Theory v Practice. Thoughts v Actions when it comes to Racism

We all know that things which may seem great in theory don’t always work in practice.

Let’s look at this 'theory' doing the rounds in certain social media threads that ALL 'white' people are racist by definition; that it’s simply inescapable.

I’ll leave to one side for now the fact that any idea which translates to ‘heads I win, tails you lose’, is not one to which any sensible or reasonable person should subscribe, and make another argument.

First, a definition. Racism is where, given exactly the same circumstances, you treat someone worse if they are not the same skin colour as you.

Again, I’ll put to one side that there are a host of reasons why we might decide to treat someone worse or better in any given situation and that claiming it ‘could only be’ racism or lack of it is not a coherent argument but let’s stick to skin colour for the sake of this discussion.

Thought is NOT a crime. This isn’t Orwell’s 1984 and it’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t become that. There is a massive difference between what we THINK and what we DO.

Let’s take driving around in our car. Over the almost 40 years I’ve been driving, I’ve probably racked-up a thousand times where I’ve thought something like, ‘what kind of crap driving do you call that? You need a bloody good slap!’ But out of those thousand times, how many times have I actually chased someone, forced them off the road and given them that slap? ZERO.

So, even if we do have a bad thought flash through our minds (and all of us do, daily), very few people act them out because most of us are aware of the ‘wrongness’ of the thought & the ‘wrongness’ of the consequences if we acted it out.

Indeed, that very awareness of ‘wrong’ makes it far less likely that we would carry the thought into action. Rather, the awareness makes it much more likely that we won’t!

Thinking and doing, are NOT the same thing; not by a long way. So, for the vast majority of us, even if we believe that we may have racially prejudiced tendencies in our thoughts, the knowledge that it is wrong to think like that means we make a special effort NOT to carry them into action. If anything, we are likely to over-compensate.

Here’s another thought. There is always a problem when science (and I mean hard empirical science not easily manipulated social science) can’t help us. Science can only help if we can measure something accurately and consistently so that we get a lot of quality accurate unfalsifiable data. Anecdote is not quality data. Opinion is not quality data. Even personal accounts are not quality data because they can be exaggerated, deliberately skewed, or even falsified.
Quality data is simply not possible when it comes to the amount of racism there is, or who is and who isn’t racist. It cannot be demonstrated in a proper scientific manner. This is why you get some claiming racism is everywhere and others claiming there is no racism at all. We only have personal experience PLUS what we want to believe to go on, and these will be different.

Now, where something cannot be clearly demonstrated (proven), do we assume that people are innocent or guilty? And here’s the rub. 'White' people are being asked to accept guilt that many deny and that certainly cannot be proven. We are, contrary to the basic premise of law, being asked to believe the accuser and convict the accused without question. Why many ‘white’ middle-class liberals are happy to do that is for another discussion. 
You shouldn't feel the need to 'admit' to being a racist to somehow prove you're not a racist; and you don't need to 'admit' you're a racist to be a decent non-racist human being!

So, I ask you to ask yourself this question. ‘In any given situation, am I admitting that I would treat someone differently based purely on the skin colour they have?’

If the honest answer to that is ‘yes’, then that is indeed racist and you do need to change that way of behaving. 

However, most people will be able to say, perfectly honestly, that they wouldn’t behave in that way. And telling them that they would, is not an acceptable argument because you are telling them that, whatever they know about themselves and however they actually behave, they are guilty, whether they believe they are or not. 

That is a very authoritarian, oppressive, controlling and insidious way of thinking, though it’s clearly convenient for those making that argument.

So, for the majority of us who can honestly answer ‘no’ to the question, why would we go along with the idea of ‘automatic 'white' racism’?

Perhaps you know and can actually name people who are definitely racist. You’ve heard them speak and it’s clear and unarguable that they are racist. I would suggest that for the majority of us, that’s simply not true. Or if it is, how many of the people we know come into that category? If the answers more than one or two, you need to do something about the circles you move in.

I know it’s easier to just cast an entire group as guilty or not guilty - it certainly saves having to have a coherent argument but that’s the point. Because, at an individual level, very few (as a percentage of the total) people can be clearly demonstrated to be racist, this 'assumed' group guilt is all there is. 

This is where the idea that it's 'the system' that's racist not necesarily individuals comes from. However, as any system is operated and enforced by individual people, it doesn't take long to come full circle back to - 'and therefore ALL 'white' people are de facto racists'.

But it’s lazy thinking and can only be justified if you accept that social issues can be addressed by ideas that force guilt (or innocence) onto every individual within a (made-up) group, come what may. 

That individuals in a group do not differ in thought, word or deed; which is nonsense of course.

This is how authoritarian dictators think. ALL Jews are bad, for example.

And this is what a lot of 'white' middle-class liberals are coming up against. They’ve decided that they will feel better about themselves if they admit to being racist (why?). But how can they admit to their own racism, and from that accept ‘white group guilt', while at the same time absolving themselves of any personal shame?
(NB They DON'T really feel ashamed. You don't admit to the world something you are genuinely ashamed of. It's abstract/theoretical shame at the most; it's not real).

How do they accept that they are part of a group ('white' people) which MUST ALL be racist devils by definition, but put themselves on the side of the 'anti-racist angels' in the hope that they will get some kind of absolution by doing so? 

Simple, by claiming that we are an overwhelmingly racist society and pointing the finger at all other ‘white’ people, 99.99% of whom they have never met, let alone have any knowledge of the content of their character and attitudes.
This view that a small number of people can speak for, let alone accept guilt on behalf of, a group they have no choice but to belong to, the majority of whom they have never spoken to, is presumptiously arrogant and distinctly authoritarian in tendency.

And all these other people in the ‘white’ group that they throw under the racist bus while performing this self-flagellating faux-absolution? Well, they don’t matter do they? Because if I who have such high moral standards admit to being racist, then they MUST BE racist as well, right?

Job done; absolution achieved - or so they (wrongly) think! To retain power over you, you never get absolved, only tolerated until you put a toe out of line and then...........

But thinking they have cleansed their souls of racist stain, they carry on with their comfortable middle-class life in the knowledge that they won’t be affected in any meaningful way by the societal chaos they have helped unleash. But at least by saying that they and all other ‘white’ people are racist, that the country they live in is systemically racist, they won’t be cancelled or get shouted at on social media by the mob and will still get invited to trendy-lefty parties and can tell themselves how morally superior they are – phew, that’s alright then!

"Never be a spectator of unreasonableness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence." ~ Christopher Hitchens.