I don't 'get' Racism...

[sinterklaas]

Racism is stupid. Every baby of every color is a blank slate. The problem lies with the cultures and individual views and morals of persons. Certain cultures with certain skin colors may be more prone to having ignorant views or annoying habits, but hating the whole race for that is just as ignorant. Hate ideas and individuals that support those ideas, but don't stereotype the whole race for it.

A black baby born in Sweden is different from a black baby born in Zimbabwe.

 

[Stublore]

Racism has to be taught.

I look at my 3 year-old daughter, and she plays equally well with kids of all races -- at her age, race doesn't even register as anything more that "my friend looks different than me."

It's only as children grow up and are taught that you shouldn't associate with "those people" that racism begins. Instead of embracing the "otherness," we're taught (either by individuals, or more subtly by society -- take a look at movies and television) to fear the "other." Once you begin to perceive anyone as something other than a person, as part of an anonymous group, it's easy to dehumanize them.

It seem like the majority of the posters see individuals as individuals, and judge them as such. To me, that is truly wonderful and amazing (since it's how I want my daughter to grow up)!

Boy you couldn't be more wrong.

How do researchers test a 6-month-old? They show babies photographs of faces. Katz found that babies will stare significantly longer at photographs of faces that are a different race from their parents, indicating they find the face out of the ordinary. Race itself has no ethnic meaning per se?but children's brains are noticing skin-color differences and trying to understand their meaning.
When the kids turned 3, Katz showed them photographs of other children and asked them to choose whom they'd like to have as friends. Of the white children, 86 percent picked children of their own race. When the kids were 5 and 6, Katz gave these children a small deck of cards, with drawings of people on them. Katz told the children to sort the cards into two piles any way they wanted. Only 16 percent of the kids used gender to split the piles. But 68 percent of the kids used race to split the cards, without any prompting. In reporting her findings, Katz concluded: "I think it is fair to say that at no point in the study did the children exhibit the Rousseau type of color-blindness that many adults expect."

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/09/04/see-baby-discriminate.html

That?s because new studies have found that by this age?three months?many babies start to prefer faces of people from their own race to those of another race. This early favoritism may represent the first glimmers of racial prejudice, psychologists say.

But don?t start fretting about racist babies yet. On the bright side, researchers also found that babies raised with frequent exposure to people of other races don?t develop this early bias. This discovery may help guide future research on how to counter racism, they suggested.

?Early preferences for own-race faces may contribute to race-related biases later in life,? psychologists wrote in a paper on a study published in the February issue of the research journal Psychological Science. Typically, ?by the age of 4 to 6 years, children already display racial stereotyping and prejudice in a variety of contexts.?

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060212_racefrm2.htm

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

It's a natural animal instinct to try to smash everything that's not you.

But we are the human race, whether you're black or white.
Or maybe that's the problem people see.
Oh and our 'instinct' can be overcome, for example we condition ourselves to hold on to hot plates.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

I understand it and practice it and have never encountered anyone who to some degree did not.

Um... care to explain that? Because I don't practice it in any degree.

 

[Putridmuffin]

I think its more down to the 'pack' mentality that we humans often fall into in times of hardship. Its the 'us' and 'them' attitude. Racism is just another way of projecting the 'them' onto another group of people that we dont belong to. It could be the big nose clan versus the big ears clan, who have never liked each other due to a petty feud long forgotten. It could be different football supporters (milwall vs whoever).

Unfortunately i do not think we will ever get rid of it. Our leaders and charismatics will often use the 'us vs them' argument to gain popularity and support. Its a lot easier to blame someone else for your problems than to look at yourself and admit you are at fault.

The convenient thing about racism is that the 'them' are a different colour so are easily identifiable. And you will always know who your group are because they have the same skin colour as you.

Racism is a tool that is used to obtain power and influence by the charismatics in this life. Its too potent a tool to disappear entirely.

Its a shame really. Especially when there are other much more interesting ways to split a population. Skiers vs snowboarders (who are clearly tossers by the way) for example.

