Here’s a very good video clip with Jay Smooth that I found thanks to Racism Review that will help you challenge a person who makes a racist remark. The first and foremost thing you must do is stick to the that-sounded-racist conversation as opposed to they-are-racist conversation, according to Smooth.
Read original blog entry here. The video clip has gotten close to a million views.
“What they did conversation focuses on the person’s words and actions and why what they did and what they said was unacceptable,” he explained.
The problem with the they-are-racist conversation is that it will take your focus away from the issue.
“If somebody picks my pocket I’m not going to be chasing him down to find out if he feels like a thief deep down inside his heart,” said Smooth. “I’m going to be chasing him down to get my wallet. I don’t care what he is but I need to hold him accountable for what he did.”
We’ve heard it so many times before after a racist outburst the I’m-not-racist defense line.
In a nutshell we don’t care what you are but care about what you did and said.
The advice in the video clip offers the Finnish media, politicians and the public a way to challenge people who make racist comments.
Instead of calling Perussuomalaiset MP Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola and James Hirvisaari of Muutos 2011 racists, hold them instead accountable for what they have written and said.
Two of the four above-mentioned MPs, apart from Eerola and Immonen, have received sentences for ethnic agitation. Doing a google search on any of the four MPs will give you enough evidence to understand what they said sounded or was racist.
When the media doesn’t get it and doesn’t understand the difference, racists are usually given a platform to spread their prejudices. They give racists inflated respectability and importance.
Read Racism Review blog entry here.