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What Is the Conservative Response to Racism?
Usually when I hear liberals talk about racism it’s in terms of institutions and communities. American “institutions” are structured with a racist bias, the white “community” is prejudiced against the black “community” — sweeping statements like that. Like most conservatives, I’m skeptical of that model. I’ve never seen evidence that any American institution has an inherently pro-white bias, nor that whites in America have a unified negative opinion of minorities.
Rather, whenever I see a list of complaints about white privilege, about the prejudices minorities face and whites don’t, the convincing examples focus on individual encounters. A particular hotel clerk who made a disparaging remark, a particular cop who pulled you over for no reason. Those examples don’t prove that all hotel clerks and cops are part of an anti-black or anti-Latino complex; they aren’t struggles against a nameless, faceless “institution.” They’re encounters with specific people who hold racist attitudes. So sure, racism exists in America. It just seems to be on an individual level.
What is the conservative response to that? I mean, we’re all up in arms about people on the street calling Jews dirty names. What about people on the street who call blacks and Latinos dirty names? That’s real too.
President Obama and his entourage want us to seek “racial reconciliation,” as if representatives from two sides could sit down and have a friendly powwow to erase centuries of bad feelings. The problem’s more complicated, because the problem — wherever it exists — is individual. And of course, we know that it cuts both ways.
Do we have an individual solution to meet the individual problem? Does this issue, in your opinion, even need a solution? Why or why not? If so, what steps might be taken (perhaps by the government, but probably not) to address racist attitudes? I have heard many conservatives say that Obama could have done a lot to address racial issues during his presidency, but fell down on the job. What do you think he should have done?
Published in General
Humans are flawed, and no law can change what a person thinks. Racist laws were (are) enforced by (*cough*Democrat-run*cough*) governments. When racism is not condoned by law, there will still be racism. But, as you say, on an individual level. Oh, and on a union level.
Interaction is all that is necessary. When people who dislike aspects of each other’s cultures must work together, must watch their kids play together, must travel together, and so on, then that forced togetherness encourages them to seek admirable qualities and common ground.
Of course, government shouldn’t try to force people together. Rather, it shouldn’t hinder interaction by picking sides.
Racial conflict is only ever incidentally related to skin color. Race is often shorthand for culture. Any person with a scrap of intelligence recognizes patterns and forms prediction models (stereotypes), like “A chained wallet probably means this guy wants to look tough” or “Baggy pants and facial rings probably mean this person isn’t interested in moving up in the world” or “I should be wary of strangers in an area with high crime.”
But there will always be ghettos and cliques and a myriad of reasons not to seek interaction with people even though you don’t dislike them. There will always be subcultures and personal preferences. There will always be more of one kind in a particular profession than in another.
That’s an argument for reasonable people, not for liberal race-baiters and multicultral idiots.
Good questions to ask. Essentially what’s happening now is that Progressives are taking the reality that life is not fair – i.e. that is some people are born into poor dysfunctional families and others in wealthy functional families – and claiming this is a product of systemic racism. It’s a non-falsifiable theory as arguing against it is proof you are white and privileged. (Shameless self-promotion there, funny we had related topics at the same time).
The term is thus a bludgeon against those who would point out that political and cultural movements have done more to damage the black family than actual racism which has truthfully been rapidly on the decline.
It’s important Republicans reject the premise entirely, and find real, concrete ways to help those poor motivated to rise above their present status.
First we must define ‘racist’. A conservative says racism is forming a judgement, usually but not always negative, about a person based solely upon that persons race. A liberal says racism is white people, who by their very racial status, persecute anyone non white. (In other words, only white people can be racist.)
By the conservative definition of racism, the liberal definition of racism is racist.
The people obsessed with race, filled with racial hatred, and wanting to favor one person and discriminate against another based upon race are the liberals.
So what do we do about racism? Defeat liberalism.
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” — Chief Justice John Roberts
Discriminating on the basis of race has been key to the Democratic power structure since before the civil war. It is the basis of their power structure today. It’s their primary appeal to minority groups.