 

[Kenko]

Meh, doesn't seem so hard to get to me. It's the leftovers of a "white man's burden" type of thought that was prevalent back in the day, when the Europeans looked at native Americans and Africans and were all like "lolwut, where's your technology and civilization. We'd better enslave you guys for your own good!"

In general, a lot of people unconsciously compare themselves to any different group they meet, and obviously when comparing, they want to be the better of the two. So, nationalism, racism, holy wars, etc happen.

And you are saying that white people are the only people who are racist wtf? ROFL

Well, traditionally, they've had the most opportunity to do so. They did sort of colonize the whole world.

My second paragraph addressed racism in general, so no need to throw a fit

What you said really. It's only bad that people who are european and/or white in modern day get a "Racist label" by simply being white european. Most racism, and this is from a few of my arab friends, is directed at whites by non-whites. Most white europeans do not care about race, or rather the vast majority doesnt. Only bit who are racists, are usually people from small shitty inbred hillbilly villages who look like neanderthals with their eye's too close or far apart and with a few missing fingers.

But the word racism is usually tacked on, on things that may not be racist like "immigration policies". For example if you are against immigration in a case where your country cant take in more as it doesnt benefit those who come or those who already are here. Then you are labeled as a xenophobic racist Hitler-type.

Urkh, what im getting at, modern day europeans are judged by others as if they were their imperialist ancestors.

It's a natural animal instinct to try to smash everything that's not you.

But we are the human race, whether you're black or white.
Or maybe that's the problem people see.
Oh and our 'instinct' can be overcome, for example we condition ourselves to hold on to hot plates.

Sadly this is also false. We are all the same species "Humans". There are different sub-categories, "Races". They all have their traits and differences that make living in their original habitat easier, like skin-colour or different bonestructure.

You can compare dogs to humanity. Dogs (or wolves rather) are a species and within said species there are different races. Simple.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

The definition of racism these days is so broad no wonder you are confused....

 

[FuktLogik]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

People dislike and fear what is different from the norm. A friend of mine once caught a crow and painted it in seagull colors. You know what happened? It's flock tor it to shreds when it tried to return.

Also, different races have different mannerisms. For instance, I personally can't stand how apologetic most Japanese people are. I don't hate them as a people, but I do hate some things about how they act, or certain things about their society and culture.

Racism is just discrimination, and discrimination is just liking one thing more than another.

Also, I'm not racist, I have a black dog and a color T.V...

 

[Poptart Invasion]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

Racism, despite being STUPID, is favored by natural selection. When our hunting-gathering ancestors ran into a tribe or family group that wasn't their own, it meant competition over territory, resources, and females. And the easiest way to tell who was and wasn't in their tribe or group was their inherited appearance, race. I think that, combined with stupid human psychology making people think one bad egg in any group means the whole group is bad, is why.

Similar to how sexism makes sense in nature, but is useless in modern society (mostly).

 

[prolefeedprocessor]

It's because cultural groups tend to be from the same region and therefore of the same race. Now the world has a lot more migration, but when groups migrate, those families tend to stick with other families from their homeland, and that's why we have racial subcultures that develop separately from the majority culture. The families of American blacks have a different history and tradition passed down to their kids than that of American whites or native Americans, etc.

So cultural problems are attributed to race. Survivalist cultures in areas with fewer resources tend to breed more violent and base individuals. Think of Africa. Really horrible stuff happens there every day because of the historical, educational, and geographical factors that play into Africans' lives all the time. The violence that results from cultural/regional problems is blamed on "black people being too unevolved to know any better" or "violent monkeys" or similar attributions to race.

However, for example, South Africa has recently seen a lot of blacks acquire wealth and a lot of whites lose it due to post-apartheid policies. Those now-poor whites have become violent and ignorant while the now-rich blacks have become cultured and educated. It goes to show that race isn't the problem, but instead wealth is.

So, I would argue that it's not really ignorance. People aren't pulling this stuff out of their butt. There ARE differences between racial groups (and differences mean inequalities). But only because those racial groups have separate cultures. It's just mistaking correlation for causation, when the causes of wide-spread behavioral problems is cultural and not racial/biological. Most cultures just happen to be grouped roughly by race.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

Can't tell if Troll or just very stupid.

