Harm, friend. I take all kinds of shit for being white, and you know how much it affects my real lived experience? Not at all, because you can talk shit to me all you want, if you can’t back it up, it doesn’t matter. My Jamaican cousin, my indigenous friend growing up, or the Indian girl I dated in High School on the other hand by definition has to deal with the fact that those words can and often are backed up by petty people who absolutely can get away with that.
You’re now talking in circles. I did just explain why the amount of perceived or real harm caused by racist treatment does nothing to qualify or disqualify it as racism.
The redefinition of “racism” to mean only “racially-motivated oppression” appears to have had two major negative effects.
It makes us all waste time arguing about a word even when we agree on the injustice, and thus have less energy to fight that injustice.
By linguistically excluding whites we give rhetorical space for white resentment and anti-white prejudice, which politically helps bad actors benefit electorally from the former.
Arguing that racial animus towards whites doesn’t count as racism helped Trump get elected!
I’d be very interested in any information about the positive effects it’s had to offset either of the above. From my perspective I don’t see them.
Arguing that racial animus towards whites doesn’t count as racism helped Trump get elected!
That’s pretty damning in itself isn’t it. A few minor semantic differences and half of America is ready to vote for the living embodiment of the 7 deadly sins? A convicted felon, a rapist, a monster. A hateful, incompetent, malignant joke of a human being. Perhaps this is what we needed. Someone to cut open the thin veneer of civilization and show all of us just how unfit America is. To break the illusion that our neighbours are good people.
You see, I don’t think that’s true. I’m pretty sure there’s always been disagreement on the precise subtext of that word, and it just hasn’t mattered much until people started trying to use it to mean things that are semantically nonsensical to half the country.
Harm, friend. I take all kinds of shit for being white, and you know how much it affects my real lived experience? Not at all, because you can talk shit to me all you want, if you can’t back it up, it doesn’t matter. My Jamaican cousin, my indigenous friend growing up, or the Indian girl I dated in High School on the other hand by definition has to deal with the fact that those words can and often are backed up by petty people who absolutely can get away with that.
You’re now talking in circles. I did just explain why the amount of perceived or real harm caused by racist treatment does nothing to qualify or disqualify it as racism.
Because you said so?
Piping in here:
The redefinition of “racism” to mean only “racially-motivated oppression” appears to have had two major negative effects.
Arguing that racial animus towards whites doesn’t count as racism helped Trump get elected!
I’d be very interested in any information about the positive effects it’s had to offset either of the above. From my perspective I don’t see them.
That’s pretty damning in itself isn’t it. A few minor semantic differences and half of America is ready to vote for the living embodiment of the 7 deadly sins? A convicted felon, a rapist, a monster. A hateful, incompetent, malignant joke of a human being. Perhaps this is what we needed. Someone to cut open the thin veneer of civilization and show all of us just how unfit America is. To break the illusion that our neighbours are good people.
You can always disagree, but I’m quite certain you’d be going against the consensus of most people familiar with this topic.
You see, I don’t think that’s true. I’m pretty sure there’s always been disagreement on the precise subtext of that word, and it just hasn’t mattered much until people started trying to use it to mean things that are semantically nonsensical to half the country.