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MrScorpio

(73,631 posts)
Tue Jul 18, 2017, 08:55 PM Jul 2017

This is the Best Explanation of Why White People Cant Recognize or Accept the Reality of Racism

As an African-American woman, I think that part of the reason that it’s such a challenge for white people to recognize and accept the reality of racism is because they truly don’t understand what it is and, in many cases, don’t care to learn, either. But whether their ignorance is deliberate or not, it’s important that the true definition of racism be made available to, at a minimum, prevent the “unknowing” whites from saying it was never available for them to learn.

Racism is often used in a loose and heedless way to describe the belief that on the basis of their genetic difference, some racial groups are innately superior to other racial groups in intelligence, temperament, and attitudes. However, to describe racism simply as a peculiar idea does a major disservice to the deplorable impact that racism has had on the economies and histories of most of the world.

Racism is a system of power and prejudice designed to subjugate people of color, while preserving the resources, opportunities, and privileges of white people. This system is fundamentally a socioeconomic structure that not only directly proposes to sustain the racial order—whites leading the racial hierarchy—but it also uses religion, politics, and education to preserve the freedoms naturally warranted to white people. Moreover, based on history, racism has awarded white people the power, resources, and wealth to deprive, exploit, and injure blacks and other minority groups for beneficial purposes—usually economic, political, and social gain.

Still, aside from the systematic pervasion of racism that has gravely impacted black and brown society, the most common form of racism is subtle racism or microaggression. This form of racism I have personally found many white people to be oblivious to. For instance, if a white “friend” says to their black friend, “Geez Ray, you’re really smart and cool. You’re nothing like other black people.”

http://racisminamerica.org/best-explanation-white-people-cant-recognize-accept-reality-racism/

34 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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This is the Best Explanation of Why White People Cant Recognize or Accept the Reality of Racism (Original Post) MrScorpio Jul 2017 OP
This message was self-deleted by its author drray23 Jul 2017 #1
All humanity suffers from the effects of racism randr Jul 2017 #2
While I agree with some of what you say, this is wrong. sheshe2 Jul 2017 #8
yeah and once you took heaven05 Jul 2017 #17
hippie shaming was a thing because it was based on values: JHan Jul 2017 #18
i grew up integrated + i loved it. little white me. i always felt racism + sensed it, but now i pansypoo53219 Jul 2017 #3
black people don't understand the biggest source/excuser of racism because certainot Jul 2017 #4
No. Invisible systemic zentrum Jul 2017 #5
no, there's a really idiotic situation where 1200 radio stations are used certainot Jul 2017 #6
i disagree, people who listen to that crap are already racist and listen to it because they agree JI7 Jul 2017 #7
Exactly. Rush or Sean or Trump appeal to people who Eliot Rosewater Jul 2017 #9
rw radio is a PSYOPS and the racists may be part of the primary target but certainot Jul 2017 #11
Not at all, for instance when a certain progressive radio host and a certain Eliot Rosewater Jul 2017 #13
there are a shitload of people getting it passively along with news traffic weather etc who certainot Jul 2017 #15
in most parts of the country there are no free easy alts for politics and news certainot Jul 2017 #10
I'd love to see some objective numbers which support your premise alone. LanternWaste Jul 2017 #12
what would you say happened in this country the last 30 years? certainot Jul 2017 #14
We had a black president. What we are seeing now is a backlash against the progress we made JI7 Jul 2017 #16
what fuels the backlash? certainot Jul 2017 #19
Talk radio appeals to them because it says what they want to believe JI7 Jul 2017 #20
so you're saying it's a 95% monopoly because that's what americans want? certainot Jul 2017 #21
Not all. Just the racists. JI7 Jul 2017 #22
racism isn't the only reason they listen certainot Jul 2017 #23
you think racism is genetic and environment doesn't matter then certainot Jul 2017 #24
Because being a racist is something that you either are or are not, obviously, with no in-between. YoungDemCA Jul 2017 #28
Yes there is in between but when one supports trump its very clear JI7 Jul 2017 #30
You claim correlation between cause and effect as an absolute, and offer zero evidence. LanternWaste Jul 2017 #25
your sister's a whore, your brother a thief, and you're a traitor certainot Jul 2017 #27
Black people deal with bigotry throughout their lives. Even more so decades ago JI7 Jul 2017 #29
White people stopped supporting democrats before Reagan. They stopped after lbj signed civil rights JI7 Jul 2017 #31
there's a huge spectrum of degrees of racism based on life experience, education, certainot Jul 2017 #32
they aren't living in north korea. and right wingers in boston and philadelphia also spew the racist JI7 Jul 2017 #33
never mind, you either didn't read or won't believe that certainot Jul 2017 #34
Here's a test for those of us who are white- Dyedinthewoolliberal Jul 2017 #26

