What do you say?

[qwlauren35]

When someone calls you racist?

When someone calls Obama racist?

I tried putting forth the dictionary definition: a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

But I don't think It's going to work.

I think the argument will be "lots of black people are prejudiced".

You may ask - why do I bother. I'm not sure.

Dylann Roof exists. The man who set fire to his roommate's head exists. Racist white people exist. And if they want to try to flip the script and call me racist because I mention race, then I need to just let it go.

[MrScorpio]

1. Well, for one, it's impossible for black people to be racist in America

Whenever you hear someone calling Obama or any other black person "racist," just treat it as if that person is engaging in projection.

[DAngelo136]

2. A quote from the late Kwame Toure

"If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.
Racism gets its power from Capitalism.
Thus, if you're anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist.
The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude."

To that logic, to call me, a Black man, "racist" is an impossibility because I don't have power to affect the lives and livelihood of white people. We as a people do not have the power in society to impose our prejudices upon whites. So their use is akin to the claim of "reverse racism" and "playing the race card"-a rhetorical device used in an effort to devalue and minimize claims of racism.

[kwassa]

3. Talking about race does not make one a racist.

This right-wing meme about Obama being racially divisive because he talked, rarely, about race.

These are white people who think that race issues will go away if we stop talking about them, and that blacks and others only do it to get an advantage over the whites.