Something like 40+% of America seems perfectly content to vote for steaming piles of racist garbage.
The average makeup of software companies (white, male) overlaps heavily with that 40% demographic (and yes, does not overlap in other demographics).
I think it's a safe assumption that software companies are in a similar ballpark.
Yes yes. Being ok voting for explicit, horrific, racist people for purportedly different and important goals does not make you an actual racist. Not in your book, anyway. I'm at least as tired ignoring this statement as you are trying to believe it.
Apologies. You here read in the general sense, not the parent post
> Something like 40+% of America seems perfectly content to vote for steaming piles of racist garbage.
Yes, and? This doesn’t mean 40% of America is racist.
People can’t line item features out of people and they vote for the sum of all parts.
If I had to choose between a racist plumber who was competent and a non-racist, incompetent; I will likely choose the racist plumber. I don’t think I’m racist. But this now means that I support systemic racism in some way. But then we all do, including victims even. So I think the important factor is whether people choose the best option given all factors.
Since everything is mixed together it’s hard to tell someone’s intent is racist or non-racist. Or to tell us racism has a significant effect on a particular item. When we spend time calling out many random things (like this dumb product potentially being extra dumb because it might increase systemic racism) I think it detracts from the actual work of increasing human equality.
> If I had to choose between a racist plumber who was competent and a non-racist, incompetent; I will likely choose the racist plumber
No doubt. But this analogy fails in two ways when applied to politics.
1) The republican party is often given the chance to vote in a primary where they are given the option of several competent "plumbers". They almost always choose (and often overwhelmingly so) the piece of shit racist.
2) The people we choose to represent us in government are, in a fundamental way, reflecting the values we want represented in our society. Because their values will be reflected in the laws they pass, how they apportion money, and the diplomacy and wars they wage. So racism is an explicit job qualification rather than an irrelevant secondary factor like in the plumbing example.
And that is why voting for an explicitly, unapologetic, racist politician (in my mind) absolutely also makes you racist.
Re:#1
I wouldn’t call Bush, McCain, not Romney “piece of shit racists.” If you think they are racist, please describe. Or they are racist in the way everyone is racist due to systemic racism. Or another way, they aren’t racist in a notable way.
I agree to some extent. I think there was a seismic shift which happened when Barack Obama won the presidency.
That said, a lot of their policy positions had the direct consequence of harming minority demographics. Whether it was with explicit racist intent or not, who knows. Today's politicians are making it very clear that those consequences are the explicit intent
The average makeup of software companies (white, male) overlaps heavily with that 40% demographic (and yes, does not overlap in other demographics).
I think it's a safe assumption that software companies are in a similar ballpark.
Yes yes. Being ok voting for explicit, horrific, racist people for purportedly different and important goals does not make you an actual racist. Not in your book, anyway. I'm at least as tired ignoring this statement as you are trying to believe it.
Apologies. You here read in the general sense, not the parent post