IBARW 3: Multicultural Racism, or, Minorities Are Racist Too

[keilexandra]

Especially in the U.S., mainstream coverage of racism tends to focus on the black-white divide. I can assure you that Asians are also discriminated against, though perhaps more subtly (and I can't speak for any other group, or even for Asians as a whole); but that's a topic for another time. This post is about racism committed by minority groups

Comments

[nyssa23]

Excellent post! I was thinking about blogging on this myself, about racism in the Latino community.

I love IBARW! :)

[keilexandra]

Thank you! I love IBARW more. :D

[teagrl83]

I'd love to read it! I know my head explodes whenever the media gets into their spiel of how Latinos won't vote for Obama because he's black. That's an idea worth unpacking, considering that different latino communities have varied relationships to black people. That's definitely worth exploring

[keilexandra]

Re: your first point: I've never heard of such a distinction, but personally I prefer "racism" because that is exactly what it is. If the word has been Westernized, the only way to free it is by using the term in all contexts.

[rachelmanija]

There's a lot of racism in the Jewish community too, which makes me really sad: don't we realize that if it's wrong for other people to be prejudiced against us, we shouldn't be prejudiced against them?

Unfortunately, the answer seems to be: not necessarily! Although I do sometimes get through to people by saying, "You know, people say that exact thing about Jews..."

[keilexandra]

In my case at least, I know it's semi-futile to argue with the older generation. But it's important to keep the topic abreast, and maybe what I say will have some impact on the kids who are even now growing up like I did, embued with the same prejudices.

[dichroic]

FWIW, I like to read the whole Passover story as a lesson against othering. I've seen good cases made that Ruth is, too. I like to think about the Jews like Morris Dees or the ones involved in founding the ACLU, but it's all too true that we have our racists too.

[wolfpurrs]

This was fascinating to read. You make several good points. :)

[oyceter]

Sigh. I was in Taiwan for two months this summer, and OMG the sheer amount of racism and racist ideas about black people is appalling. It felt like someone was saying, "Oh, but so many black people live there! So unsafe!" every other second.

I tended to argue more with people my generation, but I also want to write something on how people in Taiwan get this prejudice, given that they don't live around black people (yay American culture taking over the world?).

[keilexandra]

You should! You're much more eloquent than me and less ranty.

[sanguinity]

The export of American racist tropes is something that curdles my blood.

And not only do we do an "awesome" job of exporting our racism, we export it raw, without any of the polite veneer that usually goes with it. Would that I could at least use the un-veneeredness of it as a mirror for white Americans to see their own racism, but there's usually zero recognition that they're looking at their own racisms mirrored back to them. Usually, it just has the effect of giving white Americans one more thing to feel superior about: "Look how racist those people are!"

[oyceter]

I know! I mean, all people are prejudiced against people not of their race, but the shape and form racism takes is so based on the rhetoric that came from Western imperialism and now US imperialism that it drives me crazy when people somehow think intra-POC racism magically manifests out of nowhere.

[forthwritten]

I've noticed that within the Indian community here. Middle class Indian professionals can be prejudiced against the big communities of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians; caste, religion and different values (e.g. with regard to education) all play a part.

In some areas of the country, the BNP (a far-right party standing for, among other things, the removal of immigrants) was courting voters who'd come to England in the 1950s-70s and had assimilated - they were trying to take advantage of the tension between these assimilated groups and more recent immigrants.

It's a really interesting idea to explore. So often we're lumped together as one homogeneous mass of non-whiteness, but there are tensions and prejudices within our communities.