Racists Anonymous

This rather seems like Maoist criticism/self-criticism sessions. Is everything and everyone racist? Or is this about the Left manipulating people?

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/racists-anonymous-helping-to-make-people-aware-of-their-own-biases/

By JOHN BLACKSTONE CBS NEWS October 26, 2016, 7:24 PM
Racists Anonymous helping to make people aware of their own biases

SUNNYVALE, California -- “I’m Morgan and I’m a racist.”

“I’m Bonnie and I’m a racist.”

“I’m Darryl and I’m a racist.”

Something that is usually unspeakable is a conversation starter at a meeting of Racists Anonymous.

Participants in the multiracial group try to become more aware of their own biases.

“That means if an Arabic person gets on a plane and I automatically think ‘terrorist’,” one member gave as an example.

Their goal is to abolish racism from their communities by first eliminating it in themselves.

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Pastor Ron Buford CBS NEWS
“Often times we don’t even realize we’re being racist,” said Pastor Ron Buford, who started the weekly meetings last November at his Congregational Church in Sunnyvale, Calif.

He began holding the sessions after watching town after town get eaten up by hate and violence, so often born out of prejudice.

And the movement is growing. In less than a year, more than 50 churches in 22 different states have started Racist Anonymous meetings using Buford’s model.

“Black Lives Matter has made a wonderful impact in so many ways, but this is a different approach,” Buford said.

His program is focused on the individual. “Instead of talking about other people’s racism to say ‘it’s me,’” he said.


The revelations come in the smallest instances.

“There are a number of black people, and some of them have these weird names,” said Bonnie. “And somehow I just can’t remember those weird names and I feel very bad about it.”

“You might want to use unique or different, because I don’t think the mother would like you to say ‘Your child has a weird name, where’d you get Shaniqua from?’” responded Josie to laughs.

Morgan has been a participant since the beginning.

“I hadn’t considered myself a racist coming here,” he said. “Once we got into these discussions, it started me thinking … maybe there is a little bit of racism in everybody. And that I was one of them.”

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Racists Anonymous shares a hug CBS NEWS
“The reality is that the white experience in America, the black or brown experience in America, are so radically different that there is no way that the person who is white could even understand what’s happening to the black person, except it’s starting to happen. So I think people are coming to a place of discovery,” Buford said.

In a nation searching for answers, it is a small step. But it’s a step in the right direction.

© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Here's more:

http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2017/02/racists_anonymous_founder_says.html#incart_river_home

Racists Anonymous: founder says we all need to admit we're racist

Print Email Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on February 16, 2017 at 8:37 AM, updated February 16, 2017 at 2:47 PM
Ron Buford.jpg
The Rev. Ron Buford is a pastor and founder of Racists Anonymous.
Courtesy

More than a year ago, the Rev. Ron Buford added a new support group at his church, which he called Racists Anonymous.

It's based on the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program. "We have AA groups that meet here every day except Sunday," he said.

But Racists Anonymous is for everyone, because everyone is battling racism on some level, said Buford, who will be leading workshops in Birmingham on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Everyone who makes assumptions based on appearance, race, ethnicity - and we all do - needs to stand up and say, "I'm (name here), and I'm a racist," Buford said.

Buford has been the pastor of Sunnyvale Congregational Community United Church of Christ in California's Silicon Valley since 2015.

"Being an African-American person, working in the national setting of the church in the past, I would get asked to lead these discussions on race," Buford said.

They often ended badly because no one wants to admit they are racist in any way. They are only too glad to point it out in others, however.

"I decided, 'I'm not going to any more meetings until we can come up with a better way," Buford said.

"We would have these meetings and the black people would leave angry and the white people would leave guilty and it's not productive."

While traveling in London, he noticed that he was not being treated as condescendingly as he often experiences in America, but he saw others being treated that way.

"It was happening to people from Eastern Europe," he said. "Once they realized I was American, it didn't happen to me. Is there anyplace where one group of people doesn't look down on another? I haven't found one."

That's when he discovered that it's more helpful to take a broader approach and assume that we all carry the baggage of prejudice, even if we think we don't.


"Our attention to external differences is rooted in deeper anthropological things," he said. "Focus on those kinds of external differences is really primitive behavior and no longer serves us well. We're discarding people based on what they look like, what they believe and what they wear, instead of embracing their differences. I think race doesn't really exist as a genetic phenomenon. All these things are part of the same phenomenon, whether it's age, gender or wearing a headscarf. It's all part of our excluding people. We should treat it as an infectious disease."

