Compare and Contrast Anti-SJW Sentiment to Racism

I intend to compare and contrast the logical thought process of the fallacy of composition between anti-SJW’s, anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-feminists, and racism. It must be said, I am not calling those who have anti-feminist, anti-Black Lives Matter, and anti-SJW sentiment racist people. I am comparing the logical thought process of those sentiments to racism and how they follow similar stereotypical ways of thinking. Feminism is a movement dedicated to achieving equality between men and women. It has been misrepresented as misandrism where it is seen as a movement that hates men and wants to oppress them.

Black Lives Matter is a movement that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people yet has been misrepresented as a violent hate group or terrorist organization that hates white people and kills police officers (Black Lives Matter). In 2016 a petition calling for the movement to be labeled a ‘terrorist organization’ attracted 140,000 signatures in two weeks (A.L).

The fallacy of composition is the error of assuming that what is true of one member of a group is true for the group as a whole. There have been some irrational and radical feminists and SJW’s who, while are an outspoken minority in the groups, have been used by the radical right-wing racists and misogynists in guilt by association fallacies and have thus given the terms feminist and SJW a negative connotation. This is also called ‘nutpicking’, where you ‘cherrypick’ the ‘nuts’ or radical members of a group and then proceed to attack the group because of the association to the radical members. Similarly, there have been a couple of violent Black Lives Matter members, however, this does not make the Black Lives Matter movement a ‘terrorist organization’. This type of thinking is the same as when people say ‘all Asians are smart’, ‘all black people are violent’, ‘all Muslims are terrorists’, or ‘all Mexicans are criminals, drug dealers, and rapists’. They take one example of a member of a minority and apply that attribute to the entirety of the group. In contrast, Anti-SJW sentiment and racism differ because I believe the majority of people who have anti-SJW sentiment are not hateful people. There are some people who hate feminists because they are sexist and some people who hate the Black Lives Matter movement because they are racist, but I believe the majority of people who do not like these movements are simply misinformed. Mainstream and moderate people have been manipulated and conditioned to think that SJW movements are negative things by people who hate equality movements simply out of hate and who believe they are superior.

A prime example of this would be Pat Robertson’s remark that The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians (Killermann). And because of this Social change is slow because the people in power are the ones writing the narrative, and they often choose a distracting narrative (Killermann). But these moderate people who think these movements are negative actually share the exact same sentiments as these SJW movements. They believe women and blacks should be equal, they don’t believe one sex or race is superior to another, while racist or sexist people would believe they are superior. There are women who call themselves ‘anti-feminist women’ yet believe and fight for equality between men and women which would make them feminists. So in reality, it is very ironic while these people who have been conditioned to believe SJW movements are negative things and say they are ‘anti-SJW’ and against such movements, are actually SJW’s and feminists themselves according to the definitions of such movements. According to one survey, only 20 percent of women in the US consider themselves feminists (ReShel). In another New York Times survey, results showed that only 18 percent of Americans consider themselves feminists, however, 85 percent claimed they believe in ‘equality for women’. Considering that believing in equality for women makes you a feminist, this is interesting, if not a little disturbing (ReShel). In conclusion, I do not believe anti-SJW, anti-feminists, and anti-BLM are hateful or racist people, for the most part. They just use the same logic as racist people who assume that all people of one group are represented by one member. This is the fallacy of composition that ties the two together.

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