Do some things never change?

Racism rears its ugly head

ANITA REISS

With the help of YouTube and other media, it’s safe to say that nearly everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock has seen the latest raging-racist celebrity rant. Was anyone surprised? It seems to be a growing trend among celebrity types these days: get drunk or pissed off, spout out some horribly offensive and “uncalled-for” remarks, then realize that it’s not publicly acceptable after the fact and make some lame-ass public apology for words they “didn’t really mean.”

I can’t stand how “Kramer” tries to excuse his little outburst by claming he was really angry, like that somehow excuses him. He apparently spouted off at the mouth just weeks before at another comedy club. His remarks were anti-Semitic. However he tried to excuse himself by claming he is Jewish. Before I start talking about self-hating Jews and encouraging everyone to see The Believer (sigh, even as an anti-Semitic, skinhead, self-hating Jew, Ryan Gosling is still so dreamy) there is one problem with his argument. He isn’t Jewish. I don’t know about you, but no matter how completely plastered and angry I get, I have yet to find myself in the middle of some racist rampage that I honestly, truthfully, don’t mean. Perhaps I’ve just never gotten drunk enough to get to that point where I’m completely out of control of my own thoughts, although this explanation borders on claims of possession. I could be wrong in assuming that “a drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts,” but it seems hard to buy that someone could make such vicious comments and later claim they didn’t mean it.

I could be wrong in assuming that “a drunk mans words are a sober man’s thoughts,” but it seems hard to buy that someone could make such vicious comments and later claim they didn’t mean it.

But we live in a world practically characterized by self-deceit and lies. These incidents get so much media attention not only because of celebrity status but because they are rare now. Explicit and traditional racism is by no means extinct but is far less mainstream. Besides the few whitesupremacist idiots and the like who have dedicated their lives to bigotry, even when they are racist, according to Neil Bissoondath, they “realize that it’s not a nice thing to be.”

This latest outburst and my sociology textbook have forced me to re-evaluate the way I look at people. I don’t want to start looking at everyone and labelling them a “closet racist” because I really don’t like to see myself as a cynical paranoid pessimist (haha, who am I kidding?) but our society is clearly full of racism of a different form. Racism is aversive and modern, people who are aversive racists do not view themselves as racist but have feelings of discomfort and fear of blacks, while modern racists believe traditional racism is over and hence any problem blacks face today is the fault of minorities, according to addie Mooney and co-authors of Understanding Social Problems.

Honestly, half of my friends and even I have been guilty of this aversive racism at one point. I am not shocked and appalled by these outbursts, but I am disappointed. These events have forced me to look at people in a different way, look at myself in a different way, and wonder, after all these years, these campaigns, these “advances,” these speeches, do some things never change?