Poll: Does being racist instantly make you a bad person?

Billion Backs

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Apr 20, 2010
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Depends on what you see as a "bad person".

Some people might say you're a bad person because you don't pray to allah 4 times a day.

Or insert any other religious or otherwise traditional example.

There's no good and evil, and it all comes down to personal opinions. I don't personally think that basing your hate solely on someone's colour of skin or nationality is that smart, because it says nothing about their mind - the stuff that matters, their personality.

I know a few racists, and I understand where they are coming from. Many races somewhat rightfully have certain stereotypes following them. Tell me, how many times have you met a black, well, nerd who likes anime? While I know two people who would fit this description, it's not exactly the norm. You can see asian and white nerds plenty, but, yeah. And I'm sure someone's going to call me out on the whole "black" thing, but since we already describe races by their skin colour or ancestry in socially accepted ways, it's the best I can do. Things like "african american" are just silly. Not every black person lives in America, and they don't necessarily come from Africa in the recent few generations.

I guess what I'm saying, stereotypes tend to contain at least some truth, whether you agree with them or not. Frankly, I think that much of it is reversed - the stereotypes become "correct" as people accept them as fairly correct representations of cultures and races. Some stereotypes are popularized heavily, so that only helps them spread.

Meh
 

Truehare

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Nov 2, 2009
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Well, my opinion of the person in question would certainly take a big hit, but not to the point of considering them completely evil. Just very, very ignorant. And I would at least try to unnderstand why they thought that way and change it if possible. Which it rarely is.
 

Enigma6667

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Apr 3, 2010
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I'm gonna jump in the bandwagon and repeat what everyone else has said. Rather ignorant, but certainly far from evil. Unless you see them trying to start a genocide or something, I wouldn't call them out as bad people.
 

Sparrow

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Feb 22, 2009
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Billion Backs said:
Depends on what you see as a "bad person".
There's no way I can phrase this perfectly, so it depends on what your view is of a "bad person".
 

ThePantomimeThief

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Nov 9, 2009
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Being racist is a dealbreaker, I can never be friends with racist people. It's an absolute that I can never associate with. Are they necessarily evil, though? Well, it depends on whether it affects their actions in any way. If it does, yes it's evil. If they keep it generally on the low-down, I maybe wouldn't say it's evil per se, but still pretty damn appalling.
 

ugeine

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Aug 6, 2009
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Course it does, otherwise it'd be ok to live in a segregated society. If racism wasn't a bad thing, then racial segregation would just be a cultural difference rather then immoral.

If they were your friend, wouldn't you challenge them on it, just the same as if your friend thought it was alright to going round mugging people or something?
 

child of lileth

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Jun 10, 2009
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Not exactly on it's own, but it also depends on what level of racism any particular instance of it is.
 

Johnmw

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Mar 19, 2009
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It demonstrates a massive amount of ignorance and illogic. It wouldn't make them a bad person buy I would lose a lot of respect for them, if they cant see past skin pigmentation, what else cant they see? If they are going to hate on people for something as unimportant as skin colour what can I expect from them down the line. I have friends that are occasionally say racist things but I'm pretty sure they just do it because they know it bothers me so much.
So long story short - Evil? No, but certainly a worse person than if they had the brains to get over themselves and see people as people.
 
Jun 13, 2009
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No, in fact it's completely normal (but I'm not saying it's acceptable) to be racist. It's simple, tribal reactions that have stuck with us as a culture. Back when we lived in tribes, it was ever tribe for itself. Everyone distrusted the other tribes because, given the chance, the other tribe would quite happily storm in, rape their women, steal their crops and kill their men and children.

This distrust of people from other cultures and countries is still with us today, however we should be civilised enough to ignore those feelings and accept that the guy over there with darker skin than you is most likely a friendly, family man, and isn't about to eat your entire family and pet dog.

So they aren't a bad person, they just need to accept that they're no longer right to be wary.
 

Sovvolf

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Mar 23, 2009
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Well my big brother is a racist, homophobic an xenophobic prick... but a bad person?... no, not a bad person, despite his faults he's probably one of the nicest people you could meet. My dad, mum, nanan's and granddad's are all the same as my older brother. Not bad people just ignorant people.
 

GoldenRaz

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Mar 21, 2009
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darkkan2125 said:
dude were all a little bit racist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CSnlb-ymA

Nope, being rascist doesn't automatically make you a bad person. Acting on your rascism makes you a bad person.

To put in in another matter, thinking that all black people steal stuff doesn't make you a bad person (only incredibly silly), saying that the police be harsher to black people because they've 'clearly' committed a crime, puts you several notches away from the "Good Person" end of the scale.

Also: no I wouldn't distance myself from my friends just because they're rascist (within reason, of course). Hell, if I did, I'd have to distance myself from pretty much everyone I know. A great deal of them seem to be what I like to call 'stealth-rascists'.
 

Marter

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Oct 27, 2009
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I think it depends on if they act towards that hatred. If they treat the other person differently, then they are bad. If all they do is have the dislike, but don't treat them differently, they are fine.
 

BlindMessiah94

The 94th Blind Messiah
Nov 12, 2009
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There's a difference between speech and action to me.
If what the person is doing is spreading hate, causing harm, or making another person's life difficult simply because of their skin colour, yes, I would say they are a big douchey douche.

But everyone is entitled to their thoughts and speech. People are allowed to have their opinions no matter how ignorant they are.

I can't remember who said it but:

"I may not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it"
 

Kimarous

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Sep 23, 2009
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Only if they act on their prejudices. Humans are flawed beings, after all. Think back to a time when you've gotten so angry at somebody that you've wished grievous harm, even death to said person. Do you view yourself as bad as an actual murderer?
 

Dan B

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Mar 6, 2010
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emily123 said:
not really thats there opinion i dont judge me personally have been called a nzi many times and to be quite frank i am a bit of a neo nazi
Now as memory serves nazis didn't win the war...does neo-nazi therefore mean "wannabe loser"?

OT: Only in Peter Molyneux's eyes does one flaw make you and good/bad person, if someone is generally good and has a flaw that doesn't make them a bad person it just means they're a human and perhaps not a very good person.
 

Sparrow

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Feb 22, 2009
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BlindMessiah94 said:
I can't remember who said it but:

"I may not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it"
I know that's from Voltaire, though I'm not entirely sure in what context.