Insensitivity v. Racism (Stephen A. Smith)

[UCFBS]

This is my long-standing 'beef' on not differentiating 'insensitivity' from 'racism.' This wasn't even 'stereotyping,' but more of a display of a common, but non-American, viewpoint, which is -- sadly -- accepted in many countries, even Japan itself.



My full post and first response are at LinkedIn (which is fed by / linked in the Twitter post), but I'll post here to save everyone time.

Full Post:

As a nation, and one American people, I think this is yet another example where we shouldn't call everything 'racism' and start to differentiate these types of comments as they really are... 'insensitive.' They are still wrong. But everyone, from oblivious white men like myself to leading, outspoken, but insightful African-Americans like Stephen Smith, are often capable of saying the very wrong thing at the absolute wrong time, and not remotely part of a systemic problem that denies opportunity or otherwise stereotypes. The key here is that every one of these cases is a moment for learning, and as long as people such as Stephen Smith are willing to admit, learn and move on, it means they were 'insensitive,' 'inconsiderate' and many other things, but not 'racist.' The 'racists' are the ones who have agendas and are not interested in inclusion, learning or otherwise being a part of a multi-cultural, American people, like we've always been, and are still striving to be better than we have been at many times.​

Response to a 'stereotyping' comment ...

I don't consider an alleged, in Smith's viewpoint, 'language barrier' to be 'stereotyping,' but just gross 'insensitivity.' No where did he make it about the fact that he was Japanese (or Asian), and he was clear (when he 'double-down,' even if still wrong) that he would have applied it to anyone who did not speak English 'well enough' to not require an interpreter.​

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To me, that's textbook 'insensitivity' to the fact that the US has always taken in much culture and many languages, and does not still have an 'official language.' But it's not 'stereotyping.' It's key that we differentiate these things, just like many other things, otherwise ... we're labeling Smith no different than people who *do* make it race.'​

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Ironically, in many other countries, including Japan itself, this wouldn't have been viewed as 'insensitive,' much less 'racist.' Many nations have an 'official language' and people -- including media personalities -- blatantly display such attitudes. It's what I love about the US, that we don't tolerate such gross 'insensitivity.' But let's not stoop to calling it 'racist' or 'anti-Asian.'​

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I was moved by Smith's admission that he recognizes the anti-Asian events in recent months, so, how poor this was.​