Race and racism anon meme thing

[dreamer_easy]

International Blog Against Racism Week begins tomorrow, 6 August. Before the week officially starts, I'd like to try something a bit dodgy.

For the next twenty-four hours, you can leave an anonymous message here with any questions you have about race or racism. IP logging is off and there are no LJ Toys or other IP-capturing stuff to worry about.

I know many people are afraid to say or ask things about these subjects, for fear of looking stupid or causing offence. I'll delete anything that's obviously just supposed to be abusive, and anything that uses insulting words, but otherwise, anything goes. POC, please be warned: that means there may be annoying, frustrating, or offensive material - you may prefer not to read the comments left here.

I can't guarantee answers to questions that are posted, but I will try to respond if I can. I won't judge or lecture anyone for honest curiosity or confusion. (Keep in mind I'm just a well-meaning White middle-class liberal, and no expert on racial issues.)

The twenty-four hours is up, folks! You can still post anonymously, but IP logging is back on. Thanks for your comments!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Do people reckon it's normal for a white person who grew up in an almost exclusively white area, and who has learned non-racist opinions and beliefs (in which they quite sincerely believe) only as an adult, to still be a bit scared of black people?

It's not something I can control, but I know it's there, and it troubles me.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I found myself momentarily terrified of the Middle-Eastern Islamic couple who sat on a bus next to me last year in London, and hated myself for it. Then I hated the government and media who put that sort of fear in me.

Is being anonymous on this thread compulsory? I can't be bothered being anonymous.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

No, of course it's not compulsory. :-)

[angriest.livejournal.com]

Prior to 9/11, the largest successful terrorist act against the USA was committed by a white Christian. Religious terrorism is committed by radical fanatics, not necessarily by those of a single religion. But I do see your point about the odds of a terrorist act in the developed world being committed by a radicalised Moslem in a contemporary sense.

It annoyed me because even if the odds are greater, another human being that I do not know anything whatsoever about does not deserve my fear or bigotry. Every individual deserves the benefit of the doubt. I'd like to be the person who doesn't fear or feel negative towards anybody, and the culture of fear that's been developed around me makes it harder for me to do that.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that Islamophobic nut, Grant. I've banninated him, and I'm screening anonymous comments now, so I can just delete his conspiracy theories.

I have no doubt that, especially post-9/11, Muslim Australians sometimes experience a frisson of fear in the presence of Anglo Australians. After all, we're more likely to shout abuse at them, or rip off their headscarves, etc. Of course, only a small number of Anglos would ever engage in threatening, violent behaviour like that, but of course statistically we're the ones most likely to do it.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I meant to reply the other day and got distracted...

My thinking is that even if every terrorist attack in the developed world in the past 7 years has been committed by a radicalised Moslem, you're still looking at a tiny minority of people among over a billion Moslems worldwide, most of whom are intelligent, rational, wonderful people.

It is fundamentally wrong to fear all of Islam because of the actions and intentions of a violent minority who have distorted their religious ideals to allow for racist, murderous zealotry, just as it would be fundamentally wrong to fear all Christians because of some crazy evangelicals blowing up abortion clinics or lynching black and gay people. It's not what we do.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Basically, it'd be like refusing to leave your house in case of meteorites.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

In Japan, in the one year (1995) they had both the Hanshin earthquake and the Aum Shinri Kyo subway gas attack.

The gas attack killed 12 people, severely injured 54 and affected about 980 people.

The earthquake killed 6,436 people, injured tens of thousands more, and cost Japan 2.5% of its GDP (about 10 trillion yen) in damage.

Why do we fear the arbitrary death from one so much more than the other?

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

same here :(

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I suspect that it goes in all directions... if you grow up in a community consisting exclusively of X, and you're a member of X, you may very well subconsciously inherit some unfair assumptions/beliefs about other groups.

I suspect that it's worse when X is a majority group, but X could also be an isolated minority and the same thing would probably happen.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

I've met a substantial number of sincerely religious people who just could not conceive of another religious person not being a Christian. Why not? They hadn't ever met one, and all of their assumptions and understandings about religion came from their upbringings, which didn't happen to include being around religious non-Christians.

Those folks weren't malevolent or anything - and by and large, they were quite open to being educated. They just hadn't been exposed to situations which brought their assumptions to light yet.

This clearly wouldn't be "racism" per se - it's a function of inexperience - but I think that having unrealized assumptions is pretty common: if all of our beliefs and assumptions were always right, it'd be a boring world.

In the words of Yakko Warner,

It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It's big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It's a big universe and we're not.

[the-cockfighter.livejournal.com]

It is normal, but it is something you can control. You recognise it as a problem you can be pro-active in addressing it. Engaging on this forum is a start.