Posted on 08/21/2013 5:15:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I’m come to realize that a lot of what Canadians label racism could be categorized as “unconscious racism.” It has led to a great deal of dangerous confusion about the definition of racism, a topic I recently explored in “What is racism? Most Canadians in a muddle.”
I received many supportive letters in response to the column, but a few did not appreciate what I wrote. Some appeared to accuse me of being racist. Of course I disagree, but the letters reaffirmed for me that the definition of racism is important to clarify.
One letter to the editor stood out — from Darlene Seto. I appreciated it because it was a good example to me of the way some people see the scourge of racism where others do not. Ms. Seto’s letter, which did not end up getting published in the print version of the Sun, seemed to encapsulate the dangers of seeing “unconscious racism” where there may not be any.
Ms. Seto’s lively blog describes her as a first-generation Chinese-Canadian with degrees from both UBC and the University of Calgary. She says: “I am a yogin, social and environmental justice advocate, intellectual dreamer, functional pragmatist.” I publish her letter in full at the bottom of this blog posting, with my comments inserted.
Meanwhile, I’ll remind readers that my earlier column quoted Stanford University law professor Richard Thompson Ford on his analysis of the word racism, which argues that “unconscious racism” is not a useful concept for measuring real-world bias or discriminatory behaviour.
Here’s the complete quote from Ford’s piece, “A primer on the word, ‘racist:’”
“Unconscious racism
Prof. Mahzarhan Banaji Harvard psychology Prof. Mahzarhin Banaji has pledged to testify against anyone who uses her work on ‘unconscious racism’ to prove discriminatory intent in court.
Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji has developed a test designed to smoke out unconscious racial bias. The test requires the subject, under intensive time pressure, to match black and white faces with value-laden terms such as good, smart, and diligent or bad, stupid, and lazy. If you find it easier to match white faces with good terms and black faces with bad terms, you have exhibited what Banaji calls an implicit association between race and merit or virtue. Although she scrupulously avoids using the term herself, almost everyone else has predictably described the results of her research in terms of unconscious racism. And the results are disquieting: Almost 90 percent of whites exhibit some unconscious racism against blacks, while around half of all blacks exhibit anti-black bias.
Banaji’s research suggests we have a way to go before we get to a post-racist utopia. But she warns against using the test to try to prove individual bias; in fact, she has pledged to testify against anyone who tries to use her work to prove discriminatory intent in court. Other psychologists have questioned the whole approach. For instance, U.C.-Berkeley psychologist Phillip Tetlock thinks that Banaji’s test doesn’t prove anything about discrimination in real-life situations: “We’ve come a long way from Selma, Alabama, if we have to calibrate prejudice in milliseconds,” he argues.
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Here is Darlene Seto’s full letter, which seems to be accusing me of a kind of unconscious racism. She also posted it on her own blog:
Letter to editor:
I read with interest and ultimate disappointment the Aug 2 article by Douglas Todd on “What is Racism” today. I agree that a conversation regarding Canadian laws around immigration would likely be useful – as would open discussion about many significant policy structures in our country. But you seem to ignore – or are unfamiliar with – the racism embedded within much of the commentary in your article, including the opening joke.
To be clear, Richmond is not China, nor is India Surrey. To stereotype every single person in Richmond as Chinese, and in Surrey as Indian, is disrespectful of all the individuals living in these areas, many of whom are of neither ethnic origin, and/or are either born or naturalized citizens of Canada. The context of the joke is that these individuals are not real Canadians, by virtue of their ancestry, look, phenotype, language, etc – indeed buying into the idea of superiority to which your attach your dictionary definition of racism. A cultural hierarchy is implicit in the comment and a history of injustice including the head tax is a part of this.
Note from Doug: In the paragraph above Ms. Seto thinks she can read my mind. She attributes all sorts of ‘unconcious’ racist ideas and beliefs to me — including of superiority — that I was not even close to communicating. She thinks she knows my mind and heart better than me, which is, to say the least, presumptuous. It’s also a form of stereotyping. Nowhere does my column, for instance, suggest that all people in Surrey are rooted in India or that all people in Richmond are Chinese. The column also doesn’t suggest those with Chinese or Indian origins are “not real Canadians.” Ms. Seto is imagining many things about me, including that I have a commitment to a “cultural hierarchy.” Rather than just theory, it would be better if she tried to provide some evidence to back up her accusations.
… and with respect to the comment regarding immigrants speaking English. Indeed, as you state, individuals would fare better speaking a language in a host country in which services are provided. I don’t doubt that immigrants to the country want to learn this country’s languages – and that for some – indeed, often for those who are isolated following immigration due to age, mobility, connections, etc., this may be quite difficult. There is a meaningful conversation to be had about the implications of language in immigration rules, and the value (economic and otherwise), but I did not see this materialize.
