Can black people be racist?

[mudwhistle]

Blacklivesmatter has changed all of that

Can't change the history of White Supremacy in America.

To be sure there are those in BLM who have, shall we say a Nat Turner gene in them? But that's more of a reaction to and not the ability to keep in place, for generations, a systemic racist society.

A racist society created by DEMOCRATS BTW.

Before, they were the majority. Republicans fought for civil rights....and we're in the minority.

Then they figured out that co-opting civil rights and causing divisions could win elections where their ideas couldn't. Tax and spend was secondary and could be excused if they accused anyone who tried to stop them from spending of being racists.

The problem still remains that any society has abuse by the majority. This one is actually to a lessor extent than most countries.

Yawn, Europeans were not Democrats.

The great emancipator himself was a racist.

I was speaking of roughly 1850-1964.

And Lincoln wasn't a racist. I cannot figure what Commie professor told you that stupid rubbish.

Professor Linclon:

Lincoln's speeches in defense of white supremacy during the Lincoln-Douglas debates were an important part of Bennett's charges and in recent years have become among the most fre-Page [End Page 26]quently quoted words of Lincoln. In the following remarks made at the fourth debate, at Charleston, he responded to Douglas's charges that he favored racial equality and amalgamation:

I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause] ... I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. [7]

Lincoln and the Problem of Race: A Decade of Interpretations

So what's the difference between Lincoln and BLM?

Lincoln believed that everyone deserved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. BLM thinks that only blacks deserve that.

There are various levels of racism.

I remember that when I was a kid people felt that whites and blacks shouldn't marry. That they were incompatible. I can imagine how people were in the 1800s. Suggesting that blacks and whites were equal was a sure way of getting the shit beat out of you, or worse, shot. This was just the way people were in those days. It would be difficult for someone like you to communicate you beliefs in public back 150 years ago. So I like to cut him some slack. I would say that BLM members are much more racist than Abraham Lincoln ever was. BLM is just the KKK in black sheets. They even wear black hoods to hide their identities like the Klan.

 

[hazlnut]

Recently, there was an incident reported and discussed regarding a couple who did not give a tip to a Hispanic teen because they believed her to be an illegal.

This was shared by an old classmate of mine on facebook who declared the couple racist.
Some perspective, he's black and I am white.

Anyway, there was some exchange back and forth amongst friends and as posts evolve, he claimed that black people CANNOT be racist, only prejudiced or bigoted.
His reasoning is that it is all about POWER and, generally, black people do not have that POWER.
So, I did a couple of Internet searches and could sort of see his point, but then I brought up the KNOCKOUT GAME and my contention that the act in and of itself is racist ( how can it be prejudiced or bigoted?) because of the general race of the perpetrator and the victim.
Since I mentioned that GAME, all I have heard is crickets.

So, can blacks be racist?
Why or why not?

Tell your cheap friend to stop being Jewish and tip the poor kid.

 

[rdean]

Can Republicans not be racists?

Actually no.

If you support a racist party and that racist party's platform, then you are racist.

 

[rdean]

Can't change the history of White Supremacy in America.

To be sure there are those in BLM who have, shall we say a Nat Turner gene in them? But that's more of a reaction to and not the ability to keep in place, for generations, a systemic racist society.

A racist society created by DEMOCRATS BTW.

Before, they were the majority. Republicans fought for civil rights....and we're in the minority.

Then they figured out that co-opting civil rights and causing divisions could win elections where their ideas couldn't. Tax and spend was secondary and could be excused if they accused anyone who tried to stop them from spending of being racists.

The problem still remains that any society has abuse by the majority. This one is actually to a lessor extent than most countries.

Yawn, Europeans were not Democrats.

The great emancipator himself was a racist.

I was speaking of roughly 1850-1964.

And Lincoln wasn't a racist. I cannot figure what Commie professor told you that stupid rubbish.

Professor Linclon:

Lincoln's speeches in defense of white supremacy during the Lincoln-Douglas debates were an important part of Bennett's charges and in recent years have become among the most fre-Page [End Page 26]quently quoted words of Lincoln. In the following remarks made at the fourth debate, at Charleston, he responded to Douglas's charges that he favored racial equality and amalgamation:

I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause] ... I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. [7]

Lincoln and the Problem of Race: A Decade of Interpretations

So what's the difference between Lincoln and BLM?

Lincoln believed that everyone deserved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. BLM thinks that only blacks deserve that.

