The Weaponization of Racism
The label of "racism" or "racist" has been weaponized.
A weapon is meant to hurt. The term "defensive weapon" is oxymoronic.
A person gets defensive when threatened by a weapon. A person gets defensive when called a "racist".
This is not to deny that there is such a thing as racism.
Similarly, there is no denying that there is a thing called evolution.
These terms are similar in how they are misused, or misapplied.
It seems that many people believe that evolution applies to individuals. Thus, early opponents of Darwin's theory criticized it by declaring that they did not descend from monkeys, implying that only a few degrees of relationship separated monkeys from humans, and therefore that humans, after only a few generations - or even after one generation - evolved from monkeys; even, according to certain caricatures of Darwin, that they, the critics themselves, had once been monkeys. The basic argument was that Darwin was suggesting that each person was once a monkey and has subsequently evolved into a human.
But individual humans do not evolve. The group of humans, a species of primate, has differentiated itself from other groups of primates, to one extent that members of different species cannot sexually reproduce with each other: The group evolved, not individual members of that group. What makes a group (or species) a group is that members share certain traits. These traits, which all members of the group have in common, are what make each person a member of the group. If a person somehow comes to no longer share the group's traits, then that means that that person is no longer a member of that group, which also means that he or she can no longer sexually reproduce. Thus, that person's "evolution" ends before producing a second generation, making that person's "evolution" a meaningless event.
The point of the story is that "evolution" is not a terms usefully applied to individuals. Evolution is a group phenomena.
Similarly, racism is a characteristic of a group.
Also, this group is not simply a collection of people. Rather, it is a society, a structures group, a collection of people who share certain rules, laws, cultural practices and expectations. Racism, then is what is expressed by a society: Its rules, expectations, practices which disadvantages one group of people within that society to the advantage of another group with that same society. One person alone does not constitute a society; neither do two people unless they share a relationship.
A society, then, is or is not racist. People interact within a society. One member of that society may have an advantage over the outcome of an interaction with another because of race. Take that person out of that society, put them in a society where the rules and expectations and practices are different, then race will no longer play a role in the outcome of an interaction.
This does not mean that a person's feelings will not be hurt or that the outcome of an interaction will not be "fair", bad results will still occur, but if race is not a factor in interactions, then the issue is not racism.
A metaphor might be of two packs of dogs living in a penned-off area through which a river, their only water supply, flows. The two packs are of the same species, but of different breeds - say long-hairs and short-hairs. The short-hairs live up stream of a sewage plant outfall while the long-hairs live down stream of the plant. The pen and the river is the racist society. Since the two packs live in a constrained, penned-off, area of the river, each population only has limited space. Like humans, the upstream dogs would prefer not to be crowded, and would thus prefer to keep the downstream dogs from migrating upstream above the sewage outfall that pollutes their water supply.
Human beings have built into them a feeling of dominance and hierarchy.
Human beings are social animals.
Human beings are creatures of habit.
Human being pass on and preserve behaviors through learning and habit.
The strength or relationships between human beings is a function of commonality, propinquity, familiarity, and dependency. Family bonds are strong partly because a person's first experience is with family members.
Human beings will act to preserve themselves.
Human beings will act to preserve their group.
A weapon is meant to hurt. The term "defensive weapon" is oxymoronic.
A person gets defensive when threatened by a weapon. A person gets defensive when called a "racist".
This is not to deny that there is such a thing as racism.
Similarly, there is no denying that there is a thing called evolution.
These terms are similar in how they are misused, or misapplied.
It seems that many people believe that evolution applies to individuals. Thus, early opponents of Darwin's theory criticized it by declaring that they did not descend from monkeys, implying that only a few degrees of relationship separated monkeys from humans, and therefore that humans, after only a few generations - or even after one generation - evolved from monkeys; even, according to certain caricatures of Darwin, that they, the critics themselves, had once been monkeys. The basic argument was that Darwin was suggesting that each person was once a monkey and has subsequently evolved into a human.
But individual humans do not evolve. The group of humans, a species of primate, has differentiated itself from other groups of primates, to one extent that members of different species cannot sexually reproduce with each other: The group evolved, not individual members of that group. What makes a group (or species) a group is that members share certain traits. These traits, which all members of the group have in common, are what make each person a member of the group. If a person somehow comes to no longer share the group's traits, then that means that that person is no longer a member of that group, which also means that he or she can no longer sexually reproduce. Thus, that person's "evolution" ends before producing a second generation, making that person's "evolution" a meaningless event.
The point of the story is that "evolution" is not a terms usefully applied to individuals. Evolution is a group phenomena.
Similarly, racism is a characteristic of a group.
Also, this group is not simply a collection of people. Rather, it is a society, a structures group, a collection of people who share certain rules, laws, cultural practices and expectations. Racism, then is what is expressed by a society: Its rules, expectations, practices which disadvantages one group of people within that society to the advantage of another group with that same society. One person alone does not constitute a society; neither do two people unless they share a relationship.
A society, then, is or is not racist. People interact within a society. One member of that society may have an advantage over the outcome of an interaction with another because of race. Take that person out of that society, put them in a society where the rules and expectations and practices are different, then race will no longer play a role in the outcome of an interaction.
This does not mean that a person's feelings will not be hurt or that the outcome of an interaction will not be "fair", bad results will still occur, but if race is not a factor in interactions, then the issue is not racism.
A metaphor might be of two packs of dogs living in a penned-off area through which a river, their only water supply, flows. The two packs are of the same species, but of different breeds - say long-hairs and short-hairs. The short-hairs live up stream of a sewage plant outfall while the long-hairs live down stream of the plant. The pen and the river is the racist society. Since the two packs live in a constrained, penned-off, area of the river, each population only has limited space. Like humans, the upstream dogs would prefer not to be crowded, and would thus prefer to keep the downstream dogs from migrating upstream above the sewage outfall that pollutes their water supply.
Human beings have built into them a feeling of dominance and hierarchy.
Human beings are social animals.
Human beings are creatures of habit.
Human being pass on and preserve behaviors through learning and habit.
The strength or relationships between human beings is a function of commonality, propinquity, familiarity, and dependency. Family bonds are strong partly because a person's first experience is with family members.
Human beings will act to preserve themselves.
Human beings will act to preserve their group.
posted by Godel at 11:31 PM
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