Based on what I've seen and heard, I think a good number of people do have a pretty narrow view of what racism is. My perspective is skewed, certainly, but in my years of organining high school youth, I heard time and time again from students and teachers alike who desribed their schools and communities racism-free because nobody used the n-word. There was often very little recognition of sometimes subtler manifestations of racism and the effects of institutionalized racism in things like school tracking and the distribution of services to communities.
Some of the folks I came across in my work seem to hold in their heads a sort of racist bogeyman--some bullwhip-carrying, hood-wearing, slur-spurting caricature of what a racist is supposed to be like. Therefore, if they themselves or the people didn't fall within this narrow view, there is no way they could be racist somehow or, at the very least, privileged to benefit themselves from institutionalized racism.
Yes, that's totally it. To a lot of people, it isn't racism unless someone is being literally physically threatened or harmed and/or threatened with losing their home/job etc.
They fail to notice subtler, more insidious forms of racism, mainly because it has no impact on them whatsoever. No one wants to live next door to a guy who wears a bedsheet over his face. But who notices if there are no black people in their neighborhood? Or more importantly, who CARES if they do notice?
It's the Bingo card of "my feelings being hurt by you saying what I did is racist are more important than your hurt feelings caused by my racism."
It's a huge problem around modern discussions of racism, because we have all been taught so carefully not to be racist, and because it can be so hard to see racism when it's not directed right at you.
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Some of the folks I came across in my work seem to hold in their heads a sort of racist bogeyman--some bullwhip-carrying, hood-wearing, slur-spurting caricature of what a racist is supposed to be like. Therefore, if they themselves or the people didn't fall within this narrow view, there is no way they could be racist somehow or, at the very least, privileged to benefit themselves from institutionalized racism.
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They fail to notice subtler, more insidious forms of racism, mainly because it has no impact on them whatsoever. No one wants to live next door to a guy who wears a bedsheet over his face. But who notices if there are no black people in their neighborhood? Or more importantly, who CARES if they do notice?
It's the Bingo card of "my feelings being hurt by you saying what I did is racist are more important than your hurt feelings caused by my racism."
It's a huge problem around modern discussions of racism, because we have all been taught so carefully not to be racist, and because it can be so hard to see racism when it's not directed right at you.
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