Lots of racists or just a lot of people who think about race?
Bottom Line: It’s hard to go more than a day without hearing the latest charges of racism being asserted in our society. Most recently the President’s tweets regarding freshman Congresswomen who’ve regularly been agitators in their roles (to both political parties) were referred to as racists by many on the left and in news media. The thing is, by definition, a tweet about “going back where you came from” isn’t inherently racist. A country of origin isn’t a race and whether one feels it’s appropriate or not of the president doesn’t alter that dynamic. Here’s the definition:
rac·ist
noun
- a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
This got me to thinking. How many people project race and scream racism because they’re motivated by it or identify primary through race? Earlier this year the Pew Research Center conducted a study that might shine some light on what really goes on in our society that drives so many charges of racism. Based on one’s ethnicity, we’re more or less likely to think about race daily. According to their findings...
Based on ethnicity here’s the percentage of people who think it’s extremely important to their identity:
- Asian: 27%
- Black: 52%
- Hispanic: 31%
- White: 5%
Clearly there’s a big gap in how we view the world. Most blacks view race as critical to their identity. Large percentages of other ethnicity’s do as well. Whites – not so much. Independent of right or wrong, racism or not racism, this demonstrates the vast difference in the way many people view the world. For many the prism is colored through color. That allows for something that’s quite literally not racism to perhaps be categorized as such by those looking through the race prism. I have little doubt that many minorities would say few whites view their race as being very important because they haven’t been subjected to discrimination (which isn’t necessarily true depending on the circumstances). There’s likely some degree of validity to it. Interestingly though, Asians have the lowest level of unemployment, highest level of education and highest incomes in the US. So, some of this is likely naturally cultural. No doubt there are racists and always will be. Humanity is sadly flawed this way. But there’s probably far less of it than meets the eye. Just vastly different perspectives on identity.