Thursday, March 28, 2024

Users’ Guide: The Difference Between Bigotry And Racism

August 5, 2015 by  
Filed under Community

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

Louie Overstreet

With President Obama using the N-word in the broader context of a June discussion of race in America, and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signing a law to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds in July, now is a good time for a refresher on the ubiquity of bigotry and racism in American life.

In America, we have a serious problem with bigotry because our predicament is that there are intractable vestiges of racism.

First, let’s understand that African-Americans cannot be racist in America. Racism is the systematic and institutionalized practice of a dominant group’s ability — based on its numeric, political, economic, and/or military superiority — to oppress another group solely on the basis of race. Whereas bigotry is simply a predisposition of a person, regardless of race, to be intolerant or prejudiced without reason.

A second step in addressing the problem versus predicament issue: people with access to public forums must stop confusing the public by interchangeably using of the words “bigotry” and “racism.”

In America, we are all guilty of exhibiting some bigoted attitudes. In a number of instances, these attitudes are not race-specific. Two such instances would be some folks’ biased attitudes toward religion and gay rights. Adding to our predicament is the inability for us to discern when acts and statements are racially-motivated in a political context.

Step three: I am working under the assumption that those who run this country are aware of what the changing demographics portend for America’s future, when minorities become the majority. This knowledge is why some use the media to deliberately confuse the concepts of bigotry and racism. This is to create fear among the current majority population, so they will accept the unconstitutional political ploy of altering the “one person, one vote” rule of law at the state level.

Now do you understand the game that is being played America? The failure to do so is not only a shame on them. It’s a devastating shame on our race!

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