Is benevolent racism a thing?

Consistent_Term3928 · 2024-01-30T19:25:13+00:00

Is there benevolent racism, or benevolent homophobia?

See: "White savior complex"

NullableThought · 2024-01-30T20:52:38+00:00

Yes of course it's a thing

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_prejudice

phoenician_anarchist · 2024-01-30T12:43:17+00:00

"benevolent sexism" is actually just sexism against men, but because they have defined sexism as something that only women deal with they have to re-frame it like this. You can easily apply the same fuckery to racism, etc. too.

Vegetable_Camera5042 · 2024-01-30T22:15:23+00:00

It's called the bigotry of low expectations or white savior complex.

And when it comes to benevolent homophobia. It is assuming all gay men are naturally feminine.

And thinking that's a good thing because that stereotype makes gay men less threatening to women. But in reality they just view gay men as "weak".

(I.E. straight women and bisexual women not wanting to date bisexual men, because they view bi men as less masculine or not "real men")

Whole_W · 2024-01-30T20:56:55+00:00

Oh that's the problem with modern (3rd and 4th wave) feminism, they try to compare structural sex-based oppression with structural racism and whatnot. Sex-based oppression is far more complicated, and subjugates both individual males and individual females under its rule. For one thing, it's possible to basically separate people of different races from each other, with one group on top of another, whereas the two sexes are always connected as part of the same social community by nature. An additional difference is that there are true biological differences between the sexes that affect how society operates (i.e females give birth, males don't), whereas the biological differences between the "races" are more superficial in nature.

As for your question: no, I don't think there's really many (if any) advantages to being a member of a minority ethnicity or sexual orientation in a society which oppresses said group. Once you get to the point of the society making up for its wrongs of the past then yes, there may be, but not as the worst of it is actively occurring. This is unlike sexism, where you see men being used for things like hard labor and war while women are spared during the worst of sexist times.

Skaared · 2024-01-30T20:56:12+00:00

As modern academics define it, racism is an oppressive combination of privilege and power. This definition assumes racism is oppression and therefore bad. Oppressing the oppressor class is just good progressive policy and not racism of any kind.

kuavi · 2024-01-30T21:15:47+00:00

I don't see why not.

"Benevolent *insert category*" really just means you treat that category of people better than another category of people because of their gender/skin color/etc rather than the person.

This negatively impacts people outside that group who have to work harder to gain the same level of admiration/respect as the person/people inside that particular category.

Tevorino · 2024-01-30T22:34:06+00:00

The way that white people are typically treated in east Asian countries could reasonably be described as "benevolent racism". It's also something that many white people go out of their way to experience, i.e. they see it as an advantage, not a problem.

That isn't to say that benevolence can't ever be a serious problem, just that if people will go out of their way to experience a form of benevolent prejudice, then there is something off base about placing all the focus on the prejudice aspect.

ChargeProper · 2024-01-31T17:09:35+00:00

I think I can speak to benevolent racism, which usually comes from people who call themselves, "allies".

It's basically the bigotry of low expectations, the idea that someone is helping you not because you are a fellow human being who needs help, but because you are an uneducated invalid who needs taking care of.

There was this video I watched on YouTube by Patience Dina who talked specifically about why she was sceptical of people who called themselves allies.

She shows a group of Americans who were asked why they think the local black population didn't turn out to vote, and the ones who considered themselves allies assumed that black people were too poor it uninformed to get their IDs, while others assumed that the local black people couldn't read so they probably didn't know about the voting process, it that they didn't have phones or access to the internet.

The interviewer then asked a bunch of black people in the area if they had their IDs and could read, and it was affirmative answers across the board. The actual reason was much closer to them not believing that anything would change if they voted, but the default of some of these allies was to assume that the people couldn't really do much for themselves, leaning into problematic stereotypes.

Obviously there are some things you can't overcome in life without help, but this idea that some of these people who call themselves allies have, of being the only ones who can help because black people don't know any better, that's when it becomes patronising.

Theyre doing what they do because they think you're stupid, and that they are the only ones who can educate you, which comes across colonialist to me because it evokes that whole "educating the savages" thing (I grew up in a former colony so such thought patterns are hard not to notice).

DemolitionMatter · 2024-01-30T22:16:07+00:00

Yes the left engages in it

BKEnjoyerV2 · 2024-02-01T02:57:20+00:00

I mean there’s always the soft bigotry of low expectations, even though that was popularized by Bush conservatives

Low_Rich_5436 · 2024-02-01T14:02:06+00:00

I was educated in a catholic school close to the missionnary movements in the late nineties early 2000.

We had various project of cooperation with Africa. Students had countless lectures to attend, videos to watch and ethnic music concerts to go to about Africa. The general message was always "look at how happier, nicer, more peaceful they are than us". It always seemed a bit sketchy how the teachers marvelled at anything african regardless of the actual merits. The most mediocre music, words of arts and crafts were automatically deserving of awe.

I remember especially a conference from an african guy about the differences between our culture and theirs. At one point he observed how europeans have no gratitude. That when they reach positions of power or importance, they don't give back to their former teachers, family members and such. My teachers were all over that.

I raised my hand and commented that using your position of power to make gifts to your accointances is called corruption. They looked all dumbfounded and could only concede my point. They hadn't thought of that at all.

Prejudice is when you turn off your "think critically" function and tuen on your "preconceived perception" fuction. If your prejudice is that anything african is good, then corruption is good if it's african.

That's racism. It's not really holding people to lower of higher standards, it's to hold them to no standard at all, and think the same regardless of what they are or do.

I don't believe prejudice can be classified between good and bad. They are the same phenomenon. First form an opinion, then make the facts fit in it.

SchalaZeal01 · 2024-02-01T23:52:41+00:00

it too would imply seeing women as less capable (open a door for a women, just like you might assist a child in carrying a box) without seeing them as any less of a person or equal member of society

It's aristocrat VIP treatment, not handicapped treatment. The rich person with 50 servants is not 'unable to prepare food' or 'unable to drive a car', they have people to do that sort of thing.

_MyAnonAccount_ · 2024-02-02T07:33:41+00:00

Yeah, absolutely. People are seen as more sexually attractive, socially desirable, intelligent, etc because of their skin all the time. I think the racist beliefs behind that, causes a lot of outright negative racism though. I'm not sure "positive discrimination" can exist in a vacuum

Title	Is benevolent racism a thing?
Author	deskjawi
Upvotes	23
Comments	22
Date	January 30, 2024 6:12 AM UTC (2 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/1aehnkr/is_benevolent_racism_a_thing/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/is-benevolent-racism-a-thing.1244153 https://theredarchive.com/post/1244153

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