Response to MrScorpio (Original post)

randr

(12,412 posts)
2. All humanity suffers from the effects of racism
Tue Jul 18, 2017, 10:05 PM
Jul 2017

and I further add that racism, while tied to skin color and ethnicity, is part of a larger "cultural conflict" that separates people through the pervasive use of subtle "microaggessive" means, as you have noted, yet goes unnoticed.
The truth of our individual experiences is personal and profound.
I along with thousands of other Americans, was privileged to fly my freak flag high starting in the sixties. As a male with long hair I became subject to a hatred openly expressed toward myself and fellow "hippies" by people of all ages and colors. It did not take long for us to grasp the underbelly of frustration and hatred brewing in the national psych. Many discussions took place among our collective band of American "rejects" of every ethnicity and color about this phenomenon. We really did believe that by showing a solidarity in celebration of our wildly varied colors, hair styles, clothing, behaviors, and open expressions of civil disobedience we could change the world at large. It was not to be the case, though many advances were made and continue to be made as the rights machine moves on.
However, the subtle "cultural conflict" I refereed to is still with us unnoticed and pervasive. The hatred expressed toward American "hippies" is now an important part of the new calling card of the conservative, pro-white, racist crowd that is still threatened by anyone "different" from them.
While people of color are the most common victims of this aggression, we can also see it expressed today as a distrust of facts, higher education, acceptance of a more politically correct society, and denial of any and all important issues raised by the "hippy" crowd. Issues such as climate consciousness, effects of human activity on our fragile environment, eating better for wellness, and the advancement of alternate renewable energies are now reasons to separate us. A reasoning that grew out of hatred and disdain for a generation that dared to challenge the status quo.
We all are suffering under the oppressive yoke of racism, we just have not acknowledged that it affects us all the same in subtle and profoundly global ways.

sheshe2

(83,791 posts)
8. While I agree with some of what you say, this is wrong.
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 12:52 AM
Jul 2017

Quote.

"We all are suffering under the oppressive yoke of racism, we just have not acknowledged that it affects us all the same in subtle and profoundly global ways."

----------------------------

No. Hippies with their long hair, colorful clothes, headbands, music and free spirit and a toke or two were never under the oppressive yoke of racism. Systematic racism is predominantly about black people, includes people of color, yet it is predominately about blacks and our sordid past of slavery. Long after...80 years long after the emancipation proclamation we white people continued to purchase slaves. We went out of our way to trump up bogus charges of vagrancy, whistling at a white woman or just flat out lying to take them before a so called judge, call them guilty, incarcerate them and then lease them out to the highest bidder. These men were freed slaves that were once again forced into slavery and were treated worse than animals. These freemen were held in chains and half beaten to death if they could not work from dawn to dusk. They lived in filth and fed little. Actually many of these freed black men and women died from starvation, illnesses, festering wounds from whippings and from neglect. Some were hung and some just shot and were buried in what could be the largest grave sites the south has ever seen.

Slavery never officially ended until WWII. Think about that. It did not end until WWII. Sadly the racism continues for those that are black. One way or the other they are still enslaved by a system that treats them unfairly.

So slavery is now done, finally. Now some just want to shoot them down in the streets. The latest video from the NRA that features their spokeswoman Loesch calls for arms and the death of black and brown people.

