I agree and I get that a materialist thinking is not an easy graps on first hand. It takes a little bit of effort and time to start understanding social structures as the results of material conditions and sociological conditions of our environement, especially when we come from conservative and fully idealists backgrounds.
Now...
@Ravagerblade and others.. IF you are willing open your minds to that, I think I have a way for you to - at least - graps the concepts.
You might have seen me talk about :
Patriarchy > And the fact that we all have sexist biases, especially men
Systemic Racism > And the fact that we all have racist biases
Ableism > And the fact that we all have ableist biases
Heteronormativity > And the fact that we all have anti-LGBTQI+ biases..
Colonialism > And the fact that we westerner have colonialist biases
Capitalism > And the fact that we all have meritocratic biases.
Well, your reaction might be "no, I'm not racist/sexist/ableist etc." . After all, since you live in society and have no problems, it must be because you are exemplary on those questions.. you are therefore not all of those things. You learned not to be racist..... right ?
Well, that's the problem, in a material world where behavior are determined by sociological factors.. it's not that simple.
And to understand that, you might wanna see it that way, with that thought experiment:
Let's say that your are a kid on the new year of 2025. You meet an old woman that tells you that in 5 years, you will have a match of a very hardcore tactical and physical game you know NOTHING about. She tells you that you will lose if you make ONE mistake, but if you win, you will get to win 1 Billion $ !!
There is only ONE rule: You can only try to learn the game with the help of your kid friends that know NOTHING about the game at all. And you must NEVER seek any others ressources or anyone to help you out !
So.. logically, you will start to train on your own terms... with your kid friends.
> 2026 arrives, you start to find the point of the game,
> 2027, you improve a form of team play that you think is relevant.
> 2028, you start to improve some techniques.
> 2029, your self taught reflexes are starting to pop in, you found a good way to play with your friends and teamates.
> December 2029 arrives and you meet the old lady once again. She tells you that in order to prepare you for the match, she will give you the ENTIRE BIBLE of the rules of the game.
>> New year 2030 arrives and you have the match.
How much do you bet that you will lose because of a mistake due to the rules ?
--
You see, what you might experience on that match is simply the result of education and
an education so deeply rooted that it is almost impossible to erease.
During this match, you will experience some tactical and physical biases due to a simple wrong education. After all, you didn't know the rule and the game was a tactical terror, so it's logical that you will make some mistake EVEN when you will know the rule perfectly.
In video Game you will often feel that residual education biases or "block" between supports and games, especially those like Rocket League who needs a lot of muscle memory.
Well, it's a bit similar when we talk about social educations and systemic issues. Don't get me wrong, it's highly different, but this residual educational biase is helpfull to understand why, even when we know that we are not sexist for example.. well, it's not that simple.
In society, we are not left alone to educate ourself. It's the entire society that will shape us. It's the structure that will give us a "bad education" on ALL those subjects through a lot of things like the institutions or the parental education or the Media.
When we are talking about "systemic" problems, we are refering to problem that are bigger that simple individual behaviors. We are refering to the structures that will shape those behaviors.
The police will enforce a type of normativity
The media will show a type of normativity
The parental education will show a type of normativity
The law will allow a type of normativity
Etc.
With systemic problems, pretty much ALL the structures of society are "parasitized" by the oppression (racism/sexism/ableism etc.)
So..
When you are born in that type of society and live inside of it, you are DOOMED to reproduced the mistakes that are in the core of its normativity, EVEN if you learn to stop those behaviors.
This is due to residual education and reproduction of behavior:
- Under systemic racism, you will have racist biases
- Under patriarchy, you will have sexist biases
Etc.
For example, as a white and catholic person in France under systemic islamophobia, you will not be racist or islamophobe BUT you might instantly think about terrorist attacks or insecurity when you met a muslim woman with a veil in the streets. You will refrain that feelin, you might even feel guilty about it, but it will happen at some point with any kind of situation.
Those biases are what we talk about when we say that "all men are sexist" or "all white are racists". Those biases are the results of our education. An education that we CAN'T escape.. because here is the sad truth:
Capitalism, systemic racism, ableism, heteronormativity, Patriarchy... those systemic problems are EVERYWHERE and usually all in favor of Cis White Men.
---
You see... Oda talks very well about those biases in One Piece although, to make it more relatable for white people, he talks about it in reverse :
Instead of talking about the biases due to racism. He will talk about the biases due to the hate that the anger against racism will create:
Do you remember this line from Fisher Tiger ?
Well here... you have the CLEAREST example of prejudice and hatefull biases against someone... in a POSITIVE AND PROGRESSIVE person.
To be frank, Oda pushed it to the limit here, but you get the idea. Tiger was pushed by his past and his education to hate humans who made him suffer.
While is anger is legitimate, he recognizes himself that his own hatred is not.
In other words, Fisher Tiger understands that while being against racism, he can't help but be racist too because of his experience.
That's what biases are !
For ex, in real life in the western world:
> A
passive racist bias, might be to think that a person is japanese or chinese and can't speak english because they have slanted eyes.
> An active racist bias,
might for example be to touch the hairs of a black person because they are all freezy
> A passive sexist bias,
might be to feel a small frustration when you compare your salary with a woman with better wages.
> An active sexist bias,
might be to never listen to what women say in a group of friend or to take more into consideration what men say.
> A passive ableist bias, might be to be afraid of a person that talk to themself in the bus
> An active ableist bias, might be to ask a mentally ill person to take their medecine when they express anger and frustration
Etc.
We are all the sum of our educations. It's important to understand that in under a systemic oppression. ALL people - and especially those who benefit from said oppression - will have biases correlated to this oppression...
EVEN.. when they try to make some effort to change.
Even I can't escape those biases and i'm fighting everyday to reduce them to the minimum.
This is why to end systemic racism, we need, like fishmen, to create a world where racism can't spread anymore. It means changing the system and allowing the new generation to live in a system without racist bias. Only there we will get rid of racism.. or sexism ... or ableism...
