So a Mexican restaurant at a British university hands out sombreros to students as a “celebration of Mexican culture” (according to none other than the restaurant’s general manager). In our truly bizarre politically-correct culture, this is condemned as “racist.”
This is an utter abuse of the term “racist,” and an insult to people who have genuinely experienced real racism.
What is racism, if it is to have any coherent, sensible and defensible meaning?
It is as follows:
(1) the view that a certain group of human beings regarded as a “race” (whether the term is scientifically defensible or not) is significantly morally or intellectually inferior to other “races” because of genetics and heredity and these differences are ineradicable.Now racism, as we all know, has historically led to terrible and unjustifiable racial discrimination, even though technically this is a different, even if strongly related, concept, because a person might be privately racist in sense (1) or (2) but not engage in outward behaviour that is racially discriminatory. But some people are racist in sense (1) or (2) and engage in irrational racially discriminatory behaviour that cannot be justified in any way at all.
(2) an irrational hatred or phobia of all people who are defined as, or regarded as, belonging to a particular “race,” very often on the basis of skin colour.
Most other senses of the word “racist” today tend to be rhetorical tricks or smears, or gross perversions of the word’s legitimate senses. What is termed “racist” often tends to be merely bigotry and prejudice against some nationality or religious group (which are not races).
Above all, the regressive left conflates culture with race – a truly bizarre and outrageous trick that is actually opposed to what the left has historically believed about human progress: namely, that many of the problems in the world are caused by bad environment, not by genes or biology.
Culture is not race. So many cultural ideas are not biologically determined, and are flexible and changeable, and bad cultural ideas must be criticised and fought so that they will change.
E.g., misogyny, honour killing, female genital mutilation, homophobia, etc. These cultural ideas are not in the genes and people on the left who scream “racism” when they hear criticism of a particular culture for these ideas are actually guilty of a bizarre and insidious racism in reverse: the implication that misogyny, honour killing, female genital mutilation, etc. are caused by genetics or heredity, when this is clearly not the case.
This is exactly why I am baffled by charges of "racism" made by certain radical Islamist preachers in UK and Australia when they are confronted by authorities.
ReplyDeleteTheir ideas have nothing to do with race.
Your definition excludes passive/institutional forms of racism. Where the "active" racism you describe is located purely within an individual actor, passive forms exist in social practice and cultural tropes that reinforce systems of advantage based on race, often independently of an individual's wishes. For example, a loan officer may not be a hateful person, though his bank may practice redlining. Or, a highly publicized matter in recent days is the racism currently embedded in the practice of policing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Prateek, it is true that Islam is not a race. But despite this, Muslims are targeted on racial grounds. For example, in America, events such as this or this or especially this, it's clear that the picture is a bit more complicated. These are not signs of an anti-religious agenda so much as a more generalized antipathy for "brown" people. It is not so simple to dismiss Islamophobia as somehow distinct from racism when a Yazidi or a Druze or a Chaldean may face the same anxiety walking down the street at night.
..distinct from racism when a Yazidi or a Druze or a Chaldean may face the same anxiety walking down the street at night.
DeleteThose things are real but clearly limited to a small hateful minority of people in the US. The US has a population of 318.9 million. How many such crimes have actually happened on a per capita basis?
"Or, a highly publicized matter in recent days is the racism currently embedded in the practice of policing."
DeleteThis isn't really right, and casting this as yet another case of racism obscures a serious problem. You should seek out some of the articles on the Reason site about this, and pieces by Balko.
The real problem is the interface of government and the police with the underclass. If I think you owe me money for example I need to take you to court to get it resolved. If you owe the government, a parking ticket say, they can and do take direct punitive action, usually escalating. So a ticket may mean court appearances, lost wages, etc. This never happens with teachers or dentists who get a ticket.
This has a disparate impact on blacks, but it's not racism and trying to treat the problem with anti-racism preaching won't help. Completely misdirected.
This is an excellent piece LK. But (uyou knew there had to eb a but):
Delete"Above all, the regressive left conflates culture with race – a truly bizarre and outrageous trick that is actually opposed to what the left has historically believed about human progress: namely, that many of the problems in the world are caused by bad environment, not by genes or biology."
I agree with every word of this but one. Replace "regressive" with "modern". It's not a minority; it's not a new thing; it's not going to change. You have few allies on the Left anymore, but you might find quite a few elsewhere.
"It's not a minority; it's not a new thing; it's not going to change. You have few allies on the Left anymore, but you might find quite a few elsewhere. "
DeleteThis is false--if this were so we would see more regressive leftists in positions of power in left-leaning states, like in the Northeastern U.S., or the Nordic countries. We do not--what we do see is that the regressive left has found a megaphone, and knows how to make headlines. Your attempt to generalize its extremism as a general quality of the left is at odds with the empirical evidence we have of the political constitution of the Left--which is heterogeneous, like the modern right, but whose biggest and most influential factions can be found in national politics. And when you look at Leftists in positions of power, they are by and large not from the regressive left.
But nice try.
Your definition of left is pretty expansive if you think the left governs a bunch of states.
DeleteI don't know which thread to drop this on, but it's worth a read. Despite being by Frum. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/the-great-republican-revolt/419118/
ReplyDeleteI have to say that was a surprisingly good analysis.
DeleteHowever, middle class Republicans simply don't understand that the economics that is destroying the middle class is neoliberalism. They will vote for a candidate who -- mostly likely -- will implement polices that will make their condition worse.
Let me guess, according to this people.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/65Ya3tntKGk?t=1m24s
This would be an extreme form of racism.