"Zero-tolerance" policies are stupid by definition -- they are saying explicitly "We are not going to think about this, we are going to behave in automatic, i.e. unintelligent, ways."
This is how we get to cases like Cavani's, or little boys expelled from school for bringing plastic butter knives to make their lunch sandwiches.
I mention this because I've seen a tendency to think that there are good-and-bad ZTPs, and we just need to keep the good ones and weed out the bad ones. No. There is never a good enough reason for installing an Off switch on our minds, and there's no such thing as a ZTP that can't lead to an idiotic -- not to mention unfair and harmful -- application.
It's a good point but it's supposed to be a zero tolerance policy towards racism. This was one 'white' personal calling another 'white' person a term of endearment based on the color of his hair. This is extending the bounds of racism to a ridiculous degree. I hope the EPL is being ridiculed for this decision and Cavani is hiring a lawyer. We still live in a society of laws and reason, and we have courts to guard us against this kind of reactionary nonsense.
Cavani criticized the measure, but is not willing to fight. The lawyers surely recommended to pay the fine and forget about it.
Perhaps it is more convenient for him (it is a very time consuming minefield, you have to study, ask questions, develop new understandings of various racial and cultural contexts). But it is sad news for the international public debate. We need to have this conversation.
Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. ZTPs are supposed to save time in decision making. Unfortunately, many of these decisions are too complex for ZTPs to be useful. If protecting an organization from lawsuits is the only goal, a shiny/automatic measure may work. But it probably won't be creating a real, positive, lasting impact for racialized people.
I feel like sometimes we are pulling strings in a contradictory playing field: anti-racist measures may have a positive impact but at the same time --unfortunately-- fuel societal racism. In that context, any anti-racist strategy should aim to prioritize initiatives that have the most positive impact and do the least damage.
Everyone left-of-center in the US should read this. The harsh racial lines in the US don’t necessarily reflect global cultural attitudes. This article reminds me of an experience I had several years ago. I met a friend visiting from Shanghai in NYC. We stopped for a cocktail at a chic bar. She invited a friend from South Korea to join us. Let’s call the friend Lee. Our server was Indian. As he was walking away from the table, Lee openly began to imitate his accent and mannerisms. My friend and I cringed, and told Lee that in the US, making fun of other races is considered taboo. She asked why. We started to explain but quickly realized we were falling into a cultural abyss. There was no way to bridge the gap and why should we.
The harsh racial relations in America are unique. Native peoples were wiped out. Slavery ruled for two hundred years. The mingling of races was illegal until recently. The Right tries to downplay this history; the Left now makes it the center of everything. In reality, America has little to teach the rest of the world about race relations.
No one should be so naive to think their country’s cultural rules are universal or that their country’s demographic categories make sense in other cultures. The American experience is so different from others.
Excellent commentary on what is indeed a highly complex issue. You are right - context is everything. While the simple black/white paradigm does not apply in most of Latin America and the Caribbean, there are other things going on below the surface. When I lived in the Dominican Republic, for example, it was an article of faith that someone as black as José Peña Gómez couldn't be elected president, despite being the country's most popular politician. I am American, and fondly would call my Venezuelan partner "negra" from time to time, as one might do in the Caribbean. Then Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's throat until he died, and the racil divide in the U.S. returned to front and center in the global conversation. My girlfriend told me to to strop calling her "negra." Context is everything.
“rather than stable and predetermined, racial identities can shift across contexts and even within specific interactions. Analyzing these raciolinguistic practices allows us to imagine the possibilities for destabilizing hegemonic and oppressive processes of racial categorization”
H. Samy Alim, John R. Rickford, and Arnetha F. Ball (2016) Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race
I can attest from personal experience that Dariela Sosa is spot on that this word does not have negative connotations in Latin America. About 20 years ago, I made the first of many visits to Brazil, spending several weeks with a friend and his family in Assis, a small agricultural city in eastern Sao Paulo state. One of the local people my friend introduced me to was his close friend Sabino, a Black man who to my surprise he referred to as "my little Negro". When I asked him about it, explaining that in the U.S. this would be seen as highly offensive, he told me that it was a common and normal term of endearment between good friends, pointing out that Sabino referred to him (in Portuguese, which I didn't speak) as "my little Mutt" (my friend is one of many Brazilians of mixed race, four different ethnic backgrounds). What I learned is that cultural norms vary greatly, and it's incumbent on all of us not to judge other people-cultures by our norms-values of appropriateness. As Ms. Sosa states " Applied without regard for social, cultural and linguistic context, antiracism efforts risk becoming a caricature of themselves, driving a wedge between people of different cultures rather than bringing them together.... The English Football Association, with its over-the-top sanction of Cavani, managed instead to show only mindless adherence to a brand of maximalist Anglo-American antiracism ideology that does little to combat racism itself". A reasonable response might have been to ask Cavini to explain the context of the world Negrito in his culture, or even to ask him to remove the post so as not to risk misunderstanding. To punish and fine him is beyond obscene and makes a mockery of efforts to combat the very real racism that sadly exists all over the world.
