I don't 'get' Racism...

[Sougo]

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?

Lets see... heres how I look at it.

If you see a fellow from a different race, you will immediately see that in terms of appearance and possibly attitude, he is different from you. Its only natural to recognize that difference.

Now, you may or may not like what you see. Either response is natural.

While understanding the differences between you and the other person (mostly they are just appearance) if you are polite or simply indifferent to that person (as you are with any other person) you are not racist.

However if you are actively hostile towards that person simply on the basis of those differences, then you sir are racist.

 

[El_Chubba_Chubba]

Two me, I only really see three "types" of racism. Now I don't like people being so generalised and trying to sum up a very important subject so easily, or any subject really. But see this more as a couple of the ways that my mind views different situations and tries to explain the.

One, often from elderly people who may have grown up being taught that (for example) white people are better than black people. Their hate and discrimination is what they genuinely think. And that is very sad.

Another "type" is when people lash out at a (again for example) indian person calling them a f**king p*ki, they say this because they are angry, and they almost use racism as a tool to express their hatred, not because that person is genuinely racist.

Another type is out of pure ignorance. e.g calling an Iranian person a terrorist, just because people assume that of the person. The second example could be this type, couldn't it?

All of these can be linked with another, and they may appear at the same time, with it never being perfectly clear for which reason they are being racist.

 

[Furbyz]

Very few people wake up in the morning and think to themselves, "I will perpetuate hate, intolerance, and the oppression of [insert race here] because they are inferior to me." The racism most people see today is much more subtle than that. So subtle, in fact, that most people don't even realize they're doing it. It's not a conscious decision, it just happens because they attribute their actions to something other than race. Like not hiring someone reportedly because you felt they weren't qualified, while in reality the person just has a problem with [insert minority here] that they aren't actively aware of. And the best part is I'm sure more than one of them has congratulated themselves how well and non-prejudiced they were in that situation.

This leads to the insane notion of a world with a lot of racism but next to no racists. Crazy, huh?

For the record, I've found that I am personally prejudiced to people with horrible diction and are native English speakers. It's not the sound or the accent, just the fact that somehow this person is completely unintelligible at all times for absolutely no reason and makes themselves sound less intelligent than they likely are. Now this might be the same as how some people judge others by their clothes or other facets of their personal appearance, but if I ever meet someone with a legitimate speech impediment, I have to constantly check myself. It's not fair to them, and I hate myself for it. I find myself automatically thinking less of a person than I should, so I can never trust my own assessment of them.

I think most racism in the world is about like that, but possibly not even that self aware.

 

[Lost Cause]

People are racist for the same reason people are sexist etc.

People have a need to feel superior to others for whatever bull*beep* reason. It's just how the human brain is wired; some people manage to suppress it, others... don't.

 

[kuolonen]

Hold on a sec, are you saying that before the "white man" found the "uncivilised" black men, racism did nit exist?
Is this something which in your opinion is something only "white man" is capable of?
Is it something "white man" invented?
Before the "white man" ventured out of Europe every other civilisation was living in harmony and did not discriminate against other cultures and peoples, it was something they needed to be taught?
Oh the fucking irony!

Well hes both right and wrong here. Racism probably existed prior to this, but it was the whites that started shipping boat-loads of 'slaves' from Africa, simply because they were 'inferior.' So in that regard whites did kind of enforce a sort of rule of racism.

Now sure the Romans and other civilizations had 'slaves' and 'sacrifices' too but in these cases they were just prisoners of war, regardless of their race. You lose the war, you and your people become the slaves of the victor.

... Yes it was the whites. Since only white people took slaves from africa. That is, assuming you can count arabian people "white"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_slave_trade#Enslaved_people_taken_from_Africa

The part I want you to look that page would be the arab slave trade. Numbers are about the same as with atlantic slave trade.
Also
"The very earliest external slave trade was the trans-Saharan slave trade."

If you want, you can also go look for materials on Mongols (asian people) slaving russians (european whites) back in the day.

As for the second point, does the aquisition method of the slave somehow change how wrong that action is? Or for that matter does it really matter wheter or not the slaver and the slave are of the same skin color?

OT: Everyone is racist to some degree. Regardless of race, and that is so delicously ironic.

Edit: Of course OP really could have elaborated on what he means on "racism". We talking Kukluxklan asshole level of commitment here or more of the steroetyping path, for eg: "black people like chicken" or something in between? It doesnt help that some people think stereotyping and racism are the same thing.

