Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I disagree, and here’s why. If you don’t call out racism, especially when it’s explicitly racist, you’re letting it fester and grow. You’re never confronting the root of the problem, instead just dealing with a few basic symptoms as they come up. By refusing to call racism, racism, you are reinforcing it. Racism, and racists, rely on it being hidden, so it’s absolutely essential to blow it out in the open as you see it.
You’re suggesting there’s two options, call out racism, or countering points as they’re raised. You should do both, and doing one and refusing to do the other is equally ineffective regardless of which you choose.
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The thing is, it's going to fester and grow, regardless of whether or not you call it out as racism. A racist is not going to suddenly stop being a racist and abandon their racist views, simply because you called out their views/talking points as being racist. If anything, they're more likely to feel victimized ("oh no, that mean person called me a racist"), and cause them to become even more cemented in their views. Simply put, the more hostile a person thinks you're being toward them, the less likely you are to convert them.
As for people who have no racist intention, but spread racist talking points without realizing the racist nature of what they're saying, I find it's more effective to point out that what they're saying is hurtful and damaging toward marginalized groups, than to say "hey, that's racist!"