Seriously, though, Racism is all about History and our preconceived notions of peoples based off said History, aka Stereotypes, with a little Religious under/overtones thrown in for good measure.

Why are white people racist towards black people and vice versa? Slave Trade. Pure-bred Africans, living in the plains of Africa with none of the "necessities" of life that we take for granted - like, oh say, plumbing, electricity, and the like - were considered "inferior" because of this, and because Christians believed everything God put on this Earth is theirs for the taking, someone decided that because Africans didn't "look" like them, that they "weren't human" and thus could be used as slaves. So, yeah, some white people may still have it hard-wired into their minds from years of inbreeding that African-Americans are still inferior, and most African-Americans fear that there are more people like that than there really are, so it's just easier to adopt the "guilty until proven innocent" doctrine.

I could probably go into a long, LONG rant over why Whitey is racist towards every nationality and ethnicity under the sun, and probably go into some detail over why everyone hates Whitey, but suffice it to say that my beginning statement says it all. Most Stereotypes have at least SOME kernels of truth hidden within based off of certain events in History, but their overblown nature makes them difficult to accept. Religion is also a BIG instigator of a LOT of racism, far more than skin color could ever, EVER hope to come close to.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Racism, despite being STUPID, is favored by natural selection. When our hunting-gathering ancestors ran into a tribe or family group that wasn't their own, it meant competition over territory, resources, and females. And the easiest way to tell who was and wasn't in their tribe or group was their inherited appearance, race. I think that, combined with stupid human psychology making people think one bad egg in any group means the whole group is bad, is why.

Similar to how sexism makes sense in nature, but is useless in modern society (mostly).

Yeah, yeah, that's all very interesting but...
YOU'RE FRIEND DID WHAT!?
Seriously!?!?
Who does that shizzle?
You must be joking/ lying.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Can't tell if Troll or just very stupid.

Seriously, though, Racism is all about History and our preconceived notions of peoples based off said History, aka Stereotypes, with a little Religious under/overtones thrown in for good measure.

Why are white people racist towards black people and vice versa? Slave Trade. Pure-bred Africans, living in the plains of Africa with none of the "necessities" of life that we take for granted - like, oh say, plumbing, electricity, and the like - were considered "inferior" because of this, and because Christians believed everything God put on this Earth is theirs for the taking, someone decided that because Africans didn't "look" like them, that they "weren't human" and thus could be used as slaves. So, yeah, some white people may still have it hard-wired into their minds from years of inbreeding that African-Americans are still inferior, and most African-Americans fear that there are more people like that than there really are, so it's just easier to adopt the "guilty until proven innocent" doctrine.

I could probably go into a long, LONG rant over why Whitey is racist towards every nationality and ethnicity under the sun, and probably go into some detail over why everyone hates Whitey, but suffice it to say that my beginning statement says it all. Most Stereotypes have at least SOME kernels of truth hidden within based off of certain events in History, but their overblown nature makes them difficult to accept. Religion is also a BIG instigator of a LOT of racism, far more than skin color could ever, EVER hope to come close to.

HOW VERY DARE YOU!
I mean i just don't understand why racism exists, in miy mind there is no logical sense to it.
Think about it, what do you get from being racist, what can you possibly hope to acheive!?

 

[Ghengis John]

Meh, doesn't seem so hard to get to me. It's the leftovers of a "white man's burden" type of thought that was prevalent back in the day, when the Europeans looked at native Americans and Africans and were all like "lolwut, where's your technology and civilization. We'd better enslave you guys for your own good!"

White people aren't the only ones who can be racist. Chinese people are horribly racist for instance, many blacks are racists towards whites or mexicans and vice verse. It's not the remains of any particular historical age per se, and more a result of a lack of familiarity breeding exclusion and distrust.

In general, a lot of people unconsciously compare themselves to any different group they meet, and obviously when comparing, they want to be the better of the two. So, nationalism, racism, holy wars, etc happen.

Nationalism and holy wars scarcely spring out from the earth. Usually the fervor for these things is the product of propaganda.

