As an overarching dogma, I propose not to take institutional or unconscious racism as a starting point, but diversity – understood as a messy and exciting place where we, with all those labels, meet each other. During those encounters, we react to each other. That is when there can be a racist reaction, by reacting application practice of cdn network accelerator negatively to a label or by sticking negative labels on others a priori.
So then the question is: how do you respond to people who react negatively to ethnic labels (‘Moroccan’) or consciously stick negative ethnic labels on others (‘cancer Jew’)? So it is not about us sticking labels as such – that is human. It is about us being able to give a negative judgment to those labels or stick negatively charged labels on others.
Learning to cope with being different
Although I am a partner in a( Talking about Taboos ), I am afraid I do not have a ready-made answer to the question of how to respond to online racism. My proposal would be that we drop the requirement to be ‘authentic’.
In the analysis of Zygmunt Bauman ( in his book Liquid Life, aff. ) we live in a hyper-globalized consumer society in which authenticity has become an advertising slogan. According to Bauman, we are not worthy individuals with important traditions. We are anxious consumers who live in permanent uncertainty because of the speed at which everything around us is developing. We have to run to stay in line – or slide to a point where we are permanently excluded.
The only way for Bauman to retain some dignity in our society is to learn to deal with being different. We china numbers have to be able to enter into dialogue with others, to negotiate with others, to come to an understanding
A with others and to resolve conflicts with others
Dialogue
In this view, negative labeling or putting negatively charged labels on people is a destructive act that communication-channels-illustration-fotolia makes it harder to interact with others and undermines our dignity. My preliminary answer to my question: only by entering into a dialogue with others and trying to come to an understanding with them can we respond to racist expressions.
My answer, however, precludes dialogue with committed racists. I agree with anti-racism activist Tim Wise, who states in the video below: ‘If we are really in a place where there is this much open hostility (…) then nothing I say (…) is going to solve this problem.’
