Anonymous #2 7w

That means systemic racism is that belief being adopted by institutions. Because institutions are assemblages of our collective repeated individual participation, racism must be addressed on the individual level.

-1

Anonymous #1 7w

There’s nothing based about violence.

-3

Anonymous #2 7w

Lmfao

4

Anonymous #1 7w

What makes your violence different than theirs?

-3

Anonymous #2 7w

In this specific case, they are racist 🥀 violence against racists ≠ violence against people for their race, despite how badly certain Pacifists wanna try and make it seem like the same thing Also random but are you the same guy who threw a fit over the post that talked about wanting to imprison Donald Trump?

3

Anonymous #1 7w

What are you a republican?

-1

Anonymous #2 7w

Nope. Wouldn’t be surprised if you are one though, considering the whole defense for racists thing

6

Anonymous #1 7w

You are much more like them than you want to admit. You both have a huge common ground in that you both believe in righteous violence.

-1

Anonymous #2 7w

Doing horse-shoe theory isn’t helping you beat the rightoid accusation.

8

Anonymous #2 7w

ALSO LMFAO YOU WERE THE DUDE WHINING ABOUT IMPRISONING DONALD TRUMP. Yeah you’re a rightoid.

1

Anonymous #1 7w

Horseshoe theory? You’re just violent

-1

Anonymous #1 7w

What makes you think I‘m defending racism?

-1

Anonymous #1 7w

The only one here defending racism is you

-1

Anonymous #2 7w

Nice try freshman philosophy major

8

Anonymous #1 7w

I’m 23 years old… and my major was information science

-2

Anonymous #1 7w

That was not me but I am a prison abolitionist. Ask me why

-1

Anonymous #2 7w

And yet, people are responsible for their own actions. Racists claim that certain people are inferior and should be killed because of it. Who can blame someone for resenting a threat against their life?

2

Anonymous #3 7w

What do you think I meant when I said racism is a belief? You can't blame him, but holding resentment is not the same thing as acting on it with violence. Belief always comes first. It governs how we carry ourselves and how we treat each other. This is why racists feel comfortable talking down to people of color.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

Racists believe stereotypes and myths of identity that strip away the complex nature of individuality, and then they allow those beliefs to drive them fearfully and impulsively rather than stepping back and questioning the beliefs. (note the difference between belief and will.)

1

Anonymous #3 7w

That is, racists have willfully preconceived ideas about people of color that not only are generalized, but fundamentally deny who the individuals actually are and what any of them actually believes, and racists act outwardly based on those skewed beliefs.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

That's what prejudice is (just think about the roots: pre- meaning before and -judex meaning to judge. It's judging before having the means to accurately do so), and it's the same mechanism behind queerphobia and misogyny, and it's the same thing happening right here. Prejudice also goes hand in hand with ontological violence which is what racism is a form of.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

You cannot assault or control anyone into updating their beliefs in your favor, because even if their beliefs are ontologically violent, you are also committing ontological violence. Plus that's not even what bro was doing. His nervous system obviously reached its breaking point as anyone's would when they are being verbally attacked in public and nobody is stepping in.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

But functionally all the act does is solidifies racists counter-beliefs and creates new outrage for them to use as justification to bypass their self-control. He likely just made the racist more racist and you know that's not what he wants. It was impulsive, not strategic. And it's weird that you're thinking about his experience as metaphysically strategic. He doesn't need praise, he needs care. Romanticizing violence is a big part of how we got here in the first place.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

Furthermore, responding to ontological violence with physical violence as a strategic act not only brings you down to their level, but puts you beneath it. You can maintain awareness that racists perpetuate immense existential harm and care for reducing that harm, while ALSO maintaining awareness of your own harm. And sometimes harm means willfully remaining as a bystander.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

For me to see anyone as a hero I would need to have seen someone step in and speak up instead of cowering behind a fucking video camera. I would need to see someone deescalate with compassion rather than waiting for the situation to keep escalating to the point that the man who was being verbally attacked reached his breaking point.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

That is not his failure. That's the failure of literally everyone around. He's not a hero, he's a victim. And the insinuation that anything good came of the situation is so disrespectful to him.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

You not only can but must maintain awareness of your own harm in order to truly minimize harm in others. You have to do BOTH, and prejudice is what happens when you refuse to. It should go without saying that prejudice is harmful, and because identity-based harm is the material reason prejudice is immoral, then identity-based harm cannot be the solution either.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

As someone who is genderqueer (literally always debating with people about the harm of binaries and hierarchy surrounding identity), I want to eliminate bigotry and prejudice as much as if not more than any of you but YOU CANNOT PHYSICALLY ASSAULT METAPHYSICAL BELIEFS OUT OF EXISTENCE NO MATTER IF THEY ARE HARMFUL OR NOT. IT IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE AND ATTEMPTS ONLY MAKE THINGS WORSE.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

Us queer folks are a living testament given that we have faced violent oppression for centuries and still exist. Harmful ideas must be replaced with healthy ideas and the only way to do that is with compassion. I know it's difficult to swallow but minimizing harm means ALL harm. I see no such thing as virtuous harm.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

The idea that harm can ever be rightfully institutionalized is what led to colonialism and systemic racism in the first place. Really remember the gap between belief and action that I mentioned. It's where literally all of the strategy happens and we need to slow down in order to close it coherently.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

If you are reacting impulsively from a place of hate to a racist who is reacting impulsively from a place of hate, you do not fix the situation, you turn it into a feedback loop of hate. To replace hate, you need the opposite: love. And there ain't no way any racist is going to adopt a practice of love when nobody around is modeling it. THIS IS WHY IT'S HARD WORK. I NEVER CLAIMED IT'S EASY!! It takes willpower and community.

1

Anonymous #3 7w

This isn't about letting racists off the hook, it's about getting them on the hook in the first place, because harm doesn't work as a means of accountability for harm. It just creates more harm. I hope that makes more sense.

2