One of the overarching themes you’ll find popping up over and over as you peruse these pages is our deeply held disgust towards anything that even looks like racism. Simply put: we have no patience for it. None. Zero.
“Well, of course, who does?,” might be your response. But that would be a disingenuous response.
Here’s something that will rub you the wrong way: we’re not just talking to a handful of readers when we say you’re being disingenuous. We’re talking to each and every one of our Caucasian readers, with maybe one or two lonely exceptions out of the thousands of people who will probably read this.
It goes without saying that America is an inherently racist country. And you can’t have an inherently racist country without racists. But far too often, we look only at overt displays of racism – using racial epithets in public, blatant discrimination in hiring practices, showing up at white supremacist rallies wearing a white pointy hat and waving the swastika around. Things like that.
“I would never do something like that, and I am disgusted with people who do,” you’d invariably say, if asked. Further, a lot of readers would be quick to criticize Trump for his bungled response to Charlottesville. “He’s obviously a racist,” you’d invariably say, if asked.
But what you probably don’t stop and consider is the possibility that you too are a racist. Let me ask you this: would you feel comfortable walking through a predominantly African American, low income neighborhood in Chicago or Baltimore at 2 a.m. in the morning as a white person? Or would you be frightened – fearful for your safety? If you’re being honest, you’d probably be scared. The same could probably be said of how you would feel if you found yourself in a predominantly Latino neighborhood under similar circumstances.
The question is this: “why?” Why would you have a reason to be frightened? I’ll tell you why: it’s because you’re a closet racist. You think that by virtue of your being white, the people who live in those neighborhoods would be inclined to assault you or otherwise menace you after the sun goes down.
Well, let me tell you something: you are wrong. That’s all in your head. And I speak from extensive personal experience in that regard.
Sure, there are circumstances under which you could get yourself into trouble and, once in trouble, your being white might not help. But you would have had to have gotten yourself into trouble in the first place and if, once in trouble, your whiteness ends up being an aggravating factor, you might consider whether that has something to do with the fact that you represent an establishment that systematically oppresses minorities.
Let me just be clear: if you were simply walking down the street dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and minding your own business at 2 a.m. in a bad neighborhood on the way to, oh I don’t know, buy a gallon of milk at the Roadrunner, the chances of anyone bothering you are virtually zero. And yet how many damn times do you turn on the news and read hyperbolic stories that suggest someone was robbed or killed just because they were white in a bad neighborhood?
In reality, the exact opposite is true. If you are an African American, and for some reason find yourself walking through an upscale suburb at 3 a.m. in the morning on your way to buy that same gallon of milk, there is a pretty decent chance that someone is going to call the police or, in an extreme scenario, chase you down and murder you just because you happened to black.
This kind of thing irks me to no end. It is a disease in America. It’s the same dynamic that causes you to unconsciously look at the ground when you pass an twenty-something African American male in a parking lot at night. It’s the same dynamic that causes you to stare straight ahead when you pull up to a stop light and the car next to you is playing loud rap music. It’s the same dynamic that causes you to create a mental story in your head to explain what’s in the shopping cart of the Latino lady in front of you at the grocery store. And it is the same dynamic that generally causes you to isolate yourself by pretending that you are somehow different from the African Americans and Latinos you (reluctantly) cross paths with on a daily basis.
With that as the long-winded introduction (one that is sure to elicit all manner of hate mail that will only serve to validate our point), consider the following from Paul Krugman…
Excerpted from a longer piece by Paul Krugman in the New York Times
Why is America the only wealthy nation that doesn’t guarantee essential health care for all? (We’ve made a lot of progress under Obamacare, but not enough, and the Trump administration is doing its best to kill it.) Why do we have much higher poverty than our economic peers, especially among children, and much higher infant mortality despite the sophistication of our medical system?
The answer, of course, comes down to politics: We are uniquely unwilling to take care of our fellow citizens. And behind that political difference lies one overwhelming fact: the legacy of slavery. All too often, white Americans think of the social safety net not as something for people like themselves fallen on hard times, but as a giveaway to Those People.
This isn’t idle speculation. If you want to understand why policies toward the poor are so different at the state level, why some states offer so much less support to troubled families with children, one predictor stands out: the African-American share of the population. The more blacks, the less compassion white voters feel.
The story gets even clearer if you look at the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which allows states to expand Medicaid coverage at federal expense – that is, to provide health insurance to a large fraction of the population at no cost. You might think that this was a no-brainer, and so far 31 states and the District of Columbia have taken advantage of this opportunity. But only two of those states are among the 11 that seceded in 1861 to form the Confederacy.