There are various levels of racism.

I remember that when I was a kid people felt that whites and blacks shouldn't marry. That they were incompatible. I can imagine how people were in the 1800s. Suggesting that blacks and whites were equal was a sure way of getting the shit beat out of you, or worse, shot. This was just the way people were in those days. It would be difficult for someone like you to communicate you beliefs in public back 150 years ago. So I like to cut him some slack. I would say that BLM members are much more racist than Abraham Lincoln ever was. BLM is just the KKK in black sheets. They even wear black hoods to hide their identities like the Klan.

Lincoln was a northern liberal who put down a racist conservative uprising in the South. The times have changed, but the people clearly haven't.

 

[mudwhistle]

Can Republicans not be racists?

Actually no.

If you support a racist party and that racist party's platform, then you are racist.

So you must be a racist deanie.

 

[g5000]

Recently, there was an incident reported and discussed regarding a couple who did not give a tip to a Hispanic teen because they believed her to be an illegal.

This was shared by an old classmate of mine on facebook who declared the couple racist.
Some perspective, he's black and I am white.

Anyway, there was some exchange back and forth amongst friends and as posts evolve, he claimed that black people CANNOT be racist, only prejudiced or bigoted.
His reasoning is that it is all about POWER and, generally, black people do not have that POWER.
So, I did a couple of Internet searches and could sort of see his point, but then I brought up the KNOCKOUT GAME and my contention that the act in and of itself is racist ( how can it be prejudiced or bigoted?) because of the general race of the perpetrator and the victim.
Since I mentioned that GAME, all I have heard is crickets.

So, can blacks be racist?
Why or why not?

It's very simple.

Blacks are just like everyone else, which means some of them can be racists.

 

[basquebromance]

97% of blacks killed are killed by blacks.

you're welcome.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Recently, there was an incident reported and discussed regarding a couple who did not give a tip to a Hispanic teen because they believed her to be an illegal.

This was shared by an old classmate of mine on facebook who declared the couple racist.
Some perspective, he's black and I am white.

Anyway, there was some exchange back and forth amongst friends and as posts evolve, he claimed that black people CANNOT be racist, only prejudiced or bigoted.
His reasoning is that it is all about POWER and, generally, black people do not have that POWER.
So, I did a couple of Internet searches and could sort of see his point, but then I brought up the KNOCKOUT GAME and my contention that the act in and of itself is racist ( how can it be prejudiced or bigoted?) because of the general race of the perpetrator and the victim.
Since I mentioned that GAME, all I have heard is crickets.

So, can blacks be racist?
Why or why not?

If racism depends on power, then a poor white man who believes all black people are monkeys can't be called a racist since he has very little power, but a black lawyer like Obama or Holder who thinks white cops are out to murder black men can be called a racist.

 

[Godboy]

Rule of thumb... if a black guy says black people can't be racist, you immediately know that HE is a racist.

 

[320 Years of History]

To answer the title question...Once someone has taught them to be racists, they can. Anyone of any race can be a racist provided they learn to be one. Racism isn't an attitude with which we are born and children aren't in control of what attitudes they are taught. Kids are like sponges; they soak up what's around them.

You know, it occurs to me that I need to modify this answer. The reason is that when I wrote it, I made a very common mistake and equated racism with what one might broadly call discrimination, and they are not the same things. What made me think about this is that I just wrote a post that reminded me of some experiences I had years and years ago that showed me that not every human on the planet actually is taught to be racially biased.

My answer to the title question is still yes insofar as racism does need to be taught. Within the context that we experience and/or observe racism in the U.S., no blacks cannot yet be racists. Here's why.

Racism is the combination of racial prejudice and cultural and systemic institutional power to act on one's racial prejudice.To say people of color can be racist, denies the power imbalance inherent in the U.S. Although some black people dislike whites, perhaps even discriminating against a white person here and there, thereby acting on that prejudice to insult or hurt them, that’s not the same as systematically, culturally, in one "swell foop" oppressing white people (nationally, or most of them in a city, or state or county wide, etc.) and negatively and irrevocably affecting every aspect of their lives as well as affecting white folks lives positively and negatively.

We have yet in the U.S. to see a day when any black individual or body of blacks have the power to do that. People of color, as a social group, do not possess the societal, institutional power to oppress white people as a group. An individual Black person who is abusing a white person, while clearly wrong, is acting out a personal racial prejudice, not racism. And therein is the distinction I want to make with this revision of my answer.