America is NOT a Racist Country.

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That sounds like plain obnoxious racist behaviour, which is already illegal. Privilege is a more ethereal concept - a way of explaining why differences persist despite reams of anti-discrimination laws existing.

I've been allowed to use bathrooms in restaurants----where black people have been denied the use of the bathroom.

If you really have to "go," and you gain access to a bathroom, you feel privileged----trust me!

The manifestations of racism in the United States are uniquely grotesque, frankly. It goes beyond the pale.

Read about what happened to Emmitt Till because he whistled at a white women.....

??? Simply look at how regression analysis is performed. It is a common tool

Last edited by Jiheisho on 24 May 2021, 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No. The effect of income can be shown as independent from race/ethnicity. But a rich white person has very different outcomes than a poor white person. And a poor black person has different outcomes from a poor white person.

Since the 60's?

Uniquely how? Are there no uniquely racist countries besides the United States?

Very recently. Not even five years.

Of course, there are "uniquely racist countries" other than the US. And some that are worse than the US.

But the US form of racism is just friggin' weird sometimes. It's indicative of some deeply-ingrained psychological problem.

They didn't just lynch black people.....they did other things which I don't want to write down here. They did things that they used to do in England in the 15-16th centuries. And they would do these things with very little provocation. Whistling at a white woman was grounds for lynching sometimes.

No, this is not part of the American character, I don't believe. Most people didn't buy into this stuff. But enough did so that life was very difficult for black people for a very long time in a vast portion of this country.

Well, it has been a long road, but you have finally come around to recognizing the US is a racist country after all.

I don't feel this is a "racist" country. I feel this is a country with racists.

I think there is quite a difference between a country where there are racists (all countries) and a racist country. It seems that we have so few real racists that hoaxers such as Jussie Smollet has to resort to hiring some nigerian bodybuilders to hoax a racist hate crime.

Most people here aren't abject racists-----but many are racists of a more subtle variety. And that goes for nonwhite people as well as white people.

Well, there are plenty of white supremacist and white nationalist groups in the US.

But racism is not simply overt. Systemic racism is also an issue. That is down to not only behavior, but also policy.

But if you think American exceptionalism is at work, sadly, racism, both overt and systemic, is found around the world.

I don't deny anything you just wrote. It's all true.

I just don't go to the extreme and attribute "automatic racism" to myself merely by virtue of being white. Or say that people who aren't white "can't" be racists.

Well I'd have to agree with you that most aren't abject racists. My problem comes with the idea that the country is full of secret racists. Or worst yet, the gas-lighting CRT promoters who assure me that I'm a racist whether I believe it or not.

What you "believe" is quite irrelevant to what "is". No, things are not AS BAD as they were, but america still accepts as true a massive number of racist beliefs, and uses them as justification for the way things are. Racism doesn't have to be rounding up literally all black people to be murdered. Racism can be as simple as genuinely believing that black people just aren't as smart in general, or genuinely believing that black people are more violent in general, while hiding behind all-or-nothing nonsense.

When people say things like:

"I don't think ALL black people are lazy, I'm sure SOME of them CAN work hard, but MANY of them..."
"I don't think ALL black people are less intelligent, I'm sure some of them CAN be smart, but MANY of them..."
"I don't think ALL black people are animals, I'm sure SOME of them can act civilized, but MANY of them..."

It's not less-racist just cos you fleetingly acknowledge that not ALL of them are one way or another - the default assumption is still that they ARE those things, unless they prove otherwise.

"But you're assuming that white people are a certain way!! ! That's the same thing!! !"

Nooooo, White american CULTURE has certain assumptions embedded in it, assumptions like "black people are more likely to be lazy / violent". People are merely pointing out the error in these assumptions. The RACIST HISTORY behind these assumptions. The only time people get dragged into is, is when people perpetuate those racist ideas. And when someone replies "that's kinda racist", they're referring to the IDEA, not the PERSON.

