Can only white people be racist?

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I’m open to that possibility.

I think what’s important for me on a personal level is to make sure I don’t just stop at the level of being comfortable just knowing I’m not a racist in the sense I have grown up defining it. It’s important for me, regardless of the possible intent, to consider what people who have had different life experiences than me are trying to say.

So to that end, I can’t imagine I will suffer spiritually from trying to increase my understanding of someone who is trying to express their pain (even if they have been unwittingly pulled into a means of communicating themselves that is tarnished by politics).
 
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dcs6f4 said:
I’m open to that possibility.

I think what’s important for me on a personal level is to make sure I don’t just stop at the level of being comfortable just knowing I’m not a racist in the sense I have grown up defining it. It’s important for me, regardless of the possible intent, to consider what people who have had different life experiences than me are trying to say.
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I think that is a good attitude but the people in this case that are at issue (black America) were not the ones sneaking the new definition in under existing words. That was taught in academia by people antithetical to western society including Christianity who are using black America for their own ends.

I am a white person living in a country that is 99% non white. Are you open to learning about my experiences? Can i usurp words too and force others to use my redefinitions? I would be embarrassed to dictate to others that they should accept my redefinitions.
 
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I wonder if the majority/minority distinction holds up well across cultures and countries? Brazil and India were mentioned upthread, and I’m trying to think about these categories with those countries in mind.
 
Erikaspirit16 said:
Let’s take India as an example. There are all sorts of “races” in India… If you watch their movies (I do) the villain is almost always the blackest black (unless he is English, of course!) and the hero/heroine is always fair skinned.
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Funny, in the US, our movies tend to be the other way around.
 
Again, I’m sure that’s possible, but I think the key may be to move past it in the day to day. That is its own issue (admittedly an important topic), but I feel particularly called to meet people where they are at vs. enlighten them to how they may have been duped into expressing themselves in a harmful manner. The vast majority of people who are actually in pain are just trying to communicate that pain in the way they know how.
 
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dcs6f4 said:
Again, I’m sure that’s possible, but I think the key may be to move past it in the day to day. That is its own issue (admittedly an important topic), but I feel particularly called to meet people where they are at vs. enlighten them to how they may have been duped into expressing themselves in a harmful manner. The vast majority of people who are actually in pain are just trying to communicate that pain in the way they know how.
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Well that is a big topic. There are all sorts of people, young, mature, integrated, easily led, successful entrepreneurs etc. The problem i have is when Leftism comes into the equation which lives off victim politics.

Happy to sit down with anyone and listen to their heartfelt stories. Not happy though to be roped into victim politics where my voice doesn’t count.
 
do_justly_love_mercy said:
I’m never even sure what “leftism” even is. It’s just a term people in the right use to describe things they don’t agree with.
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How is this even a logical statement? You don’t know what leftism is yet precede to define out what it is. If you understand what “right” (as in, “people on the right”) is, and compare it to the left, you must know what “left” is. Are you not from the US? Although the terms can be broad, there are certainly defined boundaries around the two political ideologies.
 
JHC said:
I keep hearing that only white people can be racist. Is that true?
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From whom?
Usagi said:
The academic definition of “racism” is (shorthand) “prejudice plus power.” That’s the definition people are using when they say that.
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Do you mean institutional racism, in which case a majority-white nation would arguably have a system that routinely gives advantages on to those who are similar to those who make the rules? In other words, exams are written with built-in assumptions that do not apply to everyone, but that give an advantage to people who have a background similar to those writing the exams?

That isn’t the only kind of racism that harms people. It is also harmful to teach people that unfair discrimination that they are personally capable of perpetrating–even unknowingly–doesn’t “count” as much as discrimination built into a system put into place by someone else. That really robs people of a necessary tool for self-examination. Racism requires ignorance, and people should not be lulled into remaining ignorant.
 
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Lol! Count me among those who read the original post as an attempt to troll academia.

There are some writers on race “on the left” who make similar statements, some who believe that black people can be racist only against other black people, and some who believe all people can be racist…

…while that can be an interesting discussion if approached in good faith, all these perspectives are correct in believing that I (white person) can be racist, which is what I am most concerned with addressing.
 
Hello, fellow white person who has also lived in a 99% nonwhite country. I’d be happy to hear what you learned about racism from the experience but wont promise I won’t criticize it if I disagree with your conclusions! I can tell you one of the things I learned:

Living as a white person for me in a 99% nonwhite country did not give me any insight at all as to what it was like to be black in the US.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
Funny, in the US, our movies tend to be the other way around.
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But they didn’t used to be! Now it seems we’ve gone in the opposite direction, and the bad guys are almost always white.

But back to Indians: One fairly recent trend is to cast Indian actresses (more rarely actors) as generic “people” of no particular ethnic background. An example is Geraldine Indira Viswanathan–an Australian of Indian heritage who starred as “Kayla” (a Valley Girl) in Blockers, 2018. Another good example is Priyanka Chopra, the main star of “Quantico,” where she played the character “Alex Parrish”–a non Indian. But Priyanka has run into problems by promoting skin whiteners. In an interview, she said “she did the endorsements for a year but later realised she didn’t need to do it. ‘I felt really bad about it, that’s why I stopped doing it,’ she said. Priyanka also mentioned how her family and relative would make fun of her dusky skin. “All my cousins are gora-chitta (fair) I was the one who turned out dusky because my dad is dusky. Just for fun, my Punjabi family would call me ‘kaali, kaali, kaali’. At 13, I wanted to use fairness creams and wanted my complexion changed.” Dusky or not, she was Miss World in 2000.
 
RobertAdams said:
Hello, fellow white person who has also lived in a 99% nonwhite country. I’d be happy to hear what you learned about racism from the experience but wont promise I won’t criticize it if I disagree with your conclusions! I can tell you one of the things I learned:

Living as a white person for me in a 99% nonwhite country did not give me any insight at all as to what it was like to be black in the US.
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So your insight is about not having a particular insight?

ok, i believe you don’t have a particular insight.

It doesn’t really add to the discussion though fellow white person.
 
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I think it’s pretty obvious after reading this thread that our language has lost any foundation of common sense meaning. None of these words can even have workable definitions, as demonstrated. Truly a tower of Babel. This is what happens when relativism robs us of the search for objective truth or meaning. The language ceases to be a tool of communication and becomes a weapon.
 
Anyone can be “racist”…being a white woman in America, when younger, I would only associate with my own ethnic group. That was my preference, my decision, my environment and my comfort zone! In the working world we encounter many different races, depending on the career we choose. I have observed the diversity of groups and can relate how hate can play a part of people’s emotions. There can never be an “equality” of people when race is an issue because we are all so different! Some want to be just like those with blond hair…so they dye their hair…some want blue eyes…so they get colored contacts! Jealously also plays a part of racism…some want to be successful but don’t realize it requires an education and sacrifice…the USA is the land of opportunity and every one of us have a chance to succeed! A feeling of superiority or inferiority is just a feeling! God created all of us, regardless of color, and he Loves us all!
 
Weird. I actually was able to read and understand the entire thread without difficulty.
 
libbeylu said:
Jealously also plays a part of racism…some want to be successful but don’t realize it requires an education and sacrifice
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How do you know that many of the angry non white people protesting have degrees and the drive to work hard but find that they struggle to get a job in a company that is mainly white? many companies are not required to hire people of all races, they will actively discriminate in favor of white applicants knowing that in a court of law there will be no evidence that they were discriminating, the boss will say “i chose the candidates who i thought would get on with the other colleagues in the company, race did not come into it, after all of the 20 people that were hired recently 3 of them were black”
 
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