Do you ever notice that often white folks who are most skeptical of minority accounts of racism [View all]

[CreekDog]

Are often very willing to assert the way the person giving the account should feel or react to the situation?

(disclaimer: I am white)

But I often talk to other white folks and this does not apply to all white folks, but I have seen and heard, time and time again, white Americans, people, who statistically have less experience as the victims of racial discrimination or racial prejudice than any other group in the USA, act as the arbiters of what is "not racism".

The point I'm making is a subtlety of the whole race/prejudice issue, but it's not only that many white folks doubt accounts of racism or prejudice against minorities, even though there is not only a history of legally enforced racism in this country but evidence that substantial racism continues, but despite that, some of these folks also often seem to think that they can judge better than others, whether the racism occurred at all.

I often ask people here to consider their own level of expertise on a subject in comparison to the person they are arguing against. If they are not expert or don't have any special knowledge of the subject and they are arguing against something that is well established as a pattern in the country, then they should not consider themselves the final arbiter on that topic without substantial references, expertise or unique background on that individual instance.

Because let's face it, arguing that prejudice didn't occur or is rare against minorities is almost like arguing that climate change isn't occurring. And arguing that the dominant form of this isn't white as perpetrators in this country against minorities is like arguing that climate change is not substantially caused by humans.

Fellow white folks, when you hear stories of racism or discrimination, are you assuming that you know better than minorities about the experience of racism, felt as a minority?

I tend to believe many of these accounts or at least entertain that they could likely be true. Why? Because of history and because I hear racial comments and prejudices all the time, even in my fairly blue, fairly liberal area. And also because I don't consider myself more expert disproving racism than people who tend to be victims of it in this country.