I agree with the general argument here that racism is much more prevalent than many people believe, but I think some pieces of it are disingenuous.
In particular, I wouldn’t advise any American to walk the streets of a poor neighborhood of Baltimore or Chicago at 2am, especially if that person is displaying any signs of wealth. The colors of the pedestrian and the neighborhood itself don’t really matter. And even if you, personally, have walked “dangerous” streets at night and nothing has happened, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t an elevated probability of something happening. Your data, as it were, is based on a single subject and likely a limited number of locations. Calling people racist because they would prefer to avoid situations that are potentially dangerous due to factors other than race isn’t fair.
The other example is a much better one. Calling the police on someone walking while black is racist.
2 am ???? Really??? How about that is more than likely a very high crime area.
If it quacks like a duck it is probably a duck.
The reality is there is racism on all sides & the focus is on white racism
The reason for that is racial prejudice and racism are different things. Racism is using your power to tilt the systems of a society to act on your racial prejudices. Last time I checked minorities have a severe lack of political power. Even white women can barely take a few seats of power away from white men. There are countless examples of laws passed and policies implemented that disproportionately negatively affect minorities. A racial prejudice with no power behind it is just prejudice it isn’t racism. Just like owning capital isn’t the same as living in an economy based on capitalism.
I’m fine with some of this. The implication however is “You’re a racist. And if you disagree with me, it proves you’re a racist.” That stupidity is beneath you guys.
nothing is beneath us. paradoxically, it’s a point of pride.
As long as you own it, I’m cool with it. You go girl (at the risk of that sounding like cultural and gender appropriation).
Didn’t mean for that to post anonymously. That was me.
normally love your stuff nut come on. general premise is ok, but the arguments here are terrible. the statistics by krugman are also really skewed.
Walt, the problem with your hypothetical is that in high crime areas in this country, whether low-income or not, and whether white, African American, Latino, Asian, etc., I’ll take a shot as saying that most people of any color wouldn’t feel comfortable walking through those neighborhoods at 2 a.m. in the morning as they would be frightened — fearful for their safety. Indeed, scared. And I don’t believe that makes them racist.
Yes, I know that I’m adding additional context to your hypothetical, i.e., “high crime areas,” and I’m NOT asserting that low-income neighborhoods EQUALS high crime areas, but I do submit that many low-income neighborhoods are also high crime neighborhoods, which is what I find absent in your hypothetical.
So, let’s take a look at East St. Louis, Ill, #1 most dangerous city in the US.
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/east-st-louis/crime
Here are 99 more cities that might make you uncomfortable strolling through at 2 a.m.
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/blog/top100dangerous
If you’re taking a stroll at 2 a.m. in East St. Louis, and you’re not on heightened alert- fearful for your safety – you are not going to be asking yourself if you are racist. You are going to be asking yourself “how do I get out here.”
There are many low crime areas in low-income white, African American, Latino, Asian, etc. neighborhoods, but that’s not what the hypothetical included.
Lastly, the word “racist,” has no singular definition. It’s often associated with people who discriminate or are prejudiced against others based upon their race or ethnicity, etc., and act on their prejudice; or, a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that one’s own racial group is superior or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others. With that frame of reference, I don’t see how someone who is fearful walking through any neighborhood at 2 a.m. makes them a racist. Most people are afraid of the dark, let alone neighborhoods which for many years of their life TV, movies, news stories, social media and their parents have told them to stay away from or else.
I’m 67, a child of the 50’s, and was raised as a racist by racists. Growing up in the Hough area of Cleveland, my brother and I were two of three whites in school but we were young and eventually moved. I understand my parent’s perspective, but people can change their mindset and they can evolve . That evolution can start in college, as in my case, or just with life and time, as in my father’s. I know I still harbor certain prejudices but there is no hatred for any race. And in agreement with a prior comment, I would not walk in any low income neighborhood at 2 AM. The probabilities are not in your favor, i.e., if you happen upon someone at 2 AM, they are probably not out to pickup a gallon of milk. Just a bad example.
The article and this discussion doesn’t rely on even our basic scientific understandings of how humans see other humans. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_classification) Race is no longer considered a scientific classification for groups that differ by physical differences such as skin color.
