Racism

[Canyon]

I subscribe to A Word A Day, a fun way to expand my vocabulary. After a discussion of the day's word, their email concludes with A Thought for Today. Today's word is "skylark", and this is the thought for today:

"Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping -- positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead change the subject and straw man." -Ta-Nehisi Coates, writer and journalist (b. 30 Sep 1975)

Discuss?

[boots-aregard]

Not sure what's to discuss. It's absolutely true.

[Chisamba]

Women are not actually raped, they were provoking it, children would not be abuse if they would just behave themselves. I do not think it only applies to racism, victim blaming is a theme that runs through many a defense of bad behaviour.

[Tarlo Farm]

OMG, this all makes me ill. It is SOOOO correct.

[Tabby]

Wow, this is all completely true! The real question is there a way to counter it - if not at a societal level but at least in our own minds? We must all be guilty of frame-flipping on some topic or another.

[calvin]

The author of the quote (see O.P.) wrote a fascinating essay on the significance of the O.J. Simpson trial in this month's "Atlantic". Racism exists in so many ways and pervades too many of our institutions.

[boots-aregard]

Wow, this is all completely true! The real question is there a way to counter it - if not at a societal level but at least in our own minds? We must all be guilty of frame-flipping on some topic or another.

I'm sure we are guilty of it in our truly unconscious prejudices. However, I am QUITE aware that gays are not trying to convert our children!!!

[Tabby]

As an offshoot to this topic, our baseball team (Blue Jays) is currently playing the championship series against the Cleaveland Indians which has raised another facet of racism around here. I'm sure the same issue comes up south of the border as well. Several sports teams have names and/or logos that some consider offensive to indigenous people: Indians, Redskins, Braves, Blackhawks, Eskimos etc. Some guy up here is filing a human rights complaint against the Indians who will be playing up to 3 games here next week. I'm not exactly sure what he hopes to accomplish - probably a team name change but that won't happen before these games are played. It also could affect the ability for Canadian cities to have sports teams in predominantly American leagues - which is pretty much all of them. There is some merit to the protests against using these words as team names but it's also a bit of a stretch (in my opinion) to say that their use is offensive. The trouble for me is that I don't really know much about the plights of the various indigenous peoples other than they weren't treated particularly well starting from European settlers to the present day. I know very few details.

It is a form of racism for sure but it's not exactly like the discussion here. I'm not frame-flipping. It's actually more like plain ignorance since I simply don't know. I would suggest it's a form of societal racism since our educational system has largely ignored this part of American/Canadian history. We've also pushed most of these people off to their reserves, many of which are in remote locations so that we don't even interact with them on any regular basis. Historically, segregation has only served to increase racial tensions. While I don't have a strong feeling about any particular indigenous group, their segregation from the rest of us highlights their differences. Perhaps society's indifference is behind their frustration in modern times. Maybe this whole sports team name issue will get people to think about it more. Changes like this happen very slowly but they do happen.

[WheresMyWhite]

IMO, sometimes "political correctness" has gone a bit too far... Many sports teams have been named for segments of the population for years. I personally don't think the names were ever intended to denigrate some subset whether it be Indians or eskimos or whatever.

If one chose, maybe it could be complimentary that a subset of the population to which one is a member takes it as a compliment that a given subset is actually recognized by a sports team??? I mean, I don't see any team being called the Whities or Caucasians. Or maybe because there isn't, easy to imply it is a "bad" thing to have a sports team named after one's subset?

I've always thought that the concerns over the names of sports teams was a bit over the top but then again that's just me. Just thinking maybe not be quite so sensitive and quick to assume that denigration was the intent. Seems to me that there should be larger concerns than having a sports team names after one's self... I dunno.

Oh, and Cleveland (sp) ... their spring training camp is just down the street from me (in what is now called the "Cactus League" (spring training camp) as I think all the professional baseball teams now have their spring training camp somewhere in the metro Phoenix area.)