On Racism

I recently read an article wherein the author contended that everyone, everyone, is racist. 

She further contends that being white automatically = having a life of comparative privilege. 

And she still further contends that it's unlikely a white person can truly understand what it's like to be on the wrong side of racism.

To which I reply, unequivocally but with respect: Bullshit. 

Now, I do realize I am currently a heterosexual white male in North America, which perhaps isn't exactly the right background upon which one would rightly base such a blanket refutual. Particularly, one could say, against this author, who is a "person of color". 

Well, it's true that my own personal life experience has been a wonderful and idyllic dream compared to the travails and tragedies of the poor starving children in Africa. To say nothing of, for instance, those living in Watts in the 60s (I don't actually know what conditions are like there now, sorry). I'm not going to deny that, but I don't see any reason I should apologise for it, either.

That said, how about we deconstruct the second contention, about being white automatically inferring privilege. 

It's an entirely racist comment (and to her credit, the author does not deny this), and patently untrue when taken on a global scale, to say nothing of a historic one.  

I don't even need to Godwin this. How about people living in the former USSR? They're predominantly white. They had to put up with some pretty shitty conditions and the Eastern Bloc STILL isn't what I'd call a first-world zone. The disparity of living conditions between former-Soviet countries and America is still fairly stark; I'm pretty sure nearly everyone living in the USA has a MUCH better time of things than those guys. Regardless of color in either area.

How about this idea that I can't possibly understand what it's like to be discriminated against because of my skin color (just because I'm white)?  Well, there are a number of things I can say to that; they can pretty much all be summed up as "Fuck you", but I realize this isn't a sufficiently cogent argument.

So: Firstly, I live in Los Angeles, California, and have for many years.  And I've made my way around the block; around several, in fact. That I've remained relatively unscathed may in part have to do with my race, but I think it more has to do with the fact that I'm not stupid or suicidal; nor do I see any value in dick-swinging contests of any stripe. 

Nonetheless, I have been discriminated against quite a number of times, for reasons including but not limited to skin color. I have had to deal with slurs based on my skin color, of hostility arising from it, regardless of my own personal actions, motivations or preferences. In other words, I've had to deal with racists. Did they stick a flaming cross in my front yard? No. But as I understand it, that sort of thing is passe these days, amongst the bigoted types.

Secondly, who the fuck are you, Miz Writer Person, to say what I can or do know? Are you suddenly telepathic on a globaland personal scale, can you read my deepest thoughts stretching back through my entire existence? By your own argument, you invalidate yourself. You say that not having experienced something, you can't know what it's like - but you yourself haven't experienced "not having experienced"; ergo how can you know what it's like to not have experienced something? Is it a "before and after" thing? Because your memory is ostensibly limited to your current lifetime, in which case you don't have any "before" to experience. Moreover, you haven't lived my life, so how would you know whether I know anything?

I'm not mad, really. I just think it's fucked up that people of all colors are still petty, racist little assholes even when they crusade against racism. 

Now look, I'm not saying racism doesn't exist, or that it doesn't suck, and hard. Because it does, and it has, and I get pretty riled up when I see anyone being discriminated against. 

But dig it: Did you notice I didn't qualify my statement with "because of their skin color"? That's because I get pretty riled up when I see anyone being discriminated against NO MATTER WHAT the excuse is. 

I don't care what your biological background is. If you ever use it as an excuse for divisiveness amongst your fellow man, you are being racist. The prejudice really does go both ways, and I seriously can't believe I have to explain this, but obviously I do. 

Now sure a person could walk up to me and say, "It's easy for you to say, white boy. Your people were never enslaved."  And maybe they'd be right. Except I'm Irish on my dad's side, and you don't hear me pissing and moaning about English offenses against my ancestors which included wholesale slaughter, economic sanctions and other unpleasantries. In fact, I figure I could probably find some "being a slave" shit somewhere in my genetic history, considering what the hell country WASN'T someone's slave at one time or another? 

Also, I'm a Scientologist and I really don't often talk about how oppressed we are, and how discriminated against in various parts of the world, and how unfair it is that people look at us funny and laugh at us because they believe what South Park told them. I mean, yeah, I'll bring it up now and then and I'll deal with it when I have to, but I don't walk around feeling aggrieved, badgered and marginalized about it my whole bloody life. I surely don't use it as a "card" to get my way or cut people down. If I have to use "I'm a victim" to win an argument or get my way, I've already fucking lost, haven't I? 

I'm actually more bothered by the fact that I'm getting older which means the chicks in my age bracket will likely have less perky tits than I've been used to.  And no, for the record: I'm not a shallow guy.

Race is just an excuse to foster divisiveness amongst our species. So is nationality, religion, sex, age, and literally any other arbitrary classification possible.

Here in the real world: There ARE things that some people are better suited to than others. The list of those things, if it existed, would be CONSIDERABLY shorter than bigots would have the world believe, and notably lacking in references to skin color as far as I can figure. But that doesn't refute the reality that a 7-foot-tall person can reach a higher place than a 4-foot-tall person. You can't call that discrimination; that is a PRACTICAL consideration. 

Other than such practical considerations, there really is no logical reason for "us vs. them" within the human race. The only such divisions exist purely out of frankly arbitrary considerations of members of those groups. 

We have better things to do than squabble about melanin; more important things to be concerned with than the past (and especially things that happened to people centuries dead). Right now is important; the future is important. We're faced with a great many gnarly issues as a race, and on every single level I can conceive as I write this, all of those have more to do with our survival as a race (which is to say, homo sapiens - not black, white, red, yellow or mulatto) than any of those arbitrary and frankly idiotic distinctions. 

So, really. Still think I'm a racist?