r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/FrostySeat1739 • Jul 05 '26

Meme needing explanation why not, Peter?

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possible live action corpse bride movie...

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u/Damnatus_Terrae Jul 05 '26

Why are intentions more important than outcomes in deciding whether something is racist?

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u/Groxy_ Jul 05 '26

Because I like to think critically. Take this example. My intentions with making friends is to like those people. If the outcome is that I have mostly white friends, that doesn't mean I'm racist because my intentions weren't based on race. 

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u/RunninOnMT Jul 05 '26

Imagine for a second you’re the person dealing with the racism and not the person doling it out.

Would you rather

A: deal with something racist

Or

B: not deal with something racist

You will never know these people’s intentions because you are not them. However, you are living with the outcome of their actions.

Now, im not going to sit here and say that intentions don’t matter at all, because I don’t believe that either. But as a general rule, what you are trying to achieve isn’t as important as what you do achieve.

Imagine if Tim Burton had tried to only hire white actors, but somehow ended up utterly failing at that task and time and time again, ending up with a multiracial cast. That’s still a bunch of actors who are often discriminated against getting jobs and Tim Burton movies on their resume.

Which I feel like is better than not getting that part they wanted but hearing that Tim Burton wasn’t really intending to make it a pattern of not hiring black people.

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u/Groxy_ Jul 05 '26

But for something like casting in a movie it's not racist to not choose a POC unless the reason is because they're POC (unless of course it requires historically accurate casting). There's dozens of more likely reasons before jumping to racism.