I think that well-intended Americans tend to be deeply reactive about perceived racism because the consequences of racism in America is so dire, and we experience and or observe it in real time, in an environment clouded by American indoctrination where we are actively told it isn’t happening.
The difference that maybe matters here is that many Americans, particularly of certain age groups, grow up indoctrinated to the idea of equality. Americans grow up being told that anyone can be or accomplish anything because the playing field is even and that is the core of what makes America special; all it takes is gumption and elbow grease. This is the land of the free, equality and the American Dream. Everyone is created equal, everyone has equal value. Schools teach that racism and the consequences of it are something from some distant past, a lesson learned by others, and no longer applicable.
Very soon, real world experiences overtake that indoctrination and people split. They are either disillusioned or they lean into it because they benefit. A lot of people benefit.
Stereotypes and caricatures are tools to advance that benefit. They become weapons. Things that were never intended to be harmful elsewhere are added to an arsenal here that oppresses, dehumanizes, and harms. Murders.
That American self-centeredness I think, is more American hypervigilance – in the fog of that indoctrination, gaslighting and a system that results in and is rigged for violence of all types. People who see through the smoke are called “over sensitive” and “SJWs” and “PC culture” is vilified. “Lighten up, you snowflake, it’s just a [joke/cartoon/whatever]” —- as that [whatever] is used to perpetuate very real violence of all types.
America is in a perpetual state of hate and violence and we are told we are not and all the while, being non-white in America is actively dangerous.
The end result is what, I assume, looks like oversteering from the outside. It looks like selfishness and the inability to consider culture and history outside of our own. Maybe some of it is. Maybe it is desperation to stop what is being used, and long has been used, to keep visibility so low. It isn’t about hurt feelings. It is about death.
What happens when attempts to remove elements used here as weapons invalidate and dehumanize elsewhere? That is the space I think Americans are trying to navigate.
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
titsay
germansingergirl
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