5 Terrible Excuses Used by Racists

For International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, teleSUR looks at some of the justifications behind racism that are commonly touted by white supremacists.

Friends and Associates

Commonly used with excuse that everyone else is confusing religion and race, the “I have friends” who are Black, Asian, Latino, etc, is frequently used as a rebuttal when someone is being accused or actually carrying out racism and are somehow pardoned because there are non-white people who they associate with or even consider “friends.”

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Even if they really are “friends” in no way does that excuse or justify racism toward other people who they have never met on the other side of the globe.

You Can’t Be Racist Again st a Religion

Not exactly noted for their intellectualism and linguistic prowess, many White Supremacists have justified discrimination, hate and violence towards non-white people as not being racist at all, simply because of some semantics involved and that instead they are actually basing their bigotry against, not a race of people, but indeed a religion, which apparently makes it ok.

Reverse Racism

White Supremacists will often claim that modern multicultural societies are against white people, through a system of “reverse racism” and will commonly cite examples such as funding and scholarships and grants intended for minorities or special treatment of refugees over white people.

But the key thing that gets left out is the inherent privilege and continuing social structures that white people around the world enjoy compared to others, which means that they really don’t need a leg up to progress in a society that white people often take for granted.

The Irony of an Invading Culture

In settler colonialism states such as the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Africa, white supremacists often cite minority groups as threats to the established culture and say that non-white refugees and immigrants do not assimilate and want to take over the traditional values of their homeland.

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But of course, white supremacists easily forget that it these countries they themselves are not the original inhabitants and only a few generations ago were also invaders and immigrants. Furthermore, this ingrained ideology of white settler colonialism refuses to apologize for the theft of Indigenous territory and culture, not only avoiding responsibility but also the acknowledgment of invasion because it wasn't them, it was other white people from a previously generation.

False Flags for Attacks

One of the strangest arguments is that in order to make white people look bad minority and ethnic groups take it upon themselves to carry out self-afflicting attacks.

Trump himself has even echoed the twisted views of White Nationalist David Duke, that it was possible that anti-Semitic activity such as bomb threats and may have carried out by Jews in a bid to get sympathy for what Duke calls “their ethnic agenda."