You are aware that the way you phrase it makes it sound like we all are?
I've recognized a few times that I say things in a way that makes people mad even though my original point was fine.
Ding ding ding! Yes. We all are. Conservatives and liberals.
Everyone is programmed with racist attitudes from the culture-at-large. Many or most never question these unconscious attitudes.
In my experience, folks who have been actively working on racism and social justice for years if not decades are the first to admit that they too carry racist, largely unconscious, beliefs and attitudes.
A lot of people don't seem to grok unconscious bias.
Genuine question, does this include black people?
Racism, also called racialism, the belief that humans may be divided into separate and exclusive biological entities called “races”; that there is a causal link between inherited physical traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural and behavioral features; and that some races are innately superior to others.
Everyone is born with original sin from being born from Adam and Eve. Many or most never question this concupiscence.
In my experience, folks who have been actively working on heresy and inquisitions for years if not decades are the first to admit that they too carry rebellious, largely hereditary, inclinations towards sin.
A lot of people don't seem to grok original sin.
As a christian I feel this is a major thing: the realization that you can be perfectly innocent in that you:
- didn't do anything that any law can punish you for
- wasn't aware of doing anything wrong as you were doing it
yet you are far from perfect and when you minutes/days/years later you realize despite your best intentions you still bragged/discriminated/were unfair/went too far/didn't go far enough/etc and you'll be sorry and wish you could do better.
To keep this interesting to everyone in this audience I think I'll avoid going further into the topic unless anyone asks but for anyone particularly interested I'll say that I think this is what Paul grapples with in in Romans 7.
https://activechristianity.org/who-will-deliver-me-from-this...
I started by reading the top but it actually covers a lot of the topics in this thread from a christian perspective.
We can't blame it all on culture when even six month old babies exhibit racism: https://www.utoronto.ca/news/racial-bias-may-begin-babies-si...
Why? Modern society is built on things that go against human nature: The national state, living till we're 80, flying, not killing people, monogamy.
I think you are making the classical moral mistake of assuming the natural state of things is the best state of things.
But I do appreciate that you called it out.
I grapple with being racist all the time. The way I climbed up was through a lot of institutions that racist. I grapple with my complicated place in the world, when I talk to my shrink, and not infrequently, because there's a lot of non-PC / uncomfortable things about it all too. I can't get away from both sides of the racism, because of the genes I was born with, so I have to talk about it with someone. If people don't like the whole politically-correct thing, well, this is it too.
My and I guess many others point in this thread is that a lot of people are running around alienating a lot of people who would be ashamed to even catch themselves thinking a racist thought by insisting they are "racist" since they might have implicit biases.
When someone points out something is racist, is your response to explain why it isn't or change?