Human evolution has produced not so much “racial prejudice” as it has produced “tribal prejudice.” Even in “pure race” (genetically homogeneous) composed societies – groups with differences from the norm of that society and or the even the elite portion of a society – find that they are the subject to prejudice. We see this most easily in primitive tribes where tribes of the same genetically composed peoples war against each other – with each group trying to artificially distinguish themselves from the other through tattoos, scarification, or apparel differences. Even our religious/politics become tribal i.e. Catholics and Protestants – Republican and Democrats, not just in the same genetics group, but often these tribal distinctions occur with in the same genetic family. (Sit around any family gathering and watch your inner-family tribes form.). Humans are tribal, not racial. Tribal prejudices are far more universal in the human intellect, than the most obvious physical differences such as skin color.
In the US the light colored skin peoples prejudice regarding blacks is far more complex than “race.” Dark skinned people have specific social liabilities – that aren’t addressed in most discussions, because even though we profess that all people are created equal – in reality all people are created differently and those differences are not necessarily valued as equal.
As humans evolved dark skin people adapted to high solar environments by increased melanin production in their skin. Dark skin peoples that migrated north evolved to lighter skins necessary for the production of critical metabolic compounds like vitamin D in lower light northern environments. The evolution of dark skin occurred in numerous tropical areas and not just in Africa, just as lighter skin people developed in areas beyond what is now northern Europe.
Dark skin people have numerous physical advantages in the tropics, not just increase protection from solar damage, but camouflage advantages in dark forests, jungles and with minor use apparel adaptations – even on grassy plains. Dark colored objects provide less visual detail and consequently less information to the brains of almost all higher animal eyes – including humans. The lower detail communicated by dark colored objects can be a significant advantage in specific environments.
Where the dark skinned people have a social liability is that dark skin color makes their facial expressions more difficult to see and therefore evaluate socially because the movements and positions of facial lines, eyebrows, etc. are communication forms less discernible on dark faces. This means communications become more difficult and most especially for socially/tribal isolated lighter skinned peoples who are not used to reading the more obscured facial expression communications on dark faces. Not being able to easily evaluate these expressions provide a basis for confusion, suspicion, fear – culminating as prejudice.
The point here is while humans are one species and the entire species (not the just the US) have universally demonstrated – some more and some less – inwired genetic tribal prejudices. These tribal prejudices go far beyond genetic relationships, in that they go all the way from obvious differences, to an almost infinite shading philosophical prejudices. Prejudices are fueled by suspicions that another dissimilar person or group may also have dissimilar interests and therefore represent some form of competition – be it for critical resources – or just ideas.
These tribal prejudices are compounded by communication difficulties due optical challenges created from the slightest confusion. From minor ones – from freckles, to much greater ones from black skin, or even concealment apparel – such as burkas as a basis for suspicion is established and our inwired and nearly infinite tribal prejudice takes it from there.
More importantly and perhaps the key take away from “racial prejudice” discussions is not only that this tribal prejudice trait is universally genetic in the human species, it is compounded by ignorance, wilful ignorance (stupidity). In other words from a general lack of factual information and critical thinking skills. The strongest “racial prejudice” exists in cultures (and not just the US) where critical thinking skills are insufficiently developed and do not draw upon scientific knowledge. Like it or not we all have prejudices, but we also have the option to have an intellectual ability to override our primitive tribal prejudice with logic and critical thinking based on the most reliable science.
Finally, the undeniable prejudice against dark skinned people in the US, is once again a symptom of the problem – but not the root problem. The root problem in the US is our educational systems have failed to provide a level of critical thinking skills and an in depth knowledge of science – necessary for people to rise above primitive instincts – and think critically. This is probably the most damning aspect of far right social conservative Republicans – their penchant and preference to avoid developing and then using critical thinking skills. Unfortunately, the far left Democrat is not much better off, because their general lack of critical thinking limits them from choosing social agendas that have realistic economic sustainability.
There are further pertinent details of the US’s growing problem of a gross lack of critical thinking skills among the general population. I have had significant interactions with several college and university science faculties in my career. I am continually amazed that even those science faculty members and most especially the administrative executive staff above these science faculty only publicly pay lip service to “critical thinking skill development” – an generally don’t really have a competent understanding of what critical thinking really means.
Again, there is a gross failure to broadly teach real critical thinking skills in the US. Many of our problems (like so-called “racial prejudice) have this lack of developed critical thinking skill deficit as their root cause in their persistence.
I agree with your observation as to the lack of training in critical thinking. Sloppy and shallow thinking pervades and there’s no acceptable reason for it.
Moreover, such things as how our own mind works, how it drives us, reactivity and our own behavior, the many associated ills that arise therefrom, and much more that are taught early on to young Buddhists, especially Theravadan Buddhists, to include mindfulness and concentration meditation and mindfulness in daily activities is totally lacking. In most public schools in America there is a complete absence of anything comparable. Too many people go through their lives having never been introduced to their mind, the fact that the mind is a “monkey mind,” that it is susceptible of training is many ways so as to be understood, trained, controlled and sharpened so as to be more insightful and to see things as they truly or actually are.
