I don't 'get' Racism...

thick doona

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lunncal said:
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.
Acting on your natural fears is logical. :p
 

Sizzle Montyjing

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Apr 5, 2011
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creationis apostate said:
Sizzle Montyjing said:
Cakes said:
creationis apostate said:
Cakes said:
creationis apostate said:
FallenTraveler said:
Sizzle Montyjing said:
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.
christianity was a HUGE factor in slavery, as christ was the "right"religion. They didn't like that religion as they were black. So once again, christianity puts our civilisation back hundreds of years and people still fail to see it....
Horse shit. White people grew fond of slavery, these same white people happened to be Christian, so they managed to justify it through their religion. The religion itself made literally no difference.
Hey dont get offended if you are one, you should know the history of your murderous cult is all...
I'm Jewish, genius. Quit embarrassing yourself.
Heh.
He just made a complete dick of himself.
Although most religions (not the jewish people) have been complete dicks throughout history, but Christianity is one of the most prevalent ones...
But i 'm glad to see this thread is still going.
Every religion that states that their leader is the one and only, is power hungry and filled with sheep.
Scientology is one of the worst though, also i don't think it claims those things. But it is just you're opininon.
But seriously, scientology is mental.
*shudders*
 

EclipseoftheDarkSun

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Tribalism, general xenophobia, fear of others who don't have a personal connection to you/your community and thus may be less manipulatable when it comes to your personal rights/wishes/desires is imo the underlying basis for racism, close-minded religious and political bigotry.
 

Eventidal

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Racism: driven by the need to overly generalize the people we see.

Pick out any person on the street. Look at their face, their hair, what they're wearing, their facial expression, how they walk... a combination of these and many other highly insignificant factors bring you to [usually subconsciously] make a decision on who this person is. You [think you] know what they're like, how they act, what they like/dislike, etc. You can already imagine exactly how they would speak to you, and how their voice would sound.
Do you actually know anything about them? No, but your first impressions are made quickly, quietly, and create many initial, subconscious prejudicial ideas about them.
Racism is, in a way, a part of that subconscious first impression thing. You automatically form ideas of what someone is like based on their race/ethnicity, despite the fact that it has no real bearing on their personality. I'll be honest- as I rarely even see black people, much less talk to them, the ideas of what they are in my head is formed by what I see and hear in the media. The internet, TV, radio and video games make up 95% of what I "know" about them, and 90% of that is guys acting all tough and cool, often rapping about shooting others and getting rich and idealizing women. The media doesn't paint a pretty picture of these unknown (to me) people and while I know full well that's just not indicative of black people in general, it still vividly colors my perception of them. I don't like to think I'm racist but really, we all are a bit racist. It's kind of a normal thing. The bad part of racism is when you act like those preconceptions are solid truth.

Also, people love the concept of "othering." If you perceive someone as different from yourself, you feel better about hating them, looking down on them or treating them differently than you would someone like yourself. People love to hate. They need some group to get mad at. Someone has to be the "bad guys" and if it's as simple as "the guys with different skin than me" then so be it.
 

Lazier Than Thou

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Racism is about two things: Ignorance and arrogance.

Ignorance, because what isn't known or understood is inherently scary. You don't know what it's going to do, how it's going to behave, or if it's going to rape you and eat your skin. You just don't know and, if GI Joe is to be believed, knowing is half of the battle.

Arrogance, because people believe themselves to be superior to others. You'll find this particular brand of racism is on the rise, while the racism of ignorance is in decline.

Ignorance is in decline, because more races are mingling with others, specifically in larger and more economically stable countries. This shows us that while customs and desires may change with culture and groups of people, we know they're not going to eat our face off just because they come from a different society. More people are going to be more accepting of others, because there's less ignorance about their culture and people.

