Here are three of my least favorite arguments related to race*. In my experience, they are often used by people who are not racist. However, the illegitimacy and potential harmfulness of these arguments, as well as their commonality and the intensity with which they are used, have inspired me to expose some of the reasons why they are faulty.
1. “Everyone’s a little racist.”
The issue with this argument is that it is simply not true. It may be difficult for some people, such as those who grew up with a few racist beliefs, to believe, but there are some people who truly have no racist beliefs, and as time goes on, I am sure we are becoming more and more common in America. Furthermore, it is possible for someone who had racist beliefs to stop believing all of them.
This argument is harmful because it makes it difficult to discuss and discredit the racist belief of the person who used the argument. This person is saying that it is acceptable for them to hold their racist belief—that it is acceptable to believe a little bit that the people of a certain race are inferior in some way or worthy of hatred—and that anyone saying otherwise is probably being a hypocrite. Not only must those two arguments now be refuted before any meaningful discussion of the beliefs in question can occur, but this is also unkind towards the members of the race(s) in question.
One of the counterarguments for this is that some people have racist thoughts which they truly believe they cannot completely stop. This is actually a misunderstanding of the difference between a racist thought and a racist belief. When a person has a racist belief, then by definition, they believe it is true, but some people have racist thoughts which they know to be false. Indeed, there are some people who do not usually have racist thoughts, and this is probably because of the way we were raised and has nothing to do with whether we are better or worse than anyone else. But those who deal with racist thoughts which they know to be false are not racist or “a little bit racist” and it is harmful for them to consider themselves otherwise.
2. "I have so many friends of that race."
Although this saying may seem harmless at first, it is often used as an illegitimate counterargument. I have seen racist people use this argument when confronted with their racist beliefs or actions, and I have seen people who are not racist use it when they are worried about being perceived as such, or when they fear they might be.
When this argument is used in any of the ways above, it is faulty because it assumes only one definition of racism, which is the hatred of a race of people. It’s hard to be friends with someone who is part of a race you hate. But another definition of racism includes a belief that the members of a particular race are inherently inferior or less valuable. It is quite possible for a person to become friends with someone they believe is inferior, just as people can become best friends with animals despite a belief that they are less valuable than people. Having friends or trusting those of a particular race is not proof that you are not racist towards them.
3. "My race may have oppressed another, but they oppressed this third race even more."
The most common way I’ve seen this statement used is as an excuse to downplay the oppression Black people suffered using the rather twisted strategy of elevating the oppression of Native American or Irish people. If this statement is shown to be true, the only thing it should accomplish is increasing the public’s perception of the terrible corruption among the oppressive race at that time in history. If White people oppressed Irish people more than Black people, for example, then those White people were that many times more horrible, Irish people have an even more painful history because of them, and the amount of pain in the history of Black people stands just as it was before. This is a terrible argument to use.
I often wonder if most of the White people I’ve seen using this argument are either suffering from inappropriate White guilt or feel a kind of damaging loyalty to their oppressive ancestors (if they already know or suspect that their ancestors were oppressors). If they would realize the untruths behind these feelings, surely they would have no more inclination to use this argument.
*In this article, I will be using words like “race,” “White,” and “Black,” despite evidence that these terms are inaccurate or significantly arbitrary.
Disclaimer: In this article, my intention is not to suggest that White people are the main people who use faulty racial arguments. This is not true, and if this perception exists here it is only because this has been my personal experience.
