"There is nothing wrong being racist"

[Nouw]

By it's definition? Of course not, it's not harmful. But the sort of racism your friend is talking about definitely is negative and should be discouraged.

 

[Flames66]

I am racist myself, but not in the way you think. My racism stems from the fact that around where I live there are very few people from other racial backgrounds. Because of this I find black people intimidating and am not sure how to interact with them.

 

[Palademon]

Well, arguably being racist can be ok if you know not to act on it.

But your friend is being rather open about it, but it may be ok if he never actually discriminates aginst people or insults them apart from talking to friends.

But by their lack of justification about from "it's ok", I think he's got a classic case of "I'm one of those so it's ok".

 

[Lyri]

Doesn't sound like you can be friends with that guy anymore...

To his defense though, there's nothing that pisses me off more than russians in dota. It's like they WANT to get under my skin. If they can't or won't speak english, why don't they stick to their own servers?! GOD DAMMIT, NOW I'M PISSED JUST LIKE YOUR FRIEND.

However, there's a difference between racial sterotypes and racial prejudice, kinda depending on your own perception of things. If you're full of prejudice, it's a racist trait, but stereotypes are not quite the same. It's hard to explain.

*EDIT* I'm talking about Dota 2, just FYI.

I read this and went "Ah."

I know exactly what you mean but that's not being racist, so it doesn't quite correlate to the OP.
Also they can't stick to their own servers because they don't have any, they share the Euro servers with us, I don't know where everyone keeps coming up with this "stick to your own servers".

Still the "Russian problem" is a community based one where a large portion of the community has noticed that a lot more Russian players are causing a commotion than anyone other demographic.

Also incoming PM about Dota2

 

[Martijn Nijkeuter]

Tbh if a individual is a racist and doesn't lash out physically then i'd say it's his/her loss.
There just are nice and rotten people, regardless of race, who they do miss out on.

If a racist start hurting others physically or starts pushing his ideals onto others then i'd suggest shunning them after explaining you won't be a friend of someone like that.

 

[freaper]

I'm hoping that in a generation or two racism will have died down a bit. You can't blame people for growing up in a conservative or racist environment, only the people doing the nursing can be accused of racism.

Xenophobia on the other hand will always remain the same I'm afraid; "They tuk o'r jurrrbs" is not racist but rather xenophobic...

 

[DanielBrown]

Never had any racist friends that I know of. There was however a girl I fooled around with who turned out to be one. She didn't want a friend of mine to come to a party we were going to. When I asked her why she said "Because he's black...".
I left and never saw her again.

 

[AngloDoom]

-SNIP-

Get him to tell his black friend exactly what his views are, assuming the guy is not black himself. If he can make a half-coherent statement as to why black people outside of where he lives are so much worse than the black girl in front of him, and why they deserve hate, then he's clearly thought this through and has some absurd logic no one will ever shift him on.

If, however, he starts freaking out and swearing at you both for being 'too PC', or similar, then he's an idiot and you need a new friend.

EDIT -

You made all of that up. There is no way you have a friend who had absolutely no reservations about saying something as ridiculously racist as "The best parts were where niggers were killed". Unless you have a time machine and like hosting movie nights in 1850.

I really hope this doesn't come out as condescending, but you must live in a lovely area.

I used to work in retail in my old area, and I frequently heard stuff like that. If people weren't complaining about the "pakis scrounging off of our state" it was about "the niggers swaggering around like they own the place" or the polish for "taking all the jobs". When I lived in an army base, a lot of people outside the army were distrustful of the Gurkhas (Nepalese) because they thought they were going to slit their throat for offending them for whatever strange reason.

 

[Random Fella]

You made all of that up. There is no way you have a friend who had absolutely no reservations about saying something as ridiculously racist as "The best parts were where niggers were killed". Unless you have a time machine and like hosting movie nights in 1850.

There's something wrong with abusing others in a racist manner
But with sexism and racism and homophobia I believe everyone has the right to like and dislike whoever they like, even if it is due to something being skin deep.
I'm not really a racist sexist homophobic myself, but everyone deserves a right to hold their opinion, no matter how wrong ethically it may be, as long as they don't voice it.
Therefore I believe there is nothing wrong about being a racist.

Nope. That's the difference between opinions and facts. It's proven that no race is superior to others, so opinions have no say in the matter: If you think white people are inherently superior to black people, then you are provably wrong. What you have is not an opinion, it is a lack of knowledge.

Not sure why I'm even posting in this topic, it might as well consist of a single post with the words "Racism is bad!". It's like the Escapist thinks I'll forget that fact and start being racist if I'm not reminded regularly.

No, i'm saying it's someone's opinion on others, that they don't like them. People have a right to like and dislike whoever they want, it can be someone's opinion that they don't like someone because they're black, I didn't say they didn't like them because they are superior to them. Also as I stated i'm not a racist, so don't make it sound like I am by saying words like "What 'you' have"

 

[JediMB]

Nope. That's the difference between opinions and facts. It's proven that no race is superior to others, so opinions have no say in the matter: If you think white people are inherently superior to black people, then you are provably wrong. What you have is not an opinion, it is a lack of knowledge.

