This is in response to Bandit's "Racism is just wrong" post

Question

I had to post this in a separate thread since Holdem's thread will eventually be boxed by the mods (I think? but could care less). So I created a new thread to ensure you'd see my response.

You commented on this video.

You said it made you reflect and that "Racism is just wrong."

Below this line is my response.

I watched the video just to show you, and others here, I can be open to these things.

Unfortunately, its message is far too basic to address modern racism an its effects in America.

If the video was entitled "Can blacks/non-whites be racist?" her message is a good one, and her message is clear, but it begins and ends with that.

The first problem I have with the video is that she entertains the thought that the FAU student isn't mentally unstable . While we can never know for certain, we can likely infer it confidently given the circumstances. Why waste your energy on what she may be angry with, in racial terms, regarding the Tuskegee Experiment (which many here have no idea occurred) and Darwinism? The FAU student was VIOLENT with other students and had to be physically subdued. It is clear this woman is not in the right frame of mind for a college classroom or anywhere else unmedicated. That doesn't discount the fact she may be racist. But her presentation, and extended speech about why she may be a racist, does discount the almost certain possibility this woman was unstable.

That is a problem.

The second problem is people like yourself who confidently leave that video thinking "Racism is just wrong", which you are not the only one to do (her video 'likes' will grow and whites will make up a significant portion of that).

Which leads to the second problem...

This video is a very sophomoric view of racism in the 21st century in this country. It doesn't offer much benefit outside of making us feel good. While on it's surface, it is correct, underneath it offers nothing more than high school level thinking (if not late grammar school).

While racism IS JUST WRONG, as you say, there are more questions to be asked and answered and I'd ask them to her as I ask them to you.

Here are just some:

Question #1 Does this video in any way address the institutional and systematic effects of racism that minorities lives are shaped and driven by in the US in the 21st century as tens of millions can provide testimonials for?

Question #2 Does this video address the inequity of opportunity for communities of color, from cradle to grave, that the overwhelming majority of black individuals can testify to, if just asked?

Question #3 Does this video in any way challenge the nation's racial hierarchy, with blacks remanded at the very bottom in terms of equitable outcomes and general perception, that is indoctrinated and internalized at a very young age for almost every American, including some blacks themselves?

Question #4 As an example of inequity, because of racism in the employment sector, can a "Racism is wrong" address the fact that the following are true in America today, and will continue to be completely ignored by many who willingly embrace the "Racism is wrong" mantra (I have citations):

That white high school dropouts have higher employment rates than black high school graduates;

That black men with college degrees earn 33% less than white men with college degrees even after controlling for many of the other factors that shape a job candidate that can be used by an employer to justify the disparity;

That middle-class black families have to work an equivalent of 12 work weeks, taking time away from their families and extended educational advancement/personal development, just to earn the same incomes as their counterparts in the white middle-class;

That, according to a study by MIT economists, job applicants with identical qualifications and experience, but with more white-sounding names, were 50% more likely to get an interview with an employer than one with a black sounding name.

It gets worse. And that is JUST addressing discrimination in corporate and blue-collar America (of which I have many more points) and the employment sector in general and is irrespective of discrimination in housing, health care, education, criminal justice, and society in general.

Shall I go on? I can...Oh yes, I'll keep you here for days till your eyes bleed and you tear your ears off in anger or more appropriately, disgust that racism is this bad and you never knew it or thought to care.

So Bandit, while the video has a good message, in a Disney-like production sense, we needn't all join hands and merrily skip over a daffodil filled hilltop and proclaim "Racism is Just Wrong!!" It is. Like drug use, Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No!" message was largely for children and adolescents and does little to address the realities of the hardcore addict saying 'No!' of which rehab centers with advanced medically proven treatments are available. In the same vein, there is an advanced conversation here that the large majority of America refuses to engage in, as I expect you will to after reading this post (if you even read it at all and many here would lose track along the way given the severe logical disconnect and contradictions within their posts).

So says I, that this country, including yourself, and even the girl in the video, needs to enter "Racism Rehab" to understand the realities of its deleterious effects beyond platitudes that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, but do little else.

scalabrine · Answer