09.06.06

Racism == Gas

Posted in intolerance at 18:40 by alexou

On an intuitive level, racism does not seem to be an effective response to itself. The issue came up in a recent dinner conversation with an old acquaintance that threatened to turn into an ideological street-fight (the conversation, not the old acquaintance — I don’t even know what the metaphorical implications are of a person turning into a conflict of some kind).

Said acquaintance, let’s call her C, objected to white guys dating asian girls, categorically. White guys, she explained, only ever approached asian girls (such as herself) because they’re asian, not for some other more ethically viable reason, like “she’s hot”, or “dude i totally dig chicks with tattoos”. No, an asian female triggers the white man’s thirst for racial inequity, first and foremost.

When I pointed out that this kind of generalization itself was racist, she responded that yes, she was racist, what of it?

How do you even begin to respond to something like that? I was somewhat at a loss. After giving it some thought this is the best I could come up with:

Responding to a specific instance of racism with an equally specific racism of the opposite orientation makes visceral sense, like a kind of tit-for-tat, or eye-for-an-eye. But unless you manage to eradicate the offending party entirely (which sounds like genocide, and much harder to defend), you just end up adding more racism to the mix. It’s like if someone farts and you’re like, damn, that smells bad, I’m going to try to cover the smell with my own fart. You just make the room smell worse. And potentially flammable, if urban legends are to be believed.

Or, to put it more succinctly: C, stop farting.

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