Sure, black people can be racist, too

[SummerMadness]

Sure, black people can be racist, too

There's a popular belief that people of color can't be racist because they don't have enough power. Racism, the thinking goes, transcends prejudice. It's a system of advantage based on race and people of color don't have the institutional power to oppress others.

But Ibram X. Kendi systematically demolishes this notion in his provocative new book, "How to be an Antiracist." Kendi, a lean man with long dreads and an encyclopedic knowledge of Western history, says the notion that black people can't be racist is tainted by racism itself.

 

[mothcorrupteth]

It's nice to see CNN post something truly liberal for a change.

 

[Silverback]

Sure, black people can be racist,

Deleted

 

[SummerMadness]

No, I don't think Black folks can be racist, they can hold prejudicial views about people from another race, or, ethnicity, and the views can mirror each other, but, racism requires the power to segregate, and discriminate against another for their benefit.

I think you should take a look at the article and you'll see that Kendi has a point. Ben Carson, much like a previous HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce, is in a position of power and he is enacting and pushing racist policies. Kendi argues that the opposite of racist is antiracist, so if these men in power are not pushing an antiracist agenda, which they clearly are not, then they are pushing a racist agenda. And we see this repeatedly in their actions that target poor black and brown communities.

 

[A Realist]

 

[Tom 1]

Sure, black people can be racist, too

I think the 'you're different to me, I don't like/trust/want to know you' sentiment is fairly evenly spread.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

No, I don't think Black folks can be racist, they can hold prejudicial views about people from another race, or, ethnicity, and the views can mirror each other, but, racism requires the power to segregate, and discriminate against another for their benefit.

Except thats not the meaning of racism:
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

So yes, any race can be racist.

 

[Tigger45]

I think you should take a look at the article and you'll see that Kendi has a point. Ben Carson, much like a previous HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce, is in a position of power and he is enacting and pushing racist policies. Kendi argues that the opposite of racist is antiracist, so if these men in power are not pushing an antiracist agenda, which they clearly are not, then they are pushing a racist agenda. And we see this repeatedly in their actions that target poor black and brown communities.

To start with let me make this clear that I absolutely abor the historical and current mistreatments of our African American brothers and sister from not only our judicial system but out on the streets by our law enforcement personnel.

That being said it boggles my mind when I see African American citizens being dealt with more harshly than their white counterparts and many times I see African American law enforcement officers operating lock set with their comrades in these situations.

 

[mothcorrupteth]

If it weren't the case, then our species would be much more monochrome, because whichever race had it would surely have wiped out the races that didn't. Suspicion of strangers, of those who have no street cred in the home community, is healthy, in moderation. But as with intelligence and mental illness, it's nature's bias toward suspicion as a condition for survival that also biases it towards an excess of a good thing, which usually turns out to be bad thing. The same Jew that you put in concentration camps could be the same Jew who develops the necessary theory behind atomic weapons. And then you lose your half-baked war to reclaim east Prussia.

 

[Ken-1122]

No, I don't think Black folks can be racist, they can hold prejudicial views about people from another race, or, ethnicity, and the views can mirror each other, but, racism requires the power to segregate, and discriminate against another for their own benefit.

Racism does not require power, however assuming it did, what gives you the impression there are no black people in america with the power to segregate, and discriminate against another for their own benefit? Whites people aren't the only ones with power ya know.

 

[SummerMadness]

To start with let me make this clear that I absolutely abor the historical and current mistreatments of our African American brothers and sister from not only our judicial system but out on the streets by our law enforcement personnel.

That being said it boggles my mind when I see African American citizens being dealt with more harshly than their white counterparts and many times I see African American law enforcement officers operating lock set with their comrades in these situations.

That's often times because they are operating from a racist premise. Often times these abusive black officers think along a race-class paradigm: they are attacking those "bad black people" (they probably use more colorful language). That is the same thing a poor white person operating off the premise, "Well at least I'm not black, I'm better than those bad black people." They are operating off a race paradigm, but both attitudes are racist.

