We’re on the same page — the difference being our tolerance for experiencing racism and that is…
By: Argumentative Penguin
Tags: Politics, Racism, Debate, Médium, Social Justice

We’re on the same page — the difference being our tolerance for experiencing racism and that is 100% to do with our lived experience. There will be contrarians and there will be ‘what-about-ists’, but I do firmly believe that in order for society to progress that there has to be an understanding of what motivates racism, interpersonal, institutional or otherwise.

I would never advocate sitting down and reading abusive messages from people who simply enjoy being offensive. I don’t mind contrarians (I am one from time to time) but they should always temper their contrarian nature with intelligence and compassion and a willingness to discuss.

And that’s why I hope people read the debate we’re having.

Because of where and when I was brought up many of the people I love and care about are also racist. They have been told (quite rightly) that it is wrong to be racist — but this, in and of itself, doesn’t make them less racist. It just pushes their racism underground. Public discourse is now heavily policed by a younger generation of people of all races and who, in the nicest possible way, are discussion light and knee-jerk heavy. This has the opposite effect to the one they want. It simply fuels and supercharges the racism that already exists in racists. It simultaneously allows those people brought up with more tolerant and liberal backgrounds to virtue signal and feel smug. In short… nothing changes. Occasionally everyone on twitter gets into an apology spiral.

Whilst I obviously don’t want anyone to sit and read torrents of abuse, and I appreciate your position — I feel that the discussions around racism can become very facile very quickly. Everyone is worried about causing offence, and so it becomes very hard to get to the truth of the matter.

Why are some of the people I love racists? They’re working class, they’re a closed community with limited options. They’re usually the people replaced by any immigrant population (regardless of colour or nationality). Their living standards go down when immigration happens — racism makes sense for them, it’s a simple knee-jerk response to a complex situation. Is it still wrong? Of course. Is it more nuanced than ‘all racists are evil’? Absolutely. Is someone from the upper middle-class who went to private school and has three foreign holidays a year ever going to appreciate the world view of the working class racist? I doubt it.

Only when you unpick the complexities of the human condition and when you invite people into the discussion can you get any meaningful change on an interpersonal level. This isn’t happening and it won’t happen until people feel empowered to talk with honesty and without judgment. Nothing about the way race is discussed at the moment is encouraging this level of honesty. Every time we get close to a worthwhile discussion (think of the Liam Neeson debacle) it gets closed down in faux outrage and offence.

And that’s why I enjoyed your essay. I agree with you and disagree with you on so much. Nobody should be forced to listen to racists being racist just for the hell of it — but also, an understanding of the motivations, the psychology and the complexity of the lived experience can only aid social progress.

I guess that’s what I’d boil my arguments down to. Social progress and social justice are different. Social justice sometimes feels like social progress….but if it were, the world wouldn’t be polarising and becoming more divisive by the day. The fight for social justice seems progressive but in its naive simplicity “All X are bad” — it sows the seed for continual retrograde thinking.

Please do keep writing, I enjoy your stuff — and please do keep debating. This is EXACTLY what Medium is for. An antidote to the bungling mob mentality stupidity of Twitter.

Thanks for a great read.