BALTIMORE, MD—In an unexpected move by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the group released a statement that seems to change its stance on what is often called "folksy racism."
The group released a statement that read, in part, "we reaffirm that it is never acceptable to judge another person by their racial or ethnic background. Such stereotypes and prejudices do nothing to advance the equality and success for which we strive for all peoples."
A later paragraph, however, went on to state, "We do acknowledge that some forms of prejudice, although still offensive, are artifacts of a generation, rather than overt acts of bigotry. And, occasionally, a statement that has racist undertones may be somewhat endearing if spoken by an elderly or sheltered individual, as it often causes us to shake our heads in quiet resignation that some people just are the way they are, and there's not much to be done to change that."
The statement, while steadfastly condemning racism, continued to shed folksy racism in a different category. "I mean, we've all been in those situations where somebody who was well-meaning made some ignorant comment about how 'those people' are 'this way.' We could try and have a long conversation about how ignorant and narrow-minded such thinking is, but we've got better things to do, so maybe we'll just let those sorts of people think how they're going to think."
The statement ended with a call for increased listening to people who have diverse world experience, and "taking with a grain of salt those stories that your uncle tells."