What makes you think you're not a racist?

[Guest]

I wonder, can you tell me, what makes you think that you're not racist? And not just not racist, but not a racist.

I think I am racist. I think I am a racist. I think that I routinely pre-judge and respond to other people by their culture, nationality and race, often knowingly, sometimes not.

I also respond to people by their smell. I respond to them by their age (I think I'm ageist). By their gender (I think I'm sexist). And so on.

A good many people who I've heard open their mouths to speak on the subject of race, begin whatever remark they make by saying, "I'm not a racist ..." The remainder are entirely untainted by racism, I infer, from their vigilance for and awareness of it in others and by the staunchness of their objection to such impurity.

So, what makes you think that you're not a racist?

[hackneyvi]

You will, by the way, be reassured to hear that Tokyo Sexwhale says it's "unthinkable" that Septic Bladder is a racist.

"Unthinkable"!

I find I am able to think that Septic is a racist. I just don't know what's wrong with me.

[Lateralthinking1]

I think your difficulty may be one of terminology. Socialist, Communist, Fascist, Conservationist, Scientist, Masochist.....these are words that are used in a positive or negative way depending on who is using them.

Racist, Ageist....these are words that are used wholly in a negative way. You are confused because you assume subconsciously that they should logically also have positive connotations.

This is then intermingled with complex feelings around certain speech or behaviour that in others is felt unequivocally. In some cases, they would rightly be regarded as unequivocal. In other cases, they should not be viewed sanely in that way.

I conclude that what you are describing in yourself is less an "ist" or an "ism" than an "awareness (of)".

You might find it easier if the language wasn't as sloppy as it is these days.

You would also be clearer if some didn't have the tendency to resort immediately to the word "racist" as soon as anyone decided that they didn't like blackberries, the sound of German or traditional Japanese art.

[Segilla]

If there isn't, there ought to be a dictionary definition that a racist is someone who is always banging on about race, especially the sort of person looking to inflame matters when normal give and take between adults should be the norm.

[Pilchardman]

I am aware that someone called Sepp Blatter has apologized and that there has been a racism row. I'm not very clear what this racism row actually entails, other than the gentleman has something to do with football.

It is, I think, generally accepted that A Racist is someone who thinks people should be treated differently because of their racial differences, and/or who thinks that those differences account for differences in human character and/or ability. And who thinks some races are better than others (usually their own race is somewhere near the top).

Since races are difficult to define from a scientific viewpoint, and since there are no objective rules for deciding what even constitutes a race, for deciding what race an individual belongs, or even how many races s/he might belong to, it is pretty dodgy empirical ground upon which to base any set of beliefs.

So, no, I am not A Racist. Have I ever had to overcome prejudices? Of course.

I do think, though, that the Multicultural Programme is racist, though.

I should point out that Multiculturalism is quite a different thing from multiracialism, or anti racism. Multiculturalism is a bureaucratic moral relativism.

Multiculturalism is the project that suggests we should all keep quiet about our criticisms of certain aspects of various cultures and beliefs lest we give offence. As Kenan Malik correctly says:

Why should I, as an atheist, be expected to show respect for Christian, Islamic or Jewish cultures whose views and arguments I often find reactionary and often despicable? Why should public arrangements be adapted to fit in with the backward, misogynistic, homophobic claims that religions make? What is wrong with me wishing such cultures to 'wither away'? And how, given that I do view these and many other cultures with contempt, am I supposed to provide them with respect, without disrespecting my own views? Only, the philosopher Brian Barry suggests 'with a great deal of encouragement from the Politically Correct Thought Police'.

Malik.

[hackneyvi]

I think your difficulty may be one of terminology. Socialist, Communist, Fascist, Conservationist, Scientist, Masochist.....these are words that are used in a positive or negative way depending on who is using them.

... You are confused because you assume subconsciously that they should logically also have positive connotations.

Thanks, Lat. I think the point you make is a sharp one.

Can anyone point me to a word for a person (or feeling) exhibiting favourable prejudice towards another human being because of their race?

[Lateralthinking1]

Thank you. The part-word you are looking for is "phile" as in Francophile. This leads to further complexity because there are other "philes" that would be rightly viewed by sane people in a wholly negative way. Nevertheless, they denote a "liking for" in the individuals concerned, however abhorrent to the rest of us.

