patterns of privilege

… sociologist David Wellman argues for a broader definition of racism that includes but goes beyond the personal. Racism is the patterns of privilege and oppression themselves and anything—intentional or not—that helps to create or perpetuate those patterns. If we extend this to other forms of privilege, then sexism and heterosexism are also more than personal expressions of hostility or prejudice, but include everything that people do or don’t do that provosts male privilege and heterosexual privilege.

—Johnson, Allan G. 2001. Privilege, Power, and Difference, p.112

… by blurring the lines between genuine race hate and words that they deem to be “racist”, they are setting back the cause of race relations by years.

– http://moronwatch.net/2014/06/how-to-deal-with-ukip-yes-lets-talk-about-immigration.html

racism is far more than old white men using the N-word

And so the perception – on both sides of the Atlantic – takes hold that racism is not a system of discrimination planted by history, nourished by politics and nurtured by economics, in which some groups face endemic disadvantage – it’s about ignorant old people getting caught saying mean things. By privileging these episodes – outrageous as they are – racism is basically reduced to the level of a private, individual indiscretion made public. The scandal becomes not that racism exists but that anyone would be crass enough to articulate it so brazenly.

– Gary Younge

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/18/racism-more-than-old-white-men-using-n-word