{"id":2680,"date":"2006-09-06T13:19:12","date_gmt":"2006-09-06T20:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/09\/06\/no-thats-not-the-difference\/"},"modified":"2006-09-06T13:19:12","modified_gmt":"2006-09-06T20:19:12","slug":"no-thats-not-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=2680","title":{"rendered":"No, That's Not The Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Violet Socks<\/a> – who I’m a fan of – writes:<\/p>\n

The difference between sexism and racism<\/strong><\/p>\n

One is acceptable; the other isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Imagine if the host of a popular TV show on dog training had made the following remarks:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack people are the only species that is wired different from the rest. They always apply affection before discipline. White people apply discipline then affection, so we\u2019re more psychological than emotional. All animals follow dominant leaders; they don\u2019t follow lovable leaders.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

He would probably be fired, don\u2019t you think? But professional dog-trainer\/fucktard Cesar Millan made precisely these remarks about women \u2014 substitute \u201cwoman\u201d for \u201cblack people\u201d in the paragraph above, re-conjugate the verbs as necessary, and voil\u00e1: the Cesar Millan Theory of Gender. Somehow I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to lose his job. He\u2019s just a crazy colorful Latino, right?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have to disagree with this post, and particularly with the “one is acceptable; the other isn’t” way Violet framed her comparison.<\/p>\n

Yes, Millan probably would have been fired had he said that on TV. (Although who knows? Bill O’Reilly<\/a> seems to be able to get away with racist remarks, and Don Imus<\/a> with anti-semitic remarks…)<\/p>\n

It may be true that overt endorsements of racist essentialism (i.e., “blacks are just born that way”) is less acceptable in the US than overt endorsements of sexist essentialism – that’s certainly my perception. I think that’s probably because there are some biological differences between women and men (such as, who gets pregnant), and so the hard-line approach of saying “only a bigot would say that there are important biological differences between ____ and _____,” which anti-racists have used to good effect, can’t be used as effectively by feminists.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean that sexism is acceptable, and racism isn’t. The reality is, both sexism and racism are at times accepted and tolerated in our society, depending on context.<\/p>\n

Overt endorsements of racial essentialism aren’t the only <\/em>kind of racism there is. So even if it’s true that overt sexist essentialism is more acceptable in our society than overt racist essentialism, it doesn’t follow that the difference between sexism and racism is “one is accepted, the other isn’t.” There are plenty of ways in which our society is all too accepting of racism: look at sentencing disparities, look at infant mortality, look at the under-representation of minorities on TV, look at how our government has robbed American Indians of oil, look at Gwen Stephani’s backup singers, look at the not-very-subtle ways the Republican party tries to suppress minority voting, etc etc.<\/p>\n

Finally, it should be noted that essentialist racism is sometimes accepted in our society. Look at The Bell Curve<\/em>, which was well-reviewed, published by a major mainstream publisher, and became a best-seller.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I was also bothered by Violet’s offhand dismissal of Shannon<\/a>‘s criticism, in comments. If Violet seriously considered Shannon’s criticism, or examined if she could have chosen wording that seemed less dismissive of racism than “one is acceptable, the other isn’t,” then there’s no sign of it in Violet’s comments. Instead, Violet became both defensive and insulting – a common reaction of white people when criticized by people of color, but one that should be avoided.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I also have problems with the “replace ______ with the word black” mode of criticism – but it would be unfair to single out Violet for that, since it’s so common among (white?) progressives. (I’ve done it myself, I’m sorry to say.) That’ll be a post for another day.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

See also Bitch | Lab<\/a>, commenting on the same post. UPDATE: And Angry Black Woman<\/a>, too. UPDATE II: BlackAmazon<\/a>, too, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Violet Socks – who I’m a fan of – writes: The difference between sexism and racism One is acceptable; the other isn\u2019t. Imagine if the host of a popular TV show on dog training had made the following remarks: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}