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Your sentiments are totally understandable - but lets take this to a broader, less emotional level. We, as Americans, are responsible for poor working conditio
by ejstronge 11y ago
Your sentiments are totally understandable - but lets take this to a broader, less emotional level.
We, as Americans, are responsible for poor working conditions in large parts of the world. People recycling metals from computer parts (a topic HN users probably think about) develop neurological disorders, based on what we do.
Am I harming someone directly by not thinking about recycling more often? No, but I'm still part of a system that perpetuates these effects.
Your conflict and resentment stem from what some people before us have done. I have conflict over the families whose breadwinners die due to my electronic excess. But the answer isn't to deny the system I live in but to be more thoughtful.
- vidarh 11y agoThis argument in no way provides any kind of reason for defining away non-institutional racism.
- Programmatic 11y agoNone of the issues you outline are racial issues. Feel free to call a system racist; I'll likely agree depending on the merits of your argument. But people that hate others due to their race are racist, no matter how you couch the issue. The conflict and resentment that people feel when they are accused of being racist due to only their race works counter to the cause of solving problems, not towards resolution. It encourages in-group/out-group mentalities on both sides and is unproductive toward the goal of equality. When you say that one class of person engaging in the same act as another is different because of their race, you are saying "we will never be equal."
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoEssentially you're making an argument from original sin.