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"Anti-racist" strategies bewilder me. Am I now supposed to consider the skin color of the business owner before shopping there? Because I thought making busine
by bjt2n3904 6y ago
"Anti-racist" strategies bewilder me. Am I now supposed to consider the skin color of the business owner before shopping there?
Because I thought making business decisions based on skin color was racist.
- summitsummit 6y agothe whole point is for us to fight amongst ourselves and to sow division.
- pcbro141 6y agoI don't see how Google adding a black-owned business label might encourage a previously non-racist person to now want to 'fight' black people or feel ill will towards black people.
- radegast 6y agoYou know, I am getting tired of all this. I am a white dude and just reading the media it seems like I should either die or give away everything just because of my race and gender. These same people, who are whining about someone saying "all lives matter", don't mind calling themselves "comrades". We've had communism in my country for circa 40 years. I might as well start complaining that they are using "comrade", because my parents suffered under the regime. Mind you the regime was toppled some 30 years ago, and unlike slavery in the US, there are millions of people who lived through it and are still alive. So to sum it up; I was somewhat moderate. And now since the whole circus started, I feel attacked from all sides for something I cannot change. That makes me want to support the whole cause less, and in fact start doing something against it, because if now I am supposed to write "Black people" with capital B, but "white people" with lower-case W, I keep wondering where this will all end.
- dforrestwilson 6y agoYou really don’t see how elevating a single race over others might be an issue?
- pcbro141 6y agoI think it's acceptable to elevate Black people to be on the same level as other races in America as opposed to disadvantaged. I actually think Black America is owed a lot more than what Google is doing here after centuries of legalized racism and being shut out of building wealth, but that's the US government that owes them.
- RobertRoberts 6y agoCan you clarify what "elevating" looks like from your perspective? And considering how many immigrants there starting out with literally nothing (one example) how we should pick one race to help but not all terribly disadvantaged people?
- pcbro141 6y agoAmerica knew exactly how to target Black people with legalized racism during slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, etc. All we have to do now is the exact same targeting, but in a positive direction to correct the centuries of economic warfare and legalized racism that was targeted against Black America. None of this means that no other disadvantaged groups don't have a case either.
- radegast 6y ago"Targeting in a positive direction." My sides.
- bjt2n3904 6y ago"Other races" don't get special labels on their businesses. Putting tags like "Women Owned" de-legitimizes the owner. It makes women owned business seem stigmatized, as if it's unusual or especially notable. It strips them of their dignity.
- pcbro141 6y agoAnd white men don't get affirmative action. And how come there's no White History Month? (sarcasm)
- hetman 6y agoI think this can happen indirectly and unintentionally as people increasingly segregate into tribes.
- userbinator 6y agoThe white racists are going to avoid the black-owned businesses, and vice-versa, encouraging further self-segregation.
- zzo38computer 6y agoWell, it might be unintentional. Hiding those labels by default will make it better to avoid such an unintentional bias, I think. I don't care if they are black or not, but I don't want to be unintentionally biased.
- mberning 6y agoIt is vexing. We were supposed to progress to the point that a person’s skin color was a matter of complete indifference. Now it is in the forefront of even the most petty and insignificant matters. This is not going to end well.
- pcbro141 6y agoI don't think black America's economic situation is insignificant though. The racial wealth gap is still huge and hasn't changed much since racism was legal. It will take a lot of conscious, directed action in favor of black people to provide economic remedy for slavery/Jim Crow/redlining and other systemic racism. https://qz.com/1368251/black-income-is-half-that-of-white-households-just-like-it-was-in-the-1950s/ https://qz.com/1368251/black-income-is-half-that-of-white-ho...
- BluSyn 6y agoAccording to "Anti-racists", MLK's dream of "judging people by the content of their character" is now a racist dog-whistle. Not sure when, but eventually the shoe must drop and people realize this so-called "Anti-racism" is an incredibly racist ideology. This is not progress.
- bjt2n3904 6y agoRelevant YouTube video. https://youtu.be/Ev373c7wSRg https://youtu.be/Ev373c7wSRg
- pcbro141 6y agoHow can we provide economic remedy for the centuries of economic warfare against Black Americans if any remedy specifically addressed to Black people is considered 'racist'? How else do we close the black-white wealth gap legacy of legal racism in America if we're not allowed to do anything to help Black people specifically out of fear of "reverse racism"? Can we worry about getting Black America the economic remedies they deserve after being shut out of wealth for centuries before we pretend we're worried about "black supremacy"? https://qz.com/1368251/black-income-is-half-that-of-white-households-just-like-it-was-in-the-1950s/ https://qz.com/1368251/black-income-is-half-that-of-white-ho...
- zzo38computer 6y agoI should think, perhaps by helping individual people instead. If someone is poor then someone might help them, I suppose. Then it won't be racist, it will be individualistic, it would seem. Hiring someone for the job should be decided on if they are competent at that job, not on other criteria such as black, white, men, women, taller, religious, etc, unless that is relevant for this kind of job (such as acting in a movie, perhaps).
- starky 6y agoThe challenge to the idea of hiring the most competent person (I know you didn't specify "most"), is that people from disadvantaged backgrounds may not have had the opportunity to become competent at them due to systemic oppression. What I generally don't see discussed is the hard part of the problem. A business should do their best to hire the best person to complete a job, but how do you do that while bringing up disadvantaged people so they have a fair chance to compete?
- paulcole 6y ago> Am I now supposed to consider the skin color of the business owner before shopping there? Yes! You’re getting it!