Arrogance is in the rise because the world is becoming more and more "intelligence centric." More and more peoples are focusing on the importance of intelligence and the different races are biologically different in more ways than just skin color. Intelligence can be directly related to head size, which means that Africans(in general) suffer in that department. Caucasians and Asians both excel in matters of intelligence, so both with have a more and more difficult time accepting the lower cognitive faculties of their African cousins.

This racism will likely culminate in the same ending as the last time things of this nature happened. A holocaust and purging by eugenicists. I don't know who will play the part of Nazis this time, but I figure it'll probably be the Nationalist Socialist Chinese. They're the most likely candidate, having already exterminated in the millions of their own people in the past fifty years.

The future is bleak, people. I suggest investing in lube and a sturdy table for getting bent over.
 

Mr.Numbers

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Quoting one of my friends:

"I'm not racist. Racism is a crime, and only black people are criminals".

I don't honestly believe that, I will clearly state...I just thought it was funny and shows the mindset behind racist people.

I would also like to point out there can be a big difference between Africans and African Americans, which is a big point to consider when dealing with racists.
 

Kalamona

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Jan 3, 2011
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Most people assume that all people of all skin colors are the same on average. If that would be true, racism would have no point. However i think this theory is not valid.

If you know that blue people make up 50% of the prison population while they are 5% of the whole population, you can safely assume that a random blue man has a much higher percentage to be a criminal in comparison with a random non-blue man.

Thus behaving more cautiously with a blue man, or avoiding blue people altogether has its rewards: meeting with less criminals, being less of a victim. By just excluding 5% of the population from your life can result in 50% less negative experience. A tradeoff that it is well worth in my opinion.

Avoiding criminals would give even better results ofc; but skin color is pretty much visible, while intentions are not. So, the second best solution is to avoid blue people.
 

Mr.Numbers

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Kalamona said:
Most people assume that all people of all skin colors are the same on average. If that would be true, racism would have no point. However i think this theory is not valid.

If you know that blue people make up 50% of the prison population while they are 5% of the whole population, you can safely assume that a random blue man has a much higher percentage to be a criminal in comparison with a random non-blue man.

Thus behaving more cautiously with a blue man, or avoiding blue people altogether has its rewards: meeting with less criminals, being less of a victim. By just excluding 5% of the population from your life can result in 50% less negative experience. A tradeoff that it is well worth in my opinion.

Avoiding criminals would give even better results ofc; but skin color is pretty much visible, while intentions are not. So, the second best solution is to avoid blue people.
I understand where you're going with this.

I am slightly racist towards Aboriginals here for that reason...Every one I've met has robbed me XD

Some un biased stats: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/statistics/index.html#Heading34

Most notably: Aboriginal people are 15 times more likely than non indigenous people to be incarcerated in prison, and far more are unemployed.

This is a government website trying it's best to NOT be racist by the way.


Again, I'm not racist (mostly), but it's these sort of statistics that sort of make it make sense.

Any objections to that? And yes I understand our government has screwed them over for a while, but there is a limit here guys.
That and being mugged XD
 

Cakes

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creationis apostate said:
First of all, all religions are basically the same besides buddha, shinto and such;
I hope you don't plan on studying religion in college.

second of all, where is your proof that christianity had nothing to do with it?
Are you seriously suggesting that were Christianity not the predominant religion of the Western world, slavery wouldn't exist?

Are you fucking joking? Slavery has existed literally everywhere.

creationis apostate said:
Every religion that states that their leader is the one and only,
No they don't. Seriously, stop talking. You have nowhere near an idea what you're talking about.
 

LITE992

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I don't get it. I appreciate the diversity in the world. Seeing white people all the time is boring.
 

Epona

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So I read into the first page before I had to say something. Everyone who says "racist people are not as intelligent" should know all about racism and sexism and many other ism's because statements like the one I quoted are doing the exact same type of comparative division. You compare yourself to those who judge people based on race and then say you are smarter and therefore, better. It's all the same thing.
 