As for the idea that white privilege can't exist unless it ABSULITELY 100% benefits ALL white people, that's a lovely all-or-nothing argument. But that's like saying "I can't be cheating, cos I still lost once!" even if you win 99 out of 100 times. LOST ONCE! DIDNT CHEAT! EXONERATED!! ! Or that since you won ONE TIME at a casino, that PROVES the casino can't be rigged against you.

A net cast for tuna can still catch a dolphin. A trap set for a particular social group can still catch other social groups. But traps like that can usually be avoided with money. Poor people are more likely to get caught in them. And on the list of people that capitalist america has no problem taking advantage of, "poor people" rank pretty low, too. So if a few poor white people get stuck in the trap along with all the POC, who cares? It's just more exploitable labor. You'll notice the slur "white trash" is mostly used by other white people, and refers explicitly to poor white people. Cos white american CULTURE is classist as well as racist. RICH is GOOD, POOR is BAD. And all the stigma that goes along with being "poor". So what do they care if some poor white people get caught in the same trap as POC.

Racism isn't seeing a black person and thinking "BOY DO I HATE THEM! I JUST HATE THEM SO MUCH!"

Racism is seeing a black person and assuming they're more likely to be violent, lazy, or stupid - especially if they "look black" or "act black" - and thinking there's nothing wrong with that assumption.

I've spent the last 30 years collecting offensive jokes. I have scores of them. On every slur you can imagine. In that time, I've seen jokes about mexicans, italians, greeks, french, poles, czechs, blacks, africans, asians, native americans, middle easterners, indians, gays, jews, muslims, trans people, and more - and how stupid lazy ugly smelly cowardly thieving violent useless dangerous promiscuous vile dirty or disgusting they are - but things are unusually tame when it comes to whites and christians. Insult comedy about white people is relatively "new", and is usually about how blinding they are in the sun, how easily they burn, thinking salt is spicy, being obsessed with mayonnaise or tom jones, dancing poorly, british are obsessed with tea had have bad teeth, australians live off fosters and prawns, or how darn nice those canadians are. You can't even remind white people that white culture USED to be openly racist (not even that long ago) without them losing their damn mind and gnawing on the walls in rage at how offensive the comment was.

As for the argument that "if there's WHITE privilege, then there MUST ALSO be all these OTHER kinds of privilege" - this is a false equivalency argument, that assumes that everything exists equally against it's exact opposite. And while yes, theoretically they CAN exist, privilege goes to those who hold POWER. And anglo culture is really proud of bragging how much POWER it has. Anglo culture has a long history of bragging about it's POWER.

"The sun never sets on the british empire!" they used to boast. America claimed it was it's "MANIFEST DESTINY!" to eradicate the natives and steal boldly discover all this amazing UNINHABITED land! Whites proudly claimed for centuries that they had every right to enslave the "lesser races", as Man (WHITE man) has always had the god given ability to tame and use beasts of burned to do his bidding, and while the "lesser races" may be in the form of Man, and may learn a few of His tricks, the are still no more a Man than the apes these "lesser races" live among. This used to be "common knowledge" according to white anglo culture.

"Blacks are lazy / stupid / violent" or similar sentiments, are the last dying gasp of those old beliefs. White CULTURE has long patted itself on the back for being "DA BEST", and now that we're discovering that that's maybe not quite the way it is, white people are losing their minds over the thought of losing their specialness. White anglo CULTURE is like a young pretty girl that got special treatment from everyone and came to expect it, and now that it's old and unpopular and people are moving on to other things, it's outraged for no longer receiving the treatment it used to.

"WeStEnR cUlTuRe Is BeInG dEsTrOyEd!" "Western culture" is just white anglo christian european pretentiousness that invaded half the world and never left. Now that it's losing power and being reabsorbed by a larger modern global culture, it's also terrified that they'll be treated the same way they've been treating everyone else for the last 1000 years. And since white anglo christian philosophy is obsessed with revenge and punishment, it assumes that everyone else wants the same.

"Western culture" isn't being destroyed. It's falling apart. It's old and worn and can't hold itself together anymore.
The foundations built on lies and half-truths are crumbling. It's time to grow up and move on to something else.