4 ms·
Poor people, and especially poor non-whites, are much less likely to have a credit or debit card. I think it's important to understand "racist" as an effect, n
by ahoy 8y ago
Poor people, and especially poor non-whites, are much less likely to have a credit or debit card.
I think it's important to understand "racist" as an effect, not as an opinion. The decision to not accept cash probably wasn't made with racist intentions, but it can very well have racist outcomes.
- superkuh 8y agoI meant it literally. There are corporate persons and there are human persons. When you pay with a credit card a corporate person is paying. When you pay with cash a human person is paying.
- Whatevers 8y agoThat's not the issue s/he brought up though.
- rand0mbits 8y ago>> I think it's important to understand "racist" as an effect, not as an opinion. I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. If as a white person you punch a black person because you don't like the car the person is driving, that's not racism, that's just some weird aggression. It's not based on the concept of race. But if you punch them because they're black, that's obviously racism. Same thing here. If you're taking an action that indirectly causes harm to mostly non-whites (more specifically to poor people, some of whom are white) without the intent of causing harm, that's not racist. It's only racist if you feel that the group that's being harmed is racially/ethnically inferior to your group and that that justifies your actions. That isn't to say that knowingly causing harm to people, even without any racism involved, is OK. It's not. But it's the intent that defines racism.