gauchecritic
When there are grey skies
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2002
- Posts
- 7,076
'Casual racism' as the modern idiom has it, the "we're all a little bit racist" bollocks is just that. However casual or like everyone else you are, if you persist in overtly racist remarks or views then you are actively promoting stereotypes.
Just because everyone laughs at Jews being mean, blacks being violent and Irish being stupid does not mean that these are not racial stereotyping, which is what anti-racism is all about. Not judging books by covers and not painting with one brush is what it's about.
It used to be called racial prejudice. Pre-judging someone by their race. It happens in all walks of life and not just racially it happens politically, socially and by physical attribute. It happens by size, by age and by accent.
Sea-Cat is nominally a 'cracker', The is a soft southern poof, Charley is a slut, Liar is a hurdy-gurdy and I'm any one of several things: thick northerner by accent, uneducated working class by politics or effete snob by social agreement.
If you accept that everyone is a little bit racist then you accept snap judgement on your own appearance and worse you accept that someone you've just met is, in some way or another, beneath contempt until they prove themselves.
Jade Goody (who you may have heard of) wasn't being racist in her remarks about the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, she was using her race as a convenient handle to hurl insults. If shilpa had been fat she would have used that, if she had been skinny she would have used that if she had been a red-head she would have used that, because racial stereotyping is an acceptable form of racism.
Everybody uses it so it must be ok.
Casual racism is unacceptable, even more than simple dislike of a particular Paki because they smell of curry or hating someone because they're from that family down the street.
If you allow casual racism, bag-ism, rag-ism, shag-ism, this-ism, that-ism to colour your view of every person you meet, and by colouring your view I mean by accepting that "everyone is a little bit racist" then don't be shocked when you're looked upon by everyone else as a wop, a yid, a queer, a polack, a spacka, a Geordie, an eyetie, a spick, a savage, a kafir, a yanqui, a pinko, a fascist, a mysogonist, a feminazi or a lezza.
Just because everyone laughs at Jews being mean, blacks being violent and Irish being stupid does not mean that these are not racial stereotyping, which is what anti-racism is all about. Not judging books by covers and not painting with one brush is what it's about.
It used to be called racial prejudice. Pre-judging someone by their race. It happens in all walks of life and not just racially it happens politically, socially and by physical attribute. It happens by size, by age and by accent.
Sea-Cat is nominally a 'cracker', The is a soft southern poof, Charley is a slut, Liar is a hurdy-gurdy and I'm any one of several things: thick northerner by accent, uneducated working class by politics or effete snob by social agreement.
If you accept that everyone is a little bit racist then you accept snap judgement on your own appearance and worse you accept that someone you've just met is, in some way or another, beneath contempt until they prove themselves.
Jade Goody (who you may have heard of) wasn't being racist in her remarks about the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, she was using her race as a convenient handle to hurl insults. If shilpa had been fat she would have used that, if she had been skinny she would have used that if she had been a red-head she would have used that, because racial stereotyping is an acceptable form of racism.
Everybody uses it so it must be ok.
Casual racism is unacceptable, even more than simple dislike of a particular Paki because they smell of curry or hating someone because they're from that family down the street.
If you allow casual racism, bag-ism, rag-ism, shag-ism, this-ism, that-ism to colour your view of every person you meet, and by colouring your view I mean by accepting that "everyone is a little bit racist" then don't be shocked when you're looked upon by everyone else as a wop, a yid, a queer, a polack, a spacka, a Geordie, an eyetie, a spick, a savage, a kafir, a yanqui, a pinko, a fascist, a mysogonist, a feminazi or a lezza.
