This is super complicated but the short answer is no. Race based fetishes are not racist. This of course assumes consent is involved. Fetishes get mixed up with those things that are socially unacceptable. It’s common for African Americans to want to be called racialized names in the context of domination. Role play around submission of Asian women is also common. As long as both people are consenting it is not racist in the classic sense.
Race preferences among sexual partners and beauty standards are much closer to racist but complicated by biology.
The terms used in the porn industry for racialized porn is racist for sure.
Possibly. If it is, it’s unclear from that report whether this employee actually himself heard the shooter say he wanted to kill Asians or whether that was his impression or something he heard someone else to say. It’s still a very weak report in the context of all the other information we have about motive
To be honest I haven’t been following this closely but it seems like the product of a fucked up religious/conservative upbringing that has this guy all twisted in knots over normal sexual behaviour.
The most racist thing seems to be his being taking into custody totally unharmed and treated with all this respect after the fact.
Dahmer is a good example though as he targeted mostly African American men. I don’t know enough about the history to say if this was a sexual racial preference, typical serial killer behaviour of targeting marginalized communities or both.
Also common, by the way, to use those same names in the context of dominating others. It’s complicated. And it’s common in general for people to play out complex psychological stuff in the context of sexual play, in ways that can look weird and unhealthy to outsiders. Research tends to show that this is, if anything, psychologically helpful.
I agree that there is some unclarity, possibly due to translation as well. But if the Google translation is accurate, this sentence of “After the incident, a gold spa employee A contacted four nearby Korean businesses and told him that a white man had committed the crime after saying that he would kill all Asians” seems to clearly state that the spa employee told others that the murderer said he would kill all Asians. I agree that it is unclear whether the reporter got this information firsthand, secondhand, etc, but shouldn’t this be something that American media should be following up on and trying to find out?
Also, I’m not sure why most of the media and people seem to think it has to only be due to one reason. It can be both a misogynistic sex crime and a racist hate crime. Regardless of what the murderer allegedly says, as reported by the confirmed racist sheriff. Why isn’t the media questioning that racist sheriff’s motivation and interpretation of the murderer’s motive more?
If a murderer shot up 3 black churches, murdering multiple people, and a racist sheriff said the suspect had an issue with Christians and was attempting to take them out, was fed up, at the end of his rope, had a bad day, and this is what he did - would we leave it at that? Solely someone who hates Christians, or might there also be a racial component to it? It can be both.
This sounds racist. Regardless of consent. “Role play around white male slaveowners and their female slaves” would also sound racist, even if both parties consented. People can consent to racist things.
There is the subtle distinction that is so important. Consent removes the negative power balance which makes it not harmful. It’s like rape fantasies which are very common among women.
A rape role play isn’t rape just like a racial stereotype role play isn’t racist.
Consent is the powerful ingredient that turns the exact same actions that would be awful without it into something good.
This sounds wrong and dangerous. The reason that rape role play with consent is not rape, is that the definition of rape is non-consent. This is not true of racism, racist depictions, or racist stereotypes. A Halloween party at a white frat where the frat bros all dress up as clearly racist stereotypes, is clearly racist, even if all of the frat bros consent to it. This element does not disappear in roleplay sex. Consent does not make the racism disappear. It is just consented to. It is still racist.
You are misunderstanding the power balance in consent. A bunch of frat boys can’t all consent to rape role play either. The important consent isn’t the powerful it’s from the less powerful.
In racial role play the white guys consent wouldn’t be key. The Asian woman’s consent would be.
You are misapplying power balance and consent ideas about sex, to whether something is racist or not.
If 2 white KKK members role played a white male slaveowner and a black female slave (as portrayed by the white female KKK member), that would still be racist even if it was consensual role play sex.
I’ve lost my appetite for long internet arguments. We will have to agree to disagree. This is a complex issue. I encourage you to read some of the great writing or listen to podcasts that cover it. It’s not an easy issue for anyone.
If a dude gets shot there everyone is going to assume he was there for a rub and tug, whether it’s true or not. It’s been widely reported that that’s what the targeted places were.
@clovis8 , we don’t have to continue the argument if you are stopping, but I do want to make sure I am understanding you correctly.
Are you saying that if 2 white KKK members role played a white male slaveowner and a black female slave (as portrayed by the white female KKK member), if it is consensual role play sex, then it is not racist?
all