The only party that’s been consistently against racial discrimination is the Republican party.
So the Conservative response should be the same as it’s always been. It’s a bad thing, and government policy should not enforce it.
When a Democrat calls a Republican racist, what they mean to say is, “You oppose our policy of discriminating based on race.”
It doesn’t get more dishonest than that.
Two Texas A&M Students Beaten to Death by a Mob Comprised of African-Americans One Evening at McDonald’s.
Now I read a story such as that and wonder why does our President have no time to comment on that, to wonder at how these young black men were raised such that this type of conduct was justified in their eyes and yet he has time to inflame ambiguous events in Missouri and Florida?
I’m tired of race.
In the beginning, “racism” was hard-wired, a survival characteristic. You like people who are like you, you do not like people who are not like you (family & friends probably non-threatening, strangers more likely to be threatening). Maybe not so important now, but it’s still human nature (the existence of which liberals deny).
After every roll call I always told my partner; Let’s go out and violate somebody’s Constitutional rights. We were a two man Constitutional wrecking crew. I might as well try and make the cliché artists feel happy.
Racist attitudes are always specific. Insults are always an exchange between one individual to another individual.
“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage—the notion that a man’s intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.” – Ayn Rand
This.
I once had a coworker attempt to start a fight with me on the job because he thought I was, “looking at him funny”. What does that even mean?
Or was I looking at it all wrong, perhaps the fellow noticed my name and decided that it was a good chance to hate a “hispanic”? Yes, no doubt! Perhaps I should just start hating all white people because of that?
Then again compared to some I am fairly pale myself, I suppose then I should hate myself?
Maybe the real truth is that one dumb ass trying to start a fight was just one damn jerk and any attempt to dig down to some “deeper truth” is adolescent narcissism.
My answer is two-fold.
1) It (racism) is not really that bad. For every white person who’s a bad apple, there are probably 6 or 7 who will either bend over backwards towards a minority, or actually treat them as an individual by his or her merits.
2) The existing racial problems (again, they’re not very big) aren’t solvable. Human nature being what it is, you can’t turn everyone into good people. Just like you can’t change the nature of a burglar, you can only punish him for his actions; you can’t change a bigot, just punish him for his OVERT actions. Going beyond that, only makes things worse, and seriously endangers civil liberties.
I have a contrarian view. In Alaska there’s not very many blacks. And most that come up here are because of the military. Many that leave the military stay.
These are people that are more likely to marry, have kids and have a middle class outlook.
In addition, there’s not enough of them to cluster in neighborhoods, so in that sense they do work and play with whites, in a sort of forced togetherness. What makes my view contrarian is that the white people barely notice they’re black, and the blacks here don’t really emphasize their own culture when interacting with the broader culture here.
Alaska’s primary racial problem is with Alaskan Natives (loosely termed Eskimos) and in Anchorage with Pacific Islanders (maybe of Samoan descent) where many gangs form. And even there, it’s mostly ignored because Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders aren’t black, which is really the racial obsession in this country.
I get the impression, by the way, that the Native community up here has been trying to figure out a way to get whites to obsess over them the same way we do over blacks. They haven’t been able to get any traction in that area.
What exactly do you mean by the “conservative response” to racism? Are you asking what the government should do? Or what our response, as individuals, should be?
This is my individual response: I believe God created all people in His image, that they are of equal (and precious) value to Him, and that I am to value them as such myself. To the extent that I have the responsibility of influencing others, I seek to model and teach that principle as appropriate.
It’s important to remember that the worst parts of American history naturally loom larger than they often do to us — we forget what is still living memory.
Racism still exists. I think what is more common, though, is what I suppose could be called tension: a mistrustful, awkward uncertainty where racism may or may not exist but the fear of it does, along with ignorance and the fear of causing unnecessary offense.
Children don’t naturally think of skin color as a dividing line and will form friendships across racial lines quite easily. Encouraging that natural development would do more to create equality than any attempt to dictate what society should look like.