 

[Vandenberg1]

It's ignorance, these people aren't racist for any kind of logical reason, but because of a natural fear of things that are different and an unwillingness to actually think about it properly.

wrong... When Spaniards saw Mexicans sacrificing to "false" gods, they immediatly saw themselves better spiritualy, and seeing as how they had more advanced tchnology, they saw themselves better racially and culturally. Now today its like.... A "white" person goes through any ghetto and sees the violence and high level og ignorant thought and says to himself... I am superior to these people..

 

[Erana]

Portugese 'barbarians' vs the Japanese 'monkeys' - 16th century Portugal 'discovered' Japan, the Portuguese and Japanese once again were both convinced that they were a superior race. After a very turbulent period, the Japanese actually expelled ALL foreginers from their country for over two hundred years from the 17th to the mid 19th century.

Now, I'm not discounting the racism you bring up here, but I thought that closing Japan was a move done pretty early on in the military rule of the Tokugawa family in order to secure their position as the dominant force in the country.
Though to this day, the Japanese culture is imbedded with a sense of cultural superiority, evidenced by how it is inconceivable for many Japanese to ever consider the immigration of foreigners. There's also the very real issue of relationships between Koreans and Japanese, which bears the same sort of stigma a white person marrying someone black in America a few decades ago.
(Or a white person marrying an Arab in particularly zealous parts of America this very day.)

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?

Back in the far flung past of europe, the white people found african people and thought "Hey, they look different, I don't like that, therefore they are lower than I" and racism was born. Now, there is much debate as to whether this was intentional, as at the time the africans were in their tribal state, and could have been seen as "barabaric" by the whites.

This process has continued with every tint and shade of skin pigment up to this very day.

TL;DR: People are assholes who feel the need to be better than others, so why not use a visible indicator to "prove" it.

While surely people looked down at people of other races regardless of any social context at the time, in school, the anthropology and history professors both felt that the slavery came first, then the "White people are superior" notion, socially justifying their actions.
The same people capturing and selling Africans had originally tried to do the same to Native Americans, but it was generally unsuccessful, considering they knew the land better than the slavers did.

But isn't that so often the tune, just rewriting the definition of people to exclude others at a culture's convenience?

 

[dillinger88]

Well it probably started due to fucking idiots actually believing they were superior because other races weren't the "norm". People would see someone with different coloured skin or accent for the first time and it was strange to them.

It was awful and you'd expect people to realise that now, but unfortunately fucking idiots will continue to be fucking idiots.

 

[Davey Woo]

Hold on a sec, are you saying that before the "white man" found the "uncivilised" black men, racism did not exist?
Is this something which in your opinion is something only "white man" is capable of?
Is it something "white man" invented?
Before the "white man" ventured out of Europe every other civilisation was living in harmony and did not discriminate against other cultures and peoples, it was something they needed to be taught?
Oh the fucking irony!

No I'm not saying racism didn't exist beforehand, I'm saying that white on black racism stems from around that time period.

 

[GigaHz]

Racism will become less relevant over time, thanks in part to the globalization of the internet. Sure, it will remain a mindset of the less intelligent/educated at least until it becomes unfashionable in their circle.

But even still, there will always be some fragment of hatred that people will cling on to. Just because, you know, humans tend to hate things they don't fully understand. Also conditioning has a lot to do with it as well.

My solution is to openly acknowledge a race's specific traits and have fun with it. It's a lot better than the PC garbage the mainstream is shovelling down your throat, which is trying to have you believe that we are all just one big glob of assimilated culture. As ugly as the whole hatred of other cultures and races definitely is, whats worse is glazing over identity and cultural background. It actually seems to distance people from other cultures when heaven forbid they do something that isn't considered 'white wash'.

I'm thinking the next big trend will be Classism: Rich vs. Middle Class vs. Lower Class. Especially with that whole economic mess over the last few years.

 

[Wintermoot]

because some people are big douches it,s just how people work

 

[The_Emperor]

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

then explain it.

me personally I think all people have positive and negative things about them

some cultures engage in things I find morally objectable it doesn't mean I hate them all because of the actions of a minority or even a majority.

Some humans are dicks, other humans aren't dicks, some cultures express their dickishness in the ways that they have learned from the dicks before them, others do not.

It's that simple. Racism is a form of dickishness expressed by all peoples.