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
17. yeah and once you took
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 07:18 PM
Jul 2017

Last edited Thu Jul 20, 2017, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)

your "freak flag" down, took a shower, got a haircut, bought a briefcase and walked past the wall street bull, you were set for life, all metaphorical of course. Once the black nationalist cut his afro down to acceptable, by whites, length, he/she were still black and subject to the racism you, metaphorically, just walked away from. Racism does make white people victims alright, victims of their own ignorance and hate. That's all.

JHan

(10,173 posts)
18. hippie shaming was a thing because it was based on values:
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 07:23 PM
Jul 2017

meaning hippies came to represent a set of values outside the norm at the time and treated with disdain. If you had cut your hair and wore a suit, people would have been none the wiser as to your philosophical leanings.

Racism is pernicious specifically because it ignores value systems, merit, ideology, and judges a person solely on their ethnic heritage.

Even in circumstances where whites were discriminated against by other whites, it was based on "ethnicity" , for example the Irish or the Sicilians or the Polish, but eventually these groups came to be seen as "white" as "anglo-saxons" . No such cover exists for black people unless you had african ancestry but could still "pass".

pansypoo53219

(20,981 posts)
3. i grew up integrated + i loved it. little white me. i always felt racism + sensed it, but now i
Tue Jul 18, 2017, 10:41 PM
Jul 2017

am LEARNING how INSTITUTIONAL is is & i keep pointing it out to my moderate epals. fuck bootstraps.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
4. black people don't understand the biggest source/excuser of racism because
Tue Jul 18, 2017, 10:58 PM
Jul 2017

they don't listen to talk radio

most liberals don't either, and they have no clue as to why racism has taken a turn for the worse the last 30 years.

there are 1200 or so radio stations that do subtle and not so subtle racism and making excuses for it 15 hrs a day 5 days a week to 50 mil a week while african americans ignore it. limbaugh still regularly sarcastically calls mike brown a 'gentle giant'. he made up an absurd pretext to say "obama's head needs to roll" and no one noticed. they call blm a terrorist group. they said obama and holder facilitated the ferguson riots. and so on. they're constantly on the lookout to emphasize crimes by brown people and use the same techniques to demonize immigrants to help them pass voter id laws.

what is absurdly and tragically ironic is that kkk-lite radio depends heavily on black athletes in university sports - more than 257 limbaugh stations depend on the sports of 88 major universities to attract advertisers.

zentrum

(9,865 posts)
5. No. Invisible systemic
Tue Jul 18, 2017, 11:18 PM
Jul 2017

....racism existed long before hate radio. It's baked into the Constitution as well as the electoral college and the omissions in our education from the very beginning.

Not only do white people not understand racism, they don't see their own privilege. I'm a white woman, but I'm very saddened by how long it's taken me to actually see what's in front of me every day. Still and always in the process of waking up.

It's up to white people to demand truth and reconciliation trials and reparations---something few will get behind. That's the only way to start to repair the gaping wound of this country. Our schools still don't teach us a tenth of our real history and we need to demand a true accounting. And then to try to set it right.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
6. no, there's a really idiotic situation where 1200 radio stations are used
Tue Jul 18, 2017, 11:34 PM
Jul 2017

to make excuses for racism 15 hrs a day.

democracy was moving forward and addressing institutional racism until the talk radio monopoly/psyops

racism will always be a problem and there will always be a hard core racist minority 10%, or whatever. but 1200 radio stations making excuses for racism, ridiculing 'liberal' notions of 'white privilege' and affirmative action, rationalizing slavery, etc it's been used by the republicans and more recently by putin to make excuses for racism and make it more acceptable. they are using it to divide and pass voter suppression, all day long and the idiot dumb fuck democrats and liberals, especially the orgs, have been ignoring it for 30 years.

JI7

(89,252 posts)
7. i disagree, people who listen to that crap are already racist and listen to it because they agree
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 12:42 AM
Jul 2017

with it. they also watch fox news.

they have access to other media and sources also .

Eliot Rosewater

(31,112 posts)
9. Exactly. Rush or Sean or Trump appeal to people who
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 11:12 AM
Jul 2017

already are racists, misogynists and bigots.

