‘Don’t Call Me Racist!’: When the Accusation is Considered Worse than the Crime
- Published
- EqualiTeach
Picture: ITV
By Rachel Elgy
We are not short of headlines and Twitter trends talking about the latest argument about racism. The stories are often similar: a white person in a position of power and/or privilege gets called out for their actions or words which had a racist impact and responds by denying racism and doubling down on their actions or words.
We’ve seen it with the President of the United States, when, after claiming that four American Congresswomen, all women of colour, should ‘go back where they came from,’ also claimed that there’s not a ‘racist bone’ in his body.
We’ve seen it more recently with Eamonn Holmes responding to a tweet calling out This Morning for its biased coverage of Meghan Markle, responding by calling his accuser a ‘stupid bigoted arse’ and threatening to take her to court.
We’ve seen it with our own Prime Minister, who, when writing Islamophobic articles about women in niqabs looking like ‘bank robbers’ or ‘letter boxes’ was found to be fostering ‘respect and tolerance’ rather than Islamophobia.
And it is not just an issue with racist incidents, but across the board when it comes to prejudice. Protesters in Birmingham arguing against LGBT+ inclusive education are holding up placards which state ‘We are not homophobic.’ A man accused of sexual harassment and assault is suing his accusers for defamation.
So how has it become the case that accusations of prejudice are considered worse than the prejudice itself?
Invalidating peoples lived experience is not a new phenomenon in discussions of prejudice. It plays a central role in systemic racism and we see it time and again when white commentators take an incident of racism and turn it in to a question of whether racism even occurred, demanding people of colour to argue their own experience against absolute denial.
Denial and defensiveness are also common responses when someone’s unconscious bias and privilege are called out. When I highlighted unconscious bias within the Independent Press Standards Organisation on considering complaints of Islamophobia I was told angrily by the Chair that the Complaints Committee members are ‘influenced by nothing but their own minds!’
A new addition to these long-established responses of invalidation, denial and defensiveness, is the global reach of social media. Eamonn Holmes can send his angry response and immediately garner support, building an army of tweeters to band together and provide solidarity to him and further abuse to his accuser, whether or not they have seen the original actions in question.
Conversations on racism and prejudice require nuance, openness and reflection, which are not well suited to 280 characters typed in an angry defensive reply. Everything on social media is instant, current, spur of the moment, so it doesn’t allow that crucial time for someone to consider what they’re going to say before they say it.
Prejudice is also currently being validated and rewarded rather than punished, as we see people in the public eye let ‘off the hook’ for their damaging actions or comments, or even see them claim positions of greater power, such as Prime Minister of the UK.
There is a lack of understanding about racism and prejudice more generally, where they are understood only as individual, violent, targeted outbursts, rather than as attitudes, structures and barriers threaded throughout society.
Dismantling systems of oppression will not happen overnight. And even understanding how these systems work takes time. It would be unfair to expect Eamonn Holmes to respond to his accusation by immediately unpicking the implicit bias he’s surrounded by and campaigning against it (although that would be fantastic!)
How could he have responded to his accuser?
‘I didn’t intend any racism, and didn’t see it in this way, but perhaps I’ll watch it back to try and understand your point of view.’
‘I don’t understand how my words would be understood as racist, but am open to learning as I don’t want to come across in that way again’
Unlikely perhaps, but even saying nothing rather than angrily threatening to sue would have been better.
Because, and this is the crux of the matter, the impact of racism and discrimination is real, tangible, and huge, and is much much worse than a bruised ego or sense of righteousness.
Evidence shows that social inequality, alienation and discrimination are risk factors when it comes to mental health. Seemingly small incidents are known as ‘micro-aggressions’ which accumulate and can have a devastating impact on a person’s self-esteem, self-worth and can leave people living in fear of abuse. Invalidating someone’s lived experience does not excuse the discrimination, it adds to and amplifies it.
These responses of invalidation, denial and defensiveness are not good enough, and are holding us back from making real progress when it comes to equality. We need people in positions of power to lead by example, reflecting on how their actions and words serve to uphold systems of oppression, and learning from people with different experiences.
Until our leaders show us the way, we’ll have to do this work ourselves:
- Take time to learn about unconscious bias and reflect on your own views. We all have our own preconceived ideas, prejudices and assumptions, and it is our responsibility to take note of these, question and challenge them.
