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> In 20 years of living there, I have not only not interacted, but not seen a single black person. And I expect that would be the same case for majority of peop

by yokaze 6y ago

> In 20 years of living there, I have not only not interacted, but not seen a single black person. And I expect that would be the same case for majority of people. Any racism would likely be more personal or based off silly stereotypes rather than systemic. I don't follow. How can you make such judgement, if you "not only not interacted, but not seed a single black person"? > Any racism would likely be more personal or based off silly stereotypes rather than systemic. So, just a few bad apples then? I think, some knowledge is transferable after all.

viraptor 6y ago
Because to have systemic racism, by definition you have to observe something happening on a large scale. There is no scale there. There are isolated interactions mostly. It could be widespread racism, or a small number of racist people. The n is too small to tell.
- yokaze 6y ago
  > Because to have systemic racism, by definition you have to observe something happening on a large scale. Systemic only means "relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part". If you and practical most people in Poland (or a lot of other countries) have never seen or talked to a black person, that is related to the system. The way you and others have formed an opinion about foreign people, or people of different faith, or sexual orientation, that is inherent to the system in Poland. Now, the question is, what is the experience of those likely few black people in Poland interacting with other people? Do they experience in most interactions negative prejudice, or are they only experiencing it in isolated cases, or even not at all? The way I see it, the learning we should take from the US is, that as a member of the majority, one should avoid having a prejudice of how that experience will be. Because our n of those experiences will indeed be too small to tell. And if those people are telling us that their experience is bad, not to reject it as the exception (a few bad apples).

by yokaze 6y ago

viraptor 6y ago

Because to have systemic racism, by definition you have to observe something happening on a large scale. There is no scale there. There are isolated interactions mostly. It could be widespread racism, or a small number of racist people. The n is too small to tell.

yokaze 6y ago
> Because to have systemic racism, by definition you have to observe something happening on a large scale. Systemic only means "relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part". If you and practical most people in Poland (or a lot of other countries) have never seen or talked to a black person, that is related to the system. The way you and others have formed an opinion about foreign people, or people of different faith, or sexual orientation, that is inherent to the system in Poland. Now, the question is, what is the experience of those likely few black people in Poland interacting with other people? Do they experience in most interactions negative prejudice, or are they only experiencing it in isolated cases, or even not at all? The way I see it, the learning we should take from the US is, that as a member of the majority, one should avoid having a prejudice of how that experience will be. Because our n of those experiences will indeed be too small to tell. And if those people are telling us that their experience is bad, not to reject it as the exception (a few bad apples).