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by tsahyt 5003 days ago
> it's more racist to say "dumbblack" than "dumbwhite"

There are degrees of racism? Wasn't that a binary thing? I understand that racists aren't created equal since some are filled with more prejudices than others but I think the same doesn't apply to racism itself. I'm not arguing that life is harder for people who are (or so we are told, I've got no data) the majority of victims but a victim being racist isn't being "less racist" after all. He's contributing to a vicious circle. Whilst I understand such behaviour from an emotional point of view, it's definitely not wise.

1 comments

"Racism" does not have exact definition. It's just a label that means slightly different things in different contexts. It's an abstraction over a specific type of offensive / hateful behavior. In more in-depth discussions, I think it's better to operate beneath this abstraction, on a lower level: i.e. how much harm saying or doing something does.

In most situations, saying "dumbblack" would be more offensive for black person than "dumbwhite" for white person. Especially in this case. It's like if you had a couple of bad experiences with the police, you could start saying offensive things about police officers in general. You could be accused of "policism" but in fact, it would be quite understandable reaction. When he said "dumbwhite", he was kind of "revenging" their racism, which is very different from saying "dumbwhite" just because he disrespects white people.