Posts tagged discrimination

Photo 4551
Notes
Posted 1 year ago
aeraspais: To be honest, I dislike how often discussions of racism get derailed to explain to people that the dictionary definition is out-of-date and inadequate but I feel it is a conversation we need to have.  Racism will always be more complex than a “hatred or intolerance of another race or other races”.  It is a set of practices and subconscious behaviors that continuously teaches us to default to white, where “nude” is considered to be beige, and black folks and Hispanics have higher incarceration rates than whites for the similar crimes.  By saying this I am not undermining bullying you may have received in grade, middle or high school and I am also not saying people of color cannot be prejudiced against other races themselves.  All I am saying is we, as people of color, cannot be racist since we lack the power to full on oppress you.  It is truly that simple to grasp.

aeraspais:

To be honest, I dislike how often discussions of racism get derailed to explain to people that the dictionary definition is out-of-date and inadequate but I feel it is a conversation we need to have.  Racism will always be more complex than a “hatred or intolerance of another race or other races”.  It is a set of practices and subconscious behaviors that continuously teaches us to default to white, where “nude” is considered to be beige, and black folks and Hispanics have higher incarceration rates than whites for the similar crimes.  By saying this I am not undermining bullying you may have received in grade, middle or high school and I am also not saying people of color cannot be prejudiced against other races themselves.  All I am saying is we, as people of color, cannot be racist since we lack the power to full on oppress you.  It is truly that simple to grasp.

(Source: formerlyaeraspais)

via scudmissile
Quote 29
Notes
Posted 1 year ago
In the US, of course, the ‘color-blind’ approach of the liberal sector of the ruling class and the state bureaucracy was consecrated after WWII following the sociological work of Gunnar Myrdal, whose net effect was to reduce racism to a set of social attitudes rather than the structure of oppression which produced them. This later provided the neoconservative and segregationist reactionaries with one of their mobilising tools: attempts to mitigate the effects of structural racism, through affirmative action for example, were ‘reverse racism.’ If racism was not seen as a system of structural oppression, then attempts to remedy structural discrimination could be depicted as themselves racist.
Richard Seymour, “Racism Doesn’t Cut Both Ways”
Quote 51
Notes
Posted 1 year ago
To ignore the unique deprivations of racism (as with sexism, heterosexism, ableism, etc) so as to forward a white-friendly class analysis is inherently marginalizing to the lived experience of black and brown folks in the United States. And what’s more, to ignore racism is to actually weaken the struggle for class unity and economic transformation. Research on this matter is crystal clear: it is in large measure due to racism — and the desire of working class whites to maintain a sense of superiority over workers of color, as a “psychological wage” when real wages and benefits have proven inadequate — that has divided the working class. It is this holding onto the status conferred by whiteness, as a form of “alternate property” (to paraphrase UCLA Law Professor, Cheryl Harris), which has undermined the ability of white and of-color working people to engage in solidarity across racial lines. Unless we discuss the way in which racism and racial inequity weakens our bonds of attachment, we will never be able to forward a truly progressive, let alone radical politics.
Tim Wise, “With Friends Like These, Who Needs Glenn Beck? Racism and White Privilege on the Liberal-Left”
Quote
Posted 2 years ago
What do you expect? They’re an oil company. They’re rooted in the past by definition.
Me, to my brother, concerning ExxonMobil’s rejection of pro-gay policy
Quote 29
Notes
Posted 2 years ago
In other words, [Rand Paul] prioritizes the property rights of whites who only had their property in the first place because of generations of government intervention on their behalf, over the human rights of people of color to be given equal opportunity.
Tim Wise