My definition of racism is malicious hatred toward another culture or malicious action toward another culture based on prejudice brought about by anything

Making light of social differences is not racist but assuming that members of a certain culture will exhibit a particular behaviour because other members of that culture have done so is illogical.

 

[Stublore]

It all comes from way back when the 'civilised' white man 'found' the 'uncivilised' black man and taught him how to live etc. Since then it's been drilled into SOME peoples heads that white people are superior to black people. (At least that's the case with white on black racism.

Racism in general comes from some people thinking it's necessary to conform, and being different (in any way) obviously doesn't conform, so naturally some people will discriminate against the people who're different.

Hold on a sec, are you saying that before the "white man" found the "uncivilised" black men, racism did nit exist?
Is this something which in your opinion is something only "white man" is capable of?
Is it something "white man" invented?
Before the "white man" ventured out of Europe every other civilisation was living in harmony and did not discriminate against other cultures and peoples, it was something they needed to be taught?
Oh the fucking irony!

Well hes both right and wrong here. Racism probably existed prior to this, but it was the whites that started shipping boat-loads of 'slaves' from Africa, simply because they were 'inferior.' So in that regard whites did kind of enforce a sort of rule of racism.

Now sure the Romans and other civilizations had 'slaves' and 'sacrifices' too but in these cases they were just prisoners of war, regardless of their race. You lose the war, you and your people become the slaves of the victor.

And what was the basis of the African slave trade prior to that?
You are aware that Africa has had a thriving slave trade long before "white man" arrived?
But I guess that was not racially motivated was it, only in the case of the Europeans was it racist??
As for those Romans and others I guess by losing they proved their inferiority and that was what made the Romans superior to them.
Wait, wasn't that how Europeans asserted their superiority, and the Ottomans, and the Japanese, and Chinese, heck pretty much every society ever.

To sum up, if you think racism is solely the preserve of, and was created by the "white man", that's racist, isn't it?

 

[Jegsimmons]

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?

OK, racism is not always ignorance or how your raised, and it doesn't always mean your race is superior.
it can be learned through experience. Example: During middle school i went to an all black and Mexican school for a short time (i'm white...and i mean white) during this stay i saw prejudiced, ignorance, lack of morals, lack of intelligence, and all sorts of uncivilized manners. Most of it directed at ME!

needless to say i developed an uneasiness around certain minorities after that. Wasn't my fault, back at the other schools i went to i had friends who were minorities and i got along fine. yet when i went to this school and became the minority myself, i was put in an environment where i became increasingly uncomfortable day after day.

now i did eventually overcome most of these problems i developed, but it did make me realize that sometimes prejudices are learned from direct experience, as much as people don't like to admit it, a large bit of racism could be traced back to the group in question.

 

[DEAD34345]

It's ignorance, these people aren't racist for any kind of logical reason, but because of a natural fear of things that are different and an unwillingness to actually think about it properly.

wrong... When Spaniards saw Mexicans sacrificing to "false" gods, they immediatly saw themselves better spiritualy, and seeing as how they had more advanced tchnology, they saw themselves better racially and culturally. Now today its like.... A "white" person goes through any ghetto and sees the violence and high level og ignorant thought and says to himself... I am superior to these people..

So... they naturally feared the differences of those cultures, leading them to come to the belief that they are superior (ignorant of the fact that they are just different, and that their culture has nothing to do with their skin colour anyway)?

... Pretty much exactly what I said?

 

[Hagi]

Racism is perfectly logical.

What our brains excel at most is detecting patterns. Even if those patterns aren't actually there.

Just look at how many times you were alone in a dark place and thought a shadow somewhere was actually another person. Your brain detected a vaguely person-like pattern in that shadow and immediately told you PERSON!. Or how often you recognise human faces in various objects. I mean a smiley is only a circle with a few lines in it yet everyone is able to recognise a face in it.

Faces and people are likely hard-coded into our brains and therefore extremely easy to recognize, even if not actually there. But they're not the only patterns our brain recognizes.

If we see one hundred people who all share two qualities and nearly no people who have one of these qualities without the other then that's also a pattern our brains will start to recognize, even if not there.

So the next time you see a person with just one of the qualities your brain is very likely to also recognize the other unless you specifically focus your attention on that other quality.

