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Racism has become less about actual racism and more a word to throw around to win arguments and slander people.

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Linkmain-maybe

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With recent years, I have noticed a troubling trend. Many times people will accuse others of being racist when they do something that is inconvenient or when they are in a discussion. While is used to be scarce, now its very common to see videos and internet arguments where people are on the losing side of a conversation and call the other racist. In fact, I have been experiencing it in real life very commonly. Its now difficult for me to engage a conversation because how many times I have been accused of being racist, so I feel as if I am walking on eggshells. I was having a debate with someone but they had called me racist and people started to surround us. I felt threatened and its a big reason why I don’t like to interact with people in real life.

For reference, I am White/Puerto-Rican but I look very pale.

Mod Edit: Thread closed at request of OP
 

Sucumbio

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11 years ago even this was brought up so I'm not surprised it's still a thing. Words and phrases lose their "meaningful" impact when a culture subvert it.

I was having a debate with someone but they had called me racist and people started to surround us. I felt threatened and its a big reason why I don’t like to interact with people in real life.
What was the debate and what did you say that made them reply that way?
 

StoicPhantom

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It's more part of the current culture to mistakenly say something is racist rather than specifically to win arguments (though that does happen too). I have a friend that's been accosted in person for eating noodles with chopsticks (seriously) and online for wearing a poncho. A lot of it probably depends on your area and who you are hanging with, but there seems to be a widespread lack of knowledge as to what is racism and not, and it becoming trendy to at least appear anti-racist isn't helping matters.

In fact, I have been experiencing it in real life very commonly. Its now difficult for me to engage a conversation because how many times I have been accused of being racist, so I feel as if I am walking on eggshells. I was having a debate with someone but they had called me racist and people started to surround us. I felt threatened and its a big reason why I don’t like to interact with people in real life.
That being said, I have to question why the quoted seems to happen "very commonly". Either you're hanging out with the wrong people or you are actually saying or advocating racist things. My advice is to simply not engage in political discussions and culture war topics, especially with strangers and/or acquaintances in public places. They're rarely ever productive and ultimately don't matter. Given your profile lists you as quite young, I'm assuming that who you're having debates with are also similarly young. Call it patronizing (it is) but I can confidently say that young people are clueless about these matters on average and are especially susceptible to these type of trends.

Schoolyard "debates" don't really matter in the long run nor are the people who commonly engage in them mentally ready to have civil and productive conversations that don't result in name-calling. Technically, neither are their parents, which is what they're probably regurgitating their "opinions" from.


FWIW, I've never been called racist by anyone over the age of 18 that I can recall and I've never shied away from debates centered around racial topics. The issue likely is the people you engage with or that you maybe need to reevaluate what you say and believe if that bothers you so much.
 

Sucumbio

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It's more part of the current culture to mistakenly say something is racist rather than specifically to win arguments (though that does happen too). I have a friend that's been accosted in person for eating noodles with chopsticks (seriously) and online for wearing a poncho. A lot of it probably depends on your area and who you are hanging with, but there seems to be a widespread lack of knowledge as to what is racism and not, and it becoming trendy to at least appear anti-racist isn't helping matters.


That being said, I have to question why the quoted seems to happen "very commonly". Either you're hanging out with the wrong people or you are actually saying or advocating racist things. My advice is to simply not engage in political discussions and culture war topics, especially with strangers and/or acquaintances in public places. They're rarely ever productive and ultimately don't matter. Given your profile lists you as quite young, I'm assuming that who you're having debates with are also similarly young. Call it patronizing (it is) but I can confidently say that young people are clueless about these matters on average and are especially susceptible to these type of trends.

Schoolyard "debates" don't really matter in the long run nor are the people who commonly engage in them mentally ready to have civil and productive conversations that don't result in name-calling. Technically, neither are their parents, which is what they're probably regurgitating their "opinions" from.


