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In this episode Dr. Darron Smith answers questions from our listeners, including our first ever “call-in question.”
- Are all whites racist?
- If all whites are racist, what does “racist” even mean?
- Should we just let all undocumented immigrants into the U.S.A.?
All these questions and more are discussed in the latest installment of The Racism 101 podcast with Dr. Darron Smith and Miguel Barker-Valdez.
Please leave an email question for Dr. Darron Smith to answer on the podcast by filling out the form below. We encourage our listeners to email us a voice-mail question so we can play it on the podcast. Also, please share this podcast with friends if you you find this series helpful.
If you would like to know more about The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, which Miguel discussed at the beginning of this podcast episode, click here.
Dr. Darron Smith and Miguel Barker-Valdez
I understand race is about color not really where you hail from. Question, if we look at Mormons like a race ( kind of like Jewish ) do we find racism between members and non members. I ask because just yesterday my sister in law asked me to go vote and at least vote straight Mormon. Though, I usually stay out of politics that struck me as odd. Just because someone is Mormon does not mean they are politically a good person or even a good person. To me anyway.
Why don’t we actually call it unconscious racial bias or systemic racism then rather than categorizing all whites as “racist?” Those would be much more correct definitions of what you are describing, Dr. Smith. Otherwise I feel like we’re getting sloppy with defining our terms correctly. Even if the academic world defines “racist” as actually being unconscious racial bias or systemic racism, the rest of us normal people (and the dictionary) do not define it that way as you have already pointed out. You need to think about the audience you’re speaking to if you’re trying to persuade and not simply just create awareness through shock value. I don’t think the term racist will EVER not immediately trigger a negative response in a human’s brain and be categorized automatically as an insult by their mind and emotions. Kierkegaard said that to categorize anyone is an act of violence. You are denying them the nuance and beauty of individualism. Blacks don’t want to be categorized as just “blacks” and not portrayed as whole people, yet that is what you are doing to whites when you label them all as racist.
It would be like me as a woman saying that all men are sexist simply because they are born men, and men have oppressed woman through all history and we still live in a patriarchal society, and a VERY patriarchal church. That is unfair, unkind, and insulting to men. I most definitely don’t believe my husband is sexist just because he was born a man in the patriarchal Mormon church. This kind of labeling usually comes from bitterness and anger, and it’s very difficult to be persuaded by bitterness.