Racism
Every once in a while, I'll talk about racism on reddit, and I'll use the n-word, but I don't like to say "the n-word", because I think it's bullshit (I'm making you say it in your head -- There's a Louis CK bit about this), and I swear all the time, and I'm never actually being a racist, but the stigma is so bad that whenever I do it, my comment never gets upvoted.
In light of MLK Day, here's one of those times, and I think it was actually a pretty good point:
FisterRobotOh - 183 points
Honestly, people like my parents don’t care anymore. They know they are worshipping a liar but they feel it is better than a Democrat being president. They say shit like “it’s nice to hear gods name being spoken in the Oval Office again” even though he is clearly not a Christian and Obama was. There is nothing a republican president can do that they will condemn in the wake of Obama. Honestly, they aren’t even racist they are just all in on the Fox News spin.
PotaToss - 179 points
Is there a difference between being racist and being cool with racists?
littlelupie - 72 points
No. Silence is complicity. Racism persists because people, even though they may not say the n-word or anything along those lines, passively and actively allow it to happen.
Being cool with racists is just as bad (if not worse) than being a racist.
PotaToss 1 point
I hate that that's the low fucking bar that people set for whether or not they're racists.
There was some episode of some podcast where they interviewed some people in Trump country, offended about being called racists, and they were like, "Well, I don't call anyone the n-word, and if I heard someone call someone that, I'd be upset!" And then in the same breath, they were like, "But all these people who don't look like us are moving into our community and that makes me scared." You're scared because you're fucking racist, and everyone was right to call you a racist.
I'm more cool with people calling other people niggers or something than I am with people supporting policies that institutionally disadvantage minorities (editor's note: both not cool at all, but if I had to pick one over the other ...). If a legislator or president is racist in his heart, I don't fucking care. I don't have to deal with them every day.
It's when they put it into action, putting it into policy, that makes it a problem. If Trump was like, "These niggers need a fair system, and here are some policies to get us to a level playing field," I'd be like, "Great. Everybody shut up. Let's take it." Even if he was like, "We need these lazy niggers off the government's teat, so here's policy that will ensure that they get fair paying jobs and aren't unfairly passed over for hiring and promotions," I'd be like, "... Okay, I guess." You know? Trump goes away eventually. I don't care why he does the right thing for our institutions if he does the right thing.
I grew up with random dudes on the street yelling out "chink" (or "chino", depending on the neighborhood), just because I was walking by, and I'd be like, actually, I'm a gook. You grow a thick skin about slurs really quickly.
But you can't just grow a thick skin and then it's okay that you get passed over for jobs for having an ethnic sounding name, or get paid less for the same work, or get pulled over for no reason or stopped and frisked, or whatever.
The problem isn't ignorant bigots calling people names. It's the racism that manifests as fear in their hearts that makes them vote for nonsense policies and an idiot who's trying to get more border wall funding by pulling funds from social programs, and stuff that's actually proven effective for illegal immigration control.
edit: It occurred to me that Trump's evangelical support, in spite of the fact that he's like the antithesis of Jesus's teachings, may just be justified the same way, where they can ignore the vehicle if it's delivering what they want.
That said, I think the evangelical right in the US is hyper focused on abortion, at the expense of everything else. I've been an atheist basically my entire life, but I can appreciate a lot of Christian values. But it seems like most of the actual values are more aligned with the American political left.
The focus on being against abortion and gays and whatever seems misguided to me, and only dubiously supported by the bible, while the stuff about caring for the weak and the poor and generally being good to each other is clear as day.