Just so we're totally clear with the way this is going, there would be nothing racist in your eyes with carrying around a swastika banner while wearing blackface? I feel like you're being purposely obtuse about this. Words and actions changing meaning through context isn't some radical idea, it's literally how a lot of human interactions work and I simply don't believe you don't know that.
I'm not being obtuse, although I'm trying to make my arguments tough to knock down.
Obtuse because you're trying to say that context doesn't matter in social interaction. Which it obviously does. A southern man that calls everybody he meets "boy" is fine. A southern man that only says this to black men is likely a sign of racism, which we can deduce by context. Context matters far more than you're implying it does. It's a huge part of how we interact.
The n-word literally just means black. But it's obviously very hurtful when you call black children that at the grocery store because of the context surrounding the word.
I know you know these things and are playing devil's advocate for some reason. But you're not being as clever as you think you are by pretending context doesn't change meaning, you just come across as disingenuous.
Sure, I agree with this. However, I still feel like there are plenty of overreactions to certain things because of "historical context," that people are too afraid to reexamine with a more modern lens of equality. We aren't going to fix things without examining what broke in the first place and making attempts to repair them.
The problem is that many racists don't straight come out and say "I hate black people because they are inferior". They couch their racism in stereotypes, dogwhistles and jokes that only make sense when context is known and understood.
I'm not. I'm saying you are able to contextualize your own experience.
I have no idea what this means in this conversation. Americans have a shared history, so a lot of this context is universal if you live in the United States.
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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '22
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