So if you grow up in a place and the only black people you meet are also poorly educated then after enough exposure to that you'll subtly start seeing every black person as uneducated until you specifically focus your attention on their education. And the other way around, if you hear about someone who is poorly educated you'll assume he's black until you specifically focus your attention on his skill colour. All this simply because your brain has recognized 'black - uneducated' as an existing pattern.

The only way to fix this is to force exposure to a lot of people who have only a single one of these qualities without the other. Thus forcing your brain to recognize that this pattern isn't real.

The problem is that a lot of racist attitudes reinforce themselves. Once such a pattern is established you'll act like it's true and because you're acting that way you won't run into anything forcing you to consider otherwise.

Because someone thinks all black people are uneducated he will visit a white doctor when he needs an educated person for whatever reason and he'll visit a black homeless man when he needs an uneducated person for whatever reason. He has no reason to search out black intellectuals or poorly educated white people.

The black - uneducated pattern is fairly obvious and while it still exists in frightening quantities most smart people are able to reflect on themselves and recognize this pattern as false and thus their brains slowly stop recognizing it when it's not there. But there are a lot more patterns, much more subtle, that are constantly being recognized in our lives even when they're not actually there.

This serves a good reason of causing your brain to only have to do half the work, instead of having to recognize every single thing about a person you can just pick a few qualities and quickly extrapolate from there. Based on your personal history that extrapolation should be more or less right.

But obvious problems occur when coming into contact with people whose like you've rarely met in the past, if at all.

Everyone does this. All of us have some subtle racist sentiments. All of us have some patterns that we recognize even when they're not there, yet we still act on them. And all we can do is be vigilant and double check if we're really reacting on qualities that are actually there or if we're only reacting to shadows of qualities we expect to be there.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Racism is a natural response in humans, it is our way of staying safe, we see something foreign looking and we assume they are a threat to us. This was born out of necessity thousands of years ago and is slowly leaving our society in much the same way that homophobia is, in the end it all comes down to people being misinformed.

 

[Snowblindblitz]

Because at one point in time racism was a survival instinct. Don't trust things that look different, as they will probably kill you. That is still true, we just play nice because we are "civilized."

Add to that the fact that racism is just a cycle. Ancient man A hated Ancient man B. "Whites" are the most accused group of being racist because nobody cares about being racist towards a white man. You can hate and blame "white" people all you want, and nobody, outside of Hate groups who nobody likes, will stop you. Racism is now in that part of the cycle where Man A can take all the heat cause he cast the first stone. Putting a white title on anything (scholarship, fraternity) is BAD. But other races can do that, with no questions asked. Racism between humans won't end till we find an alien race to enslave and kick the shit out of and outcast them.

 

[CrystalShadow]

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?

It's a natural side effect of several thought processes and basic human tendencies unfortunately.

1. First trying to group everything into categories - Is this a car, or a tree?

2. Making generalisations about things - trees have leaves; Cars have 4 wheels.

-> notice how these generalisations aren't always true? Some trees don't have leaves, some cars have more or less than 3 wheels...

There's a well known tendency to take a specific example of something and infer that everything in a group of similar objects has the same properties...

(That car is red, so all cars must be red. You should be able to figure out what's wrong with a statement like that, as well as what consequences it has for something like racism...)

3. In group & Out group - humans have a natural tendency to break up people into either being part of the 'in' group, or the 'out' group.
This is things like 'friends' vs 'enemies', 'family' vs 'strangers', 'locals' vs 'foreigners', and so on.

And alongside this, you usually find that the group you are part of is one you consider 'better', or 'preferable' to the one which you are not...

So, add up superficial groupings based on very limited differences (eg. skin colour), unwarranted generalisations (eg. This person is stupid, therefore all the people of the same race are too), and in group mentality (this person is different to us, therefore we fear/shun/hate them.), and between them you can typically explain most racism. (as well as most other forms of discrimination too. - Sure there's more to it than that, but essentially, these three things form the basis of it.)

 

[DethVanXan]

The causes of racism vary from place to place. I used to live in Zimbabwe where racism is extremely common and accepted among the white population. The older generation's reason was because they fought a war against the Africans and lost. They fought to protect thier way of life and were defeated by the people who, in thier eyes, did not know how to run a country. They are very bitter about thier defeat and this shows itself in the form of racism (and often alcoholism, but that's something else.
My generation now sees the effects of the previous generation's defeat. Zimbabwe, while it was Rhodesia was a rich and good place to live (white or black, but much better for the whites). Now it is one of the poorest countries on earth.