I won’t tell you how much flak I’ve received for my blog posts about racism and sexism in America. I want to clarify what I think racism and sexism are.

Racism is discriminating on the basis of race, whether you believe it or not

Some people think racism means you believe in discriminating on the basis of race. That’s not true. Racism is discriminating on the basis of race, whether you believe it’s proper or not. So if you treat black people differently, that’s racism.

Almost all of us are racist. I’m a racist. I participate in de facto racism. I live in a non-black neighborhood. I walk with my dog up and down many nearby streets. I only know of one black person in the neighborhood.

Also, my brain is full of ideas about blacks. I know they don’t all care about racism, but I act like they do. I’m a good person, but I come from a racist culture. When I was young, my mom worked on desegregation. I know there’s nothing intrinsically different about blacks. But I’m often informed to the contrary by our racist culture.

A racist believes a racial difference means “those humans” are different

I’m not a racist. I believe there’s nothing different about blacks, other than some superficial difference in appearance.

I often find my brain believing there’s something different about blacks. I often find myself thinking “they” have a common outlook politically, or socially, or have a heightened fear of police. At those moments, I’m being a racist. When I realize it, I back off. I let it go.

Probably most blacks have some common political outlooks. Here’s a page that says that. But there’s no “they”. There are exceptions. Most of them think these things not because they’re black, but because our society has some racial disparities. We treat blacks differently. We think of blacks differently. So most have a different experience that shapes their outlook. But as that page says, the political outlooks of blacks vary tremendously.

Most blacks are different in their skin color. I’m white, but I usually have a bit of a tan. I’m darker than a few blacks. Some have different shapes of lips. Many have kinky hair. These are facts. Thinking these facts are significant makes one a racist. The shape of lips doesn’t determine the kind of hair any more than it determines intelligence, honesty or potential.

But these things often influence our thoughts. And if we believe those thoughts, we’re racist.

I advocate being a recovering racist

I believe it’s best to be a recovering racist. Admit that you’ve imbibed our racist culture, and/or other racist cultures, and that it tends to effect you. And believe those generalizations are not true. (You don’t have to- it’s just what I recommend.)

And while this post has talked about blacks, we do it with Asians, Indians, Native Americans, Hispanics, and many others. We’re humans, not God. We’re not perfect. But we can aspire to be honest, to see that we suffer from hubris, that we become blind to our foibles.

And of course we do it with sex. But that’s more complex. I’ll address that another time.

And we do it with religions. Are Moslems different? Are Jews different? And with nationalities, with Iranians, Syrians, Koreans, Russians. Just yesterday someone suggested I probably don’t want to hire software developers from Uruguay- who ever heard of software expertise in Uruguay??? And with age, too.

Should we admit we’re racist? Obviously I think so. Should we do something about it? Add your name to our mailing list and we can decide soon.

My last post said Trump’s honest is good for a recovering racist America. The same is almost true for sexism. America is sexist. Perhaps the next step is to become a recovering sexist country.

A week ago, one of my posts quoted Congressman Lou Gohmert in Texas, a socially-ultra conservative. He recently voted against a bill intended to promote the recruitment of women scientists. He said:

“women were created for one thing and one thing alone,” … “Women are beautiful creatures, no doubt about that. We marry them, we look after them, we provide for them and we love them, but that does not mean they are the same as us. It is the job of a woman to stay at home, to maintain the household, to bear children and look after them after they’re born. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that women should be chasing after fancy titles and knowledge. The only knowledge they need is the one we men allow them to have.”

Trump is known for his appreciation for women. Well, not the ones he deems ugly. Or fat. To those women, he’s demeaning, insulting.

Gohmert wasn’t disrespectful to any particular woman. He’s just a polite sexist. He’s insulting to every woman.

America is a sexist country

America is sexist. Parts are not sexist. Parts, like Gohmert’s Texas, are very sexist. Some evangelical Christians interpret the Bible as justifying the inferiority of women. And with good reason. Women were property for millennia. It’s not that they were treated like property, it’s that, to most people, they were property. To most people, that was fact, not opinion.

In America, women were granted the right to vote in 1919, 145 years after America declared itself to be an independent nation, 55 years after slavery officially ended. Culture is slow to change. Most Americans, most humans, are too stupid to embrace new concepts quickly. Many can’t see the wisdom of them at all, like Gohmert.

The 1960’s saw the beginning of the end of legal racism in the US, about 95 years after slavery ended. It was a difficult time. Racist assholes fought for their right to discriminate. They fought hard for the right to deny others rights.

By that timeline, we should be seeing the end of legal sexism about now, 96 years after women were given the right to vote. By this timeline, 1970, when Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment, was too early. Yet it was close. But over the next decade, not quite enough states ratified it, and in 1980, the Republican party withdrew its support.

Should America become a recovering sexist country?

If Hillary Clinton becomes president, probably we should try to pass the ERA again. Currently, America is a sexist country. If we can pass it, we could move to the next phase, being a recovering sexist country.

Do we want to do this? Gohmert doesn’t. Many men think feminism is sexist- they’re still in denial. They have some notion that sexism is bad, but they haven’t moved on to the stage of admitting they’re sexist. That’s okay. They need time to adjust, and more mothers and colleagues and daughters, and enlightened men, to work on them.