For those who attend grade school and higher grades at a Yeshiva (Jewish school focusing on the teaching by Rabbis of traditional religious texts), critical thinking is wrapped up in some of the teaching. I cannot address what takes place in other parochial schools. For those who attend law school and actually do the work prescribed, analytical thinking is one of the primary objectives of attendance.
The country, as you say, lacks a cohesive educational foundation by which, at the start and as an objective, seeks to train young minds for purposes of “critical thinking.”. Moreover, nowhere in our system is there a cohesive program whereby students are taught how mind works, how they interact with it on a daily basis, and how it can be trained so as to live happier and healthier lives and to think more insightfully.
Durwood — Thank you for being a scientific voice of reason. Your reply is appreciated.
I don’t normally pen responses to H’s articles, but this one is so logically flawed that I felt compelled. Guilt/shaming for the natural use of heuristics in risk assessment is very poor form when coming from someone that typically offers an enlightened perspective (the reason I read H’s reports). Disappointing.
. . . I also don’t look over when a loud motorcycle pulls up next to me, and the odds of it being a black guy are small. Where I used to live (colorado) odd were someone playing loud rap were white . . . I still didn’t look over.
. . . I now live in Hawaii and hence – as white – I’m a minority. That said, locals (i.e. not of my ethnic, social, or economic background) tell me of places I shouldn’t go on the island because they are not safe (for me or them). I listen to them and I’m pretty sure it’s not racism driving their advice.
. . . we recently were in Vancouver (a few days after a cruise). Amazing city . . . which I only explored in the daytime, and I don’t even remember seeing many non-whites. The thing is, even in my own neighborhood, unless absolutely necessary, I’m not out at night. If I am out, my state of vigilance is a lot higher especially if I’m alone, and even more so if my wife is with me. That’s because I know a little about statistics, human nature, and predatory habits. I’d worry a lot less if I were 6′ 5″ and 300 lb of bulging muscles and carried a baseball bat . . . but then, someone would likely call the cops on me regardless of my ethnicity.
As others have pointed out, some of the examples you use touch on areas of human behavior that have nothing to do with race. By the same token, one can’t deny a potential for it. But that doesn’t excuse the blanket assumption and accusation any more than one would excuse any assumption based on skin color . . .
. . . I say that because all your examples make it sounds like you classify racism as strictly a white problem. We do have a problem in this country, and it’s the fact that people insist on categorizing others into groups based on assumptions; political, social, ethnic, religious . . . pick a reason, any reason, and you can go to town generalizing this or that behavior based on your own personal bias. It appears it’s become a national passtime.
I understand what you are trying to get at but also understand most people are comfortable with others and feel more inclined to be safe with those in the same socioeconomic class. I’m a white surgeon from middle class roots. I can say I feel way closer and included with another surgeon I trained with who also happens to be African American than I would with a lower class Caucasian in south Chicago from a bad neighborhood. Probably by a factor of 100. Not even close. I also could probably speak for my African American colleague and say he wouldn’t feel safe walking through that neighborhood at that time.
see there? *** that’s** how you get people to discuss important topics.
🙂
Racism has been around for millennia.
The Persians thought the Greeks beneath them – they weren’t called Greeks quite yet – the Romans thought they were better than the Italians – Yes you read that correctly! The Chinese have hated the Japanese for centuries…on & on & on.
We are afraid of what we do not know. It’s out of our comfort zone – we need to stretch ourselves more. I was raised around 70% blacks, everybody always talked about the differences.
I just liked it when we were playing ball with my brothers on the field. Athletics has no color.
You are confusing self-preservation with racism. I’m Asian and I would NOT walk down any low-income neighborhood at 2 AM in the morning, period. I’d go further to say that if I was a cab driver and if I had the choice, I would not drive to one of those neighborhoods either. Same if I was a pizza delivery guy. I’ve known cabbies and pizza boys getting mugged in such neighborhoods at gun point. Never heard of that happening in more affluent neighborhoods. I’d rather be alive and called a racist rather than the other way around..
What’s with the white-guilt on racism anyways?? I can’t believe the crap like sanctuary cities and open borders (almost) that a lot of left-wing dems are pushing for.. Wouldn’t happen in any other country… And I’m speaking as a first gen immigrant that typically has voted Democrat.
If you had said all of us are prejudiced, I can buy that, maybe. But racist, no..