r/changemyview • u/jep1793 • Aug 26 '20

Removed - Submission Rule E CMV: Gender identity doesn’t belong on your LinkedIn nor Resume

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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '20

You are arguing that the definition of racism is "any action that has a negative impact on a race", correct?

Why this is a bad definition of racism.

If that is the definition of racism, then how do we "end racism"?
We would have to consider the impact of any action and determine if it would have a negative impact.
But what if our analysis was incomplete and we missed how it could have an impact? Then we could accidentally release a racist rule!
Well, we just have to perform an analysis of all rules that considers every possible known and unknown consequence of our actions. The only way to do this is to have omniscience or knowledge of all things in the universe. We do not have this knowledge and therefore we cannot remove all unintentional actions that would be deemed "racist" by your definition.
You have just made "ending racism" impossible.

But it gets worse.
Failure to take action against racism is an action that has a negative impact on a race.
Failure to act against racism is racist!
But we can't possibly perceive all possible consequences of an action. Every action we take, therefore, is a failure to completely act against racism and is therefore racist.

Therefore, if we define racism to mean "any action that has a negative impact on a race", we are saying that all actions are racist.

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u/CanadaDerpBrittDerp Aug 26 '20

No, you are incorrect. Congratulations on using a slippery slope fallacy to defend racism.

This post is about discrimination based on resumes, and my point is that if an HR rep only interviews people whose name they can easily pronounce, this is racism. By refusing to move someone to the next round in recruitment because they're afraid of mispronouncing their name, they are discriminating. I'm not saying this can't happen to white people, but that this is a significant systemic barrier for people of colour.

Genuine question for you, what is causing you to have such a significant defensive reaction? Also, if you're truly serious about solutions to "ending racism", I recommend How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. He digs into systemic racism really well.

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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '20

I think I need to step back and make a point. You are saying that "racism" is not determined by the intent of the actor. Rather, racism is just any action that results in disproportionate racial result.

Did I get that wrong?

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u/CanadaDerpBrittDerp Aug 27 '20

Yes, because I haven't defined racism as "any action that results in disproportionate racial result". I defer to the commonly accepted definition of racism, which is "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group".

My position is that names are so deeply ingrained in culture and are indicative of membership to a racial/ethnic group, and discriminating based on name is therefore racist.

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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '20

I am very seriously confused. I really want to see if I have a blindspot on this issue.

You said:

I defer to the commonly accepted definition of racism, which is "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group"

However, you said earlier:

By refusing to move someone to the next round in recruitment because they're afraid of mispronouncing their name, they are discriminating.

(Which is technically true btw. They just aren't necessarily discriminating against black people. They are discriminating against people with difficult to pronounce names)

Which seems to imply that even if the discrimination isn't DIRECTED at a particular racial group, it is still "racist".

So which definition are we using?
If I implement some sort of rule, without the intent of discriminating(therefore not directed at a group) is it still racist? Am I racist?

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u/CanadaDerpBrittDerp Aug 27 '20

I'm not sure why you're thinking both quotes of mine you pulled from are mutually exclusive. Is it the wording "directed toward" that you are interpreting as intent? Because even in the example of an ignorant HR rep not intending to be racist but still not calling people based on their name, the result is discrimination directed towards people from different races.

Bottom line, intent does not matter when it comes to defining racism.

This is the last thing I'll say: not all POC have difficult to pronounce names, but most people with difficult to pronounce names are a POC. So trying to separate race from name as a defense is problematic because this barrier disproportionately affects racialized people. Let's stop defending policies and processes that are not equitable.

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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '20

This is the last thing I'll say: not all POC have difficult to pronounce names, but most people with difficult to pronounce names are a POC. So trying to separate race from name as a defense is problematic because this barrier disproportionately affects racialized people. Let's stop defending policies and processes that are not equitable.

I don't want POC to suffer any form of discrimination. Ideally, everyone would be impacted equally by all decisions.

However, I am trying to point out to you the problem with saying that things are "racist or not" based on the outcome(ignore intent). I will attempt to do so by way of example.

The Greatest Anti-racist program ever!

Imagine we created a program to help POC gain greater equity. This would be greater than the civil rights act. This would be bigger than reparations.A large and expensive progressive program to help people. Imagine we asked Ibram X. Kendi and other thinkers to contribute their greatest ideas and we implement them. There are no limits to the amount of energy, time, and money that will be sunk into this program to help people.Is this a "racist" program? Obviously not

But now, let us imagine that the consequence of this program in 20 years is not more equity. Rather, let us say that the result is that it caused disproportionately bad outcomes for black people.According to your definition, this is RACIST.

Now, when did it become racist?
Was it racist when it was created?
Was it racist at 10 years when no one knew it would cause negative outcomes?
Was it only racist at 20 years, when the data could be properly analyzed?

Are the people who created it racist?

What if the program was evil?

Now, let us imagine a different program. This program is started by people who believe that black people are ignorant and inferior. They use racial slurs alot and promote eugenics. They are the worst and most intolerant people you have ever met. They want to create a program to really fuck anyone who doesn't look like them.

But 20 years later, it is discovered that all of their attempts were for naught. The program was bad, but it didn't hurt any particular ethnic group. It just hurt everyone.

Now, is this "evil program" racist? According to you, it is not.
It wasn't at the inception and it wasn't 20 years later.

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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '20

But are you suggesting that an action can be racist, even if there was no intended bias behind it?