Let me share with you a question I would like to explore in future articles: How can we design a sensible, helpful framework to cooperate internationally in the fight against discrimination?
Dariela, I think your story is exactly what's needed, as well as forums like Persuasion in general. It's a really difficult problem to address, how to both fight racism and fight the kind of silly anti-Racism concepts that turn people off and as such are actually counter-productive. I'm not sure what the path is, but I know we need more of what you wrote. I can't believe Mr. Cavani isn't going after them legally, people need to stand up for common sense everywhere. What bothers me is that many of the people going overboard on these complex issues in the U.S. and I guess the U.K. too, which I know less of, are privileged white young people who have little understanding of different cultural norms. Somehow MLK's message of a constant walk towards racial equality has been overshadowed by PC cancel culture. IDK exactly what to do, but we sure need to do something!
Greetings Ms Sosa, I think that your note misses two important issues. The first is that the EPL response represents their lack of cultural competence. A well informed and educated organization would have captured the nuance you share and use it as an educational opportunity. The second is that, although the contextual aspects of race in latin countries that you describe exists (as it does in part of the US), there is substantive evidence that colorism in latin countries has an economic effect, i.e., being darker and poor are highly correlated.
And that is the problem of context emblazoned. Since the relationship between skin color and poverty are completely unrelated to terms of endearment. Mi'Jito? Mi'Jita? Age too; yet context allows that one so far. Should that cost $100's of thousands in a fine too? Go Grrl? Intent really does matter.
Racial relations in LatAm are far from perfect, and I devote some paragraphs to that in the article. Discrimination based on color does exist, I just don't think the best way to fix the negative effects of colorism is to ban a word. Moreover, I dislike the metamessage it sends that being black is bad. I'd like to think that in our region we have some favorable conditions to empower the positive connotations of blackness, as some activists argue for.
"Zero-tolerance" policies are stupid by definition -- they are saying explicitly "We are not going to think about this, we are going to behave in automatic, i.e. unintelligent, ways."
This is how we get to cases like Cavani's, or little boys expelled from school for bringing plastic butter knives to make their lunch sandwiches.
I mention this because I've seen a tendency to think that there are good-and-bad ZTPs, and we just need to keep the good ones and weed out the bad ones. No. There is never a good enough reason for installing an Off switch on our minds, and there's no such thing as a ZTP that can't lead to an idiotic -- not to mention unfair and harmful -- application.
It's a good point but it's supposed to be a zero tolerance policy towards racism. This was one 'white' personal calling another 'white' person a term of endearment based on the color of his hair. This is extending the bounds of racism to a ridiculous degree. I hope the EPL is being ridiculed for this decision and Cavani is hiring a lawyer. We still live in a society of laws and reason, and we have courts to guard us against this kind of reactionary nonsense.
Cavani criticized the measure, but is not willing to fight. The lawyers surely recommended to pay the fine and forget about it.
Perhaps it is more convenient for him (it is a very time consuming minefield, you have to study, ask questions, develop new understandings of various racial and cultural contexts). But it is sad news for the international public debate. We need to have this conversation.
Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. ZTPs are supposed to save time in decision making. Unfortunately, many of these decisions are too complex for ZTPs to be useful. If protecting an organization from lawsuits is the only goal, a shiny/automatic measure may work. But it probably won't be creating a real, positive, lasting impact for racialized people.
I feel like sometimes we are pulling strings in a contradictory playing field: anti-racist measures may have a positive impact but at the same time --unfortunately-- fuel societal racism. In that context, any anti-racist strategy should aim to prioritize initiatives that have the most positive impact and do the least damage.
Everyone left-of-center in the US should read this. The harsh racial lines in the US don’t necessarily reflect global cultural attitudes. This article reminds me of an experience I had several years ago. I met a friend visiting from Shanghai in NYC. We stopped for a cocktail at a chic bar. She invited a friend from South Korea to join us. Let’s call the friend Lee. Our server was Indian. As he was walking away from the table, Lee openly began to imitate his accent and mannerisms. My friend and I cringed, and told Lee that in the US, making fun of other races is considered taboo. She asked why. We started to explain but quickly realized we were falling into a cultural abyss. There was no way to bridge the gap and why should we.
The harsh racial relations in America are unique. Native peoples were wiped out. Slavery ruled for two hundred years. The mingling of races was illegal until recently. The Right tries to downplay this history; the Left now makes it the center of everything. In reality, America has little to teach the rest of the world about race relations.