I'm going to have to dispute your statement, simply because the scientific community doesn't even acknowledge that there is such a thing as races within the human population.

And even if there were races, you wouldn't be able to tell them by someone's skin color, since there has been so much "mixing of blood" between previously geographically separated groups that the whole argument of differences in intelligence or aggressiveness becomes entirely pointless.

 

[Smackerlacker]

People are judged by the company they keep. This friend of yours sounds to me like a stupid, selfish, credulous asshole. If you continue to call him your friend, you are the same.

 

[God's Clown]

There is something wrong with Irrational hatred of large groups of people based solely on superficial things. There is nothing wrong with rationally hating individual people, and nothing wrong with rationally hating groups of people based of their extremist views, such as the KKK or all those terrorist organizations.

 

[Joccaren]

Find a page filled with American hate. People calling American's fat, lazy, stupid, assholes ect. Show that to him and ask him if he finds anything wrong with it. If he says yes, tell him he is a hypocrite as they are just being racist, and apparently that's their choice.

 

[Oskuro]

We all are xenophobic to some degree. It is a natural instinct to protect us from unknown threats (usually members of other tribes that swoop in to steal our women and rape our crops... or the other way around).

Wanting to cave someone's skull in with a rock is also a natural instinct, meant to ensure we get to eat/reproduce/brag about it.


Guess what both those instincts have in common with many others? They are morally wrong.



Racism, in particular, is about simplifying every member of a certain racial group to a preconceived stereotype, be it positive (which we don't notice that much because no one complains when complimented) or negative. In essence, it is about not seeing people we don't personally know as people but rather as a component of their assigned group.

That's why racists can have friends of those racial groups they dislike. Once they get to know them, they become a real three-dimensional person in the racist's mind.

So yeah, this behavior is a simple failure to acknowledge that everyone has that same individuality that we so earnestly claim to have ourselves.


For an interesting article on the subject, read about the Monkeysphere: http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

 

[Scarim Coral]

Seeing that I'm Chinese (British born Chinese to be exact), I don't tolerate people who are racist at all (I had a few encoutner in the past). I guess it up to you if you still want to be friend with him or not.

 

[Auron225]

If one of my friends came out with stuff like that, I would stop hanging out with him/her immediately. If s/he asked why, Id say "I simply cannot be friends with someone whos thinks the way you do, and if you get angry when I try to reason, then there's no point".

I only pray he never becomes more passionate about this belief and decides to take it up a notch...

 

[LiquidGrape]

Yeah, actually, no. Thats completely fucking false. Maybe thats what they tell kids in school now because of all this hyper anti-racism, but scientists do indeed acknowledge and study the differences between races.

Not that it matters, since all races will soon be mashed together in one globalized "cross breeding" party (I dont actually know if its offensive to word it like that, im just saying it for lack of a better term), but thats beside the point.

I was under the impression that, if not for forensic purposes in the pursuit of anthropological and evolutionary differentiation, most scientists acknowledge that all 'races' are actually members of the same subspecies, and that ethnicity is the appropriate term since there is no taxonomic variation on that level.

OP: Your 'friend' is an idiot and should be taught White Privilege 101. If he won't listen to reason, I'm quite sure I wouldn't want to associate with a person like that.

 

[Craorach]

There is something wrong with hating a group of people based upon nothing more than stereotypes and what others have told you.

There is nothing wrong with doing so based upon personal experience. Someone earlier mentioned Australian Aboriginals, and this is a prime example for me. I'm not racist, but I have constantly seen the most disgusting behaviour from this group of people, and only a handful of honest and hard working members of it.. who openly admit that they are the minority within it, and suffer abuse from others of their culture for being law abiding and working hard. I automatically assume the worst of Australian Aboriginals because of years of personal experience showing that to be the right expectation.

 

[Electric Alpaca]

Inherently no, I don't think there is anything wrong in being racist. Your friend's reasons for having his views however, are based completely on ignorance.

If he was to act upon his racism, i.e. make people of other ethnic background feel uncomfortable solely for their heritage then yes that is an issue.

I view a dislike of another race not dissimilar to a dislike of tomatoes - no one is harmed if you have your own private view and they are just as entitled to it as you are yours.

 

[MammothBlade]

Treating someone unfairly or attacking them because of their race is unforgivable. Your friend sounds like an arsehole, because he hates all black people for some stupid reason. That's just racial hatred, which only serves to cause trouble.
Though society is too quick to marginalise individuals as "racist" for controversial views, such as the opinion that there are some plausible differences between races which are not explained by culture or environment, believing that race is a bit more than skin-deep.
It's pretty disturbing anti-intellectual groupthink to dismiss someone's views and then give them a public lynching because they might fit under some arbitrary definition of racist.