2 Replies to “How to tell someone they sound racist”
Total waste of time – the idea that someone will reconsider unconscious prejudices, no matter how it is pointed out to them, simply ignores human nature and its ability to deny what is right in front of them.
It’s always a good thing to say something and to object, but it is foolish to expect that the racists opinion will change.
It’s like pointing out homophobia – the best you can expect is silence.
As a so-called “minority” person who has had rude people say racist things to my face, I don’t know how valid this is as confrontation can be tricky (and dangerous). I know what this fellow is saying — that there is a difference between the behavior of saying racist stuff and any assumption that the person is indeed a racist inside, but knowing how to deal with the situation is difficult. I was once in a restaurant in D.C. with a Filipino friend, and we didn’t tip due to bad service and the waiter ran outside after we left and yelled” Dont they tip in China?” Neither one of us was Chinese, so we laughed at him and walked away. He picked on us for not tipping, but he used a racist way to do it by mentioning our visual Asian-ness and by implying we were immigrants, when we were both U.S. citizens.
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Renee Wrote This 
Total waste of time – the idea that someone will reconsider unconscious prejudices, no matter how it is pointed out to them, simply ignores human nature and its ability to deny what is right in front of them.
It’s always a good thing to say something and to object, but it is foolish to expect that the racists opinion will change.
It’s like pointing out homophobia – the best you can expect is silence.
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As a so-called “minority” person who has had rude people say racist things to my face, I don’t know how valid this is as confrontation can be tricky (and dangerous). I know what this fellow is saying — that there is a difference between the behavior of saying racist stuff and any assumption that the person is indeed a racist inside, but knowing how to deal with the situation is difficult. I was once in a restaurant in D.C. with a Filipino friend, and we didn’t tip due to bad service and the waiter ran outside after we left and yelled” Dont they tip in China?” Neither one of us was Chinese, so we laughed at him and walked away. He picked on us for not tipping, but he used a racist way to do it by mentioning our visual Asian-ness and by implying we were immigrants, when we were both U.S. citizens.
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