dagNotes: On defining racism

February 15, 2012

Anonymous asked: I’ve always had a hard time sympathising with white people when they cry racism, being a POC myself. But I have a hard time explaining to myself why racism against white people isn’t a legitimate ‘thing’ when in countries with a lots of cultural insularity tend (like Japan?) to be prejudiced against white people. I think you’ve talked about this before with an anecdote about your experience in a heated soccer game? And how about prejudice between ethnic minorities, like between China and Japan?

1. White is neither a nation(ality) nor an ethnicity. Being white is not comparable to being Chinese or being Japanese.

2. Racism is a particular form of discrimination. Of course, an individual can discriminate “against” people with white skin. Race, on the other hand, is a socially constructed category created to define white as a race in comparison to other races for socio and geo political and economic purposes. Racism is a systemic form of violence “against” people of color. I’ll address Korea since you recalled my earlier post about my experiences. The hatred that some Koreans express for Japanese and Americans, where it can be observed, is related to the results of actual events. That’s not racism. The systemic violence directed towards people of color over a rather long and persistent period of time by what has come to be defined broadly as white culture is racist. Manifest Destiny is racist. The British Empire is/was racist. Korean nationalism is not.

Racism is an aspect of whiteness and white power. It serves a purpose. Namely racism is the practice of indoctrinating white people into a white ideological order. (See Lillian Smith’s Killers of the Dream and her chapter, “Two Men and a Bargain”). Of course, all individuals are composed as white subjects in a racist culture. Thus, even Koreans must confront white ideology in global capitalist culture. Never mind Korea and Koreans, we see my claim proven as Asian capitalists attempt to define their own Capitalism, Capitalism-with-Asian-values (from Singapore and praised in SE Asia especially). It’s proponents won’t like what I claim, but the name for this brand of Capitalism literally puts Asia in perspective in relationship to Capitalist culture, does it not? It’s Capitalism, a Western or white value, with Asian value added. It’s nothing new. In fact, it’s a capitulation to white ideology and a reluctant acceptance of being composed as white subjects—that is, a frank acceptance of racist Capitalist culture. It’s a means to participate in the bargain, hopefully participate, in the bargain Lillian Smith wrote about in her book.

Reposting to make it rebloggable.