some discussions today have got me thinking again about the Hairspray™ problem of racism. John Waters (director of the original 1988 movie) has said that "even racists like Hairspray." how could that be?

for many people, racism has to be obvious in order for them to see it. when they think "racist," they think of people who unabashedly hate others for the color of their skin & proudly discriminate — like the villains in Hairspray. to them, if you're not that, you're not racist.

the problem with this view is that it fails to recognize racism as the insidious evil that it is. it's not always obvious; it can infect people's hearts in a million subtle ways. these subtle forms might not seem as bad as explicit racism, but they're still gravely harmful.

these are the who Waters is referring to; racists who don't recognize their own racism because it doesn't look like the racism of the 60s. they pat themselves on the back for not using the N word, but they still hurt the non-white people around them with their assumptions.

I'm sure the racists of the 60s patted themselves on the back for not being as bad as slaveowners; people will always try to excuse their sin by saying, "I'm not as bad as that guy." we've made progress — deo gratias — but it's naive to think racism is no longer an issue.

if you're unfamiliar with these subtleties, then you might feel defensive when someone calls something racist and you don't see it. you might feel the urge to say, "I think you're just overreacting." but to reiterate — not all instances of racism are going to be obvious.

that's why it's so important to listen more than we give our two cents. when an entire community of people is crying out for justice, & we are not a part of that community, we can't just assume they're overreacting. we need to listen to understand why they're hurting.

I've made that mistake in the past. and I understand the irony of me giving my two cents in this thread right now, but I'm trying to help others not make the same mistakes I did.

at that point in my life, I lost the forest for the trees; I could recognize specific tragedies, but I saw them as isolated incidents and failed to see the broader pattern. I didn't understand how these problems could be systemic, so I didn't think systemic change was necessary.

if that's you right now, and you want to understand, here's two links that I think might help:

this offers practical solutions to the problem of police brutality and explains little bit about how different parts of the policing system, as they are right now, are contributing to the problem: https://populardemocracy.org/news/15-things-your-city-can-do-right-now-end-police-brutality

this offers an even broader perspective on the justice system as a whole, and how the explicit racism of the past influenced the way the system was built: