Great toon — too small to blow up and put on my fridge.

I think that I do my bit to combat cultural bias in myself and in institutions as a policy level. However, I guess my question has more to do with whether it’s right for me to take advantage of a system that I consider neutral with regard to me, but that actively disadvantages some other POC. For example, should I abstain from endeavoring to improve my score on standardized tests, given that those tests have cultural bias and systemically disadvantage other POC? That’s the kind of thing I wonder about. Is standardized testing for me something like nepotism/networking for white upper class people: an unfair advantage? At a policy level I do oppose the use of standardized testing and I’ve frequently written against it, even using myself as an example of why it doesn’t do what it claims (predict future performance). But so long as we have it, how do we deal with its existence?

The “absence of discrimination” you speak of could be seen as the whole point. Given that all the people living around you constitute a single interlocking society, with, say, a certain quantity of good jobs/neighborhoods and a certain quantity of poor jobs/neighborhoods, any circumstance where the “black man” wasn’t permitted to take the good job because of cultural bias elevates your own chances of taking the good job instead. The distinction between “benefitting” and “not being penalized” is fuzzy that way.

The question at hand is, whether you should feel responsible for the cultural bias, and what you are willing to do about it.
Do you feel obliged to combat it out of racial guilt?
Or are you motivated to combat it because of your principles, and the understanding that cultural bias erodes productivity in society as a whole?

For example, I could think of ways in which my family has been disadvantaged by racism against Asian immigrants, but it’s less easy to understand how we’re advantaged by racism against others that doesn’t apply to us. E.g., Asians don’t suffer so much from the kind of negative stereotypes (uneducated/ less intelligent/ inclined to criminality) that African Americans or Latinos do. Does that mean racism against other people of color is to our benefit? I can see how it works out that way practically, but I feel emotionally resistant to it because it doesn’t seem right that just being treated with an absence of discrimination — not even benefiting from connections, good ol’ boy networks, accumulated generations of wealth — is “benefiting from racism.”

Here’s the cartoon I think you’re referring to: The Story Of Bob And Race

The edit feature, it burns!

Now, this person’s probably gone, but… is it beyond possibility that your ancestors may have indirectly, or even directly benefited from the long-standing disenfranchisement of blacks p0st-slavery? It was kind of a big deal. No one can honestly contend that none of their ancestors recieved a spot in a college, a job, a neighborhood, or a social program that blacks were categorically barred from BY LAW as much as by custom. If I remember correctly, Amp had a cartoon about this, as well, but I’m too lazy to find it. And all of these claims of a background consisting solely of recent immigrants strike me as somewhat statistically unlikely, seeing as the vast majority of American whites have a pan-European background, with ancestors that hail from all over the U.S. and arrived here at varying times. Furthermore, isn’t it kind of a red herring? We’re all fully aware that you wouldn’t believe that if you were the direct descendant of slave owners you’d feel any more responsible, concerned or “guilty” than you do now. You don’t believe in inherited guilt. That’s fine. Do you believe in inherited social position, inherited wealth and opportunity? Because that’s what the people in the cartoon represent to me. I’d really like to hear from you if you don’t believe in those things, because that, not your proud inability to feel guilt for the sins of the long dead (guilt that contrary to pop. belief, no one wants from you), would make you quite rare indeed.

I love it more than the defensive reactions a few posters made. *grin*

Mandolin, Changeseeker, thank you so much. I’m really glad you like the cartoon.