Racism / sexism are not binary.

Like most Americans, I don't think of myself as a racist or sexist or some kinda -phobe. Like most Americans, I'm less of one of those things than the average foreigner. Like... say what you want about our institutions and the legacy of awful history... if you've interacted with a lot of people from non-US countries, you know what I'm talking about.

But assuming that racism/sexism are not binaries, but spectrums we're all on... that there's at least a bit of our brains hardwired for categoric knowing assumptions even if they're subconscious... that regardless of whether you're black or white or male or female or part of a group with or without power or whatever there's a bit of it that we rightly fight against?

Then I had an instance last night where I definitely was sexist.

I was driving home from work on the freeway, and a car was driving dangerous. You know, drifting between lanes and moving erratic. My first thought was to get my car away from that one. I went a couple of lanes over, and did my whole EV zoom zoom thing to put distance between us. As I passed, I looked over, and thought "that stupid bastard. I hope this goddamn drunk driver don't kill nobody and he gets home safe and gets the help he needs."

Not ten minutes later, I had deja vu. The exact same experience, with a car drifting lanes and moving erratic that I went to zoom zoom away from. I looked over, and my first thought was "It's only 7pm. She probably ain't drunk, just a shitty driver. Maybe she's distracted, having dropped her phone and is looking for it on the floor of the car".

The only info I had on either was their sex, briefly seen as I sped past the danger. I'm just not sure whether I was more sexist against women for the trope of the bad driver and easy distractions, or more sexist against men for doing something so much worse than mere distracted driving like drunk driving with the assumption that men are more dangerous and reckless. But my brain definitely made a distinction on that one fact alone.