Racism: white supremacy vs. plain ignorance

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In the beginning there was "racialism", a pseudo-scientific theory of racial supremacy, designed mainly to help explain and legitimize European colonialism. Proponents of racialism also subscribed to such ideas as the "the criminal type", and a lot of mumbo-jumbo revolving around phrenology and cranial measurements, 'proving' that the average northern European was superior to the average person from anywhere else.

Over time the term "racialism" gave way to "racism" and the meaning changed somewhat, eventually referring less to the pseudo-science of 'average' racial supremacy and more to political subjugation of whole groups based on race, seeking to create a state of enforced inferiority.

During this era, white liberals who might secretly hold the old "racialst" view that the average white was more capable than the average non-white could also claim not to be "racist", if they held to the notion that individual non-whites might be superior to less than exemplary whites and should be treated accordingly. This made them meritocrats, in their view, not racists. During this period, non-whites awarded such liberal thinking brownie points in public, while despising it.

Nowadays it seems like "racism" has newly acquired yet another meaning that doesn't refer to any theory or belief in racial superiority, or any political desire to oppress anyone based on race, but refers instead to any word or deed that reveals a person's happenstance ignorance about another race or ethnicity. Often it is an ignorance so deep, it doesn't even recognize itself as ignorance.

Words, of course, change like this all the time. It wouldn't even be worth remarking on if the new meaning of racism had erased the older meanings and all their connotations of malice and violent oppression. The trouble is, this hasn't happened. The new term has conflated ignorance and malice as essentially indistinguishable. That's not good.

It is not good because, while pig-ignorance can do much harm and often does, it is fundamentally different from malice, which intends harm. Thinking which concentrates on the harmful results of both conditions, while failing to notice their fundamental differences leads one to false conclusions.

Malice needs to be willfully resisted. Ignorance needs to be understandingly educated. You shouldn't mix these approaches unless you are seeking mixed results.

The people who have not yet grasped this simple distinction are generally not malicious, but confused -- ignorant, if you like. But they cause more troubles than they solve.

Really, it seems like we need to split these two concepts into two words, or make them clearer somehow. Confusion is not a productive condition and god knows the state of race relations in the world could use some more productive thinking.

Now you can all take me to task and point out my ignorance on this subject.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 4 July 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1120468277

― Walter E. Oliu, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

I don't think these days people have any real belief that one race is superior or that they even think of it in those terms, I think they are just xenophobic and tend to hate anything different from them, the more different, the more cognitive dissonance clicks in.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

well no one is really ignorant about white ppl, are they.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 07:30 (twenty years ago)

haha ok that's not true, but you get me i think.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 08:13 (twenty years ago)

The problem with asking for definitions that differentiate between the uses of racist language/behaviour due to malice or ignorance is that for the person on the receiving end it's nigh-on impossible to tell which is which, and they both have the same consequences.

Maybe the next time some thug decides to try and beat me up, I should ask him whether he's doing it out of ignorance or whether he's trying to make some kind of supremacist political point...

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

I don't think these days people have any real belief that one race is superior or that they even think of it in those terms

Are you kidding???

OTM. The reason why it's important to figure out the root cause of a racist comment or action isn't to salve the offended party; it's to identify the best way to correct the offender (whether that is through education and kindness in the case of unintentional ignorance or a big fucking bat with spikes in it for the assholes).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

speaking as one who has had a pretty serious run-in with violent racists just this weekend, i must say i couldn't really give a fuck whether the disgusting views these people hold are based on a cogent and considered political philosophy, or whether they were simply pig ignorant. they are scum, whichever way you look at it and the world would be a far better place if they were wiped from it. Jarlr'mai, i could really use a daytrip to your dreamworld, if you'd let me in?

― stelf)xxx, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

Usually when Dave posts like that I shake my head and tut at him like an insufferable schoolmarm but today he is speaking directly to my soul.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

the one thing that's always at the heart of racism is fear, though. if you strip the veneer of violence and hate away, your left with a quivering morrass of terror and insecurity. this isn't an excuse or a reason to forgive, but it's a great point to start fighting from.

― stelf)xxxx, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)

like what, dan?

― stelf)xxxx, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:11 (twenty years ago)

What happened to you, Dave?

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

When you post an over-the-top rant. I usually read them as comedic expressions of opinion and, with that in mind, the way you write them doesn't jibe with the way I read them. On this particular topic, though, I am right there in the zone with you.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

fair dos - most of the time i'm slightly less than serious. this issue, though, is one i'm totally not joking about, no hint of irony in what i'm saying at all. suzy, i'm i but busy at the moment, but i'll drop you an email later. i don't particularly want this all over the board.

― stelf)xxx, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

*i'm a bit busy*

see, too damned busy to proofread!

― stelf)xxx, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

(I should clarify that "them" was to refer to all OTT rants, not just yours; the issue is that the way I read them and the way you write them aren't compatible when viewed as comedy. Also it's my issue, which is why I was making fun of myself by describing myself as a schoolmarm. But yeah, stone the racists with gun.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

they are scum, whichever way you look at it and the world would be a far better place if they were wiped from it. Jarlr'mai, i could really use a daytrip to your dreamworld, if you'd let me in?

