The youtube algorithm suggested this to me the other day, posting it here because it's pretty relevant.
When Wokes and Racists actually agree on everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg
this is a good breakdown https://youtu.be/m0ZDHgD9084?t=950
Emphasizing race as the most important determinant of an individual is regressive, not progressive.
It's possible for a reactionary agenda to fall prey to the errors of its foe, and that's exactly what's happening with anti-racism today.
The only way to move forward is to tackle racism with explicitly non-racist policies, not anti-racist ones.
I don't know a lot (any?) racist right folks, but I know a shitload of racist left and they ALL publicly, verbally, in writing, rail against racism in one breath, and then shit on white people in the next.
I acknowledge that this is anecdotal, but still...
Usually I've seen forms like this
"I strongly believe in (basic description of X)"
"You know that's X, right?!"
"I'm not X"
"Alright, would you say you believe in (wikipedias first paragraph on X)?"
"Oh yes! You really understand!"
"You know I just lifted that from wikipedia article on X"
"Let me hear it again. Ok, that's not exactly right." Etc...
Try it yourself next time, it's pretty remarkable. They're not acting in bad faith or trying to deceive.
It's like an addict who believes they smoke cigarettes not because they have an addiction but because they enjoy the taste.
Most people want to believe they've made the right decisions (https://grist.org/article/80-percent-of-humans-are-delusiona...). They think racism is wrong so therefore their beliefs can't be racist.
Not necessarily.
Even Richard Spencer, proud Hitler-saluting Neo-Nazi, essentially the founder of the "alt-right", denies being racist.
People know that racism is bad, but a lot of racists will deny being racist while very explicitly saying they don't want to live next to a black person or will call the police just because they saw a black man walking through the neighborhood.
He knows that racism is not socially acceptable, so he makes bad faith claims of not being racist while expressing obviously racist views. And the problem is, it works. It doesn't take much searching to find racists that don't think they're racist. The fact that people don't think Donald Trump is racist, despite a long list of racist remarks and actions [0], is proof of that.
And of course, later, Milo Yiannopoulos later released an audio recording of an explicitly racist rant. [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_views_of_Donald_Trump
[1] https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/11/4/20947833/richard-sp...