system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Discriminating against “thugs” is not racism and is perfectly OK to do


First, I need to define what I mean by “thugs”/the thug culture.  This is a subculture, primarily in US, that glorifies crime, gang violence, objectification of women.  The subculture has some adjacent practices that are related to these values (ie. Rap that glorifies crime, and objectification of women)

Treating people ascribing to this subculture differently is not racist because any race can ascribe to it.  Moreover, no race is ultimately predisposed to be apart of the subculture.  So it’s 100% separate from race (though there may be correlation via poverty). 

Its OK for me to act and treat someone differently because of their values/subculture, regardless of their race.

Edit: My view is changed, somewhat.  I acknowledge that discriminating on these traits has unintentional consequences that disproportionately effect blacks.  In turn, those consequences cause a vicious cycle; blacks get less opportunity and never escape the “thug cycle”.
However, I still maintain that discriminating on these traits is no inherently racist.  I’d go on to say that those who label, decry, ostracize those who express these views as racist only do one thing: cause people to check-out and double down.  What is far more effective is either giving this another term such us “unintentional racism” or describing to these people how their actions are unintentionally racist.
gpt
The issue is that "thugs" is not a well-defined group. Even if we ignore its more racist connotations, we can still find plenty of examples of people misusing the word.

Imagine an older person who considered all rap to be "thug music". If he was your employer, and he found out that you liked listening to rap, is it okay for him to hold that against you?