A reality in which the thread of racism has been so pervasive throughout our history that we can find its downstream effects in surprising ways. A reality in which - and I’m dead serious about this - we can clearly trace the path from prehistoric mineral deposits, to slavery, to congressional districts. A reality in which the implementation of fundamental institutions can be shown to work in favor of white people. A reality where it took until Google decided to do something about before we began to redesign cameras so they produced equally good photographs of black people as they do white people.
I had to look up what critical race theory was after your comment, and am less confused. Whilst it not something I’d argue against, I wouldn’t give it that name.
Maybe I’m just too European, but it seems quite American
While America has it especially bad, because of our history with black slavery, the subject isn’t limited to America by any means, and isn’t limited to black people.
For example, the camera issue I discussed above is not limited to the US.
Racism exists all over the world. And anywhere that racism exists, and the racists held authority or leadership positions, you will find applications of critical race theory. Because even really, really subtle racism gets institutionalized in crazy, unexpected ways.
EDIT: I’ll add that it’s not just race either. There are all sorts of weird ways that preferential treatment of the majority in power sneaks into our lives.
Here’s a silly one: Novelty coffee mugs are biased against left handed people. No joke.
The mug example is an excellent example of systemic or institutional bias.
It’s worth explaining.
No one sat down and said “we’re only going to make right handed mugs”.
It’s just that most people and therefore most designers are right handed so when they are designing the mug they imagine it in their own hand. Et voilà, most mugs are for right handers.
This goes one step further: a template is made for said right hand mug, now all the left handed designers are also designing right handed mugs.
Thank you for taking the time. It definitely is worth explaining! I didn’t have time and am glad you did :)
And this is the thing so many people don’t understand: Bias doesn’t have to be intentional. Racism, bigotry, privilege, etc can all happen purely because we’re flawed beings that find it difficult to think outside our own lived experiences
I like to make a point of calling out the difference between “fault” and “responsibility”…
As a cis white man born in the 1980s, it’s not my fault that black people in America suffer from the long term consequences of slavery and segregation
But as a cis white man born in the 1980s, who has comparatively benefited from the systems built on the foundations of slavery and segregation, I am - and others like me are - responsible for making it right, today.
And anyone who doesn’t believe that should read some T.M. Scanlon
If you go down to Unfavourable Perceptions, there’s a load of info on this. Efforts in North America to switch everyone to right-handedness ended around ghe 60s and lefties were more socially accepted by the late 70s. That said there’s still a lot of places in Asia that attempt to force lefties to be righties.
My mum is a leftie and in school was beaten for writing with her left hand.
Another example: all sound recording and amplification technology was developed to make white men sound good. So all audio equipment makes masculine voices sound better than feminine ones.
True! It wasn’t until recently that female singers became popular enough to warrant better audio engineering for their voices. And even so, much of the pro-sumer hardware, and all of the casual consumer mics (like gaming headsets) is geared towards the existing customer demographic majority: white men
A reality in which the thread of racism has been so pervasive throughout our history that we can find its downstream effects in surprising ways. A reality in which - and I’m dead serious about this - we can clearly trace the path from prehistoric mineral deposits, to slavery, to congressional districts. A reality in which the implementation of fundamental institutions can be shown to work in favor of white people. A reality where it took until Google decided to do something about before we began to redesign cameras so they produced equally good photographs of black people as they do white people.
I could go on but I hope you get the picture
I had to look up what critical race theory was after your comment, and am less confused. Whilst it not something I’d argue against, I wouldn’t give it that name. Maybe I’m just too European, but it seems quite American
While America has it especially bad, because of our history with black slavery, the subject isn’t limited to America by any means, and isn’t limited to black people.
For example, the camera issue I discussed above is not limited to the US.
Racism exists all over the world. And anywhere that racism exists, and the racists held authority or leadership positions, you will find applications of critical race theory. Because even really, really subtle racism gets institutionalized in crazy, unexpected ways.
EDIT: I’ll add that it’s not just race either. There are all sorts of weird ways that preferential treatment of the majority in power sneaks into our lives.
Here’s a silly one: Novelty coffee mugs are biased against left handed people. No joke.
The mug example is an excellent example of systemic or institutional bias.
It’s worth explaining.
No one sat down and said “we’re only going to make right handed mugs”.
It’s just that most people and therefore most designers are right handed so when they are designing the mug they imagine it in their own hand. Et voilà, most mugs are for right handers.
This goes one step further: a template is made for said right hand mug, now all the left handed designers are also designing right handed mugs.
Thank you for taking the time. It definitely is worth explaining! I didn’t have time and am glad you did :)
And this is the thing so many people don’t understand: Bias doesn’t have to be intentional. Racism, bigotry, privilege, etc can all happen purely because we’re flawed beings that find it difficult to think outside our own lived experiences
I like to make a point of calling out the difference between “fault” and “responsibility”…
As a cis white man born in the 1980s, it’s not my fault that black people in America suffer from the long term consequences of slavery and segregation
But as a cis white man born in the 1980s, who has comparatively benefited from the systems built on the foundations of slavery and segregation, I am - and others like me are - responsible for making it right, today.
And anyone who doesn’t believe that should read some T.M. Scanlon
OMG yes. Re the difference between fault and responsibility.
I’m an inheritor of generations of the benefits of systemic bais (as well as deliberate), it is my responsibility to try and make that right.
Much to the chagrin of too many around me who thinks that it’s unfair.
Big same. Biiiiig same
There’s also the fact that there was a concerted effort to beat left-handedness out of people for a very very long time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_people
If you go down to Unfavourable Perceptions, there’s a load of info on this. Efforts in North America to switch everyone to right-handedness ended around ghe 60s and lefties were more socially accepted by the late 70s. That said there’s still a lot of places in Asia that attempt to force lefties to be righties.
My mum is a leftie and in school was beaten for writing with her left hand.
Hopefully we’re now in a slightly more enlightened time.
Dare to dream…
Hell, the word “sinister” meaning “evil” in modern English comes from that bias, etymologically it means something to do with the left hand side.
Another example: all sound recording and amplification technology was developed to make white men sound good. So all audio equipment makes masculine voices sound better than feminine ones.
True! It wasn’t until recently that female singers became popular enough to warrant better audio engineering for their voices. And even so, much of the pro-sumer hardware, and all of the casual consumer mics (like gaming headsets) is geared towards the existing customer demographic majority: white men
It’s definitely not only American. A European example would be the France-backed African CFA franc which works as an enabler and barrier to development.