One way to continue arguing for now reason is to redefine your position.
For example, if someone points out that there are an estimated 30 million white people with self admitted racist feelings, which is unquestionably "a lot," try to confuse the issue by saying it's only 13 percent, which is no big deal. What if 13% of the country died of the flu? Would that be "not a significant number"?
C'mon.
Or, if the entire thread is about subtle racism, you could try to pretend otherwise. Why not challenge the entire relevance of the stat by pointing out they weren't burning crosses and wearing white hoods: "who knows what they feel is BEING as racist---after all if "flinching" and "subconcious" stuff is now "racist""
Yes! That's the entire point of me calling it "subtle racism." That's why the entire article and a ton of my other links refer to how the virtual elimination of overt racism doesn't mean that people have become colorblind. I guess your strategy is, if you can't beat em, join em, and say that the racism is subtle.
Or, if that's not working, we could try changing the subject! "AGAIN, you seem to be confusing feelings and thoughts with OVERT ACTS." Do I seem to be confused? I never said I thought there was an epidemic of all-capitalized "OVERT ACTS." It's you that's confused on that point. Want to "gently suggest that a person is not responsible for ones feelings and thoughts"? Go ahead! I've never said that a person, raised by certain parents in certain environments receiving certain messages about race, has complete control over their emotional response, however slight, to other races. (God knows I was taught to hate gay people, and tried to cure myself, and told gay jokes and shunned effeminite classmates just like everyone else to fit in through middle and part of high school). You'll notice I never tried to paint people with subtle feelings of racism as demons or blamed them for how they felt--I never commented on the genesis of this problem. HOWEVER it arose, it IS an issue--it affects how we live and it suggests we need to change how people form their perceptions of others.
Anyway, when changing the subject, it's considered perfectly ok to just say, "yes, it appears there are a lot of self admitted racists with probably mostly subtle feelings, why don't we talk about how it happened and what we should do about it?" You don't have to pretend that you've negated my thesis.
Or, you can invent positions of mine to critique: "Unless you want to go all Orwell on me and set up the Thought Police--I don't think people should be punished for their thoughts and feelings--only their acts." Um, I don't remember saying anyone should be punished, but, good point.
Or, you can bring up issues without any evidence and act as if I didn't already address them twice: "I think the sample is badly flawed." OH, you surmised that how? ESP? "We don't even know the actual questions asked--which any researcher will tell you is crucial--as such I have no reason to belive its valid." Mmhmmm. I guess you have no reason to believe it INVALID, either? Now, if you recall, I explained TWICE that even if the sample is off TEN FOLD, we're still talking about 3 million SELF admitted racists. You want to blow that off? Feel free.
Or, you can proceed to absolute nonsense. "We have similar numbers on Islamic peoples in the USA who support or condone acts and terror and terroists." Do we? 3-30 million islamic terror supporters?? Please, show me your link

I gave you mine. Anyway, lets say there were such numbers...
"Are you in favor the Goverment putting these people into interment camps as they did the Japanese during WW 2? If you follow your line of ahm....."reasoning" to its logical conclusion---if your "really" concered about what the numbers seem to say---then taking direct action is the ONLY option."
Of course I'm not!! It's ridiculous! First, you wouldn't be able to identify them. Who would acknowledge that belief knowing the consequences? Second, belief is not a crime! I've never advocated punishment for belief. Third, this is obviously NOT a concern because if they represented a threat we'd have been hit many times over by them. Fourth, where would we even put 3-30 million, what, preterrorists? Fifth, how is incarceration a "logical conclusion" after noting subtle racsim? "Illogical" conclusion, maybe. (My reasoning, was, by the way, merely math, so if you have a problem with it, take it up with math.)
If none of that is working, and believe me, it isn't, you could always post distractions: "You also might recall that in a former posting, one of YOUR quoted sources estimates that over 25% (and growing) of whites have faced racial discrimnation." So? That doesn't change anything. But to review the rest of the comment: "Is it resonable to conclude that vast numbers of blacks, hispaniscs etc harbor deeply racist attitudes against whites?" No, it is not. They could have--SUBTLE racism, that's what the thread is about. And the white people could have faced discrimination ONCE so the number of offenders is unknown. "If YOUR material is accurate--then what steps do we take about that?" Me? Why am I responsible for the cure? I just said subtle racism existed, not that I could change the heart of racist americans. Sheesh.
And the distractions continue:
"So even if I give you everything else---there is STILL no reason to alarmed."
Did I say this was an enormous crisis? No, I merely said "a lot" of white people had subtle racist thoughts, and you turned it into a big deal. Back to basics here:
"If our sample was bad and that estimate is off by 10 fold, then there are still 3 million, 92 thousand, 114 racist white people in the United States. By their own friggin admission! Get it? I hope? FYI: 3-30 million people is "a lot." Period!"
That issue is done. You've presented absolutely nothing to suggest otherwise. You've raised your doubts about parts of certain research, but then you failed to look into that research to see if your doubts were justified. You were happy just to have an excuse to dismiss the obvious.
Now that it's obvious there are "a lot" of white americans with racist feelings, feel quite free to comment on whether this is a major problem, whether other races have joined in, what we can do about it, or how it happened. That's how interesting threads develop. IF respondents can interpret and advance a topic rather than try to argue that the earth is flat just to argue.
Or are you STILL going to argue the earth is flat?