I'm seeing a batch of discussions on the web about racism at the moment, more specifically about whether — to quote Kevin Drum — "liberals call out racism too often, which just alienates conservative white people and makes them even more sympathetic to racist arguments."
I don't have a strong opinion about that. I would guess some folks are unfairly accused and some folks aren't and some of the people who are sympathetic to racist arguments were going there anyway and didn't need to be driven there. I just thought I'd toss out a thought I've had over the years. It's that there are some folks in this world who are fingered as racists when the truth is that they're just bigoted towards anyone who isn't them. They just aren't capable about giving a damn about anyone but themselves. They might be able to fake concern for others on occasion if and when it seems advantageous…but really, down deep, they simply don't care.
I'm recalling a fellow who worked in an animation studio wherein I once labored. There had been one of those stories in the news — the kind we now see with appalling frequency — where a bunch of white police officers had beaten the crap out of some poor black guy. The poor black guy had done something to warrant arrest but it was, like, shoplifting a Mars bar or a crime of equal severity. It wasn't anything to warrant the kind of beating that leaves permanent damage.
The incident was talked-about at the studio and everyone was appalled…everyone except this one artist. He just kind of just shrugged and said, "Well, he probably deserved it." Or maybe it wasn't even that bad.
People started making remarks about this guy being a bigot. Some took to calling him Archie Bunker. Someone else said he'd rushed to see the movie The Great Race because he assumed it was all about Caucasians. Comments like that. Me, I thought the guy was just the kind of alleged human being who wouldn't have cared if it had been a white guy or an Asian or anyone else, just so long as it wasn't him — one of those "somebody else's problems are somebody else's problems" kind of person.
Calling him out as a racist did no good because he knew he wasn't one; that he had no particular feelings about one race over another. I wonder how many other seeming racists fall into this category…and please understand that I am not saying anyone's any better or worse a human being because what looks like racism is actually a combination of self-obsession and misanthropy. I'm just suggesting that if you're going to deal with assholes, it might be helpful to understand just what kind of assholes they are. We have a great many species.