From thought to action: how we rationalize racism

By Paul Cho

I am not a racist, but I cannot deny the fact that I have racist inclinations. I suppress them so they don't affect my relationships with others and so I am not disgusted by my own thoughts. I rationalize these natural inclinations in an attempt to comfort my conscience. I assure myself, "I am human, I cannot help thinking this way."

My black suitemate defines a racist as someone who acts in accordance with a generalized judgment about a race. According to this definition, people like me who suppress racist thoughts are not racists. It allows for racist thoughts as long as these thoughts do not determine one's actions. For example, a Yale administrator could think that white males are superior to women and people of color, and he would not be considered racist according to this definition as long as he did not base hiring policies on this prejudiced thinking. Thus, my suitemate's definition rationalizes racist thought.

While I understand that accepting this definition would exclude my thoughts from the sphere of racism, I cannot agree with it. First, prejudicial inclinations, however miniscule, are bound to affect actions in some way. Second, accepting racist thoughts and giving them license to reign free in my heart trivializes racism and renders me a hypocrite—a person who seems not to be a racist, but who, deep inside, harbors prejudiced thoughts.

But in order to argue against racism in thought and in deed, we must first understand what exactly it is. Is it like school spirit or nationalism, a love for and loyalty to the collective identity that defines the self? If you can like Yale more than Harvard, can I love my own race over another? If I love America more than the former Soviet Union, can I love the color white over the color red?

The desire to be identified with the dominant group leads to an attempt to prevent the rise of another's identity above one's own. In effect, this is a large-scale application of the Darwinist maxim of survival of the fittest. Nationalism, school spirit, and Darwinism are all recognized as good, or at least acceptable, things. Is racism then also acceptable? We base some of our actions on school spirit and nationalism, and these are often deemed laudable. Can the same be said of racism?

But nationalism and school spirit do not remain mere thought; they are often translated into action. The same is true of racism. Thus, it is not enough, or possible, to curb our actions and rationalize our thoughts. We must come to grips with the root of the problem.

I am walking through the city streets at midnight, and I see a big black man walking toward me, obscured and silhouetted by the dim streetlight behind him. Immediately I have a racist thought: "I see a big black man. I am not safe." I am afraid. I act in accordance with my thought, because suppressing it now seems tantamount to a death wish. I turn around and run, telling myself, "You are a racist." Yet I will not label myself a racist. I can always find words to absolve me of this title. I rationalize my racism.

The source of my racism, I tell myself, is not racism at all. In fact, racism is only the chance concurrence of skin color with a particular socioeconomic stratum. Inner-city blacks are perceived negatively by outsiders not because of their race, but because of the socioeconomic status which forces many blacks to be viewed in a negative light. I am not a racist. I have no personal prejudice toward that black man except that prejudice which society has given me.

In this formulation, racism on the personal level becomes irrelevant. It is removed into the realm of the public, where I can no longer be responsible for it. But the big black man, as long as he is from a poor community, could have been a blue man, and he would still have been the victim of racism.

This rational license to racism cannot be granted. Whatever our excuse, by making general judgments about entire races, we rob individuals of their human dignity. We label them unsafe, stupid, or any of a slew of other slurs. But the harmful effects of these slurs show that racism is a horrendous reality that must be dealt with, not lazily dismissed. Rationalizing our racist impulses is just such a lazy dismissal. Worse, it is a manifestation of our fear and of the demons that lurk within us. Destroying these demons is a challenge none of us can afford to shun.

Paul Cho is a freshman in Branford.

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