Opinion of white people having fun in North Korea

[Associate Justice PiT]

Anything beginning with "opinion of white people" = HP

Racism is fun!

Who's being racist?

Edgy, as always!

LLR, I don't think you'd actually believe that, but how would the same joke with a different race be received?  Rightfully horribly, as should this.

     It is true; it says something about public perception of race when whites are the only group of people that it is socially acceptable to make fun of based on their skin color.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     It is a definition, but one with obvious problems. Among these problems is that it deprives us of a term to properly describe racial bigotry against white people. Another problem is that most people do not use this definition of racism, so using it just muddies the waters.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Anything beginning with "opinion of white people" = HP

Racism is fun!

Who's being racist?

Edgy, as always!

LLR, I don't think you'd actually believe that, but how would the same joke with a different race be received?  Rightfully horribly, as should this.

     It is true; it says something about public perception of race when whites are the only group of people that it is socially acceptable to make fun of based on their skin color.

Let me know when making fun of white people is paired with centuries of violence, intimidation, disenfranchisement, and publicly and socially sanctioned discrimination that has destroyed and continues to destroy (or at the very least, adversely affect) the lives of an entire social group.

This concern trolling about "reverse racism" is utterly tiresome.

     Some terrible stuff happened in the past, which nobody really denies. The stuff that happens today (which is admittedly more than nothing) isn't nearly as bad as the stuff that happened in the past, which is evident from the fact that only white people are socially acceptable targets of racial humor. Getting on a high horse about "centuries of violence" is irrelevant; the past is the past and the present is the present. Slavery was horrible, but there is no purpose in getting worked up over it now like guilty liberals will tend to do.

     I don't really care about "reverse racism" over something as pithy as jokes. If someone is demanding I pay reparations to black people then that's something to get exercised over. I am mostly amazed that in an allegedly "white-supremacist" society it is okay to diss white people but not black people. That should be a hint that the United States in 2016 is not actually white-supremacist.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Having slept on this, the fundamental issue is that there is a sociological definition of racism and a lay definition of racism. It shouldn't be necessary to completely obviate the lay definition, but this is politics so of course this sort of stuff is going to happen. It's much like libertarians arguing over who's a real libertarian.

     I see the value of the sociological definition. American racism was propagated early on as a means of driving a wedge between Irish and black underclasses so as to prevent them from uniting as a political entity. It identifies certain sociological institutions that exist for certain purposes, and sociologists can of course define terms as they see fit.

     Speaking as an individualist, I also see real value in the lay definition. One of the core tenets of individualism is that we should be judged based on who we are as people and not based on features beyond our control. Judging me ill because of what I say is your prerogative. Judging me ill because of my skin color denies me the benefit of being judged as a person.

    In that sense, hatred of people of any color denies them that benefit. The racial motivations of the crimes of Micah Johnson and Dylann Roof are both deserving of disapprobation. People who use the lay definition of racism are not trying to claim that there is systemic oppression of whites in the United States. These are people who wish to have a unified term to describe and castigate the wretchedness of a person targeting another person for discrimination or violence on account of the color of their skin. Given the strongly negative connotation that "racism" holds, it is only too useful in this capacity.