That's when he started Racists Anonymous, and it began to click with people, once they realize they aren't being singled out and attacked for their beliefs.

"Racists Anonymous is not about other people's problems," Buford said. "When I go to Racists Anonymous, I'm dealing with my own racism."

The focus on "white privilege" doesn't help advance the discussion, Buford said. "I'd just call it racism."

Pointing fingers

Pointing fingers at others is easier than pointing a finger at oneself, he said.

"Back when we used to preach about hell, everybody knows somebody who's going to hell, but nobody believes he is personally going to hell," Buford said. "Everybody knows a racist, but nobody's a racist themselves. It's something we all do. We all do it."

Once we've confronted that the problem is in all of us, we can do something about it, Buford said.

"It is killing us, it is destroying our communities, robbing us of resources that could save lives," Buford said. "Maybe it is someone who could cure my child's disease, but we discarded them."

There's a theological parallel in the Christian faith's belief in original sin, Buford said.

"It's no different than people who go to church and want to believe they're not sinners," he said. "Of course they are. It's in the process of redemption that we're healed."

 

A good revenue source of so many states,
I hope they have deeper pockets to shoulder the penalties.

 

Yep!

It's about recognizing it and keeping it in check.

 

There is nothing wrong with racism or being a racist. If you want to beat yourself up over it, have at it. But please don't get holier than thou and start wagging your finger at the rest of us the normal folks.

 

We are conditioned to see and recognize patterns. We always will. Nothing can be done about it. It's not racist to see a pattern involving race.

 

Racism, the last weak insult a liberal can hurl after he gets his butt beaten sideways in an argument.

 

I have social anxiety disorder, so social expectations make me really anxious and withdrawn. For instance, if someone is sick I will avoid them because I can't deal with the fact that you're meant to feel sorry for them.

Unfortunately, the same goes for the strong expectation that you treat people of the same race equally. I play games in my head and convince myself I've been socially unacceptable towards their race.

This makes me shy around diverse people, which makes me look like some sort of closet racist.

 

Just as there is nothing wrong with being a sexual pervert...just keep it to yourself!

If it gets out of hand, then you should seek help.

 

You see racism as bad. Some of us don't. Let' just leave it at that.

 

Everyone has biases, aka racist beliefs. If you let those biases flavor all your decisions without any degree of restraint, that makes you a racist. You have the right to be racist, but don't expect anyone to play with you if they find out.

 

I already know I am a racist. Also it's debatable that I will always be ostracized by others if I let on that I am a racist. But thanks for your concern for me.

 

Nope, to be a racist would mean that skin color meant more to me than character. It does not and never really has.

 

Same here. Character is what matters. But I'm not a racist for seeing a pattern in the black community that embraces a (*)(*)(*)(*)ty character. Ie, thug culture.

 

True, Archie Bunker was racist, but everybody generally loved him too.

 

My point in regard to this is that given the poisonous character of the welfare state and it's destruction of the family that same set of pathologies would appear over time in any group regardless of race there were subject to the same nastiness over time. Wea re already beginning to see this in the poor of both Caucasians and Latinos as the welfare state begins to infect them exactly as it has African Americans.

 

Do you see the contradiction in your statement? Probably not, so let me point it out.

Character is revealed through time and circumstance, but racism won't bother investing in time to be proven wrong.

 

Which would be why I abhor snap judgements.

 

If pattern is all that you are seeing, then how could you invest in time to search for the exception?

 

There was no contradiction what so ever. At no point did he say he doesn't invest time. Leave it to a liberal to see something that doesn't exist. Lolol

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It's because I invest the time that I see the pattern.

 

If you are dealing with huge numbers of people, you don't have time to look for the "exceptions". You have to rely on pattern recognition.

 

Yep, animals do that all the time.

 

Keep your judgment to yourself. I already know you think racism and racists are bad. But feel free to make an actual counter-argument.

 

It's not a judgment, it's a fact.

Lower order mammals rely exclusively on simple pattern recognition. Higher order mammals, particularly Primates and Cetaceans, have larger brains because they are meant to read their own species with greater accuracy than just plain pattern recognition.

 

We hate Middle Eastern Muslims.
It is so funny how posters here think we are concerned about our global popularity or how misled they are thinking we are more concerned with being nice than we are with being secure, powerful, and wealthy.
We don't care if you think we aren't nice.
We don't care what other countries think of us at all.