Honestly, I think everyone is a bit racist. When people don't look or behave like you, it's easy to treat them differently, sometimes a lot differently.
I work with people from a variety of backgrounds (race, language, nationality) and I'm married to someone with a different race, language, and nationality as well. Even so, when I read articles online, I picture the other person as my race, background, and gender, even though that's unlikely to be the case. I also catch myself thinking less of someone who is different from me, before I catch myself and really think about what they said/did (usually it's just the accent or mannerisms throwing me off).
I think that's normal, and you're doing the right thing by acknowledging it and trying to catch yourself. The next step that works for me is to build trust with my co-workers who are different from me, and ask them if I'm being insensitive or something. It takes time to build that trust, but my spouse calls me out all the time and I express my gratitude each time. I still make mistakes, but hopefully those around me know I don't mean anything by it. I also catch my spouse being racist, and they're a bit more defensive about it but appreciative nonetheless.
Good luck! Life is all about continually improving ourselves. I don't think we'll ever reach a point where racism is dead, but hopefully we can get to a point where it's at least manageable.
I think you are describing biases, which we do indeed all have. They don't (necessarily) make you racist, they make you human. The folks who refuse to make any attempt to acknowledge that (or who openly revel in it), and won't do the work to mitigate those biases - those are the racists and bigots.
Being able to sit with discomfort is key to teaching oneself to be better. The hardest part is realising that there's never a point where you have fixed the problem and can relax - the deeper you dig, the more things you find to be uncomfortable about.
Good on you for noticing, and not just going 'meh it's how I am', 'it's how I was raised' or a bajillion other cop outs.
Realizing you need to change, having the impetus to do so, and actually rolling up your sleeves and fucking doing something about it are three very difficult things to do. Their difficulty increases as you proceed down the path from realization to action.
It isn't easy. You'll fall on your face several times; you may not ever even reach your goal, but eventually you'll look over your shoulder at the person you were and realize how far you have come.
That's sure a lot better feeling than sitting there doing sweet fuck all about it.
Being aware of it is an important step though. Admitting you have racist tendencies is not the end of the world, it is good to recognize that in yourself, it's the only way to actually realize how deep the roots of prejudice go and to try and get to a point where you're able to forgive yourself for things that were out of your control.
For those of us who were born into a context that steeped us in racist beliefs I don't know if there's a way to fully get away from all of it on a subconscious level, it's more like a curse that you're stuck with and just have to commit to managing whenever you notice it floating up into your behaviour and decisions.
Maybe eventually we'll get to a point where we raise a generation that doesn't have the curse, until then just do your best.
Being racist is ephemeral. People can choose to keep being racist, or choose to stop being racist. The OP chose to stop being racist.
The thing you can't teach or train, is self-inflection. If you don't have that, you'll likely be locked in on whatever self-discovery path you're on right now, for the rest of your life. If it's a good path, you're ok. If it's not tho, you're like an Elon Musk, who lacks empathy for self-inflection and will likely continue down this path forever, as the OP suggests, until Musk indeed realizes that he's a racist.
At that point, Musk can continue to be a racist, knowingly, in the open, or he can choose to change, like OP.
Some opinions are worth changing. Someone clearly thought OP was worth it, and it seems they were right.
So he had a “show” on X and now it’s been cancelled. But Don Lemon wasn’t banned from X, so the interview is on his personal account.
I guess I’m just not too informed, but what does it mean to have a “show” on X vs. just being a person who posts videos? Is there some kind of more monetization if you have an official “show” on there?
They have some kind of revenue sharing in place but I doubt it pays much seeing as the company is bleeding money and advertisers want nothing to do with it.
It didn't even get canceled because of the content he wanted wanted to produce, he was demanding like an $800 million dollar salary and a brand new Cyber Truck, lol.
I don't think many people equate Lemon with journalism, hard-hitting or otherwise. He's a pundit and a talking head, or at least was at CNN.
Here, it seems he did engage in some constructive interviewing. Which is a good thing. But he certainly does not have a meaningful history of such behavior.
Hopefully this willingness to directly criticize and question power will continue, and will apply to other global oligarchs as well in addition to Musk
I think the more likely explanation is that he’s a nepo baby who has never had to account for his actions, and who surrounds himself with people who tell him how great and smart he is.
Some of the more obvious symptoms of addiction are disruptions to an individual’s external life, including their relationships, family, jobs, friends, and economic struggles. It is clear that drug and alcohol abuse damages a person’s overall health, but addiction also stunts internal factors like emotional growth and social development. When an adult is an addict, society still expects the individual to act a certain way and be responsible. Adults are supposed to be wiser and more aware of the consequences of their actions and their impact on other people. Unfortunately, most adult addicts make decisions that would not classify them as responsible adults. When adults are deep in their addiction, they usually do not weigh the consequences of their actions. With this mindset controlling their actions, individuals struggling with addiction live according to their emotional age, not their actual age. Not worrying about other people’s emotions, let alone their own, makes addicts emotionally unaware and unable to act their age.
PHYSICAL AGE VS EMOTIONAL AGE
What is the difference between emotional and physical age? Physical age is predictable and backed up by science. For example, general age can be classified through stepping stones like losing baby teeth, the age when your bones stop growing, and when women experience menstruation and menopause. Overall, physical age is inevitable and will progress. Emotional age, on the other hand, is not guaranteed to grow.
Emotional age is dependent on the individual’s life experiences and responses to situations and the consequences of their actions. As with all individuals, emotions are unpredictable and adjustable. Individuals who abuse drugs or alcohol, however, are at risk for stunting their emotional growth because they continue with harmful behavior and immature and unacceptable actions. For most addicted individuals, emotional upset stems from their childhood. Many begin to use drugs or alcohol to mask their problems and avoid dealing with difficult situations upfront. This makes it more difficult for addicted people to handle the circumstances of their actions and leaves their emotional growth stuck in the same spot as when they started using toxic substances.
Talking about racism and Elon saying he does not agree with it being a massive factor in the country and Don argues to the contrary only for them both to agree that the US has handled it the best is just laughable.