I interpreted the question as the response against those who use the issue to advance their own political agenda, who advocate more and more laws and regulations and shaming over things like “micro-agressions”. Say the wrong word and phrase, and you’re toast.
As for your comment on children, I found that to be the case when I was a child. But something happens when growing up to be adults. And I include all races, not just whites. I do think it’s in our DNA to be tribal. I’ve become convinced that while individuals can overcome it, our default setting (part of the original sin matrix, to mix religion and mathematics) is indeed a tribal one. Multiculturalism in this country and Western Europe (as well as Australia) is really a one sided thing.
On a basic street level, I don’t think the other races are buying in. Bill Cosby seemed to buy in, but when he publicly criticized his fellow blacks, he was almost read out of the collective group. And the way American Blacks commonly use the N-word amongst themselves is telling.
And then there’s the Muslims who are giving us trouble, who are mostly Arabs, though the Persians (Iran) are giving us a run for our money too.
I’ve already posted what my response is, but I’ll say it a different way. Forcing multiculturalism down our throats the way the left has, is doing more harm than good.
It is understandable why they are felt to be so, though. The cop just pulled you over, but you’ve heard the stories about the one who beat your grandfather. That hotel clerk made just a disparaging remark, but you’ve heard, reliably, that the reason he got the job and you didn’t is because of your race and what the customers want. And compare the standard of living in your neighborhood to the white suburb a little ways up the road.
Is it all that surprising — isn’t it in fact quite natural — that many do feel that they are up against an “institution,” rather than that there are a few bad apples?
There is a natural tendency for like to associate with like, but to what extent is that based on race rather than culture? Culture is what really kicks in during the process of becoming an adult.
I was running into word count issues and it’s past bedtime, but what I wanted to get at there is partly that I think the effort in American public education to eradicate racism is, to some extent, backfiring. Perhaps by addressing some issues too early and with too heavy a hand, and by leading children to think of themselves and each other more strongly in terms of racial identity, I think it inadvertently creates awkwardness and feeds tension.
That’s a hypothesis based on personal observation of limited data. But better, I think, to focus the teaching on respect for others, in a positive sense, than negative teaching against racism.
[Redacted for CoC]
I agree with this. In my own experience, I have little inclination to judge other “races” negatively, except when I’ve just been been outright encouraged to see blacks or Latinos as different . . . which is exactly what the mainstream discussion of race does.
I had no concept of racial differences as a child (nothing that went beyond “oh, his skin is darker than mine, whatever”). While I do think we naturally migrate to people who are “like us” as adults, that doesn’t have to mean that we look down on the people who are “not like” us. In my opinion, a lot of those negative attitudes are being propagated by the media’s obsession with the subject.
To answer your earlier question, I wasn’t asking about what government policy should be so much as individual, familial, or communal responses. :)
Every real or perceived slight should not be interpreted as racism. After all, everybody has been subject to rude sales clerks, slow or inattentive wait staff, and weird looks. (Walk in to a semi-swanky restaurant with a couple of kids – the looks are withering.)
Being white I can never really know what it is like to be black. I have three black kids, though, and it’s given me a tiny window. I do know that calling racism would be the easiest, and laziest, thing to do. My kid didn’t get a good grade – teacher doesn’t like black kids. Somebody tossed a basketball in PE that hit him in the head – bully kid must have it in for the black kid. Somebody made a comment about her dreads – must be a bigot, and so on. I find myself slipping into that way of thinking in moments of frustration. I believe many blacks think that way as a default. The president could do much to disabuse blacks of the notion that there is a racist bogeyman behind every problem they face. But that would remove the notion of being a victim and require personal responsibility.
I am reading “BOSS” the biography of Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago for over 20 years,by Mike Royko. The King Maker, the developer of the democrat “machine” and how he kept the Blacks in tiny, filthy ghettos, while slum lords paid millions in bribes to building inspectors. Daley spent billions, to develop Chicago, while refusing to even build one school in the slums.
