Waypoint Podcast: Manveer Heir (Ex-BW Montreal) Talk EA Woes, Andromeda, Race, and Sexism

OH BOY...Here we go. I see you fall in to the whole " prejudice + power" crap. I love hearing this argument because it really speaks to the people who use it (and no I don't mean all black people). 

It basically states that I as a white man can be racist towards the Chinese here in America but when I step in to China I can no longer be racist. I have absolutely NO power in China what-so-ever. 

You're basically calling racism nothing more than a border dispute. It's stupid...

Tell that to the Irish in the 1840s...or Italians in the 1900s...or how about Russians in the 50s? If we're going to decry historical bits regarding slavery as evidence of one group of people over another is, in effect, your own form of prejudice on the subject.

Just to use Italians as the backdrop, did you know that one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S history was due to anti-Italian sentiment, which saw an angry mob lynch 11 Sicilian immigrants in New Orleans in 1890 because they believed they killed the mayor of New Orleans? A pretty famous guy at that time by the name of Teddy Roosevelt, before he was a pretty good president of the United States, considered it a "good thing" that this happened by the way.

In fact, Anti-Italianism was rampant at the turn of the century. It was where the Mafia stereotype became widespread, which was feeding anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment in the 1900s by many Americans...right down to the revival of the KKK in 1915 which pushed both of those as the "new wave of white nationalism" that would last until 1925.  I guess they were privlidged to be white though comparatively...but all the lynchings and slurs and stuff is not of lesser value. 

See, this is where you are completely wrong on most of those accounts, mostly because it's not about comparing slurs as being worse over each other as some sort of barometer of nastiness. We can compare historical records of different ethnic groups until the cows come home, but it's a moot point because it's not about which slur is better or worse for someone. Fact of the matter is all of them are bad to someone, and for some people just as offensive because of their experience, race, ethnicity and what have you. To say that one is always worse than the other because of historical events, or worse, because of a vaguely defined form of what we consider privilege to be,  is why these preconception don't hold water to me.

That, by its very nature from a psychological standpoint is showcasing personal prejudice on the subject without showing any empathy to the problem. Its like what I tell my students; talk to each other, learn from differences. Thankfully we live in New York so they are predisposed to it at times but the the issues of African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, LGBT-Americans, and the like are all one in the same when we boil it down to the bare form of racism and prejudice that fuels this hatred, dividing them based on artificial categorization is a major flaw in intersectional theory that gives that prejudice power. 

As I said, I'm talking about slavery based on skin color only, which is nothing like you mentioned. Also, the thing you mentioned of "anti-italianism" is true, but it happens with immigrants in general in U.S. It still happens a lot less than years past, fortunately. What you mentioned is more connected to xenophobia than racism (besides both being almost brothers sometimes). 

And as I said, as racism is a social construct, history, culture and society do matter on matters of comparison. Because, as I said, racism is structural. Calling you a "white boy" won't make cops shoot you more. Won't make you less likely to get jobs. Etc. 
I'm not saying it's right people calling "white boy" or whatever they call you, I'm saying it doesn't have the same weight as racism against black people. It's a fake symmetry. You can't just ignore everything and say that calling  a black person a monkey and call a white person a "white boy" is the same thing.