Trying to discuss race with white people is like talking to a brick wall. I just tried to talk about racism and got fucking ganged up on by white people swearing that you can only be racist if you intend to be so they aren’t racist as long as they mean well. It’s so fucking entitled when white people start lecturing poc about what’s really racist. God.
So first off, white guy here so I will kindly leave if this isn’t my place to speak
But onto my point, anyone who claims the key factor of racism is intent can fuck right off like the idiots they are. I’m sorry you went thru that OP
It’s like. Most people know on some level that racism is bad. And they don’t want to be bad, so they don’t want to consider that they could be racist, cause in their eyes that would make them bad people. Like there’s some binary between the evil racist people and the good, not racist, normal people. But the thing is, racism is built into our entire society, our culture, everything. Everyone will learn some racist beliefs just living in this world. You have to confront that. But you can’t do that if you’re to obsessed with this “but I’m not a bad person” shit
Anyone who doesn’t occassionally sincerely ask themselves the questions, “how might I be wrong?”, “what might my own biases be blinding me to?,” and, of course, “am I a bad person?” Is not only ignorant, but is indeed a bad person because they’re not willing to reflect on how their willful ignorance is hurting both themselves and those around them.
Learning to be uncomfortable with your own beliefs and wrestling and coming to terms with them, and, most importantly, changing your point of view over time with the aim of increasing your empathy for others not like you, is part of what it means to be an adult. There are very few adults in this world.