What Causes Racism?

It's inherent within us all to different degrees. And not even just people - animals too.

Try putting lions and tigers together in the zoo; wouldn't work (speciesism?).

We all have a group of people we identify with above any other, and it's usually the people who look and talk and behave most like us. So it's not remotely surprising that the crucial requirements should be ethnocultural in nature.

Globalisation is provoking racist feelings and desires by demanding that we live amongst very different people from ourselves and against the wishes of the majority of us.

Never mind though, because it's for a worthy cause.

Now, large numbers of people can move across the globe quickly and without obstacles, the better for those nice business people to make lots of lovely moolah.

originally posted by: GodEmperor
It is human nature to generalize and categorize information. Racism is an outdated survival mechanism.

The tribal societies were close knit, with many similar physical characteristics. Other tribes in the area, competed with others over scarce resources, it was a safety mechanism to distrust those who did not look like your tribe; because chances are they were more likely to conquer and kill you rather than befriend you.

In modern times, racism is more prevalent among people of low IQ. The two most racist groups in America are the descendents of the African slaves, and European indentured servants. A class structure was created so the indentured servants could feel like they were at least not at the bottom.

The problem can be mitigated, but never solved.

What you speak of is nothing but culture. Humans develop culture out of our environments. We are now at a point of development that we can now manipulate and develop our environments. It is easier said than done, but not impossible to change the culture of primal behavior, like tribalism.

Hey, how bout that sports team?

a reply to: bucsarg

What Causes Racism?

Ignorance and fear.

There are deep reasons for this that go back 100s of thousands of years into human evolution, but it all stems from those two things.

a reply to: bucsarg

'Stupid' people who are racist... who go out to cause to others... who in turn become 'racist' themselves... and the circle continues..

a reply to: grumpy64

Totally agree!

originally posted by: CJCrawley
Now, large numbers of people can move across the globe quickly and without obstacles, the better for those nice business people to make lots of lovely moolah.

What? lol. What business people?

a reply to: bucsarg

It's not just about a lack of access to information, and in fact access to information has never been wider spread than it is in this day and age. Xenophobia, fear leading to hatred and mistrust, has actually been a tool driven between people by leaders and powerbrokers, not to mention business persons, since slavery was first thought up as a concept.

And by that I do not refer exclusively to the slavery which affected those whose descendants make the US their home, but to slavery going back thousands and thousands of years, to the periods which saw the huge temples, pyramids, and ziggurats of ancient times, built by way of the application of human suffering. In Egypt, in the South and Central Americas, and across Asia and the Far East, slavery either in spirit or in fact, has been used by ancient cultures to create seemingly implausible architectures, move vast tonnages of material from place to place!

The mindset which allows some people to undervalue human life, is just as much a matter of expediency than anything else. You see, slavery was a way that a powerful few, could benefit from the physical resource represented by a powerless population.

When slavery became a money spinner for the various nations who were involved in it in a business capacity, they spread the notion that one human being was somehow different than another in more than the superficial sense, that one life was worth less than another, because it was expedient to do so, not because they believed it themselves. If anything, the crass propaganda they used to justify their trade was all the more evil in its nature, because it was a simple matter of snake oil salesmen, selling life, not lineaments, and selling them short, for massive profits at their end. Britain passed an act making slavery illegal in 1807, and it was abolished in 1838 or so. But prior to that, the West Indian Lobby, a group of pro-slavery activists, fiercely opposed the abolitionist movement, using propaganda again to try and promote their agenda.

Admittedly, you could argue that the abolitionists were also known to use propaganda, but given the fact that the abolitionist cause was not one which revolved around its advocates earning vast sums of money off the backs of the suffering and work of others, AND the fact that they were working against DECADES of propaganda based world views held at the time, and their use of propaganda seems somewhat less shady in retrospect!

Now, the reason that all this is relevant, and the reason that slaver mentality plays into the issue of racism, is that colonial attitudes were still widely held for more than two hundred years after the end of legal slavery, and the illegal slave trade was still a going concern years after the abolitionists managed to get it made illegal. In fact, there are still criminal organisations, and for that matter certain cultures which hold that slavery is acceptable, or at least an acceptable way of making money. For this to happen, means that the propaganda put about by the early slave traders, that one human life is worth less than another, has been carried forward by social processes and a still existent idea that people are intrinsically different from one another, rather than the actual case which is that people are more alike than they are different.

Wiping out this colonialist attitude wherever it is to be found, terminating the ability of any segregation based political thought to propagate, eliminating all vestiges of supremacist thought, whether that be white supremacist, black supremacist, or religiously motivated supremacism, is a work which should have begun and been finished by now. It has only continued because racism in this modern era,rather than being a mere construct of propagandists, has become a tool which is used by powerful people the world over, to divide populations against themselves, in an age where even the least diverse nations, with a few exceptions, have elements of a multicultural structure. It has evolved from a mere business model, to being a political lever, capable of throwing democratic process under the bus when allowed to run rampant, examples of which are all too readily available in recent world history.

It is distraction, obfuscation, a tool used to blind the unwary to the all pervading evils of corporate and governmental meddling in the freedom and liberty of honest, decent folk. Those who continue to accept the lie, that people of different cultures, religious beliefs, skin tones, and nations of origin, are intrinsically and significantly different from one another in any but the most superficial sense, are helping dig the grave of this species, that much is in no doubt. Their vile and erroneous assumptions, and all policy based therein, must be combated rigorously, and without relent, wherever they are to be found.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Excellent excellent post, mon ami !

a reply to: Xaphan

What, you think all these changes are the evil brainchild of not-for-profit, charitable organisations?

Wow.

originally posted by: bucsarg
Before an issue or problem can be solved; the causes must be identified. With that in mind I'll get started with a few.

Lack of education / knowledge.
Generation to generation improper information.

Those are short term conditioning tactics.

The real problem is Long Term Conditioning.

ps. Humanity is so #ed

originally posted by: CJCrawley
a reply to: Xaphan

What, you think all these changes are the evil brainchild of not-for-profit, charitable organisations?

Wow.

To be honest I really don't know what you're getting at. Are you one of those conspiracy theorists who thinks that Jews are behind some immigration scheme in order to slowly erode western civilization? I'm not accusing you of that, but it seems like you're treading lightly and being careful not to say too much because you're worried about moderators throwing a tantrum at you.