There is a theoretical stance called afropessimism which contends (among many other things) that Black liberation is impossible due to how deeply engrained capitalist (ill)logics and the violent exploitation of Black labor power are in contemporary human society. I think your response is a good example of why a theory like afropessimism exists — capitalism is so deeply engrained in our collective western psyche that it becomes impossible for many to consider a world not structured by it.
I am not sure if I fully agree with Carmichael — I am more in line with afropessimism — but I do see that your strawperson is highly decontexualized, individualistic, and made of slippery slopes and dichotomous all-or-nothing thinking which are common cognitive distortions that are difficult to recognize within oneself let alone collectively as some of the human imperfections that media empires exploit for profit, so it makes sense you would be using these kinds of rhetorics to try to prove racism does not exist and/or is not a structural phenomenon.
I don’t think Carmichael is saying that attitudes don’t matter when it comes to racism, but rather that attitudes in themselves are not what racism is about. There is nuance here that you do not seem to be picking up on. I think a more accurate interpretation of Carmichael’s point is that both attitudes and power are what racism is about, but that power has much more to do with racism than attitudes.
It makes sense that those who are threatened by the concept of systemic racism need to believe that racism is based in individual attitudes so they can then claim that they do not have these attitudes and are therefore not racist. These ego defenses seem exhausting. The subject statuses white people inhabit during these discussions are far more telling and interesting than the white ego in all of its desperate attempts to maintain superiority through ritualized displays of dominance. I get that your ego is threatened by the concept of systemic racism and find it very boring to witness the same arguments from Fox News regurgitated over and over again.
If intentions are sufficient in determining an individual’s subject status, then we could argue Hitler had good intentions and therefore did nothing wrong because he genuinely thought he was doing what was best for the world by making the Aryan race supreme and exterminating those he did not believe deserved to live. It is inconvenient for the American ego to consider that Hitler was inspired by American eugenicists while crafting the Nazi party, but if we care more about intentions than effects then we could also say this wasn’t a problem because the eugenicists had good intentions in trying to prevent criminals et al. from reproducing.
The social world and American history are far, far more complicated and complex than what we learn to believe is True from media and public schooling. I recommend reading more work by Black people about race-related issues, maybe beginning with The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, if you want to deepen your understanding of race and racism… but I think you probably do not care enough to listen to or understand the perspectives of those whose humanity you probably also question. Whether or not you believe systemic racism exists, Black suffering is very real, and it behooves us white people to listen to it because we are the ones who have been causing it for centuries without any formal acknowledgment of wrongdoing.
Actually… I take all this back. Let’s stop talking about race and racism, okay? Let’s talk about whiteness instead.
