Can anti-Racist statements become racist at some point?

Sure, if “racism” merely meant personal bias or prejudice. But that’s not what it is.

What’s it called when you spend your time defending and supporting a literal white nationalist and then ask a question here and pretend to suddenly be concerned about racism?

Is racism a zero-sum equation? If I support Black candidates for something, does that make me anti-white?

Does me buying something from a white-owned store make me anti-black or anti-Asian?

That seems spurious at best.

It is possible but not likely. Biden said that he was committed to racial diversity and these two senators are calling him on it. The 50/50 split in the Senate gives them a chance to exert pressure.

Possible but not likely to happen that often.

I think Biden has shown great effort to appoint and hire a diverse group in his administration.

Saying no one can be white is too far in my opinion, but I also recognize that we need to purposely pick minorities over white people to create a diverse government.

Telling Duckworth the VP is Asian as a way of saying we have Asians represented was stupid. Harris does not represent East Asia, and average Americans seem completely clueless that Israel, Iran, India, and China are on the same continent, and the countries are all very different in many ways. Moreover, it is East Asians, previously called Oriental in America, who are currently being targeted for hate crimes, so representing them in our government is important for many reasons.

Edit: Can anti-racist become racist? I think the constant accusations of racism are used too much by both sides in politics. The White Christian rhetoric worries me more and is situated in a lot of falsehoods. White Christians have been worked up to believe they are under attack and it is statistically untrue. No one is taking away their right to practice their religion. White churches are not being targeted like minority churches. White people still have a lot of power and jobs.

@JLeslie Thanks for your answer. Have you been gone for a while?

You said: we need to purposely pick minorities over white people to create a diverse government. I believe that is the whole intent of affirmative action, which is a quota system in my simplistic mind. As it is, government is falling behind the private sector in productivity and efficiency; so by hobbling the President’s choices, all you accomplish is that government falls further behind.

@KRD Any time a superior candidate is skipped because s/he is the wrong color, it is happening.

@LostInParadise All Duckworth and Hirono have accomplished is that the quota system is now even more firmly established in government. That will guarantee that government will fall further behind the private sector on productivity and efficiency.

@elbanditoroso You are making my point, almost exactly. Just because you select a White Man for a position, that by itself is not a racist act. However, if you pass over a better qualified (or even as qualified) black person to select a white male, that is a racist act.

Yes. When they go so far as to cross over to the other side of the POV.

Yes, I think anti-racism can become racism.

However, while I would consider this example to be “discrimination”, I would not call it “racism”. I’m not a big fan of overusing the term “racism” and removing it from its connotations of inferiority/superiority of races. These discriminatory choices were made for the sake of “wokeness”, but they weren’t done because white people are regarded as racially inferior.

@Demosthenes Are you suggesting that “wokeness” includes deliberate sabotaging of the most qualified candidate on the basis of nothing except his/her skin color?

That’s one of the core tenets of wokeness.

@kritiper By making skin color non-negotiable, all on the basis of “wokeness”, the Senators revealed the inherent weakness in “wokeness”; at what point is it un-“woke” to approve a white person for an appointment? If you say that point is never, you should be subjected to the same anti-discrimination laws that everybody else faces.

I think and hope those two Senators will be arrested and charged; failing that, I hope they will never defame the famous institution ever again.

Also, stop this meritocracy fantasy shit. Your appeal to a system that doesn’t exist to support your racism isn’t very compelling.

@Demosthenes No wonder I am not considered “woke” by anybody!

@crazyguy Too many white people make it sound like Affirmative Action regarding employment is hiring lesser qualified people, but it is actually to give qualified minorities more jobs. There has to be a policy when it doesn’t happen naturally. Managers tend to hire people similar to themselves, so as long as senior people in organizations are white, we will get a lot of white staff members too. If an organization is diverse already, then regulations about affirmative action won’t matter, because the company already meets the expectations. I’m pretty sure we agree that giving a qualified person a job is ok.

As far as quotas, there are very few quotas in America now, but there are concerted efforts by large companies to evaluate the diversity within the company (my husband does this work) and then if they company is way out of whack there is a push to actively hire minorities to fixe the situation. If the company is in a city that is 98% white, then obviously it should be ok that the employees are 98% white, but if the metro area is 60% minorities and the company is 90% white with zero minorities in senior management then something should be done. Is it racist to discriminate against the white person who interviews? I say no. Is it discrimination? Maybe technically yes in the strictest sense of the definition of the word, but not how the word is commonly used.

Predictions being made by a lot of very smart people are that the job market is only going to get tighter and tighter. America needs to figure something out if that prediction is correct to guard against some real trouble. All races and groups are going to feel overlooked and have high unemployment and be struggling if we don’t head off some of the possible problems coming our way.

@JLeslie Thanks for your considered input.