FWIW, I've never been called racist by anyone over the age of 18 that I can recall and I've never shied away from debates centered around racial topics. The issue likely is the people you engage with or that you maybe need to reevaluate what you say and believe if that bothers you so much.
Ha actually now that you mention it I have also witnessed the chopsticks bit. It's usually something along the lines of "why do people use chopsticks when they're not Asian?" To which I tend to respond "they want to feel more authentic?" But I'm usually joking. And to be fair I do find it odd that westerners use chopsticks especially if they didn't grow up using them for all meals but only Chinese food. I mean it's not as if the chopsticks makes the General Tso's Chicken taste more Chinese.

(This entire response could be construed as racist btw despite the fact I'm Chinese.)

As for the notion of children engaging in political debates eh, maybe primary age is too young I'll grant that but once High School age starts not only do curriculum and standard rubric necessitate an understanding of proper argumentation but there's plenty of avenenus for practice like debate teams, model UN, mock Justice Court, mock elections (and student body elections for that matter) so I feel it's incorrect to subdue or discourage teens from engagement because you have to start somewhere and the more practice you get in persuasive argument the better you become.
 

StoicPhantom

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Ha actually now that you mention it I have also witnessed the chopsticks bit. It's usually something along the lines of "why do people use chopsticks when they're not Asian?" To which I tend to respond "they want to feel more authentic?" But I'm usually joking. And to be fair I do find it odd that westerners use chopsticks especially if they didn't grow up using them for all meals but only Chinese food. I mean it's not as if the chopsticks makes the General Tso's Chicken taste more Chinese.
In his case he just prefers it as a utensil for a variety of noodle types of all sorts of ethnic origins rather than the typical Chinese chain restaurant """authenticity""" that Americans always try to pretend to have. I don't really understand it but to each his own.

As for the notion of children engaging in political debates eh, maybe primary age is too young I'll grant that but once High School age starts not only do curriculum and standard rubric necessitate an understanding of proper argumentation but there's plenty of avenenus for practice like debate teams, model UN, mock Justice Court, mock elections (and student body elections for that matter) so I feel it's incorrect to subdue or discourage teens from engagement because you have to start somewhere and the more practice you get in persuasive argument the better you become.
I'm not arguing against polishing technical ability, I'm saying that those type of discussions aren't really productive to begin with. Proper debate isn't about "winning" in that regard, but about properly conveying your opinions and beliefs to the other person so they can evaluate what you are saying and compare it to their own opinions. If you're going into this with a competitive mindset then you are doing it wrong. It's not about forcefully trying to change someones mind with Facts and Logic™, but giving and receiving new insights that either party hadn't considered before. Sometimes minds will change and sometimes they will remain as they were, but overall you can be sure that both parties are more enlightened and educated on their respective opinions.

That is not what is being described here nor what you see in 99.9% of "debates". Most of what you actually see are conducted by people with ulterior motives (virtue-signalling, bullying, ego, etc) rather than pursuing the topic itself, and without any real understanding of the topic at hand and just going off regurgitated scripts they've heard other people use. When you start "countering" arguments with a character judgement (e.g. you're racist so you're wrong) you betray that you don't have an fundamental understanding of the topic and are merely concerned with winning an argument.

This goes double for schoolkids as well, where they are often merely regurgitating what they heard from their parents or Twitter and don't actually have real opinions on things. You can't change something or enlighten someone that wasn't there in the first place. It's already bad enough with all the rampant bullying and kids pretending to be important without throwing in adult-sanctioned bullying and exclusion like politics.


Now I'm all ok with a good slapfight (which is why I still post here) but you have to be able to separate your own feelings, ego, and social identity if you want to stay safe. It is a slapfight at the end of the day and it should primarily be done for one's own amusement. If it causes one to run complaining to random strangers on the internet and feel "threatened" then it is probably time to stop at least doing this in public. From what little was described in the OP this sounds more like "Grr I have to make the other guy admit they are wrong" rather than anything productive. My advice would be to do something more fun or productive instead as nothing said or done in school is likely going to matter in ten years.
 

DarthEnderX

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Racism has become less about actual racism and more a word to throw around to win arguments and slander people.
The fact that your takeaway from this is "I got called racist...THIS IS WORSE THAN RACISM!" is...staggeringly racist.

People are still dying over this issue, but yeah...you getting called a name, that's what it's REALLY about.
 
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