KoSTHB

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Kalamona said:
Most people assume that all people of all skin colors are the same on average. If that would be true, racism would have no point. However i think this theory is not valid.

If you know that blue people make up 50% of the prison population while they are 5% of the whole population, you can safely assume that a random blue man has a much higher percentage to be a criminal in comparison with a random non-blue man.

Thus behaving more cautiously with a blue man, or avoiding blue people altogether has its rewards: meeting with less criminals, being less of a victim. By just excluding 5% of the population from your life can result in 50% less negative experience. A tradeoff that it is well worth in my opinion.

Avoiding criminals would give even better results ofc; but skin color is pretty much visible, while intentions are not. So, the second best solution is to avoid blue people.
does any of that makes you wonder why a 5% of the population makes up 50% of prisons? could part of it be current and past institutional discrimination against this small group. That be from anything from wrongly arresting to discrimination of where u could buy houses , only allowing them to live in poor areas with no growth potential cause growth in crime leading to the highly populated prisons. so if u consider avoiding potential not racist that does not null the past discrimination done to them and justify your actions
 

Gustavo S. Buschle

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Hagenzz said:
I never said that all black people, or that only black people will grow up to be engineers, What I meant was that, if all races had the same chances as each other, there would be a much greater number of black engineers and engineer of other ethnicities.
By the way, saying that Caucasians are white is a racist statement, in some mythology Caucasians where the perfect people sent from god.
 

Gustavo S. Buschle

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Kalamona said:
Most people assume that all people of all skin colors are the same on average. If that would be true, racism would have no point. However i think this theory is not valid.

If you know that blue people make up 50% of the prison population while they are 5% of the whole population, you can safely assume that a random blue man has a much higher percentage to be a criminal in comparison with a random non-blue man.

Thus behaving more cautiously with a blue man, or avoiding blue people altogether has its rewards: meeting with less criminals, being less of a victim. By just excluding 5% of the population from your life can result in 50% less negative experience. A tradeoff that it is well worth in my opinion.

Avoiding criminals would give even better results ofc; but skin color is pretty much visible, while intentions are not. So, the second best solution is to avoid blue people.
That is the best explanation of racism I ever heard, thank you, now I get it.
 

FallenTraveler

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odeed said:
FallenTraveler said:
Sizzle Montyjing said:
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.
You don't honestly think that racism was "born" by white Europeans, do you? It has been around since the beginning of man, tribes would fight each other for no other reason than the other was different. Racism is a terrible, terrible thing, but like it or not, it is hardwired into our DNA to be afraid of different cultures than our own.
I don't, I was trying to provide some sort of example of more recent racism and its origins. Although my semi-joking message seems to have lost it's meaning along the way. My TL;DR: is my real point, people hate each other, and are afraid of one another.
 

Twilight.falls

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Jun 7, 2010
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I think that humanity just has a tendency to see themselves as better than someone else, and will come up with excuses to "Justify" it. Just so happens that skin color is one of the easiest things to pick out.

If all humans were turned into perfectly identical-in-every-way gray cubes, people would discriminated against others because "Their edges are straightest", or "Their vertices are pointiest."
 

Joey Corlett

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Sizzle Montyjing said:
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?

I wish there was a 'like' feature, like oh lets say Facebook
 

RedEyesBlackGamer

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Jan 23, 2011
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Internet Kraken said:
Sizzle Montyjing said:
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?
My thought is how can you not understand why racism exists? It's not hard to comprehend. People have grown up in societies that were full of prejudice and hate and have carried those social trends with them over generations. It's not hard to figure out.

Calibretto said:
And you are saying that white people are the only people who are racist wtf? ROFL
He didn't say anything like that.
To expand on that, it is evolutionary. Xenophobia of rival tribes/groups and close kinship to your tribe helped your tribe to survive and helped you pass on your genes. Of course, it has no place in modern society and should be discouraged. But I definitely "get" racism.