Who gets to decide if something is racist? Or sexist?
Or if a remark that is racially insensitive or sexually insensitive is an indication that the person making the remark is a racist or sexist?
This whole thing had me somewhat confused; I haven’t followed the whole imbroglio either here or at big Orange, it’s too tangled up with candidate diaries and general nastiness (which I am beginning to see over here…. oy).
But it’s really simple.
Just put yourself in there. And your own group.
I’m a white guy. But, like nearly everyone in America, I’m a member of a minority. I’m Jewish. So….
if Cuomo had said “you can’t just bargain your way into the presidency” about a Jewish candidate…. would I be pissed? Bet your ass I would.
If Jackson had said, about a Jewish candidate “he’s just appealing to their pocketbooks” would I be pissed? Bet your ass I would
So, yeah, I’m pissed at Jackson (whose dad made a bunch of clearly anti-Semitic remarks) and I’m pissed at Cuomo. More important, I’m pissed at Obama (was keeping McClurkin insensitive to gays? Ummmm. ASK GAY PEOPLE. The opinions I’ve seen from GLBT people have been pretty condemnatory).
if it’s sauce for the goose, it’s sauce for the gander.
It can get trickier though. Because, you know what? Not all women agree as to what’s sexist; not all Blacks agree as to what’s racist; not all Jews agree as to what’s anti-Semitic, and so on.
But put yourself in their place.
Would Cuomo be upset if someone said of him “You can’t just grease some palms and pay some people off”? Well, I’m guessing the answer is “yes”.
see how easy it usually is?
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I always approach racism or sexism from a “gut instinct” perspective which might account for me missing some of it, that and like many white people I fail to recognize my own place of privilege.
If it feels wrong or off, I try to examine it more closely.
And I agree – not all women agree on what’s sexist and not all Jews agree on what’s anti-semitic, and not all Black agree on what’s racist. I think this is sometimes where we make our big mistakes and get into the heart of tokenism – thinking that one person can give us the “right” answer. It’s tough stuff, and if you want easy answers, you won’t find it here.
I’ll give you an example of how I really struggled with this one time. I was responsible for nominating someone from a professional association to chair a committee on diversity within the association. I recommended a Latino man and was calling around to other associates on the nominating committee to get their feedback. The African American Director of our local Urban League took me to task. He said, “Why does it always have to be a person of color in leadership on these issues? Why can’t white people take it on too?”
Boy, did I ever throw myself a pity party for awhile about that one!! You can’t EVER “win” in these situations is what I told myself. If I had chosen a white person to lead a committee on diversity I would have really gotten creamed.
Then I settled down and listened to what he’d said, and it was true. AND its true that if I’d chosen a white person, I would have been criticized. SO WHAT!! A bit of criticism will not kill me and I might learn something in the process. I needed to give up my quest to be “right” and just listen and learn.
it comes down to two domains….
one, other/not-other, salience of percieved difference…….
two, dominance/submission hierarchies…..
perhaps all mammals are socially organized into dominance/submission hierarchies….
perhaps bigotry ,sexism, racism, ……
are memes designed to manage the maintenance of advantage within dominance/submision hierarchies across domains of percieved difference, otherness…..
Or thought police.
Or the extremes of pre-crime thought police.
Do I hold malice towards people not like myself? Well I don’t mean to.
But, for example purposes only
Gay people want equal rights.
Ya, OK, I don’t really have a problem with that.
On the other hand I don’t embrace the thought of my grandson in mandatory pre-kindergarten doing coloring books of families with two mommies. OK?
Now if we are all “equal” why are questionaires from all institutions obsessed with evermore specific categorizations of race, sexual preferences,religion and the whole legal gamut of child care “arraingements” available today.
A slip of the tongue means death? What is this dailykos?