Talking about racism: derailing
First: Primary sources!
How to avoid talking about race by yeloson
Wite Magik Attax by the Unapologetic Mexican
Derailing for Dummies (h/t Cara at Feministe; writer anonymous as far as I can tell)
Some of these are just general bad debate form, some of them apply to forms of oppression in general, and some are very specific to race, but they're all things you're going to run into while trying to talk about race. Read through these links; I'm sure that some of these attitudes will look familiar. (Phrases end up on bingo cards for a reason.)
Last time I talked about shutting up and listening, but a couple commenters pointed out that this is not a universal skill. White people absolutely have a duty to speak up - to other white people; members of an oppressor class are viewed as impartial on issues of oppression while members of the oppressed class are assumed to have a vested interest (which drives me crazy, as though white (or able-bodied or straight or male or so on) people don't have an interest in maintaining an artificial power imbalance that benefits them). So a white person's voice carries more power than a person of color's about racism. (This is one of those thorny 'using your privilege' situations that I've never really been able to resolve for myself.)
Anyway! Derailing. We don't talk about racism in our society. If you try to talk about racism, people are going to get defensive and try to make it so you're not talking about racism. Things they might do include:
Argue the definitions of the words you're using so you end up talking about 'illegal' versus 'undocumented'. Derailing into language arguments are REALLY common, and great for the derailer because changing the words they use costs almost nothing even if they do concede.
Try to change the subject so you're talking about an oppression where they're on the oppressed side. This most certainly does NOT mean that you should not call out anti-Semitic or transphobic or what have you behavior in anti-racist spaces, but consider how you're going about it, because a person can be being a total jackass about one thing and still have a very valid point about another (or they could be an all-around total jackass. It happens). This also manifests in calling attention to POC-against-POC tensions. Bad behavior of any kind is never excusable, but the primary focus in an anti-racism community should be on racism.
Saying something like 'but what about the people of color who DON'T mind?'. Well, what about the ones who DO mind? You can basically say those two thing back and forth to each other forever and get nowhere.
Straw men. These come in two common forms. The first is talking about some untenable position that nobody currently in the discussion is taking, but that the person cannot stand and is presumably assailed from all directions by. The second is disguised as a thought experiment. If someone asks you to imagine a world where black people have the institutional power, or where everyone thinks something's great except a single person, suggest continuing to discuss actual reality.
Saying your black friend thinks it's ok. Talking about horrible plight of the white man and how he is not allowed to feel pride in his identity. Saying that you won't listen because people are being rude. (Tone may deserve a whole separate discussion.) The list is very long.
I don't have a lot of positive advice here, besides learning to recognize these things in others and yourself, and figuring out what you can say to dismantle them. Neither you nor they are likely to have suddenly had a brand-spanking-new idea about racism; the same techniques basically come up over and over.
Any good ones I've missed? I'm sure there are plenty.
(xposted to debunkingwhite)
How to avoid talking about race by yeloson
Wite Magik Attax by the Unapologetic Mexican
Derailing for Dummies (h/t Cara at Feministe; writer anonymous as far as I can tell)
Some of these are just general bad debate form, some of them apply to forms of oppression in general, and some are very specific to race, but they're all things you're going to run into while trying to talk about race. Read through these links; I'm sure that some of these attitudes will look familiar. (Phrases end up on bingo cards for a reason.)
Last time I talked about shutting up and listening, but a couple commenters pointed out that this is not a universal skill. White people absolutely have a duty to speak up - to other white people; members of an oppressor class are viewed as impartial on issues of oppression while members of the oppressed class are assumed to have a vested interest (which drives me crazy, as though white (or able-bodied or straight or male or so on) people don't have an interest in maintaining an artificial power imbalance that benefits them). So a white person's voice carries more power than a person of color's about racism. (This is one of those thorny 'using your privilege' situations that I've never really been able to resolve for myself.)
Anyway! Derailing. We don't talk about racism in our society. If you try to talk about racism, people are going to get defensive and try to make it so you're not talking about racism. Things they might do include:
Argue the definitions of the words you're using so you end up talking about 'illegal' versus 'undocumented'. Derailing into language arguments are REALLY common, and great for the derailer because changing the words they use costs almost nothing even if they do concede.
Try to change the subject so you're talking about an oppression where they're on the oppressed side. This most certainly does NOT mean that you should not call out anti-Semitic or transphobic or what have you behavior in anti-racist spaces, but consider how you're going about it, because a person can be being a total jackass about one thing and still have a very valid point about another (or they could be an all-around total jackass. It happens). This also manifests in calling attention to POC-against-POC tensions. Bad behavior of any kind is never excusable, but the primary focus in an anti-racism community should be on racism.
Saying something like 'but what about the people of color who DON'T mind?'. Well, what about the ones who DO mind? You can basically say those two thing back and forth to each other forever and get nowhere.
Straw men. These come in two common forms. The first is talking about some untenable position that nobody currently in the discussion is taking, but that the person cannot stand and is presumably assailed from all directions by. The second is disguised as a thought experiment. If someone asks you to imagine a world where black people have the institutional power, or where everyone thinks something's great except a single person, suggest continuing to discuss actual reality.
Saying your black friend thinks it's ok. Talking about horrible plight of the white man and how he is not allowed to feel pride in his identity. Saying that you won't listen because people are being rude. (Tone may deserve a whole separate discussion.) The list is very long.
I don't have a lot of positive advice here, besides learning to recognize these things in others and yourself, and figuring out what you can say to dismantle them. Neither you nor they are likely to have suddenly had a brand-spanking-new idea about racism; the same techniques basically come up over and over.
Any good ones I've missed? I'm sure there are plenty.
(xposted to debunkingwhite)