Lately, I’ve been called racist quite a few times. Those who don’t know me may argue that maybe it’s because I’m actually racist, as well, people are saying it. But I’d argue that there is a different issue at play; people over use the term racist, and level it at people whom they disagree with.
Many of the times in which I’ve been called racist, the topic at hand is one where I’m looking at the gray areas on an issue. For instance, when I argued that Columbus was a bad person, but he isn’t guilty of everything leveled at him, the response was that I’m racist. Or when I argued that people are born with prejudices, as studies continue to show, it means I’m racist. The correct answer that people were looking for in those cases was that Columbus is guilty of everything anyone claims he has done because he’s terrible, and people are programmed to be racist by other racist people.
But the answers those people were looking for weren’t accurate. However, it’s understandable, as humans are prone to making categorizations, and separating people into those categorizations. We do this automatically, and instantly. It’s a guttural reaction that is meant to protect us from others. Only later do we begin to rationalize this process, and we do so by trying to defend our position.
Awhile back, I was recommended the book, The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt (I just want to thank that person who recommended it again, great read. I’m not sure what the protocol on tagging people in situations like this, which is why I’m erring on the side of not).
Haidt breaks this down in a great way, and demonstrates how this emotional, or guttural reactions is automatic. We do it without thinking; it’s just ingrained in us. We then try to rationalize those ideas. At times we can see the folly in that reasoning, but the reasoning is secondary, which is one reason we become defensive, and at that point, we really just shut off other views. This is one reason why we tend to see in black and white.
This is where the leveling of the claim that others are racist comes in. Most of us don’t see ourselves as racist. So when someone says something that goes against our views, and briefly touches on race (or is thought to touch on race even distantly), it becomes easy to see that person as an other, and thus racist. Often the person isn’t racist though, they simply have a different view point.
By labeling everything as racist, or labeling everyone who has a different view as racist, only detracts from what the word means. It dilutes it so much as to mean nothing, and it instantly prohibits any meaningful conversation.
Just as an aside. One comment that I see come up quite a bit is that only white people can be racist. That’s simply false. Racism is simply a prejudice against someone of another perceived race, based on the idea that one’s own race is superior. Everyone can be guilty of this. A white person saying blacks are inferior is racists. A black person saying whites are inferior is also racist, by definition.
