10 ways white people are more racist than they realize

[Nice Squirrel]

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/04/10_ways_white_people_are_more_racist_than_they_realize_partner/

1. College professors, across race/ethnicity and gender, are more likely to respond to queries from students they believe are white males.

2. White people, including white children, are less moved by the pain of people of color, including children of color, than by the pain of fellow whites.

3. White people are more likely to have done illegal drugs than blacks or Latinos, but are far less likely to go to to jail for it.

4. Black men are sentenced to far lengthier prison sentences than white men for the same crimes.

5. White people, including police, see black children as older and less innocent than white children.

6. Black children are more likely to be tried as adults and are given harsher sentences than white children.

7. White people are more likely to support the criminal justice system, including the death penalty, when they think it’s disproportionately punitive toward black people.

8. The more “stereotypically black” a defendant looks in a murder case, the higher the likelihood he will be sentenced to death.

9. Conversely, white people falsely recall black men they perceive as being “smart” as being lighter-skinned. Here’s another incredible, though not entirely surprising study finding.

10. A number of studies find white people view lighter-skinned African Americans (and Latinos) as more intelligent, competent, trustworthy and reliable than their darker-skinned peers.

Racism is comfortable and easy; it helps us make quick, baseless decisions without the taxing act of thinking. The next time you catch yourself having a racist thought or feeling, try not brushing it off. Ask yourself where it came from, what it means and how you can unpack it. Because if the evidence above suggests anything, it’s that critical self-examination is our only hope of moving the needle at all on this thing. Stop imagining that being racist is something that only other people do, and start looking closely at your own beliefs.

Especially the ones you’ve never admitted to yourselves that you hold.

 

[NobleSavage]

This is getting so old. Why not just drop the rational and just go with, "I hate white people". At least it would be more honest.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Is it not accurate?

Why is it getting old?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Well, there are people and institutoins with fairly clear racial biases. The justice system, for one. I'd be far more interested in seeing something being done, or some cause i could support to GET things done, about systemic injustice that can and must be corrected, than being told yet again that if you look closely enough at my subconscious, i'm more than likely racist in small ways.
For one thing, it clashes with all the people going out of their way to call me a nigger lover. I get such headaches....

 

[Sarpedon]

Ah, the perennial whine: Criticism is the same as hate.

The admission that you have a problem is the first step to recovery. But the ego will not permit many people to see their problems.

I, for example, freely admit that I have, and have acted upon, racial prejudice. This is wrong. I do not hate 'white people.' I hate myself for being wrong. And it is this that motivates me to improve. This is not easy or pleasant, and it has required me to put aside my ego in favor of higher principles.

So many people transmute their ego into higher principles, by imagining that their way is, by definition, right.

 

[NobleSavage]

Is it not accurate?

Why is it getting old?

It fucking old because I've heard this shit since I first went to college in 1990 and its always the same, "white people are evil bullshit". I do a lot of work for Habitat of Humanity. We basically find a block in a very bad neighborhood and make it a good block. Usually, all new houses. You know always benefits? Black people, but that is not the aim of the group. We are just trying to help the less fortunate. There is a big meeting once a month of the various leaders who pull this off. I'm always wondering, where are the black leaders? Never fucking fixing the problem, but ALWAYS bitching about racism and trying to get media attention.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

I didn't take it as "white people are evil", but to each his own.

That being said, I did start this thread to be provocative.

 

[PyramidHead]

Not that it makes any difference, but I expect there may be similar tendencies to some that are described in the article across races. Blacks may also be "less moved by the pain" of people from other races, for instance. That could just be instincts at work. I didn't know about many of the others, though. I expect the usual suspects to come around and try to discredit the article, but it does a good job of restricting the examples to things that can't be explained away as "urban culture" or some such euphemism. Except maybe this one:

8. The more “stereotypically black” a defendant looks in a murder case, the higher the likelihood he will be sentenced to death.

Reality check: it's the gangbangers who look like gangbangers who get the death penalty because they are gangbangers.[/moderatelibertarian]

 

[thebeave]

Is it not accurate?

Why is it getting old?

The white self loathing that goes on in this forum these days is just getting tiresome. We had an earlier thread about how "white people are kind of assholes" written by a white member. You guys need to stop hanging on every word Al Sharpton and his ilk says, and develop a little positive self esteem.

 

[dismal]

This is getting so old. Why not just drop the rational and just go with, "I hate white people". At least it would be more honest.

But keeping up the drumbeat of racism and war on women and stuff is the path to victory for Democrats in the 2014 elections...

 

[PyramidHead]

Is it not accurate?

Why is it getting old?

The white self loathing that goes on in this forum these days is just getting tiresome. We had an earlier thread about how "white people are kind of assholes" written by a white member. You guys need to stop hanging on every word Al Sharpton and his ilk says, and develop a little positive self esteem.

Does your self esteem depend on your opinion of others who look like you?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Is it not accurate?

Why is it getting old?

The white self loathing that goes on in this forum these days is just getting tiresome. We had an earlier thread about how "white people are kind of assholes" written by a white member. You guys need to stop hanging on every word Al Sharpton and his ilk says, and develop a little positive self esteem.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Well, if racist events would stop, the threads would stop.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

This is getting so old. Why not just drop the rational and just go with, "I hate white people". At least it would be more honest.

But keeping up the drumbeat of racism and war on women and stuff is the path to victory for Democrats in the 2014 elections...

Actually it will most likely be the gap between rich and poor and being the party that is attempting to get stuff done instead of wasting time threatening to shut down the government. Republicans are only defining themselves for what they are against.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Well, if racist events would stop, the threads would stop.

But these threads aren't stopping racist events, are they?
It's probably like the anti-vaxxers or the creationists.
Shout 'Science proves you're a racst' at people who think they're open minded or fair or liberal, and they close up and defend their practices.

 

[Bronzeage]

The silly part is, they think white people don't recognize this.

 

[PyramidHead]

The silly part is, they think white people don't recognize this.

Why is that silly? I didn't know half of those things. To be fair, I wasn't really surprised to learn them.

But these threads aren't stopping racist events, are they?
It's probably like the anti-vaxxers or the creationists.
Shout 'Science proves you're a racst' at people who think they're open minded or fair or liberal, and they close up and defend their practices.

You're setting the bar pretty high if you think we need to establish that talking about racism definitively stops racism before we talk about it.

 

[Bronzeage]

Why is that silly? I didn't know half of those things. To be fair, I wasn't really surprised to learn them.

...

Any white person who is unaware of these ten things, hasn't been paying attention.

 

[ksen]

Is it not accurate?

Why is it getting old?

The white self loathing that goes on in this forum these days is just getting tiresome. We had an earlier thread about how "white people are kind of assholes" written by a white member. You guys need to stop hanging on every word Al Sharpton and his ilk says, and develop a little positive self esteem.

I see /pol/ is checking in.

 

[Sarpedon]

I'm amazed how quickly these conversations come around to Al Sharpton, as if that is a witty or decisive point.

I'm not in the habit of listening to clergy, and haven't been for 18 years.

While I happily proceeded in my fog of happy denial of america's race problems for many years, I'm out of it now and don't require any guidance.