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Speaking as someone who was raised by racists to be a racist, this misses the mark.
Racism is a cultural phenomenon. When one is surrounded by racists from one's earliest years, a person is trained by their culture to embrace the ideas of racism as *reality* and *truth*.
Racism is a cultural phenomenon. When one is surrounded by racists from one's earliest years, a person is trained by their culture to embrace the ideas of racism as *reality* and *truth*.
Nearly everyone you know sees BIPOC as inferior and dangerous. Your family believes it, your peers, your teachers, your pastor... everyone around you who you've known since you were a little kid.
It's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
Sure, racism lends a sense of being "better than" to a white person and that can feel good but that's not the origin of the belief in that person's life, generally. You are brought up to believe that racism is * human reality.* Some parts of humanity are just *bad*, by default.
Regardless of what the world outside of your white social circles says about racism and BIPOC, you're going to believe your racist white friends, family, and neighbors. Those are the people in your life. They form the foundation of your social reality.
Add in a white supremacist media industry and social media, and the circle is complete.
Your racist understanding of humanity is supported from nearly all angles in your life.
Do-gooder liberals are blind, stupid, dangerous fools. They endanger you, your family, and community.
Your racist understanding of humanity is supported from nearly all angles in your life.
Do-gooder liberals are blind, stupid, dangerous fools. They endanger you, your family, and community.
And you will FIGHT them tooth and nail, if it comes to that. https://twitter.com/timberwraith/status/1353477082773299200
There aren't easy, rapid solutions to this because racism is a self-sustaining culture which is thoroughly embedded throughout white communities.
Even if one somehow eliminates the economic incentives which white, patriarchal capitalism provides, the culture will still sustain itself under its own social momentum.
The dream that anti-capitalism will somehow magically erase racism is ill-informed.
The dream that anti-capitalism will somehow magically erase racism is ill-informed.
I think the 2nd half of this statement is partially correct.
Racism should be harshly penalized to de-incentivized the *expression* of racism. That won't change peoples' minds. It'll piss off and enrage them... but it will help hinder the open promulgation of racism to others.
Racism should be harshly penalized to de-incentivized the *expression* of racism. That won't change peoples' minds. It'll piss off and enrage them... but it will help hinder the open promulgation of racism to others.
Another solution, contrary to the original statement, is actually education.
Not education for the sake of adult racists. They don't care and will likely will cling to their prejudiced worldviews.
I'm talking about education for the sake of children and younger people.
Not education for the sake of adult racists. They don't care and will likely will cling to their prejudiced worldviews.
I'm talking about education for the sake of children and younger people.
Do you know what helped break through my racism as a kid?
In spite of being trained to be prejudiced and hateful by my white community, there were anti-racist messages embedded in the TV programs I watched and some of the material presented by my public school teachers.
In spite of being trained to be prejudiced and hateful by my white community, there were anti-racist messages embedded in the TV programs I watched and some of the material presented by my public school teachers.
When I started to question my white family & white communities social training, a part of me remembered those anti-racist influences from media and teachers.
It helped.
It helped.
Now, that was the 1970s and 1980s. Those anti-racist messages were pretty rudimentary. I think we can do better than that.
We can embed those anti-racist messages in far wider venues so that children, teens, and young adults are provided counter-messaging which opposes the racist culture they grew up in.
It needs to be a comprehensive, broad-spectrum campaign. Commercials/ads on social media, news papers, etc. Also, regular classwork in public schools which detail the history of civil rights, the impact of racism, the history of this country's role in genocide and slavery, etc.
And for that to work, you have to get the federal and state governments involved.
The downside: white people will fight this. They will see it as dangerous brainwashing. They will organize against it.
The downside: white people will fight this. They will see it as dangerous brainwashing. They will organize against it.
Nevertheless, the way to combat this is to undermine white racist culture by going for its youngest members.
Stop racist acculturation before it sets in beyond the point of being challenged.
Stop racist acculturation before it sets in beyond the point of being challenged.
The only alternative to this approach, as far as I can see it? A continuation of the same racist horror show that we live in... or open bloodshed and war.
Down that avenue lies unpredictable chaos.
Down that avenue lies unpredictable chaos.
And a lot of death.
A lot.
A lot.
