Are Racists Crazy?

Yesterday afternoon, I attended the fourth lecture in the Mysterium Humanum series on madness. This lecture, titled “Are Racists Crazy?”, was delivered by expert Sander Gilman, and was a fascinating account of the history of racism and its ties to madness and insanity. This specific presentation focused largely on racism against the racial categories of “Black” and “Jewish”.
As discussed throughout the lecture, Gilman comes to the conclusion that racism is not a mental illness, and that we should not consider racism an indicator of insanity. In this talk, he cautioned numerous times against the dangers of broadly categorizing individuals for any reason–be that their skin color, religion, political beliefs, or any number of other traits. In placing these concrete labels on people, we naturally begin to assume that we know something about them inherently from their affiliation with these categories; ie “Because you are ______ (black/Republican/racist/etc) I know that you are ______.” This behavior is incredibly dangerous, as it leads us to make assumptions that may be unfounded. Additionally, in the specific case of considering racists insane, it allows racist individuals to have a blanket excuse for their behaviors. For instance, when discussing the example of Donald Trump as a racist, Gilman argued that calling him insane is an excuse for not holding him accountable for his words and actions. Instead of looking at racists as an entire category of people who are all mad, he encouraged us to look at each individual as exactly that: an individual. Additionally, while he acknowledged that racist behavior can sometimes be an indicator or symptom of a mental illness, he asserts that this behavior in and of itself is not the illness. In other words, some mentally ill people may be racist, but not all racist people are mentally ill.
This also brings us into the broader impact this can have on the disabled community as a whole, and how negatively it can be affected as a result of this thinking. First, considering all racist individuals mentally ill is, in my opinion, somewhat akin to considering pedophiles a part of the queer community. While it is quite simply wrong, it also paints the community as a welcoming home for such people, who are typically not welcome there. Additionally, this negative image then poorly reflects back on the disabled community as a whole, reinforcing negative social standards which place the community in a subordinate position in society. Thus, taking Gilman’s advice and advocating against these negative patterns of labeling and categorization can ultimately benefit this community.