I will not be watching Richards as host

[u/wild_horses23]

Hey folks! It pains me greatly to say this, but I don't feel like I can watch Richards host Jeopardy!. I've been a lifelong fan, and have watched the show for many decades, but I'm shocked at the way Sony has handled the the search process. Richards appointment raises far too many questions related to conflict of interest, and its clear from recent days that he lacks the character and integrity to host. Others are free to do what they like, but I feel that I have to turn my back on Jeopardy! at this time. Congrats to Matt Amodio- you are an incredible champion, and I'm sure you will still be there once the studio executives make the right call. Good luck

[u/theshizzler]

I used to agree with you. In a vacuum they are similar. But those comments and beliefs cannot be looked at without looking at the greater context of their relative positions in life.

In the context of our society one is saying 'I'm rooting for people who look like me because we've been underrepresented and disenfranchised by decades of stereotypes about being illiterate/incapable/lazy/etc. and it will inspire others who look like me to maybe overcome those internalized self-effacements'. The other is saying this in the completely self-serving context of 'continuing the normalization of generic white guys like me makes it more likely for me to take advantage of that privilege while it still exists.' There's no gracious analogy here. If those statements were in fact the same, that implies what? That he's rooting for white guys like him because he wants to see them... I guess overcome some untold generations of analogous disadvantage?

Like I said, I used to think the same way. They are both forms of (in the literal sense) a discriminatory preference. But one is based on aspiration for an unprivileged people while the other is very literally framed as self-serving, oblivious to, or in spite of, the ramifications that attitude has on others. That's the worse look for a Jeopardy host, by far.

[u/rushtenor → u/theshizzler]

I'm not the person you responded to, but just a thought experiement, would you say it's racist for a young white man to root for the success of white NBA player given how underrepresented they are?

[u/foodown → u/rushtenor]

For anyone, seeing someone who looks like them doing something that they want to do which they've mostly seen people who don't look like them doing and getting excited about it isn't a bad thing per se.

Another example of what I think you're talking about could be a young boy getting excited about encountering a male nurse because perhaps he himself wants to be a nurse one day, or maybe just used to want to be, and perhaps he has only seen female nurses up until that point.

Nothing's so simple as all that, though. I'd speculate that it's rare that a young white person eschews idolizing one of a wide array of black players in favor of a white one without even a whiff of internalized racism coming into play, although rare things happen, and that's definitely one of them.

One frustrating thing about discussions of racism is the defensiveness and blame that immediately comes into play. Racism in the USA is like water in the ocean: It's the 300 pound gorilla in the room that nobody wants to talk about because they're all afraid that its presence will all be squarely be put on them.

All (or almost all) of us in the USA are participating in racism in ways we don't realize, and have participated in other ways, realized it, and stopped. We would do well, I think, to be willing to acknowledge that none (or almost none) of us will be found absolutely sinless, and there's no advantage in trying to pretend so.

[u/rushtenor → u/foodown]

I'm black, and in Canada of all places, so I definitely felt this way.... I didn't see enough black programmers growing up (my dream job) so it did make me wonder at times.

All (or almost all) of us in the USA are participating in racism in ways we don't realize, and have participated in other ways, realized it, and stopped.

I think there should be another word for this, I'm pretty left on the spectrum and this sort of mentality is used to say "The left thinks everything is racist", it'd be nice if there was an alternate way of phrasing it.

[u/foodown → u/rushtenor]

I agree. People hear “racism” as “intentional, willfully malicious racism,” and I think that’s most of the disconnect.

The search for a less-offensive-but-accurate term continues, I guess. I’d figure “institutionalized racism” would have fit the bill, but seems not. : /