Combating Racism in America

[Ellener]

4 hours ago, pepperbird said:

If it's anything like mainland China, I hope they are able to get out.

I agree. We should not even be doing trade with China except as a humanitarian issue for their workers. China is not a free country and not the same as America or most places.

[pepperbird]

4 hours ago, Emilie Jolie said:

Yep. And we do have 'better knowledge'. We can't pretend that we don't.

IMO, There's only one way to combat racism (and all the other isms) - that is being in a constant stage of 'quiet revolution' and questioning, ie challenging the status quo, making sure power changes hands as often as possible.

'Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.'

Pierre Bourdieu

Gradually, we are breaking the  barriers formed by the first established power, that is straight rich white male dominance, against much resistance from that particular group and their facilitators (codependents I guess, in LS vernacular). 

Systemic racism is one of the last barriers that needs to be tackled head on, along with endemic poverty; seems like we are finally heading that way.

 

Race may be the barrier that comes to mind  because it's the one many are most familiar with.
It's not the only one. not  by a long shot.

[Emilie Jolie]

42 minutes ago, Ellener said:

When I developed anxiety disorder my friends said- so tell everyone what it's like. I have. Once the personal experience of 'isms' is all unashamedly out there the world shifts. 

 

Yeah, IRL is a much easier world to navigate through than online / social media beast, which is a still new and fairly unregulated platform where prejudiced views can very quickly circulate when left unchecked.

In order to tackle racism (and all other isms) efficiently,  I strongly believe there needs to be clear safeguards to both actively preserve freedom of speech and promote a prejudice-free environment. I personally think the PC route ('we can all say whatever we want as long we're nice') is infantilising, probably because I'm a super passionate political person, and at some point people in charge need to take a stand, not just 'live and let live'.

There is no need to make martyrs of out people for defending their 'cause' - I get what your friend is saying, but as an example, racist cyber-bullying (among other forms of ism bullying) is a thing that affects other people's mental health. We do spend more and more time online (especially in the last 3 months) so it's even more important to take the lead on this (imo).

The American Psychological Association actually published an article called 'Online racial discrimination: A growing problem for adolescents Cyberbullying researchers are beginning to understand the race-related experiences of adolescents of color in 2015' which makes for interesting reading, if you are interested.

 

[Emilie Jolie]

2 minutes ago, pepperbird said:

Race may be the barrier that comes to mind  because it's the one many are most familiar with.
It's not the only one. not  by a long shot.

Yes, that's why I wrote and all the other isms in the quote you took  

[SincereOnlineGuy]

On 7/3/2020 at 6:10 PM, enigma32 said:

Every step currently being taken to "combat racism" is just making it all worse. It just makes me wonder if this is being done purposefully.

 

LOL 

right... getting others to see the light  is somehow  making ("racism" ??)  worse  ???   

 

Or...   ("your Covid world"  )   worse  ??

 

 

which exactly are you trying to say?

 

 

It is glaringly simple:     "CEASE at once the use of apparent-race to indicate or suggest to you poverty or desperation in the person of another".

 

It isn't fair to those you are judging.

[sothereiwas]

On 7/1/2020 at 2:00 PM, schlumpy said:

If you open that up to the floor we get both plus a VAT tax.

A national sales tax would have to have a constitutional amendment, and that would have to have as part of the deal a repeal of the 16th. Hopefully. 

[Libby1]

On 7/4/2020 at 2:10 AM, enigma32 said:

Every step currently being taken to "combat racism" is just making it all worse. It just makes me wonder if this is being done purposefully.

I think there are basic standards of behaviour which we expect people to adhere to in a civilised society (refraining from verbal or physical abuse of others) which everybody with mental capacity is capable of adhering to - and which most people do adhere to.  Then there are the discriminatory attitudes which are a bit more tricky in that the past shows lots of people are likely to discriminate against people outside their preferred tribe/group if they can get away with it.  We've got laws in place to address that.  It doesn't work perfectly, not least because people are often understandably reluctant to resort to legal measures, but it has certainly improved minority groups to important opportunities relating to housing and employment.

I think at the moment, the civil rights philosophy that has taken hold is asking something more than that people adhere to laws against discrimination.  It's asking that people self examine for discriminatory attitudes within themselves.  That's not necessarily a bad thing for people to do, but self examination for destructive attitudes isn't always an easy process.  I mean, in part it's what this site encourages.  Self examination in the spirit of self improvement.

But it's inappropriate for an activist movement to demand that people participate in this process of self examination..and when I say inappropriate, I mean that it's really unlikely to have the desired effect.  When somebody who appears to be a political activist is demanding that you engage in a self examination in order to find negatives within yourself that the activist is convinced are there, or agree to undertake re-education (educated by sources approved by the activists) I think it's absolutely natural and healthy to regard that with suspicion.

For me, if a movement can express clear, measurable goals, most usually in the form of legislative changes, then that's something that can open up political dialogue.  If the goals pertain more to individual members of society embarking on some sort of self improvement campaign...again, that's just not something I see political movements as playing a valid role in.  Self examination and improvement in a therapeutic or spiritual environment, sure.  As a response to demands from a political movement?  My thought about that is...yikes.   It smacks of something pretty controlling, particularly when the demands are combined with suggestions that if you don't participate in this programme of self improvement and re-education then you're a racist.  That's the kind of controlling approach that we all know very well to avoid when we encounter it in individuals....so why wouldn't we be equally suspicious when we encounter it in a political movement?

Edited July 10, 2020 by Libby1