- Be open to conversations around privilege. It can feel uncomfortable to recognise how society implicitly benefits you over others, but remember it is possible to be privileged in one area of life and not in another, and that in recognising your own privilege you can then use it positively to be an ally and help remove barriers for others.
- Be honest about mistakes. We will all make mistakes, and the natural response is to be defensive. Be honest with yourself and apologise when you need to.
- Sit with your discomfort. Any discomfort you feel about your own prejudice, privilege, or the mistakes you’ve made will not be close to the discomfort experienced by targets of discrimination. Sit with it, acknowledge it, and then work out how you can turn your discomfort into positive action.
- Think twice before joining a twitter army: what are you defending? What are the facts? Are there several perspectives to consider in this discussion? Will my contribution add some nuance to the debate? Is this even a topic for debate, or is someone’s experience being belittled and invalidated?
EqualiTeach have written about overcoming denial to be an ally in anti-racism and understanding privilege. We also deliver training on unconscious bias, effectively challenging prejudice, and recognising and responding to prejudice-related incidents. Get in touch for more information.
- Categories: Race & Ethnicity
- Tags: Eamonn Holmes, Prejudice, Racist, Unconscious bias
13 responses
I’m in my own anti-racist journey, and been a white man I am often confused with the “enemy”. I’ve learned to accept criticism as mentioned in the article because of a deep feeling of empathy, considering that if I am not a racist because of my actions or words, I am for my inaction, “blind colored” attitudes and lack of understanding of the privileges that my color and gender gave to me for free in my birth. I just get sad that as part of my education and journey, I’ve been in some forums where I see myself as a minority, and unfortunately attacks are often and free (“what this white dude doing here?” attitude). In a live session recently about mental health during the pandemic, the psychologist that was leading the session mentioned that most of her clients were black, although she accepts white people as well, but not as her target public. One of the participants mentioned that she must charge extra whenever she treated white people for making her office filthy, unhealthy. Some others seemed to agree and laughed at it. I could not stop thinking that although I can one more time understand where they are coming from, and did not respond at all to what occurred to me as an aggression, makes me just sad to think that me and others are also been judged by the color of our skin. To have and build preconceived ideas about others is somehow part of the human nature, and must be discussed as part of any conversation about how the future looks like, as we want more diversity, equality and inclusive environments for everyone. I am now more aware, and been aware I can do my (small) share for us all to get there. I am not the enemy, the other way around, so how can I succeed been perceived a strategic ally?
Thanks for your comment Nicholas. Certainly we agree that it’s not helpful to see this as an enemies and allies binary and it’s a shame that this is so often part of the conversation. Listening and reflecting is key to understanding. There is lots of reading about how to be a white ally – here’s a reading list with some suggestions we’ve put together: http://www.equaliteach.co.uk/reject-racism
Whilst I fully agree with majority of this article, I do wonder if there is a small area of worry here. By taking the position that the accuser is always correct, and the accused always guilty of bigotry or prejudice (in whatever form) may potentially not do anything to help solve the issue. Apologies if I’ve misunderstood your implication!
Hi Graeme, thanks for your comment. The blog post is suggesting that when someone is accused of prejudice, rather than becoming immediately defensive, doubling down, or lashing out, as are common reactions, particularly from those in the public eye, that a more appropriate response would be to pause, listen and reflect. We are all influenced in lots of ways and will have prejudices and assumptions that are often unconscious, so it’s important that we remain open to hearing alternative perspectives, listening to how our actions may have negatively impacted others (even if that wasn’t our intent), and learning. In the conversation about racism and how we as a society can challenge it, there is often too much focus on white people feeling angry at having been said to be racist, than listening to those who experience actual racism, and there lies the problem this blog is seeking to address.
People are also defensive when wrongly accused. To say that being defensive is evidence of guilt is flawed logic . It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t argument. Akin with the witch trials where you were only innocent of charges if you died from drowning. There is no ‘way out’ for people accused of prejudice even when it is a wrong assumption because the keyboard warriors know nothing about the person behind the one-liner they’re referring to.Twitter is the worst place for expressing any opinion because the word length doesn’t allow for proper expression and ensures plenty of room for ambiguity.
