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Comment by wilsocr88 | Hacker News Reader

The angle nobody ever mentions on this issue is that nothing mass-produces racism and extremist political views more than treating an entire generation of young men as though they are automatically racist, regardless of their actions, or lack of action. Most people under 40 right now were raised to be completely ready to forget about race and treat it like a non-issue. In response, a lot of well-intentioned and non-bigoted young whites have been called "racist" as little more than a bludgeoning word. It, ironically, has the strong stink of a racial slur when it is flung at one's feet in this way.

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I can really relate to this.

20 year old me could not have cared less about race except to protest against some elements of our society that I viewed as structurally racist(prison reform, drug and sentencing laws, police reform and accountability). I would have strongly outwardly identified as anti racist at that time.

And I still think of myself as anti racist internally but when I see someone else outwardly promoting anti racism my first thought is that I should stay away from them for risk of getting wrapped up in toxic behavior, not that they are my ideological ally. I definitely intentionally seek not to be viewed as being related or sympathetic to public anti racist movements in the current era.

At this point my views on race are that the concept if it is brought up at all is probably going to be used as a club to beat me with(metaphorically) and that anyone wielding it isn't my friend.

McWhoter is hero IMO for willingly taking on all of the social consequences of stating these view points to advocate for what he thinks is right.

"It, ironically, has the strong stink of a racial slur when it is flung at one's feet in this way."

That's because it is used as a slur, a powerful one which can end careers, almost exclusively against members of a single racial group. If that's not a racial slur, then what is?

In the view of the "NeoRacists", it's not a racial slur, it's opposition to:

> The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.

White people are racist by default unless they accept that paradigm and try (hopelessly) to atone for that history.

https://www.adl.org/racism

Replying to my own comment because it's too late to edit and I think I should clarify that I don't believe this myself; I'm more inclined to agree that "racist" is indeed a racial slur.

This is merely an attempt to understand their point of view. For those who believe that America is fundamentally built on structural racism, "a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people", as they claim, then it might seem reasonable to accuse every white person who accepts the status quo of being racist.

Much as it might seem reasonable to call everyone who's just trying to operate a business in America a capitalist, even if they have no strong opinions on political or economic systems and are just trying to sell food.

> nothing mass-produces racism and extremist political views more than treating an entire generation of young men as though they are automatically racist, regardless of their actions, or lack of action.

To the extent the hypothetical condition here describes something that actually happened anywhere recently and not a pure counterfactual irrelevancy, I think it's pretty clearly not true, because no recent generation of “young men” has been more effectively manufactured into an army of racist than has ever occurred by any other means.

> Most people under 40 right now were raised to be completely ready to forget about race and treat it like a non-issue.

[citation needed]

>> I think it's pretty clearly not true, because no recent generation of “young men” has been more effectively manufactured into an army of racist than has ever occurred by any other means.

This is an astonishing claim, the likes of which I have not heard before. Could you elaborate on this please?

I'll turn it around: please provide some reason to believe that some recent generation of American young men has been more effectively manufactured into an army of racists than has ever occurred at any time or place in the past, excluding other times where the mechanism was the same kind of “treating an entire generation of young men as though they are automatically racist” as has supposedly occurred sometime recently in our history.

It is difficult to parse what you are saying, your post consists of a single run -on sentence is too long to follow.

>>>>>> nothing mass-produces racism and extremist political views more than treating an entire generation of young men as though they are automatically racist, regardless of their actions, or lack of action.

>> I'll turn it around: please provide some reason to believe that some recent generation of American young men has been more effectively manufactured into an army of racists than has ever occurred at any time or place in the past, excluding other times where the mechanism was the same kind of “treating an entire generation of young men as though they are automatically racist” as has supposedly occurred sometime recently in our history.

> It is difficult to parse what you are saying, your post consists of a single run -on sentence is too long to follow.

I think it's pretty clear: the original statement is clearly false, because there are obvious, well-known historical counterexamples to it. It's basically claiming the current American culture creates racist white men more effectively than Nazi Germany or the Jim Crow South, which just ain't so.

You and I have been assigned opposite worldviews by the failed communications apparatus we are both subjected to. We cannot begin to have a conversation. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

When a person tells you their own lived experience, the thing to NOT say is, "nah, that's probably not true."

> When a person tells you their own lived experience, the thing to NOT say is, "nah, that's probably not true."

As far as I can tell, your GGP comment wasn't actually talking about your lived experience at all. It was making general remarks about society and history that's very external to you, which you can definitely get wrong in ways that can and should be corrected.

For instance, if I told you my lived experience was that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and Biden is a Satan-worshiping cannibal, the exact thing to say to me is that those things aren't true. They aren't lived experience, they're errors in fact.

They don't mention it because it's not true and an obvious rationalization for already existing behavior.

Sorry but throwing the N word around and casual racism existed before social media.

The "I'm not the racist you are" is childish and unfortunately par for the course in online discourse now.

The original post never mentions the n word or social media. What are you even trying to say?

The N word is a well known example of racist speech/action and social media is often where these uses are drug up and litigated.

But I don't use my identity as a white male to paint myself a victim, so maybe I'm off base? Are there other avenues where these previously non-racists were bullied into becoming racists?

That is a sentence that contains words I wouldn't dispute. I still fail to connect it to the original post in any way.

I took it that social media was the primary way under 40 white males were being told they were racist or were seeing others being called racist.

Specifically I recall the many posts I've come across to the effect of "I used to be X but the community of Y caused me to become Anti-X".

I'm an under 40 white male who doesn't feel doomed to an existence of being a racist so I'm not sure where I'm supposed to be seeing this?

You're searching for the worst possible motivation in those you think you may disagree with, and insisting that it's the only real motivation. That's a very easy trap to fall into, and it leads to habitual hate against "the other."

You are associating something unrelated with what I was saying.

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