I want to talk a little bit about discrimination and prejudice when it comes to race. Ok, I am a white guy myself. So it is difficult to understand someone else's experience that is not a white guy. Now that I think about it, I can't really be sure I understand another white guy's point of view most of the time either. Not really. So I am going to have to stick with my own self examination since that is the only thing I really have to go by and even like that, how can I really be sure I can even see myself very clearly in terms of those things I assume and don't question as well as the likelihood of living in denial of other things hidden from my own view.
All that considered, let me just start by saying that when I look at another person I DO see what race they are; Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, etc. but I also notice that they are either male or female, tall or short, old or young. I look at the clothes they have on, how they carry themselves, the cut of their hair, how they speak, the music of their language, their atmosphere so to speak; meaning if they appear happy or sad or angry or peaceful or aggressive. I look at their eyes to see if they look dead, sparkling, deceitful, judgmental arrogant, humble and so forth. I assume everyone looks at each other more or less the same way. Based on this, I have to assume that race is only a small part of my experience when I look at someone UNLESS, it seems to me that the person I am gazing upon exhibits and occupies a very clear racial presence through their 'costuming'. For instance if I see ten guys in suits walking down the street, they could be of several races but I am going to see ten guys in suits and I am going to respond a certain way based of their dress. The same ten guys could be walking down the street looking gangsta or like a motor cycle club and I am going to respond to them in a very different way. I would tend to be more defensive. Is that a prejudice? I suppose it would be, but is it because of race? No. If those same ten guys were all White or all Black or all Asian in those three different costumes: suits, gangster, motorcycle leathers, I think my response would be more or less the same regardless of race. So this tells me that race, in and of itself, is not that significant at least to me. I am sure I have various stereotypical prejudices but I think that I and probably most people have a sense of discrimination and that one's discrimination - that is, to distinguish one thing from another thing - is usually very keen and complex.
Chalking things up to being racial in motivation throws a shroud of false simplicity over a much more complex set of issues.
People at large tend to costume themselves according to how they identify themselves in society or want to be identified by society. I would say that very few people have utterly no regard for how they look to others. Everyone knows that when they walk out of the front door that others will see them. Seeing them, others will form some sort of opinion based on what they observe. Is this specifically racial? I don't think so. But it is social and cultural. So, if you ask me, I would say that if a person feels they are being discriminated against or put into some sort of stereotype, they need to move past thinking it is racial and consider that it most probably is social or cultural. If a person goes outside of their own social or cultural network, they might want to consider that what seems perfectly normal to them might be seen otherwise outside of one's own normal context.
This brings up another issue in my mind. Familiarity. People tend to accept the familiar and tend to be rattled by the unfamiliar. Hence people in general prefer what is familiar to them. It is the rare few who are self confident and self-possessed enough to take themselves out of their own familiar surroundings and throw themselves into the unknown or unfamiliar. There is something comforting about what is familiar and hence people tend to avoid the unfamiliar. Therefore, almost anyone who is interacting with what is not familiar to them is going to tend to be uneasy.
It doesn't matter what community you are from which, let's face it, tends to be broadly racial. Whatever community that is, there is going to tend to be shared view points, shared experiences, shared attitude, shared tolerance and intolerance and shared history and lore about one's community and what lays outside of one's communal home. This might be a family unit, a neighborhood, urban, suburban, rural, a religious community, a professional community, an artistic community, a whole country. It doesn't matter, each group has its own internal structure, social pecking order, assumptions, culture, etc. Whatever community we are a part of - and we might be part of multiple communities, our sense of identity and well being rests on knowing our place inside of that community.
Let's face it, anyone foreign to our own community or viewing the world in a completely different way, is going to tend to make us uncomfortable. This isn't about race, it is about what is familiar and desiring to maintain that familiarity. I think when you look at white culture in general - especially the conservative end of it, there is angst about the intrusion upon and the potential loss of control of the ideal world white people have built up for themselves in their own minds. The American Dream in short. This is the WHITE American Dream not anybody else's. So conservatives have a tendency to want to hold onto the 'good old days'. But were those days so good? I really don't think they were. They are the good old days of about 2% of the population from that time. It wasn't the good old days for everybody else including 90% of the white people. More progressive whites are still working toward and waiting on those days to get here.
