WHAT SHOULD BE DONE WITH RACISTS?

Racists would be the people who participate in racism whether it is institutional or interpersonal in its nature. When most people think of racists, they think of people engaging in interpersonal racism, but I think anyone who participates in upholding racist structures or institutions is indeed racist.

I know that won’t sit well with many folks because they view racists as people who act with a deliberate intent to cause harm, but I would contend that many people do not intend to cause harm. In fact, some people are relatively powerless in a social system, and they engage in racism even though they may think that it is wrong or harmful.

In his famous essay on racism and the American creed, sociologist, Robert Merton (1948) mentions a group of people he labels non-prejudice discriminators. These are people who do not hold prejudiced beliefs, but engage in discriminatory behavior.

I think in many cases non-prejudiced discriminators are relatively powerless. They are likely not as culpable as the people who create and enforce such racist policies. Moreover, we could also have social institutions that include people who are not racist in their interpersonal lives, but a part of systems that support institutional racism.

Many people immediately jump to a discussion of culpability when racism comes up–the key question they ask is, “Who is to blame?” However, I think if we just started from the point that blame is less important than eradicating racist behaviors and institutions, we would all be better.

Personally, I think everybody deserves a little blame, but some deserve more blame than others. For me culpability is directly related to power–the more power a person has the more culpability he or she has. Nevertheless, the blame discourse is not really going to get us further because it exacerbates social inequalities that already exist.

I’m not saying; don’t speak truth to power, but I am saying that it is important as a strategy to work of redistributing power more than placing blame.

The problem of racism threatens us all. Racists who seek to vent their financial and social frustrations by encouraging racisms against other races. What will happen to our country if we allow racists to run the country.

Cancer cells, which, like racists, perform no useful function and only cause damage, are controlled primarilly through amputation, isolation, or suppression. The same principles that save so many cancer victims can be applied to save society from racism as well.

Racism is a form of terrorism that the government has not yet fully recognized. Although everyone in the country knows exactly what racism is, our politicians are unable to define it. Indeed, some of them are themselves racists or members of racist groups and would be unwilling to do so.

A legal definition of racism would be the first step towards banning racists from politics. Only then could we provide the Malaysian dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people.

Most Malaysians are open to the idea of a fully integrated society, but racists are not. Therefore, the best solution, even from their own point of view, is to give them a place to live where there is no integration. Let all racists live among themselves in a separate place.

What may be most remarkable about these figures is that they show how little history matters in racism?