I don't 'get' Racism...

[Agayek]

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

First off, we're not any different from animals. Anyone that tells you otherwise is naive to the point of stupidity or lying through their teeth. We are just as much a slave to our instincts and evolved behaviors as every other animal.

Second, I already explained why we feel that way. Early man developed an incredibly strong sense of "tribe" and "not-tribe" as a survival mechanism. To the best of our knowledge, it was common for tribes to massacre each other with little-to-no warning. Trusting strangers was the quickest way to get yourself killed. Because of that, outsiders were shunned and were never welcomed as part of the tribe.

That exclusivity evolved alongside our society and eventually gave way to most of the segregation and discrimination you can still see today.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

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!?

From being a racist? Not much, I'll admit. But it exists because of the very reasons I stated. Religion, especially Christianity, tells us what we should believe, and most Religions believe that those who do not worship the same God(s) as that Religion are heathens and should be destroyed. In essence, this is racism, although technically I guess it'd be theocrism, or whatever. Christianity, in particular, states that God created the Earth and everything on it for use by us Humans, and thus some humans centuries ago played around with the meaning and tried to say that anything that doesn't believe in Christianity (or any "tangible" religion, as in it has at least 500+ pages of nonsense written down on easy-to-read parchment) is therefore NOT human and thus open to exploitation. Colonization of North and Central America was primarily because of this ideal, and it's what caused the Slave Trade.

History is as much a part of our lives as anything. It defines us, whether we want it to or not. Some people look to History to define themselves and/or others, and that History can be over the last few millennia, the last few centuries, or just the last decade or so.

Here, to put it in a more base sense, some people are racist for the same reason some people shout expletives over X-Box Live or post Trollish material on the internet (not counting you anymore, sorry for the meme comment). They do it to feel better about themselves, some by making others feel worse or angry.

Other people are Racist as a defense mechanism. See my comment on why some African-Americans are automatically racist towards Whitey. They do that because they know Whitey fucked them over in the past, so they don't want the same treatment now, even if the only Whiteys they know are perfectly upstanding citizens. The same can go the other way around. Whitey may not want to associate with a Middle-Eastern person simply because of what's been going on in the last decade or so. He has no reason to suspect that this particular person is up to anything bad, but he's cautious all the same.

Racism, in a small way, defines each and every one of us in how we socialize with others. If you can tell me that you've NEVER looked at someone that was different from you and didn't have at least a small bit of apprehension in approaching them, that you've lived your life making EVERYONE you've ever met your friend, and that you can speak on the exact same terms with each and every friend, regardless of race/religion, even going so far as to crack the odd off-colour joke at them without fear of repercussions, and actually manage to do so without repercussions, then congratulations, sir, you are most decidedly not racist.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

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

First off, we're not any different from animals. Anyone that tells you otherwise is naive to the point of stupidity or lying through their teeth. We are just as much a slave to our instincts and evolved behaviors as every other animal.

Second, I already explained why we feel that way. Early man developed an incredibly strong sense of "tribe" and "not-tribe" as a survival mechanism. To the best of our knowledge, it was common for tribes to massacre each other with little-to-no warning. Trusting strangers was the quickest way to get yourself killed. Because of that, outsiders were shunned and were never welcomed as part of the tribe.

That exclusivity evolved alongside our society and eventually gave way to most of the segregation and discrimination you can still see today.

You cannot disagree, however, that we are more advanced than animals, and we are slightly less a slave to our instinicts than other creatures.
We really are, for we can overcome our instincts, we can resist these and change them.

 

[Futurenerd]

I don't understand the thought behind it either. I don't know if it started with thinking other people were INferior, so much as people being ready and willing to believe anything that would tell them that they were somehow SUperior.

 

[Agayek]

You cannot disagree, however, that we are more advanced than animals, and we are slightly less a slave to our instinicts than other creatures.
We really are, for we can overcome our instincts, we can resist these and change them.

No we're not. We are more advanced, in that we have developed tools and technology far beyond any other species, but we are just as much slaved to our instincts as dogs are. Why do you think there are so many similarities between disparate human cultures? Why else do so many people insist on the truth of flawed and/or illogical beliefs?

We have free will, true, but so does a rat. The only real advantage we have over most every other animal is that we are able to understand cause and effect, which means we are able to plan. Aside from that, we're no better than any other mammal.

 

[pwnzerstick]

It is based entirely off of how society portrays certain races, even today, it is imposible to get away from being exposed to certain stereotypes, especialy at a young age, where it can do the most damage. Most people are at least a little bit racist, even if they don't know it, because of this.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

You cannot disagree, however, that we are more advanced than animals, and we are slightly less a slave to our instinicts than other creatures.
We really are, for we can overcome our instincts, we can resist these and change them.

No we're not. We are more advanced, in that we have developed tools and technology far beyond any other species, but we are just as much slaved to our instincts as dogs are. Why do you think there are so many similarities between disparate human cultures? Why else do so many people insist on the truth of flawed and/or illogical beliefs?

We have free will, true, but so does a rat. The only real advantage we have over most every other animal is that we are able to understand cause and effect, which means we are able to plan. Aside from that, we're no better than any other mammal.

