The distinction between talking racist and being racist

Microaggresions

In today's world we hear a lot of talk about microaggressions. From the definition I find on Wikipedia it appears to be casual everyday speech which may have the intended or unintended affect on marginalized groups. The focus on this blog is to first express my own opinion that microaggressions while rude and inappropriate are not an indicator of true racism.

How I define racist

I define true racism as either and or 1) believing that races are more than just a social construct 2) enforcing racial stereotypes by intentional actions. That is to say to truly believe in the concept of races deep down whether consciously or subconsciously, and or then to enforce these beliefs by intentional actions is in my opinion true racism.

Racism under my definition does not require racial hatred. It does not require believing your race is the master race or any opinion on supremacy or hierarchy of races. It merely requires that you believe races are real and beyond a social construct. If you believe the science does not prove race is a social construct then by my definition just on this you're racist because you believe in the core ideology. If you believe in the ideology enough to enforce racial stereotypes intentionally, then you are also racist because you're promoting belief in the ideology.

This means in my opinion it is an expression of being racist for "blacks" to tell other "blacks" that they are "acting white", and it is also racist if "whites" tell other "whites" they are acting "black", as this particular statement holds the presupposition that behavioral stereotypes must remain enforced. I call this an expression of being racist because if a person believes it is possible to act a certain race then they must actually believe races exist beyond a mere social construct and also believe the stereotypes enough to seek to enforce them by telling other people how they should act.

This contrasts with the dictionary definition below:

a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

As that definition presupposes that the belief in races is acceptable. If we replace "races" with "gods" then an atheist or monotheist would look at that definition very differently than a believer. My definition also does not focus on what people feel but only on what people have done. This means a person can feel what they feel, but only when their actions prove them to be racist by expressing their beliefs do I conclude the person is racist. So for example of a store puts up a sign which says "whites only" this is for sure racist because it not only proves the store owner believes in the concept of races but the owner of the store seeks to enforce their beliefs by only serving a certain race.

A microaggression is the casual degradation of any marginalized group. The term was coined by psychiatrist and Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflict on African Americans.[1][2][3][4] Eventually, the term came to encompass the casual degradation of any socially marginalized group, such as the poor or the disabled.[5] Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership".[6]

Conclusion

Race is an ideology.
To be racist is to believe and or support that ideology.
Systemic racism is when society believes in and enforces that ideology, so for instance I believe the U.S. Census is racist because it asks people "what is your race" and then provides the categories.

Microaggressions in my opinion are rude, can be mean, can be insensitive, but people who make these common errors of speech in my opinion are not necessarily racist. Even people who use racial slurs in anger may not actually be truly racist (although they are immature and inarticulate). It is possible for a person to not even believe in race ideology, but to communicate in an insensitive manner (microaggressions) and by that communication be labeled "racist". I do not follow this labeling strategy. For a person to be labeled racist they must prove racism by their actions not by their speech.

To counter racism in my opinion requires countering the ideology itself rather than the believers of it. This requires promoting genetic literacy and it requires in my opinion removal of systemic expressions of racism (such as what we see enforced by the U.S. Census). People who deliberately promote and enforce racist stereotypes and ideology must be called out and people who accidently do it should be made aware of their ignorance/corrected. In my opinion and I cannot prove this because I haven't seen a study, but it seems most people simply miscommunicate and the majority of microaggressions are human error. There are of course some which are intentional but in any environment there are people who are rude, insensitive, and the same methods apply to dealing with rudeness whether it's called microaggression or not.

The distinction between talking racist and being racist

Microaggresions

How I define racist

Conclusion

References