6 ms·

"America is racist" is a narrative sold by racists to sow racial division. Shirkey's principle. Any institution (or career race-baiter) tasked with solving a

"America is racist" is a narrative sold by racists to sow racial division. Shirkey's principle. Any institution (or career race-baiter) tasked with solving a problem will instead preserve the problem so they can continue to solve it.

lozenge 5y ago
What year did America go from actually being racist to just pretending?
- tiahura 5y ago
  I think a strong argument is to be made that in the early ‘70s the tide turned and racism became viewed as old fashioned and embarrassing.
  - sangnoir 5y ago
    I think a subtle distinction has to be made: being labelled a racist became the worst thing ever. Which has led to absurd scenes where someone conducts themselves in blatantly racist ways and then says "That's not who I am". It has become a noun, rather than a verb
ketzo 5y ago
There’s a significant divide between “America is racist” and “America was founded on, and still preserves, many institutions that are fundamentally biased against some people.” I don’t know many people who seriously claim that every single atom of American life is racist.
- iratewizard 5y ago
- _3u10 5y ago
  No actual person thinks this but it’s the take away when you compress it down to memes / read about it in media. America has no room for nuance, it’s either every police shooting is justified or every shooting isn’t justified. It’s probably not a great way to actually run a country but it makes for great media sales / entertaining politics.
  - banana_maker 5y ago
    No. In daily life America and Americans are typically nuanced. Like literally any other country. It’s the internet that disposes of context and nuance.
    - _3u10 5y ago
      Yes well said, that’s exactly what I was trying to convey.
    - syshum 5y ago
      No the internet can do that just fine, the twitterization of social media in to short quippy "bumper sicker" took the worst aspects of politics (sound bites and bumper stickers") and normalized that in to the "correct" way to debate or discuss topics. Gone where the long form threaded topics of forums, usenet, etc, replaced with 180 characters quips
      - b112 5y ago
        I'm sorry, I didn't get that, it was cut off at 180 chars.
        wizzwizz4 5y ago
        Twitter has never had a 180 character limit. It was 140 characters (based on the 160 character limit of SMS), but it's now 380 characters.
      - andrewzah 5y ago
        I will agree that twitter irrevocably has changed the online landscape. But I believe it's the ability to instantly transmit things that has pushed towards shorter and shorter content. For example Vine really took off, and now you have Tiktok/Instagram reels/etc. Not to mention Snapchat/Periscope. It's a lot faster to digest and get a dopamine hit from a <140 char tweet (now <380 chars) than poring over a book, so the outcome of twitter was destined to happen.

lozenge 5y ago

What year did America go from actually being racist to just pretending?

tiahura 5y ago
I think a strong argument is to be made that in the early ‘70s the tide turned and racism became viewed as old fashioned and embarrassing.
- sangnoir 5y ago
  I think a subtle distinction has to be made: being labelled a racist became the worst thing ever. Which has led to absurd scenes where someone conducts themselves in blatantly racist ways and then says "That's not who I am". It has become a noun, rather than a verb

ketzo 5y ago

There’s a significant divide between “America is racist” and “America was founded on, and still preserves, many institutions that are fundamentally biased against some people.” I don’t know many people who seriously claim that every single atom of American life is racist.

iratewizard 5y ago
_3u10 5y ago
No actual person thinks this but it’s the take away when you compress it down to memes / read about it in media. America has no room for nuance, it’s either every police shooting is justified or every shooting isn’t justified. It’s probably not a great way to actually run a country but it makes for great media sales / entertaining politics.
- banana_maker 5y ago
  No. In daily life America and Americans are typically nuanced. Like literally any other country. It’s the internet that disposes of context and nuance.
  - _3u10 5y ago
    Yes well said, that’s exactly what I was trying to convey.
  - syshum 5y ago
    No the internet can do that just fine, the twitterization of social media in to short quippy "bumper sicker" took the worst aspects of politics (sound bites and bumper stickers") and normalized that in to the "correct" way to debate or discuss topics. Gone where the long form threaded topics of forums, usenet, etc, replaced with 180 characters quips
    - b112 5y ago
      I'm sorry, I didn't get that, it was cut off at 180 chars.
      - wizzwizz4 5y ago
        Twitter has never had a 180 character limit. It was 140 characters (based on the 160 character limit of SMS), but it's now 380 characters.
    - andrewzah 5y ago
      I will agree that twitter irrevocably has changed the online landscape. But I believe it's the ability to instantly transmit things that has pushed towards shorter and shorter content. For example Vine really took off, and now you have Tiktok/Instagram reels/etc. Not to mention Snapchat/Periscope. It's a lot faster to digest and get a dopamine hit from a <140 char tweet (now <380 chars) than poring over a book, so the outcome of twitter was destined to happen.