The question to ask is are these officers operating in an antiracist manner? And often the case is they are not or are at times worse than their white counterparts. Nonetheless, a racist police officer is a racist police officer; what we need are antiracist police officers that are not targeting people based on race, as is being done by too many police officers.

 

[SummerMadness]

Racism does not require power, however assuming it did, what gives you the impression there are no black people in america with the power to segregate, and discriminate against another for their own benefit? Whites people aren't the only ones with power ya know.

I would say read the article before you make such presumptions about what this article is talking about.

 

[SummerMadness]

Except thats not the meaning of racism:
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

So yes, any race can be racist.

Racism does not require you to think your own race is superior. There were many black people in the antebellum south that would inform against fellow slaves. Many times these people endeared themselves to power, thus perpetuating a racist system. It had nothing to do with belief in their own superiority. George Wilson, the man who informed against the Vesey rebellion was a black man upholding a racist system, belief in black superiority has nothing to do with his racist behavior.

 

[dzheremi]

I remember having a similar thought when watching a documentary years ago on the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-1981. The suspect who was eventually convicted of them was a black man, Wayne Williams, and all of the victims were likewise young black people. For a bit (before Williams' interrogation and subsequent arrest), the investigators had been looking into possible white racist motives, because all the victims were young black people and serial killers are usually white people. When Williams was arrested (and for a time afterwards), he protested that this was a case of racism by the city of Atlanta's power structure. The same documentary quoted one of the victims' family members who said (paraphrased, because this was years ago that I saw this) "What on earth is Mr. Williams talking about? This is Atlanta! The detectives who investigated him were black, the police chief was black, the mayor was black, the judge was black...nearly everyone involved in this case was black!"

Granted, that's a very specific situation (the OP is obviously not talking about murderers), but it did make me think "Is every black person in authority in Atlanta supposedly racist against this one black guy? Why? To whose benefit? They don't even have a white higher-up to answer to, unless this goes all the way to the president or something!"

I understand the point of the prejudice + power definition (though I prefer the way I first heard it, in a quote that went something like "If a man hates me because I'm black, that's his problem, but if he has the power to keep me out of certain positions because of that hate, that's my problem"), but automatically dismissing the idea that any black person or black people could ever be in a position of power (because....?) seems pretty darn racist, yeah.

 

[Chesterton]

Despite it being devious nonsense, I actually like and endorse the idea that racism requires having power. It ensures that I myself can never be considered racist.

Of course it even more so precludes the KKK from being racist. I could openly say "I am Chesterton" and get a McDonald's franchise. I probably couldn't openly say "I'm in the KKK" and get a McDonald's franchise.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I think the 'you're different to me, I don't like/trust/want to know you' sentiment is fairly evenly spread.

It could be evenly spread in terms of pervasiveness of the flawed mentality, but not equally spread in terms of impact on people's lives.

Some black people hating white people hasn't had nearly the impact on the white community that the inverse scenario has had on minority communities.

That's why it's important to look at the "societal power factor" when discussing this topic...

 

[SummerMadness]

It could be evenly spread in terms of pervasiveness of the flawed mentality, but not equally spread in terms of impact on people's lives.

Some black people hating white people hasn't had nearly the impact on the white community that the inverse scenario has had on minority communities.

That's why it's important to look at the "societal power factor" when discussing this topic...

I think the problem is people think this article is discussing incidents of black people in power targeting the white community, when it's more black people in power targeting black and brown community. The white community has never been the target of institutional oppression in the US.

 

[Ken-1122]

I would say read the article before you make such presumptions about what this article is talking about.

My response was not directed at the article, it was directed at "silverback's" comments. However, if you disagree with anything I said, feel free to read the article yourself and use that information to refute what I said.

 

[Silverback]

I think the problem is people think this article is discussing incidents of black people in power targeting the white community, when it's more black people in power targeting black and brown community. The white community has never been the target of institutional oppression in the

Deteted

 

[renniks]

Sure, black people can be racist, too

Any one of any race can be racist. And most every one is in some way, especially those who talk about race all the time.