I find the way that some people understand what is and isn't racism mystifying.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

I find the way that some people understand what is and isn't racism mystifying.

TO ME? Saying (lying!) about Black Haitian immigrants "eating cats and dogs" is wildly racist and probably worse than putting the most powerful and untouchable Black American couple in a racist video as apes?

Like both are bad. But the "eating dogs and cats" thing whew! Stinky.

And yet there are these people who were shocked by the video and unmoved by the "cats and dogs" line?

1/

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

What is the issue? It's the same thing. It's a prejudice that Black people are primitive and inhuman. Like apes or some animal that attacks your pets. It's the same racism.

Is it that they don't care if it's not powerful people?

Dazzled by the wealth and power of the Obamas and so you can recognize an insult to them but not to some regular blackfolks?

It is really odd and I do not get it.

These things are equal and we only got a retraction for ONE of them. 2/

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

I'm well aware that the kind of person who is "shocked" by the Obamas as apes video, but somehow didn't have the same level of reaction to "cats and dogs" isn't interested in what Black people think. They are mostly worried that "important powerful people" do not think of them as racist. So, even saying this is a little pointless.

But, maybe some of ya'll can ask your uncle or auntie why are ya'll like this? Why?

3/3

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

I do not worry about the Obamas. The Obamas are fine. It's hard for me to feel sad or bad about anything that's said about them. A Haitian working two jobs and living in Ohio having to try to prove that they don't eat cats is MUCH more upsetting to me.

I mean it's all ignorance and very embarrassing.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

They have NEVER apologized for that "cats and dogs" BS. Some people are still running around thinking it's true.

[thejessiekirk@ohai.social]

@futurebird Aye, it is weird (and I'm honestly surprised he redacted any of his racist garbage).

I did some reading; may I please share my thoughts on why this might be?

EDIT: Wow, there's a lot of... erm... replies to a possibly rhetorical question here that suck. I'll just offer hugs and cool bug facts instead 💜

[anke@social.scribblers.club]

@futurebird
I'm speculating, but other contributing factors could be:
- Watching a video giving you a more visceral reaction than reading or hearing words...
- On some level believing that with the USA being EXCEPTIONAL, of course people from other countries are "primitive".

I agree that any way you turn it it's wildly racist.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

For some white people with racism it's like they have a check list. The following things are racism... and NOTHING else:

1. The n word IF said in a MEAN way.
2. Monkeys
3. Watermelon
4. Segregated Water Fountain Signs.

Show them a sign that says "No Blacks Allowed" on a changing room at a store and they are like "well that's different... maybe there is a good reason? People steal"

It's is buck wild. Why even pretend that you care about racism at all?

Some of ya'll are so damn strange.

[rogerbw@discordian.social]

@futurebird "Racism is bad. I am not a bad person. Therefore I cannot be a racist. Therefore what I do isn't racism." Many other things can be put in place of racism there, of course.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@Anke

Some of their racism is so off the charts that it fails to register with me. It's just nonsense to me and I don't even feel offended since I can't make sense of what they are doing. It kind of fails to be hurtful and just looks goofy.

Maybe that's what bothers them?

[glaswolf@mastodon.scot]

@futurebird Yet here's a Black journalist basically saying "we knew he was racist, but this is next level". I agree with you, I don't understand it. Maybe it's that racism against famous and influential people is, by its nature, more overt?

https://news.sky.com/story/i-never-thought-i-would-see-a-us-president-post-a-video-containing-such-an-unquestionably-racist-image-13504357

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@lienrag

Lying about people eating cats and dogs isn't just being ignorant and suspicious of people you don't know well or understand. It's deeply malicious and dehumanizing.

This isn't assuming the Black person can't possibly be the manager racism. It's not a mistake based on having a bias. It's propagandizing to eliminate humanity.

[driusan@doomscroller.social]

@futurebird@sauropods.win I think another, perhaps more charitable, reason is that the video is visual so people have a more visceral emotional reaction to seeing it than reading about something he said in a speech.

[femme_mal@mstdn.social]

@futurebird I'm not even going to grant the leeway that some are "damn strange."

I pass because unlike my siblings I am pale skinned. Because I pass, people say wretchedly racist stuff in front of me -- and I watch people who think they aren't racist/claim they aren't racist just stand there, mute, if they don't bob their heads in agreement.

These same people may sway if put on the spot but they never question their own behavior or stop racist behavior in front of them.

[zumbador@mefi.social]

@futurebird there's an aspect of how white people react to racism which is more about class signifiers than about justice.

For people like this, racism is crass and impolite and low class. "White trash talk like that. Educated people don't" .

They tend to focus on stereotypical and specific examples of racism, like using certain words or sharing certain images.

They don't challenge the underlying assumptions that create racism.

I think that's why many white people react so badly when you point out their racism.

"you're saying I'm one of *those* people and actually I'm educated and polite! "

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@driusan

Well on one side you have a video, on the other you have Trump himself saying "eating cats and dogs" with his own ugly lips out loud.

With the video he can say "someone posted that not me not me"

He *said* that other BS. And before the election. Everyone heard it. A bunch of people didn't care so it's odd to me that now they do care?

Because it's what? Obama? I thought Ya'll hated him.

[jmax@mastodon.social]

@futurebird @Zumbador Exactly. It's about observing the forms, and nothing else.

[arclight@oldbytes.space]

@futurebird Even the dumbest of us* know the cats and dogs thing is BS. That's nonsense you believe when you're a third grader and haven't figured out Santa yet. We know the truth but there's a bunch of us that enjoys being hateful assholes. It distracts us from our own mediocrity and how the people actually rigging the system against us look just like us but richer.

I would not be a bit surprised if Larry Ellison, Peter Thiel, etc actually ate cats and dogs because they knew they could get away with it as an unhinged power flex. Conversely RFKjr would be dumpster diving out behind the pound because of literal brainworms. Not Stephen Miller though; he just unhinges his jaw and gulps a rat down whole.

White people have some serious problems.

[*] Much as I want to personally want to separate me from them, I'm a White Person and this is a White Person Problem that we need to own and fix.

[petealexharris@mastodon.scot]

@futurebird
Acknowledging that racism is the toxic waste dump their whole country's history and many of their unexamined norms was built on requires more work from them than not saying the n word.

[bri7@social.treehouse.systems]

@futurebird media portrayals probably haven’t helped. It’s so easy to form really skewed perspectives on entire groups of people and to be a little conspiratorial the folks who own the big media conglomerates benefit from that