

It's frustrating to think that blokes like this, who sincerely seem to mean well, can end up losing their job and having to lose huge amounts of money, while here in the US we've got senators and congressmen, not to mention peopl ein other important positions, who are openly racist and nothing happens to them.

[kali-ma.livejournal.com]

I am, despite my higher desire to be the contrary, slightly racist. I was raised in the South, I was taught to think this way. I think any time anyone notices someone's color and allows that to affect their perception/opinion of that person's behavior, one is being racist. But People also don't seem to realize often that their are levels of racism. There are slight degrees of racism, in which someone starts to think in these patterns only if one feels angry or slighted by the person they are being racist towards, and there are overt and extreme forms of racism in which people feel someone with a different color skin or ancestry is less than human and should be treated as such.
It is hard to overcome early training. I heard about a study done once with some white people who all answered on a questionairre that they were not racist. They were then shown a very short video with a few seconds of a white man and black man struggling. In the video, the white man actually "stabs" the black man, but most of the watchers saw the opposite because of unconcious racism.
I think what this guy did is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum though. Even if he thought the mike was off, it was a stupid and mean thing to do.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I heard about a study done once with some white people who all answered on a questionairre that they were not racist. They were then shown a very short video with a few seconds of a white man and black man struggling. In the video, the white man actually "stabs" the black man, but most of the watchers saw the opposite because of unconcious racism.

I'd love to know more about this study.

I completely agree with you that there are degrees of racism.

[kali-ma.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I looked around to see if I could find it but I couldn't. It is an older study and therefore probably not widely referenced on the internet. I am pretty certain I heard about it while reading stuff on perception in a Robert Anton Wilson book.

[j-brannan.livejournal.com]

does the article actually mention Atkinson's "race"?

...just something to think about.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

This is because whiteness is an invisible race.

I would suppose the author didn't feel the need to specifically mention Atkinson's race because 1) the audience of the paper would probably have that knowledge beforehand and 2) because his race is rather obvious from the subtext of the article.

[j-brannan.livejournal.com]

i don't think whiteness is invisible. neither is blackness, nor redness, nor yellowness. and i don't find most things obvious.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I'm speaking culturally. White is the default. In general, white isn't brought up when speaking about someone's race unless it's in terms of contrast.

[j-brannan.livejournal.com]

white is the default? i don't think it is possible to prove that.

and what about "white trash"? you know trailers, meth, and shit.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

This is such a truism, I can't believe you want to drag me into a debate about it.

Why do you think it was such a big deal for Bush to have two members of his cabinet to be black? If it weren't an unusual thing, why would there have been so much made of it?

Race is a social construct; it is the social perception of race that gives it power. It is a plain fact that the social perception of race during the 20th century in America was overwhelming skewed to portray whiteness as the norm. Yes, this perception started to change in the '70s, but old beliefs die hard. Ideas about race, holdovers from the civil rights era and before, still run deep in this country. Change in such ideas is a glacial process. Even though minorities as a whole are gaining numbers in terms of population, the majority is still seen as being white. It will probably be a long time before that idea changes.

[j-brannan.livejournal.com]

truism? :P that's a hoot. kind of like being honestish.

i'm not trying to "drag" you into anything. you seem to be leading the way all by yourself.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I don't have my notes from my college courses on the matter; they're currently in storage. One book I read for my Anthropology of American Culture class was White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness by Ruth Frankenberg. It was revolutionary to me (and to several scholars in American Studies) that "whiteness" was being studied. American Studies has been around since before the 1950s, but it wasn't until the 1990s that race in America was studied where the subject focused on whiteness in itself. The book is a dry read, but an important one.

I'm not just spouting off a personal opinion when I say that whiteness is a norm. Many other sociologists have said the same thing.

[j-brannan.livejournal.com]

personally, i don't like being labelled "white". my skin is more a light peach color. yeah i need a tan and shit, but whatchagonnado?

i don't really care much for books anymore. but i do find you quite interesting. ;)

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Well, I understand the dislike of labels. I don't like being labelled "black", because I don't really think of race, especially when I think of myself. I've identified with mainstream cultural values for as long as I can remember. Whatever "blackness" is, I have less of that and more "whiteness" on the whole. I just don't have the skin color or features to match. (It's specifically for this reason that I recognize that race is a social construct; otherwise I should be "black" through and through, with no question of being able to be a "race traitor".)

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Speaking of blackness, here's an article at AlterNet about it. How timely.