{"id":17455,"date":"2020-11-02T00:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T04:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=17455"},"modified":"2020-11-13T14:57:58","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T18:57:58","slug":"racist-talk-white-fragility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/","title":{"rendered":"Racist Talk: The Subtle Ways You Perpetuate Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is racist talk? Is it just using racist expletives or something more?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Racist talk can come even from people who believe they are not racist. It is the subtle way euphemisms are used to cover up the racist undertones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to understand racist talk as discussed in <em>White Fragility<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Racist Talk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Even as they disavow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/overt-racism-white-fragility\/\">overt racism<\/a>, white people act in myriad ways to bolster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-institutional-racism\/\">institutional racism<\/a>. <\/strong>This is reflected in the ways that white people speak to each other about racial topics\u2014often without ever explicitly mentioning race at all. This phenomenon is known as \u201crace talk\u201d and it is racist talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many experiences of ordinary American life are thick with racial meaning, even when they appear on the surface to be race-neutral. For example, white people automatically associate blackness with crime, danger, and undesirability. In part, this stems from living in highly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/segregated-communities\/\">segregated communities<\/a>, as most white Americans still do. If you seldom come into contact with people of color, then your perceptions of them will come from stereotypes and media-amplified misrepresentations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>White people will engage in race talk on the topic of black crime by expressing concern about the \u201ccharacter\u201d of a neighborhood, the test scores at a local school, or declining property values. Race does not have to be mentioned at all. It is assumed by all white participants in such a conversation that these negative attributes are definitionally tied to blackness. Such conversations serve to reinforce solidarity between white people (a topic we\u2019ll delve into later in the chapter) and solidify white attitudes about the rightful ordering of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racial-hierarchy-white-fragility\/\">racial hierarchy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These attitudes, in turn, guide white <em>actions<\/em>. Thus, in a phenomenon known as \u201cwhite flight,\u201d white Americans will leave neighborhoods that are becoming more diverse (one study showed that even a tiny 7 percent African-American population in a neighborhood can trigger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/suburban-flight\/\">white flight<\/a>), citing the desire to send their children to \u201cgood\u201d schools. <strong>Although it\u2019s not spoken, the assumption is that a \u201cgood\u201d school is one attended by few minorities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, such actions lead to real-world consequences, like underfunded schools and segregation, that are enormously harmful to people of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This all speaks to a crucial point\u2014<strong>nearly all<\/strong> <strong>white people contribute to systemically racist <\/strong><strong><em>outcomes<\/em><\/strong><strong>, even when they believe themselves to harbor no ill will toward people of color. <\/strong>These outcomes matter far more than whatever <em>intentions <\/em>white people may believe themselves to be motivated by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is racist talk? Is it just using racist expletives or something more? Racist talk can come even from people who believe they are not racist. It is the subtle way euphemisms are used to cover up the racist undertones. Read on to understand racist talk as discussed in White Fragility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,20,24],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-17455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-ethics","category-society","tag-white-fragility","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Racist Talk: The Subtle Ways You Perpetuate Racism - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Racist talk is often disguised by something benign. For example, a &quot;good&quot; neighborhood may be code for predominantly white. Read more here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Racist Talk: The Subtle Ways You Perpetuate Racism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Racist talk is often disguised by something benign. For example, a &quot;good&quot; neighborhood may be code for predominantly white. Read more here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-02T04:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-13T18:57:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1703\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Racist Talk: The Subtle Ways You Perpetuate Racism\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-02T04:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-13T18:57:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/\"},\"wordCount\":415,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"White Fragility\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Communication\",\"Ethics\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/\",\"name\":\"Racist Talk: The Subtle Ways You Perpetuate Racism - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racist-talk-white-fragility\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/communication-7-habits-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-02T04:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-13T18:57:58+00:00\",\"description\":\"Racist talk is often disguised by something benign. 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