Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
When did anti-racism become incorporated into a person's character after Civil Rights in the US? Talking to boomers, even liberal ones, it seems their attitude is mostly that personal prejudice is, while not encouraged, also not a big deal so long as you don't let it cloud your judgement in an official capacity (such as discriminating while hiring). Even many boomerlibs I know talk in racially disparaging terms about people they don't like (i.e. a black driver who cut them off). I'm around 30, and growing up in Houston with an ethnically diverse social group it seems that ideologically everyone was on board with equal opportunities, but if someone was personally racist it was more of a personal quirk than a major character flaw unless they were, like, in a criminal organization or something. I'm PMC, and grew up PMC going to public schools, so I may have been in a bubble.
To give a tongue in cheek quote from my dad, "When did being a racist become worse than being a serial killer?" It seems that there was a gap in between when everyone agreed the nation as a whole should act in a race-blind or even anti-racist way and when people decided that it's imperative that people as individuals abandon racist feelings/beliefs.
I'd also be interested in if/when this happened in other nations as well, such as the nations of Western Europe.
The other day, I was telling herself about the spree killer who targeted massage therapists in Atlanta. Being that most of the victims were Asian women, initial reports understandably characterised it as a hate crime targeting Asian people. But when the perpetrator was arrested, he went to great pains to explain that he didn't murder those women because they were Asian, but because they were vile whores leading him (and other men like him) into temptation.
There's something darkly amusing about a man who will freely admit to being a sex addict, to deliberately targeting physically and economically vulnerable women for violence, to blaming women for his inability to control his own sexual appetites, to despising prostitutes and sex workers, to being a murderer – but I'm not racist, guys!
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link