It's quite ironic that the social justice ideology is supposed to fight racism and strongly opposes it, yet it actually causes people to become racist. I'm not here talking about them becoming racist against white people. No, I'm talking about these people, social justice ideologues and their sympathizers, becoming racist against black people (and "ethnic minorities" in general).
In this case I'm not talking about racism in the sense of discrimination (eg. discrimination in hiring or providing services), but racism in the sense of being negatively prejudiced towards people because of their race, and having all kinds of negative preconceptions and a condescending attitude towards them.
As I wrote in a previous blog post, a study conducted in the United States showed that left-leaning Liberals tended to simplify their speech when they thought they were addressing a black person, compared to when they thought they were addressing a white person. In other words, they often chose simpler words to express things in the former case, while not doing so in the latter case. And just to really hammer the phenomenon home, when it was implied that the (alleged) black person receiving the text was highly educated, the left-leaning test subjects did not show the same kind of simplification in their choice of vocabulary. When nothing about the education level of the (allegedly black) recipient was hinted, the default was to resort to simplification.
Quite clearly the instinct of these people was to assume that black people are by default less educated and thus simpler words need to be used when speaking or writing to them. (Only when it was implied that the recipient was highly educated, would the test subjects use the same kind of language as when they thought the recipient was white.)
Ironically, conservatives did not show such bias, and did not choose simpler words regardless of who they thought they were writing to.
Another example is a YouTube video where they interview left-leaning Liberal university students, and ask them if requiring ID from voters is racist, and why. A good portion of the people interviewed responded that yes, it's racist, and the reason they gave was that they thought that black people don't have IDs, nor easy access to any place where they could get an ID, nor internet connections. The video then cuts to a neighborhood with a majority of black people, and several people there were interviewed, and all of them had IDs, knew where to get one if needed, and internet access. When asked what they thought about that misconception, many of them attributed it to ignorance.
It is highly ironic that left-leaning Liberals in the United States, those who are sympathetic to social justice ideology, or even activists, tend to be very prejudiced against black people and assume that they are uneducated and have no access to basic services.
This phenomenon is often called "bigotry of low expectations".
While highly ironic, it actually makes sense. How so?
Well, consider that social justice activists and leftist liberals are being constantly bombarded from their own side with propaganda about how "ethnic minorities" are being oppressed in all kinds of ways, how racism and discrimination against them is rampant, and happens constantly and every day, that they encounter this kind of discrimination all the time, everywhere.
When they get constantly told this, and see no evidence of the contrary (after all, most of them live in their isolated rich neighborhoods with not many black people around, or isolated from the rest of society in university campuses and dorms), they end up believing it. They truly and honestly believe that the word out there, out of their own closed bubbles, is indeed a horrible place for black people. A world where they live in extreme poverty, constantly being discriminated against and attacked, constantly denied even basic services, and not being even able to go to higher education institutions.
Thus, when they have to deal with black people outside their social bubble, they assume by default that they are uneducated and unskilled, incapable of understanding complex speech, and lacking all essential services and documents that normal people have.
Thus, ironically, they are being more prejudiced and more condescending towards black people, even if unwittingly, than the average person who is not constantly being bombarded with this propaganda.
In this case I'm not talking about racism in the sense of discrimination (eg. discrimination in hiring or providing services), but racism in the sense of being negatively prejudiced towards people because of their race, and having all kinds of negative preconceptions and a condescending attitude towards them.
As I wrote in a previous blog post, a study conducted in the United States showed that left-leaning Liberals tended to simplify their speech when they thought they were addressing a black person, compared to when they thought they were addressing a white person. In other words, they often chose simpler words to express things in the former case, while not doing so in the latter case. And just to really hammer the phenomenon home, when it was implied that the (alleged) black person receiving the text was highly educated, the left-leaning test subjects did not show the same kind of simplification in their choice of vocabulary. When nothing about the education level of the (allegedly black) recipient was hinted, the default was to resort to simplification.
Quite clearly the instinct of these people was to assume that black people are by default less educated and thus simpler words need to be used when speaking or writing to them. (Only when it was implied that the recipient was highly educated, would the test subjects use the same kind of language as when they thought the recipient was white.)
Ironically, conservatives did not show such bias, and did not choose simpler words regardless of who they thought they were writing to.
Another example is a YouTube video where they interview left-leaning Liberal university students, and ask them if requiring ID from voters is racist, and why. A good portion of the people interviewed responded that yes, it's racist, and the reason they gave was that they thought that black people don't have IDs, nor easy access to any place where they could get an ID, nor internet connections. The video then cuts to a neighborhood with a majority of black people, and several people there were interviewed, and all of them had IDs, knew where to get one if needed, and internet access. When asked what they thought about that misconception, many of them attributed it to ignorance.
It is highly ironic that left-leaning Liberals in the United States, those who are sympathetic to social justice ideology, or even activists, tend to be very prejudiced against black people and assume that they are uneducated and have no access to basic services.
This phenomenon is often called "bigotry of low expectations".
While highly ironic, it actually makes sense. How so?
Well, consider that social justice activists and leftist liberals are being constantly bombarded from their own side with propaganda about how "ethnic minorities" are being oppressed in all kinds of ways, how racism and discrimination against them is rampant, and happens constantly and every day, that they encounter this kind of discrimination all the time, everywhere.
When they get constantly told this, and see no evidence of the contrary (after all, most of them live in their isolated rich neighborhoods with not many black people around, or isolated from the rest of society in university campuses and dorms), they end up believing it. They truly and honestly believe that the word out there, out of their own closed bubbles, is indeed a horrible place for black people. A world where they live in extreme poverty, constantly being discriminated against and attacked, constantly denied even basic services, and not being even able to go to higher education institutions.
Thus, when they have to deal with black people outside their social bubble, they assume by default that they are uneducated and unskilled, incapable of understanding complex speech, and lacking all essential services and documents that normal people have.
Thus, ironically, they are being more prejudiced and more condescending towards black people, even if unwittingly, than the average person who is not constantly being bombarded with this propaganda.
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