Comment on Can we defederate from rdq2.net?
GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 8 months agoIf this was true, racism would be eradicated. It must further be stated that, though many racists are very ignorant, ascribing racism fundamentally to “stupidity” is just as worthless as ascribing it to “evil”. It is a moralizing account that cannot be usefully applied as systemic critique because it is all supposedly a matter of personal virtue.
People are racist as a strategy to prosper, first and foremost. It is not until you understand racism as a social strategy that you can fight it.
flashgnash@lemm.ee 8 months ago
I can’t say I do understand it as a social strategy, I would hazard a guess it’s something like “if we make this group enemy #1, we can get lots of people rallied behind us and they won’t pay attention to the horrible things we do”?
GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 8 months ago
I think it’s a bit ancillary but yes, one of the benefits for the racist is that by defining others as being part of the outgroup, they place themselves in the ingroup and thereby have people they can rely on with a common cause they both oppose (the flourishing of the minority group).
But probably the most concrete reason is economic (I was using “social” in its broadest sense), specifically that the brutal marginalization of minorities pushes them into the position of an underclass, whose labor value is the most exploited, meaning where ever the poor racist ends up in life, it is less likely to be there at that bottom rung, while the richer racists get cheap labor.