Somewhere in the USA, there are probably a few sincere conservatives who are smarting from having their words being deemed ‘racist’ by others. Some of them honestly think of themselves as non-racist, or even (passively) anti-racist because they reject the ideology of racial segregation and supremacy. They may not have the social or historical awareness to understand how various attitudes, institutions, and rules of conduct reinforce de facto white supremacy and were originally designed specifically for that purpose. I get that. Most people are focused on the immediate needs of their immediate community; I was well into adulthood (post-college) before I even had a sense of what I didn’t know about how racism shaped our culture.
However, we can expect all American adults to understand that white supremacy was a dominant component of mainstream American ideology for most of the USA’s history — up until the 1960s. We can expect all American adults to understand that the Confederacy was the epitome of white supremacy, and their treason caused a terrible war.
So I have one simple expectation from any conservative friend who is seeking sympathy for being accused of promoting racism in response to some comment or action that they see as non-racist; I expect them to have made sincere efforts to distance themselves from people who are openly racist.
To be more specific, I want them to be able to say ‘yes’ to the following:
1. Have they separated themselves from any group that is honoring the Confederacy? Even if their great-grandfather died fighting for the Confederacy, that is no justification for honoring the Confederacy. At best, their ancestor’s decision to fight for the Confederacy was a tragic mistake, and should not be the way that we honor their memory. Four years of hell caused by treason is not a legacy worth honoring.
2. Have they rejected politicians who have insisted on providing state honors for the Confederacy? Four states currently commemorate the Confederacy on their flag (Mississippi changed theirs in 2021). Other states have laws protecting monuments to the Confederacy, sometimes treating these monuments to slavery and treason as comparable to monuments recognizing soldiers and police officers. Several states recognize “Confederate memorial day” and “Robert E. Lee day” (or similar “Confederate heroes days”. Many of these honors have been the subject of election campaigns over the past several years, and many elected officials are on record adamantly defending state honors for the Confederacy. If my conservative friend is willing to support these politicians because of agreement on some other issue, then they are admitting their own complicity in maintaining white supremacy in fact if not in name, and maintaining the cultural influence of explicit white supremacy.
3. Do they consider prominent people to be discredited when they repeatedly and unapologetically make racist statements and fabricate conspiracy theories to target non-white Americans (e.g. Trump, Musk)? I want to know that my conservative friend seriously evaluates why these people are being called racist, rather than reflexively defending anyone from this accusation. I want them to recognize that white supremacy can thrive even without consistent and absolute application of whatever segregationist rules were in vogue 100 years ago. I want them to recognize that nit-picking over the exact nuances of how the bigot thinks is totally beside the point.
4. Do they avoid listening to and repeating the ideas presented by these open racists and their allies? I’ve learned from my personal experience that there is no way to separate the racist from their superficially non-racial ideas or claims. Their racism will contaminate everything they think and talk about, whether it’s evaluating a job candidate, judging a person’s conduct, or setting a policy agenda.
If my conservative friend cannot even answer yes to these four questions, then they failing to do the bare minimum to overcome our history or racism. In that case, they are responsible for any mistrust directed at them, and I have no sympathy if their words are interpreted without charity. They also will have discredited themselves in my eyes, and I’ll have trouble judging anything they say as sincere.
*Tangentially, I also cannot treat anyone as sincere if they try to raise themselves above others claiming to be for ‘law and order’, ‘loyalty’, and ‘constitutionalism’, but ally with those who honor the Confederacy.
Edit: I’m not saying that following the above rules are sufficient to dismiss any accusations of racism against someone, only that these are the minimum preconditions before I’d bother to look into how my conservative friend may have been misinterpreted or whether the accusation of racism may have been unfair. If they can’t meet the conditions listed above, it’s obvious why someone would think they are racist. I’m also not saying that people who fail to meet these standards are necessarily racist. I just want them to acknowledge that many people have good reason to distrust them, and they’d need to work extra hard if they want to overcome that perception. I don’t need to hear them whine about how unfair it is that people think they’re racist.