If two candidates of different skin color are equally qualified for a job (I do not know how you can judge the equality unless you are one of the interviewers), and there is need to increase representation of one color over another on the staff, then, by all means, hire the person of that color. However, telling a department head to disregard white applicants because we have enough of them already smacks of reverse discrimination.

^ Ok. This type of post is proof that you’re just fucking with us, and your posts are all satire. You went a bit far with the gag by pretending to be a grown man using the term “reverse racism” unironically. Tone down the stupid a bit if your character is to be believable.

@crazyguy It doesn’t matter. If the minority resumes have a qualified person and the intent and need is to hire someone who is a minority then the end result is the same. Why waste the white guy’s time?

Having said all of that, how does someone know race or ethnicity by a resume? Sure you can take some educated guesses, but no one could ever guess my husband is Latin American by his resume. They might guess he’s “foreign” maybe. In NYC they would know he’s likely Jewish, in TN they might think he is Middle Eastern.

@JLeslie If you are buying a widget, and you have defined a minimum acceptable standard, then anything that meets or exceeds the minimum standard qualifies. However, hiring decisions, especially those involving professionals and above, are rarely made on that basis. Instead, you want the best qualified person.

Typically, what a private company does, is interview all applicants who hit a minimum threshold, and then make an offer to the one who is judged to be the best qualified. If a compensation deal is worked out, the job search is over. Otherwise an offer is made to the second person on the list, and so on.

@crazyguy A rabbi at the Hillel at my college said, “don’t interdate if you don’t want to intermarry.” You might think it is unfair, but the best way to wind up with a minority in a position is to interview primarily minorities. I guess maybe people can look at LinkedIn now and gauge if someone is a minority, but otherwise you can’t really know by a resume. People will start changing their names to sound more ethnic. I mentioned that on a Q. A friend of mine in TV journalism said young reporters were changing their names to Spanish names back about 15 years ago.

@crazyguy More fine examples of political correctness run amok.

@JLeslie I think your comment is the most racist I have seen…since the Democratic Senators. What you are saying is: don’t even interview the White-sounding person even if s/he may be more qualified than the minority applicants! If that is not what you meant, please say so.

@crazyguy I am saying whoever gets hired should be qualified. How many people do you want a company to interview for each job? This is not a problem everywhere. I assume where you worked it was not a problem, was it? Most companies my husband has worked for it has not been a problem, and so they did not have to focus on hiring minorities. In his current company they are very white, and will try to adjust the balance over time, but they are not going to exclude all white candidates or anything so severe.

Women count as minorities by the way.

It is companies who have consistently hired only white men or only promoted white people who would be pushed to hire more diversity. Companies that have plenty of opportunity to hire and promote minorities who don’t. Meaning they are located in a community with plenty of diversity.

There are no quotas anymore for companies to hire minorities. It is all done internally.

People are making this into much more than it is I think. I don’t agree with forcing Biden to hire a minority for every position, that makes no sense. I was pissed some Black people were saying Biden had to pick a Black VP. I liked Jim Clyburn’s answer when he was asked if Biden should choose a Black VP. He said, “I am not going to tell Biden who to pick.”

You might be interested to know a half Black half Syrian-Jewish friend of mine wrote this in BIG letters on his facebook just now, “We can’t pull the race card when the evidence is undeniable. The crowds were out of control destroying personal property and murder on SOBE.” When Floyd was killed he was on facebook every day promoting BLM and making statements about racism, but even he can call it like he sees it.

People need to stop jumping to racism, stop making statements that paint a group with one brush, listen to each other, and STOP being so AFRAID.

@JLeslie Private companies hire the best person for a job, because they want to make a profit. Only government can hire for ethnic balance, they have the luxury because nobody is watching their bottom line.

@crazyguy Some jobs are highly specialized, other jobs not so much. I am not sure why you are having a hard time. I said companies should hire someone who is qualified. What are you worried about? You make it seem like white people will never get a job again. That is not going to happen. No companies are being forced to hire minorities, there aren’t any quotas anymore as far as I know. It is in internal decision.

@JLeslie I am not worried about white people getting jobs. You say: No companies are being forced to hire minorities. Technically that is true. However, there is a lot of pressure to do the right thing. You may know that any TV host who does not support the right thing cannot book any important guests.

@crazyguy So, you’re worried about people doing the right thing?

There is a saying, “you get what you give.” The other one I use is, “for every action there is an equal or greater reaction.” If minorities get treated unfairly then there will likely be a time when the majority gets treated unfairly, and if it goes too far there will be another instance of the pendulum swinging too far the other direction. It’s not good. All people need to do is be fair in the first place.

Poverty needs to be addressed in a better way in America and that would be half the battle.

@JLeslie Did you notice I put do the right thing in italics? Perhaps, if I put it in quotes, you may understand that I meant no such thing. Whatever society determines is the “right thing” is not always the right thing.

They already have. Pay attention.

@SnipSnip I for one have no idea what you are talking about.