Oni Koneko Damien wrote:Hooray! Personal anecdote for the win!
Okay this one was just funny and I had to say something. You're using your own anecdotal evidence to make the statement that he cannot possibly understand racism because of his age (or someone else not sure who have) to counter his claim of anecdotal evidence. lol...
Umm, no, I'm not actually, re-read the thread. I said that if he illustrated on an experience or two, the same way I already had, then I'd have no problem accepting his claims.
The fact is that he has no evidence whatsoever, anecdotal or otherwise.
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The question is not whether he's experienced racism. I would argue that even without specific anecdotes, it is virtually guaranteed that he has experienced racism if he's a black guy, and in a way that most white people would be incapable of understanding.
The problem is that at the adult level, it becomes far more difficult to draw the line between racist and non-racist attitudes. So many high-schoolers, for example, think that hiring and firing is about "qualifications" which can be easily compared between job applicants in order to determine if something is racist. But real hiring and firing is often about all kinds of subtle nuances (after all, there's usually no shortage of people who meet the minimum requirements), and it can become virtually impossible to determine whether someone is being racist in that case.
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Darth Wong wrote:The question is not whether he's experienced racism. I would argue that even without specific anecdotes, it is virtually guaranteed that he has experienced racism if he's a black guy, and in a way that most white people would be incapable of understanding.
The problem is that at the adult level, it becomes far more difficult to draw the line between racist and non-racist attitudes. So many high-schoolers, for example, think that hiring and firing is about "qualifications" which can be easily compared between job applicants in order to determine if something is racist. But real hiring and firing is often about all kinds of subtle nuances (after all, there's usually no shortage of people who meet the minimum requirements), and it can become virtually impossible to determine whether someone is being racist in that case.
Following this train of thought, a lot of hiring decisions are made on the very subjective question of how well does someone "fit" into a culture or team. If someone chooses to hire a white guy instead of a black guy because they like them better (qualifications being otherwise identical) or because they're a "better fit," how much of a role is race playing in the decision? That's a really hard question to answer, especially as, many times, the person considering race in the equation isn't even doing it consciously. After all, saying someone "doesn't fit" into a company's culture is a polite way of saying "you're not like the rest of us."
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