Note from Doug: I appreciate that Ms. Seto agrees that there is a “meaningful conversation” to be had regarding whether immigrants to Canada should be proficient in English or French. I go into this subject in more detail in this column, “Tighter language requirements will help immigrants and Canada.”
I also fail to understand why failing to closely follow immigration news as in Europe is in some way an argument. Public interest in much of federal politics is low, and superficially attaching apathy to immigration policy further serves to demonstrate the specious nature of the arguments presented.
Note from Doug: Not sure what Ms. Seto is saying in the paragraph above. All I was saying is that polls show Canadians don’t really pay attention to immigration news, not like Europeans. In part it is because, for some reason, Canadian media outlets, until recently, have rarely covered immigration issues in any sustained way — even while this country has the highest per capita immigration rate of any major country in the world. That seems like an important trend to explore.
And while I agree that the history of race in the United States has created a much different context from Canada with respect to understanding questions of race, too often, it is dismissed that racism does not exist in Canada. In fact, it is alive and well and can be demonstrated often through racial profiling in airports and by police, lower relative pay to visible minority individuals, and at the store or on the bus when individuals who do not speak English well are demeaned, shouted at (yelling louder is not helpful) and otherwise made to feel small.
Note from Doug: Again, I never suggested that racism has not existed or does not exist in Canada. So why bring up this red herring? Then again, I’m not sure the examples Ms. Seto cited are necessarily a result of racism. There is, for instance, a complex argument to be had about whether racial profiling at airports, in the name of combatting terrorism, is racism.
I am happy to discuss further my point of view, but will stop here. Racism is a complex phenomenon that forces all of us – including those of visible minority status – to examine our internally held prejudices, biases, and judgements, many of which are learned in seemingly polite society. I find it sad to use a public platform to perpetuate misunderstanding about racism, particularly given the column title and sincerely hope you might reconsider some of thoughts represented in the column.
Note from Doug: Obviously Ms. Seto and I will have to agree to disagree for now about what constitutes racism.
Sincerely, Darlene Seto
Racism is making decisions about individuals based on their race.
Affirmative Action is racist.
Obama’s non-response when whites are murdered by blacks is racist.
If whites can be unconsciously racist, then perhaps some blacks are “racism expectant” meaning they expect and suspect racism in all that whites do even when there is no racist intention.
This whole article is an exercise in banal stupidity.
Talk about taking a fan and blowing fart gas all through the building!
Ya’ know, if you put all these academics brains in a blender and turn it on, you will get a gooey mess, just like the rest of us ordinary people.
“My name is Paul Weston, and I am a racist”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2kKnzW4d8w
Worth every second of it’s 7:27 length. Obviously a brave conservative.
The sooner the stigma is gone from the word, the better. It’s terrible that it’s come to this, but it has. I couldn’t care less if somebody calls me one or not, and I am likely to have some wonderfully descriptive names for them in return. The word has lost any sort of objective meaning, and white people are utterly cowed by the possibility of the charge; even staunch conservatives. The truth is racist. Take it up with God if you don’t like it.
Indeed, it is the oldest trick in the book called “raising awareness”. Much like a kid might mind his own business or respect a lady, when she goes half naked she raises his awareness and test his guilt.
The media powers that be want us to hate each other and kill each other. We are disposable, not meant to be part of the same families.
It is clear Obama is part of this kabal, but also to his shame believes this stuff. Liberals are being manipulated by their masters and will find themselves completely defenseless once the “white Christians” would be done away with, and it might come to that.
Oprah: Just because you’re not racist doesn’t mean you’re not a Racist!! Un friggin believable!
A disappointing article, and I found it confusing reading as posted. Because it includes a reply from someone else, and the author’s responses to THAT interjected within - and even in the original it could stand better formatting to make things clear.
The substance is straightforward: “racism” is nominally a neutral term, but is actually a Newspeak term whichobjective journalism“the Ministry of Truth" will not suffer to be applied in a neutral way.People should be judged by the content of their character, but in real time people cannot always afford to ignore any clues about potential character. This article mentions flashing images of people of various races on a screen and getting test subjects to “evaluate” the images, which is pretty much tantamount to inviting prejudice. But if you flash up an image of Thomas Sowell, and I happen to recognize the individual person, I am going to give you a different response than I would if it were an anonymous individual, black or white. And in any event, it is one thing to evaluate an image in the comfort and presumed safety of an office, and quite another to evaluate an actual person in a situation where misplaced trust could turn out to be costly.
Even Jesse Jackson has admitted that he knows how to respond to race In that context. He will cheerfully lay a guilt trip on a white person for locking car doors in a black neighborhood - but he would do the same.
Thought crime.
I’m happy to live among people who have “bad thoughts” but along with it the self control to behave themselves. If I acted on it every time I wanted to punch someone in the nose, I’d be in jail. Same goes for racism or any other -ism.
BTW, The inner cities could do with a lot more self control.
Maybe the problem is that those who hurl the accusation of racism are unable to exercise any self-control and project that onto the rest of us.
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