[gozur88]

>What I want is to know, how can we have greater agreement that racism is bad, and more diversity of expression about racism, at the same time? It seems contradictory.

I don't understand this logic. To have greater agreement about something requires convincing people. If you forbid discussion of a topic, you have given up any chance of convincing anyone of anything; you've simply temporarily driven the other side underground.

It may look like you're making headway. But that's an illusion.

[lbarrett]

Let's be clear--right now, there is this discussion. Now, when some people promote racism, others explain that they're wrong, and why. This is exactly the thing that the article argues against--the author wants to remove all this censure, and have that majority stop arguing that being racist is wrong, so that racist people will feel comfortable expressing their views without any fear of chastisement.

So, you're suggesting that we can argue that racism is bad without making racists feel judged for being racist? Please, explain to me how we can do that.

[gozur88]

Actual racists are perfectly happy to be called racists and will self-identify as such. The people who feel bad when you call them racists are the people who aren't actually racist. The discussion around racism isn't about whether racism is good or bad, and it hasn't been for decades. The discussion is around what exactly constitutes racism, and there are a whole lot of people out there ready to label all manner of innocuous behavior as racist.

[lbarrett]

I think one thing that causes conflict here is that there are a lot of things that aren't blatantly racist, but rather subtly racist. For instance, casually assuming that a minority student is less capable than a white student is the sort of thing someone might do without thinking of themselves as racist, but it is still actually racist and harmful. Subtle racism like this still needs to be identified and opposed, and I'm interested in how that can be done without making people feel so uncomfortable and judged.