Would you like to hold Congress accountable for ending sexism? Add yourself to our mailing list.

I don’t like what Trump and his supporter’s say. But it’s good for America.

I like honesty. I liked this article on Medium, about how Hillary is a corporate tool. It doesn’t just say it, it shows her history and how she’s good at working with corporate power brokers, rather than challenging them much. She probably challenged them a little, which is good. But now as a leader, when it’s time to tap into American anger, she doesn’t take the obvious opportunity. That’s telling.

Then I read the paragraph that contains, “Did Americans all of a sudden become more racist?” I had to begin this post. What I like about Trump is that he gives racism and xenophobia a voice.

Trump is not promoting racism, or xenophobia

Trump is NOT a Klan member, or a Nazi. He’s not anti-black or even anti-Mexican or anti-immigrant. He may not even be anti-Moslem. But he IS willing to speak sloppily about the black protesters, illegal immigrants from Mexico who are criminals and American Moslems, 51% of whom apparently prefer sharia law and 25% of whom are willing to tolerate violence against Americans.

Speaking sloppily sounds like racism and xenophobia. But it’s not. It attracts those who are. But it’s not. He’s not creating xenophobia or racism. But he’s letting us see what’s already there. Many of us know it. He’s letting us see it. It’s honest.

Trump is not lessening racism or xenophobia, either

Yes, it’s a shame that he’s not talking about it openly. He could be saying, “Sure, a few of you are racist. And sure, some of you are little bit racist. Some of you like that I’m white. That’s good to admit, that some racism is left in America. But that’s not why we’re throwing out black protestors. We’re throwing out white protestors, too!”

Many believe that creating tolerance means we emphasize the about half of Moslem Americans who prefer American law to sharia law. Or that most American Moslems are against violence against Americans. But emphasizing one or the other, in my view, is untruthful. Say it like it is.

Trump is getting about a third of the votes of the less-then-half of Americans who are Republican. Even if he’s getting half of the Republican votes, that’s only a quarter of America. True, he’s not conservative enough for most Americans… But conservatism isn’t racism. They’re often compatible, but they’re different.

America is a recovering racist country

We’re a country with a deep racial history. We enslaved blacks for 40% of our history- more if you start with the colonization of America. Then we had both habitual (de facto) and even legal (de jure) racism (Jim Crow laws) for the next 100 years, into the 1960’s. Even after that, there were clear racist social rules about keeping blacks out of may white neighborhoods for another 20 years, into the 1970’s and 80’s. Racism in America is deep, and it lingers.

It’s right and proper that we air it. We should admit it. We should face it. My hope is that we’re recovering racists. Admitting it is an important step.

The next step is to plan out our future, the next steps. Given that America is still a recovering racist society, what should we do next? Please add your name to our mailing list and we’ll announce the next step soon.

The next post will be about sexism in America..

Campaign contribution limits have worked a bit, but they’re a lousy solution to the wrong problem. The wrong problem is that officials cater to the rich, whether they are wealthy individuals, corporations, industry lobbies, foreign governments or special interest groups made of millions of members. Not knowing what we want, and unable to report to us (to be accountable), politicians must try to get elected using ads, and that costs money.

The solution is obvious. We should build a system that tells them what we want, enables them to report to us, and lets both our officials and challengers report to us inexpensively. This solution is easy and inexpensive.

To tell them what we want, we need to say it in a way that can be counted, to make advisory votes on issues.  The questions must be fair and cover an issue broadly with a bit of depth. The answers must allow at least 90% of people to express their opinions fully. Those of you who’ve registered on PeopleCount.org know that’s where we’ve started.

The great thing about voting on issues is that it also tells us what we want, so we know what to hold our officials accountable for.

Then comes the accountability part. You’ll be able to say on what issues you want to hold officials accountable, and they’ll be able to report to you. You’ll be able to rate their reports as well as how well they’ve satisfied your district (or state, depending on the official), as well as how well they’ve satisfied you.

We also need to be able to hold officials accountable, and that means having choice in elections, and this can only happen if challengers can have inexpensive campaigns. Otherwise we’ll continue the current pattern, where almost no one in a district’s dominant party has the money to challenge the incumbent.

But, with these key features:

• Money will make less of a difference in campaigns
• Officials can represent us instead of parties
• Officials can fashion compromises
• Officials can legislate with confidence, fashioning compromises that serve most of their constituents while also being realistic, serving most Americans
• Politicians will compete to represent us, instead of to represent parties

And, once we’re able to communicate well about what we want, we’ll also be able to enact changes to the constitution if we want to, such as limiting lobbying, clarifying the “right to bear arms”, mandating politicians be honest, ending gerrymandering, and many others. We could even say that money is not freedom of speech, and limit contributions to political campaigns and PACs.

PeopleCount.org is a B corporation, set up for the benefit of society. Though it will be easy and inexpensive to make this system, it’ll still take your participation, a team and some start-up capital.

Do you want to continue to fight expensive battles on every issue? Should congress continue to be deadlocked along partisan lines? Should wealthy interests continue to dictate US policy? If your answer is no, join us.