This book is an eye opener. Today’s Chicago is the end result of Daley’s policy that has been continued, perhaps better covered up.
Yeah, I wonder about this. It seems like a good explanation for the cries of “racist society!” that you hear from a lot of black people. I hear those complaints and think, okay, do you actually live in a society that systematically snubs you? Or have you just been taught to think that every snub is race-related?
I feel pretty ignorant about how most black people experience life in America. I’ve grown up in a very WASPy community and I hate to project my own assumptions on other people. So I’m left to wonder if:
A) the “black experience” is really that different from the “white experience” (i.e. outside of the outrageous incidents that make the news)
B) if it is different, and negatively so, how much of that is actually due to white people being racist
C) if racism isn’t the explanation, what is? (this is something I have learned a lot more about since joining Ricochet)
A particular hotel clerk who made a disparaging remark, a particular cop who pulled you over for no reason.
I spent an entire evening reading Jason L. Riley’s latest book Please Stop Helping Us. It was fascinating and surprisingly, the author made some observations even more controversial than any made by Thomas Sowell (a close friend).
As a child of conservative parents who emphasized education, he was enrolled in honors courses throughout high school and went on to attend his parents’ alma mater University of Buffalo while interning at USA Today in D.C. during summers. He writes of the countless times he was pulled over by police in both cities as a young man (wearing his typical uniform of khaki pants and Polo shirts) because of “mistaken identity.” He was once followed by a police car in an all-white neighborhood en route to the home of a school friend and told to turn around and exit the premises.
His reaction to all of this profiling was to explain that people react to probability:
“… when I see groups of young black men walking down the street at night I cross to the other side. When I see them on subways I switch cars. … Why take the risk?”
He goes on to quote Booker T. Washington that black communities “must have property, industry, skill, economy, intelligence and character” and be able to develop a reputation of having such. The title of the chapter in which I found this quote? The Enemy Within.
If I take out the 5h1t word can I post my comment again or was it, in actuality, redacted more for content?
Having spent my formative years in a mostly-Hispanic city (95%) where I was the “other” (despite my Hispanic heritage), my response to most complaints of racism is to simply roll my eyes. Where were all those self-righteous types when I was being insulted? Oh, but since I’m “white”, they likely think I deserved it. Idiots.
Well, there is that cheerleader thing… :)
Yep, maybe they were just jealous. ;-)
I think racism is a more complex issue than people of the Left generally acknowledge.
For example, consider the person who generally interacts with individuals of various races without any reservations or predictions yet uses a racist slur in a moment of anger. Race-baiters immediately assume that the slur is latent or well hidden racism bubbling to the surface. But the slur could simply reflect the common inclination of human beings always and everywhere to lash out with the most hurtful insults they can imagine when they are angry.
Also, it is very common (not only in regard to racial or cultural stereotyping) for a person’s abstract judgments not to match his or her day-to-day interactions. This should be clear to everyone in the way conservatives and liberals interact. While consuming news or debating on internet forums, we curse the other side. Then, face-to-face, we enjoy each other’s company as neighbors and friends.
Sometimes this occurs because we only object to what those people do as a group or indirectly. Every person also acts a bit differently depending on one’s company and present circumstances. Aspects of one personality draw out aspects of another, sometimes to embarrassment upon reflection.
And sometimes a person simply does or says something uncharacteristically stupid because of a wild, untraceable impulse. Not every off remark is a Freudian slip.
Bottom line: Even among a group composed entirely of reasonable, tolerant, and well-meaning people, peace is only possible if we treat each other with charity and do not read deeply into every hurtful action.
Hello – any editors at home?
PM if you want to see the redacted comment in all of its original glory.
But first of all and before anyone accuses me of being a racists, I’m pretty sure that I’ve known every race and creed of female on God’s green earth; and don’t believe that I was ever prejudiced against any of them. On the other hand if I’ve missed any, then I apologize for that. If you have information regarding my oversight in this matter, please PM me and I will make amends ASAP.
Semper Fi,
Simon