Yes people should examine their use of words carefully but at the same time we should also not be calling out so much that people are too afraid to say anything incase their words are being taken out of context, copied and held against them. It happens and it happens a lot. Is it worse than being on the receiving end of racism? Of course not, but that said … for some, if they lose their job, relationship, a home because of wrongful accusations then is is harmful. Very much so.
A high profile person being called out as racist can end their career. If they are racist, justifiably so but if they are not? How does someone prove they are not racist? They can’t. Especially if they are a white male it appears.
We need open dialogue not fear of speech.
Thanks for your comment. We agree that open dialogue is essential in addressing issues of equality effectively. As the blog addresses, there is a widespread misunderstanding about racism (and other forms of prejudice), assuming that it only involves explicit acts of violence or deliberate hurtful behaviour. However, very often racism can be unintentional, can come from unconscious assumptions and biases, or be part of systems and structures that make it more hidden. When someone engages in a racist comment or action, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are intrinsically racist, but that the action or statement was harmful. The fact that it is unintentional does not remove any of the impact or harm of the incident. The blog doesn’t call for anyone to lose their jobs, but rather asks that when someone highlights a problematic incident, that the initial reaction isn’t to shut them down, be defensive, or, as Eamonn Holmes was in the example mentioned, abusive, but to open a dialogue to better understand the different perspectives of those involved and learn from the incident moving forward. We absolutely agree that Twitter is rarely an appropriate space for these discussions to take place safely.
As a very recent victim of racist hate crime in London (verbal abuse + threat to destroy my phone on 09/09/2022) I wanted to offer another perspective on this.
I agree that an immediate defensive reaction by the accused is unhelpful. However, I feel it is important to distinguish between the actions of the accused and the personality and character of the accused. In my case, the perpetrator’s actions were racist. This does not automatically mean that the perpetrator is racist although it is certainly evidence for that proposition.
For the sake of argument, if our roles were reversed, I would expect to have a legal avenue of redress open to me at least until I were tried and convicted of a crime. Conversely, as a victim, it is important that my attempts to catch and prosecute my perpetrator remain legally beyond reproach, to avoid damaging the court case against him. This means it is not appropriate to call my perpetrator racist or label him as racist at this stage, but it is appropriate to describe the crime as a racist hate crime. People can draw their own conclusions about the perpetrator’s character when they hear about his actions.
I should add that I have tried to obtain legal advice on my position but haven’t yet received any.
Thank you for your comment, and sorry to hear about your experience, I hope you receive some further support.
We absolutely agree that when tackling prejudicial attitudes or behaviours it’s important to focus on the action/comment/behaviour itself rather than the person- in the opening paragraph it gives the example of someone being called out “for their actions or words which had a racist impact”, not “for being racist.” Working on recognising prejudicial attitudes and behaviours and highlighting their impact, can hopefully lead to change.
Hi I’m a white British man.
I’m a manager in a firm where we have 5-6 different nationalities.
I have never had an issue with any race or nationality at all.
But now I’m a manager I see the swing that if I ask anyone to do anything and they do not want to do I get comments like “he’s only asking me because I’m foreign”.
One case is that one worker was in an area he wasn’t permitted to be (office that should have been locked for safety and protection) when I asked him what he was doing in there his response was “you are a racist” this worker has on many occasions called me a “white British bastard”
I fully understand the issues with racism and am fully behind having a world that doesn’t have any prejudice but how can racism just be chucked into everything when asking people to do things.
And me as a white person feels I can’t go cowards and make a complaint about me being called “a white British bastard”
Thank you for your comment and sharing your experience.
It can be difficult to see the barriers that may exist throughout a workplace for people with different identities and characteristics, unless they are barriers that impact you, so internal consultations can be useful to explore how the workplace can improve with regards to equality, diversity and inclusion.
It’s really important that workplaces foster a professional environment, that is inclusive and welcoming to all, in order to get the best out of all employees. Workplaces should have processes in place through which ALL inappropriate or offensive behaviour can be reported, as well as suitable processes through which prejudice-related incidents, comments or behaviour can be reported. Having clear processes in place helps to ensure a safer, more productive, and more pleasant environment for everyone.