Hi C.A., thank you for sharing your story and wise comments.
For me, this is key in the U.S.: “The Right tries to downplay this history; the Left now makes it the center of everything”
No one should be so naive to think their country’s cultural rules are universal or that their country’s demographic categories make sense in other cultures. The American experience is so different from others.
Excellent commentary on what is indeed a highly complex issue. You are right - context is everything. While the simple black/white paradigm does not apply in most of Latin America and the Caribbean, there are other things going on below the surface. When I lived in the Dominican Republic, for example, it was an article of faith that someone as black as José Peña Gómez couldn't be elected president, despite being the country's most popular politician. I am American, and fondly would call my Venezuelan partner "negra" from time to time, as one might do in the Caribbean. Then Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's throat until he died, and the racil divide in the U.S. returned to front and center in the global conversation. My girlfriend told me to to strop calling her "negra." Context is everything.
Hi Peter, your story reminded me of this:
“rather than stable and predetermined, racial identities can shift across contexts and even within specific interactions. Analyzing these raciolinguistic practices allows us to imagine the possibilities for destabilizing hegemonic and oppressive processes of racial categorization”
H. Samy Alim, John R. Rickford, and Arnetha F. Ball (2016) Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race
https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190625696.001.0001/acprof-9780190625696-chapter-2
P.s: ¡Saludos a tu novia, mi paisana!
I can attest from personal experience that Dariela Sosa is spot on that this word does not have negative connotations in Latin America. About 20 years ago, I made the first of many visits to Brazil, spending several weeks with a friend and his family in Assis, a small agricultural city in eastern Sao Paulo state. One of the local people my friend introduced me to was his close friend Sabino, a Black man who to my surprise he referred to as "my little Negro". When I asked him about it, explaining that in the U.S. this would be seen as highly offensive, he told me that it was a common and normal term of endearment between good friends, pointing out that Sabino referred to him (in Portuguese, which I didn't speak) as "my little Mutt" (my friend is one of many Brazilians of mixed race, four different ethnic backgrounds). What I learned is that cultural norms vary greatly, and it's incumbent on all of us not to judge other people-cultures by our norms-values of appropriateness. As Ms. Sosa states " Applied without regard for social, cultural and linguistic context, antiracism efforts risk becoming a caricature of themselves, driving a wedge between people of different cultures rather than bringing them together.... The English Football Association, with its over-the-top sanction of Cavani, managed instead to show only mindless adherence to a brand of maximalist Anglo-American antiracism ideology that does little to combat racism itself". A reasonable response might have been to ask Cavini to explain the context of the world Negrito in his culture, or even to ask him to remove the post so as not to risk misunderstanding. To punish and fine him is beyond obscene and makes a mockery of efforts to combat the very real racism that sadly exists all over the world.
Thank you for reading and commenting!
Let me share with you a question I would like to explore in future articles: How can we design a sensible, helpful framework to cooperate internationally in the fight against discrimination?
Dariela, I think your story is exactly what's needed, as well as forums like Persuasion in general. It's a really difficult problem to address, how to both fight racism and fight the kind of silly anti-Racism concepts that turn people off and as such are actually counter-productive. I'm not sure what the path is, but I know we need more of what you wrote. I can't believe Mr. Cavani isn't going after them legally, people need to stand up for common sense everywhere. What bothers me is that many of the people going overboard on these complex issues in the U.S. and I guess the U.K. too, which I know less of, are privileged white young people who have little understanding of different cultural norms. Somehow MLK's message of a constant walk towards racial equality has been overshadowed by PC cancel culture. IDK exactly what to do, but we sure need to do something!
Greetings Ms Sosa, I think that your note misses two important issues. The first is that the EPL response represents their lack of cultural competence. A well informed and educated organization would have captured the nuance you share and use it as an educational opportunity. The second is that, although the contextual aspects of race in latin countries that you describe exists (as it does in part of the US), there is substantive evidence that colorism in latin countries has an economic effect, i.e., being darker and poor are highly correlated.
And that is the problem of context emblazoned. Since the relationship between skin color and poverty are completely unrelated to terms of endearment. Mi'Jito? Mi'Jita? Age too; yet context allows that one so far. Should that cost $100's of thousands in a fine too? Go Grrl? Intent really does matter.
Thanks for reading and sharing your concerns.
Racial relations in LatAm are far from perfect, and I devote some paragraphs to that in the article. Discrimination based on color does exist, I just don't think the best way to fix the negative effects of colorism is to ban a word. Moreover, I dislike the metamessage it sends that being black is bad. I'd like to think that in our region we have some favorable conditions to empower the positive connotations of blackness, as some activists argue for.