 

[Agayek]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

People are racist for the same reason people are sexist or any other irrational belief, xenophobia. It's actually a fairly interesting bit of human evolution and psychology. You see, people that do not have the same appearance (or whatever other criteria happens to be used), are not part of "the group". Because of this, they are obviously inferior and must be shown their inferiority.

That's the basic premise behind it, really. We as a species evolved as an extremely strong tribal species. You were either a member of the tribe or a mortal enemy. Eventually, as humanity advanced and the "tribe" became larger and larger, the sense of tribal bonds changed, creating racial, gender, and socio-economic barriers between "tribes", which created whichever -ism you want to discuss.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

People are racist for the same reason people are sexist or any other irrational belief, xenophobia. It's actually a fairly interesting bit of human evolution and psychology. You see, people that do not have the same appearance (or whatever other criteria happens to be used), are not part of "the group". Because of this, they are obviously inferior and must be shown their inferiority.

That's the basic premise behind it, really. We as a species evolved as an extremely strong tribal species. You were either a member of the tribe or a mortal enemy. Eventually, as humanity advanced and the "tribe" became larger and larger, the sense of tribal bonds changed, creating racial, gender, and socio-economic barriers between "tribes", which created whichever -ism you want to discuss.

But why do we feel that?
Why do we feel that difference is bad?
Maybe we're not so different from the animals...

 

[General BrEeZy]

no
clue
whatsoever

 

[zhoominator]

Like fuck thats going to happen, africans and asians immigrate to Europe and America, its not a mix, when africa/asia stay african/asian and Europe and America become more asian/african.
When there is an equal flow I will agree, but at this rate the only end product will be some african/asian race, no european/caucasian. Same bullshit as multiculturalsm, unless it goes both ways its just diluting one culture/race and replacing it with the other.

Oh because black people in the states aren't already becoming less African looking due to mixing with European genes. Oh, yes and what exactly will cause the white people to disappear? Will they catch The Black?! Dear God no!!!

You might want to open your eyes because if you can't see that so called "black"* Americans and "black" Africans often look very little alike, usually due to breeding with people of other cultures, then you are either blind or just completely ignorant. This is evidence of racial mixing.

I'm not quite sure how clear I have to make this point since you clearly don't understand the idea of how people would eventually become one big mixture. We don't move in beside someone of a different culture and palette swap. You see, there is such a thing as sex and when two people have sex, they can produce offspring which will contain half the genes of one parent and half of the other. Therefore, the resultant child will become a mixture of the two. Black people, white people and asian people are all capable of having sex with each other (and trust me, they do this A LOT) so obviously you end up with descendants who are a mixture of races. In fact, a large portion of the black American populace are this way already. Ever heard the term "white girls dipped in chocolate"? An example right there of the kind of thing I'm talking about.

There is no such thing as diluting of race, at least not in any country not run by a dictator. You can not replace one race with another, every race/culture is a compilation of other ones that came before it and future races and cultures will be a mixture of those we have now (I'm not quite sure how long I have to labour this point). This ignorance on basic biological historical fundamentals baffles me. If your that bothered that one day your country won't be the same as it was when you were young, then perhaps you should move to another planet because that's how this one works. Stuff changes, it evolves. If you aren't prepared to evolve with it, you'll be left behind and become the very neanderthal you fear we'll be.



*Black is such a ridiculously vague term that could be applied to so many people from so many countries with so many different shades and facial and body types that calling them one race is just as silly as those who claim that Islam represent one and only one culture.

 

[FalloutJack]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

Logic? LOGIC?! You're looking for logic? Here? At this hour?

Surely, you jest.

But in all seriousness, there is no logic to it. No proper justification can be made.

 

[KurmisTheFrog]

Well, if the holocaust was anything to learn from, rasism, sexism, etc. seems to be caused by ignorance or blame. Germans were having a bad time after world war one, so they used jewish people as a scapegoat, which led to WW2 and the attempt at assimilating the jews.

As for day to day rasism, I'd say that's ignorance. Possibly started by people making racist jokes, or not really knowing about other races or sexes much, starts getting people to dehumanize them.

But that's just what I've taken from movies and history lessons...