Just Following People Whom I Love

so-treu:

ilykadamen:

I remember when I was in school, when post-9/11 was becoming the law of the land, and we had a long debate in class over whether it was possible to profile and not eventually—or, hell, immediately—rationalize your behavior by developing a racist worldview.  Whether you could single out Muslims, or Arabs, or Arab-Americans, or people who seemed to you to fit into those categories, without deciding that they deserved abuse because they were probably evil terrorists. We were echoing a national debate: whether it’s possible to treat a class of people differently without becoming a bigot. 

I still think the answer is no: I don’t believe that we are able to do anything without justifying it to ourselves, and justifying it in a way that makes us out to be better people than the people we hurt.  Few people, given a choice, will take moral responsibility for an immoral action. 

Now we are having a national debate over whether it’s possible to be racist without being racist.  Whether it’s possible to condone racism without being racist.  Whether it’s possible to accept racism without being racist.  Whether it’s possible to use racism without being racist.  Instead of the category, we employ the stereotype.