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Comment by chepaslaaa | Hacker News Reader

When your grandfather says racist shit about your girlfriend you might start understanding.

If my grandfather did that, he wouldn't do it a second time (at least, he'd know he'd better not do it within my hearing). Not that either of my grandfathers would have done that (I think).

Yes, I know, grandfathers with thicker heads than mine exist. Even if they can't get it through their heads that such views are wrong, maybe they can understand that people get in their grill every time they say it, and the whole family turns against them. After a few times, they may start to get the idea that they shouldn't say such things. (Or maybe they never will. Either way, I don't think I'm going to let racist comments about individuals slide in my family.)

I have a [southern baptist] brother who, while visiting us for Thanksgiving, lectured to his children in front of us about how we were all sinners who lived evil lives doing evil things. I assure you he said some things that were every bit as offensive as racist comments.

Racism isn't a political issue, it's accepted that it is a bad thing.

I disagree. Lots of people think it's perfectly acceptable to say terrible things about (people they think are) Mexican. You can readily predict the political alignment of the people who do think such things are acceptable. I would not be surprised if their behavior extended to other groups, such as Muslims.

Additionally, a subset of these people also believe that it should be socially acceptable to say disparaging things about blacks, Jews, and other groups that "enjoy" social protection from such behavior.

Edit: grammar.

An individual's drug addiction is not a political issue, even though it predicts their political leanings around drug legalization. An individual's racism or xenophobia is not a political issue, even though it predicts their political leanings around immigration.

If politicians 1) talk about something a lot, and 2) take separate sides of the matter, then it's a political issue.

Drug addiction absolutely is a political issue, and a hot one at that. Same with race issues and immigration. White bread or wheat would be an example of a non-political issue.

It's possible that you live in a country where these are not political issues, but I'm from the USA and these topics are discussed by politicians on a daily basis. They have the secret to fixing the heroin issue, or the immigration crisis, or the Muslim terrorists, etc.

Institutional/societal racism is a political or public policy issue. But this thread started w.r.t. individual racism: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17200028

Comments about individuals are not political discussion, unless chepaslaaa's girlfriend holds public office.

That doesn't make it a political issue though, because there isn't really any serious debate about it. Just because more racists support Republicans doesn't make it a political issue unless racism is something a significant amount of Republicans are supportive of.

> it's accepted that it is a bad thing.

I believe the recent presidential election has proven otherwise.

How so? Were there politicians debating on whether it was OK to be racist? Being anti-immigration is not racism regardless of how you feel about the topic.

Except that it's amazing how many people will say racist things after disclaiming, "this may not be politically correct...[insert racist garbage here]"

My understanding is that truly racist people don’t even acknowledge or mention races they despise. It’s a bit different if your grandfather (or parents for that matter) refuse to ever see you again because you’re dating someone from a race they despise, versus them making an ignorant statement. Not sure which is better, but I think you can correct someone’s mistaken beliefs by simply having a discussion.

A lot of assumptions made by your post.

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