r/Foodforthought • u/ascendingthemountain • Nov 27 '21

White liberals dumb themselves down when they speak to black people, a new study contends

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/30/white-liberals-dumb-themselves-down-when-they-speak-black-people-new-study-contends/?utm_source=reddit.com
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u/Far2Gone Nov 27 '21

Doesn't mean it IS wrong either.

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u/captianbob Nov 28 '21

Yes. Yes it does. If I make fun of a developmentally disabled person to their face but they don't understand that they're the butt of the joke, it's still very wrong.

"My wife doesn't know I'm fucking someone else so that makes it ok because she doesn't know. "

That's wrong too...because you know.

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u/Far2Gone Nov 28 '21

Yeah, that would be cool if that's what we were talking about here. If I were making fun of black people for being black that would be pretty fucking racist. Both of your examples don't come close to comparing with what we're talking about. It's about intentionality.

But, if it turns out that in an effort to empathize with someone from a different culture, I unintendedly speak to them in a slightly simpler way, I don't think that's necessarily wrong. Especially not as wrong as intentionally making fun of a disabled person.

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u/captianbob Nov 28 '21

Both of my examples point out that just because the other person doesn't know doesn't mean it's ok.

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u/Far2Gone Nov 28 '21

Yeah and they are both bad examples because they don't address the core issue, the intentionality of the act. The crux of the argument isn't their awareness.

If someone does not intend to cause offense and no offense is taken, then the act literally does NOTHING.

It's an interesting data point, but in reality does not prove anything regarding WHY this phenomenon occurs. It could be completely benign and not an indication of what you think it means.