I posted a brief status update on facebook a couple of days ago: "Denying that racism exists is the new racism." Well, a far-right friend of mine from high school showed up and started throwing bombs, kind of pissing off other friends of mine. I mean, it was just a quickie thing for me. I hadn't intended it to be a big huge thing. But it became a big huge thing. So I jumped in:
Okay, gotta wade in here.'Nuff said.
When the left and the right talk about racism, they're talking about two very different, but related, social phenomena. The right, as far as I can tell, generally sees race, racial relations, and racism as a matter between individuals. How do we treat each other in interpersonal relationships? What kind of language do we use to describe people from other races? Etc.
In contrast, when the left talks about race, they're talking about not only what I just described, but also the sum total of all those attitudes expressed in terms of economic and political power. So the left sees racism in interpersonal terms as well as overall social and institutional terms. That is, how are blacks, as a group, faring in this country relative to whites? How are blacks treated by government institutions such as schools, courts, and police departments relative to how whites are treated? How does the mass media portray different races? How much of the economy do various races control? What kind of access to capital and finance do blacks have relative to whites? Is there really equal opportunity in the US? And so on.
It is my firm belief that, while interpersonal racism certainly exists and works both ways, that is, there are definitely non-whites who are total dicks toward and about whites in this country, just as there are white race-assholes, in the end, this sort of racism is far less consequential, especially to whites, than the institutional racism which generally concerns the left.
This is not to say that whites, especially the white working class and the white poor, are not oppressed. They are. There are some very legitimate and serious grievances a lot of whites have in this country toward the power centers that run it, and such grievances must necessarily be taken seriously by the left, if we are to have any credibility at all.
(Quick digression: I have become increasingly concerned in recent years with how all these reality shows are portraying the white poor and working classes. From Honey Boo Boo to Duck Dynasty to The Jersey Shore, all these shows portray the white working class as a bunch of stupid fucking hicks, wallowing in their own bullshit like pigs in slop. Meanwhile, fat cat media investors on Wall Street are profiting handsomely from it, and they couldn't give a rat's ass that they're humiliating fellow Americans simply because they suffer from ongoing economic oppression. The more I think about it, the more it enrages me. And that's just one example among hundreds of how the white working class is oppressed in America. And really, this isn't even the worst.)
So yes, whites, a lot of them, suffer, too, and neither party in Washington appears to care too terribly much about it, Elizabeth Warren types notwithstanding. But here's the deal. Whites are NOT suffering because of anti-white racism. Conservatives can throw around Al Sharpton's name all day long, but it doesn't make one bit of difference. In spite of the stupid and crazy shit he and his ilk have asserted over the years, it hasn't oppressed a single white American. Sure, it's pissed some people off, hurt their feelings, but so what? It's like I say about the word "cracker": big fucking deal, in the end, whites still run everything; why should I care what stupid bullshit The New Black Panthers are saying? Screw 'em.
That is, yes, racism goes both ways, but the truly insidious variety, chronic institutional racism coming directly out of the US power structure makes non-whites suffer in intolerable ways that whites simply do not experience.
Don't believe me? For your consideration:
1. Whites receive relatively lax discipline in schools compared to blacks, which impedes educational opportunity, which necessarily impedes equal opportunity overall.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-discrimination-school-discipline-real-problem
2. Blacks continue to be incarcerated at a MASSIVELY higher rate than whites, and this doesn't have much to do with who's committing the crimes because as far as actual criminal activity goes, whites are as bad or worse. Indeed, there are now more blacks in prison than before the end of segregation, which is why some observers refer to the issue as "The New Jim Crow." Needless to say, imprisoning a huge percentage of the black population plays total havoc with the notion of equal opportunity.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/06/incarceration-gap-between-whites-and-blacks-widens/
3. Blacks continue to be much poorer than whites, and always suffer more than whites during economic recessions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/these-seven-charts-show-the-black-white-economic-gap-hasnt-budged-in-50-years/
4. Al Sharpton and Honey Boo Boo aside, the mass media in this country continue to profit from perpetuating anti-black stereotypes across the board. And that affects EVERYBODY, so it aggravates the interpersonal racism which concerns both the left and the right, as well as making it easier to get away with the institutional racism about which the left talks.
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1948662,00.html
5. Hell, this country even has a massive double standard on smoking good old fashioned marijuana. If you're white, you can definitely get busted for this, but it's WAY less likely than if you're black.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-youre-white-that-joint-probably-wont-lead-to-jail-time/2014/01/10/caa94154-77f8-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html
I could go on like this all day. This is the evidence. This is the truth. And it's such a massive body of evidence, documented ceaselessly, over and over again, that one has to truly have his head buried in the sand in order to deny it.
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