Didn't i just say that we were more advanced?
this is why i should be better with words...
but does another animal really have free will?
Really?
Do we know this? (i mean we might, i just don't know, it's an actual question)

My captcha is 'a good man is hard to find'
I feel like that's appropriate.

 

[mik1]

There no such thing as racism but there is truthism.

I do actually have a friend who believes that...

 

[Agayek]

Didn't i just say that we were more advanced?
this is why i should be better with words...
but does another animal really have free will?
Really?
Do we know this? (i mean we might, i just don't know, it's an actual question)

My captcha is 'a good man is hard to find'
I feel like that's appropriate.

Every mammal in existence has the capacity to choose whether or not to do something.

The primary difference between humans and, say, cats is that humanity has the capacity to understand cause and effect. We are still slaved to our instincts. We must eat, fuck, sleep and fight, just like every other animal out there. We have the capacity to think beyond the immediate, though, and that's where the perceived difference is. Animals tend to immediately grab what they want, because for them, there is no "tomorrow", or even a concept of "later". We can understand that avoiding it for now can lead to a greater payout later, and that's the only reason we're even able to think we're superior to most animal life.

 

[Comieman]

Xenophobia.
Easy like that

 

[CarlMin]

Well it doesn't make sense. But there are several psychological explanations.

 

[StBishop]

I understand it. I don't like it but having seen it, I understand why it occurs.

Many people where I spent much of my childhood embodied racist caricatures and plenty of racism was present from all sides.

I think that it really is one of the things you need to experience or witness to understand.

Anyone care to refute this?

 

[JamesStone]

Almost everyone hates everyone, and racism is an excuse to some people to let their hate be controled and aimed to one or more etnical groups that didn´t do anything to deserve it.

Oh and also social advantages and shit.

 

[alimarin]

It's an illogical hatred toward a person or group for a physical, or mental trait.

What else is there to explain?

 

[Sordak]

stereotypes are an important feature in the human mind, we cannot know others weve never seen before and we cannot try to learn about ANYONE so we need stereotypes in order to quickly adept to a situation with a certain kind of person.

for example turks beat up one of my friends and stole my stuff. so when i see turks i dont think very good of them...

 

[TheHitcher]

For all the intelligent threads I see on the escapist, it seems to be balanced out with really silly/obvious threads about really simple things.

How can you not get it?

Have you ever in your life studied history? Or thought carefully about human nature?

It's like what Chris Rock said; there's always that one guy who encounters racism and is genuinely shocked with what he hears.

Anyway, many people above have already explained how and why, so I won't bother. But I will say this; not being able to "get" something is not the same as understanding it but still recognising that it's wrong and born of ignorance.

 

[ninjapenguin981]

It stems from a primal part of our brains that prejudices things that are different and therefore helped keep us alive from people who were not from our tribe. Active racism stuff like insulting due to race I don't understand. However, things such as being afraid of a certain race due to ignorance I can understand.

PS: I don't condone racism by saying this, merely this is my idea of why it exists.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

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.

It's not all that far flung, actually. Originally Europe, Africa and the Middle East got on well, until the Crusades happened, and then people started being more intolerant and violent towards those with different beliefs, and then it turned to racism after that.

It's all part of the same fear - xenophobia - fear of the strange or unknown.

But yea, I don't get it either.

 

[Sandernista]

Well, I'm racist. I don't try to be, nor do I even notice it most of the time. I believe everyone is bigoted to some degree, and I think more people need to acknowledge their biases. I believe once you acknowledge it, it will have a drastically reduced effect on how you act.

 

[Caligulust]

Thanks for all the replies people.
But i thought that racism stemed from the fact that balck people were enslaved, hence becoming slaves and just simply becoming possesions and non-human things in our (thankfully, not us it would seem) eyes, and once they became 'people' so to speak a lot of that meantality was retained.
But then i realised that it doesn't apply to other nationalities.
Racism... so pointless.

Well, slavery did indeed tribute to racism (at least concerning Africans). It wasn't necessarily that they were viewed as possessions, that's arguably how one might view a servant. (you can compare indentured servants in the American colonies to slaves) In that position, they were denied education and given rags to wear. This would contribute to a perception of them being inferior, especially because they were different. They would also use forms of passive protest, such as playing dumb and breaking tools. This would unfortunately only reinforce beliefs of stupidity. These stereotypes would carry on for a while, and despite gaining freedom they would find themselves in the same positions they had before. Then following World War 2 we have what is known as the white flight- the migration of white citizens to the suburbs. Loans that were made were only available to white citizens, and suburbs would also bar minorities such as blacks and latinos from home ownership. The poor would be left in the cities, many of them minorities. As cities would start to decay in their poverty, crime would start to become more common. That only reinforces and creates more stereotypes, and contribute to racism. The Irish were in a similar situation many years before.

While other countries have had very different experiences with racism, some themes are still common. Especially poverty and crime. When another person of your race commits a crime or does something bad, it's just another crime to you. But when someone different from a foreign land commits a crime, it's easy to personify them as worse because they aren't like you.