What Lisa doesn’t understand is that those canards, in and of themselves, are racist. Racism, like it’s twin, anti-semitism,
takes individual traits and applies them to an entire group.
Example 1:
When a person takes
violent crime rates, and strips away all the other variables looking
only at race, and then takes that and
applies it as a general characteristic of that group, allowing for some exceptions….
is that racist?
When a person ignores the the fact that despite a higher crime rate (going by arrest records) the overwhelming majority of African Americans are not involved in any violent crime, and still applies this as a racial characteristic…
is this racist?
Example 2:
When someone makes broad derogatory claims about IQ, and applies it as an average characteristic of a race…ignoring the many issues in assessing IQ (see below)…
is that racist?
IQ tests are fallible, the IQ that is measured is
heavily influenced by factors such as education, environment, culture, economic level, social advantages and can vary over time or when those factors change. They are one of many useful tools for assessment but not for defining a persons overall intelligence much less that of an entire worldwide population.
IQ tests also have a sordid history of
being misused by those promoting a racial heriditarian view of intelligence ( rooted in earlier attempts to races into human and subhuman levels of development).
“
The influences of hereditarian beliefs and the power of the racial worldview had conditioned Americans to believe that intelligence was inherited and permanent and that no external influences could affect it. Indeed, heredity was thought to determine a person’s or a people’s place in life and success or failure. Americans came to employ IQ tests more than any other nation. A major reason for this was that the tests tended to confirm the expectations of white Americans; on average, Blacks did less well than whites on IQ tests. But the tests also revealed that the disadvantaged people of all races do worse on IQ tests than do the privileged. Such findings were compatible with the beliefs of large numbers of Americans who had come to accept unqualified biological determinism.”
What Lisa does not realize here is that both these examples are, at their core,
two of the most despicable racist tropes we have and that continue to be perpetrated today through
pseudo-science.
1.
The Black Man as a Savage Brute
The
brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal -- deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace.
From Brutes to Thugs. The synonymy of Blackness with criminality is not a new phenomenon in America. Documented historical accounts have shown how myths, stereotypes, and racist ideologies led to discriminatory policies and court rulings that fueled racial violence in a post-Reconstruction era and has culminated in the exponential increase of Black male incarceration today. Misconceptions and prejudices manufactured and disseminated through various channels such as the media included references to a “
brute” image of Black males. In the 21st century, this negative imagery of Black males has frequently utilized the negative connotation of the terminology “
thug.”
2.
Subnormal Intelligence (“Morons in Africa”)
This particular racist trope is well described here:
Race - Genetics, Anthropology, Socialization
BOTH are actually racist.
Attributing derogatory stereotypes to entire race is racist.
Making judgements on an individual based on racist stereotypes of a group is racist.
Depends.
If an applicant is rejected solely because of race, it is racist.
If the criteria for selection is accomplishment measured through test scores, and a higher ranking student is rejected because of race, then that is racist.
But opting to widen the selection process (for example Texas granting admissions to the top percent of each highschool instead of the top percent overall) is not racist.
If the selection process includes a mix of academic qualifications, personal experience reflected in essays, non-academic achievements and a personal interview and a student with lower academic gets admitted over a student with higher academic scores, that is not necessarily racist because you do not know how the other criteria were factored into the decision.
bsos.umd.edu
