for someone that probably doesn't like being retaliated against, that felt like a fairly sloppy "you people"
And to make you happy, since it doesn't seem to happen often these days, then yes, by the narrow definition given above, they're racist. But then again, you might want to read over the post again because I said that EVERYONE is racist. Were I able to adjust my definition, I would say that you also need to take into consideration tone and history. But I'm sure there are flaws there, too.
I really wish that I lived in this fantasy world that everyone else lives in, but I see the makeup of our society crumbling like an Oklahoma bridge. It may not go today, it may not go tomorrow. But it's going to come down one of these days if we just keep patching potholes.
Here is why I busted your chops:
Calling people “racist” or “racists” is no better than hurling common racial epithets. It is lazy-speak that is being used to homogenize people of differing political and cultural views now. It is way, way over-used and it’s really become an epithet toward white people. No one ever once suggested the blacks who voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 when he ran against white candidates were racist, even though they likely voted for him because he looks like them, now did they?
There is a huge difference between racism and prejudice and I think you are mistaking that to a degree. Everyone is prone to prejudice. Everyone has life experience which has made them this way. Allow me to illustrate:
You are walking through a mall parking lot and you see five or six teenage black males with their pants down around their thighs. What is your first reaction? They are looking for trouble or they are on fall break from Harvard?
Über skinny white guy who is rough around the edges, bald, neck tattoo wandering through the parking lot staring at you. Do you assume he’s a tweaker looking for someone to roll or is he someone who cleaned up his life and now works a productive job?
White overweight woman walking through the grocery store with a mobile canister of oxygen. Is she on O2 because she is/was a heavy smoker and this was self-inflicted or she’s a breast cancer patient and she needs the oxygen to breathe and the treatment she’s been taking made her very bloated?
We ALL have preconceived notions and prejudice. People have tribal tendencies to identify better with people who look or believe as they do, that is a part of our very nature.
Using the “R” word because someone is ideologically different, the color of their skin, or educational level shows every bit as much of a lack of respect, understanding, or tolerance as using the “N” word, “Aye-Rab”, “Mooslim”, “Chink”, “Rag Head”, etc. It is being way over-used in an attempt to intimidate people for their beliefs on immigration or other policy which may be seated in real life experience or fear, not an abstract hatred of Hispanics, Blacks, or Middle Easterners.
Calling people out only increases the divide which exists. We are becoming a divided nation because people are failing to recognize our similarities, choosing to focus on differences instead. I guarantee, all of us could do a far better job of attempting to look for the similarities in our neighbors on an hourly or daily basis.