Add Putin to the mix and steal an election or two, and the country is gone overnight.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
11. rw radio is a PSYOPS and the racists may be part of the primary target but
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 12:33 PM
Jul 2017

there's a massive secondary and tertiary target audience of apathetic and too-busy americans hearing the excuses and lies and bullshit from friends and family and coworkers or white trying to get the weather report and news driving every day - how BLM is a terrorist org, or the new black panthers are intimidating republican voters, or obama is letting brown people across the border to bring ebola into the schools, etc. or the think tank produced bullshit with cherrypicked numbers about black on black crime, or IQ, or whatever.

and then they dump carloads of free guns into chicago so they can put it on obama.

what you are suggesting is that such propaganda is irrelevant, or doesn't work

Eliot Rosewater

(31,112 posts)
13. Not at all, for instance when a certain progressive radio host and a certain
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 03:18 PM
Jul 2017

progressive US Senator meet once a week for years on national radio and RAG on the Democratic Party, over and over and over, it does have an effect.

I dont disagree, I am just saying most of the audience is already there.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
15. there are a shitload of people getting it passively along with news traffic weather etc who
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 05:17 PM
Jul 2017

could just as easily or more easily tune in liberal talk vs music or rw hate and lies if there were even a 25% liberal talk radio.

suggesting 95% is a representation of market demand, as the rcons do, is an insult to americans!

as for hartmann and sanders, they did criticize but it was usually constructive and hartmann was constructive throughout his shows in general.

the real suppression was the russian trollers piggybacking 25 years of clinton swiftboat radio - which only worked because the idiot left ignores talk radio. and were they doing some of that in 2010 too? and 14? even without russians the rcon radio shits did pretty well blaming their obstruction on obama's lack of trying. believed here by many.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
10. in most parts of the country there are no free easy alts for politics and news
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 12:26 PM
Jul 2017

we let 1200-1500 radio stations blast 40 states with 80 senators 15 hrs /day to excuse racism.

next time there's a mike brown or trayvon martin event turn it on and hear the excuses and vilification and attacks on BLM etc. those stations are kkk-lite, making it acceptable because non racist americans listen to the music and ignore it.

and there are significant secondary and tertiary effects past the royal listeners. that 50% who are too busy or lazy to pay attention get the buzz too

here's some simple math:
at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 5 = $75,000/wk x 1200 stations rw talk radio is worth $18MIL/day or 390MIL$ /month or 4.68 BIL$/ year FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican free market deregulation and wall st think tank propaganda, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.

it's a huge mistake for liberals to assume that talk radio is just another part of the free speech mix - it is a coordinated propaganda operation thats been very successful using racism to sell voter suppression and other republican bullshit and ignoring it is the biggest political mistake in history - now we see the results at the top.

 

LanternWaste

(37,748 posts)
12. I'd love to see some objective numbers which support your premise alone.
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 03:17 PM
Jul 2017

"democracy was moving forward and addressing institutional racism until the talk radio monopoly..."


I'd love to see some objective numbers which support your premise alone, while avoiding the post hoc ergo prompter hoc fallacy.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
14. what would you say happened in this country the last 30 years?
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 05:09 PM
Jul 2017

looks to me like we've regressed - just ask any foreign observer.

seems to me we've gone backwards since reagan. it's not cyclical unless you believe in astrology and money and media are SYMPTOMS of not being able to fix those problems. the main reason is americans who have ignored talk radio while it was used over and over to short circuit democratic feedback with a few hundred pro liars on 1200 radio stations.

if you're young you've grown up in a talk radio america.

consider that ALEX could hardly do shit until early nineties when talk radio kicked in. that's also when r-cons finally took the house. and when record partisanship started. why do you think fox is even possible? or bush, palin, and trump?

talk radio is the ONLY major medium with NO countering alternative on the left.