By contrast "Francophile" could be used as a reference positively as well as negatively rather like "Fascist", "Socialist" etc. It depends on whether you like the French and/or people who like the French.

"Racist", "Ageist", are different from all the above examples because they are universally negative. A BNP supporter might say defiantly about himself "I am a racist" but that essentially means he is saying "I like disliking other races".

[hackneyvi]

If there isn't, there ought to be a dictionary definition that a racist is someone who is always banging on about race, especially the sort of person looking to inflame matters when normal give and take between adults should be the norm.

I have an edition of Chambers dictionary from 1986 which defines the phrase, "Charity begins at home" with the words:

usually used as an excuse for not letting it get abroad

I think your definition of "racism" would fit the ' 86 Chambers rather well:

someone who is always banging on about race

By this definition, a racist is someone who talks about race alot. I think there must be more to it than that, though. But perhaps silence on the topic does signify that someone is not a racist.

PS: FYI, The '86 also defines an "eclair" as:

a cake, long in shape but short in duration

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I was only allowed by the software to insert 30 yawns.

[PatrickOD]

It's a hard question you ask, Phil. My first reaction is to say that I would have to ask my friends and acquaintances if I ever showed prejudice towards others on the grounds of their race. I know I have laughed at racist jokes, for example, but I'm not sure that that necessarily counts. You tell me.

[hackneyvi]

Thank you. The part-word you are looking for is "phile" as in Francophile. This leads to further complexity because there are other "philes" that would be rightly viewed by sane people in a wholly negative way. Nevertheless, they denote a "liking for" in the individuals concerned, however abhorrent to the rest of us.

By contrast "Francophile" could be viewed positively or negatively rather like "Fascist", "Socialist" etc.

"Racist", "Ageist", are different from all the above examples because they are universally negative. A BNP supporter might say defiantly about himself "I am a racist" but that essentially means he is saying "I like disliking other races".

I don't remember ever hearing someone describe themself as a racist, or even simple as 'racist'. The general impression I have of the BNP is that its members, certainly its 'management', seem studiously to avoid the term.

There can be pleasure in reviling others, enormous pleasure. In general though, if ever it's been seen by others, I find that the spirit animating any declamation of my own against another tends to wither rather fast and I'm left having exposed a potency I've attributed to another person that I've been unwilling or unable to confront. I take your point about the defiant statement of the BNP supporter but that defiance seems likely to have at least a defensive aspect rather than being something issued purely or even partly exultantly.

My reason for starting this thread comes from a conviction that racism, prejudice for and against races, is commonplace and normal. Like left-handedness, home-ownership and male pattern baldness, racism is common to all races and has conscious and unconscious, has active and passive forms. The word 'racist' has such an intense pregnance of meaning that it's treated as an untouchable bloating with poison of Jacobean potency.

My own view is that it's common and ordinary and rather than being a thing denied, it might - like many human shortcomings - be a state which was more fully understood, reacted to and dealt with if it were acknowledged as a mundane quality of Man.

[Lateralthinking1]

In the self-assessment test for being a cashier at Marks and Spencer, question one is approximately along these lines:

Everyone is different. If you were employed by M and S, how would you treat people?

1. I respect the fact that everyone is an individual and would ensure that I treated everyone equally.

2. I am always myself. However, I like to respond to individuals' different needs by being as accommodating as possible.

3. I tend to adapt the way I communicate according to who I am serving as I find that this enables me to meet their needs.

Marks and Spencer claim that there are no right or wrong answers and that the test is a helpful aid to self-clarity.

[Chris Newman]

I was only allowed by the software to insert 30 yawns.

Alpy, while you have thirty winks, beware that using all those "smileys you run the risk of being mistaken for Mr ..............

[scottycelt]

I suspect the rather OTT fabricated media fury over Herr Blatter's off-the-cuff remarks have much more to do with poor old Ingerland not being granted a future World Cup series than anything else ...

So there, I'm being frightfully racist towards the English ... and I'm most definitely and defiantly a 100% sexist ... vive la difference, je dis! ... but, alas, I'm a bit too old myself now to be an ageist ..

[amateur51]

I suspect the rather OTT fabricated media fury over Herr Blatter's off-the-cuff remarks

OTT? Fabricated? I don't think so, scotty ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15770241.stm