All that considered, let me just start by saying that when I look at another person I DO see what race they are; Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, etc. but I also notice that they are either male or female, tall or short, old or young. I look at the clothes they have on, how they carry themselves, the cut of their hair, how they speak, the music of their language, their atmosphere so to speak; meaning if they appear happy or sad or angry or peaceful or aggressive. I look at their eyes to see if they look dead, sparkling, deceitful, judgmental arrogant, humble and so forth. I assume everyone looks at each other more or less the same way. Based on this, I have to assume that race is only a small part of my experience when I look at someone UNLESS, it seems to me that the person I am gazing upon exhibits and occupies a very clear racial presence through their 'costuming'. For instance if I see ten guys in suits walking down the street, they could be of several races but I am going to see ten guys in suits and I am going to respond a certain way based of their dress. The same ten guys could be walking down the street looking gangsta or like a motor cycle club and I am going to respond to them in a very different way. I would tend to be more defensive. Is that a prejudice? I suppose it would be, but is it because of race? No. If those same ten guys were all White or all Black or all Asian in those three different costumes: suits, gangster, motorcycle leathers, I think my response would be more or less the same regardless of race. So this tells me that race, in and of itself, is not that significant at least to me. I am sure I have various stereotypical prejudices but I think that I and probably most people have a sense of discrimination and that one's discrimination - that is, to distinguish one thing from another thing - is usually very keen and complex.
Chalking things up to being racial in motivation throws a shroud of false simplicity over a much more complex set of issues.
People at large tend to costume themselves according to how they identify themselves in society or want to be identified by society. I would say that very few people have utterly no regard for how they look to others. Everyone knows that when they walk out of the front door that others will see them. Seeing them, others will form some sort of opinion based on what they observe. Is this specifically racial? I don't think so. But it is social and cultural. So, if you ask me, I would say that if a person feels they are being discriminated against or put into some sort of stereotype, they need to move past thinking it is racial and consider that it most probably is social or cultural. If a person goes outside of their own social or cultural network, they might want to consider that what seems perfectly normal to them might be seen otherwise outside of one's own normal context.
This brings up another issue in my mind. Familiarity. People tend to accept the familiar and tend to be rattled by the unfamiliar. Hence people in general prefer what is familiar to them. It is the rare few who are self confident and self-possessed enough to take themselves out of their own familiar surroundings and throw themselves into the unknown or unfamiliar. There is something comforting about what is familiar and hence people tend to avoid the unfamiliar. Therefore, almost anyone who is interacting with what is not familiar to them is going to tend to be uneasy.
It doesn't matter what community you are from which, let's face it, tends to be broadly racial. Whatever community that is, there is going to tend to be shared view points, shared experiences, shared attitude, shared tolerance and intolerance and shared history and lore about one's community and what lays outside of one's communal home. This might be a family unit, a neighborhood, urban, suburban, rural, a religious community, a professional community, an artistic community, a whole country. It doesn't matter, each group has its own internal structure, social pecking order, assumptions, culture, etc. Whatever community we are a part of - and we might be part of multiple communities, our sense of identity and well being rests on knowing our place inside of that community.
Let's face it, anyone foreign to our own community or viewing the world in a completely different way, is going to tend to make us uncomfortable. This isn't about race, it is about what is familiar and desiring to maintain that familiarity. I think when you look at white culture in general - especially the conservative end of it, there is angst about the intrusion upon and the potential loss of control of the ideal world white people have built up for themselves in their own minds. The American Dream in short. This is the WHITE American Dream not anybody else's. So conservatives have a tendency to want to hold onto the 'good old days'. But were those days so good? I really don't think they were. They are the good old days of about 2% of the population from that time. It wasn't the good old days for everybody else including 90% of the white people. More progressive whites are still working toward and waiting on those days to get here.
