Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Michael Richards didn't rant about being white

From an email exchange.

I was sent an email that included a rant supposedly by Michael Richards.
This was my response:


Oh dear, what a whinge!

And Michael Richards did not make these points, in court or anywhere else. See https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/proud-to-be-white/ (1)

The reason there are "just Americans" is because white is the default standard. That's not in itself racist, but it does prompt racist logic, such as "My country is being taken away from me...".

Just as "male" is the default standard for "human", which among other things has caused subtle and not so subtle errors in diagnosis, medication trials, biological science, etc. E.g, it has  endangered/killed many women who were having heart attacks, because women typically don't have the same heart attack symptoms as men.

Just as college students have been the default "subjects" for psych and sociology studies simply because they were handy. But they are different from most people. For one thing, their brains are still immature.

Just as Western thinking/culture is the default standard for logic and common sense. Which is why Westerners are astonished when people elsewhere in the world think differently.

Actually, there are (still) Polish-Americans, German-Americans, Italian-Americans, etc. Just not English-Americans. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (aka WASP) is the default standard for "just Americans".

Etc.

(1) Misrepresenting sources is a common extremist tactic. It's just one example of the extremist belief that any wrong-doing is justified if it's done "for the cause", whatever the cause may be. For example, it's how the Inquisition justified the torture and burning of "heretics". That included some of my Protestant ancestors. Of course, other ancestors happily justified murdering Catholics using the same logic.

Have a good day,

Update 2020-11-14: There's more than one Michael Richards the stand-up comic did make a racist rant. The Guardian carried a story about how it wrecked his career.

 


 

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