The arguments raised by the author in this blog are interesting, but flawed (please don’t feel immediately defensive here). As someone who has recently been accused of ‘racial profiling’ whilst carrying out their job, I do feel aggrieved and I do feel angry, but that doesn’t make me defensive (or racist). As you point out, it is important to know the facts before jumping to a conclusion or before ‘lashing out’. In my particular example, I was managing security and safety at a UK university immediately prior to a pre-notified demonstration about an external speaker coming to campus. The soul aim of the protest was to disrupt and prevent (if at all possible) that person from speaking, which could take this conversation down a completely different ‘rabbit hole’ on freedom of speech. The behaviours displayed by a person I honestly believed was carrying out hostile reconnaissance that day meant they were identified as being suspicious. This related to identifying numbers of security personnel and physical security weaknesses. They walked into the building where the talk was being held, walked all around where security officers were stationed, they opened a fire door, but didn’t leave via it, and then left. Odd behaviours, most certainly. I asked for the person to be stopped and spoken to, and identified. Their immediate reaction was that they had been ‘racially profiled’ and they became angry, defensive and objectionable. When I tried to explain that they hadn’t been racially profiled, but it was simply their behaviours being the reason they had been spoken to, there was no moment of reflection, no taking a moment to ‘sit in their discomfort’, no owning mistakes, simply a lashing out in defence. If I was to tell you that this person was wearing a black beanie hat pulled down as far as possible, a full face mask that covered the vast majority of their face, and glasses, so that only a small portion of skin was visible, what would you say? If I was then to tell you that the colour of the skin that was visible was white, what would you say? As someone who has been trained in equality in all its forms, in unconscious bias, and in cultural awareness and anti-racism, I find my accuser deplorable and dishonest, and why shouldn’t I feel angry about that? Not defensive, but angry. Finally, it turns out my accuser is an academic, a professor actually, and now I’ve been invited to speak to the University’s Race Equality Taskforce to explain my actions due to ‘concerns’ having been raised. The whole agenda can be toxic when used in the wrong way, which is a shame when there are real issues and real victims of racism who need support. Please try to understand and respect my right to feel unjustly accused, and to feel anger. Thanks
Thank you for your comment and sharing your experience. Whilst we don’t wish to comment on your individual circumstance, there are some further aspects that can be considered.
The definition of a racist incident, recommended in the report following the inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s murder, is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf page 376, recommendation 12).
This doesn’t mean that any incident claimed to be racist necessarily is, but it ensures that all reports are taken seriously, and investigated. Whilst we understand it must feel unpleasant to find yourself involved in this investigation, it is actually an example of the University following due process. If an individual perceives an incident to be racist it is important that it is taken seriously and fully investigated. An incident might be found, through the investigation, not to have been racist, in which case this can be explained to all parties. It may be deemed to have been unintentionally racist, in which case it can be a learning opportunity for all involved. And, of course, some incidents are discovered to have been intentionally racist and can then be dealt with accordingly.
The blog is referring, quite explicitly, to individuals with positions of power, such as TV hosts, celebrities, politicians, who have time and again demonstrated a defensive and unhelpful approach in response to being called out for racist words or actions, rather than recognising an opportunity to learn. The accusation of racism itself is being treated as an affront, when in fact calling out prejudicial behaviour is essential if we are to move towards a more equal, inclusive and fair society. In the examples shared in the blog, the person raising the issue often finds themselves under further attack, causing further harm.
It is important to remember the impact of racism on individuals and their communities. If someone regularly experiences racism and microaggressions, this takes a huge toll on their wellbeing, and can lead to feeling unsafe and vulnerable even in places that should be supportive and inclusive such as their place of work. Being accused of racism may of course feel uncomfortable, and may feel unjust, but it does not equate to the significant impact of experiencing racism.
As someone who has studied anti-racism, unconscious bias etc, I’m sure you can understand the need for due processes to ensure that targets of racism are receiving the support they need and that racist incidents are being tackled effectively. You mention ‘real issues’ and ‘real victims’, but without processes by which incidents can be reported and fully investigated, how are we to identify those issues and victims and deal with them appropriately?
We hope that the situation you shared has a positive resolution and thanks again for engaging in this important conversation.