Amazing article, I'm a white male who grew up in rural north central Texas as well and can understand where the author is coming from.
This Is My Racism
11–20 of 37 posts
Re: This Is My Racism
#12"We’ve seen videos of innocent black citizens gunned down by the police that is supposed to protect them" Really? Where are these videos. I think I only saw one video making the rounds where this was the case. The rest was speculation and mob mentality. "Hands up Don't shoot", for instance, never happened. "We’ve seen a community devastated by a terrorist attack that can only be described as pure, premeditated evil"…
Have you considered an anonymous account? You should know that what you've said is considered totally racist these days and you'll have to write an article like the one you just criticized if you ever want to clear your name.
I'm not sure if this response is serious or not, but it's this kind of thinking that makes me lament the loss of reasonable discourse in this country.
Re: This Is My Racism
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you considered an anonymous account? You should know that what you've said is considered totally racist these days and you'll have to write an article like the one you just criticized if you ever want to clear your name.
I'm not sure if this response is serious or not, but it's this kind of thinking that makes me lament the loss of reasonable discourse in this country.
"Reasonable discourse" doesn't start with denying that racism exists in the United States, as the grandparent post does. "We have a black president so we can't be racist" is a pretty damn tired trope.
I think people should be able to speak freely, but I won't lament systemic racism's demise.
Re: This Is My Racism
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure if this response is serious or not, but it's this kind of thinking that makes me lament the loss of reasonable discourse in this country.
"Reasonable discourse" doesn't start with denying that racism exists in the United States, as the grandparent post does. "We have a black president so we can't be racist" is a pretty damn tired trope. I think people should be able to speak freely, but I won't lament systemic racism's demise.
>"Reasonable discourse" doesn't start with denying that racism exists in the United States.
Would you mind quoting the part of his post where he says that racism doesn't exist?
Re: This Is My Racism
#15"We’ve seen videos of innocent black citizens gunned down by the police that is supposed to protect them" Really? Where are these videos. I think I only saw one video making the rounds where this was the case. The rest was speculation and mob mentality. "Hands up Don't shoot", for instance, never happened. "We’ve seen a community devastated by a terrorist attack that can only be described as pure, premeditated evil"…
I think the key point you (and many people) are missing is understanding how much racist behavior is unconscious. I'm engaged to a woman who's half-black, and I still occasionally say something slightly racist by accident.
Check out the Implicit Association Test (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit-association_test) for an introduction to this line of research. You can still be doing/saying racist things while meaning well. The only solution is self-awareness and humility.
Re: This Is My Racism
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Reasonable discourse" doesn't start with denying that racism exists in the United States, as the grandparent post does. "We have a black president so we can't be racist" is a pretty damn tired trope. I think people should be able to speak freely, but I won't lament systemic racism's demise.
>"Reasonable discourse" doesn't start with denying that racism exists in the United States. Would you mind quoting the part of his post where he says that racism doesn't exist?
Let me rephrase: the original post denies that racism exists and/or plays a significant role in some very serious recent events, such as police interaction with members of minority communities and resultant citizen deaths, police interaction during routine traffic stops, and racially motivated mass shootings. Also, they off-handedly dismiss the experiential evidence of others while tooting their own horn about their experiences during police encounters.
Re: This Is My Racism
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"Reasonable discourse" doesn't start with denying that racism exists in the United States. Would you mind quoting the part of his post where he says that racism doesn't exist?
Let me rephrase: the original post denies that racism exists and/or plays a significant role in some very serious recent events , such as police interaction with members of minority communities and resultant citizen deaths, police interaction during routine traffic stops, and racially motivated mass shootings. Also, they off-handedly dismiss the experiential evidence of others while tooting their own horn about their…
Everything seems large when viewed under a microscope.
Re: This Is My Racism
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you considered an anonymous account? You should know that what you've said is considered totally racist these days and you'll have to write an article like the one you just criticized if you ever want to clear your name.
Which parts of that post were so extreme that it would be wiser to say then anonymously, in your view? The fact that so called "racists" are unable to freely[0] express even a moderate opposition to the mainstream narrative on racism, is the best proof that this narrative is at best incomplete. [0] e.g. without fear of losing ones job.
I don't think any of it's extreme, it's just an opinion. Still he might not want it coming up when a hiring manager googles his name 5-10 years down the road.
If HN let us delete our names and/or comments it would be different.
Re: This Is My Racism
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me rephrase: the original post denies that racism exists and/or plays a significant role in some very serious recent events , such as police interaction with members of minority communities and resultant citizen deaths, police interaction during routine traffic stops, and racially motivated mass shootings. Also, they off-handedly dismiss the experiential evidence of others while tooting their own horn about their…
Everything seems large when viewed under a microscope.
I'm guessing this is a criticism? Well, it's a faulty one: much like scientists deepened the field of biology by looking both under a microscope and at the macro-scale (population studies, etc.), we can improve society for all people involved by both looking at micro-interactions (individual traffic stops) and macro-interactions (social forces and policies).
Re: This Is My Racism
#20>My point is simply that living in a segregated society from early on, and the early whispered conversations about Black people as a “they”, set in motion a force very much like compound interest. Ta-Nehisi Coates' landmark Atlantic article, The Case for Reparations [1], helps explain how this segregated society came to be: > The American real-estate industry believed segregation to be a moral principle. As late as 1…
> Millions of dollars flowed from tax coffers into segregated white neighborhoods.
Wait, wouldn't it be the other way around? Inflating property values would increase tax revenue. Even if they were subsidizing white home ownership they may have come out ahead.
It's one of the driving forces of gentrification: if investing X gets the city X + Y in tax revenues then it's an economically sound decision.