Passive Racist Voice
(aka how to not be a dick)
I don’t often speak/write about race. I’ve never defined myself by the color of my skin and I don’t associate with people who do. Overt racism, despite the tradition of being the first on the scene to mix 9 parts ignorance and 1 part atrocity , stopped being the main problem a long time ago.
It stopped being the problem because the people who tout openly racist opinions sound like this guy who, upon hearing that Frederick Douglass wrote a letter forgiving his former master for the mistreatment he suffered as a slave, responsed “For what? Giving him food and shelter?” The great thing about overt racism is that it forces people to show their cards on the first play and most aren’t playing with any face cards. It’s all too easy to seem socially responsible in the wake of an opinion like “slavery was good for black people” but if we think that the racism starts and stops with the overt comment, we’re wrong.
The sleeker racism of today, a racism that is all too willing to pick up where overt racism falls short, is passive racism. Passive racism is the quiet in the moments after an ignorant comment when we let it slide because someone didn’t use the N-word or some other epithet. It allows and accepts shades of grey in the treatment of races other than our own. It opts to grab the quickest and least witty race-tinged culturism to make a point when simple english would suffice.
It looks like a pat on the back for the slavery supporter I mentioned earlier. It looks like people making a obviously racist comment about black people and then turned to me and digging the hole deeper by adding “Oh well you’re not really Black”, as though they were the licensing board for official blackness. Most of the time I smirk and say“I wonder how black I’d be if I got engaged to your sister?” It’s funny, how hard it is to hide that moment of realization for a passive racist. Where we get into trouble is when that moment never comes because we simply excuse it, we pretend to not know or worse, don’t understand why it was racist.
An example from yesterday: David Heinemeier Hansson was tweeting about the Yahoo acquisition of Tumblr.
It’s telling that Yahoo has to start their new relationship with Tumblr with an apology for past transgressions. @dhh
Yahoo: “I swear it won’t be like that one time with Geocities, baby. This time it’s different. I’ve changed. No, really. I have!” @dhh
At this point we’re all clear. Nothing questionable at all and then…
“Am gonna set you up with your own place, baby. Gonna give you all the ice and bling you can carry. This be special, yo”.@dhh
His point may have been valid and slightly clever but it certainly didn’t need ice, bling or “this be special, yo” to support that point and by including it in the passive racist voice, he’s opted to offend instead of inform. If you mean to be racist, then go big or go home. If you don’t, plain english and a base level of respect will help avoid confusion.