I see your point, but I think the original post is more about people who think certain races have a great natural sense of rhythm as opposed to people who go round beating up members of particular races.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:16 (twenty years ago)

Taco Supremo

― Stoner Guy, Tuesday, 5 July 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

Aimless, why are you limiting this to 'white supremacy'? There are plenty of non-white, non-European supremacists in the world.
I also think we need to to talk about culture. Race is a notoriously difficult thing to describe accurately, though people tend to be able to do it casually with great ease. Race cannot be decribed by genetics alone, and much of our determination of race stems from cultural differences. Culture, unlike genetics, is not beyond criticism since it can be learned, unlearned, modified, acquired or lost. Most of the 'racism' I see in the world is not the biological based but rather a kind of lame tribal self-promotion. "I may not be anything remarkable but I'm a member of a clan/tribe/religion/nation state/etc... that has achieved much in the field of science/war/business/art/etc... and therefore I am inherently valuable." It's lazy, willfully anti-intellectual, and mostly irrelevant but it usually needs to be notched up before it leads to actually harming other people.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

I mean they don't go oh he's a different race, they just go oh he's different the difference is the issue, it just happens to be race that is the difference.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

racism versus racialism

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

I just started listening to those audio talks, they seem relevant to this thread:

Understanding Our Institutional Racism by Tim Wise
Part 1
http://mbanna.radio4all.net/pub/archive4/mp3_2/ug79-hour1mix.mp3
Part 2
http://mbanna.radio4all.net/pub/archive4/mp3_2/ug79-hour2mix.mp3
Q&A
http://mbanna.radio4all.net/pub/archive4/mp3_2/tim_wise-qa.mp3

Understanding Our White Privilege by Tim Wise
Part 1
http://hm.indymedia.org/media/all/display/3181/index.php
Part 2
http://hm.indymedia.org/media/all/display/3182/index.php

― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Sunday, 7 May 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

Looks like homework.

― paulhw (paulhw), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:36 (nineteen years ago)

true enough, it takes efforts to improve one's civic education.

After I'll finish listening to these 2 conferences I'll try to resume the points that stood out for me.

in the first file the guy is critical of the need for affirmative action, saying it doesn't address the real issue, that racism is systemic ex: diversity is good so we need diversity but why there is not diversity in the first place?

― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Sunday, 7 May 2006 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

Proponents of racialism also subscribed to such ideas as the "the criminal type", and a lot of mumbo-jumbo revolving around phrenology and cranial measurements

But unfortunately, for reasons linguistic and other, this idea of the "criminal type" seems very much embedded in our society today, even if we no longer have the accompanying cranial lump feelage. Just the very word "criminal" is used in a way -- and often with racial undertones -- to imply that "criminal" describes the person's very nature and not just something they have done: "These criminals should be taken off the streets and put in jail," etc.

I also don't buy this dichotomy of white supremacy vs. plain ignorance. I mean I guess you have your National Alliance types, (most of whom are also ignorant), and maybe you have your naive, sheltered type who just "didn't know there were affluent black neighborhoods," (someone I know actually said that), but most racism is in grayer areas than that.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 8 May 2006 02:28 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

How is it strange that black people don't get representation in video games? White people make up the majority of employees at game companies. Simple as that. If rappers start rapping about game theory, and black culture, in general, starts looking up to computer programmers instead of athletes, you'll start seeing a black chick as the main character in Resident Evil and maybe Burger Time will be set in a soul food restaurant. Until then, enjoy the overplayed techno background music and abundance of Star Wars games.

― The stickman from the hilarious "xkcd" comics, Monday, 4 August 2008 15:15 (seventeen years ago)

guardian?

― goole, Monday, 4 August 2008 15:18 (seventeen years ago)

maybe Burger Time will be set in a soul food restaurant

in fairness, lol

― HI DERE, Monday, 4 August 2008 16:40 (seventeen years ago)

I would totally play Short-Rib Time

― nabisco, Monday, 4 August 2008 17:32 (seventeen years ago)

games about making food always struck me as awfully torturous

― blueski, Monday, 4 August 2008 17:35 (seventeen years ago)

non-whites awarded such liberal thinking brownie points in public

― Pleasant Plains, Monday, 4 August 2008 18:17 (seventeen years ago)

black people are well represented in Resident Evil 4!

― bnw, Monday, 4 August 2008 18:21 (seventeen years ago)

oops I mean 5!

― bnw, Monday, 4 August 2008 18:22 (seventeen years ago)

http://solidstank.com/tyson2.jpg

― Pleasant Plains, Monday, 4 August 2008 18:25 (seventeen years ago)

Oh crap. Didn't look at that jpg closer before I posted it.

― Pleasant Plains, Monday, 4 August 2008 18:27 (seventeen years ago)

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