Quote:
Originally Posted by Adder
Strangely, you can grasp the criminal justice system generating unfair outcomes, but you also bristle at "racism" involving anything other than outright, expressed animus. Why do you have empathy for the unjustly imprisoned, but not for the unjustly withheld from opportunity? Is it first hand experience with the system, thus giving you a proximity you don't have on other issues. Or is it just the obvious involvement of the state (which is harder to see in other contexts)?
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I won't answer this for Sebby because it's impossible to pin him down on anything or have a halfway decent conversation with because he stands for nothing.
But for most people, the reason they see a difference is that in your prison example someone else is doing something unjust. It's very easy to separate oneself from that example because you are not
actively* participating in injustice. When it comes to racism and privilege,
everyone knows (sometimes it's deep, deep down) that white people have set up a system that benefits themselves and
do not want to disturb the advantages that now exist absolutely everywhere. That knowledge and reality creates an automatic and emotional reaction when it is brought up.
It works the same when it comes to rape culture. If you're a man, you know you've been part of the problem. In order to avoid admitting this out loud or even to oneself in a meaningful way--and accepting the definition is an
admission--you attack the words. You attack the people who use the term. You attack liberal arts academics. Everything, everyone, just not yourself.
I was definitely one of those shitty little assholes RT is referring to. I pinched butts, snapped bras. I thought I was flirting and that it was harmless. I watched other boys do it and get away with it. Hell, lots of time that behavior was not just excused, but rewarded.
That's rape culture. And admitting that I was most definitely a part of it is difficult and uncomfortable. My small, liberal arts school
taught me that that shit is
never appropriate. No one should be subject to that kind of treatment. No one should feel like they can act that way with impunity.
I have grown as a person. I have come to terms with the many flaws I used to have and am working on the ones I
still have. Those of us who can't, throw bullshit at people who are trying to define and call attention to the things we have accepted as a society that are harmful.
TM
*And yes, there are a myriad of arguments of how people actually involve themselves in perpetuating a racist criminal justice system, but that doesn't change the fact that people can easily remove themselves from fault and point at other people.
