Racism & Prejudice

...are not synonymous. At least according to my SP505 profs.

Anybody can be prejudiced. And most people are, to some degree. Most of us have preconceived ideas about people based on their appearance or language or associates. Those preconceived ideas are generalized to apply to all members of a class or group... until we actually get to know one of them. :) Then, maybe not so much.

So, prejudice is kind of a universal human failing. But racism is different. It's institutionalized prejudice imposed on you from the outside by those in power, and designed to create or perpetuate an economic or political advantage over you. Or so the profs said.

Examples might be the fleecing of Jews' wealth by the Nazi Government, or the confiscation of Native American lands by the US Government. Key to racism is the forced definition of race by law or regulation or court action. Examples might be the past denial by the US Supreme Court of citizenship and property rights to Hindu and Japanese men because they were not "white" enough. Or the past requirement for people in Germany to wear yellow Stars of David based on the degree of Jewish blood in their ancestry.

One of my profs (a white male) went so far as to say that he was a racist simply because he is a beneficiary of the historic economic inequity that still persists between white and non-whites, even decades after the Fair Housing Act removed racial language from the lending policies of the Federal Housing Administration (which led directly to the development of white suburbia post-WWII, and indirectly to "white flight" from the inner cities).

Really?

So if you benefit from the lingering impacts of past racist public policy... you are also a racist?

I asked if that meant that my Asian-born children are also racist? After all, though they were born overseas and are ethnically not "white", they grew up with all the advantages that accrued to me as a "white" male in the USA. So, are my Asian kids "racist"?

His response? "Well.. that's up to you to decide."

Nice cop-out, professor. Gee, I thought you had just defined racism for me. Ooops. I think you just revealed your own "institutionalized" guilt feelings...

On the way back to the parking lot after class, I mentioned to a classmate (who emigrated from South Korea at 17) that I didn't feel guilty. But I do feel fortunate.

Very.