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I have long believed that the vast majority of people in Britain are racist.
Put simply, most people - including, i suspect, many black people - feel far more nervous walking at night around young black men than young white men. This is based, in part, on the slightly higher black crime rate. But it nevertheless is racism, because it makes assumptions about individuals, and alters our reactions to them, based purely on the colour of their skin.
Until we stop talking about racism as a rare and evil crime, and instead recognise it as something we’re all capable of, we’ll never have a real conversation about it.
But I’ve said this to friends and they’ve looked at me like I’m mad. What do you think?
UPDATE: This article on the American election cites interesting evidence about the widespread nature of this sort of instinctive racial stereotyping.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // May 9, 2008 at 8:36 pm
an interesting question might be:
what is it that they ‘far more nervous’ about happening?
2 Rav Casley Gera // May 10, 2008 at 11:18 am
Well, it’s hard to have a conversation with people about it without accusing them of racism directly, so it’s hard to be sure. But I think it’s fair to assume it’s standard street crime, running the range from crude comments all the way to violent assault.
Now, as this terrible column points out, the only thing we know for certain - or at least the only thing openly discussed in the political world - is that blacks are convicted of more crime, and go to jail at a higher rate, than whites. And there are those who believe that this is purely because of racism in the justice system. And perhaps that’s true. But I think it’s fair to assume the black offending rate in street crime (as opposed to, for example, white-collar crime) is higher. So it may seem that greater fear of blacks than whites is a rational response.
But given how low the rate of crime is, the difference must be minimal - bluntly, your statistical chances of being mugged by a black person may be one in 10,000, as opposed to one in 20,000 for a white assailant. The invisible factors that control whether the person on the other side of the street plans to mug you - their upbringing, their psychology, their circumstances - are infinitely more influential over the likelihood of them mugging you than their race. How, then, can it be a rational response to fear them more because of their race?
Racist instincts don’t have to be based on a complete myth, like blacks being stupid or lazy. They can be based on an underlying truth, but blow it out of proportion. And, of course, to judge anyone by the statistical proclivities of their demographic group is, inherently, prejudice.
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