I think understand what you are saying. I think understand what this type of thinking is trying to accomplish. I think I even agree with it’s goals. But I don’t agree with how it’s being executed. Looking at this statement I can see where I was wrong. Racial generalizations are not racism. They could be defined as racial prejudice. In her case, she was not making broad statements about racism. She was making broad statements about the character of white people:
- We never apologize for being wrong.
- We cherry pick our facts to support are own beliefs and ignore the ones that don’t.
Is this a forum? If so it seems the rules of civility only apply to one side. Maybe you’ve been part of this discussion long enough to tune this out. I haven’t and it makes me want to withdraw from the conversation altogether. I can’t be alone in this.
The definition of racism as a system of a oppression is not universal. If you look in the dictionary, racism is defined as the belief in the superiority of one race over the other. So when I’m called a racist, which are we talking about? Are we talking about my continued participation in our current racist system. Are we talking about my beliefs about the superiority of my race? Is it both? For most white people, calling them a racist is damning. They will feel like you said that they are ignorant, mean, immoral and hateful. That’s what it means to most people.