JI7

(89,252 posts)
16. We had a black president. What we are seeing now is a backlash against the progress we made
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 07:05 PM
Jul 2017

Including in areas like gay rights.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
19. what fuels the backlash?
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 07:51 PM
Jul 2017

he was obstructed successfully on most issues. they pledged non-cooperation and the racism ramped up because he was there. the most effective tool they had was talk radio because it was ignored

gay rights are another place where talk radio does most of the damage. the bathroom laws were preceded by constant yammering by national and local radio hacks about liberals letting guys walk into the bathroom with your wife and daughter. i heard it in NM where i don't think it was even an issue.

the fuckers in the think tanks watch for progress, yawn, design a pr campaign to counter it or enable rcons to pass legislation to counter it, and blast it out of the appropriate radio stations. then the buzz keeps going and infects/intimidates/enables other media.

and liberals, especially in big cities, have no clue and think it has validity and popular support.

JI7

(89,252 posts)
20. Talk radio appeals to them because it says what they want to believe
Wed Jul 19, 2017, 08:00 PM
Jul 2017

They watch fox news also. They have access to media if they get fox news.

They also doing care about russia hacking the election.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
21. so you're saying it's a 95% monopoly because that's what americans want?
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 12:12 AM
Jul 2017

it's an insult to americans to suggest americans prefer the hate and stupid of rw radio

it reaches 50 mil a week and dominates 40 states with 80 senators

it's a propaganda operation and it reaches a lot of people who would be listening to alternatives if they were available.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
23. racism isn't the only reason they listen
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 12:26 AM
Jul 2017

there are a lot of degrees of racism made worse by liberal ignore-ance of talk radio

those radio stations make it more acceptable because, for instance, limbaugh can call trayvon martin a 'thug' all day to 15 mil from 600 radio stations and no one can challenge him on that.

 

YoungDemCA

(5,714 posts)
28. Because being a racist is something that you either are or are not, obviously, with no in-between.
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 05:40 PM
Jul 2017
 

LanternWaste

(37,748 posts)
25. You claim correlation between cause and effect as an absolute, and offer zero evidence.
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 12:32 PM
Jul 2017

You claim correlation between cause and effect as an absolute, and offer zero evidence.

Accepting the fact of racism as a currently endemic part and parcel of this culture does not correlate to its cause.

Provide objective evidence that one the one is the primary cause of the other, or it's simply an unsupported allegation.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
27. your sister's a whore, your brother a thief, and you're a traitor
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 03:12 PM
Jul 2017

if a guy set up a soapbox across the street and yelled that 5 days a week 15 hours a day and you just walked by with your fingers in your ears how long would it take before your neighbors might start to believe it?

when reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 87 they put carnival barkers on every corner and stump in the country yelling crap like that all day about everything liberal. for 30 years. liberals did nothing. a lot of it was/is racist. brown people and other non racists did nothing. it was/is misogynist and it was/is homophobic.

at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 5 = $75,000/wk x 1200 stations rw talk radio is worth $18MIL/day or 390MIL$ /month or 4.68 BIL$/ year FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican free market deregulation and wall st think tank propaganda, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.

a lot of is using racism to divide and cause fear to get people to vote republican.

it's common sense. by ignoring it, liberals and non racists have made it more acceptable. there's no need for a philosophy lesson.

JI7

(89,252 posts)
29. Black people deal with bigotry throughout their lives. Even more so decades ago
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 08:33 PM
Jul 2017

But most did not respond to those things by supporting someone like trump.

People habe choices. Racist whites Are not the victims of racism against blacks.

JI7

(89,252 posts)
31. White people stopped supporting democrats before Reagan. They stopped after lbj signed civil rights
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 08:37 PM
Jul 2017

Laws . And he said that would happen.

 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
32. there's a huge spectrum of degrees of racism based on life experience, education,
Thu Jul 20, 2017, 08:53 PM
Jul 2017

etc.

giving the KKK 1500 radio stations and ignoring them is a recipe for increasing racism nationally.

worse than that we let 88 universities support 257 limbaugh stations with broadcasting of their sports. with tragic irony that talk radio monopoly depends on a hell of a lot on black athletes.

JI7

(89,252 posts)
33. they aren't living in north korea. and right wingers in boston and philadelphia also spew the racist
Fri Jul 21, 2017, 12:06 AM
Jul 2017

shit and we k now they have access to other news.

these people believe what they want to believe.

just look at how they don't have a problem with Russia interfering in the election to help Trump .

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