Racial Slurs
Racial Slurs might be racist, or they might be personal attacks. Assuming before knowing is as bigoted as the attack is.
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 1997-05-26 |
Usually, it's someone responding by insulting the first thing they see (to goad). You have to know that they wouldn't have done the same thing to anyone of a different race, to know it' racism.
Cal State Fullerton[edit | edit source]
Back in the early 80's, there was an article in the Cal. State Fullerton School Newspaper with a student complaining about racism. He was asian, and complained that while walking down the pathway (not paying attention), and he bumped into another guy and knocked the other guys books and papers out of his hands (by accident), and made a mess. As he went to appologize, the guy yelled back, "Maybe if you opened your slant-eyes you wouldn't have run into me".
The Asian kid was shocked and complained about the racism inherent at school, and begged for an end to racism, in an Op Ed.
So I penned an unpopular reply that explained that assuming it was racist might be more bigoted than the slur itself.
Look, there's no doubt the response was a racially insensitive, offensive, over-reaction by someone with anger issues. But that's not synonymous with racism, that's synonymous with asshole (and those are not the same thing).
Racism (in common use) is when someone (or an institution) believes that:
- (a) races are fundamentally different
- (b) some are superior to others (usually their own)
- (c) and thus making generalizations about individuals or group, based on their race, is acceptable behavior
- (d) and for it to have any teeth, the believer has to have some power/influence, or be able to commit some action that causes harm to the other person. (This isn't required, but is what society usually has the biggest problem with: institutional abuse of power and persecution).
Q: What do we know from the incident?
A: That someone was pissed off because they had their stuff scattered (an unprovoked attack on their space, even if accidental) -- and their response was a counter-attack at the first thing they saw.
That's a douchey over-reaction to a provocation, and more so to be racially insensitive about it: you should usually give another human the benefit of the doubt that bumping into you, or any slight, was accidental.
We really have little evidence the person was a racist (and that he thought ALL asians were blind because of their "slanty eye's" -- though he was playing to old stereotypes).
If we use our brains and hypothesize, "what would he have done 'if'", and imagine a black, women, obese person, gay-looking, tall/short, or other obviously distinguishing characteristic had done the same thing? I think the obvious answer is that douchebag would have likely yelled some equally offensive slur at them about, "black, bitch, fat, tall, fag" or other thing that let the person know, that he was displeased and took the attack on his space and time, very personally (and was reciprocating in kind).
Which goes to show he's an asshole. But to know he was a racist, you have to know that he would have only attacked any other race but his own (seems unlikely), and that he believes in the superiority of his race, and inferiority of others. Since personal attacks are often reflections of insecurities, it seems more probable that he was being outscored in exams by some Asian kid, and was lashing out in response not to the other sides inadequacies, but his own.
Assuming he was a racist, by ignoring all context of his attack, and presuming to know what his intent was, is kind-of as racist (or at least narcissistic/myopic) as the slur itself.
Sometimes a slur is just a slur![edit | edit source]
Where did I learn that wit and wisdom? From my Mother, of course.
When I was a kid, I'd sometimes get beaten up for various reasons... chief among them was probably my razor sharp wit and willingness to share my opinions with those larger and dumber than me.
Often, after getting beaten up, I'd complain to my mom, and decry some racial slur they threw my way while beating on me: "he called me a towel-head, camel-jockey or sand-nigger" seemed popular for someone of my ethnic background and coloring... though WOP and beaner weren't uncommon for the ethnically confused.
My mom would say with the nurturing/caring concern of Nurse Ratched, 'it's not them, it's you'.
She would go on to elaborate, that:
- if people don't like you, and you keep pissing them off, they will beat and insult you. But it's completely personal.
- they may or may not hate all towel-heads, but that attack, wasn't against all towel-heads, it was strictly an attack on you.
I took this to mean "don't generalize and whine about things you don't know" (like they're all racists).
In truth, my Mom likely just meant the softer, "accept that they're assholes with anger issues, and you deserved it for provoking them". But I tended to overthink things, and look for the bigger meanings, even when there wasn't any.
Ignoring the validity of the last part (since I still don't agree that snotty quips deserve bloody noses), she had a point.
There's an adage, "never attribute to malice that which can be more easily explained by stupidity/incompetence".
Well, my variant of that, is, "never attribute to racism, that which is more easily explained by your own actions".
If we knee-jerk assume everything is racism (even insults directed at us as individuals because of OUR actions), then that's probably more a reflection on our biases/paranoia, than any reality. You have no real evidence that person secretly harbors superiority complex of whites, or inferiority complexes of whatever shade you are. There are a lot of jerks in life, there are very few real racists in America -- so Occam's Razor: that which is simplest and most likely, is the better conclusion to jump to.
So that stuck with me, and I shared it with others, to the annoyance of many who had a vested interest in perpetual victimhood and injustice. For a variant of that reply, in a later article, I got physical death threats (with someone looking up my home address and mailing me intimidation/warnings). People are so entrenched in their racial/gender/etc. victim mentality, that they see everything in the world as proof of their view.. And if you disagree with them on that, then you're some hate-filled bigot that goes to parties with bald-tattoo'd and sheet wearing compatriots (thus anything they say or do to you, is justified in their minds). They feel they get to do to you, what they imagine you want to do (or did to them) -- without every questioning whether the conclusions they're leaping to are the correct ones.
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
While many people assume that a racial slur is "racism", it's actually a verbal attack first -- the racial part was just the weapon. They likely would have used gender, size, looks, or any other obious tool for the attack as well. So to know if racism was the cause, we need to know intent. Why did they attack? Do they truly believe all people of race X (or all other races) are inferior? Or was it just someone with anger issues, pushing they first button they could find?
Assuming racism in everything is as likely to be pyschological projection by the finger-pointer, as it is to be real racism. In fact, I'd say more so -- as real fundamental racism is extremely rare, while virtue signaling and a lack of introspection (blaming others for responding to our actions) is far more common.
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Tags: What is not racism?/all RSH
